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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 14, 2009 22:43:22 GMT -5
The sky was littered with stars, visible in their deepest royal splendour in moons. It was still breathtaking after all of this time to the femme, out of all of her countless nights, here and in the old territories, and her countless runs through the darkest nights with the brightest heavens, even after the mist had fled for a pawful of moons now....it was still a majesty she felt obliged to kneel for. Nightshade loped along the rocky terra, pawsteps keeping her destination confidential from their mistress for the time being. She ran on, up and away on the stone-crafted hillside. Her near-violet form, the result of her russet red undercoat and silver-blue upper peltage, was quicksilver under the moon's dappled light, drifting down in cold shafts between the gnarled tree branches overhead. At last, she came to a slow pad across the ancient relic of a cliffside.
There were several legends of this rise, but the one she looked for now bore deep gnashes into the side of the celestial rock. The story of Siveria Sr., Shimmering Mist pup....Silentnight, Blood Mist warrior....of what became of her, Siveria Nightshade. More specifically, Nightshade was pensive about this wolf's daughter, also named Siveria. The wolf who had, when Nightshade was born and neophyted, been the alphess of a very different pack than the one she now was beta to. Siveria, alpha of Silver Mist.
Mist.... She was one of the last, if not the one and only, of the packs who had been raised in that place. She had been a new warrior when Sabela made her a proxy....and she was a ways above her prime now. A last year without gray... She closed her eyes and pressed her forehead to the ice-laced side of the mythical cave -- the cave that once held the bear that chased her alpha's mother from the lands....into indigo sunshine.
Running through a different forest...
Under a different set of stars...
Loving a different male...
Having a different mother....
A different religion...
Being a different wolf....
She knew she would always be loyal to the Siverians. Undyingly so. It was one of the few things she'd kept with her on the journey across the mountains. The whisperings were thick and winding, and behind Nightshade's closed optics, pictures began to swirl and capture the femme...
This isn't the end, don't let it be the end, we need to do something different -- the mist was our enemy, an enemy that was once an alliance. Bring it back, bring it back....
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
SAY IT AGAIN SAY IT AGAIN WE WON'T DIE
"W-What? Who are you, what do you want me to do? Please, tell me!" Nightshade begged softly, voice quivering and unsteady, heart racing madly with the adrenaline of the vision: the silver stone upon which Siveria had once stood to call them to meeting....
"Milena. Let it be her who takes up the mantle. You have other things you need to do, Nightshade. You know that."
It was a single voice, and yet it held a million and one harmonies. The combined ancestral conviction had stated its decree upon the starcrossed night.
Nightshade's optics flew open, and she stumbled backwards a few feet, blinking rapidly and glancing about. Alone, I'm still alone, it was just a....aw, hell, I have to find Milena... But already, the scent of another wolf was meeting her nose -- the scent of the wolf in question.
(**Wolfie deserves credit for my motive to insert the maroon part of the text.)
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Post by ♫Flisk♫ on Feb 15, 2009 9:32:32 GMT -5
(Er...It's Melina not Milena! Hehe...pretty good for a first try. ^.^)
A creamy wisp of a pelt blurred by as a stealthy, muscular wolf snarled to a tree. Her eyes were a peircing icy blue and the wolf stretched before growling. A fierce agony and confusion lept throughout her stomach and she stood there, curling her lip. Close by was the very river her mother had killed herself in. Melina bit her lip until a trickle of blood dripped off and onto the ground. Sabela had been gone, Nightshade should take up the position as leader, but...he never did.
Parting jaws signaled that Melina was going to do something she was used to doing...hunting. She swallowed lightly and the thoughts of the smells she scented whirled through her mind. Grass, a rabbit, and a squirrel. Wait! Is that...another wolf? Ah...its Nightshade. Better not disturb her. Melina instead fell into a stalk and searched the surrounding area for the squirrel. She pinpointed it fairly easily and quickly followed the path where it was going into the underbrush.
Melina was a fairly quiet hunter, but when her paws snapped a twig the squirrel was onto her. And the chase was off. The wind rushed through her fur as the adreneline cut off all other senses. All Melina needed and wanted to do was to kill this single squirrel, taking her rage out on the poor defenseless creature. And that was why what happened next happened.
As she was chasing the squirrel, Melina felt a burst of energy and as it jumped over a few rocks she leaped with it, clearing a good amount of ground. When her paws hit the ground she lunged at the squirrel and killed it. Licking her lips she finally looked up to see Nightshade. Well...theres no way not to talk to her now...too bad I disturbed her.
"Greetings Nightshade. What brings you here?"
Clearing her throat, Melina scraped her paw pads on the rock, wiping some mud off of them. The soon-to-be alphess was quickly gaining confidence.
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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 15, 2009 10:53:21 GMT -5
( Oops. And Nightshade is a she xD )
Nightshade blinked slowly back at Melina, a bit disconcerted by the irony of her appearence. She nodded her greeting, "Hello, Melina. Ah, just thoughts. Our pack has history here....or had history here," she woofed, tone unintentionally reflecting the sadness that now swelled in her. She sighed heavily eyes tracing the scoremarks in the stone, then tilting towards the stars. "We've forgotten our culture, Melina. Our ways of life, what makes us Siverians -- we are the pack of the clever and masterminded, a pack who does not suffer fools gladly, of fierce and well-earned pride. We know our roots and we fight for them as well as ourselves. When did all of this stop? Well before Sabela left," she woofed, answering her own question. "And I did say 'left'. As far as I'm concerned, and I'm sure the pack feels the same, Sabela has either deserted us or was felled to an unknown and premature demise."
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Post by ♫Flisk♫ on Feb 15, 2009 11:42:38 GMT -5
(Oops!)
Melina sat and wiped her tail on the ground. Pushing the squirrel to Nightshade, she felt that she was in for a very long conversation. The young warrior was ready to listen, so she sat and patiently pricked her ears, catching every word that was said. She nodded at the word Sabela and cringed inwardly, thinking of an innocent wolf being taken down against her will. A voice laden with sorrow and understanding errupted from her mouth.
"I see what you mean. It is terrible if she deliberately left us...but...it is also terrible if she was killed. It's just...horrible either way."
Swallowing, Melina continued, pushing it.
"Sooo...are you going to take up leadership?"
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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 15, 2009 12:25:33 GMT -5
Nightshade did not eat, too taken by the momentum of the conversation. The question was one she'd been long prepared for, as she'd been asking herself if it would be so for the past three moons now. Staring Melina down, she barked with finality, "No, no I will not. If I intended to do so, I would have done it a long time ago. No...my job is to reawaken our dead culture again. To advise whatever alpha comes to be of the ways we've forgotten, and to strategize and--" she cut herself off, but did not break her gaze at Melina. "Melina you will lead the Siverians," she woofed simply, yet with all of the certainty her voice could induce. She was final in her conviction. Her watching of Melina was now observant, taking down mental notes of whatever reaction was to come. She never struck me as power hungry, just a power house, so don't let ambition take her now....let it be a calling, not a lust.
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Post by ♫Flisk♫ on Feb 15, 2009 14:20:33 GMT -5
Melina cocked her head as Nightshade answered her question with a no. She licked her lips as thoughts flew through her head. What does Nightshade think will happen to the pack if there's no leader? Those cursed Yozorans will have at it with us and with no leader, we'd die. I mean come on! Whats wrong with the beta's head? We're all going to di-
"Melina you will lead the Siverians,"
"...What...??"
She blinked her eyes rapidly,trying to clear the dizziness. Why her? She wondered inwardly as she righted herself on all fours, then quickly sat down as a nervousness began to creep in. A new kind of adreneline pushed through and she forced a smile and then squinted.
"Why aren't you? I mean leading us! Like....your beta...but...umm...why me? What gives you the idea that I'm leader and not you??"
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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 16, 2009 19:05:44 GMT -5
Nightshade watched Melina's reaction with patience and calm, awaiting for her to finish speaking before attempting to answer any portion of the fragmented questions the fae had voiced. Nightshade stood and padded back over to the deep gnashed in the rock, tail twitching slightly as she gazed upone the ragged ridges in the stone. "I am beta, yes, but I am one of the last wolves who remembers the old territories. I will be your beta to advise you and to pass on what I have to teach the packs of this land -- the Siverians have cowered and hidden in a dark shroud for far too long. I am beta, and that is what I should be. Siveria was a wolf who suffered no fools and was sharp as a black thorn, and she, Melina, she has chosen you to be the alpha to reawaken the foundations of pack life, to ignite that fire-bringer spirit in every pack wolf of the coven we hold dear. The old testaments and the new have proclaimed you their new alpha. Now are you with me?" She turned around once more, eyes forward, certain and glimmering with a mingle of tears and awe.
I'm ready. It's time to raise the banner again -- we're coming home, Siv. If you're up there, shine your lights on us. We're having a second coming right here...
A playful grin lightened the mood as it dances over her maw. "As sworn wolven to the pack? There is a ceremony, of course -- in the eternal tree."
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Post by ♫Flisk♫ on Feb 17, 2009 18:44:10 GMT -5
Melina shook her cream colored pelt free of any mud. If she was going to be the leader she decided she should look appropriete. Still Melina did not understand why she was supposed to lead the pack onward. But leading a pack to do what she did would probably be pretty sweet. And she had always dreamed of this happening...hadn't she? She was raised in the pack, and now she would be able to say she had gotten something special out of it. She would be honored and all the Siverians must listen to her and she would make sure they were all fed and life was good. She struggled mentally to keep herself from stuttering as she answered.
"I must say...I agree wi-ith you. I guess that if Siveria cho-ose me then I should listen. N-No-Now I am ready to become...alphessssss."
Melina couldn't help but trailing off. She knew she was ready to become leader, but she was incredibly nervous inside. She stepped up and asked a question.
"When is the ceremony?"
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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 19, 2009 7:10:42 GMT -5
Nightshade nodded, as if it was already so, and padded to the outskirts of the ancient crevice, towards the fringes of woodland. She glanced over her shoulder at the stuttering Melina, a kinda, reassuring smile on her maw nearly without her realizing it. "We should go now, while night still covers us. The ceremony must happen at night, and it will do no good to leave the Siverians without an alphess for longer than we already have. Oh, and Siveria chose you, yes, but..." she paused, a warm, friendly grin to the stars, "I'm under the impression it was a unanimous decision among others of the passed." With that, the female of strange pallette started into the woods, tail swishing to beckon Melina onward.
...to the Eternal Tree, then. It's customary for a healer to go and not the beta....but we'll take what we've got for the time being.
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Post by ♫Flisk♫ on Feb 19, 2009 16:44:29 GMT -5
Melina looked up, bobbing her head up and down. She wondered what the Eternal Tree would be like and quietly followed Nightshade through the woodland. Thoughts buzzed through her head. What is it going to smell like? Will it hurt? What if I pass out? Oh my gosh I'm about to become a leader!! What have I gotten myself into?? WHAT HAVE I GOTTEN MYSELF INTO!? She had a silent conversation with herself and quickly composed her mind as she spoke.
"Soooo...what's this like?"
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Post by Sivoncé™ on Feb 19, 2009 19:42:42 GMT -5
Nightshade loped on with ease, limbs and muscles flexing and contracting with great relief. She relished the way the harsh, cold wind flooded her throat -- she didn't fear winter. Winter was their pack mother, and they were lupine beings. The feel of her thick pelt, ruffled in the midst of a ride through the night, was enough to shield her. Snow crunched underpaw, a satisfyng addition to their surroundings. All was at place in the world tonight -- the stars shined on overhead.
Nightshade did not answer Melina immediately, instead, she allowed the undying smile that was infatuated with her maw to take up residence there. Her eyes gleamed bright, and there was a lively spring to her step -- for the first time in what seemed to be years. What, in actuality was, years. But at last, she broke her silence as she padded on.
"What is it like? I do not know, only alphas and healers do, and they do not speak of it. You enter the root den beneath the tree, and let yourself fall asleep in its heart. After that, I suppose Siv, Arroyo, Riley, -- and perhaps others -- will guide you the rest of the way. The elder Siverians who have passed on. Then again, 'Siverian' is not the name some of them hold. Silver Mist, Shimmering Mist, Siverian -- our family will guide you. But Melina....when you have left the tree, you will have twelve lives. Twelve lives at the mercy of the heavens to play with. Both gifts....and curses."
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