Meylodi had insisted, absolutely insisted, that she go for a walk on her own before they reached the Thunder Dome to begin the long process of claiming and making it their own before her pups were ready to enter the world. She hated leaving Void, and knew how much he wanted to protect her more than anything - but the expecting mother still had yet to process exactly that.
Her black muzzle angled skyward for a moment, sighing.
I'm gonna be a mother, Gran. I'm scared like - but I - I got this. Me body's gonna know what ta do - it's gotta. I sure don't - never really paid attention ta what Valie was goin' through. Hope her pups be okay. They should be a year old by now.
I never gotta see 'em. Hope everythin' worked out fer all of ya.
The well-built form and slender stride of the future
máthair trotted over the uneven land on weather-hardened paws, as easily as a summer rain.
It was then the wind shifted, and she scented an odd scent to the wind.
One she had never before encountered.
@Kiche
Kiche was walking by, totally devastated by the recent events. A litter, a whole litter.
She had lost everything.
Her fur bristled at the scent of a wolf, and then she saw it. She was a female, and she seemed pregnant. Kiche felt a shiver of pain. Her entire body told him to growl at her, but he couldn't. She would never attack a mother.
She approached carefully, prepared to flee if the stranger attacked her. All the elegance of her was gone, with the loss of her children. However, in her eyes there was still a spark of hope.
She brought her muzzle closer and carefully sniffed at the wolf's fur.
Her head tilted curiously, and returned the odd canine's sniff. Kind of like that new she-wolf they had encountered, but not entirely. In fact, the canine didn't smell of wolf at all, perhaps the tinest bit. She was also a lot bigger than the other, not being helped by her tall stance and ears pointing forward.
Yet despite her confidence, she wagged her tail.
Who be you? Me name's Meylodi.
Kiche also wagged her tail, though she was unable to smile.
"My name is Kiche" she said, letting her fur smooth down.
She decided that that wolf was not a danger, but that mattered very little to her. At those times, she didn't care about anything. She was in a kind of canine depression, where emotions were insignificant. "You're pregnant" she commented in a soft voice.
"It's one of life's miracles," she said as she sat up, looking at the horizon, lost in thought of her.
But what 'bout you?
Her eyes noticed the she-wolf?'s gaze. Her demeanor looked sad, and the presence of Meylodi and... the ones she hadn't met seemed only to be making it worse.
Worse yet, she had never been in this situation before, as none of her pack had smelt so sad or looked so lost. Her heart yearned to help in some way.
She just needed to find out how.
Yer sad, ain't cha? I makin' ya uncomfertible somho'? I don' mean it-
Kiche tensed, but then she relaxed, shaking her head sadly.
"There's nothing wrong with me" she said, refusing to reveal her secret. But then he decided it wouldn't change anything if he told her, so he sighed, "I've lost all my pups, and I haven't seen my mate in…" She couldn't go on, the words seemed so empty compared to the pain she felt.
She turned her head and looked at Meylodi, trying to make her understand her sadness in her eyes.
She felt like her heart had been bitten in two by a vengeful bear, spat out, and left to rot by scavengers. A knot formed in her throat.
Her mate?
Her... pups?
Gone?
A shiver went up her spine.
How could she possibly... help? Would her situation just make Kiche's worse? Meylodi had the opposite experience - a loving mate, she felt heavy with pups-
The dark wolf yearned for the words to say.
Ya been through somethin' right awful-
her words were quiet, and they burst with sympathy even if she had come from another walk of life entirely. Yer heart sounds heavy, an' yer werds seem foggy. Real sorry that 'appen'd ta ya. Don't blame ya fer feeling blue.
She lowered her head and sat down, trying to comfort the she-wolf better on her own level.
Kiche sighed again, Meylodi's words comforted her.
"I'm too young" she said "Sometimes I think I can't go on with this pain, but then I remember that I want to live the life my cubs couldn't live" Then she cocked her head, suddenly animated. She remembered her excitement when she found out how wolves lived, but her partner hadn't told her many things.
"do you live with a human? where is your owner?" she asked her.
She had many questions, did wolves live with humans? And if not, how did they survive? who gave them food? she for a second she forgot her sadness, replaced by the curiosity of youth
Her head tilted again. Haumin?
she vaguely remembered a time in her life when humans had existed to her. Her pack had fought them with a vengeance after taking her aunt, scents hot and metallic, stinking up her beautiful pelt and causing her to live no longer. She had gotten one of the nicks in her ear in that fight.
It was then perhaps she realized that the she-wolf... was a she-dog.
Nevertheless, the proud wolf finished.
We welves be wild, an' free - ain't no haumin livin' with us, and defini'ly not oawnin' us. Take our kin with they weapins. Nasty ta welves. One be'er ne'er touch me if it knows what's good fer it.
She listened to her speech with wide eyes. She cocked her head and flicked one ear. She suddenly felt ashamed of her origins. And to think that she felt lucky, treated like a queen among humans!
"Sounds fantastic, you are totally free... but what about the food? What do they eat?" she twitched her ear again, feeling like a puppy in front of a seasoned adult. "My mate once brought me something that smelled like meat" she reminded "It was small and white, with long ears. And there was..." she trailed off, feeling a chill. But then she thought about how ridiculous she was looking: she didn't want Meylodi to think she was a pampered pet "There was blood. And I felt something very strange, as if I wanted to bite him... my mate said it was something called "instincts"
We do eat meat. Once ya start eatin', ya never stop eatin' it. Mustsa brough' ya a rabbit, he did. Tasty li'le things. A welf can get fat off 'em in da spring if they come 'cross a big enough burra.
She wagged her tail, having caught two of the fast little rabbits just recently. Blood runs through all things with an 'art. Can't escape it. Musta touched somethin' in yer head. Didja bite the lil' one after all? Eat 'im?
Meylodi was actually having fun answering the she-dog's questions.
Kiche was too shocked to speak. So it was true! wolves hunted their own food!
"I'd love to learn to hunt, be part of a… what's it called? pack, I think…"
For the first time in a long time, she felt really happy and comfortable. Who knew that she would be comfortable with a wolf? "Do wolves blow to destroy houses?" she said without thinking, then she regretted it. Everything she knew about wolves she had seen in the books of the humans or had been told by the other dogs, but, as Meylodi had proven, almost everything was false.
Her question brought pause to the wolf. ... what be an... 'aouse?
she tried a few times to reproduce the word the dog had spoken, but alas her tongue would not let her. Ne'er 'eard o' it. But if it be a pack ya want, me gra an' I be tryna start one up around 'ere, as it 'appens. Defini'ely could use an extra set o' paws. That is if ya don't mind a couple o' welves that be er... expectin'? We found a welf-dog 'round 'ere like that.
She tried to get back to the positives - I could teach ya 'bout huntin' and bein' a pack-welf.
Kiche raised his head and then looked mockingly at Meylodi. For the first time, she felt like an adult in this conversation.
"Well...", he began, getting up and wagging his tail with exaggerated elegance, jokingly "A house is the lair of humans, but instead of being a hole in the ground, they build it on top of the ground and humans get inside,” she said, emphasizing the word home.
Then she sat up, smiling, her problems momentarily forgotten. Her ears twitched when she spoke of the packs. "Can I be part of a pack with you?" she asked herself, excited.
Meylodi listened with interest. She had always learned to fear humans and either stay away from them or take them down if they started taking too much territory. They be excellent den-buil'ers, ain't they?
As to her other question, the large shadow of a wolf stood and nodded her head.
Aye. If ya want ta - just over the way, Kaychai,
she growled softly under her breath, at her own tongue. That was definitely not the she-dog's name. She wasn't native to these lands, and her tongue habitually did not let her pronounce names correctly. Hopefully, over time, her accent would begin to accommodate the names of her pack. 'specially me grá - me love. 'Magine me but blacker and a bit biggar.