Journeys away from home (Open to All)

[Snowflame]

Autumn had finally arrived in the land beyond the forest. The animals seemed to be in a feeding frenzy, stocking up for the winter snows. The forests were turning stunning golds and reds, while the meadow changed into a rich, vibrant golden colour, which seemed to warm you from the inside. The meadow was a favourite place to visit for the near adolescent female wolf, for it was a short distance from her pack, Koran. She loved the way the wind made the tall grass dance about, the way the small streams trickled lazily at times, the way you could rest there for hours without being disturbed, and the simple life it led. In Spring, it would be full of new growth and new life, in Summer it had been baking hot and blisfully beautiful, in Winter it would be covered in blankets of virgin snow, waiting to be trodded upon, but Autumn was the best month of them all, for the beauty of the meadow was phenonemal.

The female padded slowly and peacefully into her favourite spot, besides a small stream opposite a small crop of woodland. She curled up in the golden grass, her white pelt making her stick out like a sore thumb, though she had never really been bothered by unwanted strangers. The female hadn't always been white, originally, she had been a very light grey, but due to Arctic wolf genes in her, the colour of her pelt had lightened. She did not mind, though.

The sun was high in the sky, indicating that it was around noon. The ferocious heat seemed to drug her into a dazed stupor, her ice blue laterns closed dreamily, and her head lolled onto her muddied front paws. Not a cloud was in the crystal blue sky, it felt more like Summer than Autumn. She gave a wide yawn, revealing her gleaming white canines and hot pinky tongue, before she seemingly drifted off into sleep.

She slept undisturbed for a few moments before an unnoticed cloud passed across the hot sun, shading her in coolness. Startled from the sudden change in temperature, the female awoke and growled in annoyance. Grumbling, she rose to her paws, and gave herself a good stretch. Satisfied, Snowflame lapped greedily at the stream, her tongue flicking specks of water everywhere, until, finally, she had quenched her thirst, and continued to wander around the meadow.

Her paws trampled down the grass, and it sprang up behind her, a little dishevelled. Her laterns were squinted slightly against the blaring sun, and she was panting from the heat, so she decided to take sanctuary in the small crop of trees nearby. By the way she reached there, she was almost running, desperate to escape this outburst of heat this late in the year. She dived thankfully into the cool shade and watched a slight breeze dance through the tall grass, and sighed in content.

[kuma]

Giant, white clouds were anchored on the horizon, drifting lazily in the pastel sky like moored vessels in a harbor. Almost directly above her sat the blazing, white sun, and its fierce, noonday light beat down upon the meadow with such white-hot intensity that she could almost imagine the trees sagging beneath its sweltering gaze. Stretching out below her was a vast, golden meadow - bronze ferns and yellow-green grasses swayed in the gentle breeze like the waves of a gentle sea. She stood upon one of many small, rolling hills, and her eyes darted from the burning colors of the meadow to the blood-orange woodland that waited just beyond it: this was her destination; but she noticed almost immediately that there was an obscure shape lying just by the woods, of a color that did not belong to this autumn festival of vivid hues. It was a burning white, and as a shadow passed over it from a drifting cloud, she saw that its shape resembled that of another wolf. Her yellow eyes narrowed: who was this stranger?

Kuma licked her nose as the distant Varg stood up, stretched itself calmly, and satisfied its thirst with a long draught at a cool stream too far away for Kuma to have noticed earlier. She cocked her head, debating for a moment if it was a wise decision to approach this wolf, for she was uncertain if the white Varg was just another Kerl, or if the stranger could be of some use to her. 'I won't find out by staring, now will I?' Kuma thought to herself, a tinge of amusement in her internal voice. A small, secret smile tugged at the corners of her lips, and she began to trot toward the other wolf just as it made an escape from the blazing sun into the cool shadows of the woods. Kuma snorted; she could carry the heat of the sun on her back all day if she must, for she was accustomed to the searing gaze of Zostar. She was from the burning southern lands, and though she was not directly related to the small desert wolves across the sea, her anatomy showed that she carried their blood from ancestors long passed: she was sleek and slender, with long legs, and a narrow face.

Her heritage was not immediately obvious in her appearance, however, and she held little interest in her bloodline. At the moment, she was more intrigued by the white stranger, whom she spotted just a moment later, lingering in the dark shade. Kuma smirked, but the closer she came, the more disappointed she grew. This white drappa was obviously still quite young - she was no ambassador for a pack, and neither was she an experienced Kerl. Kuma, on the other paw, was both: despite her young age, the traditions of her family meant that she was now fully grown - an adult - and she must now travel as far as she could to gather both experience and knowledge of the outside world beyond pack boundaries. Her travels had taken her here, where she heard the whispers and rumors of a coming war. She was a soldier of fortune; she was looking to enlist, for one side or the other - it mattered not. 'Yet how can a whelp help me? Even if she knows about this war, she is not qualified to accept my help, nor will she likely tell me anything useful.' Kuma sighed heavily, and stopped just as she came into the white wolf's view. Her frown had deepened, and she now wore a look of open disrespect, but she decided that the least she could do was say hello, and ask for directions.

"You there, greetings. Do you happen to know where I am, or if there is a pack nearby?" She asked briskly, her voice sweet in sound and heavy with confidence. Her tufted ears flicked forward, and her yellow eyes never left the sleek, youthful face of the white drappa.

[Snowflame]

Sighing with content, the young drappa nestled about until she found a comfortable spot in which to lay, and to watch the golden encrusted meadow. She lay with her front paws, covered in dried mud, pointing towards her earlier sun-bathing spot, and her rump snuggled gently into the base of a sturdy oak tree. Tendrils of the sunlight managed to creep into the coolness of the small crop of woodland, and this made it nigh impossible to view the scenary in relative comfort. Snowflame sighed in slight annoyance, and had to content herself to cleaning her stained paws. Her pink, hot tongue swiped away the dirt, revealing slowly the ivory white fur underneath.

The distinctive happy chirps of a songbird perched on a branch nearby soothed her into a daze, absently grooming herself as her mind turned back towards her family. I wonder if Freki is still alive. . . or maybe he perished in the snows? she mused over that thought, then snorted in disgust and replied to herself, in her mind, His blood-line holds that of an Arctic wolf! He is well adapted to the cold, and anyway, there were rumours of his presence in the voice of the wind. . . she trailed off as a beam of sunlight hit her in the eyes which made her dazed.

Growling quietly, she obiedently closed her icy-blue, slanting eyes and contented herself to listening to the sound of nature which surrounded her. Suddenly, her nose picked up an unfamiliar wolf scent, not of anybody from Koran, or of Ge-Rad, but a Kerl. Fear tingled inside of her, yet she held it in as she silently opened her eyes, and blinked several times as she adjusted them to the light. She glanced around, and saw nothing but trees, and the meadow, then, for the first time, noticed a slender, older female wolf, whose pelt was a brownish colour.

Snowflame examined the female's features as she came closer, and frowned in slight confusion at the expression on her face. The younger female listened cautiously to the words that the stranger spoke, and spoke not for a moment or two as she gathered her thoughts and gazed back into the startling yellow eyes of the new-comer to the meadow. Finally, she pushed her body off the ground and gave a small stretch before attempting a reply," Greetings, stranger. There is indeed a pack nearby, Koran, which I currently reside in. There is also another pack, Ge-Rad, which I have heard are on friendly terms with Koran."

Snowflame gave a small smile, and a quick yawn, before adding, almost as an after-thought," You are in the meadow, as we know it by, but this is all I can really explain." Snowflame felt unsure as to whether she should, or could, trust this stranger.

[kuma]

She narrowed her eyes. 'Koran? Ge-Rad?' The rumors of war had offered no specifics, only directions. A tall gray stranger with burly shoulders and a cracking stride had pointed solemnly in this direction, and Kuma had come to this place like an arrow. In this strange land, she was still unsure if this was the correct location - she may have overshot her destination, or it may be many miles still yet to go. She was not sure, and this young arctic beauty had yet to shed any light upon the matter. 'Of course, I must first ask the right questions,' Kuma thought, feeling her composure begin to fray at the edges. Her first question, though necessary, had not been the right one to ask first. She nodded, and cleared her throat to ask again.

"Yes, Koran. Ge-rad. That is very good to know," she growled, and she glanced over her shoulder back into the royal gold meadow, its grasses and ferns billowing in the soft, warm breezes. She was reminded, yet again, of her homeland: it was mostly gold and beige. Sand was not uncommon, as it seemed to be here, and one could travel in endless fields of golden grass, where the only companion for miles was the shadow at one's paws. She looked back to the slender white wolf, not amused by her thoughts. She could get distracted later, when she'd found what she'd been looking for. "As a pack wolf, would you say you are well-versed in the news of this area? News considering the relationships between the packs here, I suppose I should say." Her vibrant eyes narrowed even further, and she quickly cut in to clarify her question: "I mean to ask: is there a war brewing here? Or have you heard the rumors of one, say, further to the north? Or east, perhaps?"

She did not illuminate why she asked; she did not expect this youth to care - or, if she did, Kuma did not expect to explain herself. Though she may be a pack wolf, the white stranger did not have the authority, as Kuma had predicted earlier, to authorize her participation in the war. If she had, her tone and wariness might have stopped Kuma in her tracks as soon as she was in view: a warrior - especially one stressed by the events of war - would have no time for small talk with a stranger such as herself. This drappa's innocence and her willingness to so easily chat with Kuma had made it clear she was not a warrior on guard - she was merely a young creature, enjoying the simple beauty and purity of a world that was not all bad. So the young warrior felt as if she had little time for the white wolf. She was intent on getting answers and applying them to her travels, nothing more.

[Snowflame]

Snowflame glanced away from the female for a moment to think about her brother, Freki. A long, low sigh escaped her maw, though it was silent enough to not be detected by the stranger. She started to lick her front paws again, absently thinking of her family, and the Balkar. At the thought of the Balkar, a furious hatred arose in her, threatening to spit out and unleash its wrath towards anybody whom came into its path. Suddenly, she was stirred back into reality by a question from the stranger, and she quickly perked up her ears and listened intently, flustered slightly. Her mind buzzed over the question, thinking fast. She gave a thankful smile as she rethrased the question, and Snowflame took a moment.

She suddenly remembered hearing something about there being "tension" between Koran, her pack, and the hateful Balkar. Her insides clenched, the air seemed chillier around her, as she thought with a bitterness, Everywhere I go, the Balkar are always around. . . have they been sent by the Gods to ruin my life? she gave a low snarl, which she hoped was inaudible to the stranger, and growled," There has been a sort of tension between Koran and the Balkar, a pack which lives across the river and further north, near the mountains in which I first came. Do not trust the Balkar, they are an all-male pack, and they wreck havoc everywhere."

She gave a long sigh and curled up onto the ground, her head facing the female. Her mouth was dry, she so desperately craved a lap or two of fresh stream water. . . but it would seem impolite.

[kuma]

(hope I left it open enough to continue if you wish, and close it if you'd rather)

'Tension?' Kuma's frown deepened until it verged on anger. Although this still-nameless creature was no doubt a resident of this region, Kuma hardly found her helpful. 'What the hell is tension supposed to mean?' To a merc, tension could just as easily describe a small disagreement between two packs as it could describe a brutal, bloody rivalry; Kuma was frustrated by the lack of illustration defining what this white adolescent meant by tension.

As for the subsequent well-intended, yet misplaced advice, Kuma was merely amused. It was instinct to keep her trust to herself - she had no intention of freely giving it away. 'Common sense?' But she kept her thoughts to herself, and only nodded. She did make a mental note, however, of the location of the Balkar. She might be meeting them - or another pack associated with them - very soon. She would not be a successful mercenary, after all, if she did not compare offers.

'Perhaps I should go,' Kuma wondered while the white wolf curled into a more comfortable position. She seemed to be aggravating the Koran youth with her restless questions. She decided at length, however, that she would ask one more thing from the young drappa before departing. She pricked her ears, lifted her tail slightly, and stared down at the youngster fearlessly. "Would you mind taking me to your home then? Or perhaps calling a higher-ranking Koran wolf here so that I might ask them a few questions?" She lowered her muzzle, and a slightly irked, and yet simultaneously thoughtful expression flickered in her eyes. "Or, if you'd rather not bother, would you mind pointing me in the right direction toward your borders?"

(if you need anything changed or added just PM me)

[Snowflame]

Annoyance started to flit across her face, desperately longing to pounce away from the stranger and towards the cool water, never minding the glaring sun. Snowflame gave a casual glance at the stranger, and smirked secretly at the angry look upon her face. A low caw of a passing raven alerted her away from the stranger, and she tried to spy out the black raven, with no success. Snowflame gave a low, long sigh and turned her mind back to the situation at hand How would I know if there will be a war between Koran and the Balkar? I don't even have a pack rank yet, because i'm still a blasted pup! She felt frustrated tears prick her eyes, and she screwed them up in a desperate attempt to not let them fall.

Snowflame's head jerked up, her eyes flying open, as the stranger spoke again. She lay there for a moment gaping at the female, seemingly shocked by her question. Did she want to join Koran? It felt like that to Snowflame, but she clamped her mouth down on that query, and stared curiously back at the female wolf. " I can certainly lead you back towards Koran, and I can call a higher ranking wolf....if they are around..that is..."

Snowflame stared miserably down at her paws, saddened to have to leave the meadow so soon. Rolling her eyes secretly, she rose to her paws and beckoned for the stranger to follow her. Before she turned away, Snowflame quickly asked, " But first, if I am to take you to Koran, I shall like to know your name. Mine is Snowflame," She gazed at the female curiously and expectantly, her tail swaying slightly.

[kuma]

It was beyond her to understand why this young effeminate creature would become so frustrated. Kuma knew nothing about the white wolf - nothing of her past, or her current relationships, or even how old she really was and what torment an adolescent her age was going through - so she refrained from passing judgement. She only looked and listened and saw the subtle emotive cues the youth made subconsciously, and she realized - with a small sickle curve of her black lips - that she was being annoying. 'I came here to find a warrior or at least a knowledgeable Kerl; this cub acts as though I care whether she knows a thing or not.' But Kuma only cared about results, and if this pretty white drappa could not provide her with these, then Kuma would journey further until she found someone who could.

She was surprised when the white youth offered to show her to Koran. She blinked stupidly a moment, and tilted an ear forward. 'Now why would she want to do a thing like that when she can just as easily point me in the right direction? I gave her an opportunity to be rid of me. Varg customs here are so strange,' Kuma thought in wonder, and, quirking her brow, she made to walk behind the slender white drappa. Unfortunately, their journey was stalled, and it was Kuma's turn to irritably roll her eyes. Unlike the youngster, she did it openly; she could afford to find a different guide if the stranger decided not to show her to Koran, and she cared even less for the youth's apparently delicate feelings. She frowned, annoyed, and flicked her ears. 'Snowflame?' She filed the unnecessary information away, entitled 'Crap I Couldn't Care Less About,' then sighed.

"I am Kuma," she replied. "It means 'At Last,' or some such. Now, if we're done, would you kindly hurry up and show me the way." For the benefit of young ears, she kept vulgarities to herself. The only outward manifestation of her frustration now were the blazing eyes, carefully arched brow, and twitching ears. She might have been made of stone for how little else she moved. She was an economic, efficient creature - she moved gracefully, skillfully, and wasted as little energy as possible. Anger, even in its most violent stage, was not a motive great enough for her to exert unnecessary energy. Which simply meant, Kuma was a swift, merciless, and numbingly effective fighter; killer, as she fancied herself; or bully, as Snowflame was no doubt coming to learn. And she would dispense with all flourishes, formalities, and great efforts at politeness if a curt word and bitter phrase would get the job done faster.

[Snowflame]

Narrowing her eyes, she noticed the female roll her eyes in what Snowflame could only describe as annoyance. Snorting slightly, for she did not care how this older faemme felt towards her, because her mother had always told her to be polite, and state your name to somebody whom you would be travelling with for any number of minutes, or days. At least I'm polite, unlike her, she thought slying, before perking her ears up to listen with a vague interest as she spoke her name. Her name is Kuma...nice name. she thought with a bitter afterthought, though she did not dwell on it. Her body started to shake with silent laughter as she noticed Kuma's body language, which indicated that she was angry at 'this poor pathetic little fae'.

Snowflame snorted loudly, not caring what this southerner thought of her, for she was tough, she was a wolf from the north, and she was not to be tested against. Well, saying that... mused Snowflame, before she shook her head and replied to Kuma," As my brother used to say, onwards and upwards!" She couldn't contain herself for much longer, so she burst out laughing as she started to walk fast out of the crop of woodland, and into the fiery sunlight, and the meadow. Snowflame aimed towards her pack, her tail wagging, her pace quickening, not even caring if the female was following her or not. To her, she didn't like the faemme, but she would be polite in taking her towards Koran.

[kuma]

(oh man, sorry for the wait. I totally thought I'd posted to this earlier)

She watched the youth cautiously, becoming aware of Snowflame's growing frustration and... humor? It seemed as though the cub was coming out of her shell. Spunky and more charismatic than before, the confrontation seemed to be doing Snowflame some good. At least it loosened her up. But although Kuma found herself enjoying the youth's new sense of humor, she refused to smile. Instead she remained stolid and skeptic as she stared blankly at the chuckling, snorting youngster, and she wished, not for the first time, that Snowflame would just show her the way to Koran. 'Or perhaps she doesn't know the way,' Kuma thought suddenly. 'She could be bluffing. Wasting my time intentionally. Deceiving me.' She leaned her head to one side and studied the adolescent intently for a moment. But when she did, a doubtful cloud drifted across her golden eyes, dulling her wrath. 'She's either not that smart, or not that much of a troublemaker,' she assessed, immediately losing interest.

At last, the moment for their departure came. It began with Snowflame's roaring boisterous laughter, which filled the shadowy woods with a merry, rolling tune. As the youth then began to trot away, Kuma's face darkened. She was taken aback by the seemingly sudden outburst. 'Can this cub not control herself, or was she purposefully trying to make herself more annoying?' She thought with a frown as she watched Snowflame's bobbing rump thread between the trees. The youth left her behind in the woods, but when the alabaster creature bounded into the ardent burning sunlight, Kuma was forced to follow or lose sight of her altogether. Had it come to that, Kuma would not have had a problem tracking her at a distance. But the fact remained that she wanted to enter Koran with the least bit difficulty, and accompanying a willing member of their family might help ease her transition into their borders until she could find some high ranking wolf to speak with.

Kuma tread quickly and smoothly into the hot blazes of the sun, leaving the shadowed woods behind. She caught up to Snowflame without much trouble, but as she came closer, she was surprised to see how closely the Koranian adhered to her namesake. Snowflame glowed beneath the shining sun like snowy white fire, leaving Kuma feeling breathless. She was forced to avert her eyes, but when she grew accustomed to the brightness of Snowflame's pelt in the sunlight and could look directly at her again, she felt a brief stir of dormant jealousy in her gut. As a traveler, a mercenary, a representative, and simply due to her upbringing, Kuma did not feel jealousy often nor very strongly. But it still lurked within her, and she could feel it churn in her stomach before it passed once again into sleep. 'And for what? The beauty of this youngster beside me? What a shallow and petty reason to feel jealousy.' Her golden eyes then darted from Snowflame into the open, rolling meadow before them, and she eased her mind and restless thoughts with her past. In effect, she killed her envy with memory, and she was once again herself.

The duo traveled quickly through the bronzed ferns and florescent green grasses that populated these gently rolling hills. The foliage billowed and curled in the soft, warm breeze, and Kuma was once more reminded of the lapping waves of the sea. The ferns parted and surged around them as the two wolves sliced cleanly through, and the meadow grasses seemed to swirl around their slender bodies like ripples in the shallows of the sea. Kuma had seen the sea only once, when she was very young and her pack had been prosperous. Her uncle and father had taken her to its sandy shores, accompanied by three other warriors and the storyteller. As soon as she'd laid eyes on it, she was enchanted by the the great undulating mass of water. She stared for many long minutes at its gentle and unceasing motions, and her father explained that the sea never once stops moving, even in its sleep. The memory of his voice, of the great blue-green expanse, and the warm spray on her dark fur were as clear and vivid to her now as it had been then, for she'd engraved every detail of that day in her memory. She could never forget it. Not if she lived to be twenty years.

She thought of her family rarely now, but in moments of contemplation, when she stood or lay still without reason, she would recall that day. She would think of the ebbing, restless sea and find peace in its deep and unfathomable depths.

'But the sea is not what I'm after today,' she thought, consciously pulling herself up from the watery domain of her memories. She readjusted her slightly wandering trajectory and pulled up alongside her white guide with ease. Her golden eyes no longer saw a blue-green sea stretching out before her, but instead a medley of autumn foliage bursting with rich, dramatic colors, and a fairy blue sky where an intense white sun sat prettily in its depthless realm. 'I'm here to join a war.'

[Snowflame]

The blazing sun held no problems for the pale coated youngster, momentarily forgetting about the older wolf she was leading.

As Snowflame gazed around at the place she utterly adored, she was forced to consider her life without Koran. What would she do? How would she of become the character she was? Koran had given her a new insight onto life, for without her pack, she would be helpless and weak. Or in another pack, she thought with growing nerves.

Suddenly, she remembered Kuma, and glanced back to see, with slight surprise, the southerner treading relatively close by. And now, surprising herself, she started to feel a tad bit guilty for laughing at this relative stranger, this traveller from the south lands. She sighed quietly, and continued to tread at a brisk pace, but with no spring in her step, as she had before. Hard icy blue oculars glared out at the sweeping golden fields, but how could she stay angry at herself when she was in a place like this? She should just be thankful that she was here.

Together, both white wolf and brown wolf trudged through the sweeping landscape, a Paradise for wolves and others alike. Snowflame's pace started to quicken the nearer they got to Koran, she could almost smell her home from this distance. Growing happiness and excitement erupted in the pit of her stomach, threatening to burst forwards and overwhelm her with energy.
Finally, Kuma drew up beside her, and the white wolf gazed across as her home. She gave a smile at Kuma, and whispered, " We are near the boundary of Koran, I will call for somebody...and hopefully somebody will arrive." she gave another smile, and stretched.

The fury of the sun bet down upon her, making her swelter slightly, though she didn't mind. Raising her sleek maw into the brilliant blue sky, she let out a short melody, proclaiming the arrival of a wolf whom wished to speak with a higher ranking Koranian.