[Kimster]

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?

[Sekirei]

Ticonderoga was walking along, his mind full. Ever since Aylie returned, the mood of the clan had settled into unease. That's when Akutan, with help from Byakko, told him the whole story. Ticon was still taking it all in. He had never guessed that she would've gone so far as to question Alana and didn't respect the chain of command. He was an ex-loner and there was a difference between loners and rogues. Loners respected boundaries held by packs, seeking only to carry on with their lives. Rogues, by contrast, did not respect pack boundaries or ranks. From all accounts, Aylie fit the mold of a rogue. She disrespected rank and tried to supersede those in authority. She had neither the power nor right. Still, Byakko had admitted that the Clan had failed her terribly, which was why she was the way she was. Starfire's kind heart led her to taking in a pup whose father was a murderous bastard. But it seemed his influence couldn't be broken and, combined with the loss of the forest and the death of X, things just deteriorated between Aylie and the Clan. When a new home was established, that was when the problems really started and led to Aylie getting sent to one of their now-defunct allies.

Byakko had hoped that time away would get her head on straight but it was a vain hope. She returned, with Mercury in tow, even worse off. The Clan completely withdrew their hopes of reconciliation. The old monochrome wolf turned his back on the past, being at the age where he could see his end coming and wanted to make sure the family he still had left would thrive without him there. His only real fear was of Aylie just waiting for him to be out of the way. He was the last bastion of the Clan until his nephew came into his own as a leader. Akutan admitted to being afraid of being unable to protect his family from anything Aylie could do if they crossed paths unintentionally and her mouth got away from her. So far, the involved parties had done well avoiding each other but how long could that possibly remain feasible. As an outsider, Ticon didn't like the fracture this presented to the pack as a whole and his own opinion was that if Aylie hated the Clan and the pack so much, why the hell was she even back anyway? Even with that unanswered question, there was no doubt that if her father, Zvulun, ever showed his face, Byakko and Akutan would tear him apart in front of her. She would then be free to interpret their actions however she saw fit, and they knew she would think the absolute worst of them even though they removed the very source of their conflict.

Ticon paused. Byakko had warned him away from speaking to her. He would not be spared Aylie's wrath because he was a) a dead ringer for the long-dead X and b) by virtue his very association with the Clan in general. The old man had wistfully added that if not for his association, she might have tolerated him at best. Ticon was much smaller than X had been and his icy blues stuck out just as much as the X Clan gold. Nothing could be done about that. He was the X Clan's knight by choice and if they were afraid of this she-wolf, then he would do his part to help insulate the truly innocent; Sara and her pups. The Halo knew, as her family did, that if Aylie wanted it badly enough, she could kill her in whatever way she saw fit and Sara would not survive it. Ticon had to admire her all the more. Whether it was physically, emotionally, or mentally, Sara knew hers was the biggest target Aylie could want. Her acceptance of her weakness and her kind heart coming with such a fatal price was just one of the many ways that made her one of the strongest wolves Ticon had ever met. 

Coming out of his bleak thoughts, Ticon almost missed the blue she-wolf at the edge of the clearing he was crossing. He recognized her as Raka's companion. He looked at her and flicked an ear. "What's up?" he asked, staying where he was. He remembered her being a jittery thing and decided to let her come to him if she wanted. He was fine with carrying on a conversation from their current distance and he needed a distraction.

[Kimster]

"What's up?"

As if controlled by invisible strings, Schimmah jumped into the air and when her backpaws hit the ground they catapulted her backwards to land right on her back. In a flash she was back on her paws in a defensive stance, eyes almost jutting out of her head in surprise to look at the voice that had come out of nowhere. A big - no scratch that - HUGE wolf stood dominating the clearing a few feet in front of her. She gulped and automatically hunched her shoulders to make her mane go all poofy and make herself look bigger. What IS it with Nardir and huge frikking wolves?! I mean seriously! Was it something in the water??

"Nothing's up nope no up uh ok-maybe-a-little-up-then-down wait HOW-didya-walk-a-so-quiet!" she blurted out, her voice all squeaky in an embarrassing mixture of fear and admiration. She scowled than and glared at him with one green eye, the other hidden behind her long thick fringe. Ok, so now that the adreline was wearing off a bit, the wolf in front of her was muscled. Not quite Byakko muscled. And black and white. Or was it more white and black? Whatever. And was that a red X tatto? Or a trible mark? She couldn'd help but stare at it, wondering if he meant her harm or not.

[Sekirei]

(Sorry this is coming a bit slow on my end. Dad's refusing to turn the internet back on at home, even though the data's been reset for the month, because we went over last month's data limit and he hasn't told Sis and I how much he wants us to cough up to cover that overage. So...I'm leeching off the library's free Wifi for a bit.)

Ticon watched with amusement as the she-wolf yelped in surprise and landed on her back. He found it hilarious, really, because she apparently hadn't been paying any attention. Especially since he had walked right into her field of vision. She was either scatterbrained and somehow didn't see him or she missed him entirely. To be fair, he wasn't a large wolf by any stretch. Just your average dire. He wasn't Fringe huge like Byakko and he was one of the very few pure Fringes left in the pack. His family were all mixed breeds. It was pretty much a given that as the family continued down through the generations that they were going to keep getting smaller as the Fringe blood was weakened. Ticon sat down where he was as she got up and floofed out. "Nothing's up nope no up uh ok-maybe-a-little-up-then-down wait HOW-didya-walk-a-so-quiet!" the lady said.

Ticon flicked an ear again. "I'm not that quiet. Though perhaps my steps were lighter than usual since my mind's been on a worry track." he replied. Her scowl looked familiar. He had seen similar scowls on Akutan's face often since it was pretty much his default expression. But that was probably going to be a thing of the past. The Maelstrom had it hard for the firecracker known as Kyra and Ticon couldn't be any happier for him than he was already. After living with the Clan and learning their history, Ticon knew Akutan deserved every good fortune he could get. He just wished it didn't come at the potential price of Aylie deciding to strip him and the family of anything good they had managed to scrape together because of their recent hardships.

[Kimster]

(bumping this for myself...)