Flashback As the Snow Falls

[Redd]

x Flashback - Day 20, Winter, 511 AV Through out the whole night, the wind had wailed as the snow swirled and and scattered with the breeze but continued to fall. Sometimes being caught upon tree branches and covering the fertile brown earth with white. Often blanketing the plains where there had been nothing but grass. Redd barely slept as she jumped at every noise that had been made, the howling of the wind did not help. However, the young wolf was glad that she had this small cave surrounded by the copse of trees. Inside the cave was a hole in the ground, big enough to fit Redd inside it giving her some warmth as well as her thick red coat which also held the colours of brown and black, but red was the dominate colour. White ran from underneath her chin, along the underside of her neck and then all the way to underneath her belly, it was the only uninterrupted colour of her coat. This young wolf, however warm, was starving, she hadn't been able to find food ever since winter came blowing in with it's white blanket. Not one rabbit could be found and only an occasional deer, but she couldn't catch them, even if she wanted to. So misery was her company and she could feel as if the life was ebbing from her very body. She had almost missed the fact that it seemed to have stopped snowing, that the sun had finally made a show, or the fact that the wind had stopped howling. It could have been the fact that she had been tired and so starved that she had missed these tell tale signs. Although, these facts soon became known to Redd as she lifted her head so then her golden hues could peer out of her small cave, her ears pricking forwards as she did so. All that she could hear was a blissful silence and she couldn't even see the snow falling anymore. With a small groan, Redd slowly forced her thin frame up onto her paws, slowly padding forwards to poke her head ouf of the cave, was that sun she could see? It was almost a miracle of its own. Sniffing the air, she didn't find one scent that could belong to a predator, or even a squirrel for that matter. It as almost as if they were all hiding in their holes or had gone off to die before the winter snow so then they would have to starve. Making a small whimpering noise, she stepped out into the cold snow, feeling it crush under her paws and compact for a moment. Padding forth, occasionally, her paw would disappear into the snow, making her stumble forwards or nose diving into the white powder. x

[Redd]

x Finally after what felt for like an eternity, she came to a stop under a dead tree, its leaves long gone, but its dark brown trunk still remained, or was it black? It was a little hard to tell, with the sun shining upon the snow, making a glare. It wasn't Redd's only problem, she noted as she glanced towards the blue sky, clouds was already beginning to build up again and she had not found one scrap of meat and she had been looking for a few miles away from her cave. If she turned back now, she knew she could make it back to her cave before it snowed again, but how long would it be before she got to eat then? She might not be able to find anything at all to eat for the rest of winter if it kept snowing and by the time winter finishes, she would surely be dead. She had to find something to eat. Today if possible, which meant she couldn't turn back now. With that firmly in mind, the young wolf pushed herself back up onto her paws, her golden gaze searching against the white glare for anything that could be considered food, even a corpse would do, so long as it had meat upon its bones. As a bell went by, she had trailed further than she normally would have, in search for food, keeping to the tree line, but looking out across what used to be grassy plains. It was if all of the animals had decided to give up and be buried underneath the white powdery snow. Redd couldn't help but feel the desperation sink into her form, and her ears pressed back against her head as she looked to the sky once again. The sun had mostly disappeared, which meant that the snow no longer glared at her in a blinding white, of which she saw this as a bad sign. Picking up her pace, she began to run through the snow, her gaze flickering all around the area with her ears staying pressed back against her head as she desperately searched for what might very well be something to call food. Anything was better than the empty hole inside her stomach, growling and clenching with hunger. x

[Redd]

x Another couple of bells had finally passed and the cloud cover was thick overhead, the white snow had begun to fall and Redd's energy, what little there had been to begin with, was rapidly leaving her. Occasionally the young wolf would trip over a small pile of snow and nose dive into the powder, before forcing herself back up onto her weary paws. Her nose was dipped as best as she could and her tail was low, her paws barely lifting high enough to clear the snow before sinking back down into it. She had begun to loose hope that she would ever find food and the cold was finally settling in as the snow fell gently upon her being, soaking into her thick coat with a frenzy. She knew if she didn't die of starvation soon, it would be from what ever this cold snow would give her, for her frame was only thin. Soon the snow began to fall more heavily and the wind began to pick up, cutting through her with sharp stabs and she began to quiver, her stumbling being more frequent as the snow began to build and her will to keep moving less. After a short time, she finally decided that she had had enough and nosed her way underneath a few bushes, of which were partially dead. At this point, the wind had begun to pick up with a whistle and the snow swirled more quickly as she laid her form down, her nose curling into her form and she closed her golden hues. Perhaps she would die here as punishment for being something different. It wasn't long after that, that she heard the sound of sniffing close by and she lifted her head quickly in fear, her ears pricking backwards, but it wasn't what she thought it would be. Staring back at her with its own golden eyes, was a grey wolf, standing at 2'5 and its own ears were pricked forward almost as if it was intrigued. Lifting its proud head, it sent a howl into the sky, a sound that any wolves within a few miles would hear and the young wolf would begin to attempt to back away in fear, but instead found that she did not have the strength to do so. The strange wolf padded forwards and nosed its way under the bushes towards her and upon reaching her, it finally laid down beside her, pressing its own thick coat against her own and nosing in close to her form. Surprising, she found this wolf's fur warm and inviting, so she leaned in close to it, curling up into its side, as she was basically half the size of this strange wolf. The strange wolf in turn, laid its head over her neck and Redd found this strangely comforting, slowly falling into an exhausted sleep. x

[Redd]

x Upon wakening, she recognized three things. One, the wind and snow had stopped and once more the sun had come out to play. Two, there were many more scents in this area than she had originally thought there was and three, as she glanced around with golden hues, she realized that there seemed to be more little indents in the snow where more than just two warm bodies had slept underneath the bushes. This sending alarm bells ringing inside her mind, she began to pull herself up onto her paws, it must not have been as bad as she had originally thought the snow would have been, or it had and she had slept through it without realizing it. Her ears lowered at the thought that she had meet a pack of wolves without realizing it, was that why that grey wolf had howled? To gather the pack to keep her warm? Was that over thinking it and there really had just been one wolf and she was finally seeing things? Was she dead? However, just as she was about to turn back the way she had come disappointment filling her thine form, her golden hues caught sight of grey fur, and her head lifted just enough to see a familiar set of golden eyes staring back. She stood very still as the other wolf approached and she could see now, that this one had black tipped ears and appeared to be female. It whined, before giving a small wag of its tail and slowly Redd slipped out from under the bush to make her way towards this wolf. Upon reaching it however, the wolf gently licked Redd's muzzle before turning around and padding off its tail wagging as it went. Was she suppose to follow this wolf? She wondered, before watching the other female stop and turn its head to look back at her. Maybe it did want her to follow. She began to follow this wolf, caution telling her to be weary, but with the small indents in the snow, it had to mean that they had all grouped around to keep her warm right? So if that was the case, didn't that mean that they wanted to help her rather than kill her? As she reached the female wolf this time, the other wolf turned and continued on and Redd made sure to follow. Every time she seemed to struggle with the snow and lack of strength, the other wolf would slow down, just so she could keep up. x

[Redd]

x It took most of the day to reach where ever the other wolf had wanted Redd to go, but reach it they did and luckily for Redd, the snow seemed to have held off just long enough for them to get to their destination. They had been travelling deeper into the forest, deeper than she had dared to go and as the other wolf crested a slight rise, she would then sit back upon her haunches glancing down at Redd as she struggled her form up the slight rise, already exhausted from their day's travel. When she had crested the rise herself, her golden eyes could not believe the sight that beheld her own eyes. A large cave, yawned wide open and was embedded into the side of a mountain and crowded around in front of this cave, were wolves, all variating in shades of grey, white and black. Pups were running around in the snow, pouncing and biting in play while the adult wolves were all gathered around the entrance of the cave, huddling together to keep warm. Had this been what they had done for her last night? Give her warmth so then she could make the long journey back? It was then that something caught her eye and she almost dove down the small slope to get to it. Off to the side, was the carcass of a dead buck, obviously the remains of their last kill, but it still had some meat left upon its bones. Perhaps they had downed a couple of these beasts in order to make sure that their pack could all feed comfortably. As if the grey wolf could sense her hunger she rose to make her own way down the slope and Redd followed close behind her, her golden gaze flickering to the dead buck and back to their path. When they made it down into the area of the wolves, one of them, a black coloured male, stood up from the rest and padded over to the grey female wolf and wagged his tail in greeting. The female wolf lowered her own head and began to lick his muzzle as her own tail wagged. Once he was finished greeting the other female wolf he turned his attention to Redd and she automatically cringed, bending her legs, her tail lowered as well as her ears were pushed back and lowered. He seemed to watch her for a moment before he nuzzled his, what appeared to be, his mate and padded back to the rest of the wolves, lying among them. It was almost as if she had passed a test and her ears pricked forwards as the female wolf nuzzled her towards the dead buck, Redd not really fighting against this as she trotted up to the carcass. A tongue darted out, licking her nose and she glanced back towards the female who just watched her with those golden eyes. Finally, Redd dipped her head and began to chew at it, half expecting a wolf to come charging in and bite her head off. However, that wasn't the case and Redd lowered her form and began to chew at this dead buck with more enthusiasm. Finally tearing and swallowing the sweet meat. Oh how delicious and satisfying it was to fill the starving hole in her stomach. When she had eaten as much as she possibly could, slowly Redd edged over towards the pack where they had gathered within the cave now, including the pups as they nuzzled into their mothers. She edged into the cave before nuzzling into the familiar grey wolf of which didn't seem to mind and she enjoyed the warmth that these wolves seemed happy enough to give to her. Just before she laid her exhausted head down to rest, she caught a glimpse of snow as it began to fall outside and she happily curled up in among the other wolves. Hopefully she could call this some what home during the hard winter times, she thought to herself as she fell into an exhausted sleep. However, this time she was happily fed. x

[Nemesis]

Redd

Knowledge :

Skills

Skill	XP
Endurance	+2
Observation	+3
Scavenging	+1
Socialisation	+1

Lores

*A Desperation for Food
*Meeting the Pack

Micellaneous :

Injuries

*Malnutrition: will be weak for approximately fifteen days following, assuming that she is fed regularly by the pack, longer if she is left alone to starve again.

Loot/Expenses

*None

____________________________________________

Notes

*Lovely thread, Redd (that rhymes!)
*Good to see how she met the pack - would love to see some more interaction with them, maybe even see her more feral side, as she stays with them for longer periods of time.

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