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 Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2012 9:57 pm
"...Help? Help?!" Tiyana's teeth clicked as she bit at her own words, eyeing the collection of beasts beyond the Safety. "Help has come too late!"
She was not keen on the honeyed understandings of the younger wolf, and could not bear to see that broken little body at Adonai's feet - why was he still carrying her about? Why should she react to any offer of help? Had any of it done her any good so far? The twisted, convoluted answer was a bold and emblazoned no, toward each and every single one of them. She refused to speak, wordlessly simmering like the weak coals of a fire long past its flame.
Rhys's words did fall on ears willing to hear, however, and were indeed soothing to the petrified little pup who was wishing he could cease to exist. The little red jester was so curled in upon himself that he felt as if closing his eyes would let him leave this place that reeked of death, hardly aware that his white furs had long since been stained pink and that he was sticky with his mother's blood. He didn't want to move for Adonai, who still carried his sister. Could he bring her back?
He wasn't too young to know the answer to that.
Still, he did at least attempt to react to the soothing young voice - he stuck a tiny muzzle between Tiyana's elbows and let out a tiny whimper, watching each new wolf with eyes not quite sure what they were seeing. So many, and yet, his mother seemed to believe they were bad - were they? He didn't know anymore.
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2012 6:15 pm
What could the teen say to that? It was pretty obvious that help had not come soon enough, not for the pup Adonai had carried. Not even to prevent injuries to the parents. Still...
"I know herbs. I can help heal your injuries and those of your pup, if he has any." Rhys caught sight of the little muzzle peaking around his mother's paws and decided to try addressing the little one directly. At least he did not seem to be hysterical.
"Are you injured?"
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Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 4:56 pm
The big wolf followed meekly at Adonai's heels, his unease soaring as they met with the trembling female. In keeping with his nature, he stayed huddled behind the older male, happy to let Rhys do the talking. He watched as Adonai gingerly set the pup down, arranging its limbs as if that might save it some discomfort, and this time had to physically push down a wave of grief; his broad face looked stricken as he nudged Adonai's shoulder. "Should we take her home?" His eyes flickered to the carcass, the gaunt she-wolf, the tiny nose poking from between her paws. "We need to get you home."
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Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 5:06 pm
Adonai's ears folded back to his skull at Tiyana's harsh tone. He tried to find his own words to respond, but realized he could think of nothing. He did the best he could! Didn't she see that? He had fought the boar, had brought her wolves that could help her...what else could she possibly have expected him to do? He didn't even know until now that she had been pregnant...that he had given her pups. How could she possibly expect him to be responsible for lives he didn't even know existed?
It was Terreis all over again. He had been used and left by the warrior, and how was he supposed to know what would come of it? How could he be expected to make all the right choice for these families he had never planned to have? Ever since meeting Terreis he had tried so hard to do right by her, to have a role in the life of his children, his grandchildren, and for what? There was certainly no love, from anyone.
Why was his whole life a story of being punished for doing the right thing?
Tears catching in his golden eyes, he continued compulsively grooming the dead pup, his body shaking. He was only tangentially aware of the other wolves. When Casimir's nose touched his shoulder, he jumped.
"She...she doesn't have a home," he muttered, staring fixedly at the now-damp, but clean, corpse in his paws. "She...lives alone...the pup. Is my little boy okay?"
His little boy.
He said the words out loud for the first time, and it nearly took his breath away. A son. His son.
He looked up, then, breaking his concentration on the little calico baby for the first time, and stared across at the red jester, and thought he could hear his heart break.
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Posted: Thu Jan 12, 2012 9:18 pm
Hopeless. Utterly hopeless. Tiyana shook her head, her whole body swaying dangerously from side to side; she was losing to a blackness that took great bites out of her vision, and it was only a matter of time before she succumbed. She hardly understood their words anymore, hearing them as though through the filter of extreme distance. It was almost a relief.
She didn’t once let up on her gurgling snarls, even as she slumped forward and felt a lightness come over her body. Maybe she could find her daughter on her own, without the weight of a dead-tired body holding her close to earth.
Her little son was hesitant to leave his mother’s protection, frightened of the big, bloodied white wolf that loomed over him - scared to death of his sister’s corpse, half expecting her to leap to her paws and try to take him with her. He didn’t want to be like her - belly open and completely lifeless. He didn’t want to be near the wolf who bathed her in ways deemed delusional. He looked up at the big white male, and shuddered as their gazes met.
He didn’t like this. But his mother was slipping, threatening to crash down on top of him. She needed help, no matter how much she didn’t want it. That much he understood. She needed someone to help her, and if it wasn’t going to be the scary one before him, the little jester figured he could at least do this much; with a bit of an effort he squeezed through Tiyana’s paws, tangling up his own legs in the process, and tried to pull himself clear of the little den on legs that did not want to cooperate. His little body was still racked with the tremors of fright, and it made him weak - but how many times had she carried him despite her own shaky paws?
He eventually freed himself of his unconscious mother - still feeling the beating of her heart, and knowing she was alive - and stood before the three strangers with a heaving chest and bright, anxious eyes.
He moved for the smaller one, who had offered help and spoke with a care for words he found comforting, and did his very best to avoid the eyes of the wolf who had called him ‘son.’ “I’m - - not hurt,” he whispered, voice thin and strained. “But my momma…?”
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 12:22 am
As soon as the female fainted, Rhys waned nothing more than to rush over and help her. However, caution held him back. What of the strange male? What of Cas? They were older. If anything was going to be done, surely they were the ones to do it?
However, that was not the case. Adonai seemed to be in shock, and Cas was being less than helpful, in his opinion. No. It was the pup who who spoke up. The pup who asked for help that he, himself, could not provide. But Rhys could. He had said as much, and he would make it so.
Without further prompting, went directly to the more seriously injured female, sparing a reassuring glance at the pup.
Up close, it was even worse than he had at first thought. Now that she was not snarling and menacing, he realized that the mother was severely malnourished. Even worse was the wound. Though his nose had detected plenty of blood, the shadows of the den had hidden the extent of her injuries. The worst was the deep gouge near her foreleg. Though, on closer inspection, it should not be fatal...not under normal circumstances...but she was so frail already. Would she survive?
The longer it took him to tend to the wound, the smaller her chances would be. So, the young male approached the older wolves and waited until he was certain he had at least one of their attentions.
"I need to gather a few herbs. Clean her wound while I find them," he commanded, sparing no thought for the impropriety of such an order coming from someone who was not even an adult, yet. All that was on his mind was saving a life.
Not bothering to wait for a response, Rhys went to collect what he needed. It should not take long. He made it a point to know where the useful plants grow.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2012 1:28 am
Tiyana's loss of consciousness seemed to spur Adonai into activity. Shaking off some of his reverie, the white male rose to his paws, leaving the body behind. He felt the frightened eyes of his son on him, but he swallowed back the pain this caused him. The pup was young, and frightened. He would learn to love him. He had to.
He was bleeding nearly as badly as the female, but he was better nourished -- having lived in a pack, without needing to sustain any young pups -- and sure stubbornness kept him on his paws.
Feeling that it was his duty -- and the least he could do, really -- he settled down to begin cleaning Tiyana's wound, as Rhys had said. It didn't occur to him to think anything strange about being ordered around by a younger wolf. It also didn't occur to him as strange that the wolf just happened to know healing arts. It seemed like the only thing that had gone right all day.
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Posted: Wed Jan 25, 2012 2:31 pm
Cas squeezed his eyes shut, swallowing down the whimper that was welling at the top of his throat. All he wanted to do was go down on his belly, appease this chaos and crawl away, but despite what his gut was telling him, he wasn't in Antianeira; he didn't get a free pass out of this crisis on account of being powerless. His eyes, downcast, flicked open as the adolescent brushed past them, and he felt his tail curl between his legs. I'm weak, he thought, that time-honored adage of Slaves, but it gave him strength enough to follow Adonai, though he went instead to the pup, who looked even more lost now that Rhys had run off. Lowering his massive head, he sat, and fixed the exhausted little fellow with a mild, gentle stare. "Things will get better, now." His voice was soft, soothing; a voice for bedtime. "You're safe, and we'll take care of your momma."
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 7:54 pm
So she would be okay. That was a relief. She would be alright, and that was the solid truth of the matter, if that is what the older wolves said. He could have faith in their promise, no matter how badly his mother happened to be injured, and would accept no other possibility because his young mind just didn't comprehend how promises could be broken.
He wasn't comfortable with the big bloody male tending to his mother, but then, he supposed something good might come out of it; though he was highly suspicious and would rather the young wolf clean his mother's wounds, he didn't really have the chance to be picky. And what could he have done otherwise? Knowing that his mother would be safe had brought an exhaustion unlike any he had known yet in his short life, his head dipping to his chest and his eyelids fluttering as he tried to keep himself upright. He didn't want to sleep now, there was too much to be done!
But, oh, how the gentle voice told him otherwise. Wobbling closer and listening to the soft tenor telling him everything would be alright, he felt himself sinkin into the comfort of a large pair of paws. Much larger than momma's. Larger than any other wolf he'd ever seen, though granted, that happened to be very few. He'd been through so much, and now everything was going to be alright - he could take a nap, if he wanted to!
Very quietly, and on the cusp of sleep, the little red jester murmured, "Okay, then. Momma'll be okay. Can you save my other sister, too?"
He was sound asleep, almost before that last word had a chance to slip through. Surely they could find his black-furred sister, too, if they could make his mother alright.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 9:17 pm
Luck had been on his side. The herbs he needed right away were nearby. It had not taken very long at all to gather them up and head back to the others. Padding quickly up to the unconscious female, he nudged Adonai aside and started to work, concentrating on making sure she lost no more blood and that there would be no sickness in the wounds. No infection. Adonai had cleaned them well, however, so there was little more to do than apply the herbs properly.
When he was done, he looked at the Adonai. The older male, while not as injured as the female, was not well-off, either.
"You should let me see to your wounds," he said, wondering if the male even realized he was injured.
He had not gotten there in time to hear the pup's words.
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Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 10:17 pm
Adonai was so thoroughly wrapped up in tending to Tiyana -- something, like fighting the boar, that he could do -- that at first he paid no heed to Amore's sleepy proclamation. As the words hit him, they washed over him, and his heart ached.
His sister...no, she was beyond help. The poor dear.
Rhys arrived, nosing him out of the way, and Adonai pulled back. It wasn't until that moment that the full effect of the pup's words hit him.
His other sister.
Adonai's heart leapt into his throat, and anything Rhys said fell on deaf ears. "Other sister?" he asked, sharply, turning his golden eyes fiercely onto Amore. "What other sister?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 2:18 pm
Cas settled in around the scrawny pup, a warm and enormous shroud. His ear close by, he listened to Amore's departing words and felt a pang, again, sharp and deep; he was still haunted by phantoms of his own sons' deaths, anxieties that refused to be shaken even when they had nearly grown to adulthood. The boar and Varia briefly became the same beast, and he felt his eyes wet, and stroked the pup's eyes closed with his tongue. "Ssh," he whispered, and thought nothing else of it.
Until, of course, he did. As soon as the words left Adonai's mouth, they rattled through his memory, and he tensed, his heart racing. Eyeballing the older wolf, he nosed Amore rather politely, his whiskers brushing over the puppy's face. "Sorry," he murmured, searching for signs that the kid was rousing. "I just need you to wake up a minute, we have one quick question."
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2012 5:58 pm
He was far too comfortable to answer. How could he? He was so warm, and surrounded by a softness that he couldn't quite place - his own mother wasn't half as nice as this, with all her sharp angles. The little puppy stretched out each thin leg, small toes spreading, and gave a small yawn, licking chapped lips and curling each bit of himself into one little bundle. He didn't hear the words, not at first, and would have been content to stay silent. After all, didn't they already know? It was a silly question. His other sister, of course!
But the large, warm wolf's whiskers tickled, and his voice was very close, nearly in the red pup's ears. A quick question. Quick. He could probably handle that, he supposed, one eye flickering open just slightly, wrinkling his nose so that he wouldn't sneeze. "She looks like mamma," he mumbled, figuring perhaps there were many puppies and they didn't know which was right. His little black-furred sister was very queer in her silence, and he supposed it wasn't beyond the realm of possibiliy. "Go find her."
They would get no more out of the little red jester; he gave one last snuffle, and was soon so far in his slumber that all the gentle ticklings in the world wouldn't rouse him again.
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2012 5:37 pm
Adonai's heart was going to give out. It thumped painfully in his chest and he was on his paws before he realized what he was doing. His joints ached, and he was woozy and light-headed from shock and wounds, but he had not yet exhausted his adrenaline reserves.
Without another word, he clumsily navigated his way past Casimir and loped blindly back to the clearing.
Another pup. There had been another pup.
How had he missed her? How had he not seen her? Why had Tiyana not said....
So many questions raced through his mind, and he ran without seeing or feeling anything.
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2012 12:11 pm
Sister? The little pup had another sister? He barely had time to comprehend this fact before Adonai ran off in a flurry of desperation. Rhys hesitated. Should he stay or should he go?
He had already done all he could do for the mother for the moment, and it was true that the pup was fine, all things considered. They should be safe here, for the moment. Especially with Cas keeping an eye on them.
But what about the other pup? If she was still alive, she would surely need help. She could not long survive on her own. Plus, she might be injured, and who knew if the danger had all passed. It was foolish to charge into a situation without knowing all of the details, however, Adonai was in no shape to face trouble should any present itself, and the pup would be defenseless.
In truth, he had little choice. If there was any chance the pup was still alive, he had to help.
"Guard them. And call the pack," he said to Cas, once more giving no thought to ordering around an older wolf. "We have to get them to safer territory."
That ought to cover it. Sparing no more time, Rhys raced after Adonai.
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