Who I Once Was, Who I am Now

[Sheera]

"Oh but sometimes it is. When the remaining ones you care about are ripped to pieces before your eyes. When you are the last one to be taken down. I feel envy for those who died that day. I feel envy for my mother and my three siblings, but envy does not kill the pain. It does not burn the memories that still haunt me and the father that still staulks in the shadows. she said in a gentle voice. Though it was painful to speak these words her voice remained smooth and soothing. It was hard to think fo her father.. and even harder to think of her two siblings that still lived. She didn't mention them. She didn't want to think about them. How her father had taught them.

[Ärï]

Dark Storm closed his eyes, standing still. "I'm chained by those I've killed. My fangs are stained with their blood and my soul blackened by the things I have seen. I don't deserve happiness, nor do I deserve anyone to care if I live or die. You'd be better off giving your time to someone else. There are others that are more worthy. Not a murderer that fears his own shadow and walks with ghosts." Dark Storm gazed around in the darkness. Of course he didn't really walk with them but in the night, it seemed he could almost imagine them, going back to his dark homeland and imagining the assassins stalking the shadows and ambushes set up where you least expected. Storm had grown up in a land of fear, fury and blood. Though his body was here, in quieter lands, his mind was still back in that time when he'd been a soldier that did what he was told when he was told.

[Sheera]

"You're probably right.." she said with a sigh. Her smile glistened. "But do I look like a femme who would listen to you?" she flicked her tail a couple times and got on her back paws and balanced. She groomed in between his ears then dropped back to her fore paws.

[Ärï]

Dark Storm shook his head, eyes closed. She didn't get it. She claimed she had seen tragety. What she had seen at six and half moons...he had seen in three. She had escaped that life at least for now. He had been raised in hell. Fought in hell. That was where he belonged but his victims wouldn't let him rest just yet. They still wanted a few more years of torture before they let him die. Storm padded over to a hollowed tree, dug out into a temporary den. The large brute padded into it, curling up at the very back, nearly lost in the shadows. Only his lighter underside could be seen as his honey eyes slipped closed. Another night or nightmares approached like a hunter. Storm knew they were coming but he had avoided sleep for as long as his body could manage.

[Sheera]

She followed and layed outside of the den. She curled up and waited to make sure he was asleep. She stood watch. She didn't sleep. She looked out into the night her muscles tense and her fur bristling. She put her head down and continued to watch. She didn't fall asleep.

[Ärï]

As he had expected, the nightmares came.

Dark Storm stood on barren ground, mountains in the distance, forest far behind and nothing ahead. It looked so much like his future it was scary. Storm looked around frantically. He wasn't supposed to be alone. He knew that. Someone was with him, that much was clear. Who was it? Where were they? Golden orbs locked onto a fallen wolf, creamy brown fur and darker brown markings on his head and back. Dark Storm's heart stopped. He'd lived this nightmare a million times. Not one more. He couldn't stop his paws from taking him to the dying wolf. Thistle's ragged, blood-clogged breathing burned in his ears, misery swirling inside him.

"Kill me" Thistle begged, gagging on his own blood. "Before they come...."

Storm looked up. Hordes of dark faceless wolves were coming toward him and Thistle. They would rip Thistle apart if they found him alive. I have to. Storm looked from his best friend to the oncoming wolves and lunged at his friend's neck.

Dark Storm's eyes snapped open. He lurched out of the den, scrambling toward the undergrowth. His stomach heaved and Storm could swear he could still taste the blood. Stomach empty, Dark Storm went limp, falling to the ground, panting and shuddering, eyes wild with sadness.

[Sheera]

Ophelia was to her feet in a matter of moments. She was bristling and her hackles were raised.. again. She raced to his side and groomed him comfortably. She pressed her body against his for more comfort. She began to sing a soft lullaby. "Hush child hush.. do not fret.. the awful brute hasn't left.. not yet.. but if you hope and if you dream.. soon from his throat the blood will stream.." The song her mother had sang to her and her siblings before he returned. why had she sang that to him? How the hell was that going to help him?

[Ärï]

The song didn't help. If anything it made it worse. Dark Storm flinched away from Ophelia, curling his paws to his underbelly and closing his eyes tight. Blood. Enemy. Kill. Those were three thigns he knew far too well. Three things he had faced. He'd stared death in the face a hundred times and yet the memories of those comfrontations left him a mess, mentally and emotionally. Physically he was fit and strong, powerful by wolf standards. Any other form, he was a mess, torn up and broken. Dark Storm's claws gouged the earth under paw, steady shudders continuing to run down his back, ears flat against his head. Without thinking, Storm sank his fangs into his paw. For him it sometimes was a stress reliever, other times self punishment, a way to remind him he was still alive, still in pain, still bleeding.

[Sheera]

She murmured to herself trying to remember a GOOD lullaby. She didn't remember one. She continued to remembered songs like: "The brute is gone child.. but his soul is still is still sinister and wild" and "Let the blood bleed from your souls... all of you may soon burn in coals" But what would all those do? They scared the hell out of Ophelia! She reconized one.. the only one that she herself had made up without her morbid mother.

"Come my brothers.. and sisters and friends... gather up close... I will teach you of sins... Sins is one thing that we all will once do... but ask for forgiveness and let the guilt you feel subdue... asking for forgiveness may not be the simplest task it may involve pleading and praying all day... but if there is one thing important that I have to say.. is that you will get another chance.. and the guilt will not stay.."

[Ärï]

"Lies" Dark Storm murmured, his voice barely heard. It was a lie. There was no forgivness for a wolf like him. No freedom for a soldier. The breeze changed and his head snapped up. Ears shot forward and a low growl rumbled in his chest, a thunderous sound, hackles rising. "Step forward vixen" Storm commanded, using the northern term for fae. From the undergrowth danced the form of an ebony fae, her eyes burning cold amber. Storm rose to his paws, tail stiff and fur on end. Black lips curled back to reveal his ivory razors.

"Well well what have we here?" Lithium purred, eyes flicking from Ophelia to Dark Storm and back. "A murderer weaving his way to the heart of a fae? A young fae nonetheless." Lithium's eyes locked onto Dark Storm. "I always knew brutes were sick rats."

Dark Storm's snarl deepened and his muscles tensed.

[Sheera]

Ophelia snarled forcefully. Her fur lie flat and her hackles did not rise. She felt fine. Just fine in the presense of the two murderers. She flicked her tail casually at the 'vixen' and padded forward a few steps. She then sat flicking her tails casually. "Hmm... would you like to die know to be damned to Hellfire or leave in peace and go to Hellfire later?" she said in a casually voice to the vixen with her head turned towards her and her dark blue eyes glistening with lust for the battle that rage ahead. The same gleam that still gleams in her fathers eyes. The hunger for blood. The hunger for flesh. The hunger for battle. She had the strength to withhold about anything. She had before withstood the attack of her father. She and noyone else of her family (but the two heirs) had survived the vicious attack. She, the runt of the litter, had survive.

[Ärï]

"Trust me little one, you'll learn soon enough that a world without these damned brutes is a lot safer" Lithium growled, eyes flicking to Ophelia and back to Storm.

Storm snarled, deep in his chest. Dark Storm stood in front of the pup. The black brujo stood glaring at Lithium. Lithium met his angered gaze with a look of cold amusement tinted with hatred. "If you don't back down you'll find out how dangerous brutes can be" Dark Storm snarled.

Lithium laughed, crouching in a battle-ready stance. "You're no threat to me fox whelp."

[Sheera]

"Its pieces of shit like you that taint the world.." she said still in a casual voice. Chuckling her dark chuckle she watched the fugly vixen with amusement in her dark blue eyes. What a poor little soul.. that vixen she is. She watched them with a smirk. She has taken on both her father and her mother. Her mother's fear in front of brutes.. which she had overcome.. and her father's deep morbid self... his sharp black claws and his long, sharp fangs. Her father is going to regret the day he messed with her mother. She had gained his most dangerous weapons and some weapons he himself did not pocess.

[Ärï]

Lithium had lost her patience. She leapt at Ophelia but Dark Storm slammed his shoulder into hers, sending the fae tumbling. Storm leapt after her. The two wrestled, undergrowth breaking under them as they tumbled over and over. Jaws snapped, fangs clicking together and deep snarls indicating where the two black shapes were. Fur was torn, bruises left but Dark Storm managed to pin down Lithium. The fae swiped at his muzzle, drawing blood and making his head snap to one side. Taking her chance the femmora slipped from under him, leaping up in one graceful movement. Dark Storm sprang at her and broughed his muzzle down hard on the back of her neck. No fangs. Lithium let out a choked gasp and went limp, eyes closed. Dark Storm stood staring down at her with a new expression, cold, emotionless, empty. The void gaze of a seasoned killer.

[Sheera]

She watched flicking her tail and wincing everytime the femme struck the brute. She then fixed her eyes on the limp femora. She lept like a newborn fawn towards the two wolves. She stood next to Dark Storm pressing her body to his. She gave a weak smile. "My hero.." she said gently and groomed his shoulder.