Do I know this Place? [Arcane/re-joining]

*Crusade* · 03-24-2013, 02:15 PM

[Image: one_eyed_crusade_by_kidrylm_writer-d5yxnla.png]

~*~

(ooc: still a little fuzzy on how you guys are coordinating the history stuffs, so I?m just going by what I?d last seen in posts. If I need to edit anything, just lemme know)

Nine might?ve been considered as the end for most wolves, but reaching that grand age hadn?t put too much of a slip in Crusade?s step. Maybe it was due to the fact she?d kept herself in peak condition all her life, maybe it was the share of dog?s blood in her veins, but whatever the cause, when the mood took her, the pale timber wolf could move.

On this bright day, Crusade had sent herself streaking across the southern snowfields, blazing a trail towards the border. Her forelegs might?ve been scarred and missing a set of claws, but they could still plow through snow. Her tongue, the exact same pink as her empty right eye socket, lulled out as her pants sent little warm clouds up into the frozen air. She was racing the northern winds that rifled through her fur.

What a difference it was; this relaxation with which she could stride the lands when compared with the old burdon of always having to be on guard. Never would Crusade say that she preferred it? no she couldn?t say that. No matter the toll it took on one?s body and spirit, the path of a warrior was one she?d always be fiercely proud of having taken. But this?ease, this peace which she?d earned? it was quite lovely.

For one whose soul and form had felt so much pain over the years, it was a great release. And yet it wasn?t paradise, for there were still many other wrongs in the world, many other wolves in pain.

One such creature was her own sister. Poor Arcane? Crusade had been there the day her pups had been born? and the day they?d each been lost. Crusade knew from personal experience the sharp, unending slice to the heart that was a mother?s pain of loosing a child. Animi? the lavender eyed, grey child that Crusade had adopted in Starlite had been ripped from her life by the murderous cretan known as Xy.

But Arcane? first one pup lost as a stillborn?then another to disease?.and then?.and then.

It was terrible to even remember. It was one of the many shreds of time with Crusade wished could just be purged from all history. Saix? A male whom Crusade had allowed into her home. The male who?d proved a loyal warrior and taken Arcane to be his mate. Saix, the father of the pups?. Had lost his mind and slaughtered his remaining child. After that?there?d been a brief shred of sanity in him ? enough for the male to realize what he?d done.

The Glaciems had trailed his scent to the cliff?straight to the end of it and then it was gone.

In a way, Crusade had seen it as a mercy. For what would they have done with him otherwise? It was a question that plagued her for many a night afterwards. She?d done her best by Arcane, but speaking with her was so terribly hard. She understood a portion of the pain, but that was all. In Crusade?s own case, when she?d lost her daughter, the best anyone could do for her, was give her time and space and understanding ? and to carry on with their duties, letting the rest of life seem as steady as possible. Unfortunately that was all anyone could do. It wasn?t until years later that Xy was found ? in fact it happened just about the same time that Arcane lost her pups. Perhaps that had helped fuel Crusade?s fury. In the end she?d destroyed the monster and brought his head back home. So much happened to Glaciem in that season: between Saix, Oberon?s attack at the border, Xy?s defeat? and then the volcanic eruption.

After that they?d all been so busy?escaping the ash, rock and gas, migrating, finding a new home, settling it?. Crusade had kept an eye on her broken younger sister through it all, but so far there seemed no real marks of recovery? just a shell carrying on with her duties.

So it was that when Arcane?s howl came tearing through the winter sky, Crusade skid to a halt, took her bearings and changed direction. She was still a good distance away ? having been headed to a very different section of the southern border, but eventually she managed to climb the lip of the hill which Arcane had called from.

And damned if Crusade?s remaining eye didn?t nearly pop out of its socket. A heart attack tore a white line of pain through her form. A hulking black wolf with blue eyes. Crusade?s muzzle parted and twitched into a contortion of a snarl. Xy was DEAD! She?d felt his last breath?s shake his body as her fangs buried deeper into his throat! She?d gnawed off his head!

And then she was given another a heartbeat of looking.

No this wasn?t Xy.

But it was another wolf who she knew. She?d mistaken him for Xy once before. A wolf who?d reaked almost as much pain as the murderer he resembled. A wolf who was also supposed to be dead.

?Creator Above?? Crusade gasped out through strangled lungs. ?It?s?Saix.?

She looked back and forth between her sister and the living dead, but more words wouldn?t come. This wasn?t possible?. The once Chief stepped stiffly forward, her hackles raised, her tail swinging out behind her. Her paces carried her swiftly to stand half in front, half beside her sister. Her remaining eye blazed, but yet her features remained befuddled and her tongue remained trapped inside her jaws. ? until she drew in another deep lungful of the freezing air.

?What are you doing here?? she asked in a deep, low whisper.

~*~

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