When The Snows Fall...
and the white winds blow... (Saia Seasonal)
06-18-2022, 12:24 AM
The wind howls in the monochrome pup’s ears, drowning out everything except the sound of her rapidly thundering heart in her own ears. It swirls and whips stinging spikes of frozen ice into Seere’s face, forcing the girl to squint against the pain and water that builds in her mismatched eyes. A whimper falls from her lips and is carried away on the whirling wind. It throws the sound, until it seems to come from every direction. She casts her gaze around the white landscape in a despite attempt to find the slash of black and red that signals her sister’s presence. But all she finds is snow. The storm pelts the land, sending snowflakes down at a dizzying rate to distort her vision. She knows this place, has explored it until she knows every tree, dip, and valley in the land. The blizzard has changed it, morphed this place into something the monochrome pup has never seen before.
It steals the girl’s breath away and panic begins to rear its ugly head as, with each passing moment, her of finding Saia fades. Guilt firmly lodges in the girl’s gut as she replays the events that led up to this. This wasn’t supposed to happen, when Seere had suggested they go play by the shine, she didn’t think that the black storm clouds would unleash this hell. She looks to the white barked trees stand in judgement over her, their long limbs moving with the wind, creaking and groaning in displeasure. To Seere, they seem to be reach out toward, gnarled branches struggling to reach and grab her small form. Her mind begins to play tricks on her, the wind begins to sound like animals screaming in fear and the panic that had been building sudden turns to fear.
Small tail tucks between Seere’s legs and another whimper is released as the monochrome girl backs away from the scary land, her wide eyes keeping watch over the leering forms that were once trees. Dread fills her, clawing at the back of her mind, urging her to run home. But, as her gaze continues to sweep the land, she quickly realizes that she doesn’t know which way home is. The fear quickly summons it friend anxiety to squeezes her chest and force the air from her lungs. As the air is released, Seere turns it into out a panicked howl, begging, pleading for someone to find her. The sound is ripped from her mouth and sent swirling away into the blizzard, leaving her little hope that someone will know where it came from. Worry weighs the pup down, making her paws suddenly grow roots and prevent her from moving.
A strong gust of wind slaps her face, sending snowflakes into her nose and eyes. A shiver races its way along her spine as the cold air buffets her small form, making Seere realize just how cold she really is. How had she not noticed how stiff her muscles have become? And it isn’t just that, her joints ache, and her lungs feel as if they filled with millions of tiny spikes of ice. Pulling in a breath she feels a tightness in her chest that forcefully stops her inhale and causes her to release the air she pulled in back out in a deep, wet cough. When she pulls in another breathe, Seere feels a sudden wave of dizziness flood her head but the tightness that had been in her chest lessens. Heaving a heavy sigh, the girl once again casts her eyes about in search of Saia.
Snow clings to Seere’s coat, obscuring the darker colors and causing her to blend in more fully with the snowy landscape. She pins her ears to her head and calls out, “Saia!! Saia, where are you?” Nothing reaches her ears, only the scream of the wind fills her ears and has the small girl feeling ready to give up. Oh she longs to go find somewhere to curl up and drift off to sleep but a small voice screams at her to move, to search for her sister and make this right. Paws pull her through the continuously warping landscape, around trees and over snow banks. It takes a lot of effort to move in the freezing cold and the girl pants from the exertion but still, she does not find her sister. A sound tickles her ears, causing them stand up and swivel in an attempt to capture the noise. It is strange, distorted… maybe a roar…. maybe a howl. Pulling in a deep breath, Seere holds it and puts all her energy into trying to figure out where it is coming from.
A gust kicks up, throwing more flakes that obscure the landscape and the monochrome girl closes her eyes. With every fiber of her being Seere stills her terrified mind and listens. There, a call on the wind, a howl… someone calling for help. Mismatched eyes snap open and her small body moves, the pain of her stiff muscles and joints is pushed to the back of her mind as she races toward the sound. She pulls in great, ragged breathes, forcing her aching lungs to suck in and expel air at a faster rate. A band forms around her chest, stealing more and more air from each respiration with every passing moment. Pain spears her brain, begging her stop or slow down, to give up and find some place to take a nap.
Although her body begs for rest, Seere pushes onward, the need to make sure her sister is safe, overriding any concern for her own well-being. The world shifts and suddenly there is no ground underneath her paws. She pitches forward, tumbling head over heels down a snowbank and coming to rest on her side at the bottom. Dazed, she lays there for moment, exhaustion tugging at her, calling, trying to lull her into a deep slumber. Eyelids begin a steady march downwards, the darkness waiting on the other side promising peace and an absence of pain. A howl has her eyes flying open and she quickly jumps back up to her paws and she gives her coat a hard shake to rid it of some the flakes that cling on.
Another howl, panicked and close has the girl racing onward. As she rounds a tight bend, Seere finally finds the splash of color she has been looking for and she heaves a sigh of relief. Saia is running along the snow-covered ground and the monochrome girl lifts her head to let her sister know where she is when she catches sight of something that makes her blood run cold. Hot on her sister’s heels is a polar bear, angry, large, and trying to catch up to the red and black form of her sister. She is frozen, unable to move as she watches the bear gain ground with each beat of her heart. They say it is moments like this that show what wolves are truly made of and, when Saia stumbles, Seere feels the terror give way to anger.
How dare it attack her sister! Her small form races forward, the snow making her appear like a wraith as she silently barrels toward the large predator. Does Saia see her? Does her sister know that she is safe? Seere launches herself at the distracted bear, jumping up to latch onto the side of its neck. The bear roars, confused and angry at this small wolf that begins to thrash her head. Hot blood fills the girls mouth as she growls and rips apart the area she has bitten. The bear shifts his weight back, planting his hind legs and raising his front end off the ground while roaring his displeasure for the wind to carry away. It tosses its head back and Seere is unable to hold on any longer as the bear twists it head in a bid to unseat its attacker.
Small white form flies through the air, landing with a thud and rolling a few more feet before coming to rest under a white barked tree. The sounds of fighting reach Seere’s ears as she struggles to get her paws back under her, exhaustion causing her legs to collapse again and again. Tired, afraid, and hurting the monochrome girl releases a howl and a prayer as she hopes her father’s snow leopards are out looking for the missing girls. Using the last of her energy to howl, Seere collapses into the snow and watches as Saia fights the angry bear.
WC: 1428
Total: 1428/1500
OOC: Full quote from Game of Thrones: “When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.”
Seere has a male Pallas's cat named Paunch and a female barn swallow named Aisling. They are always nearby.
06-26-2022, 11:11 PM
Saia spent most of her days curled up with their mother inside the palace dens and it as a life she had grown accustomed to. She'd still go out when asked of her, by her parents, by her siblings. But it seemed she spent the most time with Seere at least when outside of their royal home. It would be no different today.
When the blizzard had hit them it had happened too quickly for them to make back over to their home island and it left Saia wondering what they were supposed to do. She hadn't even noticed she was really separated from her sister at first while all the commotion was going on around her. The wind in her ears, the icy blistering cold that was nearly pelting her as she tried to trudge through it. Unfortunately none of the adults were right around the shrine while the growing pups found themselves in this predicament. But Saia's immediate thought was that one of their fathers would be finding a way to come get them from the storm. She knew they would.
It was very long and agonizing moments before she turned to realize that Seere was no longer there beside her. And she too was struggling to find her footing and map out just where she was standing in the trees of the shrine. The blizzarding snow was already blinding in the way it whipped around but the white of the Alabastrine trees didn't help any. She didn't realize the circles she was stomping, the drifts in the snow making the ground uneven but she couldn't open her eyes enough to look. She tried hard to find her sister just by quick glances around, and panic came over her. She truly thought they were in real danger, that with them separated Seere could potentially die and it overwhelmed her. She did let out a call for help, for her sister, for anyone of the pack. But it seemed everything was gone on the wind.
She'd never really know how far away she had moved from Seere, and without being able to attempt to map out the shrine blindly much longer it was cut short either way. It was almost like one of the trees came alive out of nowhere and she was being swung at by massive paws. It seemed the polar bear wasn't so accustomed to the harsh weather either. Maybe the cold, but not so much the head knocking winds. Maybe that's how it wandered so deep into the pack lands, it must have been lost.
Still without being able to see much anything, Saia starts to run with the wind which seemed to be the easiest option away from the bear. Her shoulders clashed into the trunks of the trees and her head a couple of times too. She'd find herself on the ground after losing her footing over the drifts the snow had made. Everything was going fuzzy, maybe from hitting her head combined with the cold. But more fuzzy than i had been previously. As she looked up she saw flashes of grey lashing straight out at the bear, and she knew it was Seere.
It took her much longer than she anticipated before she could get up. It seemed almost like a tag team because as Saia was finding her unsteady footing, Seere was collapsing to the ground. Family meant everything to her, especially her parents and siblings as much as she may have secluded to just herself and their mother. And if this was the end, she'd die happy knowing she was protecting her sister. She'd jump forward very disoriented, going to bite down on the bear's hind leg in an effort to scare it off the best she could but she knew better. She was no match for the polar bear just on her own. Still, she found purchase into the warm fur of the bear, ripping backwards with her grasp before letting go and moving around behind the bear to taking another bite of the opposite leg. Their father's snow leopards were here, but she wouldn't even know that. Her vision seeing nothing but faded colors or monochrome blob really. She'd pass out as her grip was lashed out on the bear's second leg. And luckily, her father's companions would be able to save the girls from there.
Total Word Count: 2157 words
Word Count Goal: 1500 words