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Post by nightblood on Jan 28, 2008 19:36:23 GMT -5
Haruko had had enough of the sea. Making his way back through Semone and Dante's Pass, the wolf-dog soon found himself on the borderline of a cemetery. He'd seen these kinds of places before, but never actually set foot on the hallowed ground. In his younger years, he had thought them spooky and frightening. Had he been younger now, he would have run off in fear.
The fog that hung over the snow was peculiar. It was rare to see such an occurrence, but it was not unheard of. Haru could barely see the nose in front of his face, but the dark headstones were easy to distinguish through the low clouds. He would be able to maneuver through the grounds. And yet... still something held him back.
The dark canine pulled his ears back and sniffed at the ground uncertainly. His tail swayed behind him, not yet terrified enough to be tucked up against his belly. The day-blind male listed his head, the overcast of the clouds allowing him to see at this noon hour. Out beyond the headstones was a stone structure. Wether it was the gravedigger's house or a temple or church, he didn't know. The fog was too thick. But he was able to see a lamp in dark window.
Someone was home...
The chances of someone knowing his old master out here was far from possible. Haru longed for companionship. Wether it was human, canine, or even feline, he didn't care. He knew that it was unlikely that any wolf pack would accept him and his impure blood. Humans, especially those who lived alone, were slightly more accepting of any canine.
Slowly, the red and black wolf-dog placed a paw on the hallowed ground.
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Jan 28, 2008 23:25:03 GMT -5
“Interesting.”
The area was pure and bright. Clean of fear and darkness. As he looked around he could see the snowy tips of the surounding mountains. And the air was so full of scents, he couldn’t choose which one to follow. The sight changed. He was walking trough what seemed to be a forest. He turned and walked down a path leading trough the woods.
Dave knew he was dreaming. The bright land returned to him whenever he managed to sleep for all night.
He arrived to a bent in the path. He couldn’t see past the trees, but he knew what was behind them. Closing his eyes he walked forward and turned in the corner.
The sound hiting his ears was so familiar. The scents, the pups’ yapping, and the sound of the others.
“Brothers.”
Dave opened his eyes and saw the pack. They were on a clearing. The sun was down, and the stars were out shining. A full moon shone and gave a sparkling light for them to be seen. He looked up on the sky, glaring at the moon. Admiring it’s sharp outline, and for a moment he examined the craters upon its surface, which he never was able to see in reality, but somehow he still knew how they looked like.
At a sudden... There was a loud howl coming from the other side of the clearing, not far behind the woods.
All the wolves under the light of the moon looked at him, as if they were waiting for something of him to do. And he knew what he had to do.
Dave walked down to the others, who now seemed almost shadow like. All of them looking at him. Following his steps with their eyes. Glaring at his rich, darkgrey fur, and the black and silver markings upon it.
Dave fastened his pace, and walked out of the clearing, leaving the pack behind. Another, less traceable path lead uphill trough the woods. Dave followed it and in less then a minute it ended in another, much smaller clearing with trees bending over it. A few meters away, in the other end of the clearing, a wolf was standing in the shadows.
This was a new feature. He must find out who he was. He took a step forward. And another.
Slowly the trees became darker and older. The branches seemed heavy and dying. The sky was dark now and the moon started to fade away.
Dave leaped towards the other wolf, but he hit trees. Their bark drying and breaking away as he tried to skratch his way trough, but all he saw behind them now was only a pair of yellow eyes.
Nothing was visible anymore.
“Here we go again!” he grunted.
Reality sneaked back around him. He opened his eyes and saw the interior of the ape built shack he laid down to sleep in so many hours ago.
“CRAP!” Dave yelled out as he awoke. He sat up and in his frustration he walked a circle around the broken table, laying on the floor in the middle of the room. Than walked to the only window and looked trough its dirty, shattered glass. He had to realize his vision was overly blocked. Fog, the thought drifted trough his mind.
“Great! That’s all I needed.” he muttered quietly. His sight was already screwed enough, now even the fog had to hold it back.
Only now did he relize how late in the day it was already. Surprising he didn’t wake up before.
He was about to leave the window, when something caught his sight. A dark figure moved trough the fog in his direction.
Without any further thinking he turned and walked to the other side of the room and sat on one of the cleaner spots of the filthy, wooden floor. He sat still, glaring at the door, which was the only way into the shack beside the closed window. If it wasn’t for the damn oil-lantern on a shelf, high above his reach, on the other side of the room. It would’ve been darkness in the place.
That other probably wouldn’t have spotted this house. And he would still be sleeping.
He would still be dreaming.
...not a good mood to find him in.
(Leeenght O.O sorry, I was inspired. The rest probably won't be this long)
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Post by nightblood on Jan 29, 2008 20:09:53 GMT -5
Haruko wasted little time lingering amoung the headstones of the graveyard. The black and red wolf-dog picked up his feet and kept a quick pace as he neared the building. To his horror, it was turinging out to be a shack. He hoped to whatever gods existed that his eyes were playing tricks on him. As if laughing in his face, his silent prayers were not answered.
With a whine of disapointment, Haru stopped short of entering the shack. He lingered outside until the scent of a wolf got caught up in his nostrils. With a slight gasp, he jumped back. He was in the presence of an elder male.
Quickly bowing his head, whispering appologies of his home language. He did not mean to stumble into this wolf's home, if this was his home.
"Baka de..." he said aloud to himself.
Haru had only just remembered that he was not in Japan anymore. It was unlikely that the wolf in the shadows knew what he was saying.
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 2, 2008 17:56:03 GMT -5
Dave sat still and closed his eyes. Turning of one of his senses, usually helped him better another one. The door of the shack like little house was a few inches open. So he could hear some of what was happening outside.
Slowly as his hearing started to upgrade, he started to pick up noises. First just the wind and the sound of the trees and their leaves. Bugs with their chirping and loud frogs’ croaking, from the lake somewhere beyond the rusty fences of Manor. Than something more subtle.
Steps.
The other one was getting closer. In Dave’s mind the picture started to take a shape. The other one, as a dark shape, was slowly walking towards the door. Dave took a deep breath, and got ready, but the steps stopped, signing that the other one has stopped. Then suddenly two words cut trough the silence of the cemetary.
Dave nearly opened his eyes. He heard the words clearly, but still could make out nothing of them. He never heard them, but the maner of speaking them was kind of agressive, or inpatient. Dave than took another deep breath. This time to find out who’s he dealing with.
The scent running trough his nose told him it was a wolf. A male. Much younger than he is. Might be of danger. But it was strange. The scent wasn’t entirely of a wolves. A Tharim he thought. The word his pack created for those who weren’t purely wolves, but weren’t weaker then any of them either.
Dave now secretely hoped the wolf would enter, but still did not sign his presence, or send any invitation. He left it to the other to decide weather he enters or not. He opened his eyes and waited.
(sorry for the wait, Howl)
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Post by nightblood on Feb 2, 2008 18:37:14 GMT -5
Haruko gazed into the shack. He backed up once, wondering if the canine inside was dangerous. He looked around, suddenly spotting a sturdier house that looked more like the one in which a human would live. It was brick, he could tell, and smoke flew upward from the chimney. He started toward it, but caught himself. Perhaps this unknown wolf would know about the grave digger. He certainly didn't want to stumble into a house who's owner abused animals.
Taking a few careful steps toward the shack, Haru eased the door open with his nose. The sudden creaking made his ears hurt, but it eventually stopped as the door bounced off the opposite wall. He peered inside, dust swallowing up nearly everything from his vision. There was light flooding in from the door and a single window as well as the lamp, just enough to blind him, at least from the ground up. He could just barely glimpse the wolf's paws. He kept his head down and his tail loose. There was no way he wanted to upset what he couldn't see.
"Hello?"
{{That's okay, Jarv. X) }}
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 2, 2008 19:42:35 GMT -5
A few moments later the wolf finally pushed in the door. It opened with a loud creaking, it’s wind bringing up dust from the ground, which further ruined Dave’s sight in the already killing fog. Still he could see perfectly as the young wolf walked into the building. He seemed to be much bigger than Dave himself. His fur was black with few lighter markings, but it was interesting about him, that he was wearing some kind of cloths tied around his head and in his hear. He also had a white marking on his left foreleg.
The wolf showed no threat so far; he lowered his head, obviously signing his friendly aproach. Somehow the light seemed to bother him.
Than finally a greeting word left his mouth. One of the most common greetings, which didn’t impress Dave’s ex-leader side.
“Greetings!” nodded Dave in return, “Whatever brought you around.”
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Post by nightblood on Feb 2, 2008 20:32:38 GMT -5
The shock of his eager greeting was enough to slightly startle Haruko. His ears pulled back somewhat, shielding his sensitive eardrums from the other male's voice. They flicked forward once more to hear the rest of his speech as the black and red wolf-dog let his jaw hang down slightly in a friendly smile. So far, he didn't think this guy was a threat to him unless he made him angry.
“Greetings! Whatever brought you around.”
Haruko had never heard this phrase before. He interpreted it as best he could, but it took him a moment to come back with an answer.
"I was hoping to find... food and shelter around here... Do you know anything... about the grave digger...?"
Haru's english was less than fluent, but he guessed that this wiser wolf would know what he was talking about.
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 2, 2008 21:22:28 GMT -5
“Grave digger?” Dave raised his head slightly. The wolf was speaking with an accent unknown to Dave. And his appearance was quite original as well. “You must be talking about the human that lives here.” he replied, while glancing towards the dirty sleeping place in the corner. It probably was a bed once, like the ones every human use. But by now all that remained of it was an old mattress, a torn sheet and a filthy pillow.
“I do not know what a grave digger is, but the human that was here before, left yesterday morning. Before I came here. I would have assumed he’d return shortly, if it weren’t for the bags he was carrying. He must have been in a hurry, because he even left his lantern here.” said Dave and with that he looked up at the lantern on the shelf.
“As for the food... well, I’d like to know where can I find some of it too.”
Dave couldn’t stop thinking about, how the other wolf failed to introduce himself. He didn’t want to addmit it, but he just found it rude. After he over came it, he finally said, “My name is Almerun.” than looked at the wolf, “However, you may be...”
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Post by nightblood on Feb 2, 2008 21:40:30 GMT -5
"Oh, pardon," Haruko said with an apologetic bow to the unseen wolf, "I am Kuraiki Haruko, but you may call me by whatever... you find is simpler in your language." Haru tried to say that as nice as possible. It wasn't easy to make that statement sound like it wasn't derogatory about the english language, but he thought he managed to do a good job of it.
Haru walked forward until he found a spot where the table blocked the light from the lantern. He had to squint at first, but eventually he was able to see the wolf for the first time. What an alarming coat! He was taken aback by the backwards coloring, but found it to be quite pleasing to the eye.
The wolf-dog sat down in this spot and looked around the room. Such decay... It was hard to imagine the place ever being livable, much less being only recently abandoned.
"There is smoke... coming from the brick house... over there," Haru said, gesturing to a place on the opposite side of the wall, "There must be someone home."
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 2, 2008 22:34:18 GMT -5
The wolf finally introduced himself. But what he said afterwards plainly just upset Dave. “call me whatever you find is simplier” he said. He couldn’t have find anything that’d disturb him more. Dave was always taught to respect his own and everyone else’s name, because every name has it’s meaning and value, even if some wasn’t ment to have a meaning. He was about to tell this to the wolf, but than he suddenly changed his mind. If it doesn’t matter to this tharim how he’s called, he thought, then I shall respect his opinion. This way he might realize how much his name mean to him.
He watched the wolf as he sat down by the table and looked up at him. Dave knew he was glaring at his coat, which made him even more irritated. The wolf’s style seemed to be a strange mix of humbleness and fear. Both seemed unfamiliar with a majestic animal such as him. Dave listened to him as he mentioned the nearby house and tried to remember what’s been happening before he laid down to sleep.
“Alright then. If you allow me, I shall call you Tharim, from now on.” he said finally in return, “I do not know what or who could be in the house. The smoke has been there when I arrived yesterday. If it’s the same fire, – and I’m pretty sure it’s the same, - it must be dying by now.”
(I did understand what you ment with the name. Dave however seem to have misunderstand it.)
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Post by nightblood on Feb 2, 2008 22:58:09 GMT -5
Haruko tilted his head and gave Almerun a curious look. Tharim? How strange... But he like the word. He smiled at it and continued glancing around the room. He knew most wolves considered drawn-out stares to be threatening. The last thing he wanted to do was get in a fight. He did, however, attempt to keep eye contact while he was speaking.
“I do not know what or who could be in the house. The smoke has been there when I arrived yesterday. If it’s the same fire, – and I’m pretty sure it’s the same, - it must be dying by now.”
"Hai..." Haru breathed as he nodded once, signaling that he understood. "That is too bad. I was hoping to find someone... anyone... I am lonely."
Haru pulled his ears back once more, this time in a respectful way.
"If you don't mind my asking, Almerun-san... You seem to be an experienced wolf of the wild... Why are you so near human residences?"
Haru didn't have much to go on visually. The brightness of the lamp obscured his vision, but he could tell that Almerun was in his prime. His tone was that of a regal, sophisticated manor. There was an interesting history behind his face.
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 3, 2008 1:38:39 GMT -5
The wolf didn’t seem to be bothered by his “new name”. The same if he likes it, the better it is, thought Dave. Tharim had a strange way of speaking, however he managed to make himself understandable. As Dave completly woke up, he started to forget about his dream, and with every word, he started to get more interested in the young wolf.
“Company is overrated.” Dave stated plainly. Looking up he noticed, that the lantern’s light started to fade away. It must have been runing low on oil. “And so are humans.”
For the next question of the wolf, Dave just silently snorted. “I wasn’t looking for the presence of humans, they just seem to have resided on every peaceful part of this wretched area of the land. I do not like them, they just seem to find places far enough from our wars and fightings.” the lantern was barely alite now, and suddenly Dave felt his stomach rumble. “Besides, they make it easier to come by food.”
With these words Dave stood up and walked past the wolf, towards the door.
“I say, we should check out if there is anyone in that house, Perhaps we can find some unattended meat left in there by precious human.” said Dave and looked out the door, “I’m not at all in the mood for hunting.”
(although I doubt you'd go that far in your next turn, but please let Almerun enter the house. If it's not a problem)
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Post by nightblood on Feb 3, 2008 17:47:18 GMT -5
{{Not a problem at all. X) }}
“Company is overrated. And so are humans.”
Haru frowned at this. He had been raised by humans. And although they had strange ways and laws, most, he thought, had good hearts.
“I wasn’t looking for the presence of humans, they just seem to have resided on every peaceful part of this wretched area of the land. I do not like them, they just seem to find places far enough from our wars and fightings.” Haru's ears perked as he heard a stomach rumble. “Besides, they make it easier to come by food.”
The younger wolf nodded and gave a slight grin. Yes, he knew the hardships of hunting. So far, he had only been able to hunt mice and rabbits. Not nearly enough to feed a canine such as himself.
Haru stood up as the wolf started to walk passed him. He had seen humans stand as their elder or a woman would stand up to leave a room. This tradition was plastered into his memory and he planned to honor it for some time.
“I say, we should check out if there is anyone in that house, Perhaps we can find some unattended meat left in there by precious human.” said Almerun and looked out the door, “I’m not at all in the mood for hunting.”
The wolf-dog gave a silent chuckle and smiled at the elder. He had just got done saying that company was overrated, and now here he was including him in such a venture. Haru stood and followed the black and white wolf nonetheless. He was quite hungry as well.
"Let us hope we will be well met... if there is anyone home."
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Post by Jarwis-finiarel on Feb 5, 2008 12:23:01 GMT -5
Dave left the building with slow steps, assuming Tharim would follow him. When he arrived, he was too tired to look around the place, he didn’t even sign his presence anywhere. All he saw were the house, the shack and the surrounding cemetary. But now he had a chance to look around a bit more.
The house and the shack were in the middle of a yard, surrounded by a stone and iron fence. Beyond the fence there were probably more graves and kripts, but the fog covered them up for now.
In the yard there were different, broken ‘human’s equipments’, including showels and a bucket.
It was interesting how the house’s area was separated from the grave yard. It almost looked as if the cemetary was laid around the house. And judging by the house, even that was possible. The cemetary must have been here for decades, maybe even a century, but the building looked way more than a hundered years old.
Back in his land, when he was still the leader of the clan, he visited many villages and towns durring the night, where he met all kinds of dogs, who knew a lot about the human history. They could tell how old a men built house was only by sight. In time Dave managed to somewhat master this ability, based on the dogs’ stories.
Suddenly a horrid smell hit his nose. Dave shook his head and carefully tried to find out where the source of the smell was. To his surprise the smell was coming strainght from the old house. Tharim probably felt the scent by now too. Dave just sighed and mumbled “Of course.” it was too easy for a good meal. He walked up to the house slowly and carefully, trying not to make any more noises.
The door of the house wasn’t locked. It wasn’t even closed, but a little bit open. Dave pushed his nose in just enough to see what’s inside, than he knocked the door open with his head, and walked in.
“Well, true, I was expecting meat, but not this kind at all.” he stated, looking at the corpse of a human, laying near the fireplace of the small house.
(new page XD)
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Post by nightblood on Feb 5, 2008 16:07:58 GMT -5
Haruko hadn't noticed the human at first. His nose detected a single loaf of near-fresh bread in the pantry located in the kitchen. He bounded infront of Almerun, grateful that the huose was dim enough so that he could see infront of his nose. Without pausing, he burst through the wooden door and began to sniff around to find the bread's exact spot. He found it almost instantly and took it up in his jaws. Looking around, he noticed that the white and black wolf had not followed him. Why hadn't he followed the food smell if he was so hungry?
Curious, Haruko stepped out into the open and saw Almerun looking toward the fireplace. He followed his gaze and dropped the loaf of bread when his eyes fell upon the dead human body. Had he not been covered in fur, the wolf would have noticed that his skin had turned a shade paler.
"Ugh..."
He shook his head to recover and took up the bread once again. Ignoring his better judgement, Haru stepped closer to the body, intrigued by the rate of decay. He put the food down and turned to Almerun.
"What do you... suppose happened?"
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