The cool wind of autumn was here, causing the leaves to slowly fall in it's wake. Littering the forest floor with it's vast aray of colors. Red,Orange,Yellow and the odd dark purple looking ones danced over the ground as they covered the light brown color that the grass was turning. No more bright green and lively like it once was in the spring and summer time. It'll be another six months or so before life starts to flood back into the forest.

Because of the fallen foliage of the leaves, walking around has become a little louder for most. The crunching and shuffling of leaves easily echoed in the forest. Crunch, Crunch, Crunch sounded as small paws moved about. Paws that were barely the size of an acorn that's been long gone, eaten up by a squirrel getting fat for winter. They carried about a small body, belonging to a young one who seems to be on a mission. Her bright eyes wide with curiousity as her ears swiveled about, trying to pick up any and all sounds that were around her. Although, the main sound she's really able to hear are the rustling of the leaves that her paws were disturbing.

Halting, the young pup halted in her grand adventure as something in front of her caught her attention. Her beight blue eyes stared at the small pile for a moment, not really sure what to think of it. Soft looking things that seemed to be well taken care of were just resting in a pile. Looking like they were waiting for someone to go through them and curl up in for a nice little nap. The soft fur, wrapping around one like a mothers warmth on a cool night. Bringing about a sense of familiarity to the young pup.

Slowly, the dark furred girl hunched down to the ground, as she slowly slunk towards the pile. Her nose twitched as she tried to pick up the smell of what the pile could be, but there were just to many. The only thing that she could figure out, was that the scents were from her kind. Wolves.
As the young beauty got to the pile, after playing her little sneaking game, she stood up and looked at the pile. Her paw reached out grabbing one of the things and holding it up. Bright blue eyes widened as they realized it was a tail. This was a pile of tails, severed from their owners and collected in a pile by someone who seemed to be using them as trophies. 

"This is weird." The young pup mumbled quietly to herself as she looked at the tail in her grip and then towards the pile. Her eyes looked warily back towards the pile, a feeling of unease starting to fill her. This was feeling like a bad idea, being around someones soft of treasure and all. 
Then, the young pup jumped as the sound of a breaking twig caught her attention. The young girl, Lily looked around herself as she tried to figure out where it was coming from. In a panic, the young girl grabbed the tail in her grip with her teeth and made a mad dash away from the pile of severed tails, not wanting to be caught by the creature that seemed to inflicting such trauma to others.

The queen was agitated and dour. She'd been avoiding Cockatrice, avoiding Kashmir, and Ghost, mostly to spare them her irritability. But she also hadn't gone to them because the pain in her hip had made walking a nightmare. Usually, it only ached slightly in the rain and cold, but now it hurt all the time, even in the warmth of midday, and even when she stayed off of it. She'd grown somehow restless and listless at the same time. 

Now, she lay on her back in a clearing near her den, scowling at the trees and their gently falling leaves. Her mind rolled over and over the events of her years, the wars and wolves come and gone. Politics of course, weighed on her - Tortuga's recent silence, Gemini's olive branch. Nardir of course remained a staunch ally - she mused that diplomats should be sent there soon, and perhaps she could go herself - but a a twang of pain in her hip made her reconsider. It was odd for this old wound to act up so much. 

She sighed, and adjusted her position on her back. She likely looked a bit foolish like this, though finding a comfortable position would at this point be worth whatever loss of dignity she might suffer. She looked like a cat lazing in a sunbeam, more than a noble queen, but so be it. It was unlikely that anyone would bother her this close to her den, anyway, unless it was another alpha. While Haven was fond of the other leaders, she had never been terribly close to any of them, and so she doubted they'd make house calls. 

This general sense of discomfort, it would be gone in a day or two, she told herself. Just a temporary ache.

@Frost I hope it's okay I moved this over from the old forum, I still really wanna do this! If you don't want to reply it's okay you can just let me know

Quote:The land was full of rivers and Iris enjoyed them, she would dip her paws in the cool water to feel better relaxed when it was too hot, she hung around the rivers like bees to flowers and she was standing with just her paws in a river, making light splashes with her front paws and giggling to herself. She soon walked around the edge of the water, trying pretty hard to not get too wet. She didn’t feel like grooming herself too much from a wet fur and kept just her paws in there and sighed happily. The sun has been baking for days, it was good to cool off after days like this.

It was while she was in the midst of this that she noticed something in the corner of her eye and looked up. She thought at first it was the queen, the orange/beige cream colors were close to identical, but upon looking up she saw it was a much larger male with streaks of brown in his fur and she gasped loudly (thank god he wasn’t close enough to hear), that was the prince! She had heard stories of him and his nobility in action and her small tail immediately wagged as she jumped out of the river.

”Prince Zaniah!? Prince!” She followed him until he would stop and turn to look at her and once he did she would wag her tail wildly and offer a charming smile in return to whatever look he might be giving. ”Oh prince Zaniah! What an honor to meet you like this, I’ve heard stories of your noble heart.” She smiled and her tail was still wagging.

Whatever or not she was making the prince uncomfortable was lost on her, she was too deep in her own thoughts and fantasies. She had never imagined she would get to meet the prince! She felt so lucky and could just squeal like a fangirl meeting her idol, but she kept it at a charmer’s smile and then realized she hadn’t properly introduced herself. ”How embarrassing! I forgot to introduce myself! I am Iris.” She made a proper curtsy, for this was the prince after all! Couldn’t slack on manners and courtesy now could she? She was eager to get talking to him and get to know him, she could hardly contain it.

@Puffin I hope it's okay I moved this over from the old forum?

Quote:The moon was beaming bright tonight, it was full and gleaming white like a giant pearl in the sky, and one wolf in particularly was very happy with this. She adore the moon and its entire glory, she worshipped it to its fullest. She had left her den because the sky had been cloud free and she knew it was full moon, the moon was the entire reason she was up and about.
 
She collected flowers, big and small in scarlet and bright colors, yellow like the sun and blue like the sky on bright mornings. She had a plan for all of them as she collected them into a neat line in colors and hummed lowly to herself a soothing song of the past, a past enjoyed in warmth of family and the bond of family.
 
Beside collecting flowers in the fields around her she had collected twigs and small branches of a tree, she didn’t know its name but she knew it was bendy and flexible and it would be the crown of her work. She began her work on intertwining each branch and stick into each other and slowly bend it each time she did, make a circular crown. She kept stopping her work to measure it on her head, making sure it fit around her ears without falling down.
 
Once it was sturdy and the perfect size she began inserting the flowers. She had carefully chosen colors that complimented each other and carefully selected how each flower would be arranged. She was whispering a song to herself as she worked in the moonlight and worked throughout most of the night. She was surrounded by wildflowers that she picked from when she changed her mind on the color blue, instead it became a crown of red, yellow and white. She inserted plants of different kinds to compliment the flowers.
 
The night was her time, it was her comfort and her space for her work and tonight she needed the presence of the moon. It had been 6 months since the passing of her parents tonight. She had gone through the day with the motions, followed the flow and thought of everything but it. She worked tirelessly for the crown, a crown of beauty. It wasn’t until she finished it that she allowed her feelings to wallow over her like a wave and she sobbed only once, swiped the possible tears away and looked to the moon.
 
She still had one mother in the sky, one guidance and one figure of love. She knew what to do with the crown now.

@Uri as promised!

[quote author=✧Iris✧ link=topic=128089.msg1059921#msg1059921 date=1499349379]
The moon worshipper was out in the sun and actually enjoying her time there. Which was sort of a given Iris was a sociable creature who certainly enjoyed others company, though mostly when she was the center of their attention. Maybe that’s why she liked private conversations where others only could keep their attention to her? She wasn’t some desperate teen trying everything to get the attention of adults, but she did definitely have her sense of drama when she needed it.

And today she needed it! She had ventured around the land to enjoy the warm summer and get some creative ideas for something to draw as practice, but she had ventured way too close to the apiary and screamed like a little schoolgirl when bees got too close. She knew better than to swat at bees, but she accidentally did it per reflex and what do you know she got stung. Her paw hurt pretty badly now and was swollen as she limped as far as away as possible from that place.

The lakes were the best places in Nardir and it was exactly where she found herself again and dipped her hurting paw into the water to cool it off. She felt a tingling in her body and couldn’t say she had tried that before, actually it was the first time she had been stung in her life as she really had avoided those little creatures as a child. What was happening?

She felt dizzy and decided it was best to lay down a little and kept her paw in the water as she winced in self pity. This was truly uncomfortable! What bothersome little creatures. ”Great, what else is gonna go wrong today!” The drama queen announced out loud, mostly to herself. She hated being out of commission and she was really starting to feel ill. ”Urgh..” She was slowly coming to the conclusion that this couldn’t be normal. She raised her head to look for someone but it got heavy and dizzy. ”Hey? Hello? Anyone?” She tried calling for assistance instead and put her head back down and whimpered. ”Lady in pain over here.” She might be dying here, but she was still a little lady!

[/quote][quote author=Julek link=topic=128089.msg1063577#msg1063577 date=1502034420]

He sat at the mouth of a den, the recent windy gusts absent this day. 

Over all the feeling was a dead one. He heard little to no activity in the Valley, the elements were still and quiet, he hadn't spoken to anyone all day. He stared blankly at the dark opening and the empty interior, been staring actually. He'd been there most of the day, the full weight of how quiet and how lonely he was while everyone was away fighting for their lives was crushing his heart. He had no idea he'd been there for so long, he had little thought at all aside from the deafening silence that surrounded the place he'd claimed for his family. The sounds of little pups shouting and playing, the contented huffs of a beautiful and strong willed mate.

Silence.

Like a grave.

He'd spent maybe two nights here after the others had left but the lack of bodies to share in their warmth, the overly stillness of the empty den. It chilled his bones and so he couldn't stand it. He felt more comfort laying under the stars, howling at the moon in hopes that they'd return his sorrowful call in their far away place. The only calls were others missing their families or their friends...the Goddesses. He'd tried every night though, to stay in the den but soon it became too hard to even enter the thing, like now. Standing outside like he was some stranger to his own house. He felt vile and weak but he knew this feeling couldn't be shaken.

He blinked finally, his eyes dry and bloodshot from staring so long. His belly roared at him but he ignored it, he didn't feel hungry even if his body knew he was. He wondered if they had eaten today, if they were healthy. He honestly wondered if they were even alive but every time that thought touched his mind, he recoiled form it like a viper. Still, he hadn't moved, he'd likely stay like this until the sun went down. 

If he was lucky, his body would do him a favor and he'd collapse from exhaustion and maybe get a wink of sleep.

Probably not...