Wolf RPG

Over a week had passed since Junior had presumably drowned. Though the adults had spent the last week searching far and wide for the missing pup, Saēna had stayed comfortably at home, worried but not involved. Such was the life of a three month old wolf cub.

But on that day, a restlessness stole over her and she left the rendezvous site, despite whatever growled warnings might have come her way. The adults conducted themselves in a sorrowful manner, though it was an emotion she didn't quite understand. She could tell that they were upset, but other than that, didn't understand the concept of grieving. That Junior could be dead didn't ever occur to her, and so uncharacteristic disobedience replaced eagerness in the presence of the adults, and in their grief they did not come to punish her (or so she thought).

So, having left the rendezvous site, Saēna continued to boldly venture out and out, until she reached the edge of the plateau. Then she ventured further and further and further, tracing the river that the adults had collected at to the north. It was a long journey for a pup so small, and despite her frequent breaks, Saēna was too exhausted by the time she was midway through Ravensblood Forest to even consider continuing.

By some stroke of luck, where the pup chose to rest was the site of a poor silver fox's demise. Close inspection would reveal that the fox had been caught by a larger predator and killed, then dragged to the river, but all traces of its true death had been wiped away by the current it stuck out of. Fur and flesh were cleaned from the bones, leaving only the fox's black ears standing on its eerie skull. Clumps of black fur clung to scraps of meat still hanging from its bones, but otherwise, it was a skeleton as indistinguishable from a wolf pup as could be, its back end dragging through the river current.

When Saēna found it, it was irrevocable proof that Junior was dead. She didn't come to this conclusion gracefully and with acceptance, though. She found it sitting at the river's edge and with a sinking feeling, approached it. She might not have realized her own fear if it wasn't for the huge black ears standing on its bare skull. Had its scent not been washed away in the river, she might have noticed the difference.

Instead, Saēna screamed a piercing scream of absolute terror and fled the scene, being unable (and unwilling) to accept that her "leader" had, in fact, been killed by the monstrous river and its denizens.

Blue was exhausted she had been searching day and night for any sign of Osprey Junior. She was to the point where she could almost lay down anywhere, and sleep so deeply the heavens could fall and she wouldn’t notice it. Her feet hurt, her back hurt and her heart hurt, the pads of her paws were scraped and bleeding from the endless walking she had done, and her throat hurt from calling for the wayward pup. Still though in her heart, she held onto the hope that one day she’d go back to the rendezvous spot and see the little wild child, begging her to play.

And as was usual for adults in this time, she thought hard on the things she could have done better. She could have played more, scolded a little less. She could have taken her on more adventures and taught her to be safe. There was so much she could have done to keep her safe, but in reality if the fates demanded something happen it did. She shook her downy head and continued on.

Blue was following Saena, the girl had left early this morning and blue’s heart had dropped to her paws, at the thought. She followed her a little bit behind, the girl had a head start and it made her sick. She wouldn’t let the water’s claim another child, she wouldn’t.

Blue heard the scream and with an almighty growl, reserved for the darkest of evils she ran as fast as she could toward the sound, only to see Saena fleeing in abject terror, before she could chase after the youngster she saw the bones, and her heart leaped into her throat and she retched. She walked closer to it, bile rising up in her throat to be dispelled swiftly and soon. She studied the tufts of fur on the ears and the size and her heart seized and she hit the ground losing most of her breakfast. Having been used to death it did not matter, this one was far too close to the alpha healer’s heart and she lay on the ground sick and sad, with tears clinging to her fur.

She stood slowly on shaky limbs and strode forward and gently pulled the bones from the swift current, and the murky watery depths. She hunted around hoping to find something to carry the bones back in, she needed a kill so she could carry them; she didn’t want to just bury them here far away from home.

She recalled seaweed and grasping enough that she could make a pouch of sorts after laying them across each other and grasping ends, she bore her sad burden back to the plateau, hoping to catch Saena on the way back. She would just die if she lost that child too.

While the adults had been busy scurrying this way and that, and her couslings had been somewhat understanding of what was going on, Ty remained her usual, aloof and distant self. If anything, she retreated from them further, spending her days by herself just outside the rendezvous site staring at bugs for hours and making friends with all of them. Today, it was a toad. “Oh, Mr. T,” she said, “I just don’t see how you can be like that.” The girl rolled her eyes with contempt at the green animal covered in unsightly warts. “Will you please leave my friends alone? They are only trying to get to the river.” She scowled at him, using her paw to gently push him aside. He just didn't understand.

Her rather important conversation was interrupted by a familiar sound. One she recalled from days when she could not recall much at all. But this sound, she knew this one! Ty remembered it well, and a look of clarity washed over her face. “Saena!” she exclaimed, her tone ripe with glee. The girl bounded toward the sound, stopping only once to stare sleepy-eyed at a rather beautiful flower. When she reached Beedubs, Ty wagged her tail happily. Curiously, she walked over to the heap of bones and black fur that lay scattered on the ground.

Ty cocked her head to one side, and then spoke in a stern tone. “Osprey Redleaf-DiSarinno Junior!” she demanded of what was left of the corpse, “Where have you been! We’ve been looking all over for you!”

She could have ran and ran until her legs gave out beneath her and she wouldn't have been far enough away. It was lucky that Blue Willow had tailed Saēna into Ravensblood Forest, for if the healer hadn't passed by her with a look of surprise on her face, the girl might have ran herself into oblivion and become as lost to her pack as Junior was. The appearance of the Alpha female, however brief, was enough to put a halt to Saēna's fear-stricken flight.

The patchy pup threw herself to the ground, and only then did she retch bile upon her own paws. Disgusted by this, the girl quickly stood up and retched some more, expelling all the contents of her stomach. Tytonidae strolled by at some point, but Saēna was in a stupor when it happened that would rival the spacey girl's own fantasies. Unbeknownst to either of them, they would ultimately react similarly, although Saēna would invent Osprey Jr. as a figment of her imagination rather than inventing an entire world.

But that would not happen for a few days, and already the rust-clad pup had turned about to follow Ty, albeit very timidly. They arrived in time to find Blue Willow hauling the discovered bones out of the forest. Had she been alone, Saēna might have grieved by openly crying and wailing her despair to the heavens, followed by another round of dysfunctional vomiting and confusion, but Ty was there.

Unfortunately, Ty chose to yell at the corpse as if it was still alive, and this snapped any remaining sanity that Saēna, having been the one to discover her idolized sister's remains (she had hated her but she had also admired her, moreso now than before) had left.

“SHUT UP!” she screamed at Ty's backside with her entire body puffed up like a pine tree. “SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!” And, as though channeling Junior's dearly departed soul through her own body, she charged the dreamy Tytonidae in an earnest attempt to throw her to the ground and beat her fantasy out of her, if only because the way Ty treated the body like it was alive made her feel like being sick all over again. All the while, tears streamed down her face and blinded her.

Blue saw both Saena and Ty and then the worst happened Saena went after the girl who lived fully in her own world. Granted that was a worrying thing within itself, but right now was not the time for fighting. However, Blue knew she would need to handle this delicately, as both were grieving in their own way, they were only little after all.

She stepped forward and tried to intercept Saena nicely, and she spoke soflty to both, Come you two now is not the time for fighting and yes Ty you are right we have been looking for her, Come you two lets go home?" She tilted her head the small bundle at her feet hoping it would work, and they could go home.

A look of sheer horror enveloped Tytonidae when Saena began to yell at her, and she instantly remembered why it was not okay to talk to her cousling. They were all mean. Evil, evil, mean. When they weren't ignoring her, they were being so very, very bad. That was why Tytonidae stuck to her own world, where everybody was nice and pleasant. And the ones who weren't nice and pleasant were punished. That was the way it was supposed to be.

Saena threw herself at Ty, and the girl cowered in fear, making a piddle as she did so. There was so much wrong in Saena. Something very, very wrong. Osprey had known it for a lot longer than Ty had. Her sister had tried to get it out of Saena, but it hadn't seemed to work. Tytonidae darted beneath Bee-dubs's legs in attempt to escape the wrath of her cousling.

When Bee-dubs spoke, Ty cocked her head. “Is Osprey coming with us?” she asked, looking back at the pile of bones as her tail wagged. “She should come, too.”

Ty's conclusion that there was something wrong in Saēna might have elicited a laugh or two if it had been spoken aloud and if she had indeed been wrong, but Saēna wouldn't have been wicked enough to laugh. She would have been confused, and might have denied the claim. What had she ever done? But it was not spoken aloud, as Ty darted beneath the dark-furred Alpha female, who proceeded to reprimand them for fighting and then validated Ty's ridiculous statement.

This brought a shimmer of tears to Saēna's eyes, who stared up at the Alpha female with the dismayed feeling that she had been shut down. Did Blue Willow really think Ty's spacey attitude was acceptable here, in this tragic situation? she wondered. It was so unfair. She had found the body, and she was the one who wasn't dumb as a doorknob like Tytonidae was. Why was she being ganged up on? But she didn't bother asking for clarification. Her tearful shimmer turned into a heated and dramatically hateful glare as she screamed a classic Peregrine, “fuck you,” at both of them before whirling and storming away, forgetting all about the fact that Osprey Jr. was dead.

Blue's face filled with dismay, she didn't know what she had done. She was merely trying to tell Ty that yes they had been looking for Junior, she was not agreeing with the girls delusions. It upset her and then when Saena screamed a curse in her face, blue got a even more upset. SAENA! She called lifting up the bones, she motioned for Ty to follow her and she jogged quickly after Saena, the thought of losing another child made her sick. She continued to look back at Ty make sure she was following behind them.

Tytonidae jogged along behind Beedubs, her little legs carrying her as quickly as they needed to in order to keep pace. But where was Osprey? Surely Beedubs wasn't going to leave her behind, right? With a whine, Ty slowed, trying to get Blue Willow's attention. We've gotta go back, she thought, Gotta get Osprey. But nobody was going to listen to her now that Saena was dragging them all around the place.

Feeling defeated, the girl flopped onto her bum and began howling with all her might. She felt a mixture of confusion and abandonment in that moment, unable to comprehend exactly what was going on. This was why she had so much more fun with her other friends. At least they didn't make her feel so terrible about everything. Giving up on her endeavor, Ty sullenly plodded off to try and figure out what was going on... with the help of her real friends.

Saēna had grown a lot in her young life, and that included her legs. Though Blue Willow was still larger, she was burdened with the bones of Osprey Jr. and with Tytonidae, whose howl suddenly shot into the sky. Saēna glared straight ahead of her, putting every ounce of speed into her feet as she tore away from both of them and, eventually, completely outpaced them.

She would, of course, return to the plateau, but by the time Blue Willow and Ty got back, she would have long since found a hiding place away from them both.