Blackfeather Woods tillojak

The darkness of the wood was alluring in ways that the young bear would never be able to express. It was almost as though magic danced between the trunks of the great trees and lingered in the boughs and leaves that stretched overhead. The forest breathed – inhaled and exhaled – just like any other living thing. The boy could feel it in the deepest pits of his belly, lingering there like a natural reminder. He had found that he could feel many things but imagined that it was a gift that was bestowed on all of his kind. It had made him keen, even still while he was young and learning. It had also turned him toward the life of a watcher. Years on his body would grant him the desire to take action, but as a child he had found his watchfulness to be a place of comfort and ease. It sparked most of his decisions, knowing that he would learn something more about the world and all the things that changed within it.
 
The sun had stretched out overhead, peering through a thin layer of wispy white and the shimmering leaves that shaded the forest floor. It left the wood cool, wrapping it in a soft layer of security. Though the sun would reach sweltering temperatures after a short while, the forest kept them cool. Sos had ventured outside of the den and could be found sprawled at the mouth of it. His head would move and dart about, searching for sights. The length of his ears stood tall atop his crown. It was a paradise to him; he knew nothing else but the wood where he had been born. Inspired still by the youth that drove him, Sos moved to rise and venture toward a thick patch of trees.
 
Wind tossed through the foliage for a moment before it was carried away, free to reach out to other territories with its grace. Sos felt the brush of it against his changing coat and smiled softly. In the trees ahead of him, the young bear could smell a peculiar sort of scent. Something in the brush rustled curiously, making a fair bit of noise. Sos moved in a quick scurry so that he might catch sight of the thing. The leaves shuddered but revealed nothing behind them. The bear sniffed curiously, his tail wagging behind him.

It just so happened that the ghost child was rustling about nearby. She had little interest in the young pups -- Well, that was not entirely true, for she had great interest in them but that was only because the pale child had great interest in everything.. for at least five seconds before finding something new that was equally or more captivating.

On her way to discover what was behind the bushes the pale child had found some leaves and twigs on the ground to play with and, just as she was being discovered and followed, a frog hopped about nearby which caused the ghost to dart off towards it with brazen jumps and leaps, leaving an empty spot where she'd been rustling about moments before.

The sight of the pale child suddenly jumping up from above the foliage -- ears, back and tail partially visible as she did -- must have been strange or comical to anyone but perhaps the blank slate that such a young pup still was. "Waaaar!" the ghost shouted at the frog as she followed it frog-style, though it didn't look like she was trying very hard to actually catch it so much as imitate it.

A cry of war sounded against the trunks of the trees and rattled the bear to turn his skull in the direction of the cry. His own prey had been the mark of another. It was not something that he found worrisome. Instead of protectively guarding the frog against the strange ghostly shape, Sos shrunk himself toward the earth and flattened his ears to his skull with a swift jerking of his frame. The earth beneath him offered a sense of comfort against the unknown. Inquisitively, the child moved to peer at the spirit from a different angle. Though he had seen the shapes of his two siblings, the bear had never seen the form of another pup. This was peculiar, as the two litters had grown so very near to each other. Her scent was foreign, alluring in this sense. Sos moved around the thick brush until he had found a perfect place to peer from. There, he saw the silver of her figure as well as the sharpness in her eyes.

Drawing his ears forward, the polar child followed her movements as she pursued the leaping prey through the brush. While it had initially garnered his attention, the fresh sight of youth had done well to distract him from his initial discovery. Had he been any younger, Sos might have been frightened of the stranger and her rowdy ways. Instead, the earth had granted him a strange sort of courage to approach the things he knew little of. It was with this that he took his first few steps in the direction of the stark female puppy. Sos remained close to the ground so that he could pull his strength from it, but his ears stood erect and attentive on Averna. The glimmer of her pallid form was enthralling.

“Who you?”

The only language he knew well enough to inquire in was that of his family's home. The Inuttut fell from his dark lips without much thought as to whether or not this other child could speak it. To Sos, it acted as the language of the world and all things within it. English was still fresh to him, still new, and so he could not have greeted her with it successfully. The challenges of youth seemed to cling to his tongue and hindered his speech there, but his body was open to her. He wanted only to know where she had come from and how he had never noticed her before.

Large ears turned back as she heard a voice. The pale child stopped in her tracks at the sight of another child, instantly intrigued. The frog was forgotten, true child style -- it was for now only the other pup that got her undivided attention. She recognised the words, though the ghost had never assigned a name to herself. Averna, some would call her, but the caretaker and the dark one called her nothing and so she did not call herself such. "Ghost" was the word she liked best, because she liked being sneaky like a ghost and she liked screaming and trying to startle others like one.

"Ghost!" she called out in enthusiasm. Then the pale child tilted her head and looked inquiringly at the other. What about you?

The pale female turned and fixed him with a gaze that was just as pale as the cloak she wore on her back. The creature that she had been following was soon forgotten; replaced by the figure of the boy bear who gazed on her as though she were a star that had fallen from the heavens. The question that he had presented had been answered, but he found that he was not fond of the word she had used at all. His youthful brow furrowed on his features, and he frowned at the other pup with a worried expression that danced along the edges of his muzzle and eyes like a twirling shadow. Sos had felt as though ghosts had a bad connotation to them, and that his family was never fond of such things. He knew that there were dark beings that made homes in his world, but he did not imagine that this girl could have been one.

“Spirit?” Sos inquired with a slight tilting of his crown. His ears were tall and pointed atop his skull, focused on whatever she should say next. Of course, he had not introduced himself to her, and he felt as though she was waiting for him to offer his own moniker in return. “I Sos,” he announced with a proud extension of his chest. While her calling was reminiscent of the afterlife beings that wandered the earth when their body had departed, his own name meant something very different. He was a bear, and he felt the power of such within the frame of his young body.

Spirit, inquired the other and the ghost liked that. "Spirit!" she decided with determination in her voice as he suggested this to her. She licked her lips while he proudly announced he was Sos. The pale child thought it was a bit silly that others would take such pride in their name, of all things. "Sows," she clumsily repeated, clearly not as adept at language as pups her age usually were. The pale child had listened to many words and knew the meaning of many things, but she did not prefer to use that kind of language -- spoken language.

With an unspoken gesture the spirit lead the way towards where the frog had headed, silently inviting this 'Sos' along while she started to track frog-scent to continue the hunt.

The spirit confirmed themselves, causing Sos to feel as though his limbs had erupted in a thousand little goosebumps. It was as though they fought against the constraints of his flesh in an attempt to escape his small frame. As inept as she might have been at verbal communication, the young bear did not mind. He was appreciative of all life, in all shapes and sizes. There was very little that deterred him from wanting to make a place for himself among the other living things. It could have very easily been attributed to his childlike mindset, but age would not dampen the spirit that he carried. Sos was not the type to judge others for their capabilities or incapabilities; he had his own strengths and weaknesses to battle with.

The pale creature beckoned him to follow. There was a moment of hesitation within him where the bear was not certain if he should leave his family den behind. Surely, it would have been bad luck to ignore the asking of a spirit. Knowing that his mother would agree, Sos quickly followed after the startling white creature with his head low and his eyes wide, searching.

The pale child did not look behind to see if he would follow, now engulfed in her frog-quest once more. She walked right past the frog she had been initially chasing, which was sitting very silently by the side of her path, pretending not to exist. It worked well enough for it as she passed right by it. White eyes scanned the area, breathlessly waiting for a movement among the grasses...

Discontent with the lack of frogs the ghost turned around suddenly and pounced at the other child with the company of a loud "Raaaarrrw!", fully intending to pin him or at the very least start a wrestling match there.

The shaman child was not altogether sure that following the spirit was the wisest decision. The moments that it took him to chase after her had been only a fraction of time. He had not truly even weighed the risk against the reward. Something within him had suggested that he would not find harm if he were to follow her; that she was only a small spirit, designed for teaching him in ways that the larger spirits could not. The size she had been granted proved to be something of a comfort for him. Sos felt a kindred air between them that was difficult to put into words. Perhaps because he knew so few of them at his age, but more than that; he felt as though he did not have anything to fear when he was surrounded by life. His mother would have warned him of the opposite, but there were things that he did not listen to - no matter their weight or well meaning.

Lost in the prospect of what was to come, the youthful bear did not realize that he had lost sight of his white spirit guide. There was a fleeting moment of fear at this thought, as though he had done something terribly wrong to cause her to leave. His young brow creased in a worried expression and he slowed his pace down dramatically. Before long, Sos was left to a slow stagger as he sniffed the air for any signs of her. So drawn into his own thoughts, the boy didn’t notice her until after she had erupted from the brush and struck against his frame. The bear grunted and felt the air leave his lungs as he was wrestled to the ground. In that moment, he could only see stars dancing just behind a film of black.

When he finally inhaled, the spirit child was atop him. He laughed a winded laugh and kicked with his back legs to try and free his frame from her grip.

It wasn't hard to overpower the child because he was younger and smaller than her. Paws batted against her belly as she managed to overwhelm him easily. His laughs were echoed pretty quickly by the ghost's. At first her laughter was almost like a cackle of madness, an "eeheehee" that others might have recognised a family thing, but soon it turned into more cheerful childish laughter of "ahahaha" as her stomach was tickled by the battery of paws unleashed upon it.

Content with her victory, the spirit rolled off her victim onto the ground. Her tail whirred a few excited beats as she looked back at her victim to see if he was done with wrestling, too, or if a revenge attack was coming her way.

There was nothing mad about her. At least, not to the young bear. He had found someone that he believed to be perfectly delightful. There was something simple in it – something soft – and he felt as though he had discovered something that no one had experienced before. Though it might have been considered naive of him to dwell on these thoughts, it was part of the experience of growing. Sos did not know how he had gotten so fortunate.

The spirit rolled off of him with a fiercely wagging tail. Still littered with dirt and leaves, the bear breathed a heavy breath and craned his neck to peer at her. There was laughter on his features and his eyes seemed to twinkle with glee. The pale young girl had blessed him, he felt. There was something about her that was so startling and pure. Had he been caught in a wrestling match with his own sister, he would have launched himself at her in an attempt to get his revenge. Instead, he pushed himself up so that he could stand and he approached his playmate with a curiously sniffing nose. The young boy's tail matched her own in speed and enthusiasm.

He seemed equally enthused about their game and the ghostly child woofed an excited woof as he got to his feet. While his tail showed his excitement to match hers he reached out and she, too, craned her neck forward, ears pressed forward, to gingerly sniff his nose back.

Then, as if struck by lightning, the pale child suddenly whirred around and, as quickly as she had come, the ghost was gone into the dark canopy the forest provided without looking to see if he would try to follow.

my last post - thanks for the thread! hopefully they will run into each other again some day :D