Cassiopeia's View Shooting Stars

It was night when she arrived at the view.

The stars shone brightly above her, twinkling within their dark realm.  As she walked she enjoyed the cool touch of stone beneath her paws and the wind ruffling her coat.  It was cold out tonight, as winter approached and a soft blanket of snow fell from the heavens, but while Odie felt the chill it didn't bother her too much with everything else that was currently on her mind.

She knew she should be tired, but couldn't bring herself to sleep just yet with all the anderline pulsing through her.  She could imagine her Mother and Father along with her younger siblings asleep together and the thought brought warm feelings to her heart.  Though she dearly hoped that neither her Father or Mother lay awake nervous for her now that she was on her own, on her journey to Silvertip

Valette had traveled far from her home now, all for the message that she needed to bring to Silver Creek. The female was tired from her day traveling. The darker female decided to climb part of the mountain range before it would go dark but she didn't really make that.

Now she was mostly looking for a place to bed down for the night. As she was looking she came across a fresh scent, a wolf had passed. She decided to check it out. It didn't take her long to find this female and let out a chuff to signal she was there. She didn't want to startle the other.

"Hi there," she greeted.

For a while longer she wandered alone, a soft breeze rustling through her pelt when the sound of another made her turn.  For a moment she wondered if this was Steady, becaue after all while she couldn't point him out specifically anymore unless directed or by a lucky guess, she remembered his fur was black, but soon enough she realized that this was not Steady, but a female with a black coat.

"Hi," she greeted in turn, eyeing the female curiously.  "Do you live around here?"  She decided to ask, just for precations.  Perhaps while this was not Steady, she could still be a Silvertip wolf.  After all her smell... the starting to fade smell of her pack smell vaguely familiar, like that Silvertip male... but it was different all the same so who knew.

Valette was pleased that she was met with friendliness. The female actually wanted to know more about these lands and if she was going in the right direction. She did pass a couple of packs she was curious about but didn't stop because she wanted to get back to Keoni and Nikai.

"No I do not. I was about to ask you the same," she chuckled. "I am a ranger. I am traveling to a pack in the Hinterlands to tell them a message," she explained to the other. This female was younger than her. Valette was curious to why she was alone. It was not really okay for her to be alone right? Though she did smell of a pack.

"Are you alone? Because in this season you shouldn't be alone," she kindly worried. "I'm Valette! I'm the Beta at Easthollow."

Well, she wasn't a Silvertip wolf... still Odie remained on alert just in case.  She found herself curious though as to what this message was.  What would drive Valette, as she called herself, to travel to another pack to exchange a message.  Well perhaps what she doing wasn't all that different.

"I'm headed to Silvertip mountain," she replied in turn with a shrug, "for some unfinished bussiness."  For a moment she paused.  "I'm Odette by the way, it's nice to meet you Valette."  Then she watched the Valette to gauge her reaction.

Valette's face fell into a frown as she listened. She went to Silvertip for unfinished business...? But they left Silvertip grounds. Then she introduced herself and Valette realized that she bumped into Adeline's sister!! Instantly her eyes roamed over her body. She seemed in excellent shape. What to do now, tell her where Steady is located? She didn't seem too happy about the 'unfinished business' part.

Valette cleared her throat. "I am afraid that the Silvertip Pack is gone," she spoke to the other. Perhaps she could pretend she was just a scout from another pack, but then again she would lie and that was not who she was. "They moved to another location," she informed the other.

Silvertip had moved.  Odie curled almost curled her lip at the sound of this.  Steady had broken that pack, what her parents had built seemed to be gone now completely.  Steady had killed it.  While that was obviously not the whole story, that was what Odette thought and what she would believe.

She wanted to know where Steady had relocated the pack.  She wanted to find him and make him pay and in order to do that she would lie if she had to.  She wanted to find him and make him feel her pain.

"Oh... that's really to bad to hear."  She gave a small hesitant pause.  "I must say though that I am curious to hear where they relocated to."  She remarked rather casually.  "I mean I wanted to talk to their Alpha... Steady," it took her much effort to state his name and title without any angered effect, but she needed to know where he was and needed a pathway paved for her to find him.  It suddenly felt like the only way.

Valette pushed her ears forward when the other. Valette was not master but she could tell that the female had trouble with Silvertip as a pack. She was one of the lost puppies. She had to be! Perhaps while she was away she started to think bad of Steady. Valette was super loyal to Steady, so that is where they might clash, badly so.

"What do you want to tell Steady if I may ask? Just out of curiosity," she wondered, perhaps she could feel around first before she would tell the other that they moved to Easthollow and that Steady lived there. Adeline just left to her home lands, she would miss her sister by a week or more. That saddened Valette. She at least wanted her to have a sibling bond. "Maybe you could practice your speech on me!," she offered.

She found it a little unnerving that Valette suddenly wanted to know so much about her personal life.  Normally she would tell the story if she got to know someone better, but someone she had just met asking her about her personal life?  She didn't trust that.

"Why do you want to know about my personal life?"  She asked the black furred female curiously, with the smallest edge to her voice.  While she was curious as to why she was being asked of this, she also wanted to make sure that Valette knew that she wasn't entirely comfortable just spilling her whole story to her, someone that she'd just met.

Valette looked at Odette when she got suspicious. The female offered her a kind smile. "Well, I was thinking that if you would tell me what you want to tell Steady, I could tell him for you?," she spoke and tipped her head a bit. She looked into her green eyes, with no malice or judgement. She should explain her reasoning now. "Because Silvertip became Easthollow. I am the beta there. Steady is my alpha. I though perhaps it would be easier to tell your story to a stranger but then again, like you pointed out I don't know you," Valette spoke calmly.

The female looked at Odette but before she wanted the other to reply she wanted to make something quite certain. "I didn't live at Silvertip during the famine. I only heard what happened. Adeline still lives with us. I assume that she is your sister?," Valette spoke. She was not sure how the other was going to react to her words. Maybe she would be offended, which wasn't Valette's intention at all.

Valette was Steady's Beta.

She took a few shocked steps back at this news, surprise lit brightly in her eyes.  She was with him, steady... she was actually with him, they had become Easthollow.  She wanted to attack Valette, hurt her, make Steady feel her pain... she was desperate, but before she could do anything Valette stated she had not been there during the famine, which was probably why she was with him.  Maybe she didn't know!  Maybe there was still hope for her to turn Valette against him... and then there was Adeline.  Was her sister still there?  For a moment a sprinkle of hope brightened in within her... but then fear.  Did Adeline know?

"I bet he never told you what he did to me."  She remarked, her lips curling back not in anger to towards Valette but towards Steady.  "I bet he never told you how he broke apart everything I had left at Silvertip... he's the reason for my pain Valette, he's the reason I know none of my family anymore.  He's the reason for my nightmares of what happened.  He's the reason why I had to leave.  He's evil and I bet he's told you nothing."

Valette noticed that this female, young female she might add, had great anger towards Steady. She completely had misunderstood him. The dark female listened to her words that were almost spit out with anger. Steady was far from evil, but sometimes he had to do things that were unethical in some wolves' eyes. Clearly she was one of them. She was certain Odette had another perspective than that she had.

Valette decided to play dumb. "I am not sure what he did to you," she spoke. Because she had ideas what happened but perhaps the female could clarify it. "From my perspective he tried to save you all? I do not wish for you to bring up bad memories, Odette. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. Steady might have made a bad decision in the past he is not an evil wolf. Far from, at least in my eyes. He tries to do well by all. Sometimes that doesn't work," she spoke. She hoped that Odette would find calmness in Valette's calm demeanor. She didn't want this to become a fight. In fact she wouldn't hurt a girl that was already hurting so much.[/b]

Valette's words made her sound like she was blind to Odie.  Still a small part of her understood, once she had been in the same place... but when Steady had done what he did, she had saw him for who he really was.  A ruthless cannibal.

"He ate my Mom," she began, with a shudder at the memory.  "Then asked other to join in, he brought me and my brother... Stoic... but for some reason Adeline just wasn't there.  Anyways upon arriving I saw my Mother... dead and... and then that monster began to eat her and asked others to join him."  She tensed.  "It was terrifying... then Steady..." she hissed out his name between clenched teeth, "Steady offered me and my Brother a piece, torn away from her flesh," for a few moments she paused.  "Stoic was the first to run... I haven't seen him since then... I don't even know whether he's dead or alive.  I was the second to run... I ran far far away from that place, away from the monsters that reside there."  For a moment her eyes lifted to gauge Valette's reaction before contiuning.  "It was already bad enough, because a little while before that my other brother Solemn passed... we'd already expierence one death... I don't think cannibalism should have been the answer for another," she paused her breath shaky, "if you don't belive me though Valette, you just wait and watch, because one day Steady will show you who he really is just like he showed me... I once loved him as his niece, but now he is nothing to me."  She eyed Valette, "I'm just warning you."

Valette listened quietly to the full story that Odette was telling her. It fitted with what she heard, that they ate Zaria. She had curious things about Odette's mother, the mate of Fitzdutiful. She had been quiet in the beginning and she heard things from Mason too, who was not very pleased with his dad's mate. She felt horrible to see Odette with such heartache, with such pain driving her. The young female wanted to give her a hug.

"I will take your warning to heart, Odette," she spoke firstly. Her honest hazel eyes on the other. "But perhaps you are willing to listen to the perspective I know," she offered. "I am not saying it is the truth it is just my knowledge," she explained. "It is of my belief Zaria last wish was to provide food for her young. You. And Steady was just following those orders." Valette looked at Odette. Her face looking troubled. "But I was not there to confirm this or your story. But perhaps it gives you more rest to know this perspective on what happened," she spoke.

Adeline hadn't been as damaged as Odette, but Odette just told her that her sister hadn't been there. So hence why she might saw Steady as her own father. "If you don't want to see Steady I understand. If you want I can ask him about what happened that day and I can come tell it to you. If you trust me enough for it at least," she offered. "Steady wouldn't lie to me. I know him well. I--" She cared for him deeply, she realized. Perhaps she was blind. Blindly in love with him. She couldn't see his faults. In fact, she didn't want to see him. He was perfect in her eyes.

She still apeared to not get it and although Odie tried to make herself understand from Valette point of veiw from not being there, a deep anger still burned in her and a guilty part of her hoped that Valette would find out the hard way if she would not understand.  If she continued to be blind and defend Steady.

"You don't know anything Valette... you have no proof of what really went through Steady's mind that day, so how do you know he wouldn't lie to you?"  She paused for a moment, "or what?  Are you special now?"  She retorted sharply.  "And if you tell him anything about me... you tell him that it should've been him.  It should've been him."  Then she swiftly pulled away and padded off, wanting no more to do with with Valette. 

Valette was a bit surprised how bitter Odette sounded. The female was glad that the female wasn't really up for a fight, or would attack her for her beliefs. It was something concerning that she would need to talk about with Steady. She wanted to argue back but the female promptly left. She turned her back to her, and Valette could easily have attacked herself if she had any malice.

Yet she did not. The female was just saddened that she had so much hate in her heart. Valette was utterly loyal to Steady so she was not in doubt for a moment that he would lie to her or that he had evil in his heart. She saw how choked up he was over the fact that Keoni didn't want to see him. "Okay, bye then," she mumbled and frowned. Perhaps she caught her at a bad time. As least she knew of them if she wanted to come to their borders.

- end -