shard&miyako;;

[S h a r d]

&shard;;
All the little pieces falling
Shatter
Shards of me
Too sharp to put back together

It was when the trees became so dense that very little sunlight was allowed through the canopy that Shard knew he was home. The closely knit leaves above him sent a dappled green glow over his dark fur, dry twigs and brown undergrowth crunching under his paws. Thorns and brambles clawed at him as he trotted past, but his thick fur brushed them off as if they were flies. He was exhausted, and hungry, but all of that seemed to fade away when he realised he was home.

He looked over his shoulder, tongue lolling out of his mouth. "Nearly there," he called, breaking into a sudden sprint. He could smell the dampness of the ancient trunks around him, and he felt a sudden chill bite his ankles. Glancing down, he saw a familiar mist emanating from nowhere and curling softly around his legs as he ran. He loved the mist, trapped in by the denseness of the trees. The babble of Spider Brook spoke to him from a little way away, the point where the many little streams met up and formed the source of a greater river. He knew that, far away, Devil's Stone stood, sticking weirdly from the ground at an odd angle.

But that wasn't where he headed for now. He was running directly to the centre of the territory, because it simply felt like the best place to start. In minutes, the landmark which told him he'd made it sprang into view. It was a clearing, and in it stood a great oak. The wood of the oak was black and twisted around itself, hunching over, its boughs gnarled and grotesque. Shard didn't know what had made the old tree that way, but he'd heard vague tell that it had been struck by lightning. It was good luck, he presumed. After all, lightning would not strike the same spot twice.

He tore towards the deadened tree and skidded to a stop, a wild grin on his face. Boy, it was good to be on familiar ground again. He rubbed up against the tree, enjoying the feeling of the rough bark scratching at his skin, and he came away smelling of charcoal. He spun around, tail wagging, weariness momentarily forgotten. "Welcome," he growled happily, "to the Fragmented Pack."

And here it was in all its glory, stretching out at either side of him for miles on end. It was the deep forest which he owned. One side opened to woodland, owned by some other pack, and further still, near Devil's Stone, was where the mountains began to rear from the ground. There was prey a plenty here, and when Shard listened he could hear the calls of many birds, foxes, deer and small mammals. Brooks weaved between the trees, forming a sort of liquid web in which lurked creatures Shard couldn't possibly name. He hadn't known this place for long, but he felt a deep, intense love for it. And the sapphire in his forehead seemed to agree, sending low comforting throbs through his skull.

Shard's ears came forward in concern as he remembered suddenly that they both should be exhausted. "How are you feeling?" he asked Miyako, taking a step forward. "Did I run too fast?"

Too small to matter
But big enough
To cut me into so many little pieces

[/size][/color]

[lacrymosa]

Right behind him she ran through the His--Their territory. She was highly impressed. This was much cooler then the hell hole she had been stuck in for a while.

she stopped and watched him rubbed up against the old tree. Looking around and smelling the air. This was now her home. It seemed right to call it that, Home, the cool air feel so unbelievably cool. she was almost in heaven just by the freshness of this place. The smell of this place of her home was amazing as well. The cool grass felt beyond heavenly against her toes. The hot sand had nearly destroyed her pads on her paws and the cool moist feeling was more then a pleasurable feeling to her.

As her home started to give her nice memories of when she was a puppy, his question caught her off guard. As she snapped out of her memories she looked at him then realized how tired she was. she blinked in surprise as the effects had just started to hit her.

No, i was able to keep up fine she smiled while panting, her ears went back in embarrassment I guess i didn't realize how tired i was a nervous laugh escaped her weak throat. She looked at him How are you feeling? again the rude feeling of not asking him first hit her.

[S h a r d]

&shard;;
All the little pieces falling
Shatter
Shards of me
Too sharp to put back together

Shard grinned. "Never better," he replied truthfully, the cool, moist forest air washing around him. Somewhere, a vixen called, a harsh horrible scream which sounded almost human to Shard's ears. A dog fox replied in low, grinding barks and then there was silence. Shard looked around himself. The clearing was large enough for there to be a considerable gap in the canopy above, allowing the sunlight to pierce through to the ground below. It was late afternoon now, the sun beginning to sink towards dusk, but complete darkness was hours away. The grass here was thicker and longer than around the rest of the forest, having been able to photosynthesise properly with the light, water and oxygen provided by the clearing. Shard scratched the ground with his paw a little, turned into a quick, small circle and padded out a makeshift resting spot in the cushioned grass for himself.

Still standing, he looked at Miyako deliberately. He had been tired, but in the elation of returning home seemed to have delved into a last period of wakefulness. Miyako, however, had expressed her weariness. As alpha, Shard felt that it was his job to do something about that, to make an action which worked best for the pack. At the moment, Miyako was the pack. And besides, it wouldn't do either of them any harm at all to relax a little.

"We'll rest awhile, then," he said with a smile, nodding his head at her and inviting her to lie or sit opposite him, whichever she pleased. "Perhaps we can talk a little. Learn more of eachother."

He finally let his muscles relax completely, for the first time in days on end, and lay down with a satisfied little growl. He lay slightly on his side, his back legs pointing out to the side and his front legs stretched out infront of him. He kept his head raised. His ears went back a little, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth in a comical, wolf-ish grin. "It's so good to lie down without feeling like your being fried," he mused. The dusty grounds of the plains sure hadn't felt like anything short of a cooking pan. The damp grass, however, was soft and cool under him, the small droplets of moisture which had gathered on their blades soaking through his fur and cooling his skin beneath. A chaffinch settled on a branch above him and sang in voices Shard recognised from other birds around the forest. He'd worked out a while ago that the chaffinch enjoyed mimicking other songs.

"So, Miyako," he growled softly. "Do you have a story? Something of a history, if you know what I mean?"

Too small to matter
But big enough
To cut me into so many little pieces

[/size][/color]

[lacrymosa]

Her cracked pads ached from the moist grass, Not a bad ache, a relaxing one. The frosted air cooled her body, bringing her body temperature down. the wind was a nice change, aside from the wind that she made while running.

She watched shard, noting his movements. when he asked her to lay/sit next to her, at first she didn't know what to make of it. It wasn't an order really, more like a request. Slowly she walked over to him, the blades of the grass piercing the broken areas of her pads. She did well not to make it obvious that she was in a bit of pain.

She sat next to him, after a few moments she could feel her legs tire and she laid down to relive them of their ache. Walking from a dessert land to a wooden forest was enough to make a strong with tired.

Her ebony ears were relaxed and back, she panted cooling her body slowly, her front paws crossed as her back legs were kicked out to the side. She was on the side of her stomach, in a lounging kind of pose.

As soon as he had Finished his question about her past, memories flooded her mind. Both of fear and sorrow. She quickly banished the thoughts and tried to make her tone playful and happy.

To be honest I don't really remember much about my past, other then my mother trying to move me and my siblings away from the pack for some odd reason. After a month or so i ended up roaming around the little den we shared. When i came back they were gone. Since then i have just roamed the plains of a thousand echos, hoping i could actually find a pack that would be willing to take me in, ya'know some place i could call home and not worry about having a repeat of back then. Her golden eyes seemed lost in a distant time. The memories of those days made her think about a lot of things she had done while she was a pup.

She looked back at him, trying to tear her thoughts away from the past and back to the current time. She was in a pack now, she had a home now. There was no point in beating herself up over something as stupid and foolish as that. she smiled at her new alpha Mine isn't that interesting, So how about you?

[S h a r d]

&shard;;
All the little pieces falling
Shatter
Shards of me
Too sharp to put back together[/i]

Shard watched Miyako as she spoke, his eyes growing wide and sympathetic as she did so. Her words both saddened and confused him, and his ears flicked back a little. It sounded like she'd had quite an ordeal, and Shard was perceptive enough to be able to tell that it troubled her a lot more than she was letting on. He shifted uncomfortably. Of all the conversation starters he could have chosen, he chose one which would make Miyako immediately upset. He growled softly. He supposed she would have told him eventually anyway. He was just getting it out of the way.

He actually snorted out loud when she commented about how uninteresting her life was. Compared to his own, it was far from it. "I have absolutely nothing to tell," he said with a thankful smile. He didn't want a trouble history. He was quite happy being boring. "My father was alpha of the pack I was born in, I had three brothers and a sister. Nothing very interesting happened then, except that I left my pack a little earlier than most would. Eager to get out and see the world, I was always a bit of a thrill-seeker. I spent a good couple of years just wandering around as a lone wolf. I'd always had this stupid dream that I'd be an alpha one day, like my dad. I tried to join a pack once, it was a harsh winter and I was really struggling to eke it out on my own, but they were having troubles of their own too. Then, would you believe it, I ended up here. Claimed it as soon as I could, no one else had. Then this goddess wolf I'd never heard of came, put this gem thing in my head and told me I was alpha. Simple as that."

He laughed nervously. Her speech had sounded so fraught with misery, he felt like an idiot blabbering on about how cushy his own life had been. And now he was an alpha. He had it good so far, though he suspected that hard times were to come once his pack began to grow. He would have new and difficult responsibilities. Miyako was his responsibility right now, he reminded himself. And they'd just been on a ridiculously long journey. It was all a bit surreal to him, so far. A dream. Any minute he'd wake up and he'd be on his own again, living on rats and rabbits and trying to see as much of the world as one wolf could. Living as a loner had had its ups and downs. He'd been young and foolish, never really ready to leave home and fend for himself. He missed his parents, especially his dad. He'd been close to his dad. He wondered about him sometimes, even considered going back to see him. He'd be getting older now. It hurt Shard to think that.

It hurt him even more to imagine going home and finding his family gone. Just gone. He looked at Miyako with curious eyes, wondering how she could have handled it. He respected her for it. Hopefully, he could help her pick up any pieces she may have dropped. That was his job now, and he wanted to do well at it.

A spider scuttled over Shard's paw and he killed it simply by pressing his nose against it. He snapped it up, wincing as the tiny morsel only made his stomach feel all the more empty. He wanted to hunt so badly, but he was almost certain that his legs would give way if he tried to stand now that he'd finally given them a chance to relax.

"So glad to be out of that stupid desert," Shard growled with a blissful sigh. "Thought I'd never find someone decent." Then he found Miyako, and the Fragmented pack wasn't just him any more. She was a Fragmented wolf now. Shard grinned happily, tail giving the floor a thump. He'd barely noticed that it had gotten dark, and the chorus of shrieking crickets had broken out around them. Shard looked up.

"Full moon," he breathed. He loved the full moon, it bathed the forest in such a silvery light that it seemed as if the sun still lit the trees.

Too small to matter
But big enough
To cut me into so many little pieces

[/size][/color]

[lacrymosa]

the crisp cool air moved between them, it felt really nice compared to the dessert, and like he she was more then happy to be out of there as well. She gave a few moments to look back on her past, and at that point she was glade what had happened to her, as sad as it was, happened. It gave her, her personality and her character as a wolf.

She yawned as she watched him kill the small arachnid, her tail flicked with the wind as she scanned the beautiful new home. her stomach growled, as she turned and smiled to her new alpha.

So after a quick rest we hunt?