Hunting

[spec_op_soldier]

As Orrin ran through the woods following the tracks of the trollocs he thought he must have lost track of time, it seemed light enough out to be  twilight with the sun just below the horizon preparing to fight back the darkness across the sky. But to Orrin it seemed that this must be a cursed night for he could still see the half moon high in the sky. But these thoughts were only passing things on the surface of the pond of his consciousness; Orrin’s deep thoughts were of cleansing the night of wrongness, of vengeance. There were also images that kept coming into his mind unsummoned, images of the trollocs he pursued as if he was imagining what they were doing at that exact moment in time. With the images came a stench of sour musk and blood old mingled with new. At some point Orrin didn't know when, the scent stayed even when there were no images and he knew it was the stench of trollocs. As he ran through the woods no longer paying attention to the tracks left on the ground, instead following by the unmistakable smell, another image forced its way into his mind so powerfully that he missed a step. But in one fluid movement, instead of falling to the ground, Orrin was now making his may through the forest on three legs, holding his spear along his body with his fourth. A neverborn had joined the twisted ones and Orrin thought this would be a good night to die.

 

OCC: Orrin now thinks of himself as a wolf.

 

The other wolf communicated to Orrin that the neverborn and twisted ones were stopping to eat and rest. As Orrin came closer to the spot were the twisted ones were, he stopped running and began stalking. Before he could even see the camp, Orrin knew from the other wolf Kingfisher that the neverborn had only set two guards, one of which was on his back snoring. Orrin silently moved up behind the twisted one that was awake, not that it would have mattered if Orrin had snapped half the twigs on the ground under his feet. The sentry was to busy noisily sucking the marrow out of large bone. A flash of gold bloomed from the guard’s throat. Using his spear that Orrin had put through the creatures neck, Orrin lowered the trolloc quietly to the ground. Orrin turned his attention to the rest of his slumbering prey. As Orrin thrust his spear to silently kill the last of the five trollocs that had raided his home, the twisted one shifted in his sleep. Instead of planting his spear in the beast’s jugular, it went into its shoulder. The beast woke and let out a bellow of agony before Orrin silenced it with his sword. Sensing the neverborn coming up behind him Orrin rolled away dropping his sword while grabbing his spear, knowing that its length might be the thing that saved his life against his adversary. Orrin fought with the thought of killing this abomination high in his mind than his own life.  With no thought of using his spear defensively and using his buckler as weapon as often as not Orrin started to gain ground. There was pain in his hand as his spear went flying to the ground ten feet away from where the neverborn had parried his last attack. As the neverborn readied to deliver the final blow, Kingfisher appeared and buried his teeth into its neck and shoulder. As Orrin grabbed his spear and rammed it home, the myrddraal ripped kingfisher’s maw away from its shoulder and dropped him to the ground dead, his neck bent at an unnatural angle. The myrddraal began advancing slowly toward Orrin, apparently unbothered by the fact that every step forced Orrin spear further though its body. Orrin, paralyzed by fear, remembers his family. His FAMILY, not his pack. Not wolf, but HUMAN. Just as the neverborn was almost close enough to grab Orrin, two wolves flowed out of the night, followed by three more, knocking the neverborn back and to the ground, away from Orrin who barely managed to hold onto his grandfather’s spear.

 

Before Orrin knew what he was doing, he was stumbling through the woods. Not caring which direction he went so long as it was away from the myrddraal and the wolves. He ran until his feet faltered from exhaustion. As he fell the world went black before he ever hit the ground.

 

[TaeaDawn]

The day was beautiful enough, but she wasn't so sure that it's setting would be a good witness to what would happen.  Light, she wished she had stayed in bed, or simply not heeded the wolf calls that had plagued her last night.  Anton had been starting out further and further ahead of her as he continued her training, making it harder for her to track him.  Because of it, he had been too far away for her to wait.  A wanderer had been found and needed help.  And here she was, barely knowing the terrain as they had been ranging further away from the Stedding and into the world.  Her education was certainly growing and a firm grasp of history now grounded her to this time and place, filling in the gaps her memory could not supply.  Still, it would be a hard day and she didn't know what to think.

 

The wanderer began to stir and she filled a cup with some tea for him.  She set it close by him so that it would be within reach if he feared her getting to close.  Some wanderers did.  His eyes flew open suddenly and Anabel stood up so that he could see her from where he lay without getting up.

 

"Hello.  I'm Timewalker." Even now she refused to give her real name.  Only Anton had that and only because he had deserved to know after everything she had put him through with her earlier training.  Anton was the only one that really understood her, understood her fears and the way she had to keep a sharp rock or small branch in her pockets.  She tried to talk slowly so that her thick accent didn't get in the way of the man's understanding of her words.  "Don't be afraid, i'm a friend." She said.  "How are you feeling?" She asked, uncertain of how to continue on.

 

Timewalker

[spec_op_soldier]

Orrin woke with a start, his last memory that of running for his life through the forest from a myrrdrall and a pack of wolves. He was more than a little surprised to see a woman standing a little distance away from him. He studied her, taking in her unusual garb, like a boy’s pants and coat, but cut to fit her body. Then in an accent stranger than any he had ever heard before she said, “Hello.  I'm Timewalker. Don't be afraid, I'm a friend. How are you feeling?” Another oddity, she refused to give her real name. But Orrin was more worried about what might happen if the wolves or worse the myrrdrall were to find this lady, strange as she might be, and himself unarmed. He introduced himself as he stood, pausing only momentarily when he placed his right hand on the ground.

 

"I am Orrin al’Cairdarei, may peace favor you. You should not be here, we are not safe." As Orrin looked around the area for his spear he began to undo the bandage on his hand. As the bandage fell away Orrin turned to face the stranger and for the first time noticed that her eyes the color of burnished gold and shone with an unatural light. "What? Who are you? What have you done to me? And where is my weapon?" he said, standing ready to run, or fight this stranger if she gave him no other choice.

 

[TaeaDawn]

His stance was enough to warn her, if she had needed it.  The wound that had been inflicted by the blade of the Shadow had needed severe action, and she had done as best she could.  She had lived in a time of war and had learned enough medicine to do what needed done, but she had never thought to use it here and now.  His weapons were on the far side of her and with the loss of blood she was certain if she needed, she could simply run until the man lost his strength and she could come back and tend him again.  If she couldn't get through to him that was.  She hoped he would listen to reason.  Hoped he didn't take her accent as something darker, nor tried to place it.  Her own story was unbelievable and if it hadn't been for the wolves to collaborate her story, she doubted even Anton would have believed her.

 

"Your weapons are here, but you will not need them.  We are safe."  She said slowly.  "You were injured and I had to treat you before you lost your life to the poison that wanted to seek out your heart.  You need to rest.  You need to trust me.  I am a friend."  She took a seat on the ground then, putting him in the stronger position so that he would not see her as a threat.  "I... they call themselves the Wolfkin now, those like you and I.  Those that dream of the wolves and stand by their side."  She wondered briefly where Rumble was, but the wolf was probably running on the edges of the Stedding now.  Their friendship was something she hadn't looked for, but had embraced as well as she could. 

 

"You and I, we are family now.  Everything else may seem foreign, but trust in that and we will get by just fine." She said, giving him a small smile.

 

Anabel/Timewalker 

[spec_op_soldier]

"You know about myrrdrall and their shadow tainted blades, but your accent places you outside of the Borderlands. Where are you from that you have knowledge of what most southlanders consider children’s tales?” Orrin asked as he watched the stranger and looked around for his weapon. "What are these Wolfkin and what do dreams and wolves have to do with anything?" Just as she began to answer Orrin interrupted her saying, "My spear" causing the stranger to glance behind her.

 

Orrin felt better just knowing where it was, so being as this timewalker posed no serious threat Orrin sat down facing her and began drinking his tea. First smelling it, and then sipping it slowly to see if it was safe. "How did you find me?” Orrin asked in addition to his other questions. She had saved his life, he could now remember receiving the wound while fighting the myrrdrall. But he still wasn't sure about her, even a darkfriend could save your life, if she had a use for you. And as for her being his family, well Orrin couldn't think of anyone more different than himself.

 

[TaeaDawn]

It was easiest to start with that last question.  He was sitting at least, drinking the tea so he was giving a little trust.  Considering what she'd had to do, she wasn't sure she'd have trusted so easily.  Though to be honest, with what she had been through she still didn't trust too easy. 

 

"I found you because of the wolves.  You helped them with their fight and they knew you were injured.  I had been traveling in this area for another purpose but they said I needed to come find you.  I trust the wolves, far better than most people if truth be told.  It was easy enough to find you with their aid."  She took a sip of her own tea and refilled it, taking comfort in the warm feel in her hands. 

 

It was another way to ground herself in this time and place, less harmful than her other ways, but not as effective either.  Still, it was comforting.  "As for my accent, I am from a place that no longer exists.  Perhaps we will know one another long enough that I will share my tale with you, but it is not something I speak of lightly.  However, I am one of the wolkfin.  As are you.  Tell me about your life, about the changes you have had recently.  Has your vision improved?  Can you see further than most, and see better at night?  Do you hear things no one else can hear?  Or smell then?"  She took another sip of her tea.  "Do you dream of wolves, and know deep in your heart that they are trying to tell you something?  Do they talk to you?"

 

Timewalker 

[spec_op_soldier]

Orrin didn't understand how she could know these things about him, unless what she was saying was true. But she hadn't guessed one thing, sometimes he became a wolf, on more than one occasion now, Orrin had in the heat of battle forgotten that he was human. And when that happened the wolves talked to him, and he talked to them, if it could be called that.

 

"All these things you have asked me about, they have happened. I need some proof though, before I trust you. Call one of your wolves here. But first, my weapon." Orrin said, knowing that wolves hated shadowspawn. If the wolves came it would prove two things, one that she could speak with them and two that she was not some new creation of the shadow. As Orrin spoke he stood up and began walking around the stranger toward were he suspected his weapon lay.

[TaeaDawn]

She sighed but at least he was giving her a way to prove what she said.  A little proof now might go a long way on their trip back to the Stedding.  He began looking for the spear and Anabel got up, walled over to it and handed it to him before he had to really look.  She hadn't taken it from him to keep him from it, just to make sure he didn't try to gut her first.

 

She stood back then, putting plenty of room between them.  Just in case.  As she did so she reached out to the pack that had come to watch over them.  Two of their kind in the same area always intrigued the packs and she had been followed most of her journey as different members of the packs tried to learn more about her.  It was always hard on her, to fight the urge to howl with the others, to lose herself in the pack and forget all that had happened to her since the days they had known her as Autumn Flight. 

 

Still, she was TimeWalker now and the wolves greeted her warmly as they came to know her.  A gnarled old wolf with more seasons than she cared to know responded to her request to come to her.  Even with the two legs that spoke to them, he was cautious but his approach was made without stealth to announce his arrival.  He came into their circle, striding over to the one who had been like  the first autumn winds that blew the leaves into flight to travel it's path.  She had become something other, one who had walked through time and place. It was to her he went and as he stood beside her, he looked at the other man, still wounded from the hunt, but a strong hunter all the same. 

 

Neither Timewalker nor the wolf knew what the other man would do now, but Anabel gave him a small smile.  "They have been keeping a close eye over us, after you helped them.  Otherwise it might have taken a bit longer to get one to come.  They are almost always curious about our kind."

 

Timewalker 

[spec_op_soldier]

Orrin watched causiously as timewalker rose and headed toward the place where he suspected his spear to be hidden. She picked it up and extended it toward Orrin haft first. Orrin grabbed it with his right hand and surpressing a grimace hastily shifted it into his left before he dropped it. He did not think he would be able to use his favored weapon the way he had before, it felt awkward just holding it in his left hand. A wolf came into veiw after a few moments and stood beside her...she was no shadowspawn.

 

"How does it work?", Orrin asked. "The only time have been able to speak them is when I had completely forgotten that I was human and thought that I was a wolf. Its happened twice to me now." Orrin was worried that the next time he wouldn't remember that he was human, but he did not trust this "timewalker" enough to voice that thought to her.

 

"You said there are other. How many and why have I never seen them before?"

 

Orrin needed to find out how to control this, obviously Timewalker had figured it out.

 

"I need to get back to let my family now that I am alive", Orrin told her. He didn't know where he would go after that. But after the night of the trolloc's raid when he had lost himself to the wolf and almost hurt his brother, he knew he couldn't stay. Not until he was sure he could control it.

[TaeaDawn]

There were always so many questions.  She tried to remember a time when questions hadn't been the predominant communicating factor in her life, but she couldn't.  She had been the questioning type as a child and when the Howling had come upon her she hadn't stopped.  She had pestered the others about everything and anything she could but they had always been patient.  Now, she was the one that had some of the answers, never all of course, but some. 

 

"There are some that lose themselves to the wolf part of them, that stop hearing their human side, and walk with the pack as if they were no different.  You will be taught how to resist it, to remember who you are so that this does not become your path.  It is hard sometimes, to pass up on the temptation.  People mistrust us, as you mistrust me now.  It is tempting at times to slip from the human consciousness that remembers this pain and fear.  But we are not wolves and have a different path that the Creator has set us upon."

 

She reached for her cup and took a sip as she settled back into her seat.  "As for why you have not seen us before, there are many places we do not go.  Large cities for one.  Too many people to condemn us a Shadown creatures.  Even if it were not the case, I find the filth of the city, the noise and the crowds, it's all overpowering when you can smell and hear everything as we can."

 

"When you get back to the Stedding, you will learn much more about us.  I am not a historian or a healer to tell you everything you wish, but there are others there who can answer everything you ask.  We can send word to your family that you are well of course, but you have to understand that you are a danger to yourself and to anyone around you until you learn to control your wolf half.  Once you have done this, you will be able to follow whatever path you have in mind.  Also be aware that the location of our people is a secret.  We do not allow outsiders in for our own protection."

 

She had skipped over the number of wolfkin, partly because he didn't know them well enough to have that answered, and partly because she herself didn't know.  She knew the names of a handful of people of course, but she wasn't the type that socialized well.  She got tired of slowing her speech and trying to make her accent understandable for others.  Anton seemed to understand her well enough without, but no one else had talked to her often enough to pick it up, unfiltered yet.  It was her fault and she knew it.  The people at the Stedding were easy enough to get along with, especially the Sages who made it their life to care about others, but it was hard for her to trust.  Even among the wolfkin. 

 

She took a deep breath and looked up at the man.  "Well, Orrin, I have a question for you.  Are you feeling well enough for a journey yet?"

 

Timewalker

[spec_op_soldier]

A few days ago Orrin wouldn't have even contemplated leaving his family, but when he thought of any of his family coming to harm because of his actions, he new that she was right. He could not risk going home, yet.

 

As Orrin opened his mouth to tell her that he was feeling up to traveling his cup dropped from his hand spilling out its contents on the forest floor. Orrin had the image of a young wolf in his head. It was a cold long winter, even by northern standards. The pack leader along with several other members of the pack had already perished. The young wolf was leading the attack on what seemed to be the last deer in the world, at least it would be for the remnaints of the pack, if they didn't get this meal, they would be to weak to catch the next. Then Orrin saw blood soaked snow and could smell the blood of the wolves prey. The final image was of the pack following the young wolf as the the world changed from winter to spring.

 

Orrin new the young wolf in his mind was the battle scared and aged wolf that stood beside Timewalker.

 

"I will follow you to the Stedding. I am well enough to travel."

 

Orrin told Timewalker of the image he had seen in his mind and asked Timewalker what it meant.

[TaeaDawn]

Timewalker listened to Orrin as he spoke, talking about what the wolves had shown him.  When asked what it meant she shrugged.  "It's hard to say.  Sometimes you must know the mind of the pack before it becomes easier to understand their thinking.  This pack is new to me.  It also looses in the translation sometimes as well.  Nuances of their images often mean as much as anything.  Over time you'll be taught this though.  Over time you will learn to speak to them and to interpret their call as much as any of us."

 

She looked at their site and smiled, filling her mug once more.  "A little more rest I think and we can be on our way."  She was quite happy to sit there for a little longer.  When she was on training expeditions Anton sometimes set a hefty pace and she was tired from the journey so far.  And they had quite a way to go to get home.

 

She smiled at the young man.  "Just another mug to warm me and I promise we'll begin."  She left it at that, trying to be as helpful as she could be.  She still had trouble dealing with people, trouble trusting, but she was getting better.  Time, of all things, and exposure were working their way through her.  She hoped he'd be able to open up a little and just talk about himself, but she wasn't going to push it.  They had the time and it was becoming more and more a friend to her than she would have ever thought.

 

Timewalker 

[spec_op_soldier]

Orrin held his empty mug out toward her signaling that he would have another cup of her tea it was a blend unlike any he had tasted before and he liked the taste of it, though he suspected that she drank it for warmth. He knew from the few trading trips that he had accompanied his mother on that the lands to the south were much hotter than his home and she did seem to be a bit over dressed for the weather. But he did not have much experience outside of Shienar, it was rare that his mother had to make a trip herself, only when one of her suppliers was acting up.

 

"My mother is a tea merchant" he said absent mindedly. ' I have never tasted a tea like this before, which is saying something. Where does it come from, or is it your own blend? There is a very large market for tea up here, especially in the winter." Orrin rambled on like this for sometime telling his new aquaintance about his family and the place that he had grown up feeling more at ease with timewalker now that he had decided that he trusted her story. After awhile Orrin saw that they had drank the last of the tea and the and that timewalker seemed to be preparing to leave, so he handed her mug back to her and waited for her to lead the way.

[TaeaDawn]

 

Anabel wasn't sure what to think of her new wanderer.  Not only was her introduction to him clouding her thoughts, but the way he handled it all as well.  What sort of people were these Shienarans that he could take it all so calmly?  it stuck in her head that his mother was a tea merchant, something that, if he was able to communicate with his family later, might benefit the Stedding.  Merchants who weren't afraid of them would be nice.  "It's a mix." She finally said as she took a sip.  "A little of everything really.  I can't find what I had as a child and this is as close as it gets."  She said smiling slightly at him. 

 

Neither spoke much and when the tea was done she was ready to move out.  She didn't want to move at too hurried a pace, but she would much rather be in the Stedding and away from the cold.  As they moved she talked a little about things that she saw, but kept mostly to herself.  It was her way, too afraid to reach out to people just yet but still wanting to be a part of the world she was now in.  It didn't always make sense and the two parts of her often collided, just as the memory of Autumn Flight did with Timewalker, but it was something she had grown used to now.

 

As they walked, she made contact with the wolves again, and with Anton to relay what had happened and that they were on their way now to the Stedding.  She wondered briefly if she could find him tonight in the dreamworld and realized that was a pretty slim chance.  Still, she wished she had him there to tell her she had done the right thing.  Light, but she didn't want to depend on him as much as she did, and yet no one else seemed to help.  He was the one that had tried to understand her accent, that had helped her when no one else would have believed her.

 

She looked at her companion and smiled then.  Of course he'd been through a lot to.  It wouldn't hurt to make a little more effort.  "Do you have any more questions?" She asked.  "I know it's a lot to understand, a lot to try to get through in a short time.  We all have to come through this and if you need to talk, i'm here." There.  She hoped that helped.     

 

Timewalker

[spec_op_soldier]

Orrin wasn't sure what to think of this woman who calls herself Timewalker. He was unsure of alot of things at the moment, but none of it showed. He walked through the forest with his new companion in silence, holding his spear in his left handoutof necessity, but how strange is felt there, not at all the sense of familiarity he was used to, but as if he had never held the weapon, let alone trained and killed with it.

 

Sometime after they started out his ne companion said, "Do you have any more questions? I know it's a lot to understand, a lot to try to get through in a short time.  We all have to come through this and if you need to talk, i'm here."

 

A smile almost touched his lips when he thought about her question. He couldn't remember a time that he had been so incompitent in a subject as he was when it came to his current cercumstances. The thing he found funny was that he didn't even know enoughto know what questions to ask. But since they wher traveling and apperantly by foot since he had yet to here or see a horse, he would like to know how far they were going and how long she expected it to take.

 

"Where is the Stedding?" he ask timewalker. "If its very far we can go back and get two of my horses, its not really stealing if they are already mine." Maybe he could leave a letter to his family in one of the stalls. Just to let his family know he wasn't in some trolloc's cookpot.

[TaeaDawn]

Timewalker thought about his request.  Some horses were too scared of wolves for them to suffer them close by and she would prefer the company of wolves, but at the same time he had been through a lot and horses would ease his journey.  And the wolves would be nearby if she truly needed them.  Probably at the same distance anyway, she realized as she thought about it all. 

 

"If it's close and we can get in and out without too much hassle, I don't see why we couldn't make a small detour." She said with a smile.  "The travel would be quicker."  And she would be happier if one of the Sages looked at his arm.  She knew she'd done what had to be done, and that the poison was gone from his system now, light she'd seen similar things done in her old life, but she had never wielded the knife before.  He seemed strong though and she hoped he would weather this storm well.

 

 

Timewalker