Wolf RPG

A million thoughts raced through his mind, a million possible outcomes and endings that made his heart fill with anxiety. As he walked behind the white female, he felt numb, as if his paws were moving on their own, following Bazi like a firefly being lured to a bright light.

He wagged his tail as he went, admiring the beautiful sunset they left behind them, he loved the way the pink hues and oranges mixed in the sky, no matter how many times he'd seen such spectacle he's never get tired of it. For the peppered male the sky was a gift, one that he received warmly day after day. And today he embraced this beautiful sunset, taking it as a gift from the sky, as a farewell present from the loneliness he was now leaving behind and a welcoming offering to the new life he had chosen.

Eventually, Bazi turned to see if Galileo was still behind her. He was wide-eyed with amazement, staring - she assumed, and wrongly - at the swathes and swathes of safe, claimed territory that now belonged in part to him. She stopped, grinning wryly at his dazed expression; the fact that it was the evening's spectacle of light and colour that held his attention was lost on the young Beta.

"These would be your pack lands," she teased - silly loner. "Standard rules apply. Do you know those rules?"

The young female's voice brought him out of his trance, he turned his head brusquely and met his eyes to the female's. He was confused by her remark for a moment.. and simply flicked an ear back not knowing what else to say..

Then she began to interrogate him, which bothered the older male a little but figured it was routinary procedure with new-comers so he simply went with it, "Hmm, I've never had a pack dear girl.." he answered simply, meaning of course he was not familiar eith the complex system of rules that were held in its core.

"I've never had a pack dear girl.."

Oh. Well. He had told her that, but deep down, Bazi could not believe that any wolf was equipped to survive without fellows. "Not even one other wolf, or two?" Her tone was disbelieving, eyes furrowed lightly over pretty eyes. She bore left and slowed her pace a little to walk at Galileo's side rather than in front, taking one and a half steps to each one of his. The rules could wait.

For some reason the girl didn't seem to be satisfied with his answer, her icy blue orbs stared at him a mix of disbelief and -was that pity?- he couldn't be sure. Of course he felt uncomfortable at her prying, something about her had certainly changed since the first time they'd met in the Duck Lake.. something Galileo couldn't quite place his paw on.

He me her cold eyes with his warm amber ones, staring with such intensity he could melt them -if they were really mad eof ice. "I've told my life story Bazi" he barked calmly, "Not with much detail, but I've told you".

He brushed the tip of his tail lightly against her flank as she began walking beside him, "I had a small family, just my mother, my father and well, a brother, a sister and I" he began, "Audrey didn't make it unfortunately, so it was just Franz and I" he uttered, his words fillled with melancholy, "My father never cared, he acted like we were a burden, while my mother gave the world to us." he shrugged as if it didn't pain him, "And to add insult to injury, Franz was a total dic-" he bit his tongue and shot an apologetic smile, he wasn't used to cursing, especially not in front of ladies. "He was the worst brother one could ever asked for..which ended up breaking us apart, to the point we couldn't face each other.." he growled, "And of course my lousy father couldn't stand to have us around, he began to see us as a threat as he grew older." he paused for a second.

"So he drove us off, and my poor mother out of fear didn't utter a word" he finished, blinking at the ground as the image of her old and frail mother's face returned to his mind.

"Who I met afterwards is not relevant now.." he spoke with pain, as if he had a thorn stuck in his throat.

A flurry of a unintelligible words roused Fox from where she had been rooting around in a rabbit warren. Her ears swiveled to locate the sound, and she realized it was not one she recognized. It sounded male; that much she gathered. Curious, especially considering she was reasonably close to the borders, Fox abandoned her food search in favor of seeking out the owner of the voice. Her strides were short (for they couldn't be anything but), but she arrived as swiftly as her stubby legs would take her.

There, she saw Bazi and another male alongside her, heading toward the creek. That must have been the older one that Bazi had spoken of previously, and Fox allowed her gaze to linger on the male, waiting for the both of them to approach her. Bazi seemed to think highly of him, which of course meant he had a bit of an "in" already, but Fox wanted to vet him herself.

Bazi listened impatiently to Galileo's tale of woe, but did a decent job of hiding her feelings behind a gently frowning mask of concern. Had he ended the story on his mother's silence, she would have let it go - nearly every wolf in the Creek came to it with some measure of tragedy in their past; the young beta was no exception. But she was not yet two, and her mind was still plenty malleable. Unless she put in a significant amount of effort, her service to Fox and Swiftcurrent Creek was the only existence she could remember.

But the fact that he insisted that his life between family and now had no relevance only made her more curious. She was about to insist that there were no secrets between Swiftcurrent family when Fox appeared, as if summoned by Galileo's newness. Bazi's face brightened. She gave her recruit's shoulder a gentle nip and a sidelong glance that very clearly said kneel before rushing forward to nudge her leader's chin. "This is Galileo, the one I was talking about," she introduced, excitement giving new life to her tail - it swished violently against the ground, wiping the slate clean of the stilted, awkward conversation they had embarked on before Fox's arrival. "He has survived alone longer than anyone I've ever met, and I wanted him for us."

The peppered male actually felt relief flood all over him when he saw another wolf approach, a reddish coated female that by the way she paraded towards them made it clear for him she was in charge.

He watched quietly as the young snow tipped girl approached the newly arrived female, lightly pressing her nose to her chin. As Bazi stepped aside to introduce them, Galileo gave one her one of his oh-so-famous bows, dippind his snout almost on cue when Bazi nipped his shoulder. "Greetings" he barked, "I see I don't need to introduce myself.." he mused glancing at Bazi who had apparently already talked about him to the red female.

He smiled at the girl, his eyes blinking slowly when she mentioned his life as a loner like oit was some kind of achievement. Clearly for Galileo the solitude he had to endure for all his years was not something to brag about. He shrugged this sad thought off and turned back to the leader.

Fox scrutinized the male, listening to Bazi and then to Galileo. He had bowed, a sign of respect, and for that, Fox was glad. The last thing she wanted was the responsibility of having to repeatedly put somebody in their place. The fact that he had survived on his own, although some kind of accomplishment, was off-putting to the young Alpha. It made her suspicious of why he had been able to gather anybody around him for so long. But maybe "long" was not really that much time to begin with.

"How long have you been alone?" she asked. "And why did you not seek the company of others?" Then again, perhaps he had. Perhaps they had rejected him for one reason or another. It was that suspicion that brought him down a notch in her mind.

Bazi had shared Fox's concerns upon first meeting Galileo, but he had successfully bowed and charmed his way out of her suspicions. In the end, she had put his long-standing loneliness down to bad luck. He wasn't a particularly forceful character, and she couldn't imagine him trying his luck at a pack's borders without a native to back up the pledge. He was sweet, she thought, stepping back from the little alpha to watch the exchange between her and the newcomer.

A pained sigh escaped the male's mouth, it seemed there would be no way to elude a conversation about his past. No matter how far he went, his roots were always going to be questioned as well as his motives. The peppered male shifted under his paws, casting a glance at Bazi before facing the red Alpha again.

"I've been alone most of my life, partially because of life circumstances and because of my own will to be alone." he barked, his amber eyes struggling to hide the melancholy that broiled inside his stomach. He hoped with his heart that the female wouldn't keep questioning him, that for once his past was left to rest. But when the female shot the other question at him Galileo felt himself go numb.

"Don't get me wrong, dear lady," he barked dipping his nose again at the female, "I was a traveller, I had to be alone for many months because of my constant moving along the lands." he explained, "I was still not alone during all those three years on the move, but unfortunately life forced me to continue as a loner and leave those I had with me behind" he paused briefly, "I hope you understand, but I do not wish to speak about it now." he finished, giving his tail a flick.

A fleeting glance landed on Bazi, questioning why she would bring someone with so many... quirks here. Was Bazi so easily charmed by words and gestures? At least it sounded as if Galileo was not completely on his own during all that time, and for that, Fox was thankful. At least he wasn't some kind of antisocial weirdo. She hadn't the time or the patience to deal with one of those. And yet... Galileo was far too secretive for her liking. She narrowed her eyes on him when he asked that she understood that he did not want to speak of his circumstances.

Fox hardened her gaze upon him. “If you cannot trust me, then I cannot trust you. By allowing you residence here, I am inviting you to be family. So I hope you understand when I say I need to hear whatever it is you are trying to avoid speaking of.” Fox felt the air grow thick with tension, but she did not want to invite somebody into her home unless she was certain that he was a good fit with them. If he could not reveal his past, then how could she be certain that he would not hide other things from her?

Bazi stepped away from Galileo and gave him a sharp, angry look. Had he possessed the good sense to keep that final sentence behind clenched teeth, Fox would have no reason to be suspicious; life got in everyone's way, and the specifics were often too tedious to speak of. By actively withholding information, her new recruit was only making things worse - and making Bazi look bad.

Most Swiftcurrent wolves had skeletons in their closet - if they didn't pose a threat to the pack, they were left to gather dust and crumble. Bazi's own tainted past still flowed - literally - through her veins, but the sickness had not reared its head since the first outbreak, and she had quite forgotten about it now. Galileo, on the other hand, had opened the door, and he would have to step through it or leave.

"You've never even hinted at having sordid secrets before," Bazi said, unsure if that was true - had he evaded questions before then? And what question would that be - 'are you or have you ever been, deranged or diseased'? Swiftcurrent had accepted wolves with less to go on, and it irritated her to the core that he was making things difficult. "Tell her, or you'll have to go," the girl snapped, ears flat and tail swishing erratically behind her.

Galileo bit his tongue until he felt the metallic flavour of blood in his mouth. Now he had gone and done it. Leave it to Galileo to screw up such a big opportunity in his life. The peppered male, lowered his head, showing he was ashamed. He shot a furtive glance at Bazi as if he were trying to ask for forgiveness, he did not want any of them to distrust him. It was just there were things in his past that still pained him.

"Forgive me" he barked, dedicating a quick dip of his snout to both females, "I didn't intend to make you suspicious of me." he went on, his ears pinned back with submission. Galileo was a man of truth that was not afraid to recognize his own mistakes. "My intentions by joining this pack are pure, but I guess my words alone won't change your mind, so I'll tell you" he barked gruffly.

As he began to speak, he felt as if acid was being poured over his body, sizzling over the open wounds in his heart. "I was alone for three years after I left my home, but I wasn't alone for a part of that time." he pawed the ground as he went on, "I met a girl, and fell for her. The problem was she was from a small pack that my father had driven out long time ago." he barked bitterly.

"My father had more enemies than there are stars in the night. So naturally I could not be with her." he explained briefly, not wanting to give much detail about his father, a man of war and bloodshed. "So I pretended to be someone I was not to get her to be with me. I denied my lineage and abandoned my lastname." The male flicked his tail sideways, it's tip brushing against his own legs.

"But one does not get rid of such things just like that. I will always carry his blood in me, whether I like it or not." he growled at the thought of his father, "Lying ends in nothing but tragedy. She found out and told me to rot in hell with my father as she took away my only offspring" he finished. His amber eyes dull and emotionless.

"So after that I kept travelling, like a vagabund. Then I was skittish about ever mentioning it again, since I always feared I'd be treated differently because of my past and most importantly the reputation carried in my blood." he woofed while shaking his head.

Then he stood there, just waiting for a reaction. He would not beg for more, now it was all up to them whether to overlook his troubled past or hold it against him.

Fox waited, albeit impatiently, as Bazi egged him on. It seemed she had been made the fool by him, and Fox wondered if the Beta would have a sharp word with him later, as well. It was a good thing for Galileo that he decided to reveal what he had been hiding, and Fox listened with open ears (although nobody would say she did anything with an open mind). The queen of Swiftcurrent was anything but empathetic (especially when it came to things that did not immediately make sense to her). She believed him when he said this girl had cast him aside, but it did nothing to make Fox pity him or feel for him.

“She sounds like a real bitch,” Fox replied in a flat tone. “I can assure you we do not base anything here so heavily on bloodline. In fact, our current lot is bound only by loyalty and honor, not by blood.” While Fox could understand blood relations, and she knew that she would love her offspring fiercely, blood was not the end-all, be-all. There were far too many other factors at play. Galileo had played his cards right, sans the short secretive bit, and Fox was pleased.

The young red girl stepped forward without warning to rub her shoulder against his, marking him and silently accepting him into their ranks. “Bazi will see to it that you get settled in,” Fox said, flashing the fluffy white girl a look of approval for her recruitment efforts. With the vetting process complete, and other things on her mind, Fox departed, leaving Bazi and Galileo to themselves.

Bazi could have kicked him. Such tension for so little? She regarded him with pursed lips and a tight jaw, but a smile twinkled brightly in her eyes again. In a past life, his tale of woe might have grabbed her, but the Teekon Wilds was a pragmatic and unromantic place - and like any young, pliable soul, she had subconsciously molded herself to suit it. Blood did not matter here, and perhaps it never would; certainly not as long as Swiftcurrent Creek was composed primarily of vagrants and vagabonds. Fox said as much, and Bazi nodded her agreement, receiving the alpha's look with a relieved smile before the rust-red girl took off to do whatever it was that called her.

Bazi watched until Fox was scarcely out of earshot, then whipped around to face Galileo with a wry, scolding grin. "You scared me," the white youth half-screeched, reaching forward to nip at his peppered ruff. In all fairness, it was she who had failed to prep him. The loosely formed packs of the south had come as a shock to Bazi as well; especially the number of wolves that had come from a tumultuous background. Theirs was a crew of sad stories. Everyone had skeletons, though most shared willingly enough when prompted - even Jace, whose hidden traits might have cost him his place.

But Bazi did not volunteer her story - and nobody had asked since that first day at the borders.

"We've got work to do," she announced, moving around the older male to nudge impatiently at his flank. "Come on - let's find you somewhere to sleep. What sort of job do you want here? I'm the head outrider; we report on the goings-on beyond the borders and keep track of the other packs in the area. We're the only ones on this side of the mountain - for now - " Jace and Ferdie were pack wolves to the core, and wouldn't remain wanderers for long. Bazi cast a suspicious glance to the west. "What are you interested in? Gamekeeping? Counselling?" He was certainly old enough.

A rythmic thumping rose in the male's chest as he waited silently for a reaction from the two females. He dared to look into the fire wolfess eyes, and then to the icy blue eyes belonging to the snow female. He had done his part, confessed his sins to be accepted as a member, with a clean slate, now he just had to stand by to hear the queen's response. A single word pronounced by her lips could make or break his future as a Swiftcurrent wolf.

He struggled not to squirm under the blaze colored wolf, her eyes dull and expressionless, not a sign of compassion crossed through her face. Then she went on by insulting his ex-mate, a remark Galileo didn't oppose to. Finally it was time for the final veredict. Had he managed to win them over in the final seconds, or was it too late for this old wolf?

Then,like a gift sent from the stars he loved so deeply, they assured him he wouldn't be seen as a bag of bones carrying a bloodline but as an individual.

-"Bazi will see to it that you get settled in,"

The peppered male smiled and dipped his nose briefly with gratitude, then as the queen brushed his shoulder he gently turned his face to press his nose against her for just a second. Then as fast as she had come she was gone.

Galileo turned to the young girl that had found him in the first place, "I'm sorry, it's a heavy burden I carry and it's hard for me to just leave it." he barked calmly, "I am glad blood isn't an issue here" he added with a smile tugging at his lips. He then watched her as she weaved her way around him, nudging him to get going, "I can hunt, but I'd be delighted to be a counselor and a storyteller if I could" he mused, the tip of his tail flicking from side to side. "Although I'd be willing to do whatever the pack needs" he added swiftly, as he aimed to nip Bazi's shoulder playfully.

She bounded playfully away from his nipping teeth, but not with enough quickness to entirely avoid the bite. It was met with a high-pitched yip but no retaliation, and she motioned for him to follow her on their continued journey into the Creek. "Well, I think you'd be an excellent counselor or storyteller," she stated, basing this judgment entirely - and very possibly incorrectly - on his age. "Unfortunately, the wolves that would've needed it were recently kicked out, so.. you'll need to find someone else to counsel. Tuwawi is about to have pups - perhaps you could tell them stories. Do you know any?"

The speckled male returned a playful yap at Bazi when she squealed and bounded a few steps away, it was hard to remember the last time he had shared a moment like that with another wolf. Nipping at each other in a friendly manner. The senior male could've sworn it had been ages since he could apply the term friend when referring to another wolf.

When the pale girl agreed with his decision, saying he'd make a great counselor or storyteller, Galieleo allowed his pink tongue to peek out of his mouth A sign of happiness. "Thank you" he barked and continued to trot by her side.

Then she mentioned that counseling services were not on demand at the moment, after the departure of some other wolves. Bazi didn't give much detail about why they needed counseling and why they had left, so the male didn't bother to ask. Still he wouldn't have had a chance, since the girl quickly changhed the subject by telling him pups would soon arrive to the creek.

The male gave a soft wag of his tail and glanced at the girl, "I know quite a few" he affirmed with a flick of an ear. "I would love to tell them stories, but I'll warn you, if they end up being crazy lovers of the stars like me it's not my fault.." he joked, casting his eyes to the sky that was now covered in a dark veil of navy blue.

Bazi didn't know what a stargazer was, but took it's meaning to be literal - she too gazed at the night sky on occasion, but not obsessively enough to earn the title. It got a little bit boring after a while.

Her eyes followed Galileo's up to the spreading mantle of black. "Let's go rest by the Creek for the night. I haven't got a den - it's too hot," the pale girl decided, and launched suddenly into a sprint. "Catch me!" floated back to Galileo on the wind.

Galileo gave a soft hrrmph to Bazi's invitation and shot after her when she began running, his paws pounding against the soft grass and his ears pinned to the back of his skull to give him more speed. He was quite agile for a 4 year old male, although he could not surpass the white blur that Bazi left behind he could at least keep up with her, almost close enough to bite her ankles.

The male kept running, forgetting suddenly about everything else that surrounded him and focusing only on the pale girl in front of him. He'd now follow her until the end of the earth, she had earned the title of Galileo's nicest friend.