Stand in the Rain {open}

[nighty!]

Kunai woke up from a dream, it wasn't a nightmare thank goodness becasue he was tired of those. He looked at the rest of the pack and saw them sound asleep. The orphan got up and got out of the resting dens and left to the lake, hopefully to catch a fish or something yummy. But at night? Not much fish swim at the night time.

He got to the lake, it was going to be a couple of hours still sunrise and it was beautiful. Kunai looked at the lake, some of the fish was jumping out of the water, it was fun to watch. The pup just wants to jump in the lake and catch one. That would be fun but he isn't going to do that. Kunai doesn't know how to swim either way.

The orphan looked at the stars. It reminded him of his guardian, Star. Gotta like the name. She died a moon or two ago. It was sad and now the Alpha, Sirius is training him to hunt, fight, etc... He isn't bad at it but he liked Star's training better, it was more calm and she would go over what the orphan couldn't get.

[Ärï]

Kuroshin yawned as he slipped out of the den he shared with his foster mother. Standing outside the den, the ivory pup gave his fur a brisk shake. A black heart was emblazed on his forehead, though young Kuroshin was muscular looking and his eyes glowed like liquid topaz. He was an almost exact copy of his uncle Halo. Kuroshin was one of three pups that was born from Fell and Merci. His family had all been dying recently, Halo had been found with Mosca shot in the back, Fell had died fighting somebody, Merci had died at his birth. All that was left was his foster mother and his siblings.

"Can't sleep?" Star asked softly, slipping from the den. She was also an ivory wolf, slender, delicate and with endless silver eyes. On her hunches there was a crescent moon and a star emblazed in black giving her her name. Star had adopted Merci's young after the healer had died.

"No" Kuroshin murmured.

"Let's go down to the lake then and stargaze, maybe that'll help clear your mind." Star started off toward the Twilight Lake and Kuroshin followed like he always had even though he was nearly the age of a young warrior.

As they neared the lake, Kuroshin's ears pricked and Star looked up. A young wolf was sitting on the bank. The two white wolves stood in the moonlight watching curiously for a moment before continuing toward the water.

[nighty!]

Kunai pricked his ears and sniffed the air. There were two loners? One of them is either a pup or a neophyte like him. The other one is an adult, must be a warrior age wolf. He didn't have to turn around to find that out. The orphan knowest that some of the wolves were getting sick and he wasn't getting sick. It must be the pack, he wasn't born in a pack so that was in his mind. All the orphan knows is that some were getting sick, barly anyone isn't.

[Ärï]

Kuroshin curled his lip in dislike when he saw the neophyte standing near the lake. "Star, look. Those wimpy pack wolves can't stand their own sickness anymore. They're running off to be loners" Kuroshin growled mockingly. He glanced at Star.

The ivory she-wolf was getting thin. Though she was already light and small, loosing weight was a sign of ill health. Star looked sharply at Kuroshin. "Hush Kuroshin. You have no place to speak of packwolves."

Kuroshin sniffed dismissivly and loped to the water's edge. "Come on Star, I'll fish for you, you haven't eaten recently."

"I'll be fine" Star barked, following Kuroshin though she glanced at Kunai.

"If you get any thinner you'll fade away" Kuroshin shot back, lapping up a bit of the water from the Twilight Lake. He hated coming here. It stank of pack wolves even though it was techniqually loner land, or at least as far as he could see it was.

[nighty!]

Kunai sighed when the neophyte said something of their own sickness and running off to be loners. He didn't care about that, sometime the orphan wants to be a loner but sometimes he just wants to be a packwolf, but still on off on his own. The black pup just layyed his eyes on the lake, he was tired, but couldn't sleep with the coughing from the others. The lake was a good place to be alone sometimes, and sometimes it is a good place to think about things and what was happening.

[Ärï]

Kuroshin raised his head from the water, a fish held in his jaws, ears pricked. Star, standing further up the bank was coughing. Each time she coughed, Kuroshi winced at the rough sound. He hated it. Star was the only mother he knew and she was ill, like Shero had been a moon ago. Shero had gotten better or at least that's what Kuroshin assumed because he and his sister vanished again. Kuroshin padded over to Star, ears flicking sadly as he put the fish near his foster mother.

"Want me to get water for you?" he asked, voice softened as he groomed Star's black ears, both adorned with black spots.

"No" Star managed between coughs.

The femme lowered herself to the ground, continuing to cough, blood flecking the ground. Kuroshin stood beside her, grooming her white fur and inwardly crying for her. Star had raised them when Fell and Merci had not been there. Now she was dying. His eyes raised and burned through the dark toward Kunai. It was the packwolves that were making the loners sick. It was their fault Star was dying.

[nighty!]

Kunai doesn't know how the sickness really started but it is there. WHo knows really, his mother was a rouge, his father was a loner, his sisters and brothers were packwolves. Or at least his new brothers and sister. His other brothers and sisters are loners.

((Writers block))

[Ärï]

Kuroshin looked from the neophyte to Star, eyes turning from hostile to sad. Star's sickness had gotten worse over the past few days. Coughing spells had lasted longer, been harsher and more blood had been found when she'd vomitted up what little she had managed to eat. It killed him to be able to do nothing more the stand by and watch his foster mother die though he remained uninfected by the illness. It wasn't fair. Kuro sat beside Star as she continued coughing and gasping, blood coloring her maw. He couldn't help her. He couldn't do anything more then watch his foster mother die.

This time, Kuroshin knew it was real. Star would die tonight on the bank of the Twilight Lake. Silent tears escaped his flame-colored pools, cutting tracks through his white fur. Would Merci be waiting to lead Star to the Twilight Realm because she had raised Merci's pups? Kuroshin hoped so.

The night wore on and Star became silent as dawn began its approach. The first light touched the trees as Kuroshin rose to his paws and turned to glare at Kunai. There were no more tears. He had no more to cry about, no one to cry for. "You damn packwolves" he growled. As far as he was concerned, the sickness had started in the packlands. Packwolves had made the loners sick. Not the other way around.

[nighty!]

Kunai growled back at the neophyte, he had nothing to say anything about the packwolves, plus it might havn't been their fualt, the orphan would have understand that it was because they moved because of Blood Mist. Technecly it would be their fault, Blood Mist for making them move. The orphan didn't know what to do at the point. He didn't even look at the two wolves yet so who cares.

[Ärï]

Kuroshin's fur stiffened, blackened lips curling back to show his fangs. He was older then Kunai, nearing a year old. A year and he'd been through hell. His father had had a choice between die fighting or die of rabies. His mother hadn't had a chance of living, his siblings had vanished, his uncle was dead and now, so was Star. She had been the only mother he had known. Rage boiled in Kuroshin's heart making his heart pound and adrenaline burn in his veins. Everything seemed to be turning red as his growl deepened. He hated them. Packwolves. They made everyone sick. He hated it. He hated the sickness. All of it. He hated it all. Everything. Those damn packwolves had come and taken territory. Now they were making everyone sick!

"Damn them all" Kuroshin growled, turning back to Star. "I hope they burn in Hellfire for doing this to us." He bowed his head, brushing his nose tenderly against Star's soft white fur. Raising his eyes, Kuroshin glared at Kunai again. "I hope the sickness kills you all you, you and your damned pack. You ruined it all!"

"Enough" barked a sharp voice making Kuroshin look around, still growling and angry.

Moon's ivory form appeared out of the undergrowth, misty blue eyes gazing unseeing at the two. "Take your mother and bury her Kuroshin, Zenya is nearby. She'll help. We'll greive when Star is laid to rest."

Still growling softly Kuroshin grabbed Star's scruff and began carrying her away. Moon padded toward Kunai, or at least in his direction, following his Destinian scent. She stopped when she felt she was near him and reached out her nose, searching to find where he stood. Wolves knew this as a blind-wolf's greeting. Kinder wolves would let the blind know where they were. Cruel wolves would leave them unknowing. "Don't listen to him. He has always been a rebel and he is greiving for the last of his mothers."

[nighty!]

Star was still alive. He became happy almost wagging his tail in confusion. Why would Star become a loner? Star would have tooken him with STephen. But Star died... it couldn't be. It can't be! Star gotten murdered. When another wolf came down next to him he turned his head. "Star, can't be alive, my guardian, was murdered. How can Star be alive?" He asked Moon.

[Ärï]

"I think you have the wrong Star" Moon said softly, sitting back on her hunches, head turned toward Kunai's voice. "Star is the forster mother of Shero, Kuroshin and Kasa. She fostered them from Merci and Fell, both dead loners." Moon's tone was sad and she felt her heart grow heavy. "The pups will be heartbroken" she murmured. "Kuroshin already is." A sigh escaped her ivory maw. "Star no longer lives. She just died, not far from you, killed by that horrid sickness from the packlands." Moon and Zenya were both loners, recently traveling together that had run into Kuroshin and Star. Moon had only known Star in the later stages of her sickness and it made her sad not to have known the femme before.

[nighty!]

Kunai felt guilty for being in the packlands but he wasn't even sick at all! IT wasn't clearly is fault then. It must had been the storms, the time when they had to get over to the other place. It just had to be. "So.... is it my fault?" He asked feeling guilty.

[Ärï]

"Not yours directly" Moon said calmly, sightless eyes locked onto Kunai. Blind wolves use voices as an anchor, letting them know where everything was. For right now, Kunai would have to put up with her sightless stare. "Star would have died regardless. Her health as declined steadily but that doesn't mean we were ready to let go. No one knows where the sickness came from. Loners blame packwolves, packwolves blame loners. It's a cycle but it gets us nowhere. In time, anyone can grow ill. Many have and I fear they're destined to die but, we all are in the end." Moon's sensative ears flicked as a breeze rattled dry grass and leaves nearby. "Kuroshin was just looking for someone to throw his anger at. Humans killed his uncle, life in general stole both his parents. He has a lot of hatred. Don't let him hurt you. He favors his uncle's behavior, Halo was much like him, an outcast and loner in the true sense."

[nighty!]

"Well... I would have been a loner if it wasn't for Star, she was a loner too but joined the Destinian pack. I was abandoned by my mother being raciest. Then at the very end, she ended up dying from having six more pups," He sighed putting his head on the soft banks of the lake. "It was either loner or I wont be here right now." The orphan put it in a simple sentence. Halo... that sounded very familar.