Wolf Meets World (Avyris)

[blitzkreig]

Dark wings, the wings of a dragon crackled lightly at her side, a side that was pure white, yet marred gently by scaley black patches. Soni tramped half-heartedly through the forest, wonder in her pupil-less obsidian orbs, a set of long claws gouging the loam beneath her pads. The dragon/wolf hybrid let her muzzle rise without vigour to the sky, and though hard it was to tell emotion in those strange black eyes, one would know the sadness that lurked there, deadly and lonely, waiting to strike out at her. Tail with thick and dragon-like, a pair of spikes jutting from the tip. It swung out behind her, sometimes dragging, sometimes taught and jutting strait out, chipping some bark off the trees, crumpling a plant here and there. Soni was lonely, and she was broken.

Look closer and you would see the pain in her face, the fixed rigidness and tightness of the jaws. One of her wings - each one maybe almost the length of her body lay limp and useless, dragging at her side, weighing her down. Oh how she wished to roam the skies once more. Gods damn those stupid creature, great double-winged crows, black ragged demons that had struck her the light of day. They were much larger then she was, much more aggressive too. And Soni had fought them, sending maybe one or two of their wretched bodies winging towards the ground, up in flames, crying in agony. They broke her wing, and she fell too, their voices hot and laughing in her ear. That was the last thing she remembered.

The she-mutt woke amongst some ferns later a couple nights onward. Her wing was numb and useless, doing nothing but drag, useless at her side. She had cursed in vein, barating the night sky until her voice was hoarse and her throat dry and bleeding. Now here she was, alone again, broken and near helpless. A snarl of berated anger welled in her and she raised her muzzle to the nightime heavens.
"I AM STRONG! I WILL GET THROUGH, YOU HEAR ME?! I AM STRONG!"

[/color]

[avy]

"Do you mind?"

Never one to have his slumber disturbed by the meaningless wales of another being, the dark mass of fur and fire spoke up from his place against the shadowy night, almost invisible in his dark furry cloak. But, alas, there's no such thing as a completely invisible Shuck and what could only be described as a glow emanated from the black dog's form. Not a tangible glow, at least not something to be seen, but more to be felt, as if he were illuminated from the inside yet no light could escape his depths. No, the darkness of his coat seemed to eat it away before it could escape into the night, so no light was seen... yet he was glowing all the same, a strange mix of intuition, of heat and of fire.

Lifting his heavy square head from where it rested on dark paws, the phantom hound gave one single slow exhale through glowing hot nostrils, immediately heating the moisture in the air until it evaporated into a cloud of hot steam, though the display was not one of anger. Turning slightly where he lay off the path beside a particularly thick tree, the source of the glow could be easily identified as the male gave a pupilless glance over his thick, muscled shoulder, the fires of hell dancing in the seemingly empty sockets and reflecting quite quaintly off the surface of the female's scales.

"There are other creatures in the wood this night."

[blitzkreig]

"Indeed I do mind!"

It was a snarl of hot temper, of strange, all-envloping pain. Quickly, Soni tried to flare her wings at the phantome being whom had addressed her, it was merely an attempt, one which she failed miserably. Her broken appendage gave an odd creak and she bit her tongue, gouging deep until blood spilled from it. All this to mask the sharp cry of pain that had welled in her chest. Scales and silvering white fur glittered gamely in the moonlight as she shifted her bulk to look at this strange creature. He looked canine, and yet held an air of suffocating mystery beyond those strange, glowing eyes. There was power there. Soni felt cornered. She had outbursted in such anger, how would the phantome being react?

Sighing, her dome pressing back instinctively against her shoulders, Soni forced her lips back over her fangs. Obsidian eyes did not mask distrust. Shoulders and sinewed legs braced themselves for any sort of attack. The hybrid made not of his every feature, though most was hidden in shadow. Carefully she spoke.
"I am sorry, sire. But one becomes quite uptight on dark nights, walking around helpless."
As if to emphasize the point she turned her sleek white bodice to display the limp dragon's wing.

There, he knew, she was helpless. Let him pounce on her and devour her soul for all she cared. She would fight back, she was not afraid. Truthfully, the dragon-wolf seemed quite feeble looking in the night. All will seemed to have been drained away. Note the claws, edgily digging into the ground, jaws taught and clenched. Tail whipped about her rump. What was to play on next, she did not know.

[avy]

The hound seemed unphased by the female's sudden outburst, his heavily built form remaining where it lay in the darkest shadow of a large tree, just as relaxed and unconcerned as it had been moments ago, before his sleep had been disturbed. If anything, he appeared disinterested. He wasn't concerned about the female's aggression, about where she'd been previously that night or why she was so pissy. He didn't need to know her life story, didn't need to hear about past traumas or unfair situations. All he wanted was to go back to sleep, and he aimed to get there before the night was out.

Flicking one folded ear, the phantom hound turned his head away from the dragon hybrid, letting a moment of silence fall between them as he took his time yawning. Though he wasn't happy to be awake at such early hours, this certainly was nothing to get his fur tied in a knot over.

"Helpless? Because you are missing a wing?"

The shuck could hardly hide his amusement, allowing his typically deep, melodic tone of voice to pitch up slightly as he fought off a gentle but knowing laugh. Perhaps he shouldn't have been laughing at the fae's predicament but he found it interesting that a wolf with a thrashing tail, sharp teeth and claws considered herself helpless once she found herself grounded.

"Forgotten how to bite and scratch, have you?"

[blitzkreig]

Soni felt a sudden confusion wash over her. Eyebrow cocked at his almost exaggerated indifference to her situation. In fact she almost felt like laughing. Maybe he wasn't all that bad, had he wanted to have rendered her without a spine then he most likely would not have announced himself to her so readily. Bodice kind of relaxed, only slightly, she still held her wits about her. He laughed at her, but of course he would not understand. Bearing down his snooty attitude she let her lips curl back again and closed her fangs together with a light click, yet no longer was it a snarl, just a smile. Something mocking.
"Dear sir, have you ever flown the skies before? Ever felt the wind rush past your face as you dive towards the earth from thousands of miles above? Ever been able to touch the clouds and look down upon the god's creation with contempt?"
Her voice held a scorn, yet she could care not if he took heed or not.
"I may have my claws and my fangs, but without my wings I have no dignity to claim. I would not expect someone as yourself to understand."

Eyes sought the ground now, and she scuffed a little bit of dirt, sighing lightly. Of course he would not. Suddenly she felt quite foolish for cursing the night for all to hear. It's not like she was the only creature in the forest even at this time of night. Soni shook her muzzle and tilted her dome to Fravardin. A fiery look had entered her eyes, the dragon within her bubbling slowly, this phantom had no real right to tell her anything. She could take him couldn't she? Doubt was there, and thus she rethought. Not worth the effort, yeah thats right. Excuses excuses.
"I am sorry to have bothered you. I'll leave you be in peace."
These words were dark and low, sliding past her lightly clenched fangs, pain more evident and prominant in her overall beautiful facial features.

Soni went to turn, feeling angry and ashamed, not wanting to leave without leaving her mark. But what could you do, most of the dragon-wolf's power had been her wings. Or so she thought of it that way. In truth, those claws could tear flesh, jaws could crunch through bone, and that could have shattered a tree-trunk. But in her state of mind, her glory was the air. Not true, if she had looked much deeper into herself she most likely would have seen the true power that lurked in her sleekly muscled bodice.

[avy]

Even as his... guest, let's call her, seemed to darken her demeanor a bit, first toward sadness then what seemed like anger or distaste, the shuck kept his amusement clear, the corners of his square muzzle turned upward in a pleased yet gentle grin.

"Someone such as myself? And what, pray tell, is that supposed to mean?"

He was honestly getting a kick out of this, even though his main goal in mind was to go back to sleep. Something about the minds of females intrigued him. He felt the need to both respect and to mock them, particularly those that felt they were weak and worthless and simply begged the whole world to pity them. he never understood why some were sch attention seekers and, though he doubted that's what this particular fae's intentions were, that's certainly what it seemed like.

Tilting his darkly clad head, the sharp movement causing one ear to shift slightly and reveal the burning hot interior of his skull, the phantom hound gently turned his body, using the strength of his forepaws and the trunk of the nearby tree to effectively change direction without actually getting up. All this looking over his shoulder was making his neck hurt.

"Are you implying that, just because I am a creature of the earth, that I don't know what dignity is?"

He paused to laugh lightly, almost mockingly this time, while he busied himself by rolling onto his back and giving up on finding a comfortable position on his stomach.

"Or what it's like to loose it?"

Now on his well-furred back, the brute spent the time drawing circled with one claws in the soft fur of his underside, looking more comical with his ears splayed due to gravity and the various folds of his loose skin causing awkward bunches of flesh beneath him.

"I know more than you think, wolfess. An undignified being is hardly a helpless one."

[blitzkreig]

Soni felt oddly amused, as was she compelled to turn herself back around to confront the strange canine. Bodice swivelled, and Soni held this sort of bemused look upon her face, a cross between a smile and a look of confusion. Again her wing creaked with the movement and she winced visibly now. Screw it, like she cared if he knew how much pain she was in. The dragon-wolf let her obsidian depths fall upon Fravardin, cutting a comical figure, just laying there looking up at her with those impassive glowing eyes. Laying on his back, smiling up at her. Soni gave a small chuckle.
"Eh?"
Not a response, hardly a question.

Soni let her haunches fall back, gathering her long tail about her rump and settling back into a sitting position, she made it quite obvious she was not about to leave at the moment. For long moments, the she-wolf watched him carefully, then saticfied with her inspeciation she found she was in no danger here. She then nodded as if in agreement.
"I suppose I put it differently then I would have liked. I mean no offence my friend. But my helplessness is one of the soul, not of the body. When I am in the skies I feel invincible. As a creature of the earth I have no doubt that you have a dignity of your own. Though I am unsure if said dignity differs amongst different creatures..."

Here we go. Lets not hope this turned into a long meaningful talk of some sort. But somewhere inside, Soni kind of hoped it would. She had been alone for the longest time.

[/color]

[avy]

"Now that makes even less sense than your first claim."

Idling on his back, the spectral hound entertained himself by fussing over his fore paw, mindlessly sniffing the toes before licking it clear of debris and foreign bodies that stuck to the tar-covered fur. Of course, that meant getting some of the searing hot substance onto his tongue as it dripped freely from the bottoms of his feet but he didn't seem to mind very much. The heat of his interior made the tar vaporize anyway. No issues there.

"You're telling me that damage to your body has made your soul helpless?"

Though he tried not to seem too amused, the grin was there, if only slight and hidden by the darkness.

"Forgive me if I seem disbelieving."

[blitzkreig]

Soni sighed and threw her head skyward in disbelief. My God's this fellow enjoyed running poor passers by in circles. Just a conversation chasing its own tail around and around. It was amusing yes, yet frustrating all the same. She cocked her eyebrow at him, watching him drip the pitchy substance of his pawpads over his muzzle and body. What a strange fellow indeed. Soni's patience was wearing quite thin, though she did not show it.
"Do you really insist on trying to make me sound like a fool, sir? It may not be your intent but it seems like it well enough."

Nose wrinkled and the scales on her neck rippled as her shoulders moved, making her positioning on her haunches more comfortable. Her good wing shifted, folded tight against her flank.
"Now, if you cannot help me in my present situation I dont think I see much good in sticking around. Apologies for disturbing you."
Soni had begun to find this fellow increasingly frustrating and bothersom. It was obvious he needed no company, or could not help her in any way.

[ooc] - I love Fravardin, he's just so silly and crude. Poor, wounded Soni is getting frustrated.[/size][/center]

[avy]

The hound seemed slightly surprised at the she-wolf's claim, even letting a bit of it show through on his normally placed face with a raise of his eyebrows. In whatever minor stupor he may have been feigning, he mindlessly rolled onto his other side this time, his underside facing in the fae's direction and the fiery glow of his large eyes still trained on her figure.

"My goodness, no. What ever made you think of that?"

Taking heed of her threat of leaving, the fiery black shuck took it upon himself to finish his awkward positioning of himself with one final shift in weight, rolling the rest of the way to his feet as if his legs were too stiff to stand. Once upright, he gave his thick pelt a decent but pointless shake, any foreign bodies caught within held steady by the tar. No matter, it was an effective way to clear his folded, pendant-shaped ears, if nothing else. With all that sorted, the hound settled back on the ground, this time on his rump, deciding he should probably be offering the female a decent amount of respect. Not a lot, of course, he didn't even know her name, nor she his, just enough. Females, as annoying and sometimes useless as they may be, are every living creature's reason for being. They deserve at least a little gratitude from everybody.

Tilting his head slightly, the ghost dog let his gaze close slowly in a calm serene manner, his breath billowing from both his mouth and nose like smoke from a geyser.

"Now, now.... Let's not go jumping to conclusions about who can help who. Is there, by chance, a place you need to be? Perhaps someone you are trying to get to?"

((I dunno, he seems a little off to me. I'm trying to figure out how to play him since I really didn't have a very good understanding of his character when I created him. Though I like his laid-back attitude, something seems off to me. He seems a little too careless. o.O I dunno, I'll figure it out. X3))

[blitzkreig]

Soni watched him, resisting the urge to just get up and go, and biting back her frustration. The dragon in her gave her a very short leash when it came to taking joking at suck times. Forgive her annoyance, but what cana creature who has just been attacked, and just woken up from what was most likely some sort of cuncussion to do? Steadily, Soni flexed her good wing, looked at it, then back to Fravardin. Her obsidian eyes were hard, but softening. At least he seemed to have turned some sort of leaf.
'Yes, a leaf on a seriously twisted tree.'
Inside her head she chuckled lightly,, but did not let this show. She wasnt much for that.

Closely, the hybrid femme listened as he spoke. It was obvious he wasnt very versed when it came to females. It came off in the way he stood, the way he rolled around carelessly. Soni began to wonder if he'd ever had a mate, or even some sort of close friend of the sort. She seriously doubted this. Listening hard, it seemed as though the patched femme were seeking some sort of loophole in those words. Never really had she felt easy around him. The spectral hound held an air of mystery to him. Maybe it was those unnerving eyes that seemed little more then indentations filled with strange light. Maybe it was his devil-may-care attitude.

Finally, some sincerity.
"I have never really ever had anywhere to go. I simply wish I were not injured, but one cannot change fate. I have nowhere to go, and I never have, I am just here and that is that."
Oh she almost forgot.
"By the way, I am Soni."
And she dipped her muzzle in greeting.

[avy]

The hound grinned knowingly, almost in a cocky confident manner. What he seemed to know, or what he was confident of, was a mystery even to him. Perhaps it was the way the female bowed to him, stroked his overly apparent ego with her overly respectful behavior. Though he seemed simply pleased by it, a part of him was honestly curious. That inquisitive teenage boy he used to be was baffled by such behavior, and, somewhere in the ghost dog's thick skull, he wondered why she was like that.

But, rather than dwell on such a meaningless topic, he merely tucked away, another thought to be accessed later. There were bigger fish to fry this evening.

"That's funny. For someone who doesn't have any place to be, you were pretty eager to leave just a moment ago."

Tilting his head to the side, one suspicious fiery orb seemed to focus on the female for a moment, as if looking straight through her fur and past her flesh into the deepest depths of her soul. The other eye, a blindingly bright light set deep in the hound's dark eye socket, was closed... But, only for a moment, before he seemed satisfied by what he saw and sat up straight, nodding.

"So be it, then. Soni... You may call me Fravardin, if you so may desire. Shorten it as you please."

[blitzkreig]

She watched him momentarily, shrugging off his first words. The phantome hound closed one eye, seemed to stare into her, and it was unnerving. But with a small saticfied look the brute openened them fully and nodded. Approvingly? What had this strange being seen inside of her? What was he seeking? A shiver ran up her taught spine, the muscles along her shoulders going slightly rigid. Suddenly, Soni was reminded of her father, a great hulking beast, always shadowing over her, always poking fun, as she was small, and considerably much weaker then he would ever be. He was fullblood dragon, and she a hybrid dragon/wolf. That smile, that self-saticfied smile worked its way deep into her skull and moulded itself to the wolfish grin of her father.

No, Soni did not hate her father, in fact she loved him dearly, for he had made her what she was today. He had pushed her to her limits and miles beyond, and showed her just what she had been capable of as such a noble creature. Most importantly, her father had taught her that no-one was better then her, even if they said so, no-one was. She believed him, call it foolish, but she did. Perhaps Soni's mind was not as solid as that of her father's, but by God she tried.

"It is....nice I suppose, to meet you as well, Fravardin."
The she-mutt refrained herself from bowing once more. It was mere custom to bow to one's elders in the places where Soni had come from.

[avy]

Lifting one eyebrow and furrowing the other, the hound tried not to seem too disgruntled by the fae's lack of enthusiasm. In all honesty, he wasn't even sure why he was being so enthusiastic. Perhaps he was more thoroughly bored and lonely than expected so far from his home, particularly without that infamous smaller shuck to pester and annoy him. Perhaps the lack of sleep this evening was just getting to him. Perhaps he was just delusional after not eating at all this evening.

Whatever it was, it'd taken Fravardin this long to notice it and this brand new realization showed on his dark face when the raised eyebrow was lowered into a more stoic but still relatively easy-going expression.

"And what of your wing? Surely you don't plan to continue wandering alone while you're... 'helpless'."

The black shuck was sure to put a little emphasis on the word helpless since he honestly found Soni's view of helplessness foolish and self-doubting. But, whether he agreed or not, he was willing to do something about it, particularly now that he was already awake.

[blitzkreig]

Yes, her humour had left her a long time ago, in fact, when she had woken up after some serious cuncussion of the head, and a broken wing. She did not enjoy his teasing of her deffinition, even if he thought it foolish. When raised by a dragon, you come to learn that your wings and your flight are most important overall in your life. They take you where you must be, they lift you high, and help you be silent in the hunt. They were her majesty. Absently, Soni blew a thin tendril of flame from her mouth, making a leaf on a branch shrivel and whither, writhing in pain it seemed. And lazily she watched it float earthward. Not that she ment to be rude with her seeming disinterest, but exhaustion had begun to work its way feveredly into her aching joints.

Muscles felt like mush beneath her sleek coat, though it was littered with a few foreign bodies, leaves and grit and otherwise here and there. It hardly marred the gaunt beauty that was there. Yes, beyond those obnoxious patches of sleek black scales, so contrasted to her white pelt, she was beautiful, and not in a scant way. Even those pupil-less obsidian orbs marked some kind of beauty on her. When Fravardin spoke again, she shrugged the annoyance off, too tired to even care anymore. She needed rest. Hours of aimlessly wandering the woods never really did good for anyone's body. The fatigue was already showing, even though she did not want to have this weakness bare for every predator to see.

"No sir, I suppose I dont. I am quite tired and obviously in need of assistance. My actions earlier were merely those of a confused, hurt, disorientated, and pissed off creature. I seek refuge sir, that is if you are willing to allow me it."