Post by jadeeluff! on Jun 22, 2009 1:05:36 GMT
» I've felt my blood run cold,
My teeth have grown blunt on muscle and bone.
Surprisingly, it was a quiet night. The moon, crescent shaped and glowing with translucent light, poured liquid silver over the ground, casting long and regal looking shadows. It was as if the tree's boughs were too thick and protective to allow sound into their company. All was still, not a sound could penetrate the deep lull that the world had taken on. Frost chased Shade's paw pads as she wandered. She was quite content; silence seemed to suit her. Her footsteps were a rhythmic beat against the earth, and she found herself becoming lost in the mind numbing cadence. Her breath appeared to be mist, the clear oxygen being crystallized from the night's frigidity. Her gait was a steady march, never wavering; she was making good progress.[/font]
Only earlier, when the sun was slowly sinking to create a myriad of warm hues against the darkening sky, she had scented the forest on the wind. The musky, woody scent was unmistakable, and so the dark she-wolf changed her course, angling it towards the origin of the fragrance. By the time night had taken the sky into it's grasp, the could already see it- a dark line on the horizon, looming over her. She was cold and hungry, nearly deadened with fatigue. Her stomach complained, only emphasizing the clawing at her insides. She curled her lip and swallowed to whet her dry throat.
She slowed and halted, ribs contracting and expanding in short spurts as she tried to discern the location of the woods. An innumerable amount of scents hit her, Shade's brow created a fretful knot under the short silver strands of fur. She tried to sift through the odors, but to no avail. Jaw tightening, her rich golden eyes trailed the area, trying to distinguish each stump that jutted from the ground. Slipping between them agilely, she craned her neck to try perceive the ever familiar green streak on the horizon. It all looked the same; the large projections were roughly the same hue, identical if not for their differentiating height. The ground was all a bleak gray, dull, dreary and sore on the eyes. Shade couldn't wait to be immersed in the safe emerald iridescence that was the woodland.
There. She finally observed it, faintly visible against the slowly darkening sky. It glowed with life. She could literally see the the iridescence pulsing off it. She began forward again at an eager pace, settling into her gait and losing herself, once again, in the rhythm of her pawsteps against the ground. Silence became ruler again. She could hear the soft clicking of her nails against the unyielding red soil, the sound of her tendons snapping as her legs moved. It was a soothing noise, one she had gotten used to in her moons of solitude. She wasn't willing to relinquish it. Quiescence is just one of those things that allow you to get familiar with your own body, your own thoughts.
It seemed to take forever for Shade to finally scent foliage, to finally feel the buoyant soil under her pads. Her sharp eyes drank it in greedily, resting on one object for a mere second before flickering to another. It was a filigree of jaded colors; branches twining together to create a canopy that gave shelter from the rain. Her liquid gold eyes trailed from their crown to their roots. Her tenement was still just as they were, as she took them in, a gnarled masterpiece of their own cause. Coiled around each other, intertwining, supporting one another. They closely resembled a pack, if that could be said.
A sudden, striking thought hit her. She hadn't perceive the sickly, tangy smell that a boundary usually held. They were bitter-smelling warnings, splashed liberally over all sorts of places; and usually full of threat. Ears flicking ceaselessly, her eyes scoured the clearing for any sign on danger. When she found none, she pushed through the undergrowth hesitantly. Her steps were quick and tense as her nose twitched madly; and all the while a powerful instinct was rising through her, becoming all the harder to ignore. Since she was but a yearling, the urge to claim was forced into her mind. Shade's lip cured at the thought of her mother- at the thought of her old pack. It was almost a subconscious desire, always there. And now she had the choice. Take it or leave it?
She knew the responsibilities claiming a land like this would be. Once other packs realized what rich, fertile land resided here, there would always be threats. Her inky black mouth formed a hard line as her brow creased in contemplation. Her moments of quiescence would be literally non-existent. Once her pack was up and thriving, she would be bombarded with questions and opinions day by day. Yet, the thought of claiming filled her with a feeling of accomplishment and importance. And she quite liked it.
She started forward again, her face sharp and her walk determined. She back pedaled, trying to find the place in which she entered. Ignoring all the details, she found a grand tree, collapsed and coated with a layer of moss. She crouched just outside it, making it known that this place was taken. It was laden with threats, that would hopefully avert anyone's course. Satisfied, she pointed her muzzle to the sky after a moment's thought. Her song, strong and exultant, echoed through the valley.
She took it.
