Volk Sredi nas 《Wolf Among Us》

@Ivev



After his meal of the rabbits, the richly black and fiery brown man lay upon the grass, his back limbs tucked under him, forlimbs placed infront of him, as he basked in the heat of the sun. Having warm weather was something the Russian was not used to, for his life was accustomed to the frigidness of his homelands biome. This atmosphere was an alien experience to him, yet he handled it well. As well as he could.

Vector, though his emerald irises were hidden from view behind closed lids, his ears rotated constantly, them serving him by being his eyes, when the orbs were not in use. He heard the chirping of the little flying things as they played in the heavens. The wind blew quite lightly, in contrast to the constant flow of icey brisk his home held. He enjoyed it while he had it, yet didn't endulge to where he would be distracted by such petty things. Forever focused, Vector held himself to that morality.

A surge of breath from within him came out in the form of a sigh, one who's being was made to announce his content at his position. Still refusing to walk upon the borders of the nearby pack, he waited, hoping the Alpha would appear, to give the dark flare pelted male a place to call home.

The underbrush pushed back against the small but lithe wolf's chest as she moved like water through crevices in rock, a translucent star upon the ripple of a pond. Such was the nature of the forest, still an unfamiliar entity compared to her homeland in the north, where pine forests were often barren on their floors as granite slabs and small pockets of dirt compromised them.

She had wandered here and there, far and wide with paws roughened by the seasons. Even if they began to sore, she knew of the proper precautions to soothe the callouses and rest her feet. Still, sometimes the dreamer wished she was still among her kind, traipsing through endless dunes of snow in an eternal pursuit of the sun as the immortal wintry night slowly turned above, the stars forever gliding across the navy heavens.

The trees lessened here, opening into a small copse that let light filter down. It was a warm afternoon that beckoned life to relax and stretch out in the final heat of the summer, but for a wolf, it was mildly irritating. Their winter coats were coming in strong, and Ivev stuck to the shadows as she skirted the open space. But she had hardly moved when something restless stirred under a tree, a rusty pile of embers. Her nose twitched with the smell of her kind, and inanimately the white wolf placed one paw in front of the other. Her neck was craned forward, blue eyes dancing in the forest shade as she studied the creature. He was alone; it would wise to approach.

He heard the muffle of silenced brush from forest foliage. He heard the approach, though still a bit father away, his satellite like auds sliding to the nearby soul. The 3mph breeze brought forth the scent of the creature, the scent of lupine. Another wolf. And from the sudden stop of sounds, he confirmed the wolf had spotted him, almost in a meditation like state, as he lay in the rays of the golden orb perched in the cloudless sky. He would have to connect the dots on his own, in this situation. Meaning he would have to see whoever had come across him, as well, most likely entice a conversation, and find a bit about this wolf.

Raising his dark lids, the man gazed across to his left, where his ears had informed him that he had company, with the confirmation of his orbs to prove his ears correct.
There stood the wolf, long pale, yet muscled deceitfully under the snow lusted color of seeming soft apparel. The figure of the body, the stature of poise, the light held position, suggested female. With the gust of breeze, again, his assumption was unflawable.

He wrapped his thickly laveshed tail to his right side, as he swiveled to face the new company he now had to interrogate. With calm and calculating vivid green eyes, he watched her, awaiting her next move.

Nothing happened since her arrival, merely the male lifting his head in acknowledgement. Vivid green eyes were their own leaves between a browned and ruddy complexion, fur long enough to create a wavy mantle as his neck turned to study her. Something was alluring about this silent beast reposed in the heat of the afternoon, and quietly Ivev passed through the ankle deep grass to stand near him. Above the trees branched out and danced in the cool wind, and their leaves played out a show that dappled the mat beneath her feet.

It's hard not to notice when someone's alone, the white creature spoke, her banner flagging once before the female circled. Her front paws stretched out first before she laid her entire body to rest, facing the male who was half submerged in the darker shadows. He held no other scents besides his own, declaring himself independent from any pack. But Ivev had caught whiffs of territory markers farther up in the hills, and so it was easy to infer this brute was perhaps searching for a place to settle.

I hope you don't mind if two birds roost in the same branch for a bit, Ivev half smiled, her right black lip tugged up to reach for eyes.

im so sorry I took forever. Storm destroyed wifi.

Seconds, precious little unretrievable things, passed, as both lupines analyzed the other. Then the female girl began her graceful and dainty travel to him. A reasonable action, given the circumstance. Vector stayed silent, a no expression placed upon his face, the silence deafening until she came closer.

It's hard not to notice when someone's alone, she spoke, her bell like words ringing across the short distance between them, as she had herself, narrowed it.
Vector pondered whether it would be wiser to stay ominous and anonymous with his silence, or to place himself in a nicer perspective.
The russian didn't win, this time.

As he studied her, his vibrant verde stare went from her fur, slightly mezmorized by the little facets of light that played across the sheen of her fur, bursting forth sparkles of the rays into his own face, as they reflected off hers.

"I couldn't agree more. Sometimes, you work with what you have. And as for the moment, I have myself. "

The femme swished air currents around her form, as she waved her white tail, gracefully circling a precise 360° , laying her ivory form down upon the sweet tall and healthy thick hair of earth, the green shards being silenced under the white downy of her lowered body.

" I hope you don't mind if two birds roost in the same branch for a bit.", she continued, already and apparently making herself comfortable. Too late to refuse. Not that Vector had come to such a thought. He could have some company, before meeting with the leader of the nearby pack. Until he showed up, conversation would have to do.

"Stay as long as you wish. It is not my lands to force you to leave off of. Plus, having a talk with someone after such a long time of talking with no one, it's something that is not too bad." Vector spoke in the English that drenched the continent of which he hoped he could call home.
That didnt mean his russian accent, dissappeared, though it smoothly laced the English words, showing his heritage had never left him.

Vector turned face to the trees, the thick masses of tall wooded things that held leaves he had never seen before. Everything was new. Time after time 5 he reminded himself this. That meant he would have to change a bit about himself. Precisely what, he didn't know. But he had plenty of time to figure it out.



"

It was hard to ignore the way he spoke, his enunciation and accent of his words something akin to a bear or the low creak of an oak late at night. She had never heard such an accent, and it was enough to cause her ears to stand straight up, quivering with curiosity. It wasn't hard to decide whether she enjoyed it or not, though, as it was quite a pleasant accompaniment to the sunny day.

Stay as long as you wish. It is not my lands to force you to leave off of. Plus, having a talk with someone after such a long time of talking with no one, it's something that is not too bad.

And how long has that been? she questioned with a slight tilt of her head. The brute didn't seem weak or tired from the hard life of a lonership, whose toll was already beginning to set in on Ivev. She would have much preferred if he wasn't chasing her off the forest, something he seemed much capable of doing.

Vector watched the female react to his voice, and he could not help but smile a tiny, almost imperceptible smile. Was this maybe the first time she had heard a russian accent? From her world, he could understand why.

The fire orange pelted male listened intently, all the while paying attention to the surrounding area. Old habits die hard.

"And how long has that been? ", the snow caped girl inquired. His brain flew through explanations, reasonable words, lies and truths alike, but he naturally beat aroun the bush with the answer. He was not one to get personal with someone. Nothing could make him that soft. Could it?

" I have just recently come to these lands, not long enough for an entire moon to pass, but an amount of time to be settled in, a bit." his deep voice playing the words in the manner of a perfected instrument. Green eyes found her blue ones, as he turned his emerald stare.

"How long have you walked these lands alone?"

He studied her figure, the girl who could be passed off as weary from travel. It did not seem as though she was ridiculously fatigued by the lone life, but she held a bit of loneliness in her orbs.

Her toes flexed against the cool grass as her pools trailed on them, watching as her blunt black claws pushed away blades of green. The brute seemed calm enough by the lilt in his accented voice, and Ivev couldn’t help but analyze his answer. Within a moon, this fiery cloaked beast had traversed into the sprawling lands. They were in the northeastern reaches of the park, a heavily wooded area that bordered the mountain ridges that split most of the land in half. To the southeast there was the Bypass that gated the far eastern parts of the flatlands.


No doubt his short stay had been comfortable- the deer were running well, and there were plenty of run-off streams for him to cool off in if the heat became too overpowering.

That’s good to hear, Ivev responded to his description. But she couldn’t provide her own story. I guess I could say I’ve only been here for a short time.... Even though I’ve traveled around a lot. I haven’t quite found a place to settle yet. She glanced over his muscled shoulder into the woods. Are you planning to check those wolves out? she queried, referring to the faint scent of a pack that lingered in the musky forest air.

Her inquiry of his plans to join the nearby pack had almost caused him to tilt his head. He was obviously on the land, for a reason. He had not passed the border, but being close to it should have been a clear indication that those were his plans. Vector did not question her level of intelligence, nor look down on her for asking such a question, though his darker side wanted to sneer at it.

"Yes," replied the russet russian, his deep voice passing between them, and drifting off in the light wind.
"I do plan to join them, if the leader allows me to. One who owns such rich lands, must be a leader of great power and respect. And for that, I plan to give him what I can, which is myself."

Vector had not meant to continue his elaboration after his confirmation that he planned to join the pack. His brain chided him for the action. Too late.

sorry for wait, im done being busy!
>.<




He seemed a little... uneasy and guarded, his emerald eyes frozen over as the arctic-born wolf spoke, easing herself into the lull of the autumn afternoon. She herself remained quiet, nose twitching occasionally. Had they been any closer to the border, there would have been wolves swarming over them, and Ivev would've made a strategic exit. But their small clearing was sheltered from anything, including the wind that blew over the tree tops ahead. She dropped her head onto her paws, a small breath floating from her mouth.

He seemed to be willing to offer up his own body to the nearby pack, and she became warily curious. You'd pledge your own life to a pack? How well do you know them? she questioned, her voice not obtrusive but mildly full of wonder and amazement. If he had recently come to the park, then he had no familial or blood ties to them. What would make him so ready to join their ranks?

Its perf fine, no prob. You came back just in time, actually. Welcome back. Im gonna pretend like Vect hasn't joined NB just yet. :P.

The man felt her question slither into his mind, a tiny ice white silked banner that held the words she said. And his brain read them. Over. And over. Again. Perhaps because it was a good question.

Trust was an issue for him. The word itself made him want to wretch. Trust. It stung.
It could be an upbringing and a downfall. A blessing, and a curse. But he was trained to not believe in such frivolous things, non necessaries being a boulder upon the ankle of a drowning soul. Trust was death, in his eyes.

"I have no other alternatives that could provide me a method of survival in this new land. " he said, suppression of anger that boiled at his individual weakness not evident in his mono deep tone.

For a wolf, finding the perfect amount of something was one of the most daunting goals in their lives. Seeking out packs, families, mates, homes, it was their determining factors in their careers- something Ivev had watched like a leaf being sucked along in a torrential river. For there was no control on what truly happened to themselves, yet they would always bring it upon themselves.

The female could sense an undercurrent of uneasy anger in his answer, something that drove her to look for the cause.

You're subjecting yourself to being led, purely for survival reasons? She seemed to be even more drawn into the subject, like a moth to a light, or a child fascinated by the mysteries of the earth.

"Vyzhit', chtoby vyzhit'", came his non hesitant answer. A chant that was installed into the very core of his being. Survival was everything. He had to rely on no one but himself in the wilds, as he ran away from the very pack that he had been born into, because he knew he would not survive with them.
They wanted Vector dead.

As he lay lost in his past, emeralds turned to the aquamarine topaz's of the hellion who persisted her search for his reasoning. This girl, she was curious. It was unfortunate how often curiousity killed cats. Wolves, alike.

"It means Survive to Survive."

Vector continued to gaze at the girl, a stare of foresty souls and glacial ice spirits that collided, the effort to see through to eachother.

His accented speech had finally revealed his native tongue, Russian, a place Ivev had only heard stories about. It was across a massive sea, but eons ago it had been easily accessible via a land bridge. The depth of his voice resonated a cliché- survive, to survive.

There was no hint of resignation in the rust and ochre colored wolf's face, but instead it was the fact of providing for himself. Although he came across as independent, Ivev knew the lone wolfship was extremely difficult and taxing, and with winter looming, he had little chance. Nor did she know how he was raise, may it be in a warrior's society of a tight-knit pack that valued family. She would test the subject no further.
I don't think we've introduced ourselves. I am Ivev, she responded in a different timber.

A slim slit of his conscious reminded him to have manners.

"I am Vector. "

The hessian gave the fae a mild tip of the head as an acknowledgment of the introduction. Manners. Right. A thing he couldn't learn in his homeland, only in the human house where that collie girl, who trusted him, head taught him the many customs of being polite.
Vector almost scoffed.

"Merry meet, Ivev.", he said, giving the cloud mirroring female a look the suggested that the sudden introduction she did, had no reprocussions.

Vector. She knew of the term, its use in describing trajectory in relation to direction, and the white wolf's tail beat against the grass. A scientific term. Something in relation to patterns and discovery, her field of interest. But Vector didn't seem the type for sitting and watching the stars- more of a fighter who was loyal, strong, a rock against the rush of high tide.

A look of light disgust crossed his face in a flash, and Ivev's blue eyes shot up. What would that be for? Her own kobs above her orbs knitted together in slight confusion, her pale gaze locked on his face.

What is it?

His reply almost zipped out of his maw before his brain had forced it closed. Glupo. Almost looked like an idiot infront of a female. No matter gender, he didn't want to look a fool infront of anyone. He almost slipped up, amd said 'What is what? '

Instead, his intellect swiftly picked up pieces and shards of words to form an appropriate answer for the questioning angelic girl.

With unchanging optics, he spoke.

"There was a girl I met in these lands, many Moons travel from here, on a country side. Rancher. I lived with humans, and there was a dog they owned, ...a collie. Her name was Nina, they called her, but her real name was Destiny. She taught me many things of How to be civilized, In the mist of company. If you had met me before I met her, ... we would not be speaking. "

Vector's gems flashed from the many memories he held off the lives he had taken, just to get here.

Her lips seemed to purse at the mention of human establishments. Ivev was lucky enough to never had encountered such a thing, but the stories of being hunted, trapped, chased, brutalized beyond belief were the stuff of nightmares. Never mind a bear; the stinging shot of a human's gun were a wolf's bane.

The ranch that Vector spoke of caused her pelt to bristle slightly with unease, and she bit back a growl. Normally calm and inquisitive with her words, it was something that always put the female on edge.

To be civilized? What do you mean, not speaking? Ivev stared at him, off-putted by his words. So he hadn't been raised in a pack..? Was he some sort of human experiment? Ivev's ears flattened, looking disgruntled.

The air began to spark with the tension rising between the two lupines, and Vector actually wondered whether it was his fault or not.
Reprimanded by his head, it was a unanimous 'yes'.

The russian felt her backing off, her facial features and body language telling him he had disturbed a part of her that was once quite pleasant a few seconds ago.
Not anymore.

Vector responded to her questions with a softer tone, tilting his head just a bit.

"I learned english here, Ivev. That is the speaking that I speak of. As for civilized, what you may consider brutal on these lands, would be customs deemed natural, at my birth pack. "

The recon had kept his eye level one with hers, and stared deep into the orbs she held as her own.
The russet knew he he was telling only fractures of the truth. Words gilded with the appropriate stares and voice tone to give the impression that he spoke the truth.
He didnt know this female, so the revealing of his history, he wasnt too fond of.

Perhaps his sweeping generalizations was also something Vector had learned in his strange past. For brutality was no secret in the icy north. But her face was swept clean of emotion then, a reflection less plane of ice that held two almond-shaped jewels that had lost their sheen and instead had faded to a sharp glint. But she wasn't one to be easily pushed or riled, rather drawn in and quiet. Vector was already quite.. strange, and Ivev had coped with it. She had learned enough, and seen many facets of his personality make small debuts.

With a small sigh, a tired smile spread slowly onto her lips, and she pushed herself up into a sitting position.
Talking about pasts is depressing for you, it seems, she surmised on the fact that it was causing a bit of a rift. Most of the afternoon light had faded by now, and it wouldn't be long before the curve of the moon showed its face.

Vector observed her manner droop, and wondered if her curiousity was sated. Her enthusiasm of speech was waning.
Yet her statement. Intresting.

"Yea, when your family is tracking you down to kill you, you don't tend to like it, very much. "

His tone had softened, his accent blending words, almost soothing.

"That is why I do not speak of it. "

His orbs fell.

No, that would be terrible. Although, back home, we did have some... controversial ways with dealing with estranged family members, Ivev replied, trying to explain lightly. There was no use in going into the gory details of how her own relatives had ripped half a wolf's face off for abandoning their clan. Her fur became slightly ruffled at the thought.

They had been talking for quite awhile, and the earth was getting cooler and cooler with the coming of night. She herself was tired, and there was some distance to cover as she traveled west to the coast. For now, she needed a quite place to curl up and tuck her toes under her stomach to keep them from the cold.

Turning to study the falling sun, Vector's eyes noticed the shadows lengthening about them. He wondered if there was a home the ivory before him could go to, one she felt safe in, after all. He knew she was not of a pack.

Silently he raised himself to his fours.
Gazing down at her, the recon murmured,

"There is an abandoned den southwest of here. Less than a mile. It is hidden in bricket trees, and is a few steps to the left of a shallow creek. Last resident who lived in it hadn't been scented, from what I've gathered, in 2 years. "

He knew where his own den was, and didnt mind sleeping there for the night.

feel free to archive, or conclude!


The female had risen to her own, smaller paws, feeling the cool rush of air to her stomach from where she had been laying on it before. She felt his green eyes on the crown of her skull, and gave a nod of assent as he spoke. With directions to some shelter, Ivev would rest up and perhaps catch a few small meals before setting off again. The break she had taken in the Russian male's company was alluring and the small white female hoped to take a few more days rest.

Good talk, she teased lightly with a wave of her banner, and began to move forward. Perhaps we will meet again.

With a bump, she nudged his shoulder with her's and slid past him. The grass was damp and fragrant under her feet as it stretched between the sparse trees. Although the den seemed to be located near the nearby pack's territory, it was out of the way enough for Ivev to feel comfortable. She appreciated the rusty brute's advice. She would glance over her shoulder once before fading into the forest and setting off into the twilight.