Coming home [OPEN]

[cptkickercutleg]

The blustering winds howl through leaf, bark and rock as the old, greying wolf arrives at his destination, walking normally after the time he had spent getting better.
He spreads his paws firmly into the soft ground, his tail wagging ever-so-slightly as the slightly smaller, but stronger looking wolf of similar descent follows behind him, looking around at the decimated ruins.
"Es gút Ah es ou tempsol."
"Aye, Dragga, Ah ken vy voh spech et."
They murmur together, stopping to appreciate the familiar yet strange smells of a home that the male had been too long from.
"Vill voh gaes ah doth ou Ash Draegga?" the female asks, shifting from paw to paw uneasily, seeming both guilty and defiant, a shimmer of distaste in her ocean blue eyes. The elder male pauses to think.
"Nort." he replies simply, striding forth once more into his cave, a crumbled human structure from aeons ago, or so she had told him when they had left, exploring the lands far from these.
She hesitates for an instance, her tail flicking down for a moment before she too, steps in.
"Of course, it would be far wiser to speak in the common tongue of these lands once more, no? Your native Vulfs may be listening in even now, after all." The female wags her tail gently at the thought, stepping inside the dark cave, shuddering quietly as the feeling of many eyes upon her makes her skin crawl.
"What is-" she begins, before hundreds of bats screech and fly past her, outside into the night.

[Kiroro {D.evil's A.dvocate}]

Marvel had been poking around the ruins earlier that afternoon, exploring to pass the time. Before he knew it, he had fallen asleep inside the cool, dark confines of the time capsule.

Hours later, he awoke to murmurs from outside. They were barely audible, partially because of nature's music, and partially due to the fact that he had just woken up and was still in somewhat of a stupor.

After a brief moment of deliberation, the white wolf decided to investigate, and raised himself up.

"I'm a little stiff..." he thought, bending forward to stretch his back. He felt the sweet pull and release of coiled muscles and sighed in contentment. But as he raised himself upright, an audible 'crack'emanated from his spine, reverberating against the inner walls of the ruin. He smiled sheepishly. It had felt wonderful, but a small notion of guilt crept through his belly. Marvel knew that no one had lived here since long ago, but he still got the feeling that he might be disturbing the peace.

Before he could remember the reason that he had been roused from his sleep, he heard a sudden clamor behind the veil of darkness. He peered curiously, looking for signs of life. All of a sudden-

'WHAP'

A bat, flying too low, rammed into his chest. The wolf yelped in surprise and stumbled backwards. A split-second decision led him to sprinting for the entrance rather than lying low until they passed. His valiant efforts were fruitless though, and the flying monsters quickly overtook him. He fell and placed his paws over his nose, hoping that the endless stream of night-hunters would be finished with their panic soon.

[cptkickercutleg]

Lilliana braced herself for the rush of bats, lowering her body as Graal had taught her, to avoid being buffeted by their wings.
"Stay low, let them past you, they're just as scared, if not more so of you than you are of them." she remembered him saying as she clenched her eyes shut against their closeness, creeping towards where she thought Graal had gone.

Graal feels her wet snout bump into his flank just as the last of the pests clear out of his home, the smell of them mingling with the unfamiliar scent of another wolf.
"Schtol." he grunts, an order, more than a request, although she was not obliged to obey, but as expected, she did as he said, opening her eyes and looking around for what had alarmed him.
"Vos es et? Vos doth voh ay?" she asked, curious and cautious,
"Nort ay, es skaal. Nort Vulf oh Ash clans." That hushed her, as she inhaled for the alien smell, but he doubted she'd detect the scent, he was, after all, more attuned to his den than she was.
He padded forward silently, ears twitching as he heard the steps of another wolf just a few rooms away.
Graal nods to his charge, slowly approaching the interloper.

[Kiroro {D.evil's A.dvocate}]

As Marvel waited for the rush of bats to finish, his ears perked at a faint sound. His attention snapped back from the current assault and instead turned to his previous observation. Hadn't he heard something akin to mumbling just before he was rammed by one of those blood-sucking beasts?

By the time he had finished his train of thought, the bats had moved on. The white brute heaved a sigh of relief and stood, facing the direction of the entrance to the cave. He padded towards the source of his curiosity softly, unsure of what he might be about to encounter. As he approached, a faint whiff of another males scent hit his nose. A little closer, and it was apparent that it did, indeed, belong to another male. But before he could react to this information properly, another scent wafted its way to him, this one distinct from its predecessor.

"Two wolves, one confirmed male. The other, unidentified."
Marvel made a mental note of his current situation, as he often had a habit of doing. Much like his name, he was curious and liked to explore and observe, and then marvel at the things he happened to stumble upon.

"Hello? I'm here. I mean no harm, I was only napping."

He knew all too well of the consequences that followed sleeping in another male's den, but when he crept inside earlier he hadn't noticed a strong, territorial mark that is so common with already-occupied dens. Regardless, he wasn't keen about the idea of another wolf attempting to maul him for trespassing.

[cptkickercutleg]

Graal smiles a little at the wolf's deference to him, as if he was an aggressor who might punish another for staying in his long-unoccupied den. He guestures with his tail that Lilliana should stay back and well hidden for now.
"It is quite alright, young wolf, believe me." he says, stepping closer to Marvel through the ruined building, through an arch, over the broken stones, around the corners,
"You occupied an empty den, it was mine, but I left for a time, long enough for scents and memories to fade from many places.
He pauses, picking up a thick rib bone from the floor, turning it over to gaze at the inside to see his own face carved in relief upon the inside curve, a gift from Thunder. He sighs quietly, a wave of memories flooding over him as he gazes at the bone, or more accurately, through it, through space and time to far off places and even in this cave, months ago, and it had felt like years.

Lilliana mumbles curses and resentment as Graal steps deeper in, but not for being left alone in an alien land, indeed much of this place was foreign to her, thousands of new scents that she had never realised existed before, and she soon fell quiet, listening, ears twitching, her nostrils flooding with each scent, trying to guess what they might be without going to check, pulling them apart for individual reference so she can find out later, so preoccupied was she, in fact, that she forgot to see what was right in front of her.

[Kiroro {D.evil's A.dvocate}]

Marvel listened, relieved that it wasn't another testosterone-full wolf with a point to make. He sat, wrapping his bushy tail around his legs.

"I see. Have you come to reclaim it?"

He paused, realizing that his statement sounded as though if not, he planned on procuring it for himself.

"I mean, have you finally returned to your home? I'm a wanderer myself, so I was only resting up until I felt well enough to hunt."

He was more pleased with their interaction now that it felt constructive. His eyes darted around the room, taking it in. He hadn't really looked around when arriving, sleep beckoned far too well. As he looked, his ears pricked and swiveled, barely noticing a faint murmur.

He turned his attention back to the wolf before him, who was now examining a bone.

"I think there's someone else here with us..." he whispered as he approached, once again feeling a little bit nervous. He peered at the bone, perking up as soon as he saw the carving.

"Oh, wow. That's neat. Is it yours?"

[cptkickercutleg]

"I see. Have you come to reclaim it?"
The other wolf said, pausing as Graal smiled slightly from across the room
"I mean, have you finally returned to your home? I'm a wanderer myself, so I was only resting up until I felt well enough to hunt."
Graal nods, still embraced by memory, but his attention slowly phases back to the present as the wolf speaks, both clearly having no intention to fight over the land and instead seeking to solve it with diplomacy. A whisper comes from the corner where the white wolf sits, making a smile twitch at his lips.
"I think there's someone else here with us..." the white wolf approaches, clearly nervous as his body stays near to the floor, muscles tense for fight or flight, and glances at the bone Graal stares at."Oh, wow. That's neat. Is it yours?"
Graal lays the bone down with reverence, making sure not to damage it, slow and pensive in his actions.
"The answer to your questions are all debatable... Perhaps I will stay, but maybe it is time to move on, find another land to journey through, perhaps even return to the heartlands of my Clan, to the far, far south... If there is somebody else here, we are safe, I've an ally posted in the main entrance, she both my student and my guard, her strength would rival even that of a Dran." he says with a slightly whimsical smile, then touches his black snout to the bone, almost as a human might kiss something of extreme sentimental value.
"The last question's answer depends on who you ask, I would say it belongs to the world, Thunder would say it belongs to me, whereas Cercius would say it belongs to Thunder, it's maker... Which would you consider it to be?"