Whispers in Soft Moonlight

[abhorzion]

"An almighty crash and it's over..." came a soft, feminine whisper from somewhere deep within a thick arrangement of bushes, swiftly followed by a strong peroxide odour that almost brought tears to her own eyes. Dolly shook her enormous maned head, bat like ears slamming carelessly into the side of her wide, masculine face; a face which was contorted into an expression of disgust. She sighed heavily, the usual surly frown sitting heavily upon her brow. She'd had that same darn dream three nights in a row, what did it mean?
"Bah, forget it already." she commanded herself and she soon obeyed, arching her back and pulling herself up into a lazy sit. For a moment, everything was quiet, tranquil, almost peaceful beneath the soft, milky moon which peeped out from behind the misty nonchalant clouds every now and then. Then came the familiar whisperings, rattling insolently inside her head, causing her to frown once more. Once again she presented herself to the world with an ugly face. She wasn't a pretty she-wolf by any means, in fact many had all too often mistaken her for a male. Dolly shuddered at the thought of the word "male" and shook her head lazily. The frown eased, making her appear slightly less abhorrent for a moment though by no means easier on the eye.

"What shall I do today?" she pondered, speaking aloud to herself in a quiet and mysteriously soft, feminine voice. "Bit 'a' huntin'? Bit 'a' runnin'? Swimming!? She bounced clumsily to her feet, long muscular legs supporting her heavy yet toned body well. She growled to herself. "You're talking to yourself again!" she snarled under her foul smelling breath. "So what? It's not as if anyone can hear me, is it!? I've been laying here for days now and caught hide nor hair of anyone else, so butt out!" she snapped in retaliation, banishing her own thoughts in a way never known to others and rarely even known to herself.
After a moments pause, Dolly regained her composure and held her head high; a triumphant, toothy grin spreading across her muzzle. She'd won the battle of wits against her own diseased mind for the third day running and was rather pleased with herself. However, the voices which whispered, sometimes screamed at her within her generous skull were getting harder to ignore with every day that passed.
Subconciously, she knew she was slipping back into her old, almost demonic ways but her conscience still seemed to remain oblivious. A small, soft sigh escaped her dark lips and she hung her head, ears flattening sadly. She needed to find the others, needed to integrate and converse with her fellow pack members but how would she find them? Following her nose could prove difficult at times, owing to her vile chemical body odour that had the capability to even stop Dolly in her tracks , not to mention her complete lack of concentration as of late.

Stamping an enormous, green toed paw on the ground, she flicked her head irritably. This had to stop, she would find them if it killed her. She just had to, there was only one thing Toxic Dolly needed now. A purpose.
She threw her large head back, took a deep breath and let out an almighty roaring howl, long low and firm whilst still strangely elegant and feminine. After catching her breath again, she stood quietly, flicking her tail impatiently and a sly grin spread across her insolent face. "I know you're out there..." she whispered.

[Squeeji]

The howl only brought a grunted sound of irritation from Shade's-Reply, the priest had been working diligently in the bone yards since before the pack had drifted asunder, after all...who would want to look for a wolf in the place of death? He stopped what he was doing, and closed his green eyes trying to regain composure, there was no reason to seem irritated.

The small black and green male tilted his head back and let out a short, quiet howl, it was almost as though he was trying to get missed. But either way, he wasn't going to go to the female, he was still working, working hard, and he couldn't break what he was doing...that would be against ceremony, the spirits would be upset if he did so...and if the spirits got upset...well...it would make his job much much harder.


"Silly bitch...I cannot drop everything just because you're bored." he grumbled shifting a mass of bones into a pile, a great pile, testament to Sallin's martial prowess...it was quite impressive. His deadpan face then cracked a bit at the sight of it, and he began to giggle as he worked, though...the laughter held no mirth in it.

[abhorzion]

For a moment she stood, smile upon face and ears pricked up, impatiently swivelling frequently awaiting a reply to her bizarre singing call. Dolly lowered her head and folded her ears back once more. Just as she was about to give up, a note carried by the mild breeze swam into her enormous ears and they promptly pricked themselves back up, followed by her head, which shot up intently. She analysed the sound for a moment, indeed it was another canine but the voice seemed somewhat indifferent and decidedly quiet, almost as if it didn't want to be heard. It's faintness thwarted her attempt to decide from which gender if came but she didn't care much about the sex of another right now, she just needed a bit of company.
She snorted, shaking herself down and sending shards of the brambles she'd been dozing in flying all around her. She cleared her throat.
"At last." she breathed, picking a piece of twig from her teeth with her large pink tongue. "Someone else to drive me insane. Someone other than you!" she added, raising an eyebrow and grinning to herself, awaiting a smarmy reply. With a satisfied "humph", Toxic Dolly proceeded to stride towards the direction of the earlier response to her howl, large, unruly paws thumping the ground heavily and in a lazy manner.

Her gait was an awkward one, her long thick and muscular forelegs moving in a stalking manner whilst her hind legs and indeed the rest of her body adopted a loping gait. Her head bobbed slowly and heavily with every clumsy step causing her long, spikey mane to bounce in the way of her bad eye every so often. As she loped and stalked along, she slowly began to feel irritable.
"Don't push your luck, cur!" came that smarmy response she'd expected earlier, much to her annoyance. This time though, she shrugged it off, reminding herself of her previous triumph. As she drew nearer to where she suspected the small faint howl had come from, she paused, coming to a sudden stop. She glanced around, trying to take in the surroundings but dawn was not yet imminent, thus there was little light. With a tut, she rolled her eyes and threw her head back once more. She'd have to confirm her position through word of maw.
This time, she barked several times, her usually soft and girly voice sounding much more coarse and gruff. She paused and took a breath, grinning to herself, barking was such fun.
"Hey! Anyone there?" she barked, voice remaining distinctly gruff.

[Squeeji]

Shade's Reply did not return a howl or a bark, even the slightest of whispers were not shared with the purple female, instead, he melted out of the bone yard, a large femur in his maw as his twisted countenance as he seemed to ooze towards Dolly.

The bone within his mouth was obviously of a canine, and chewed upon, like the remains of a pack's kill...it appeared perhaps, that the Priest was a cannibal, or at least going for shock value. The wolf's bright green eyes looked up and down Dolly with a twisted look of disgust upon her mixed breed frame.

With a scoff Shade's Reply spat the bone from his maw with a shake of his head. "What do you want you worthless mutt?" He did not speak with his normal politeness, after all, in Sallin, why would one respect those who were not pure of blood?

"I have no time for some half breed keeping me from my duties." he sniffed, looking about ready to call a guard or sentry to get this brickabrack from his sight.

[abhorzion]

A few moments calm, then a soft shuffling sound from somewhere nearby became apparent as Dolly's short attention span caused her to gaze around, a determined frown set upon that boxy, masculine brow of hers. As the sound grew closer, she whipped her head around to face the direction from where it came and sure enough, a dark canine figure dripped into view, surrounded by a slurred, patchy grey ring. Dolly turned her long face to the side slightly and closed her right eye in order to see the figure better. She assumed a lazy sort of stance, her left hind leg cocked slightly and her tail slowly and sluggishly waving from side to side. She stomped the ground with her front right paw, bright green toes pounding at the dirt. A sly smile crept over her maw as she eyed the male, small and slim and unkempt. In his mouth, a canine bone upon which he appeared to chew and which escaped his grasp when he spoke.
"What do you want you worthless mutt?" he spat, the disgust that was evident on his face reflecting in his tone of voice. Dolly's sly toothy grin widened and she raised an eyebrow in vague amusement.
"I have no time for some half breed keeping me from my duties." he continued, with a sniff as he looked the hideous she-wolf up and down.

Dolly shook her enormous head and almost chuckled, her tail maintaining it's heavy, nonchalant swaying. She was used to being spoken to like this and in fact, was beginning to enjoy it.
"Everyone here as friendly as you?" she smirked, batting a moth away from her head with a large pierced ear. She attempted to study the body language of this wolf but a combination of her own damaged eyesight and the not-so-imminent day break, she failed. With a snort, she sat down on her haunches heavily, tail still dragging itself across the ground, loping from side to side.
"I was feeling bored and... uh... inquisitive." she said with a wink before glaring down on the bone which the male had spat in her general direction previously. She protruded a long, scarred and shaggy leg and pulled the bone towards her with her large awkward paw before scooping it up into her mouth. Yellowed teeth clamped down on the bone and she shifted it to the side of her mouth. It was a relatively old bone and tasted of little other than dust.
"So whatcha doin'?" she muttered, through clenched teeth.

[Squeeji]

"Most would rip your throat out rather than even look at you." His deadpan voice had a simple honesty to it, "No pure bred wolf here will ever call you equal." The priest picked up the bone again, and put it up on top of some more, pushing the pile into a shape that seemed to please him, if only for a moment.

"So I would say most are far less friendly than I am." he sighed, there was just no reasoning with half breeds, it was that taint in their blood that made them far less intelligent than pure wolves. Running his tongue over his fangs the male looked at Dolly with a bored and weary look, almost patronizing...he felt as though he was left to tend to the pups. Again he thought about calling a Guard, but...then again, Sallin was far too incompetent these days...they wouldn't be capable of sending a guard out here to collect this mutt, they could hardly lead a one wolf hunt.

"Curiosity is not a virtue...But if you must know, I am tending to the dead." Shade's-Reply was a tight lipped wolf, like any Priest he was secretive and a jealous guardian of his ways, he scratched behind his ear with a long taloned paw in a lazy gesture and gave a suspicious look at the female.

[abhorzion]

The abhorrent one dropped the bone and shook her head, a slight frown now accompanying the sly smirking grin that was still set across her insolent face. Her eyes wandered to the bone, then crept back up to the small dark wolf, with his bizarre markings and unruly pelt.
"Most would rip your throat out rather than even look at you. No pure bred wolf here will ever call you equal." he said, voice calm and his expression plain. Dolly once again stifled a chuckle. Equality was something that had been
permanently snatched from her grasp the second she'd been pushed out into this disgusting world. Her brother and sister had been normal, their minds free of disease and handsome in appearance, perhaps even cute. Dolly was something else, far larger than her siblings and indeed other pups in the pack, stranger looking and there was indeed something eerie about her. Her mind wandered back to those days, or at least what she could recall of them...

The sly grin fell slowly away from the scarred, purple maw and an expressionless though somehow serious stare replaced it.
She set her green eyes upon the male, who took the bone and placed it atop a pile of others. With a sigh, he cast an odd look to Toxic Dolly.
"So I would say most are far less friendly than I am." he said, his voice maintaining a weary, sighing tone. He licked at his teeth and continued to cast that look over her vile figure. The bushy tattered tail ceased to comb the ground and Dolly rolled her eyes, the flicker of serious that had rolled over her brow disappearing and her usual expression of frustrated insolence returning. The male continued.
"Curiosity is not a virtue...But if you must know, I am tending to the dead." he muttered, though she barely heard him over the rattling, whining noise which played over in her head. The look in his eyes changed from condescending to suspicious as Dolly nodded her head thoughtfully.
"Intrestin'" she hummed. "But as for equality?" she added, a wide smile adorning her mangled face. She chuckled out loud this time, a horrid cackle in contrast to her delicate soft and feminine voice. "Y' are a good 'un." she chuckled. She came to all fours and smiled at the male; a smile which, though for some reason intended to be relatively sweet, appeared contorted and almost mocking. "Fer a He, you're nun too bad. I like ya style." she grinned, flicking her tail. "It ain't equality I'm after though, boy. Mandu knows she has to learn the hard way."
She began wandering to and fro before the male, tail flicking and head tossing loosely from side to side, and a devious expression on her hideous face. "All I need is somethin' to do, someone to look up to. Someone to keep me in line." she paused and turned her head towards the other. "That's why I came here."

Ooc: Sorry it's not great, I'm sucking at RP at the moment!

[Squeeji]

"Of all the places to come to, you come here?" Shade shook his head, seemingly almost disappointed in the female, "you'll do, but I think a pack that welcomes your kind would have been kinder...then again, I suppose even the dogs join Sallin for reason, and who will turn down voluntary servitude." Most of the Priest's musings were said aloud, he wasn't necessarily talking to the female, but she was more than welcome to assume that he was.

He kept toiling as Dolly talked, setting things up gingerly, everyso often sizing things up with his eyes, squinting at his work and then rearranging it.

"I hardly know what you're talking about...style? Good'un?" he hummed and moved a vertabre back into place and frowned. "My dear, you don't so much talk the language as chew on it and spit it up...what in hell's name are you saying?"

[abhorzion]

With every heavy wave of her thick, fluff ridden tail, a whisp of her vile chemical body odour danced through the air towards the small dark and unruly looking male, though he barely seemed to notice, nor care. Soft murmurings rang within her ears and she could only vaguely hear the words of this male as he spoke, though the tone of disapproval and disappointment rang through loud and clear. The gormless, sly grin which rested upon her long face remained as she observed him carrying out his slightly morbid duties, still feeling vaguely inquisitive.
He paused and eyeballed her, a frown spread across his brow.
"My dear, you don't so much talk the language as chew on it and spit it up...what in hell's name are you saying?" he said, glancing at her before once again admiring his work.

The Toxic grin widened and became yet more devious, yellowed teeth flashing at the other and she looked directly at him, both green eyes wide open though not all-seeing. She was satisfied, she'd apparently confused the male and this was something that amused her greatly. Her speech was indeed a bastardisation of the English language, spoken in a broad and drawling American accent, it was not surprising that the smaller of the two couldn't quite grasp what she was trying to say. Her tail wagged faster and more heavily and she chuckled, the same witch-like cackle as before. She cleared her throat and bowed her head, shaking it softly from side to side, her spikey and unruly mane falling about her damaged eye.
"I mean to say that fer a male, yer alright. Ya make me laugh." she muttered, an amused tone to her soft, sweet voice. She looked up towards the male, her neck bent down but her head tilted up so that she was at eye level with him.
"Seriously, though. I'm not exactly lookin' to be an "equal" and as for comin' here, I figured there'd be less domestic scum in my way. I admit I'm a half blood abhorrence but I'm no f**kin' pet." she added, pausing and cocking her head to the side again, once more closing her broken eye to get a better look at the dark one. She drew a small, sighing breath before continuing.
"Anything's better than having ta listen to myself telling me whatta do. Dolly needs puttin' in line." she concluded, folding her hind legs beneath her and coming to an awkward sit.

[Squeeji]

Listening to the female this time with a bit more focus, Shade nodded, yes, he was particularly placcid for a Sallin wolf, he didn't fight, he didn't look down his nose at most hybrids which as much scrutiny as some...after all, all canines looked the same on the inside, a mess of muscles, organs, and bones...

"Ah, I see...I suppose I didn't take note of our genders before you came here, funny to see that you did." everything looked the same on the inside...he kept thinking that to himself, his green eyes flicking about in their sockets as he thought. "I rather enjoy talking to myself, I'm the only company which I can stand." he did twitter to himself often, thinking aloud, and when his visions came to him, most in Sallin were pleased that he did.

"But to each their own I suppose." Shade's-Reply ran his tongue over his teeth, seemingly finally pleased at his work, but only for a moment before the creature grew very dark tempered, and threw a paw at the pile, scattering the bones across the earth every which way...finally he stayed still, nodding his head in approval. "Hmmmm."

The Priest paused and then turned his attention back on Dolly, a bit confused as though he didn't recall leaving her there. "Now what was that?"

[abhorzion]

The small male seemed to to be listening to Dolly, something the purple mess of a canine wasn't quite used to, yet it somehow seemed to please her. When he replied, his voice seeming to carry a more neutral, indifferent tone than previously and he continued his duties as he spoke. Large, pierced purple ears pointed intently towards him as she heard his words in return, suddenly acquiring patience and some form of attention span. She watched him carting bones from place to place, organising them constantly and she began to wonder what he was actually doing. Her eyes followed his movements with interest, heavy tail once again starting to slowly drag itself to and fro across the earth, flicking against her heavily set haunches. Suddenly, the male paused and cast a dark look at the pile of bones that sat rather proudly before him before smacking a paw into them, dispersing them untidily. Dolly felt a mixture of amusement and confusion and she cocked her head curiously.
"Huh...?" she sighed, more to herself than to the other.

The small male nodded to himself in satisfaction and after a brief pause, turned back towards Toxic Dolly, a distinctly confused expression spreading across his face.
"Now what was that?" he said, blazing green eyes set upon her.
A grin spread across the female's face. Finally, someone as crazy as herself. Ears still pricked up and tail still lumbering from side to side, Dolly hummed in approval.
"I was gonna say somethin' but I forgot... What're you actually doin', boy?" she asked, curious amusement dripping through her misplaced soft voice. "Why're you throwing these bones about anyway?"

Ooc: Once again, Abhorzion apologises for the poor quality/terrible lateness/shortness of this post! *hands cookie to you*

[Squeeji]

"My rank duties." Shade's-Reply shook his head, and grumbled, looking at how the bones fell with a momentary delighted grin, his green eyes squinting in some perverse joy before quickly fading. The priest had certainly seen something that he liked. "In death, the future can be gleaned." there was an evil twinkle in his eyes, yet his face stayed stony and cool.

"I am a Priest of Sallin, it's my job to mind the dead...and to assure there aren't more of them...at least not more of us here." he gestured a terribly overgrown clawed paw at the forms of countless dead, some dogs, some wolves, and all in various stages of decay.

The smell crawled everywhere, and it clung to the male like a shroud, a greasy and vile...it was no wonder why he couldn't smell Dolly.