The Lost

[Sora]

The yearling stood at the edge of the storm, upon the precipice of the mountains. The late afternoon tumbled above her as angry clouds, the fierce gusts of wind ruffled her pelt and whipped the sparse forest into roars. There was no rain to fall on the dry land, which screamed for water. Only silent lightning leaped across the skies, pure and dangerous.

Sora stood on granite boulders high above the valleys of the mountains and watched with eyes of a hunter the wild summer storm. Its scent was thick in her nostrils; her heart beat with it. She would have run straight down the mountain side as she had done before, half falling as she ran, but her eyes were cold. They did not dance with the gale, they were still like a blue sky.

It had been but a few suns since her return to the packlands, and many a change had taken place with the course of a couple seasons. Members she had always known were weak had abandoned List and the Beta, an omega at heart, was dead. The wolf, on her throne of stone, had not been made Beta. Instead she had been given a place in the pack, but she could hardly fathom it.

As a cub Sora was more lively than a buck in fall, she had more ideas and dreams than a prince for his people. But she had no honor. Her status in the pack was nonexistent, she had been helpless to affect the life of the mountain. But she had found a way. Through cunning and manipulation she had gotten everything she wanted, and with that cocksureness everyone had turned against her. She had not care, she had hated and scorned them all: Renn, Drathlic, Silent, Aiyu. The pup had declared war on them all, and she was quite sure that she had won. That lack of honor had wound up protecting her; no one could harm a young cub of the Beta’s. She had been safe in a careful web.

But now she was no longer a cub. It was time Sora found her rightful place in List, and her outbursts and bold statements would no longer be tolerated. This was her chance to take the power she had had, and now be recognized for it. But she did not know how. Gryffin and Sudak alone trusted her, they alone of the mountain wolves knew how loyal and brave she was. It was not enough.

They all had to know. She would have to win back affection if she wanted to stay. Fiory, her “aunt”, was one of them. She was a true wolf of List, and Sora had always acknowledged that just as she called the Drappa weak. The child had grasped the fact that Fiory knew all about List, that she was as old as its beginning, and at the same time she naively thought she was a fool. The stargazer, in turn, thought Sora evil; she never listened to the youths justifications. But it was Sora, along with Aiyu, who had listened to the stories of their past. Sora would somehow prove herself to Fiory.

And what of the others? Drathlic hated her, she had plagued him all her childhood, along with his runty friends. She would have to be extremely submissive and respectful to gain his trust and friendship. And of Aiyu? Her lip curled as she thought of the meek, calf look in her sisters eyes. Sora felt nothing for her but contempt; she was weak. She betrayed herself and Arias almost since the day they had all been whelped. Omega. However, she could no longer mercilessly harass her littermate. She would have to accept her lowly heart and make peace. Only then could maybe the old wounds heal. And this Ayame and Ryder, what of them? She had to gain their comradeship. She twitched, she had never had a friend. And then there was her parents. They had always been so proud of her, but it was empty. She would have to earn their approval from now on. It was overwhelming, the things she must do. In a first moment of weakness she bowed her head.

“How,” she whispered aloud, eyes tightly shut. Once their opinions were meaningless, now they meant everything.

Birds were wheeling in the tossing heavens, and she watched them helplessly from her perch on the cliffs.

Sora did not know who she was.

Private

[Gryffin]

The sky growled angrily, grey clouds curtaining the sky as if threatening to swallow up the very mountains that made up the realms of List.

Beyond the mountains the sky lit up with strands of dizzying light. Blinding yet beautiful, dangerous yet curious. The dancing light spidering across the sky, a band of marching drums following suit with its rumbles.

Emerald hues looked up toward the sky. A sudden flash of light illuminating deathly jade jewels. crimson tipped ears flickered as the thunder roared above her. The afternoon heat blazed on, and though the storm was roaring above, it seemed impossible fr any rain to fall. The land was thirsty, awaiting at least a small portion of quenching rain.

Gryffin lowered her tail, and turned away from the storm, her body balancing herself up upon the jagged rocks that made up the cliff side. Eyes searched for ledges and locked upon her path. Hind leg muscles bunched up as she luanched her self forward, forepaws gripping each ledge adn she propelled herself up the side of the mountain in continuous leaps. She did not dare stop in case she would lose footing.

The tri hued fae locked sight of the top, as she lept, her backfoot feeling the ground beneath her dissappear as the shear force of her leap sent the ledge to tumble behind her. Grunting Gryffin leaped onto the top, her back feet scrapping the edge as she galloped away from the edge and into the sparse pine forests.

The storm roared on, as if chasing the tri hued femme. Yet Gryffin enjoyed running through the storms, the gale rocking her body side to side as if with each pull forward she would be plucked from the ground and right into the sky.

From the corner of her eye she caught a form. Gryffin stopped, her head turning to view the darkened form silhouetted against the horizon. Gryffin turned and began making herway toward the form.

Gryffin leaped, her claws clicking as she reached the summit oof the cliff. Her steps were light and silent as she walked over to the form.

The tri hued varg gave a small smile, " A surprise seeing you here"...

[augh craptastic sorry hun]

[Sora]

Sora smelt Gryffin moments before she heard her silken voice. Her blunt ears pricked as the Drappa of Autumn Fire slid companionably by her side, but it was a second longer before she lifted her skulking gaze.

They were mother and daughter. They shared the blood of Balkar and Nightdancer, and carried the weight of lifetimes on their shoulders. Gryffin was lithe and quick, a mismatched wolf born from two contrasting mates. She was in her prime; powerful and capable of fighting for her pack. Sora, her firstborn whelp, was large and bulky. Her bones were not as dense as a males, but she still stood larger than her mother. In her veins was Balkar heritage as well, and the barest flow of Nightdancer, but it had been thinned by the artic genes of her father. She had been born with the forest markings of Gryffin, and those same leaf green eyes, but she had the fluffiness of coat and muscles of Sudak.

Sora shrugged at her mothers words, and allowed the trouble of her mind to show in her expression. She rarely allowed her pack mates to sense what she really felt and thought, but in front of her Drappa in this moment of doubt, she hid nothing.

She looked at her mother and wondered. Gryffin had been born to Shatocwnn and Leohlic, great Alpha’s of a different time. She had seen the age of Bila and than that of Fiory and seven deaths in her family. Sora, always thinking of the future, had never realized that her mother had once been a cub as well. Once upon a spring and a winter she had not been a Beta, but a subordinate. So how had she gotten from there to here?

Sora took hope that her mother had once been like her, but it was quickly discarded. She doubted Gryffin had been like her. The young tri-hued wolf had made herself an outcast.

“I’m so pitiful,” she thought to herself angrily. Why was she acting as if she had been defeated? She had never given up in her life or wallowed in self pity, she couldn’t start now. Sora was no Sikla.

She longed to ask Gryffin if she had ever lost her way in life, but her pride stopped the words from utterance. This battle was hers, to ask for help was a weakness she would not stoop too.

“Mother, were you ever daunted when things seemed hopeless?” she did not ask.

“Mother, how should I prove myself worthy of List,” she asked instead. She cast out her fear with a defiant gleam in her eyes and took heart.

Eww =O

[Gryffin]

The wind raged above, buffeting the trees left and right, thunder clapped above yet rain would not fall.

Emerald hues looked up toward the sky wondering what it felt like to ride through the waves of hot air. But eyes fell from them, dreams, what were they? Gryffin had many a dreams once upon a time. Silly cubhood dreams.

She turned to Sora, emerald eyes blinking, though they glanced gently, the sheer vibrant colour of poison green sang like darts. Gryffin watched her daughter, she was larger then she, yet Gryffin knew that there were still cubhood traits left in this femme. Did she have dreams much like she did? Foolish cubhood dreams? Dreamt and weaved from the magnificent stories and tales that had been told under a canvas of starlight?

Gryffin grinned to herself how foolish she had been. Her deepest craving was to join the ranks of the balkar. Both her brothers had been able to make it into the ranks. Yet Gryffin never will and never would. Not even if she were to be stronger than the First, no she was damned as a bitch. Gryffin's auburn tassel swung to the side and looked toward Sora. The mirrored emeralds were focused on something else, for forest wolfess was lost deep in ponder.

True Gryffin had been lucky to grow and learn from the most cunning pack in existance, but as well she had to watch each and everyone of them fall. All except for Fiory. With the loss of her mother Gryffin had been thrown into a world of torment and darkness. Nothing else had mattered to her, and so she had lost the will to regain what her parents had so desperately fought to own. She had forgotten what the want to walk in their footsteps had been like. Now she had cleared her mind, and in her prime she would continue.

But in her strive to become what she had been born into this world for, she would give up many alliances and become wiser and more cunning with whom she linked herself with.

Though the sudden voice of her daughter broke across her whisper of thoughts. Gryffin turned to gaze at Sora, blinking and replaying the words over in her head. Hardly expecting such a question coming from a figure as headstrong as Sora, Gryffin was silent.

Lips moved, "A question indeed...."

Gryffin blinked "Though a rather unique question coming from someone such as yourself... yet it makes me proud. You see Sora, you are finally growing up. You must realize that it takes more than mouth and wit to to win over a heart."

"What you must do Sora, is dependent on you alone." Gryffin turned to her daughter, and raised a brow "There are no shortcuts Sora, no easy way outs, or a ladder than brings you straight to the top in one step... that is why the fox and her cunning never wins. Sure she may get what she desires, but she will never prove her worth. "

Gryffin drew a deep long sigh. The crisp mountain air stung her nose, the humid stormy air made her want to sneeze. And yet high above beside the clouds and next to the storm, mother and child were together away from the rest, away from judging prying eyes.

The tri hued fae looked to her blood counterpart, "Before you prove to others you must prove to yourself... but not what you see yourself as but what you really are..."

As her words died into nothing but an echo the drums beat on and the lightning danced across the horizon.

[bleeeeh]