Wolf RPG

Often, her sweeps of the border led her into neighboring territories. The springtime rains had supplied the Floodlands with an ample amount of water. The afternoon had come and gone and left a pastel @Evening in its wake, the sun low and gravid as it cupped the horizon line. Sunlight limned the placid water's edge. Dragonflies occupied the heavy, humid air like stars and the birds began to settle.

She cupped the edge of the pool and bent to clean the cut on her lip in the freshwaters. It was healing well and likely wouldn't scar, but she still didn't want to risk an infection of any kind.

Evening had the headache of a fucking lifetime. Why — no, how had she gotten stuck out here in this place with no trees, no shade, no hidey-holes, anywhere? Oh, sure, the sun was going down, but there was a tiny lip of it left jutting out above the horizon and there was water flooding the ground, and the sunlight bouncing on the water was bright enough to make her eyes feel like they were on fire. It was so bad that she could feel them watering, and she was sure she was about to start producing loads of tears from the strain on her eyes. Not to mention the fact that the brightness level pretty much reduced her vision to zero, and she was severely nearsighted as it was, so it wasn’t like she could see anything anyways.

She was struggling so much just to see where she was going, looking up every now and then to scan the horizon for trees (they were there, far to her right, but she couldn’t see them), that she did not notice the other wolf she was drawing nearer to. And even if she had, she would not have cared. She probably would have shouted something like, ‘Ow! Shade! Where?’ As it was, she was splashing loudly across the water that flooded this area and seemed to stalk right towards the other female, like a tiny, albino oncoming moose protecting its baby, head down and all.

She was able to hear the other girl's approach from what felt like miles away, how she was sploshing through the water with zero regard for anyone but herself. She was lucky that Ceara hadn't been hunting, because she would have likely scared off every fish in an infinity-mile radius.

She swiped a paw over her muzzle and shook her pelt, taking a few steps back towards the shore. Hey, uh, watch where you're going. The ermine-white female was headed straight towards her, and Ceara had just about had her fill with being toppled over.

Evening heard the woman before she saw her, her head jerking up suddenly to see who had spoken to close to her. She halted suddenly squinted at the other wolf, whose coat was ablaze with orange sunset light, and quickly squeezed her eyes shut. “Augh!” she shouted, in annoyance and pain. “Sorry, but it’s kinda hard to watch where I’m going when I can’t see!” She was too flustered now to care about being rude, or being attacked by the other female. She flopped down unceremoniously, not caring that her undersides were now soaked. “Do me a favor and tell me when the sun is all the way down.” She kept her eyes firmly closed and laid them on her paws in front of her, looking for all the world like she was asleep. “This is why I don’t go out during the day!” she griped.

Evening was lucky enough that very soon the sun would slip below the horizon because Ceara was kind of too busy being dumbfounded to notice. Um, what? Are you dayblind or somethin'? She had only seen one day-blind wolf, and that she-witch had been creepy enough with her sunken moon eyes. Um, okay, though. I will.

She waited until the sun had set in relative awkward silence, and then unceremoneously announced 'Kay, it's night now. So, what's up with you?

Have a novel.

Evening kept her face buried under her paws, not caring how she looked or how potentially vulnerable she was. Even this little bit of sun she was getting was making her skin itch and tingle, although that could just as well have been her imagination. Sometimes, the sun scared her, like it was some mythical living orb that haunted her on purpose, dangling up there in the sky like a demon, trying to ruin her day. The second it fell below the horizon, this irrational fear would dwindle and die out as she explored the nighttime world. But by dawn, the fear would come back, tightening her stomach and she would rush for the shelter of the trees, or a hidey-hole in the ground. There was some merit to this fear, however, as she had experienced a full sunburn before, once or twice, in her puphood. The pain had left her immobile for days.

“Actually,” she said, her voice muffled from keeping her face hidden, “I am dayblind, yes.”

Soon enough, though it still seemed to take an eternity, the other wolf told her that the sun was gone. She lifted her head, shook herself, and fully took in the female for the first time. Her lower body was wet from lying down in the floodwaters but she didn’t care. The flame-colored wolf had asked her what was up with her, and she tried to think of a concise answer. “I have a condition, as you can probably see,” she said, motioning with her head for the other to look at her body, pink skin showing through in places, as well as her strange pink eyes and nose. “I am extremely sensitive to sunlight. I sunburn easily. I cannot see well during the day, and even after sundown, I can’t see things that are far away. Everything past a certain point becomes blurry. So, I usually only come out at dusk, and by dawn I am holed up in a forest somewhere where the light can’t touch me.”

Evening did not normally talk this much in one go, so after her speech, which had been brought on by a need to defend her strange actions, she fell silent, looking away from the female and wondering where this interaction was going to go now that the wolf knew of her strange affliction.

Well, that explained a lot. Oh, she said bluntly, kind of surprised. I didn't mean to, um. And then she shut up until the sun had set.

Ceara had truly never met a wolf (or any creature for that matter) with albinism before, and she frowned as the soft stranger explained her disability. Maybe if she was a bit older or if she had been in the Plateau longer she'd be a little more sensitive towards wolves with disabilities, but for the most part she was just rudely curious. She also pitied the stranger more than a little bit, but she was sure that the woman wouldn't want to deal with that.

Sorry. Are you okay now, though? If you're affected by light, do you need to get somewhere? There is a large forest to the southeast, and I could accompany you there. It isn't too far, and we should arrive by dawn.

SORRY.

Evening was used to people being awkward around her, so this girl’s awkwardness was nothing new. She ignored the spluttering and just focused on her other words. “I’m fine now,” she said, nodding. “When the sun goes below the horizon line, I’m okay. Usually it wouldn’t affect me this badly, but the water was making everything too shiny and making it super hard to see. Thanks.” She turned her head in the direction — she hoped — of where the girl said there was a forest, apparently, squinting and trying to make out anything over there. Nope. She sighed. Damn her near-sightedness! She was being offered an escort there, too. Hmm…

“I would…” She hesitated. Normally, she avoided overstaying her welcome, or being near others in general, for she’d had some bad experiences in the past with others taking advantage of her relative weakness and inability to see. But… But it had been a while since she’d had the company of another, and in the end, her loneliness got the best of her. “I would like that.” Her words came out softly, a bit hopefully, even. “If — if it’s no trouble.”

Yeah, it's not a problem at all. She dipped her head at the shy stranger, and they began to walk side by side towards the woods.

There was not much conversation, and they did in fact arrive by morning. Ceara parted from Evening with a quick mention that she had to get home and tend to, well, whatever kind of Redhawk drama that was going on at the time.

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