The pack was nesting in the meadow but not Mou, who could not feel safe enough beneath the open expanse of the sky. He had only recently returned to them and many of their faces were not ones he knew, so he kept his distance. He wanted to be close to Maegi, to comfort her, yet she had been reduced to something other in the passing of the boy child and Mou did not know how to help with that. He was present when it counted; watching the group as they milled about the meadow or broke apart to scour the landscape for food. He guarded the remaining children from a distance too, and in the evenings could be drawn back in to the collective. He was still adapted to a more nocturnal lifestyle and being a watchful eye in the daylight, then immobilized by insomnia at night, slowly worked at him mentally.
He missed the woods. The intimacy of the dark corridors between the trees. The earth-scent deep in the tunnels (which, he realized, might very well have been destroyed in the quakes). With the daylight thinned by a cool mist, a dimming haze settled along the fringe of the woods and within this he paced — cautious in case something were to go wrong, but probing at the edge of the woods all the same. The pack needed somewhere safe to return to, and the woods needed their presence just as much, there would be debris to clear away and new paths to mark, ruined caches to empty. Much had changed in the tumult and of all the losses he knew Maegi had faced, he wished to bring her something better.
Something shuffles in the darkness, in the deepness beyond where Mou is trailing along. A shape high in the boughs which he immediately links to the giant raven which had descended upon him in the summer. It is hard for him to tell the difference as a spasm of fear bolts through his heart, and he ducks away from it, flashing his front teeth — the shape is moving very quickly towards him and he needs to hide! But it stops short. It does not touch him, and barely makes any sound as it nestles upon the floor of the forest, not until he opens his eye and looks to it, at which point the raven looses a series of cacophonous giggles and takes wing again (evidently pleased in the way it frightened the wolf!).
Mou stares after it for a few minutes and feels the stillness descend again. There is peace here, for now.
He missed the woods. The intimacy of the dark corridors between the trees. The earth-scent deep in the tunnels (which, he realized, might very well have been destroyed in the quakes). With the daylight thinned by a cool mist, a dimming haze settled along the fringe of the woods and within this he paced — cautious in case something were to go wrong, but probing at the edge of the woods all the same. The pack needed somewhere safe to return to, and the woods needed their presence just as much, there would be debris to clear away and new paths to mark, ruined caches to empty. Much had changed in the tumult and of all the losses he knew Maegi had faced, he wished to bring her something better.
Something shuffles in the darkness, in the deepness beyond where Mou is trailing along. A shape high in the boughs which he immediately links to the giant raven which had descended upon him in the summer. It is hard for him to tell the difference as a spasm of fear bolts through his heart, and he ducks away from it, flashing his front teeth — the shape is moving very quickly towards him and he needs to hide! But it stops short. It does not touch him, and barely makes any sound as it nestles upon the floor of the forest, not until he opens his eye and looks to it, at which point the raven looses a series of cacophonous giggles and takes wing again (evidently pleased in the way it frightened the wolf!).
Mou stares after it for a few minutes and feels the stillness descend again. There is peace here, for now.
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Heaven's just a rumor she'll dispel. - by Titmouse (Ghost) - November 06, 2019, 01:10 PM