Swiftcurrent Creek survivor

I'm assuming Ira's been allowed to stay with her... :o

Tagging: @Dovev :)

Bones slept deeply, though when Ira shifted beside her and brushed her hindquarters, she woke abruptly. Her lips wrinkled back from her teeth and a snarl began to climb up her throat, though she managed to hold it back at the last second. With a quiet gasp, she shoved herself away from her bedfellow and slowly rose to all fours. Bones swallowed, then shook her head and took off along the creek.

Daybreak found her drinking deeply, a dead and gutted snake at her paws. When her thirst was gone, she lifted her head, large ears twitching as she scanned her surroundings. She didn't want to dwell on why she couldn't stand having her backside touched, so whenever a recollection of the night's events crept up on her, she pushed it aside. Bones would just have to be careful. She couldn't control her triggers, nor her reactions, and she didn't want to explain to anyone that having her rear end touched was the worst feeling in the world.

To clear her mind, the young Pi began to walk again, wondering if anybody was out and about yet this early in the morning.

Each morning had been cooler and cooler, and this past morning Dovev had woken several hours before daylight to enjoy the chilling air. It had been pitch black, and the beast wandered with only the faint glow of stars upon his ghostly pelt.

His lips were pulled over his enamel, tongue curling as the wolf let out a silent yawn. He stood in the brisk drawn, the wind blowing steadily across the floodplains. He shook out his thick coat in the breeze, his body parallel to the movement of the air and enjoying the rush of wind over his back. Blue eyes narrowing, Dovev scanned the grassy embankment of Swiftcurrent, content to watch the solitary bird wheel above the tall grasses in the pre-dawn glow.

The sun was growing stronger over the far east, and with the earth began to stir. His nostrils enflamed with the aroma of his newfounded pack, and Dovev slowly pivoted his neck to look over his haunches as a female approached the water. This ebony wolfling's arrival had not gone unnoticed within the ranks, and he had heard of her border meeting. Even her scent had been carried into the depths of the territory on the pelts of his packmates, which Dovev had scented curiously at in passing. The arctic creature's paws turned to point at her as he studied the female. Her pelt was scruffy and drawn, bright eyes catching the sunrays in their reflection as she bowed her head toward the creek. The older wolf padded in her direction, tail swinging slowly behind his flanks. The posture was noncommittal, and he held no assertiveness as his colorless pools wavered over her. She seemed to be soaking up the frosty current in the air as much as he. With a forward toss of his ears, he addressed her.
I don't think we've met.

It turned out that she wasn't alone this morning. A wolf approached, his features strikingly similar to Ira's, albeit with a touch of maturity her fellow yearling presently lacked. Although the stranger didn't bother with a dominant posture, she dipped her head and let her tail drop limply behind her. Bones knew she was the lowest-ranking member of the pack yet now and was happy to defer to those above her.

Her lips twitched in response to his words. "Ahoy there," she replied, speaking more softly than usual because of the early hour, perhaps. "Me name's Bones. I've only recently returned to the creek; I was part of it in the spring, when Cap'n Fox ruled. And ye are?" She avoided looking him directly in the eye, though her spring green gaze passed over his face, memorizing it even as her nose twitched, cataloguing his individual scent.

He hid the oncoming grin from Bones, it's twitching brought on by her swung words. The immature female had an accent in her voice, something he never had the pleasure of listening to. Her blackened face was upturned to his, staring past him as the arctic creature pondered her response.

It was probable that when Bones had come to Swiftcurrent, Dovev was still holed up in Porcupine Ridge. The male enjoyed his solitude and freedom to bound across snowy slopes. Not that he gretted coming to lower elevations, as Dovev could see why the young wolf would want to return to Swiftcurrent's land.

His gray eyes caught her green ones as they scrupulously scanned his body. She seemed a little deferred by his presence, and Dovev stepped away from the river. He circled once before placing his large frame to rest, back paws stretched casually to the water.
Cap'n Fox? he parroted wryly, pleasantly amused by her idioms. He wondered where Bones had developed such speak, and if this place had dragged her away from Swiftcurrent for her absent months. And I am Dovev. I'm not as lucky as you to be able to say I've been here awhile... But then, you're the one who deserves another welcome.

He made himself comfortable and even as he sat, he repeated her words. "Aye," she answered simply. He seemed amused by her speech. Bones's lips twitched in a friendly smile. She knew she talked funny. Before being abducted and taken back to Tortuga, she had begun to lose her "accent." It was back in full force these days, though she looked forward to the day when it began to fade again.

"Nice to meet ye, Dovev, and thanks for the welcome. How long have ye been a part of the creek? Were ye here for all the shenanigans with The Sunspire?" she wondered conversationally, taking a seat across from him.

A small mist was being blown off the river farther upstream, causing clouds of vapor to float gently over the river banks. The young female had taken a seat across from Dovev's wide, spade-shaped front paws.
I'm afraid I wasn't. I only came about a week ago. His gray eyes crinkled slightly at Bones' descriptor for pack activity, and he shifted slightly so that his ears were better trained on her.
What do you mean, shenanigans? Dovev had learned something... important from Bazi. Perhaps Bones knew about it, or something more had occurred in the summer and spring of Swiftcurrent.

The brevity of his stay surprised her, earning a smile. He was newer than her in many ways, then. Perhaps she could show him around the creek, take him by some of her favorite spots. She dogeared the idea, deciding to mention it later on in the course of the conversation.

He didn't know about the dealings with The Sunspire and the aspiring Chronicler saw her chance to shine. "Not so long ago, the creek was ruled by Cap'n Fox. Sometime after I left — or was taken, rather, by me wench mother and her band of scurvy dogs — two of the crew members acted out and she made 'em walk the plank. They set up shop in the nearby mountains — too close. The packs went at each other. The Sunspire wolves even took some of our crew captive, though they were given back when Fox tossed her cap to Bazi instead.

The creek lost some other good buccaneers along the way too," Bones lamented, staring into the distance. "Many of the creek wolves I knew and loved are gone, spread across the wilds now. Cap'n Fox now stands at the helm of Blacktail Deer Plateau and the faithful Tuwawi and Njal live a week's travel from here, near a glacier." Her eyes found their way back to Dovev, realizing he would probably not share in her personal sadness over these developments.

His orbs glazed over his stubbed nails as the youthful creature spoke; her voice one of a natural speaker, however accented it was. The brute whose coloring was one of sun-bleached bones absorbed the information silently, adding it to the growing stockpile of his knowledge on Swiftcurrent. First the meeting with Falwasi, Scimitar, and Shadow where the grey-eyed beast had learned of Bazi's... discriminatory actions towards some of the pack. Now, Bones recalled her own biography in which facts about the past Swiftcurrent came to light.

When Dovev had first set foot in the Teekons the park was sparsely populated. The scent trails of wolves were few and far between, and his encounters with others often took place only when he sought them out. But now the population had boomed and many things had happened since then. Bones provided only a small window to whatever drama Dovev had the pleasure of missing out on.

Bones had finished speaking, her verdant jewels tracing back to his. Dovev contemplated the ebony and silver female's turbulent family. Her sorrow seemed to burn a tiny but persistent flame in the back of her irises. He could empathize her past to the best of his ability, calling on his experience to provide whatever consolation she needed.
Does this past still haunt you, then? he pried, willing to hear out this wolf's thoughts and citations on those she considered friends and family who had left or mistreated her.

When she finished, Dovev posed only a single question in response: "Does this past still haunt you, then?" Her eyes squinted slightly and she studied his face, wondering if he meant her history in the creek or her background in Tortuga. She hadn't actually mentioned the latter specifically, yet she'd made several references. Bones wondered if he was curious, especially because of her peculiar dialect.

"No," she answered, "I don't let me past haunt me." One way or the other, that was the honest answer. Yes, she had scars — physical and emotional — but she would never let any of that drag her down. "I've been through some rough stuff in- and outside of the creek. But I'll never let it get the best of me," she said firmly, spring green eyes twinkling.

"Would ye like to hear about me birthplace, Tortuga?" she asked after a moment, sensing his continued curiosity. She didn't have to get into the nitty gritty details — and she wouldn't — but she could tell Dovev her story. It was an interesting tale, for sure, and she'd always freely shared it before. She would just omit the graphic details of her latest stay at Keelhaul Bay.

The story slowly faded, and the girl turned to look down at Dovev. Her voice had gained confidence, and finally the answer to his prying question seemed to outline her thoughts on her past obstacles. His ears were turned toward her as his grayscaled pools wavered out over the creek.

Her defiant reply to signify she was only looking to the future caused Dovev's tail to thump once in merriment. It was a touchy subject when it came to family with Bones, it seemed, but she wanted to push through whatever had stood in her way. It was an agreeable tactic- there was no use dwelling on the past. He could only hope that it didn't meaning out of sight, out of eye.

He remained quiet as Bones spoke about a place called Tortuga. The brute always had a slight trouble pronouncing foreign lands, as there had been one 'voice' that the northern wolves had used. And no doubt her Tortuga would differ far from that.
Please! I'd love to hear about it. And then maybe I shall tell you about the Tuq, in return?

"Aye, I'd like that," Bones replied before licking her lips and beginning. "Tortuga is a huge, unruly pack living south down the coastline. They claim Keelhaul Bay and Turtle Island. It's a bunch of pirates and other miscreants. There's actually about a dozen smaller crews. Me crew was called Blackflag." Her eyes flickered, then darkened. "I've had a love/hate relationship with me crew since the day I was born." It was clear by her tone that it had since devolved entirely into hate.

"Me mother, Cutlass, was a thief and a whore. She led Blackflag on raids, looting surrounding packs. During one of her raids, she seduced me dad then ran off the second the deed was done. There were three of us but Skull and Kraken are long gone now. It was just me living with me strumpet mother and her ruffians." Back then, they'd had something of a code and life was tough but tolerable...

"Then I had a fight with me mother and ran off to find Atticus. And I did! I found him right here in these wilds. But then me bitch dam came after me, picked a fight with the creek, then dragged me back to Tortuga, where she made me into a slave to punish me." Bones stopped there, unwilling and perhaps unable to delve further into detail. It would have to be left to Dovev's imagination.

"As me first birthday approached, Cutlass cut me loose." The yearling did something quite uncharacteristic right then. She spat violently sideways, to illustrate her feelings toward her dam. "And I found me way back here to the creek. And I'll never, ever go back to Tortuga."

Even through the thick accents, Bones had a way of describing a rather rough first year in an illuminating way. His ears flattened and twisted when the yearling described her mother. Apparently things were done differently among the 'pirates'. If a wolf was slated for torture in the north, it was made apparent. But Bones had been subjected to some sort of psychological and perhaps even psychical mistreatment.

I can't say it's been an easy life for you, then, he reprised, his eyes having glanced from her mouth to the glistening saliva on the grass, to her face again. Another idiom he hadn't seen before, but it seemed to emphasize her point. The male tilted his skull upwards.
Swiftcurrent should be enough to build up your pride? Dovev queried, knowing that perhaps what she needed was a base for feeling safe and unthreatened by her family, something he had learned a lot about.

Bones thought on Dovev's words a moment before agreeing, "No, not easy. But not totally horrible, either. I am much happier now that I am home," she added in response to his question. "Tortuga is part of me past and nothing more. The creek, it's me future."

She paused for a moment, then queried, "So, what's Tuq?" Her pewter head canted to the side, revealing her candid curiosity.

With a nod, Dovev complied with Bone's assessment of her own mini-autobiography. She seemed well enough now, a strong spirit against the ides of her foes.
It was now his turn to speak.

The Tuq is a collective, a system of packs who adhere to one religion and a common ancestor. They live far to the north, right on the fringes of the ever-ice. It was a flat area, bordered by impossibly high mountain ranges whose domes were capped in a permenant hat of snow. The perma-frost tundra was wide and stretched for thousands of miles, its reaches bordering immortal ice that remained frozen for the entire year.

Each pack claimed kinship with its neighbor, but each one had a linage specific to its' pack. Our ranges may have overlapped, but we still held a destinct identity: the Odivau pack, the Kitru, so on... We may have been one big family, but it wasn't without its' feuds, Dovev smirked, his tail sliding across the earth. But the system functioned pretty well. It helped to have a common culture, even when it came to giving names.

"That sounds like Tortuga," Bones replied, "only where I'm from, feuds are the norm." She licked her lips thoughtfully. "So what is the religion they follow? And who is their common ancestor?" Beyond their one similarity, their homelands were vastly different and she was genuinely interested in hearing much more detail about his.

Our common religion is tied with our ancestors. His face took on a critical, atheistic light. The story is that an eagle took clay and molded it into the shape of a wolf, and then lightning struck it and created the First Wolf, Mut, or 'mother'. She was said to be the color of sacred red ochre. I think it's more likely the Tuq was made from wolves traveling over a frozen sea far to the west.

Mut was said to have created the Mist, or the dream world where spirits live. Along with that she created the Thunder Beings, the Rainbow Serpent... He seemed a little bored by his pack's beliefs. They had never resonated with him. Anyways. As the cost of having so much Power, the snow stained her fur permanently white. 'Ov', 'ev', 'av', are suffixes to a name and are homages to this belief. I have a daughter who knows far better about this than I do, Dovev finished with a grin.
I was there just to protect them.

Though he indulged her request for details, Bones could tell that Dovev didn't necessarily follow the beliefs he described. In fact, he sounded a little bored by it all. When he finished, the yearling took his mention of his daughter as a polite indication that he didn't have much else to say on the subject. The yearling would let it rest, even if everything — particularly the concept of a rainbow serpent — greatly intrigued her.

"Very interesting! Does yer daughter live here?" Bones asked, smoothly transitioning the subject. Maybe she could seek her out and find out more, as Dovev seemed to be implying.

The male's head had ducked to lick idly at stray hairs pulled loose in the morning wisps, a pink tongue showing uncharacteristic tenderness to the defiant tufts that lined his collarbone.

I'm glad you're more interested it than I was, he couldn't help to respond, a light laugh rumbling in his hollow throat. But his face looked like it had been etched in iron at the mention of his daughter.

Yes, she's here now. Left our last home not long after I did, I suppose. He still hadn't decided his true plans in dealing with her. Her ill-suited fit to her former pack had rung shame and embarrassment upon Dovev and the remaining kin up north. It was enough to let a cool rage settle in inside him, icy tendrils creeping up his throat.
I hope you're on better terms with your 'Atticus'.

She saw his face change when she asked about his daughter. Bones's ears slipped backward apprehensively, wondering if she'd unknowingly touched on a tender subject. Before she could think of what to say, he mentioned her father and the yearling understood the implication: Dovev and his progeny were estranged.

"I'm on good terms with me dad," Bones said, "though I haven't seen him in a while. As soon as I'm feeling better, I intend to go visit him." She wasn't sure if talking about her good relationship with her own father might bother Dovev, so she left it at that.

Bones suddenly remembered that she'd left the recently-accepted Ira all alone. He would probably be waking up soon and if she wasn't there, he might worry. She didn't want to have to explain why she'd left without a word, though the yearling knew she would have to let Ira know about her trigger zones so they could both be careful. Her throat felt tight at the thought.

Realizing she'd lapsed into silence, Bones said, "It was nice to meet ye, Dovev, but I need to get back to me companion before he wakes up. I'm sure I'll see ye around." She proffered a winning smile and waved her tail. The Pi then pivoted and began to lope away along the creek, back toward where she'd left Ira soundly sleeping.

to the archives! :D

His head dipped in return as the female took her leave. She seemed well-mannered for a 'pirate'.

Dovev stood up as she left, noticing some time had passed since they had first sat down. The sun's curve was fully above the horizon now, a cool white-yellow flame that beat down upon his irises. As Bones' scent faded, the white beast turned back from the way he came and trotted off to find some mid-morning snacks.