|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 19, 2007 2:57:51 GMT -5
Nicholas bounded through sleet, thickened paw pads not feeling the cold, leaving the strange wolfess who had let only he and his oldest brother through the boundary to her pack's lands. His mad twin and the stag that had been their adopted parent had been turned away, but Nick was too excited to dwell on that.
He had been accepted into a wolf pack! It was the most exciting day of his whole life! There was no time to consider that he would never see his beloved twin or mentor again.
The yearling, his body lean and ungainly with adolescence, thin after long hunger, was practically over the moon. He had literal miles of space to explore and sniff, and the safety of an entire pack to fall back on in times of need.
The spectacles on his nose slipped, and he paused a moment to push them back up his nose, which he put to the ground eagerly to scent all the new smells in this part of the woods. Somewhere out there, his older brother would be flitting through the shadows, keeping an eye on him, but as Nicholas could neither see nor hear Synclair, he was feeling an almost overwhelming sense of independence and confidence. He didn't know where to go or what to see next!
Maybe, he'd even meet another wolf! Although, in retrospect, he didn't know how they would communicate because he didn't know wolf, and severely doubted the idea that any of them would speak deer, squirrel or rabbit out of convenience.
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 22, 2007 16:59:08 GMT -5
Levy wouldn't know the feeling of joy for being in a wolf pack, he had been born into one, and lived among wolves his entire life, sure, there had been a thin patch here and there where his old pack had slowly faded away, but he had been part of...hmmm, funny he had been starting to forget about his old home. It was of no concern to the young wolf however, as he did like Arnlan quite a bit, a lot of fat rabbits to keep him occupied.
Fortunately though, the almost pup-short male seemed to loose weight whilst hunting said rabbits, making him seem slightly less squat and fat himself. But Levy still had one hanging from his maw, a fresh kill, he was going to leave it in the storage for anyone to eat it. Sure, he wasn't a hunter, but he hated just laying around, and he certainly didn't know what better to do.
The charcoal youngster smiled, blundering along towards the heart of the packlands obliviously, until he smelled another wolf, a wolf? Or a deer? Levy paused, and sniffed again, dropping his rabbit temporarily. His nose quivered, it smelled more like wolf, than a deer...but it smelled like Arnlan too, but there were very few deer in Arnlan.
Levy made a slight woofling noise, he liked to think, he really did, and mysteries were fun, which was half of the kick he got out of his new pack. Wolfdeer smell was far to enticing a mystery to not check out. The young male wagged his tail and grabbed his rabbit, following the scent of the odd creature he caught wind of, if he was lucky, maybe it would be someone he could play with or talk to...he hadn't seen his friend Ziko in awhile...
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 22, 2007 21:36:55 GMT -5
Nicky walked along eagerly, his nose practically pushing a wave of sleet before it, it was so close to the ground in his excitement. So many smells, most of them older than a few hours and maybe a day, but occasionally he came across one that might have only been made minutes ago.
There was rabbit smell, bird smell, squirrel smell, wolf smell.
Oh, this was all too much! He had to stop and sit down to breathe and gather his scattered wits. Just because he was here, he scolded himself, didn't mean he should go completely off his head! Wearily, he looked about in the woods around him, but saw no sign of Synclair. That didn't mean a thing though, he could be anywhere.
Suddenly, he heard to sound of paws in the squelchy half-snow half-mud, and he didn't know whether to panic or call a joyous greeting to whatever other wolf was there.
Then again, Nicholas surmised, pushing his spectacles back up his nose, it might just be Synny testing me.
"Syn," he bleated in the language of the fawn, "Synny, is that you I hear?"
There was no answer. It must have been another wolf, not Synclair! Oooh, he was going to meet someone! He wagged his tail in delight.
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 22, 2007 21:49:47 GMT -5
The bleeting noise made Levy cock his head as he walked out of shadows, Wolfdeer...it was a Wolfdeer? The smaller wolf seemed to look over Nicholas curiously, the wolfdeer was much larger than Levy. But seemed friendly, and happy.
"Ullo." He talked through his nose, but was still plainly wolf-like. His ears moved curiously waiting for the Wolfdeer to speak again. "I'm Levy...are you new here?"
Honestly he hadn't run into many wolves himself here, but that was because everyone here was terribly mysterious and secretive. The short chubby male smiled at the spectacled yearling wagging his tail. "What's your name?" Though Levy doubted a wolf that talked deer could respond to him...
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 22, 2007 22:28:29 GMT -5
Nicholas nearly jumped out of his skin when he saw a squat wolf-male, even though he'd been expecting it. He got up and ran in a tight circle, snapping at his tail, to compose himself, and then sat straight back down again right when the wolf started to speak. In wolf.
"Ullo. I'm Levy...are you new here? What's your name?"
What should he say? What should he say? Nicky knew enough wolf-talk to know that the other wolf had greeted him, introduced himself and asked his name. There was a sentence in the middle Nicky didn't understand, and he hoped it wasn't anything important.
"Er..." he started uncertainly in his limited wolf, trying not to sound absolutely stupid, even though he knew he would, "hello... Levy? I... I... Nick. Er... Nicholas."
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 22, 2007 22:41:24 GMT -5
Levy was interested, and took another tentative step closer to Nicholas, taking just a moment to blow his bangs out of his face. "You speak...deer?" he didn't know much deer, they weren't common in Arnlan, or his old packlands. "You smell like deer." He smiled, taking things slow as to not overwhelm Nicky, after all, Levy knew what it was like to feel inadequate...he was short, Nicholas just had a slight language barrier.
"Its okay. " He nodded his head in encouragement. And pointed a paw at the earth. "are you new here?" He gestured the paw downwards, signifying the packlands. "Haven't seen you before" Then he pointed at Nicholas, but the whole while Levy felt a little awkward.
He didn't know how much wolf the young wolf knew, and didn't want to risk insulting Nicholas.
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 23, 2007 2:00:29 GMT -5
"You speak...deer?"
Nicholas wagged his tail! Levy seemed to have understood. Yes! He got up and raced in another excited circle. Yes, he spoke deer! He nodded enthusiastically. Levy said something else, that had the word deer in it, and he cocked his head curiously, but the words didn't sound familiar.
But still! At least this wolf seemed to understand!
"Its okay. Are you new here? Haven't seen you before."
Nicky didn't know what that meant, but it sounded kind and he knew he'd been asked something, and the gestures made a good deal more sense. Paw towards the ground must mean here, as in, in Arnlan. Analytically, he went over what he'd heard and picked out the one word that seemed to be the key to the question that had been asked.
"New?" he repeated slowly, hesitantly, with a vague idea what it meant, "I... think... yes. I new..."
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 23, 2007 9:58:42 GMT -5
"That's okay." He smiled at Nicholas, this was something new, something interesting, and for once, something that he didn't need to be scared of, or concerned about. Who needed to be afraid of a Wolfdeer? "You hungry?" He nudged the rabbit in the younger wolf's direction then pointed at his own mouth making an eating gesture. Wondering idlely if maybe he'd be offended, because he ate grass like a deer.
"I don't see a lot of wolves here, they're very hidden." He gestured at his eyes, Nicholas, and then covered his eyes like he was hiding, hoping to get the point better across. This was hard having limited wrist movement.
"How did you learn...to speak like that" He tried his hand at deer again, sure he spoke it like a pup howling for the first time, he got the idea of what to say, but most of the pronunciation was wrong and some of the sentence structure was jumbled.
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 23, 2007 14:41:16 GMT -5
Nicholas watched in avid curiousity as the squat little wolf pushed a dead rabbit towards him, and said something that he took to be along the lines of, 'hungry?' He nodded vigorously, but held himself in check when the wolf started speaking and gesturing again.
He covered his own eyes with a paw in replication of a gesture, don't see. Don't see wolves? Nick figured, and he immediately thought of Synclair, who was probably out there, watching him. No, he thought licking his teeth in a thoughtful manner, I don't see wolves here. I smell them though.
And then, to his utmost surprise, Levy tried to speak deer. He was all messed up about it and sounded more like a wounded pig, but he was speaking deer!
"You speak like deer! I live big deer. Stag. Long time. Learn deer. No wolf. No wolves, no learn wolf. Deer." Nicholas yipped in his muddled wolf, too excited to worry about sounding stupid.
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 23, 2007 16:02:14 GMT -5
"Only because we used to hunt them, eat them" Levy said in wolf, but Nicholas's quick banter had quickly made the smaller wolf confused, he only had a slightly working vocabulary. 'Don't gore me' 'I eat you' 'herd on move' that sort of thing, it wasn't like he could philosophize with a deer.
"There used to be deer in the pack I was in...there are very few here...but I used to live in woods where there were lot of deer. " And being frank, Levy never hunted the larger animals, they would wander past him while he rested in his puphood, even prey didn't fear Levy, which stung a little.
"But you can't talk like a wolf can, can you?" Thinking, the short male scratched his head with a humming sound. "I suppose I could...help...I mean...its not like I'm doing too much...I could teach you how to speak like a wolf..." Levy licked his own nose in a nervous gesture and nodded.
"I think I could do that..." It wasn't as though Levy hadn't spoken wolf his whole life, it couldn't be that hard could it? Atleast he had a weak grasp of Nicholas's native tongue, even if was only small catch phrases.
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 25, 2007 16:56:13 GMT -5
Nicholas got the impression that Levy hadn't quite understood what he'd meant to say, and he listened with distinct curiousity to what the other wolf said. He needed to learn, to memorize, to pronounce wolf correctly, and as far as he knew, watching and listening were the best ways to learn.
"I suppose I could...help...I mean...its not like I'm doing too much...I could teach you how to speak like a wolf..."
Nicky pricked his ears at the last four words, and he suddenly got the gist of what Levy was saying to him. "You teach me speak like wolf?" He asked enthusiastically, thumping his tail on the ground. "Speak like wolf? I like, yes! And I learn deer by stag. Live with stag. Learn deer. You learn from... woods before Arnlan?"
|
|
|
|
Post by Squeeji on Aug 25, 2007 21:30:45 GMT -5
Levy nodded "That's where I learned it." He looked at Nicholas and sniffed, "the old woods." He spoke wolf quietly, now his anxiety showing through, wondering when and if the alphas were watching already. He didn't like to talk about the fading memory of his old home, he loved Arnlan, and didn't want to seem treacherous.
"I can can try." The short male licked his nose and dug his paws into the earth nervously. But his stress melted as he shook his head of it, "So, you were raised by a deer? How the heck did that work?" He gave the younger male a smile, though he still seemed tense.
"I mean, you don't know -any- wolf?"
|
|
|
|
Post by synclair on Aug 25, 2007 23:50:44 GMT -5
"I live wood before," Nicholas said quietly, "morning I live in wood. Now I live in Arnlan." He gave a nod of finality at this, "live Arnlan now, even though I speak bad wolf. Never go back to wood. Bad wolves go there, hurt me." He shuddered violently, as if to get rid of the memory.
"So, you were raised by a deer? How the heck did that work? I mean, you don't know -any- wolf?"
Nicholas perked up, shook away to gloom of his old home, and launched into the closest explanation he could of his life story he could with his limited wolf. This seemed to be an interesting subject to Levy, and he would love to say that he was raised by the White Stag That Was Shot.
"I have twin," he said at once, "brother. Michael. Mick. Mikey. He mad though, not come here. He got madness. Also, have older brother. Synclair. He here, maybe watching even now. He know more wolf than me. He teach to me little bit."
He paused, wondering how exactly to explain that his mother had died and what had happened, and pushed his spectacles back up his nose.
"Mother die... Horse I think step on her. Mick and I, small. Synclair find White Stag That Was Shot. He call Atrys. Atrys look after Mick and I while Synclair... get food, keep safe. Even then, Mick had madness."
|
|
