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4:06am Feb 21 2010
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Felan let out a sigh then nodded. "Yeah, I guess." He murmured then resyed his head on the ground. "I just hope they don't move any closer from there," he said and raked his claw on the ground. Lucian tasted the air then picked up a few scents : deer, rabbit... and wolf scents he couldn't recodnized. "Can you smell some wolf scents but ones not from our pack?" He asked Akari, twitching his ears in the direction he thought the scent came from. A light breeze blew by and brought the same in, along with the scent of Zallion, Teigo, and Cleao.
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5:03am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 5:43am Feb 21 2010)
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Akari sniffing the air. "There's Zan, Teigo, Cleao, and... And someone else, maybe even two," Shel ooked up at Lucian. "Let's go find out who they are!" Zallion's brown eyes became softer as he looked at the wolf. Though he was slow to trust, he felt an instant liking for Keevler. Dipping his head and taking a step back, he introduced himself and the others in a slightly formal tone, "Hello Keevler. I am Zallion, Zan for short. This here is Cleao, and that-" he indicated the wolf behind them, "-is Teigo. We are the members of this pack. If you seek shelter, we shall be more than happy to ask the Alphas." He sniffed the air. A strong scent hung in it. Zallion looked around, his fur bristling slightly. Someone else is here. He looked keenly at the undergrowth. Suddenly, two tiny pale blue eyes caught his attention. Relaxing again, Zallion smiled. "Your little friend is free to come out now." he said to Keevler.
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6:25am Feb 21 2010
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Relief flooded like a morning light peeking through swarming grey clouds across Keevler's face. Yet he was more surprised than grateful. True, he appreciated their help - but he hadn't expected to be so warmly greeted. Obviously, times were fine for these wolves - otherwise they would've shooed away any extra mouths to feed. That, or they were exremely generous. Anyway, Keevler doubted he'd be staying. Unless he realized he wanted to stay with this strange pack, his intentions were to move on. He wasn't so sure. "Thank you," he stated, and his hostile appearance eased like melting ice. "Thank you, Zallion. I can only hope your Alphas are as pleasant as you." Turning, he faced Talto's direction. "Come out, Talto. They're good wolves." Very slowly, a shy, curious face craned itself out of the foliage. Little blue eyes twinkling with a thought difficult to make clear, he sniffed the air eagerly, but came no further. "It's all right, Talto. They've accepted us." The cub carefully crept outwards, and tottered awkwardly over to Keevler, peeking out from behind him. "D'you think they'll try to eat me?" he asked Keevler quietly. His guardian bore a laughing, wolfish grin, and snuffled his face. "He's called Talto. Say hello, Talto." The cub gave an awkward moan of reluctance, then finally slurred out, "Hullo,", as he stepped forwards and made a funny, unsteady dipping motion with his little head. He continued to sniff Zallion carefully, but kept his distance, until the scents became too much for his little curiosity and he began to shyly step forwards, tail upright and wagging.
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7:34am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 7:35am Feb 21 2010)
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Zallion smiled warmly at the tiny pup. "Hello there, little one," he said, lowering his head to speak to him. He had a soft spot for pups, his sister loved them even more. "I know who'll be happy to see him," he said with a grin to Keevler. "Let's go." Zallion said, leading the way to the camp. |
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8:22am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 8:24am Feb 21 2010)
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Talto, slightly intimidated but in a mas-sive sense of awe for Zallion, continued to wriggle nervously as his tail lashed the air from side to side. "Who'll be happy?" he asked, tottering forwards on his clumsy paws. Keevler advanced and began to pad by the cub's side, an observative shadow, respectfully overlooking the wolf child. "Are there more cubs for me to play with?" "Don't go ask too many questions," Keevler told him gently. "All will be answered in good time." He looked up to stare in Zallion's direction - directly in front of Keevler. "Are you sure your alphas will accept us? I don't really know if we'll be staying for long." |
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8:36am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 8:39am Feb 21 2010)
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Zallion smiled kindly at Keevler. "Don't worry. They're quite rational. Once, I, too, was like you. I was a rogue, so was my sister, and they took us in. So I've no doubt they'd do the same to you." He beamed down at Tolto. "You'll soon see," As they talked, they had nearly reached the camp. A breeze was in the air, cool and gentle. The placid river shimmered in the sun, and he could spot Felan and Bryr together, chatting. Turning his head to the direction they had to go, he could smell the fresher air, sweetened by the meadow's flowers. Zallion halted and looked back. "Are you two thirsty? I believe you've had a long journey, so if you like, you can have a drink." he said, indicating the river. |
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9:06am Feb 21 2010
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"They did?" Keevler asked, surprised and pleased. Maybe his loning could come to a stop. Quite a few times, he'd been chased out of stranger's territories - and not always wolves'. Once, he'd had the unfortunate consequence of being chased by a cougar after accedentally bringing down a rabbit hadn't even known about them. Nevertheless, Keevler was relieved to have found such a helpful group of animals. Maybe now, Tolto could finally settle down. Tolto's face brightened as he spotted the narow expanse of rushing water. "Great!" he exclaimed delightedly. "I'm thirsty." Keevler half-heartedly guided th cub down to the shallower parts, and began taking several heavy gulps of the cool, refreshing liquid. The two wolves then padded at their own comfortable depth in the calmer water, blissfully letting their hot, tired paws cool down. After a few moments, however, Tolto began to play in the water, batting at minute, hardly-worth-eating fish that swirled and darted about like a flock of underwater starlings. Keevler, who didn't share the cub's interest for such games, strode towards Zallion at a respectful pace, and opened his mouth to speak, when he sudenly recalled something. Something another loning wolf with a foreign accent had informed Keevler. "How goes the famous feud you share with the humans?" he asked cooly, conversationally, as he distantly listened to Tolto's yips that emanated from his game. "What is the status of your current situation?"
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9:07am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 9:08am Feb 21 2010)
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Cleao had watched the entire scene unfold with unhidden curiosity. These wolves clearly meant them no harm, and the arrival of the younger wolf immediately put a halt to any of Cleao's doubts. It was her natural nurturing instincts that kicked in at this point... The younger generation afterall were most important to wolves... As they would be the ones to carry traditions and take care of the pack in the future. She smiled at the cub, showing absoloutely no aggresion in her stance or movements... She didn't want to frighten either of them, clearly, they had both been through enough, and they deserved to atleast rest for awhile. As wolves, the instinct to help other's of their kind in need was overwhelming, and Cleao was more than willing to accept them, should the Alpha's choose to do so. As they walked, Teigo took the time to try and calm his territorial instinct and the growl that was still nestling somewhere in his throat. It was hard for him to just accept a wolf like that... He had done it, easily, but his body was refusing to cooperate. He sighed. Being a fighter most of your life tended to make you overprotective of your pack, and sometimes it was difficult to just drop the responsibility for a minute or two... He looked over at the two new wolves, and then nodded at Zallion's suggestion of allowing them to drink. "Go right ahead" He said in a calm, and somewhat welcoming voice. He didn't want them to think he couldn't accept them, he didn't wish for them to feel uncomfortable. He smiled at them without much difficulty, and then padded over to sit by Cleao, his eyes on the new blood in camp.
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9:21am Feb 21 2010
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Unaware of the confrontation inside Teigo's heart, Tolto continued to mess about in the water. The tiny creatures were both fascinating and infuriating to him. Each time his now-soaked paw attacked them with a curious jab, they'd melt and writhe and swirl all around of him, close to his feet, his ankles, his toes. Yet whenever he made a move, they simply wound away. Bored, he waded in the mid-leg depth of gentle water that sucked at the riverbank, and suddenly spotted two of the other wolves beside Zallion. He hadn't remembered their names; that was Keevler's job. So he walked with high-raised paws - shaking them to dry them as best as he could - and began to sniff the female. Cleao. "Hi," he greeted her shyly. He didn't mean to ignore Taigo - the other male fascinated him as much as Zallion did. But she was the first female he'd met in a long time. She seemed the nicest to him, instinctively. "What're you called?"
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9:52am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 9:56am Feb 21 2010)
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Zallion shrugged his shoulders. "Worse than ever." he replied, his eyes glued to the other side of the river, on the children who were chasing balls, shouting and screaming. "They kill many of us, we kill many of them. Life's hard when you have to live near creatures like them. They hunt in our lands, and each day, our territory keeps getting smaller and smaller, until one day, I fear, we'll all be evicted from here." He sighed heavily, and clawed the dirt. Beasts. Heartless beasts. How I hate them. Hate. The word reminded him of something, something his mother or father had once told him. 'Look at everything with eyes unclouded by hate; you'll see they are not so bad after all.' But Zallion felt it didn't go here. Whichever way you look, they're always the same impudent things, so he thought. Thinking of his mother reminded him of those wonderful days in the past, when he and Akari play-fought, with their parents looking down on them, with a gentle smile on their placid faces, racing up and down the rocky mountain slopes, by the sea without a care in the world... Those were the good times. Zallion shook himself out of his reverie, jerked back to reality by a splash in the water. He switched his gaze to Keevler. "You hungry?" he asked, getting up. "There's lots of food waiting for you at the den." He cast a glance at Cleao and Talto and smiled, seeing the pup liked her. "Shall we proceed?" |
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10:07am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 10:09am Feb 21 2010)
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Cleao grinned as the young wolf approached her. He was adorable, really... then again, most pups were. She kept her golden eyes on him as she spoke. "They call me Cleao, Little one." She allowed herself to fall into a laying position as she allowed the young wolf to get used to her presence and scent. Cleao spent little time around cubs. There were very few in the camp these days, the wovles always had something more pressing to deal with. Teigo watched the cub with curiousity. The two new wolves... they must have been travelling hard, Keevler definately looked run down, and the pup didn't look too much better. The pup. Teigo kept his silver eyes on the small m*censored* of fur... This one was going to be a strong one, once he got his strength back. Any pup who could travel like this one obviously had had to have a will of steel. Of course, Keevlers presence would have helped immensly. Teigo then pulled his eyes away and looked over at his fellow fighter, Zallion. He actually started to wonder. What would this pup become? Teigo shook of the thought and stood, his huge size shadowing the young one. "I think... eating might be a good idea, no?" He smiled at the pup and Cleao, then nodded at Zallion and Keevler. "After you" He said to the other fighter, as his toungue lolled in a wolfish grin.
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10:13am Feb 21 2010
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"Of course," said Keevler, aroused from the deep thoughts that had been aroused by Zallion's words. "Proceed, by all means." He glanced at Talto, spotted him with Cleao, and paused. The other wolf's explanation had stirred Keevler. Not negatively or positively, but the situation of the newfound pack both disturbed and intruged him. Personally, Keevler felt no hate nor love towards human beings. He'd been on the move too much to really stop and understand their ways, their behaviour, their confusing patterns of life. When he'd been faced with fewer routes of escape, he'd often slunk aside villages and camps where he'd spot humans constantly moving from place to place, proceeding with their interesting actions and habits. He'd never dared approach a human deliberately, for an instinct compelled hm to avoid them completely... but they fascinated him terribly, just as the fish had awed Tolto. Watching the cub, Keevler continued to speak. "You say the humans kill your kind," he murmured thoughtfully and slowly, but carefully. "and you kill them. When was the last killing? How often do they take place? And how are these deaths caused?"
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10:25am Feb 21 2010
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Zallion sighed. "They're rather frequent, usually when the urge to expand their dominion seize the humans' heart. And that's almost always." He paused for a moment to look at the children one last time, before continuing, "They use strange metal stick-like things, from which little pellets pop out, sometimes with a loud noise, sometimes without. Guns, I believe they call it. Our kind usually bleed to death because of them." He finished, not wanting to speak more of such terrible things. |
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10:30am Feb 21 2010
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All fear gone, Talto padded over and began to sniff Cleao's shoulder intently, little snubby nose working furiously away. "You smell funny," he said, but not rudely. "But your name is pretty." His probe of a nose worked away as it to trace the direction her fur went, her face, her own paws (to lap up all the interesting foresty smells on the pads of her feet), and even proceded to poke her shoulder and face with a gentle, attentative paw. She was a very pretty wolf, he had to admit, and she seemed to be all muscle. She felt strong and powerful, and safe. He liked her already. Then he turned away, and was about to start investigating Teigo, but froze. The enormous dog wolf towered over Talto, and he was momentarily afraid by his size. He was bigger than even Keevler. But it was a thrilling fear, and his tail began to wag madly again. In his excitement, he began to do a squiggly dance of jumbling paws and nervous nose-proddings that targeted the big canine's legs. "You're so big!" he exclaimed in awe. "And dinner sounds about perfect right now!"
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10:36am Feb 21 2010
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Zallion laughed. "Then come on!" And he ran a little, then stopped to look back to see if they were following. |
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10:41am Feb 21 2010 (last edited on 10:49am Feb 21 2010)
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Keevler listened grimly to Zallion. "So they take a little of your land every day?" he asked. "And yet, this part of your territory - your half of the river, at this particular section - is still secured. Unless they've taken the whole opposite half over on the far banks, then they're still finding a way to cross this river." He straightened. "Maybe we should discuss this with your leaders. It is too soon for me to start exclaiming my views aloud, and... this discussion is not appropriate for all ears." He glanced briefly at Tolto's innocent form. Until he became a full grown, the matters of human-wolf politics were not for his little ears. Tolto was merely a cub, and would undoubtedly find the matters of dying packmates alarming and disturbing. Attempting to brighten up the dark mood, Keevler straightened his slightly-hunched posture. "Let's make haste to your camp," he said, although not posessively, and lowered his tone to a murmur. "I am eager to meet your pack." * (after Wolfwinx's post) * Without a second glance, Talto hurried forwards in a flurry of pale tan-and-grey, making the best possible speed - but nowehere near to match Zallion's graceful swiftness. "C'mon, Cleao!" he called over his shoulder, then added respectfully to Taigo, "And you, big fella!" Keevler brightened his gait to a positive, bouncy trot, pausing halfway to let Talto match his speed. When the cub whizzed playfully past, he resumed his waiting position for Cleao and Taigo. He felt it was only fair that he should wait for the other two wolves - after all, they were his hosts.
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11:07am Feb 21 2010
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Cleao waited with unrivaled patience as the cub took his time to get used to her form. Once he'd lost interested however and started probing Teigo, Cleao sat up and laughed. Such a curious little pup. Teigo simply stood, again... Not wanting to move without frightening the cub now jabbing at his legs. He snorted alittle and allowed his head to drop slightly, looking closer at the tan coloured furball. Once Talto had whizzed off to follow Keevler, Teigo also padded forward, smiling at the little wolf's words, quickly catching up to walk alongside Zallion. Cleao also followed suit, walking alongside Keevler and Talto. "So how has it been for you?" she asked, golden eyes on Keevler. "You clearly have been moving around for a long time... It may be hard for you to get used to pack life here if your accepted." She didn't want to sound rude... She just wanted to ensure these two wolves would be able to manage if they decided to move on.
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11:28am Feb 21 2010
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Keevler allowed himself the wolf equivalent of a perfectly content smile. Cleao was a very pleasant she-wolf, in his opinion. And Taigo was considerably less open than her, and a little quieter, but Keevler respected the dog wolf nevertheless. Not a lot bothered the dark-furred canine. So far, Taigo had proved himself to be patient and gentle enough around pups. That was all that mattered to Keevler. "If it will be hard, then it will be hard," he answered Cleao calmly. "If your alphas and your fellow wolves accept me, then I'll stay, and make the best of myself. But yes, I think, after roving for a long while with nobody but a possibly-orphaned cub for company, settling in with a whole group of wolves might become a bit of a challenge. I won't doubt it at all. But if it's a challenge, then I accept it." He gave a pause for the words to sink in. "So far, our journey has been... rather eventful, but not anything truly spectacular. It has been quite a troublesome chain of events; mainly, because of territory errors, and the like. Trespessing on the wrong ground, constantly watching for foes. Wolves seem to think of loning as an adventurous chance for freedom. In a way, it is far from the truth. You might not have a permanent pack, but others do. If you steal their food, you're doomed. If you find yourself in the wrong place, at the wrong time, by anyone, you're in trouble. And no matter how much free space there is, no matter how safe you are from enemies and predators, hunger, tiredness, thirst - it seems to attack your body worse when you're loning. Because you have no help. The real challenge however, I think, is finding the right home - and it is a very complex decision to make once you think you've found it."
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11:41am Feb 21 2010
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Cleao nodded in an understanding way. He was right, of course. Naturally... wolves were pack animals, built for different roles in order to work together, each wolf was one small part of a jigsaw puzzle. Fitting together in their respective roles. Being alone would have been hard for any wolf... Teigo knew. Cleao looked at the large wolf, walking alongside Zallion in front of her. She knew, Teigo had followed the same path as Keevler. He had spent his days alone, until he found them, and even now, Teigo was still getting used to pack life... even though his natural fighter instincts made him protective of the pack... protective enough to make anyone believe he'd lived there his entire life. Cleao smiled slightly to herself. Teigo was getting there... and she was more than sure Keevler and Talto would also make it. Teigo carried on walking, his strides matching Zallions perfectly. "Zan... will you be the one to speak to the Alhpa's? If you choose to, I would gladly accompany you." He wanted to help this lone wolf... he understood better than most, and he believed Keevler and Tolto would both benefit greatly from being part of the pack. Talto in particular, as young as he was.
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11:57am Feb 21 2010
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OOC: I have to leave right now. I'll post tomorrow ^^ |
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