永程

The air was acrid with the scent of dead and decaying things.

Yong Cheng could not fathom why he had come. Just a while ago, this land had been flourishing. It had been quiet, but the silence lent itself to recollection; in the gloaming, men sat under the stars and contemplated by the light of the moon. He knew, down to the marrow in his bones, that once upon a time, brothers of a different kind had lived here. Wolves, bonded by pack, settled down and made homes within the nestling trees of these woods.

Now, it was desolate. The silence deafened him.

It was Spring, but ash coated the ground like freshly-fallen snow. Yong Cheng watched the sunrise from under a hanging cloud of ash; damp and wet, the ash mixed with morning mist and formed a fog that tore through his lungs with every breath. It was a frigid morning; as dawn broke past the burnt and burning trees, the sun shone down upon him, not unlike the moon. It cast a cold light, and the chill in the air permeated through his fur and into his bones. 

As the sun rose, any brightness in its rays was scattered by the mix of fog and ash. Yong Cheng stood in the frost, breath escaping his mouth in puffs of steam. In the recent past, he was sure peals of laughter had rung through these very woods. In the distant light of the morning sun, he saw faintly, a glimmer of yellow peaking through the trees. As far beyond him as his eye could see, the sun's rays were dappling other lands, and for just a moment, it had reached him. 

But as he basked in a warmth he couldn't feel, a great thundering shook the earth. Whatever burnt, charred leaves that remained on the crumbling trees fell as shooting stars to the ground. Rumbling eclipsed the small light; presently, Yong Cheng's gaze was drawn deeper into the woods, where it was dark and foreboding, but the soil was rooted to the earth, and trees granted him shelter from the falling ash. 

Earthquake! He thought, with a panic that arose from somewhere deep within him. It was an instinctual, primal fear; smaller than most, lighter and lankier, Yong Cheng knew that to be trapped meant certain hurt. More and more the terrain underfoot trembled; more and more he searched for an out, but the ear-splitting crack! of a great tree meters behind him drove home the panic. With haste, forgoing his usual fancies, the wolf threw himself into what he knew as temporary safety. Around him, the trees were shaking; ash that had settled there before now slid off charred branches in droves. Above him, the sky was shaking; he could not see the clouds, and the sun was too far away to be of any comfort. His tail whipped behind him. 

Darkness overtook him.

Yong Cheng's eyes took a little while to adjust to the gloom. Amidst the trees, even though the ground still rumbled, he felt aeons of sturdy roots that had sunken deep into the earth. The trees were blackened and struck with soot, he knew, but where the soil was still moist, far below the fire's reach, some water-seeking roots still anchored the trees to the ground. Here, he felt was closer to the lake. He hadn't been here often, but in the tingling of his soot-ridden nose, he caught a whiff of a certain freshness. It was still acrid and smokey and every sniff stung, but if he had to take a chance between the wide open space, and this, he could rest easy knowing that at least if he died, there would be no one to see him, no one to mourn him. Who knew if wolves were kind creatures?

In the rocking moments of an instant, everything had changed.

Yong Cheng began his long walk to the centre of the shrine.

He had nothing to look for, except for the shocking juxtaposition all around him. There was no use searching here; it was dead and desolate and eerily quiet. Burnt carcasses of those creatures that had failed to flee in time lay strewn about his path -- everywhere, and nowhere all at once. Where leaf and branch had once been firm and supple, now hung creaking, bone-dry sticks. Where freshly-trodded tracks were once aplenty, there now lay only ash, soot, and charcoal. The lonely footsteps of others like him who had come to explore, had either been fully or partially covered by the falling debris. He sensed that in a few hours, his too, would have freshly fallen ash settled into the ridges and crevasses his footsteps left.

Slowly, the earth ceased its persistent grumbling. Yong Cheng drew to a hault as he approached the pool.

It was grey.

He wanted to gasp, but even that sound eluded him. Ripples still spread from the edges of the pool toward its centre, but the middle was strangely still. A thin ring of dry earth stood above the waterline; presently, a thought chanced upon the explorer -- had, in the fiery heat, the water turned straight into mist?

He peered over the water's edge, looking at the hazy reflection of his own face in the pool's murky shallows. Suddenly, the maned wolf was keenly aware of a thirst that sprung up, not unlike a well of fresh groundwater, in his parched throat. In his desperation, he might have drunk despite the thin layer of ash that had formed atop the waters, if not for a lone fish that drifted into view, driven by the ripples the last rumbles of earth made.

It floated there, belly up, empty eyes gazing blanky at the sky.

He shuddered.

There was no life to be found here. Here he was, a usually stoic character, with unshed tears burning in his eyes. Perhaps one day, life would return to this barren land, and shoots would once again erupt from the baked ground under his feet.

But not today.

Knowing there was nothing here for him to see, Yong Cheng turned and padded slowly, silently, away.

He did not look back.

""

OOC:

TABLE BY LEE || IMAGE FROM CHUTTERSNAPI ON UNSPLASH

The honey badger had taken him by surprise. He had strayed too close to its kits as he patrolled the borders of the land he would eventually fully claim. The bastard had fought dirty, and the fight had gone on longer than he pleased. By the time he sunk his unnatural, elongated fangs into its throat, it had had already scored a nasty cut along the length of his foreleg. He watched the blood rivlet for a while, before it slowed. He curled his lips in distaste, reluctant to bring yet another wound to his healer, who had scolded him enough for the leg he had broken the season past. He did the foolish thing, and ignored the wound, continuing his patrol for a distance, before branching off and heading into the terratory known as the Alabaster Shrine. It had been only a few seasons since he had made his challenge here at the Shrine, and walked away a King. he did not keep this section of land as his own, despite Deathbelles desire to own it, and had cast his net to the plain’s around it. He knew his Empress would take this place once the volcano activity died down and it proved safe and habitable to live here once more. The Empress, he knew, did not come here as often as he did. Therefore Sirius, her knight protector, strayed past the Shrine every once in a while, to ensure the territory lay still and vacant. He had never liked this territory, never felt, nor understood the strange desire so many had to claim it for themselves. Wars had been fought for this land, for the symbol the Shrine represented. For whatever deity each wolf had believed it stood for. Sirius believed in no gods, and misty water left nothing but distaste in his senses. He had claimed this territory for the sake of his Empress, and that was where his desire both geban and ended. He ignored the chill of the morning, of the way it bit into his wound as he moved closer to where he knew the pool lay. He did not get a chance to see it, before he was distracted by the presence of another. The wolf, as small to him as a child, with colors in his coat dark enough to blend into the misty morning, moved away from the Shrine. Had he also come to pray to whatever deity he believed in? The Titan beast could hardly rebuke him, when no scent markers stood fresh across the territory. Regardless, Sirius needed to know if this man would pose a threat to their incoming requisition of this land. “Did you find what you were looking for?” he asked mildly, words slipping past his fangs as he ground to a halt, towering above the stranger even in his seated position. The soft ‘wumph’ of wings sounded behind him, and he knew the vulture that he had trained from egg glided down behind him, great blue-black wings beating against the cool chill of the air before he landed upon the shoulder of the Warlord wolf. "Speech"

永程

"Did you find what you were looking for?"

Yong Cheng halted; found his ears rising to sit fully upright upon his head.

"No," he replied, slowly, carefully, quietly. He had not expected another creature to be moving about these parts; but he had come here himself, and so he supposed that it was not too surprising. Everything around him was decrepit, and to hear words in this desolate Shrine, gave him pause.

What did the speaker think he was searching for? Closure? Remnants of a home? Family?

Presently, he turned to face whoever had called out to him. Immediately, he was taken aback.

The wolf, if he could even be called that, was a massive, hulking beast. Between the fangs protruding from his upper jaw, and the slashes across his eye, Yong Cheng could not decide what to look at first. His coat was like midnight; both drew the eye like the moon in a black sky. A vulture was perched atop his shoulder. His eyes widened.

Slowly, now, he thought to himself, There is no shame in caution.

A second later, filtering through the pungent stench of ash and fire, came the scent of blood. It wasn't his own; Yong Cheng was sure of it. The Shrine had been desolate for so long that any blood would have decayed by now; but this was fresh. Knowing that the other wolf, then, was hurt didn't give him any comfort, though. He was still large enough that one good swipe of his paw would likely send Cheng toppling to the ground. He craned his neck to meet the titan's eyes, then away. Even with the wolf seated, and Yong Cheng standing, he was still far bigger.

"Has anyone seen to that?"

Yong Cheng gestured to the wolf's leg. Deep red against dark grey, it was hard to make out, but the smell of iron was unmistakable.

""

OOC:

TABLE BY LEE || IMAGE FROM CHUTTERSNAPI ON UNSPLASH

He had caught the pilgrim by surprise. The moment the small brown wolf found him, there was caution to his features. His weariness was to be expected. The mite couldn’t have been much more than half the titans height. In fact, the more Sirius looked, the less he believed him to be a wolf at all. Not a pure-blooded one at any rate. The soft browns of his coat told Sirius nothing, even the soft brush of a darker tone, like wings that ran upon his shoulders, didn’t give the Titan pause. He had seen stranger coated wolves. It was the gangly long legs, the unusually large ears that framed his thin face that brought the realisation to the King. He did not know what this wolf was, but he was immediately intrigued by the unique brush of his features. He lived in a world where horns stood common place, and this wolf-like creature stood alone. What a fine prize such a beast would make his wife. He turned the smile that creeped along his features into something a little more friendly, a little less chilling. Perhaps it would not be the best of ideas. His wife was finicky when it came to things like Slavery, and he often crossed the boundraies of what she allowed. The silence stretched out for a moment as the two got a feel for each other. The quiet of the Shrine, the soft hiss of wind brushing past them, the breathing of the wolves and the vulture. It almost caught him by surprise when the not-wolf spoke. “What are you?” Sirius asked, instead of answering the one posed first by the stranger. “It will heal on its own, it’s not the first scrape i’ve received, and it certainly won’t be the last.” was it a threat? Perhaps not, but he wouldn’t make this meeting comfortable for the stranger. "Speech"

永程

There was something about silence being disrupted that unsettled Yong Cheng. Normally he was a remarkably chatty kind of fellow, loose in the tongue, even if it was a calculated looseness. But the air about this wolf was threatening without him needing to mean it; ominous, without him needing to enforce it.

Therefore, he remained standing. It would be easier to flee if things took a dark turn, if he managed to move fast enough. In his contemplation, the other wolf's question took Yong Cheng off guard. What was he, exactly? He had never really known, only been aware of the fact that he was not a wolf. The cursory glances others landed upon him made him well aware of that.

"I don't know," he said with candor. "I wasn't told." He had looked at himself in the murky waters of the Shrine, and seen how he and wolven folk were similar and yet, not the same. He had peered into the depths of his eyes in that pool, and seen how he would never be the same.

Moments ticked by as Yong Cheng considered the next sentence. The wolf-beast looked friendlier now, so juxtaposed with the tone in his speech, he was an enigma wrapped in a mystery, and shrouded in secrecy. Yong Cheng tried to let his smile out him at ease, but it wasn't doing much. He chalked it up to being mutual strangers.

"You should at least wrap it up," said the not-wolf. "It can get infected, out in the open. Especially here."

He wasn't much of a healer, but he knew enough to have kept himself alive for this long. Ironically, this place was quite sterile -- void of visible life. Even then, it had been long enough that the things that caused wounds to fester and creatures to be sick, would have had time to recoup.

"Or clean it."

""

OOC:

TABLE BY LEE || IMAGE FROM CHUTTERSNAPI ON UNSPLASH

In an unexpected turn of events, the man admitted to having no idea what he was. Was he a mutation, something new? Was he an old breed that wasn’t as familiar in these lands? He was a mystery, and Sirius was intrigued enough that he desired to learn more. “How strange” he said simply, words to fill the silence, for they did little else.

He continued to question the Warlords wound, hinting - gently - that he should do at least the bare minimum. hmm perhaps it wasn’t a bad idea, if it was covered before he returned home, perhaps Io wouldn’t even notice it. “Are you familiar with bandaging wounds?’ wondering if he could make use of the wolf, or whatever he was. Perhaps it was easier to consider him of wolven kind, if just for simplicity's sake.

He rose from his seated position, slowly, so as not to startle the much smaller wolf before him. “I don’t have any supplies, and I feel they would be hard to come by here, but if we move just a land over, I have a cache of supplies - a healer's kit, also” he explained. He had been slowly stocking up the Plains well he made his renovations to the territory he had claimed.

永程

"How strange," said the ashen behemoth, and that was where they left it. "Are you familiar with bandaging wounds?"

"I am, but there's nothing here to do so with." If he were to be honest, Yong Cheng was quite familiar with wrapping his injuries up. There was precious little else that he could do; no herbs he knew well enough, no tools he could close them with, alone.

Presently, the wolf rose, and in his standing position he towered over Yong Cheng even further. But he did so with caution, lacking haste, and so Yong Cheng did not move until the other had fully found his footing. Then, he took three steps back -- one, two, three -- to look the wolf in the eye again, assessing his mannerisms. Cheng didn't doubt that the wolf could set himself upon him at any moment he wanted; he was so much larger, and so much stronger. Cheng had not felt the kiss of his teeth, but he wagered they were razor-sharp. Any distance Cheng could run, the wolf should be able to outpace.

Still, he felt that for the moment, he was in no imminent danger.

“I don’t have any supplies, and I feel they would be hard to come by here, but if we move just a land over, I have a cache of supplies - a healer's kit, also” said the wolf, silencing the last of Yong Cheng's alarm bells.

"It's barren here," he agreed. "I would need something sticky, like cobwebs. Would you happen to have any of those...?"

These thoughts gave him pause. "How would I be able to replenish your stock?"

""

OOC:

TABLE BY LEE || IMAGE FROM CHUTTERSNAPI ON UNSPLASH