trans_9 | Wolves, Trees, and Waiting

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Wolves, Trees, and Waiting

San had, in her agitated boredom, in distress over the nightmare, begun hunting through the too-dead city like a pup after squirrels. 'Exploring' was too harsh a word, but after enough miles of semi-paved streets and decrepit, abandoned human dwellings, she had begun overturning paving stones to let the soil underneath breathe. A few times, she'd turned one to find no soil, only the gently pulsing flesh of Stacy herself.

Those she turned upright again and replaced.

Still, her nose and instinct turned her feet and eventually San found herself among the green, living Temple the Garou had claimed. It wasn't the forest, there were no Kodama here, but there was enough life that she could almost close her eyes and pretend for a moment that nothing was so terribly wrong.

But, only for a moment.

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Plays was out and about - and checking out the little temple the lupus had taken over. He was human again. He usually was, after all. It was how he'd been born. He ducked inside and paused for a moment as he spotted San. He debated whether to leave her to her thoughts or say hello. Ah, to Hell with it...

"Hey, San. Explorin'?"

San had set her back against one of the supporting growths, trying to calm herself by remembering the sound of running water when Plays' voice had caught her. She turned her head to look at him without moving.

"I've never seen so many buildings. If I didn't know she was alive, I'd say this whole place was dead."

"Even cities are more alive then that, usually..." He shrugged falling into a squat as he glanced out over the grass, "Even in a city you get life. Birds. Rats. Cats. Dogs. Insects. Out there? Nothin'. It's unnervin'."

He grimaced, "This place is just weird. Try not t'let it get to you too much."

She looked at him. He was...human. But not human, part of...something else. something bigger, like she was, like Ashitaka and Yakul. She remembered watching him bleed...

"In my forest, there's only one place where humans live," Why was she telling him this? It suddenly seemed important not to know, "They built a wall of logs around their town, and dug out of the earth. No matter where you are, you can orient yourself by the stinking smoke of their refinery, and the glow of their fires. All around their walls, the earth is dug out and scorched bare. I've tried to stay away from that place, whenever I could."

"...sounds a bit like home. In th' county I'm from, there are cities everywhere, with cars... um... sorta like self-propelled carts, I guess. There are still stretches of wilderness, but it's not like it used to be. I mean, we don't deliberately try and burn out everything around the cities... Well, the humans don't."

He frowned, "They have a lot t'learn, though."

"Mmh," she agreed quietly, watching him as one would watch a movement in the grass, "Was that how your people were made? Becoming so like humans that they could forget what they are?"

Damn. That's complicated. He looked down, then back up at San. A Galliard would do so much better with this then he would. He shook his head slowly, "No... no, we were created a long time ago by Gaia. She's... the spirit of our whole planet. She's our mother - s'what we call her really. Some say she created the three spirits of the Wyrm, the Weaver and the Wyld. Other stories say they created her. Whatever happened, she saw that th' world needed balancin' and lookin' after, so she took humans and wolves combined us. She made us her warriors. The protectors of her and the planet..."

He trailed off, looking horribly sad, "...and we went and fucked it up."

"A spirit of life and death," She acknowledged. Gaia was easily withing San's ability to understand. The birth of such creatures were well and truly mysterious. When Plays saddened she cocked her head with interest, never looking away. Dominant, that, especially in the face of Plays' hesitation; San was no stranger to the subtle plays of wolf leadership.

"How did it happen?"

Plays has spent most of his life as a human. Still, it was a dominance thing and he was trying to be the leader here. He shook it off and looked up, meeting her gaze, "We fucked up. We spent three thousand years trying to cull the humans by tooth an' claw before we finally realized we weren't helping anything like that. Just... killing. Humans of my world still fear us for that, deep down somewhere, even if they don't really remember us."

He leaned back on his elbows, "And then we fought the other changers because we were too proud. We killed the ones who were supposed to be our allies and then we fought amongst each other. Not always openly. By the time we figured out what the fuck we'd done wrong, we were already half-way in and we couldn't change shit. Now the Weaver and the Wyrm are gettin' more powerful every day and there's way too few of us left. Apocalypse is comin'... was comin'... and we were gettin' ready to face it down with tooth and claw and go out in a blaze of glory."

After making sure Xander and Jamie were okay, Katara had taken to wandering in the City. Where she was going she had no idea, and honestly, she didn't think it was important, so long as it was away from others. What she didn't need right now was being around anyone who knew her personally: they would try to cheer her up or offer encouraging words. What she had seen had caused two very bad reactions: seeing herself carted off by the Fire Nation was bad enough, but to realize how much her world changed because of Aang made her miss him more. Right now she didn't want to be assured everything would be okay, or that everything was going to eventually wash out: nothing could wash away those memories.

The place was certainly beautiful, and she felt satisfied that no one would notice her here. It was completely quiet. While she normally knew better than to not be on her guard in the City, she had long since been so jarred, and wanted to not be disturbed. She sat cross legged by herself, taking a deep breath, trying to concentrate on breathing exercises.

Edited 2010-02-11 20:55 (UTC)

Feel contrariwise all she might, Katara was noticed, and at her presence San gripped her sheathed knife and snarled. Even here she couldn't get away from humans for an hour. What she wanted to do was just creep away and sleep in a tree. At home she wouldn't have had to deal with them until she was ready, not alone, not...

Well, she wasn't unarmed, but she felt it, felt naked and raw and because of that she couldn't help but snap, "Even here I can't get away from you?!"

Katara started, turning her head at the sound. Someone WAS here after all, so much for being alone. The voice, though, wasn't anyone that she knew herself, so that at least was comforting. The last thing she felt like doing was slapping on a fake smile for somebody.

"Well excuse me!" Katara replied hotly, not trying to show she was a little shaken by this person's appearance. She didn't know many women who wore animal pelts or had a row of teeth for a necklace. Was this person new? "I was looking for a place where I didn't have to talk to anyone too. If you stay in one place, I can stay in another. I'm not exatly in the besty shape for talk, to be honest."

"Who are you?"

Bella bristles a tiny bit as she approaches the stranger. She does not know who this human is, or what she is doing here in the area that the Garou have come to claim. Bella knows she's probably crew, and probably harmless, and probably had no ill intent, but she's become slightly protective of one of the few things here that reminds her of the forest she was raised in. Of home.

San shows no fear at Bella's appearance, nor any real surprise. She's been winning wrestling matches with wolves Bella's size since her brothers were whelped, and has no notion that she should be concerned.

"I am San, a newcomer," She replied evenly, keeping eye contact with Bella as she moved. San had every right to be here, indeed had been here first, "Is there a problem?"

"San?" Bella remembers Plays telling her something about her. She scrutinizes her with intelligent yellow eyes. "Plays-In-Traffic told me of you. He said you are wolf?"

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Wolves, Trees, and Waiting

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Had to: I have yet to put up my "Katara deals with seeing herself a prisoner" reaction yet

XD Should I start taking out bets on who'll win this fight?

Re: XD Should I start taking out bets on who'll win this fight?

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