Written in the Stars is a literate no word count semi-realistic wolf, coyote, and fox roleplay. With a current mini-plot to populate the land with wolves.

The spirit of a pup who never got a chance to take his first breath whispered to the ears of those he favored. Beckoning them to follow where his floating specter led. Far from the reaches of the packs and families they’d been born to, unless they too chose to follow.

The lands he’d found were free of wolves, but prey abundant to the point they were overgrazing and potentially ruining the ecosystem. And so a place where packs could begin in earnest and help to bring balance back to the terrain.

Once the specter guided them there he returned to the heavens above, to the constellation, the river, for which his parents had named him and to look back down upon his family forevermore. Until one day they would join him and they could frolic together for the first time among the stars.

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I'm brave I'm strong I'm super I'm awesome GAH WHAT WAS THAT!!

Schimmah cringed as the sharp snap of a twig blasted through the quiet air, only to realise that it was her own paw that had made that noise. Huffing and frowning she walked on. To an outside observer the young wolfess was a bright blue colour, with yellow lightning marks across her mane. And a mane it was - thick and long it ruffed around her neck and made a comically long fringe that always covered at least one eye. She had the habit of scowling and pushing her head into her shoulders, floofing up the thick fur so that it stuck up around her head like the spikes on a porcupine. She thought it made her look intimidating.

Intimidating. Huh. If you wanted intimidating, just look at Raka and Byakko. Yeesh. Nothing could be brave when those two stared at you! She sighed a little and scowled harder. Had she always been this cowardly? No, cowardly isn't the correct term. Perhaps jittery was the best description. When she had been alone in the wild after daddums... well, after daddums. She had to be on her guard constantly. She wasn't a big wolf, actually tiny even for her breed which was mostly dire, she thought. Daddums didn't talk about their family a lot. Mostly what he said was gibberish. Oh who was she kidding she was a coward - Raka had to rescue her from those wolves or she ... 

But anyway now she was here in Nardir, getting to know the lay of the land, where to hunt, and generally avoiding the population. She had some brushes, and had met an old geezer who was really nice, but Schimmah found it difficult to really connect with other wolves socially. And here she was in a pack where not only everyone was social but she just found out that she could be related to the X Clan! Um. She wasn't sure how she felt about that. And there wasn't any real proof, yet.

She found herself at the edge of a small clearing. The medium length grass swayed in a gentle breeze. Rocks and tree limbs of various shapes and sizes dotted the area. The sun shone down happily. The small female sat down right at the edge where the dappled shadows of the trees hid her from view - well, as much as her coat allowed her to be hidden - and scowled as she pondered her predicament.

Wolf or sheep?

Things had been rather shaken up after the earthquake. The land she had been trying to familiarize herself with was now different and new all over again. It was hard to decide how she felt about that. She was used to change, accepted it as something constant but..while she did like learning new things, which she usually did whenever change occurred, she still wasn't sure if she actually liked change itself or not given that not all her experiences with change had been pleasant ones and really it was probably at least half of them, if not more, that fell into the category of unpleasant. Although she supposed as this change meant that the land would be different from what her packmates knew or had known it could be considered good as it lessened their advantage if anyone decided they wanted her gone permanently. Of course they could could still try and use the aftermath to their advantage but it would be harder even if more than one were involved as she was probably far more experienced in traversing strange and difficult terrain than they were aware of or were even capable of dealing with themselves. Of course that didn't mean she wanted to exactly put that to the test.

So she'd been working quietly and avoiding others as much as circumstances allowed, especially since there were quite a few individuals that weren't her favorites and some were rather incredibly far from being anyone she wanted to deal with and didn't think she'd ever really didn't ever want to deal with again but then there were others that she was more neural towards and those who she did care about with the chiefest of them being Mercury. So she tried to be diplomatic with likely rather varying results of success depending on who she came across as even those she wasn't fond of weren't all on the same level of how not-fond of them she was.

And so of course what happened? What had to happen of course because it just wouldn't be normal if cruel irony didn't once again intervene as it had before on more than one occasion and present her with one of the very individuals she would have rather avoided. Julek. The king that had told her if she'd been in Bachhus she would be dead many times over, and the brother of Saelac who had expressed similar sentiments before her sentence of exile had been carried out. Well that was just perfect wasn't it..someone who, given that statement, clearly wanted her dead, along with his relatives and who was big enough and powerful enough to possibly do so. Why did they always have to be so huge? Not that being surrounded by angry, violent giants was anything new, since it really wasn't, but still..he was huge and while she could manage things of his size, she'd managed Carissi after all, she didn't really feel like playing keep away to keep herself away from an angry, snapping giant. If it came to that though she supposed she'd have to do exactly that. She gave a mental huff at the thought of it before putting even more effort into trying to be diplomatic but how on earth did one greet someone who wanted them dead? Go hey sorry to disappoint you but I'm still alive and kinda intend to stay that way but maybe you'll get your wish one day! Yeah not likely and that would also hardly be diplomatic so that left..she couldn't think of anything but formalities. Yes formalities would be good for this. That rather simplified things..sort of.

She adopted the same neutrally respectful expression she had with Alana while remaining at the ready, also just as she had with Alana and in carefully respectful neutral tone spoke. "King Julek" being very careful for it to not sound like either a statement or a question since he had seemed to really hate both of those things during the brief interactions they'd had. Once that was done all that was left was to wait and see if he would come charging at her growling, snapping and snarling and accusing her of committing some other crime..which would probably be the crime of breathing with the way her luck went..especially when it came to Bacchus dires.

@Sunblink  @CritterAu Revoir, piss stain Tessa. We hardly knew ye

Set near the end??? Of the party

Alana found herself unable to sleep, shaken (literally) as she was by the recent earthquake. There was also the matter of Ayliyra and Mercury, both puzzle pieces that she had yet to find places for. Things were.. difficult with Aylie, and she felt estranged from Mercury. Alana didn't know how to help them - a lot of that was due to Aylie, as hard an egg to crack as she always had been. Mercury was unsure of where she stood, but seemed willing to offer options at least. In time, they would both find their places within Nardir again. To Aylie, it was a pack full of people she believed mistrusted and hated her. To Mercury, it was a virtually new pack full of new faces, one where she was Queen no longer. Alana had hope that they could both overcome the obstacles they each faced - and she would do all that was in her power to help them.

The matriarch set off into the frigid night, her breaths white plumes in the air. Things were changing swiftly, the snow from the mountaintops beginning to creep further southwards as autumn gripped the land. Leaves turned from green to yellow to orange to red, blanketing the forest floors in fiery colors. Duskwood remained as thick and tangled as ever, but sported snow in spots. It would not be long until the rest of the territory began to fill up with snow; they would need to prepare for the oncoming winter. There were food stores, dried meats and such, but if the herds were scarce that winter.. the stores would not last. She needed to send out hunting parties, perhaps give the Mantles something to do. There had been very few battles as of late, something she was thankful for, but it did leave certain ranks idle.

So distracted by her thoughts was Alana that she almost missed the ethereal blue glow seeming to come from the ground itself. Seafoam eyes locked on to it when she noticed it, curious but uncertain - what was that? She approached with caution, nimble body low to the ground and nose sniffing about. It did smell strange, very earthen and somewhat damp, like an old leaky cave or a rotting fungi-coated log. That only brought on more questions -
and since nothing seemed too obviously dangerous, she pressed forward. To her surprise, the deep grasses had hidden a pathway, formed by collapsed earth and rocks. It led down into.. what was that? The moon queen's small paws moved hesitantly towards the opening, inspecting it as she went. It seemed new, the earth freshly churned. Had the earthquake caused this? It seemed like the only viable option.

She pressed on.

At the bottom of the collapsed part of what was apparently the roof to a tunnel, Alana halted, seafoam eyes wide with wonder and awe. There were mushrooms sprouting from the large tunnel walls, gigantic and glowing brilliant blue. From them dripped long tendrils of light that, upon touching cautiously with a toe, Alana discovered was sticky. She rubbed the goop off onto the ground, taking a few steps further in with her heart racing in her chest. This was amazing! The tunnel seemed to go on for a while, and if she wasn't mistaken -- was that another opening? How many tunnels were there? What were these lovely mushrooms and how did they glow? She had heard tale of things like that, but Alana had always assumed it was simply fantasy. The Queen scrambled back up out of the tunnel, feeling a small sense of relief as the cool breeze ruffled her fur softly. The tunnel had given her no reason to fear it, but it was so different than anything she had encountered before.

There were so many things running through the woman's head that a headache bloomed. She inhaled the crisp fall air deeply, releasing it slowly to calm herself. This was a potentially big discovery, something she wanted to share with others. As she was considering when to call a meeting, Alana noticed a faint blue glow in the distance far in front of her -- and then another to the left, much father (barely visible, she had to squint). There were.. there were more?

Tossing back her head, Alana let loose a loud howl that rang out through the Nardiri night. This could not wait - the tunnels needed to be investigated, and it would be much easier to find a bunch of glowing holes in the ground at night, without the sun's interference. Even the Night Mother was silent that night, her brilliant light absent from the dark sky above. Alana stood waiting her pack mates, seafoam eyes flickering to the tunnel entrance every now and again. While beautiful, she needed to know if those tunnels concealed any hidden dangers that now had access to the world above, or whether or not they led anywhere. Could their enemies use them to travel into the packlands unseen? There were so many potential dangers and so many questions that needed answering. The sooner they got started, the better.



this is an official starting thread to kick off the 'exploring the tunnels' part of the plot! you're encouraged to post here before the 30th. that's a little over two weeks to post here before i post again and close the thread/give everyone assignments!