This is based on an RP played out by myself, FoxCrazy and Pippit. This is all I've had the energy to write.
“Humans really are oblivious creatures.”
“Why do you think they’re killing off every living thing?”
“I was making a statement, Ouka.”
“Good for you, bake some cookies to celebrate.”
The two voices, one male and one female, bickered back and forth as they moved through the darkness of the forest. Ouka, the male, was temporarily outlined in light as he p*censored*ed under a break in the forest canopy. He was a red wolf, but not the kind of red humans knew of. His fur color resembled that of a brick; bright red, hardly suited for forest camouflage. If that wasn’t abnormal enough, his pelt also had streaks and circles of dark purple in it.
Ouka faded back into the darkness, closely followed by another wolf. This one had an almost normal color. Her fur was dominated by white with rings of black around three legs and a sock of black on the fourth. All normality ended there. A pair of pure white feathered wings was tucked tight against her body, shifting slightly as she moved. Her name was Medina.
The two strange wolves moved through the trees, remaining silent save for a few whispered comments.
“Where do you think the others are?” Medina asked to break the silence.
Ouka shrugged and replied,
“Far away, I hope. I have no desire to be anywhere around that demon of a pack leader.”
Medina glared at him and said,
“Don’t let him hear you say that, he’ll have you killed.”
“That’s my point, Medina.”
She said nothing after that. They continued to travel through the forest at a comfortable pace until Ouka suddenly stopped. Concerned, Medina asked,
“What is it? What do you sense?”
Ouka stared straight ahead into empty space, his eyes glazed over. After a moment, he said,
“Go fly back to the den.”
Her eyes narrowed and she asked,
“Why? What is it? You’re making me nervous.”
Ouka’s tone turned harsh and he almost growled out the words,
“Nothing that you need to see. Now, go!”
She snorted in anger and turned around, leaping into the air with a powerful flap of her wings. Ouka watched her disappear into the night before turning away and heading forward through some thick underbrush that bordered a small clearing. Waiting for him was an all-male group of wolves. They were circled around something… or someone. Ouka recognized each of the wolves as members of the pack.
They noticed his approach and turned to face him. The largest of them stepped forward, head held high with authority. This was the alpha leader Medina had spoken of before; Brutus. The extremely large male was a dark, muddy brown color with splotches of earthy green mixed in. Battle scars marked much of his body.
Brutus’s mouth stretched wide to form an almost evil smile. He said,
“Ouka. Glad you could join us.”
Ouka did not return the greeting. He only moved forward towards the heap that the other wolves were gathered around. As he drew closer, he recognized a wolf from an opposing pack. Brutus suddenly appeared at Ouka’s shoulder and said,
“You know what to do, Ouka. Get to work.”
He almost turned around and bit the alpha but held himself back. As second-in-command to Brutus, Ouka was obliged to do as he was told else risk losing his place in the pack and being exiled, possibly even executed. He sighed and stepped up to the prisoner. The wolf had been grievously wounded by the hunters and struggled to even stay conscious. Ouka bent down to his ear and whispered,
“I’m sorry.”
Being a wolf of significant skill in mental and psychic manipulation, Ouka was able to enter the minds of just about anyone and take whatever information he needed as well as inflict terrible pain through a mental barrage. He did this now, plucking the location of the victim’s pack’s den from his mind and relaying the information to his own alpha.
Brutus said,
“Good, now finish him.”
Ouka turned around to face him and protested.
“You have what you want, why does he need to die?”
Brutus drew threateningly close to Ouka, his size overwhelming. The larger wolf growled,
“Because I said so.”
Without another word, Brutus turned coldly away and strode out of the clearing. Ouka glared daggers at his back before turning once more to the doomed wolf. As beta wolf, it was his job to carry out the alpha’s orders by giving them to the other pack members. Having no other choice, Ouka muttered,
“Do it.”
The howls of pain that echoed through the black sky sent pangs of pain through Ouka as the prisoner was torn to shreds by the hunters of the pack. Turning away from the scene, Ouka ran as fast as he could, away from the clearing, away from Brutus.
High above in the treetops overlooking the killing grounds, watching the horrific torture and then slaughter of another wolf was Medina. Instead of doing as Ouka had told her, she had followed him in the sky. Now she understood why he had wanted her to leave, in order to protect her from the horrible truth. Why, then, did tears roll down her furry cheeks as she took off once more? She did not know.
The scene at the clearing did shock her, but that was not what had caused her tears. A strange feeling in her gut told her that, for some reason, she would lose every memory of Ouka and never see him again. That feeling sent true terror ringing through her heart. She could not bear to lose Ouka, not when she had recently learned that Brutus planned to claim her, not when she was just ready to confess her feelings.
Her flight was cut short as a blast of mental energy sent her crashing into the trees. Her mind itself seemed to blur over as she was sent into unconsciousness. Medina was not the only one affected by the strange blast. Brutus, all the males from the clearing, everyone back at the pack’s den, even Ouka’s own sister, Maple, and her two pups, all of them collapsed where they stood.
All of them woke up only a few moments later, unchanged save for the absence of the memory of one specific wolf, which just happened to be leaving the pack’s territory at that moment, heading northeast. Ouka knew that it wasn’t right for him to use his powers like that, but it would be much better if everyone forgot he ever existed… even Medina.
With his decision made, Ouka looked to the mountains, where he could begin anew. The journey would be long and the threat of the feared Demon pack hung like an axe over his neck, but Ouka was ready for it all. Maybe he could even find a new pack, who knows?
The Bear’s Teeth mountain range curved like a crescent moon around the forest known to the world’s wolves as primarily the Demon pack’s territory. Few rogue wolves dared venture here save for the very cruel and the very skilled. Those who did either joined the pack, which had become one of the largest in history, or succumbed to their violent rule.
The leader of the pack was rumored to be a wolf of no mercy or comp*censored*ion; he only took mates to produce the strongest offspring, not out of love and killed anyone who protested or refused him. This wolf was so confident in his strength that he even organized raids on the human settlements just at the base of the mountain, a few miles from the wood line. The destruction left in their wake was enough to keep the humans too fearful to even strike back.
Despite all these rumors, Lyanti eagerly traveled to the forest. He had no desire to join the Demon pack, only to be left in peace to practice his craft. What better place to do that than a forest where even humans dared not enter?
Having traveled non-stop for several days, it was high time to do some hunting. Shortly after entering the territory of the Demon pack, Lyanti began searching for a promising scent. He caught one and began following it. The smell was not that of rabbit, nor deer, not even elk. He had searched for and caught the scent of a hunting party.
He followed the wolves like a shadow, blending in with his surroundings despite the streaks of blue in his light brown fur. Any creature who did happen to catch sight of him found that they soon failed to keep it that way. The wolf seemed to disappear completely one moment, and pop up far ahead the next.
The hunting party was not hard to follow; not for Lyanti at least. He caught the scent of the elk herd before they did and he maneuvered to where he was moving parallel to the hunters towards the herd. Seeing the elk up ahead, he skirted around to the side just as the hunting party stopped to prepare for an attack.
The party had a total of five wolves in it. Four of them split up into pairs of two, each skirting around the side of the herd, hiding in the tall ferns. One pair just barely p*censored*ed by Lyanti’s hiding spot, though they did not notice him. The last remaining wolf, obviously the leader, began slinking forward, his belly to the ground.
It was a basic hunting tactic; one wolf attacks from the front while the majority of the attack squad comes in from the sides. Despite its simplicity, the tactic worked well. The hunters managed to bring down the sizeable buck before the herd scattered into the forest. Having earned the first pickings, the wolves eagerly dug into the flesh of the downed elk.
Before they could get too comfortable, Lyanti entered the clearing, not bothering to hide. All five of the wolves growled at his approach, a typical reaction to a stranger. Lyanti bowed his head and tucked his tail, a sign of peace. The wolves relaxed slightly, though they did not let him any nearer to the kill than a few paces. Lyanti greeted them,
“Evening gents. Having a good hunt, are we?”
The leader of the hunting party bared his bloody teeth at him before saying,
“Who are you? I have not seen you around these parts.”
Lyanti displayed a wolf’s equivalent of a smile and replied,
“I am but a hungry traveler searching for the famed Demon pack; I wish to join their ranks. Would you happen to know anything about them?”
The leader finally relaxed completely, believing Lyanti’s lie. He said,
“Aye, I do. All of us here are part of the pack. We can take you to the alpha if you truly want to join.”
Lyanti nodded and said,
“That would be very kind of you, but could I first sate my hunger? I have been traveling for many days without food just to come here.”
The wolf gained an ex
pression of worry as he said,
“Most of this belongs to the alpha. I’ll let you have a bit but Akron will have my head if he finds out so don’t take too much.”
Lyanti smiled again and bowed his head. The wolves of the hunting party shifted to make room for him as Lyanti stepped up to the corpse. In total disregard of the leader’s previous words, Lyanti dug his teeth deep into the dead animal’s haunch and ripped out the entire calf muscle. Before the leader wolf could even shout is orders, the other wolves converged on Lyanti, burying him in a heap of fur… except he wasn’t there anymore.
Lyanti had seemingly popped out of existence. Confused, the wolves searched all around only to find Lyanti standing twenty meters away. The huge calf muscle at his feet, Lyanti gave the wolves a big, toothy grin and said,
“Thank you for the meal my friends, but I think it’s high time I get going!”
The leader growled out the words,
“He’s a flash-stepper! After him!”
Lyanti grabbed the hunk of bloody meat in his teeth again and darted into the forest, the hunting pack hot on his heels. Flash-stepping, as the wolves called it, was a rare ability to teleport straight forward a short distance. Lyanti had this ability and used it with exceptional skill in his craft, which just happened to be thievery.
Every thirty seconds or so, Lyanti flash-stepped another twenty meters forward, quickly increasing the distance between him and the angry wolves. Before long, Lyanti determined that they had lost him and settled down to eat. The successful robbery put him in a good mood and he found himself humming a cheery tune. Despite this, his ears stayed alert, ready to catch any sound that could mean danger.
He ate his meal without any interruption and then set out to find a cozy place to spend the next few nights in while things quieted down with the hunters. He found a good place underneath the upturned roots of a huge fallen oak. The roots created a kind of natural den with a somewhat hidden entrance. Curling up around himself, Lyanti settled down to sleep, something he had not done in a few days.
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"Nobody ever stumbled on luck while sitting down."
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