Why...

*Tahlia* · 07-26-2013, 05:28 PM

Walk | Talk | Think

It seemed the weather had a keen sense of emotion. Clouds had stuck around well after the burial of the once-Seracian queen, brooding if not weeping. They were a blemish to Tahlia, a heavy reminder of what the pack had lost that day and a burden for them to bear and never forget. To never move on. Yes. The wolf had died, but the pack still could not fall into a standstill for it. They needed to press on, get over their loss, and continue with their lives just as everything else around them did. If only the weather had been nicer instead of fueling this sense of foreboding and depression, they might have been able to. They could have looked to the clear skies and seen the brightness there was still to life, the promise of everything that was to come. Personally, Tahlia still had plenty more dreams in mind for her own future, too much to look forward to to get caught up on things of her past, things she had never really been close to from the start. And so while the others mourned for the loss of a once-pack member, she went about her business as usual.

Not typically one for letting herself get caught in rain storms, the russet and black she-wolf had been doing her best to stick out of the open parts of the pack's territory, hiding mainly within the trees since the buildings still did not quite sit well with her. Too unnatural, she thought. But her stroll, a lazy sort of meandering that she had been doing with no real purpose, brought her near enough to the open space of the pack lands that had become their chosen burial grounds. The wolf glanced toward the place reflectively, thinking back to the sad and solemn day when they had settled to rest the wolf known as Adette, but it was not the two graves that she saw this day.

Her paw steps suddenly stopped as she recognized another wolf of the pack, the rather timid grey female - a healer, was she? - digging slowly all by herself. Confusion and shock flew through Tahlia as she watched, thinking for a moment that she might have somehow thought to desecrate one of the dead's resting places, but recognizing the places beside that marked where the previous dead of the pack lay she was relieved to note this was not true. But she continued to dig, determinedly, and it only took a second longer for her to realize why she would be doing this. Someone else has died.

Suddenly the sour weather made all the more sense. Why should the rains leave when another life would be taken so quickly after the first? A gently growing sympathy began to pool within her as she watched the other work, such a small thing resolutely shuffling at the earth to drag it away and make a suitable sized place for her loved one to rest. Likely it would take her a while to make it deep and wide enough a grown wolf, and so despite the dirty work Tahlia ventured out of the treeline and into the open burial ground to offer assistance, her coat dampening and flattening with every slowly cautious step. She was only about halfway there when she saw the other stop - the grave could not possibly have been done already? - and take a moment to look beside her, Tahlia presumed at the deceased. She continued her slow approach as the other reached for her departed loved one - and felt her heart clench tightly in her chest.

A pup! She was nothing more than a scrawny mass of fur and gangly legs as she dangled from the wolf's jaws, so young and with such a long life ahead of her. What had happened to snatch that life away so prematurely? Tahlia hadn't realized that the sight of the pup had stilled her steps until the young thing was laid within the earth, and forcing a careful, shaking breath into her lungs she began her walk again, lowering her head and tail respectfully. Another piece - a leg - of the pup was set with her, and Tahlia did her best not to make a noise of distress at the sight, only swallowing back her own emotional reaction at a life taken too soon from the earth. A gentle, considerate whine slipped from her throat and muzzle as she came close enough to be heard over the din of the storm, blinking her golden eyes as she shared a knowing, consoling stare with the presumed mother. "I am very sorry for your loss," she stated gently, knowing the words to be little consolation but recognizing them as proper. She dared not approach the grave and stand where the other stood, half fearing that she might still be protective of the dead pup, but also not wanting to intrude and overstep her boundaries. She paused a moment, eyes carefully flickering down toward the opening in the ground where she could just see the shoulder of the youth in her state of perpetual rest. "What was her name?" she quietly asked, assuming from the shape of the pup's face that it had been a young girl the mother had lost.

OOC: This table is too bright for this thread, but I'm using it anyway. :s

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