Valtyr was on the hunt again, ranging far from Broken Antler Fen in search of the lost herds. With each day of travel he grew more disheartened. There were no fresh tracks or scat to follow -- meaning his family would not eat. With a huff, he circled back towards Hideaway Strath and the mountain passage he had crossed through. It was a lush area, and the young man couldn't help but wonder if Sebastian would consider moving the pack elsewhere. He and Pearl seemed cemented in their beloved home, however. The Sveijarn couldn't blame them, but he hoped their fortune would turn around soon... already his figure was lean; his features sharpened by the fast.
He passed a lake with a great dam.
Beavers? He wondered. Taking a moment to quench his thirst, the firefoot looked out to the lake and frowned at the placid surface.
The ache of loneliness was almost as painful as the absolute hunger that consumed her. Gaia was thin – her once poised form was drastically thinning, and the energy she had been able to maintain before was all but gone. Her gleaming pelt of pale honeys, silver and ivory had lost their gleam, and even more, her pale mint eyes remained dull.
Any food she managed to scrounge up was primarily given to Saena or the puppies – and even that was bleak.
Aside from that, the girl kept to herself. Her hopes of fitting in with the Creek wolves had all but fallen, given her lack of energy, and Gaia remained so disheartened that it was hard to care. She thought the world of Saena – knew only Chosovi and Shreya, otherwise. Yet the girl was literally whithering away to nothing, and there was no one to truly care.
The princess had left her pack to make her mark on the world, and she was certain all that would be elft of her were bones once Teekon Wilds was done with her, and now, as she had scouted past the borders of her home, it was unlikely she would even die within the safety of Silver Creek.
Saena would have fed her to her young, though.. of that she held no doubt.
The thought alone drew Gaia to a crawl, and unable to move any further, the girl curled up in to herself, a shudder pressing to her form as she released a sob. Nothing was noticed spare for her misery – and there, in the strange lands, Gaia’s one sob turned to a full fledge wail, and her entire body shook now with the weight of realization that she would die.
MY HEART ;___;
Small glints of sunlight danced upon the gently lapping waters. Juxtaposed against the ravaged greenery, the lake was a beautiful sight... but it was not enough to lift the Fen wolf's tired spirits. He watched the water for many hours, but no activity interrupted its tempo. Had the beavers moved on too? Valtyr thought, his brow knitted with concern, as he finally collected enough energy to continue his search -- though he knew it would be bleak and probably fruitless.
He would not have lingered a moment longer if a sob hadn't caught his attention. A wolf crying, he could tell. Valtyr's heart sank, knowing too well the probable reason why the creature wept. He did not hesitate to look for her, stumbling across the narrow waif moments later to find her curled in a tight, trembling ball.
The firefoot glimpsed from his position a couple good yards away, but even from this distance he could decipher the stranger's condition. He felt empathy. Was she like him? A young hunter sent out to provide for the pack in these barren times? Her quaking sobs shook his resolve, and Valtyr realized this woman reflected his inner self, though he had denied the dark feelings of a dismal future a hold up until that moment.
He approached her solemnly, but allowed a small chuff to alert her as he encroached. Valtyr knew his theory for her state was only a hypothesis at best, and though he felt great need to reach out to console his sister in arms, he dared not push the boundaries of a lone wolf in such dire circumstance.
Her slender body shook with the uncontrolled wave of her emotion. Her sobs lifted higher in octave, one after the other, and soon her cries had become undistinguishable even to herself. She curled tighter in to herself, hoping to hide from the world the cries that wracked her entire body, and the gape of her jaws as she announced to the world of her desperation.
She did not hear the approach of the other, only when the gentle chuff echoed around her, despite the absolute exaggeration of noises that escaped her. She instantly stilled then – freezing in that tight ball and her heart hammered in her chest. She could scarcely pull her face up to look at him – and she wondered in that very moment if not only would her pack have eaten her.. but this stranger who she did not know would try as well – and Saena’s children would not even reap the benefits of such cannibalistic and dark acts. “N-n-no,” she stammered out, determination now setting upon her features as her body finally sprung to action of sorts – a clumsy stumble before she pushed herself up to her paws, her muzzle swinging low in protection.
The young man could not anticipate the woman's frightened reaction. He was a kind creature, unaware a darker breed of wolf existed that would cannibalize its own kind when times were lean. Though he had been a lone wolf for much of his young life, Valtyr couldn't say he had experienced anything too traumatic. Broken Antler Fen, though struggling through the famine, was a kind and civil pack nestled in the wetlands and sheltered by mountains to the west. Thus, he was confused when her sadness changed into terror.
When the waif's skeletal frame shook in a defensive posture, the Sveijarn to ceased his approach. "Wha-?" he blurted as his ears turned away thoughtfully, the cogs in his brain processing the situation. Then suddenly it dawned on him. 'She see me as a threat?' he wondered, taken aback by this sudden realization. 'She thinks I'm going to...' Valtyr's mind turned to darker worlds, and he couldn't help but feel both sympathetic and sad that his first impression had stirred such a response. He didn't know or understand her plight, "I'm not... I'm not going to do anything," he said, uncertain she would believe his words. Without missing a beat, the firefoot lowered himself to the ground and rolled onto his back, exposing his belly. He was only just a theta, after all; such display were the norm.
His words were gentle – but nothing grabbed her attention the way the man, without missing a beat, lowered himself and exposed his stomach to her – a gesture of friendliness and reassurance. Stunned that the stranger had been so compliant to her, Gaia looked to him with a set of new eyes – the trembling of her lissome form stopped in that moment, and her ears would perk forward as she took him in.
Admonished, uncertain, and her cheeks burning with a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment, Gaia’s mint eyes swept over him, her own muzzle lowering slightly now in a gesture of gentle assured-ness, rather than fear. “Who are you?”
Valtyr's actions brought about the change he sought. The tawny nymph's meager physique straightened, her posture soothed of it's trembling. Mint eyes met the boy's upside-down copper gaze briefly as he traced her thin face, cheeks still damp. He righted himself, but remained prone upon the dry ground.
"Valtyr," he told her, "I live East of the mountains... Came here to hunt for my pack. I heard you," crying he thought. Saw her, even. However, he did not intone that fact for fear of seeming too intrustive. Rather, his voice remained low and even while it voiced his concerns, a calmness in his ruddy visage. "Are you," the Sveijarn paused, pressing his tongue against the back of his incisors in thought, "going to be okay?" The woman certainly wasn't okay now, the Sveijarn knew.
He held nothing back from her – opening up he mere fact he hunted for his pack and came upon her only because he heard her. She felt a flush blanket her cheeks, but she did not cow down upon this admission – instead, her pale eyes remained rooted upon him, insistent.
“Yes,” she decided, the air of vulnerability she held only moments ago being pushed back by an air of confidence that did not quite meet her eyes or posture. A dozen words threatened to slip past her tongue – from insisting he leave her alone, to demanding he look away. Instead, the pale she-wolf took the kindness that was extended to her, and in that moment, softened to the complete stranger. “I’m Gaia.”
The narrow slyph's expression appeared to turn as a new breath of assurance refreshed her delicate features. Valtyr felt himself moved by this change and held fast as her mint gaze became fixed upon him. "That's good," he observed, pushing himself up into a seated position. They needn't meander on the melancholy for any longer than they had already, and thus Valtyr didn't touch on the subject of her grief again.
She introduced herself as Gaia -- a fitting name, he thought -- to which the firefoot responded, "Nice to know you. I take it you live around here?"
It was hard to maintain such composure when it felt her whole world was falling apart – to do so in front of a stranger, however, was what kept her steady for the moment, and her pale eyes studied him, noting the drift in conversation as if they were in a world that was not slowly dying of starvation.
“Silver Creek,” she offered, her ears falling gently back to her skull. “You?”