[Flashback] Southbound (Tierranalin)

[Cathan]

Season of Summer, Day 18, 510 AV

The trail was cold; washed away by a brief summer rain not three days previous. Cathan knew it. He had continued his search, despite knowing better. Three days he had followed the forest path southward, only to find the ground bare of tracks. There were no signs of the riders, which may or may not, have followed the same route as the kelvic. In fact there was no evidence humans had taken the path in recent days whatsoever.

What he came across were the tracks of hares and other mammals, neither of which he paid much attention to when not hunger forced him to waste precious hours hunting. Once he had caught the scent of wolves, but deciding to avoid conflict had moved on as quick as he could. Running ten hours a day or more, he should have caught up by now. Another thing he was well aware off, yet tried to ignore. There were a lot of things he tried to brush aside. The itching of the half healed spear wound in his side, the memory of a bound mate he had lost much to early. The fact that he had been unable to help. All of it filled him with an anger he had never experienced in the past, an anger which drove him forward at the break of each new day until he couldn't run anymore. Till the hot burning in his gut was the only thing that let him move at all. At least until he couldn't anymore.

Ten days after the confrontation with the bandits, Cathan had finally given up. For the first time in days he rested. Resigned he lay at the bank of a creek, the runnel almost to small to deserve that name. Around him the morning mist started to rise, carried away by a warm southern wind. Not certain how long he had been lay still, the kelvic finally rose when the sun was staying high in the sky, its golden light falling through the high treetops, paining a mosaic of light and shadow on the forest floor. The breeze ruffling his fur Cathan finally started to move, aimless wandering between the trees.

He had hunted in the past, for fur and not for food and never for himself. There had always been someone to tell him what to do and in the few days he was alone, he had realized how little he knew about living in the woods. Relying on his senses he had found carcass more often than prey to hunt, the rare rabbit aside he had managed to run down. For the first time since the assault, the kelvic looked around, taking in his surrounding.

In the distance he heard the howling of a wolf. Instead of turning the way he would have done mere days ago, Cathan's ears perked up and he continued toward the direction the sound has come from. Strong muscles moved under his grayish brown fur as he slunk forward, careful to take in any sounds around him. He had never talked with a wolf, but he had grown up with dogs and knew he could understand them well enough. And in the end, wasn't any company better than being alone?

[Tierranalin]

She had not rested her eyes upon humans for a long time, she had in fact neglected her human form all together and had remained wolf for several moons. She forgot what it was like to walk up right and eat with fingers and feel the grass between her toes. The only trace of her human was the pack of clothes and drawings she carried. The only trace was the scar they left upon her hip.

She came across tracks of hares and other mammals and followed them for hunting but this time she had neglected to hide her own. She spent most of her days on the move but made sure she did a loop each night to ensure each new area was safe to sleep. She was up wind as she travelled, it was against her to travel this way but for some reason the path she wanted held no choice.

Wandering upon a nice sunny rock and small cave of trees she stood and looked out at the paths before her. She had no need to hunt after still holding a full belly from the last. She felt no pain in her pads or hips and the need for sleep had not yet caught up with her. She just stood in the sun and absorbed its warm embrace. She was one with her surroundings as she listened for any sign of life around her other than birds. She sniffed the air for upwind enemies, she felt a slight concern for her position as she herself was upwind from others.

She looked through golden orbs at her pack as it sat slumped against a tree, she longed to look inside but could not open it as wolf. Feeling a need to change but not wanting to she stood puzzling over the matter. She would need to drink soon any the best form of protection she was was wolf. Her pads moved fast as she started to dig, once big enough she dragged her pack into the dip and started to cover it with dirt and leaves.

She couldn't help but let out a howl before doing a loop to make sure no one had seen her. She then made her way down wind in search for a creak she had passed. Stopping in her tracks she could see a wolf moving towards her direction just down the valley. She knew he was down wind of her and she felt the need to swing wide and get out of the wind. She had met wolves before, most of them in packs that were never a welcoming sight but this one he travelled alone. For reasons unknown she sat in her place and waited for him to come to her. Her dark pelt with subtle red highlights blended her in with her surroundings but caught the light that fought its way through the trees enough that his keen eyes would spot her. Company was something she longed for but knew she would have trouble finding but what harm could a single wolf do to her?

[Cathan]

He could smell her in the wind, the thin trace of female wolf, not two hundred yards ahead. It took considerably longer to spot her. Dark fur blend with the shadow of a large tree and if it had not been for her gold eyes be might not have noticed her at all. So he stopped among some bushes, scanning over the area. He didn't bother to hide, well aware the other wolf had noticed him by now. No other wolf was to be seen beside her though, much to Cathan's surprise. Wolves were not exactly known to be loners, but of course it happened.

Much stranger than the fact the she-wolf was alone was the backpack though he could make out leaning against a tree not far from her. A bag with her smell on it, something he noticed now he was coming closer. The other wolf was watching him and once more he stopped. Was she a wolf even? The rational part of his mind told him it was unlikely, that she was indeed the same as him, another kelvic. No matter how rare the chance for that was. Instinct however warned him to be careful, that a kelvic wasn't less dangerous than the animals they stemmed from.

Half curious he tilt his head to the side, waiting for a sign of aggression from the wolf before him. He could have changed form, but a naked human was not a good match for a wolf and Cathan wasn't certain she was indeed a kelvic. Or that he could take her in his human form when he was mistaken.

Golden sunlight danced over his dark brindled fur as he started to close the distance between them, careful, one step at a time, pausing after every dozen steps for a second or two. Head lowered he was careful to avoid signs a wolf could have interpreted as hostile. At least he hoped he did. He had never really dealt with wolves outside a fight or a hunt and he was relying more on what he had learned of dogs when it came to communicating with them.

"It is a good day for a hunt," he finally offered, instead of greeting her. What use did wolves have for greetings after all? It was hard enough to communicate complex thoughts with their limited range of speech. It sometimes made Cathan miss the human language. He was not good expressing thoughts and feelings still, but it certainly made it easier.

"You are alone?," sitting down on his hunches the kelvic watched her, ready to jump to his feet, should it be needed. Sitting was not the best position when one was attacked, but then he was quite sure she wasn't with a pack and loners tend to wander. So he had probably not crossed the boarder of any territory, which was always a bad idea to do when it came to animals as territorial as wolves. "I am alone," he continued, deciding the information might be as interesting to her as it would be to him.

[Tierranalin]

She watched him with great interest as he stopped and scanned the area around him, she knew he could smell her and see her as she hid in plain sight.
A normal wolf would have avoided her once he caught her perfume unless he had a pack or whelps near by. This wolf however did not act wolf but acted with human intelligence. A kelvic perhaps?

She watched as he spotted her bag even if it had been under dirt and leaves his keen eyes would have spotted it. He moved again towards her and then stopped and she wondered if she should move herself towards him also. She lifted her solid shoulders and slender frame and moved slightly to the side of where she was before heading down to him. She didn't want to be head on but slightly off to the side where if need be she could attack with ease.

She now started to use her human mind more thinking of tactics and ways to figure this wolf before her out. He showed curiosity towards her not hostility and there for she would show the same. She sat not far from him again and tilted her head to the side in a mirror like motion. She then tilted her head up showing her neck in a friendly gesture but not as high as she did with her family. She still kept her eyes upon him in case he took that chance for a clear shot at her throat.

She slowly lowered her muzzle to see if he would return the sign and then she stretched out her muzzle so they could touch noses and both surrender any chance of a fight. He started to close the distance between them. She sat where she was and let him come to her, she knew he would not attack unless she did herself. She had seen this once with a true male wolf who was out on a scout. He had approached her and touched noses before warning her to rid herself of his territory.

She smiled slightly as he spoke she tilted her head to the side a little. "Indeed it is. I've had my fill but if it is food you are after I could perhaps give you what I have" she said through a low friendly growl. She knew he was offering not greeting and she smiled again. "Your not from around here." she stated "There are no wolves in this area at the current time. Forgive me for being rude but you seem like an odd wolf" she said.

"Yes I am alone" she said watching him sit before her. "And you? A pack? or mate?" she asked. She wanted to ask so many questions now he had sat there in front of her, she wanted to change to test him and see if he was like her but that was not safe and she doubted he would want to see her naked pink form. "I'm after water before settling down for a while. Know of any streams or creeks? You may stay where I'm making camp tonight if you wish" she said with curiosity, seeing if he would trust her.

[Cathan]

Their noses touched, his tongue flickering over her muzzle in the wolfish equivalent to a handshake. It was a brief contact, only long enough for Cathan to take in her scent, to realize she would not attack unless he gave her a reason to. Something he had decided he would carefully avoid if possible.

"Wouldn't say no to a bite or two," the kelvic admitted with a wolfish smile, when she offered him a piece of her last kill. In the past days he had only stopped when absolutely needed and while he was good hunting, his ability to find prey was by far not as developed. More often than not he had to rely on his keen wolf senses, his knowledge of tracking alone not enough to make out the light tracks of smaller forest dwelling creatures. He was hungrier than his pride allowed him to admit.

"I have neither pack nor mate," he continued slowly, the shrug he offered slightly awkward due to his wolfish form. "Have been alone a while now." Ten days actually, but it felt longer. His late bondpartner had left a strange void in him, one he didn't particular feel inclined to talk about. Or even think about when he could avert it. Uncertain he made a few steps backward, withdrawing from her intermediate reach.

"When I came down here I saw some creek though. It isn't much, but it is clean water." Cathan nodded over his shoulder, watching her from the corner of his eyes. "If you like I could show you the place." Not waiting for reply he turned half, following his own tracks a few feet before he looked back to her, testing if she was coming along. Stopping if she didn't, else continuing back to the creek he had been lying at this morning.

"You are no ordinary wolf either, now are you?" Curiously he watched her, although he was pretty sure to know the answer. Her own statement how he was an odd wolf had made him suspicious. "I saw your... leather bag earlier." A long moment he had to search for a way to describe her luggage, but then decided she would know what he talked about. "I am surprised you are alone. Do you have no partner?" The thought alone was odd. The kelvic had always imagined they all had one, the only difference in the way they were threatened. The thought some of their kind could live on their own had never occurred to him.

To late the idea dawned on him, she might have lost her companion the same way he had. Slightly uncomfortable Cathan's ears twitched. "I am sorry. Shouldn't have asked."

The gray wolf shook his head. "How long have you been in this area?," he asked instead, if only to have something else to talk about. She had mentioned there were no other packs in the area, meaning she knew this area of the woods well enough. Better than him in any case. The woods in the south were different from those he had grown up in.

[Tierranalin]

She nodded hearing him say he had no pack or mate and that he had like herself travelled alone for sometime now. She saw something in him as he spoke and slowly drew back his stance. She nodded again "I'm in need of hydration" she said "show me the way if you will and I'll repay with food and shelter". She followed him as he started to move back to the creek. She placed her paws in his tracks and smiled seeing his was slightly bigger in size.

"I suspected you would know. I knew you were not an ordinary wolf." she said with a smirk "Kelvic or something more?" she questioned. "I didn't hide it very well and to be honest nether did you" she laughed "I didn't hide it well" she said again this time referring to her bag "Didn't think you would get close enough to my spot, thought I would see you a bit further down" she said. "Why are you surprised? is it because I'm a women?" she said tilting her head to the side with a laugh "No partner, no pack" she said thinking of her old family. "Have you a name strange wolf?" she asked realizing they had not introduced themselves but had jumped into a verbal joust with ease.

She looked across at him "it's ok.." she said in a soft voice "it's in our nature to ask". She couldn't help but think back to her family. The screams, the tears, the blood, the fires, the loss. That was not nature at all but a sick demon of a figure trying there best to break others.

"I've only been here for a few moons now. Just did a big loop of the place to see how safe it is to camp for a while. Yourself?" she asked.

They now set eyes upon the water and she drank her fill. She moved to the waters edge and carefully without getting her paws or legs wet she lapped the water softly with her pink tongue. Small mud fish flickered in the water around them always keeping an eye on the wolves. Once she finished drinking she lifted her head and shook it gently from side to side sending small droplets of water flying through the air off her pelt, few drops flicked onto his face. She laughed playfully. "Where did you come from?" she asked quietly as she sat back and rubbed her muzzle with a paw. "What's your story? if you are a Kelvic where do you keep your human things?" she asked out of curiosity.

[Cathan]

Cathan lead the other wolf down a light slope, towards the small creek winding its way westward through the aestival forest. Already from the distance the two wolves could make out the soft gurgling of the water and when the she-wolf continued towards the brook the kelvic sat down, watching.

"A kelvic, yes." For a long moment he tried to think of what else he could have been, but nothing came to his mind. Maybe you could change with magic? Cathan wasn't sure, but his lack of knowledge didn't particular bother him. There were so many things he didn't knew. "And you? The same I would think." Stretching down on a patch of dark green grass he observed her with a curious look in his yellow eyes. The question why he was surprised to catch her alone made him smirk however.

"No, not because you are a woman." The thought had not even occurred to him and for a long moment he wondered if it should have considered the option. But then, she was probably a considerably better hunter than he was, so he found nothing odd about her roaming the woods, woman or not. "The truth is I am surprised to see one of our kind, well, alone. Yeah, I am alone too...," he admitted before she could point it out, "but I have not always been alone. In the past I always had... some human to run with." Looking at her he got the distinct feeling that wasn't a constellation she had considered. While he had never considered a mate or pack company.

He tilt his head to the side. "My name is Cathan."

And of all the things he had been called in the past, it wasn't the worst. "I am from the north. Me and a friend had been on the way towards Zeltiva. That a harbour to the south" For a long moment he remained silent. "Some days ago we had an encounter with bandits." Again he paused, shrugged. His eyes on the ground this time. "I have been following them the past days... but I believe I lost them."

He didn't mention what had happened to his friends, but it didn't need a lot explanation. There was little reason to move on alone, unless his companion had died. Cathan looked up once more. "I left my things buried near the street, some days to the north. Thought I would be faster without them." And he didn't possessed a lot of things to start with. Nothing he would miss, although he hoped to find it again none the less. Something he was not too sure about. "Before I move on I will have to get them."

Her laugh made her ears twitch just slightly, the smile curling his lips a little thin. In the same turn he liked the sound. It reminded him of times when everything had been easier. They had not been past that long.

"You have never run with a human, now have you?"

[Tierranalin]

She smiled at him. "I've never met another Kalvic... except family" she said.
She tilted her head a little as her playful golden orbs scanned his features. "It's hard to come across good company, every second person wants to take from you, use you, abuse you, kill you even" she said "Not many like to keep wolves as company" she said with a sad smirk. "I was not always alone ether" she said looking down at her paws and realizing what she was saying.

She looked up at him and moved a little closer to look into his orbs. "Sorry to ask but... where is your human partner now?" she asked with sadness. She was so used to wandering alone and now she was talking to someone else she presumed they had lived a life like her own. "Forgive me for asking" she said looking down realizing what she had said. She looked up once more upon hearing his name. "Well Cathan, should we go eat?" she said standing up slowly and shaking the leaves off of her pelt.

She started to walk back to her pack slowly as she listened to his story. Cathan mentioned bandits and she couldn't help but let out a deep growl. "Do you have anything that may hold their scent?" she said feeling a pain and anger deep within her. She put the pieces of the puzzled together in her head, he was traveling alone because he had lost... the same as her.

She nodded "So your to stay as wolf?" she asked "indeed you will be faster but it can't be safe for you to change form without clothing" she said "Are you going to keep hunting or are you at an end?" she asked. "you can't give up" she said with a slight growl "Never give up" she said.

She stopped and turned to him "I'm sorry for all the questions, you need not answer them" she said "I'm Tierranalin but you can call me Tierra or Ra for short if you wish" she said with a smile, she felt a need to lift the situation, this Kelvic before her had won her trust and respect within a matter of seconds and with great ease. She knew little about him but she felt like she could trust him.

"I..." she shook her head and thought carefully about her answer, she didn't want to mention her family in conversation just yet "I haven't travelled with humans." she said with a slight lie "wolves yes, humans no" she said. "Guess this isn't a first ether considering we are both currently wolf" she laughed making her chest and shoulders shake.

[Cathan]

"I have met a few, but never another wolf." At times, when he was sleeping, he would remember bits and pieces from a past he barely would recall when awake. He would see the faces of his parents and his siblings, but they were vague shadows and he was never sure what was real and what was imagination. Cathan nodded when she claimed people were just to eager to use others to their own advantage. It was a fact he knew about, but had accepted.

The question on the whereabouts of his human partner however let him tense, his claws churning up the earth where he lay. To his relief Ra seemed to feel his aversion regarding the topic, as she apologized a moment later. Cathan relaxed. "Don't worry about it," he smirked, averting her eyes at the same time. "Something to eat would be much appreciated however," he continued just to change the topic.

Quicker than he had intended to, he pushed to his feet, stretching, waiting for her to take the lead. "I have nothing with their scent on," he proceeded, while following along behind the female kelvic. Head lowered he took in the scents of the forest, of the foliage. "They were on horses and the group was easy enough to follow, until the rain some days back. I believe that's when I lost them." In her words he sensed an anger which went beyond the dislike many people felt for criminals. The kind of rage you felt when it was something personal. "Maybe I will find them one day, they can't keep in the woods forever. Eventually I will pick their tracks up in a city." A big eventually. He had not much hope to ever find the men he had been after. Would he still try? Probably.

"I never... considered staying a wolf." At first it seemed easy, but the kelvic knew he had been lucky surviving the past few days. There was too much he didn't knew and he was unfamiliar with the southern woods. He would have laughed at the idea of living in the wild, had it not been for Ra, who managed well enough in his eyes. He shook his head. "When I am honest, I have yet to think about what I will do. My partner had family in Zeltiva, I believe it would be right to talk to them. Tell them what happened. What I will do afterwards... I don't no."

He gave her a curious look. "Are you staying in the woods?" The thought was tempting. To live for one self, do whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. Until now it had never been something he considered. "And... I don't mind the questions. I rather enjoy having some company... after what happened." Despite being alone, Ra seemed to be considerably more cheerful than he could force himself to be, the lose still to fresh. Still, it was good to hear her laugh and he was glad for the distraction.

"It must be nice, to be one's own master."

[Tierranalin]

Once they were within reach of her pack she brushed the dirt and leaves off with a soft paw. Ra thought long and hard about the bandits "How did you following them by the way? By track?" she asked curiously. "um... do you want your food cooked or raw?" she asked tilting her head with a smile as her tongue lulled out of her mouth. She felt no hunger before but now her mouth watered and her tummy growled with frustration.

She nodded thinking about horses."Where did you last see them? What direction were they going in?" she asked "They could be heading back to a camp" her mind started to run wild with ideas of hunting them down. "Bandits stay close to wood but not in them. They fear our power and with good reason" she nodded thinking deeper.

She laughed "I felt more human but that soon changed. The wolf is a comfort, a protection and an escape if you will" she said again rubbing her muzzle with a paw. "Then again... we all need to be a bit human from time to time".

She nodded "sounds like a plan" she said "What the hell we got our lives ahead of us no need to plan just act" she said with a weak smile. "I've always known the woods, it's my home and sanctuary" she said looking around her at the towering trees, falling leaves and aging rocks. "This is home" she said.

She could tell there was an emptiness and pain behind Cathan but she shook it off and tried her best to change the mood. "It's nice to have control over ones self but I guess in the end of it all I would rather be someone's dog than be alone" she said before gently pulling her pack open and grabbing two rabbits and some clothing from the bag.

"Want me to cook or want to rip into it?" she said with a laugh at that point the wind blew through her pelt and pushed a few of her sketches from the pack, she growled grabbing them softly and pushing then back into her pack with her black nose. "Mind if I change? I need to stretch my legs and what not, Haven't been human for a while and we need wood if we are to keep warm tonight".