Wolf RPG

Wildfire still felt achy in every sense of the word, yet as she tipped her face upward, into the sunlight and the breeze, she knew a moment's peace. She drew in a deep breath, held it in her lungs for a few seconds, then exhaled and flopped down on the overhang closest to the hideaway she shared with Floki. He was off hunting or patrolling (she couldn't remember which; she'd been half-asleep when he'd left) but Wildfire found she didn't mind the solitude. It gave her time to mentally rebuild without worrying about physical proximity, for one, and that was one of the things she hoped she could repair given time.

As she more or less lay there and basked, Wildfire practiced her ability to keep her mind blank. In private, quiet moments like this, she could get caught up in bleak, angry or miserable thoughts all too easily. She focused on breathing in and out, and when that didn't prove distracting enough, she made a point to listen for all the noises around her. Given the time of year, there was plenty to pluck out of the cacophony, from the wind soughing through the crags above her to the distant caterwaul of a territorial (and likely randy) cougar to the various birds tweeting from every which way.

The pallid curvy huntress had been on a stroll, alone with her thoughts, and her past. She held a beetle in her mouth, planning on giving the shiny wings to Charon. She came across a dusky wolf who she had first thought to be a dhole, but realized was just a tiny, black-tailed wolf. What had really tipped her that she was no dhole was her stomach. She had only 6 teats, not 16(She was trained in animal biology...). The she-wolf looked like she needed a good-luck beetle more than Charon ever would though. "Looks like I'm not the only one who needs their thought time. Sorry for barging in on yours. Name's Aloe, I'm the new recruit." She gave a smile to the basking female and dropped the metallic purple beetle at the woman's feet.

The pallid girl laid down a few meters away, curling her paws beneath her body in a posture much like that of a dozing cat.

When footfalls announced an incoming wolf, Wildfire's thoughts scattered into the cacophonous breeze. She shifted her weight to one side, expecting to receive Floki as he returned home. Instead, it was a stranger. The Gamma's muscles stiffened as the unfamiliar she-wolf sauntered over to her, deposited something on the ground, then sat back and introduced herself. Her manner was very open and casual, though it didn't coax the tension from Wildfire's muscles, at least not yet.

Her amber eyes watched as the stranger—Aloe, she introduced herself—made herself comfortable. Wildfire looked around a little in bewilderment at her familiarity on what was essentially their (Floki and Wildfire's) doorstep. Then she caught herself. Before, she never would have minded the friendly intrusion at all. She wanted to get back to that head space, even if it would take conscientious effort and a little discomfiture along the way.

"It's nice to meet you, Aloe. I'm Wildfire," she said, smoothing the stiffness from her voice with each word. "It's okay." She paused, eyes crinkling ever so slightly. "What's on your mind?" she asked the obvious question.

She nodded to the red female, Wildfire...How pretty. "Lost love." She replied softly. Her mind traveled back to Linger, her voice still in Aloe's head: "They can't hurt us for who we love, Aloe dear." She gulped, the memory was terribly painful. She squeezed her eyes shut, but it just made the vision sharper. Her eyes flicked open, and her breath grew a bit faster. She cleared her head,"Sorry...I-um.Flashback, heh," She replied softly. Clearing her throat, she asked Wildfire a question in turn. "Um, whats on yours? Unless you don't want to...Um Share." Turning the converation away from her forbidden-lover, she moved on.

It always surprised her when a stranger, even a pack mate, was so incredibly forthcoming. Wildfire stilled when Aloe mentioned a lost love, then a flashback. It was a little awkward, if she was honest, though she reminded herself that focusing on someone else's problems served as a pretty good distraction from her own.

She definitely didn't want to spill her ugly secrets to a perfect stranger, so she seized on this opportunity to help Aloe, if she could. "Do you want to talk about it? I'm willing to listen," the Gamma said kindly. "As for me, I'd rather not talk about it," she added, shaking her head lightly and shooting the other wolf an apologetic glance.

"I-um. Well, I have never really had an interest in love, I've always been more of a best-friend kind of girl. I guess, I just feel to deeply in love with someone I couldn't be mates with. They were...Um- her name was Linger. My pack did not approve of my sexuality, so they..." She stared at the ground distantly. "They-um- they raped her, as they thought it would 'cure' her....They killed her when she wouldn't stop fighting. I didn't watch the rest...I knew I was next." She spoke softly, her eyes finding her paws. "So I-uh I pretended to be straight. My sister got in a fight with the alpha afterwards, so I left with her." She shivered a bit, it was chilling. Her fur pricked up as she thought of the terrible pack members who had raped her love. How evil.

She got so, so much more than she bargained for when Aloe unloaded her story. The woman's preferences mattered very little to Wildfire. Her parents had exposed her to the spectrum early on, after all. But then Aloe mentioned gang rape and it felt like someone had taken a blunt knife and scooped out Wildfire's insides. Her whole body stiffened and she experienced the all too familiar fight-or-flight instincts waging war inside her.

Drawing in shallow breaths in the hopes of steadying herself and not having some sort of breakdown, Wildfire squeaked out a breathy, "Holy crap." It was not the most eloquent response, nor very in character for her, but what else was there to say to something like that? She collected herself enough to add a few more words: "Aloe, that's horrible. I'm... so sorry."

Aloe looked over at Wildfire quizzically, as she seemed upset. She placed her paw over the females in a friendly way. "It's okay, that's in the past now. The real question is, are you okay?" She was a very perceptive woman, and believed she might have known the cause of the younger girl's reaction. had she been...hurt? A pool of worry and realization seeped into Aloe's eyes, and she looked at wildfire. Her concern grew like cypress vines, quickly and complexly. She feared that her suspicions were true, and prayed to the stars that it was not real. Please be not real!

When Aloe touched her, Wildfire stiffened and slid her paw away with an apologetic grimace. She didn't like being touched, particularly by strangers, even in such a harmless way. She also didn't particularly like the pitying look Aloe leveled on her. She wasn't okay, yet she wasn't about to unload her issues on a veritable stranger, even if Aloe seemed nice enough.

"I'll be fine," she said quietly. "Your story was just shocking," she explained, which was true enough regardless of Wildfire's personal experiences. "I really am sorry to hear what happened to you and Linger."

Although she felt sort of guilty, the Gamma couldn't bear to linger on the subject much longer. She eased Aloe into some idle small talk, which felt particularly awkward and forced after the heaviness of their earlier conversation.

Luckily, she was soon thereafter saved when Floki reappeared. Wildfire made a quick introduction, then excused herself. Although it was still difficult to be too close to him, it was the lesser evil at this moment in time.