n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Thread Started on Aug 17, 2009, 5:10am »
Technically, while the night had started hours ago, it was only just beginning for us. A very exceptional night at that; a hunting night. To an uninterested glance we were shadows flitting from the yawning mouth of one alley to the next; an illusion of peripheral vision no one would think twice about or think to inspect more closely. I would glance over my shoulder every other second thinking I heard a sound that I hadn't, or seen something that wasn't there. Unlike the creature next to me I couldn't hear if anything was close so my paranoia grew with every passing second, mounting on itself as a burden literally weighing down my shoulders.
Halting quickly, down in a crouch my hand reached out to clutch Vasyl. My fingers smothering a black rosette of his fur into disarray, feeling the lean muscles hidden beneath my heart became instantly warm. I started to absent mindedly rub my fingers around causing a fit of purring from deep in his chest. Stopping immediately to quiet the sound he looked at me, eyes narrowed, clearly annoyed at my panic. It had only been an hour sense we had slipped the security at the zoo, but it felt like only a minute. If not for the promise I had made to Vasyl the day before we wouldn't even be here at all.
After work today I had hidden with him in his enclosure, no one bothering to notice an extra exhibit animal, waiting for everyone else to leave. When I was sure it was safe we both flew the coop, slinking into the night like prisoners escaping from a prison stay that would soon end in the death sentence. Our destination for this rare trip was the outskirts. I could tell from our location that we weren't too far and we might even be able to make it back before tomorrow's security started to check in for work. For the moment we had to make it through the mazes of warehouses and factories that dotted the Industrial district of London.
Vasyl butted his head into my back. He wanted to get out of the city as soon as possible so we could hunt at ease with knowing no one would see us. Our eyes met and for a moment everything seemed to suspend itself, a small bubble of time just for us. When it passed he snuffed my face.
"Alright! I'll try and calm down. But may I remind you its my paranoia that keeps us safe. I guess we'd get there faster though...more time to hunt too...."
Taking one last 360o, a scan of our surroundings I unfolded myself and started walking briskly in the direction of the outskirts as quietly as was possible for me. Vasyl followed close on my heels, much more silently, batting at my feet playfully. Twisting around to almost walk backwards, I glared at him as we made our way, giving me a sheepish shrug of his warm shoulders.
Re: n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Reply #1 on Aug 17, 2009, 6:02am »
It had been a few days since Forde’s last meal, so Halina was following him out of the main portion of London. The feeling she got from him was an interested curiosity as he trotted around, checking out of habit to make sure she was following. Today she hadn't bothered with the leash--it wasn't like they'd get separated, anyway. The first and last time she'd attempted to leave him in the house (shortly after her family moved away), she'd only gone around ten feet before a horrendous pain shot through her head. Not only that, but Forde's own distress had felt like a brick hitting her as he'd started trying to chew the doorknob off of the door.
This meant--if his fully-grown entrance into the world wasn't enough of a hint--that Forde wasn't a normal wolf. She'd attempted to find out how coming close to dying could spawn an animal that literally couldn't leave her side and refused to let others touch him, but the only other person who'd gone through such an event was a young man with a stallion. The most reliable information she'd gotten from him was that Forde was her familiar, and the pain she'd felt as he leaped from her chest was that of her soul splitting in two. Further pressing revealed unhelpful information, like the ability to create a familiar being dependent on lineage: Neither of her parents had heard of familiars aside from the fairy-tale kind, and her father hadn't even called Forde by his species--only "that thing," along with several terms that she (having been raised as a decent Polish-American girl) had never heard before, and thus had only a loose grasp of their meaning.
But no matter his existential status, there were upsides to having Forde around. Even a hunting dog would have needed a cue to begin the chase, or flush out their prey--wolves knew perfectly well what to do, when to do it, and without prompting. And when Forde make a larger kill, it meant less complicated ways of doing groceries. Wolf-dogs were cautiously accepted during normal dog activities, but it was substantially harder to convince grocery store employees why she couldn’t just tie him outside (she usually had to feign being seizure prone or having sciatica). Since she wasn’t known here, she could get a harness and pass him off as an assistance dog...
As they neared an abandoned factory, Forde stopped with sudden alarm. Tail raised and legs stiff, he sniffed the air to find a scent and clearly didn't like what he detected.
“What is it?”
He took her sleeve carefully and tugged her behind a rusted shell of equipment: Someone else was here.
Re: n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Reply #2 on Aug 17, 2009, 6:44am »
The stars of a city sky are always stunted versions of the real thing. We had stopped in the door way to the warehouse to rest and look at the sad night view. Vasyl stretched out his body as I sat to ease the cramp that had started to form in my back. Even as we sat in the silence my paranoia crept up and threatened to upend my mind. It was illogical; no person was around to follow them; no witnesses. Still, even through logic, my heart nagged that my mind was wrong.
Vasyl could sense my discomfort and offered some of his own. As if playing the role of a common house feline, Vas butted his head against my shoulder and walked past me so that the length of him rubbed the side of my body, all the way to the tip of his tale. My face became the victim of Twitchy Tail Syndrome. With that task complete, his interests moved to the endless supply of mice and other such creatures that roamed the room beyond the portal where I sat.
"And here I thought you wanted to get closer to the wilderness to hunt! Apparently any cretin will do the trick for you."
It couldn't hurt us much if we stayed here for just an hour to play around. To be able to play hunt was the warm up session for the serious game we intended to catch in the outskirts. I wanted to shift badly, but it was unwise. Seeing as how we were still in the city the ability to talk in case trouble arrives is always essential.
I stood and walked over to the skulking snow leopard. Seeing his condition I began to get into the moment. Our shoulders wiggled; Vasyl pumping his forepaws ever so slightly to pounce at a moments notice; mine with a reflective excitement. His rear end rose into the air and we both readied ourselves to sprint and catch the unsuspecting rat in under a window on the opposite wall. We felt sorry for the poor creature. It was here in this life only knowing how to survive, but not truly live. We had a purpose, our life meant something. The animal under the window was a speck of the world that would soon be extinguished and forgotten all because it was not born a creature of power.
Re: n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Reply #3 on Aug 18, 2009, 1:15am »
Forde's previous anticipation for the hunt was now completely replaced with dislike: The other person must be hunting as well. This was bad for him, as he already had the disadvantage of being the only wolf around--Halina was useful for hunting and was quite used to distracting prey or spooking right into Forde's line of attack, but running into competition (human or otherwise) wasn't a good experience for either of them. Human hunters often tried to shoot Forde or had dogs that wouldn't be fooled by lying, and there had once been a pack of five wolves that had bullied him into leaving a doe carcass.
It was times like these that Halina wished she knew more than the basic facts about Familiars, but it wouldn't do to be found out. Not before she knew what kind of prey the other person was hunting, at least... Despite the strong urge to keep hiding in her (currently) safe spot amongst the rusted parts of machinery, she crept out quietly and motioned for Forde to follow, using a barely-audible volume that the wolf would have no problem hearing. "Come on, Forde--let's get further out."
If they got to the woods, they wouldn't have to sneak about and would have less...
Was that a leopard? She froze and ducked behind the nearest wall as it pounced on something. No wonder nobody saw anything unusual about a young woman wandering around with a wolf! After a moment she glanced at the big cat again; its fur was white.
Forde's hackles were up and he was about to growl a notification of his presence, but Halina's rapidly increasing panic won over his animosity. He gave a quiet whuff and let Halina hug him, though he still kept an eye out for the snow leopard.
Re: n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Reply #4 on Aug 24, 2009, 3:19am »
As usual Vasyl was able to catch the varmint before I could. He pranced through the room, carrying his prize with gleeful pride. Now more than ever my body ached to make the change. The coppery scent of blood sent my nerves on edge and fissions of anticipation through my body. I walked over to the great cat and sat back on my heels to look him in the eye. His head suddenly came up and faced slightly toward the door with his ears pricked to attention. My heart skittered to a stop along with my mind. Only a few seconds later Vas shrugged his shoulders and smirked lowering his attention back to me. Even though he relaxed my paranoia was back into full swing and ready for action. No longer able to contain the growing sensations of delusion I made the decision to leave. Now! We were still in city limits after all and this was no place to be caught unawares. People weren’t to be trusted after all, no matter if they were a part of the secret world or the vanilla world.
“We’re leaving now Vas.”
Vasyl gave me a look with his green eyes that told me just what he thought of my renewed paranoid condition.
“Don’t you dare look at me like that! It’s your fault anyways for reacting how you just did.”
He still silently grumbled about my over reactions while I grumbled about people and hunting. Stepping out of the doorway we had come in through, we set out once more into the quickly retreating night. The air was stale and held the hints of decaying wastes, but with no winds to move the offending scented breezes to our nose it remained faint. Thank fate for small favors Grandfather always used to say.
Now that we were focused, the night was ours. At a brisk jog I ran along side Vas, the pads on his feet providing the cushioning for a silent trot. The soft, worn rubber soles of my flats hardly created a whisper of sound as I found my stride. The end of the block was coming into our sights and soon we would be leaving the industrial district.
368 ooc: Sorry it took me so long Hal! Hopefully its okay quality.
Re: n e b u c h a d n e z z a r « Reply #5 on Aug 29, 2009, 5:46pm »
Forde peered out cautiously around the corner, then relaxed and headed back out. Now that the possible threat looming over their heads was gone, he rapidly started to work himself back up into his usual hunting mood, bounding along as he searched for a likely scent. Halina found it a bit amusing that most people assumed hunting was the same as aggression--why on earth would a wolf be mad at the prospect of food? Perhaps it was how they sometimes stared down the prey to intimidate them, or the intensely hierarchal feeding that followed.
She followed Forde out to the forest, peering into the rusted machinery just in case something else was hiding there. Nothing but the odd insect or rat--Forde preferred larger prey and the smallest game she could (and would) cook was rabbit. She also didn’t feel like testing the grocery stores; she’d heard they were friendlier to dogs here, but wolves? Europe was the stronghold of the “big bad wolf” stories even today--not to mention she’d only been here a few days and she didn’t know anyone. Yes, she’d definitely have to feign disability...
Forde took a moment out of his search to nudge her back to attention, but she detected a hint of caution returning to his thoughts and slowed down--there was a girl running with the leopard. She would have considered it odd, if she wasn’t bounding along with a wolf herself, but what was she supposed to do? She checked the directions she wasn’t traveling in: Behind her was the factory, obviously, very far left were the last remnants of the city. In front, where the girl was heading as well? That was the forest, or close to it.
There was no other choice but to go roughly the same way, but Halina planned to put off meeting the girl (and her leopard) as long as possible. She sighed and resumed her jog. “Let’s go, Forde.”
![[Search This Thread]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/search2.gif)
![[Send Topic To Friend]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/sendtopic.gif)
![[Print]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/buttons/print.gif)
Author
![[avatar]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/0803/charmed_sisters4/sofiya-1.jpg)
![[aim]](http://s4.images.proboards.com/aim.gif)
Logged![[avatar]](http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b124/CrossoverQueen/DecayingLondon-Halina.jpg)
