by sun and sea, by earth and air

Founding Howl for Horizon Ridge. If you wish to have your character join Horizon Ridge at the time of its founding, all that you need to do is reply to this thread answering Akhlut's howl. PM me with any questions. This thread will be officially dated 12/22, the date of Wolf's reopening to the public, and will remain open for a few days thereafter to give newcomers a choice of having their character as a founding member.

The Sea beckoned him, and in his Nereides bones he could feel the pull of the tides and in his Nereides ears he could hear the song in the crash of the waves. Perhaps his multitude of distant cousins were women who would disdain his intimacy with the Sea, but Akhlut knew they were simply blinded by their religious zeal. He knew differently. He knew that he belonged to the Sea. And when he felt the wash of foam and wave upon his paws, upon his chest, closing overtop his head, Akhlut knew that he was home. Such was the bliss in his heart and the sense of oneness with the ocean, the wolf nearly thought he had become his namesake, become the Akhlut of legend who was both wolf and whale, and he hoped against hope that he never need rise out onto the sand again.

Alas, he was canine still, and could not remain in the emerald-blue abyss. His black-and-white form was washed in onto the shore and he pulled himself to his paws and shook. The Sun beat down on his back, welcoming him back to Her domain, drying his fur, warming him despite the cool of the day. The male dipped his head with a smile, wondering how he had forgotten the pleasures of fresh air and bright sunlight that did, at times, rival the beauty of the Sea. He climbed slowly, and leisurely, up a cliffside, and meandered through the ancient sequoia trees that towered impossibly high and were dotted still with small bluffs of snow.

This close to the coast, it was too warm for snow the cling earnestly to the ground, but it was a reminder of winter still, and a sobering one. Akhlut knew his intentions, and although he had hoped to gain his sister's presence before now, he knew he could delay no longer. With determination in his heart, the black-and-white wolf ascended to the top of a rocky outcropping, where the trees thinned and all that remained was the vast openness of endless ocean stretching infinitely out before him.

As he reached that pinnacle, Akhlut found his nostrils filled suddenly with the scent of bear. It was, he decided, a good omen, signalling Atka's approval. The bear aspect of Akhlut's Creator-Goddess had been here and had blessed the place, and such was the weight of this token that the dark wolf lifted his head immediately in a howl. Akhlut Kesuk Nereides dubbed the place Horizon Ridge, and simultaneously he called it home.

He hoped that his song would reach those who were aligned with the Light as he was. Perhaps there would be none who shared his particular faith, and he would not ask that of them. But they would be strong, and brave, and honest, and true, and just. They would be hard-working and earnest and intelligent, and above all they would be loyal--both to Akhlut, and to the heart of Horizon Ridge.

Most of this is Jinx's new backstory!
Time to see how Jinx gets along with her new Kesuk relatives in a pack setting~!

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She had seen the Omen, and her lips had writhed over her teeth uncontrollably in a silent snarl of victory, while her heart tore itself asunder with the crushing knowledge that came with it. It was knowledge she would carry to her grave without ever uttering to another soul: the Omen had shown All.

Kaskae Kesuk was dead. Kerberos Aok was dead. Nutaaq. All followers of Atka, those wolves of Light, that had once stood upon Shearwater soil, dead. The massive black bear had hulked over the carcass of the white, with frothy blood pooled in the cavern of its maw. Its tongue and teeth had been baptised in her blood when it turned to Jinx, and in the dead bear's side, a gaping wound from whence the blood had come.

She was a simple wolf, and conclusions came easily: Sos had slain Atka. Dark had consumed Light. Victory had come at last for the Father, who had slipped malignantly back into his realm of shadow and spirits with the gleeful chuckling of an amused child.

(There was no room in her brain for the possibility that the white bear had died prior to being found by the black, nor that the black had become so terribly hungry, and diseased with a parasite unknown, it had succumbed to consuming the flesh of its own kind. There was no room in her brain, addled by the gods and the circumstances of her birth and the knowledge she had been raised with, to believe that the bears had been coincidentally there where the river had slowed enough for her to find footing, and that their presence did not irrefutably mean the death of all the wolves she love. That bear had then gone into hibernation, but she had merely witnessed it slip into the earth and disappear, a ghost come from the underworld.)

This knowledge now was sealed behind black lips that tightly sheathed a tongue bitten bloody within, and with it came a grief so powerful it drove her to the brink of insanity. Her paws took leaden steps along the river as she shivered with it, clinging to a resolve that Sos' victory was imminent, and had been known from the beginning. The fire was the first sign. She had missed the other signs, if they had been presented to her. Her memories were dashed with every step she took, so that when she came upon Blackfoot Forest soil, she scarcely remembered where she'd come from.

The vision faded; it was not for her to keep forever, yet it would be burned into her subconscious memory eternally, perhaps to reawaken on the eve of her death.

Her wolves were not where she had left them. A tired frown marred the wretched, starved, addled Kesuk's brow as she stepped gingerly along the once strong borders of Bon Dye, which had grown to be the largest of the packs here. Who were they? she wondered, wracking her brain for the names buried deep within it. Hawkeye. Pied. Leto. Vires. Some others she couldn't quite remember. Their scents had faded, as had Lecter's, she realized with a silent lurch of her heart. Her shaman, her mother's shaman and the one wolf she longed to possess above all others, had abandoned her cause as well.

The fine skin over her snout crinkled with displeasure as a sudden wave of anger rose in her throat like bile. Swallowing any desire to release it as violence, the Kesuk pressed on, investigating further the territory that was to be her crowning achievement, but it was all gone. Atka's last act, she internally wondered, but there was no confirmation. Her god was silent, and the loa were silent, but active; as she walked amidst the sacred trees, she could feel their presences pluck at the hair on her back, as acutely as though lightning sparkled across her coat and sent her skin tingling.

Wrathful steps had taken her gaunt body from that hallowed place of abandonment and carried her to the sea, where she could enjoy in the last throes of her sanity the crash of waves on shore. In the distance, the porpoise totem of her youth might have signalled her, but her eyes stared unseeing past the horizon. And then… A sound caught her attention and snapped it away from memories of her past. A cautious tilt of her head and lift of ears allowed her to discern the message, and though loyalty had long become a thing of Jinx's past, there was no denying the requirement of pack. Snow was fleeting on the coast here, but it was nonetheless winter; security in numbers was an instinct to the wolf, not a choice.

Without second thought, for feral wildness had gripped her as hunger turned to starvation and as grief turned to numbness and rage, the she-wolf lifted her snout to sing the song of claiming with the nameless male who first uttered it. Her body tensed as the last note died on the wind; it was a certainty that he would soon locate her and determine her status, which was pitiful at best, far from the glory of her time as Mambo of Shearwater Bay and Alpha of Bon Dye. But she no longer cared for that glory; it was survival, now.

Sos had won the day against Atka, and would rule everyday henceforth, and Jinx was Sos' own. Death was not in the cards for her, and it was her duty as one of Sos' to see to that.

Kisu's silvery goldenrod eyes scanned the new territory. It had been a long time since he had seen such a vast expanse of water; yes, he had ventured upon streams, rivers, and even lakes lately, but this was the definite winner. It was warmer here than in the mountains he just passed, but there was still a slight chill in the air, though it was one he was comfortable with. He preferred the cold to the heat, and maybe he could make a home for the winter here if he didn't find any other wolves. A pack that stayed together, protected each other, and longed to survive was all he needed.

As the grey wolf looked to the high sequoias (he had seen massive trees before in Terrapie, but nothing near this size), he raised his head at the scent of a bear that seemed to have passed through recently. Kisu hesitated momentarily before he heard a call from a male that was nearby. He wasn't much for following, but a strong and loyal pack was what he looked for. Maybe he could work his way through the ranks to become a right-hand man; a protector and warrior, which was where his heart would always lie. His eyes slid shut as he lifted his head to the clouded sky and let out a low, dragging howl in response, letting the male know that Kisu's loyalties now belonged to him.

Hope it's okay that I reply to this now; was on my list but life got busy. :(

Now that she had found another shoreline and her elder brother, Naga felt once more whole and at peace. The scent of salt in the air was a familiar taste that invigorated her: perhaps it not been her destiny to make a life and empire of her own (and being so young, she begrudgingly agreed that it would not have made much sense) but to aid her brother in creating his own. To discover her soul, spirit and meet the gods without the influence of her mothers. They had much to teach and much to be respected for, but perhaps ones relationship with the gods was meant to be a very personal one.

Her brother was a beacon of the Light, and his radiance mirrored that which she felt in her own heart. This was where she was meant to be, a place blessed by both Atka and the Sea. Lysianassa lifted her head from below the ridge from which her brother's song poured—somehow fitting, the young warrior thought, to show such a symbol of submission and adoration—and joined her song with his own. Her voice was haunting, weaving—every bit of her mother Aktaie's, though anyone that looked at her might be surprised such a sound could come from her bearlike frame.