[Eric Hammar] They are calling - Tracker Initiation - Closed

[Guest Allisa]

She had kicked the covers to the floor where they lay in a tumbled heap while one leg and an arm hung limp off the side of the bed. Her breathing was deep, her face hidden by a curtain of dark curly hair. Windracer approached the bed sniffing cautiously. Janna was never in the best mood when first roused from sleep.

 

Chime.

 

A questioning grunt answered him before she rolled away, stuffing the pillow around her head.

 

Chime

 

She burrowed deeper into the corner one hand grasping blindly for the blanket she’d kicked away earlier. With a disgusted sneeze Windracer bounded onto the bed, his cold nose searching. Janna gasped and shot upright, “Wind!â€

 

Playfully he nudged her and as annoyed as she was she couldn’t resist the dancing light in his eye. Finding the spot that always itched she scratched sleepily, ducking her head to glance outside.

 

“It’s the middle of the night and you suddenly want to play?â€

 

The gray wolf rolled onto his side, arching to give her better access. It is time. They wait for him.

 

Blinking Janna stopped scratching abruptly and jumped from the bed. Windracer sighed, rolled over and rested his muzzle on his front paws, watching as she raced around the room dressing. He could sense Randon not far away, Eyota with him as ever. Hardpaws waited patiently with them and Windracers ears perked a bit as his anticipation grew. There would be singing, and dancing…and hunting.

 

Janna had given up trying to braid her hair and instead stuffed it into an old and battered hat, giving her head a strange, lopsided look. Strapping on her equally ill treated backpack she turned to Wind with a teasing smile, “Aren’t you ready?â€

 

With a snort he jumped gracefully to the floor and followed her out the door. They walked in silence through the dark woods to the Stedding. No candles or lanterns were lit but Janna could sense Wolfkin awake behind the dark windows. She glanced up to the sky and the large full moon, unnaturally large and bright. Few could sleep easily beneath such a moon.

 

A group of shadows separated from the dark and became Eyota and Wall, who both nodded gravely and matched her step for step as the approached the small cabin Eric Hammar had taken for his own. Pausing Janna reached up to knock but the door swung open before she could.

 

“Eric….they are calling.â€

 

 

Janna Telenvar

Head Tracker and Wolfsister

Companion to Windracer

~Not all who wander are lost ~

 

OOC: Here’s the link to the Tracker website http://www.geocities.com/wolfkintrackers/ you’ll find an outline of the initiation there as well as guidelines for pickups and links to the bios I have atm (bad me mine’s not up there so…Janna is in her mid twenties, long dark hair (usually tightly braided), crippled left arm from birth. Originally from Arafel – Windracer is a crotchety old gray wolf. He always refers to Janna as Chime tho the other wolves call her Twisted Chime.) any question pm me!

[Wolfsbane]

The plain was like any he had grown up by on Caralain Grass, tall green blades of grass whistling in the cool breeze, sun glinting off of the dough clouds and ever-pines, thousands of wildflowers— pink jump up and white maiden’s hope and small purple flowers with pressed petals— littered his path. The air smelled fresh and purifying, cleansing; he dreamed often of this place.

Dark woods climbed the side of his path, tall alders and dogwoods separated by thick cedars with brown bubbling bark and knotted limbs, giving off a smell of… wolves.

 

It’s the Dream… Erik thought slowly, golden eyes staring around him as he gathered in his surroundings. The smells of the wolves overwhelmed all else. I’ve never been too good at the Dream…

 

Howling erupted far off in the distance from him, just within hearing, but beyond where Erik could sense the wolf. Another howl broke the quiet, and then another, and then another. Crashing waves of howling, of celebration, for something… He just could not put his finger on it… Wolflover had warned him he had never kept many of the wits the Creator had bestowed upon him when he entered the Dream…

A deep howl left his lips, starting from deep down near his gut and growing in strength. It was his turn to answer the call. It was his turn.

 

Come, Night’s howl. Come.

 

Heavy eyelids slid open as Erik sat up from his bed, skin prickling in the cool night air gusting from the open window beside him, but his thoughts were elsewhere. Sweaty hands brushed back his shaggy hair as he bit back a yawn that nearly cracked his jaw, finger nails dragging across his scalp while he settled his feet onto the wooden planks of his cabin’s floor. Golden eyes looked around his small room— it had not felt so small before, but that felt like an Age ago— from the small bookcase that held his mangy leather bound books of Gaidal Cain, The Great Hunt, The Legend of the Avendesora, his lone desk and wobbling chair, and a wardrobe that was too big for the few clothes he had. Hands cupping his forehead Erik rolled his shoulders, stretching aching muscles.

“If I have to face Lorelai in the yard again…†A small grin broke his scowl. She had thrown him around the yard with that lathe… Not going to be living that one down for a while.

 

Come, Night’s howl. Come. We wait.

 

He stood shakily at first, his head thumping with the quick image of wolves, all in a… He peeled off his sweaty underclothes and dressed quickly, deft hands pulling and rearranging in the dark of his cabin as he stomped his feet into a decent pair of leather boots he had picked up in Baerlon.

His side felt bare without his sabre, it would have to go on feeling bare, before he pulled a white shirt over his head. The Andoran cloth felt light and almost like silk on his bare skin— the bloody thing had cost him a carving and a flaming bowl!— but Light it felt good compared to the itch of his blankets or the prickle of hay down his shirt.

Am I going soft? Scar will never ever let me live this one down… The pale moonlight shone through the side window, casting everything in a ghostly bath of white, enough that Erik could run a quick hand through his shaggy blonde and brown hair while looking into his washstand mirror.

The sounds of movement from outside, just barely audible even to his ears, drew closer. Drew closer to his door.

A quick breath and prayer to the Mother and Creator, and Erik grasped the cool handle of the doorknob, fingers sliding across the cold metal, and pulled it open smoothly. Three shapes stood out in the darkness before his cabin— Wall, and a Wolfbrother with dark hair to his chin and stood only a finger’s length shorter than Erik… Was it Eyolis? Eyona? He was always terrible with names— but Erik’s eyes were drawn to the woman standing before him. Brown hair stuck out haphazardly from the bottom of a hat that tilted to the left, golden eyes blazing as they caught the moon’s light staring back at him from a young face that couldn’t have been a few winters older than- He cut the line of thought right there; trying to guess a woman’s age, even in your mind, was a quick way to learn how to bleed.

“Erik… They are calling,†her voice held strength and decisiveness, weighted and confident; she knew how to lead a pack. All three smelled of acceptance and… eagerness?

Erik supposed he reeked of eagerness too. Something felt immensely right with this moment, this prelude to something he could not put his finger on…

 

“Then I am anxious to meet them, Janna,†Anxious? He could have howled with delight. His muscles tightened with the desire to run, hands flexing out the stiffness of a day’s blade work. There will be no sleep tonight.

[Guest Allisa]

They walked through the night easily, the shadowed forests and dark glens holding no fear for them. Mostly silent they did manage to drum up some slight conversation during the intermittent rest breaks they took. Janna teased Wall about the Inn and about the new addition (the old addition being no more than a moon old) while Eyota adroitly questioned their newest brethren.

 

Finally their surrounding became vaguely familiar to the Tracker. “The last time we were here,†Janna confided to Erik, “We weren’t exactly….ourselves.â€

 

With that enigmatic comment she led the party up the mountainside, Windracer dancing with excitement ahead of them. At last they reached the clearing, empty now with the moon only half risen. The Tracker crouched together near the center, lighting no fire and preparing no meal. Soon enough the Hunt would being and their appetites satisfied.

 

“Are you ready Erik?†Janna asked suddenly as the moon reached its zenith. Before Erik could answer a hundred….no perhaps more….a thousand pairs of golden eyes materialized around them, all watching silently and solemnly as the three Trackers, bent low, backed away from Erik Hammar.

 

As Moonhunter appeared the Pack broke into a chorus of howls….

 

Janna Telenvar

Head Tracker

Wolf Sister

Companion to Windracer

 

~ Not all who wander are lost ~

[Guest Allisa]

Looking around the common room he and Burrich had just cleaned, Wall let out a sigh and smiled. It had been an early night and it looked like he may be able to get to bed before the sun started creeping over the horizon. Wiping some imaginary dust from a table, Wall tossed his rag into a hamper by the bar and started climbing the stairs, thinking fondly of his large soft bed. As he rounded a landing, he found himself staring into a pair of bright yellow eyes.

 

We must go Hard Paws

 

A sigh escaped Wall’s lips. It seems it was time for another Tracker to join their ranks. The large man jogged quickly up the stairs and retrieved what he would need for the night. Sleep would wait.

 

Jogging through the night on silent feet, Wall spotted Eyota in the shadows, likely only because his friend wanted to be seen. This was the man that taught Wall nearly everything he knew about stealth, tracking, and woodsmanship. The two friends greeted each other with a smile and hunkered down in a comfortable squat to wait for Janna. The Wall looked at the full moon; a moon which provided more than enough light for any wolfkin this night as it bathed the Stedding in moonbeams that seemed to muffle the world and carry the slightest noise to his ears all at the same time. Before long, Janna’s presence was announced by her footsteps, and the two men rose to meet her. Together the three trackers glided on silent footsteps towards Eric’s cabin. None of the Tracker’s had spoken to each other, but they each knew what tonight was.

 

 

 

Janna used the hike to tease Wall about his inn. Some thought he paid too much attention to it, but he didn’t. It was his dream. The conversation was light, though everyone could sense an anxiousness lying just beneath the surface.

 

The four wolfkin had reached a clearing and squatted easily at its center. Eric looked like he thought sitting still was about the hardest thing anybody had every asked him to do. Just when he looked like he was about to speak up, the moon came to rest at its highest point on its path across the endless sea of stars. “Are you ready?†Janna asks. As her words die on the night air, another shining sea materialized around them. Thousands of golden eyes appeared. Wolves that had come from the corners of the land sat watching them. Wall and the other two Trackers slowly backed away from the initiate and Moonhunter let himself be seen. A howl erupted from thousands of throats as if they were one and Wall knew that this ceremony would always affect him the way it had the first night he witnessed it. Before long, he was howling as well. Then… again as one… they stopped…

 

Posted for Wall *wink*

[The_Wagz]

test

[The_Wagz]

sweet

[Wolfsbane]

“We weren’t exactly….ourselves.â€

The thought drummed in Erik’s head as he moved up the mountainside with the four others, Janna, Wall and Eyota. Light he had had a cousin named Eyota! Other things were sliding across the inside of is mind, a torrent of thoughts and ideas and concerns and questions. He managed to maintain a reign on his scent and outer appearance as he walked, barely, as he began sense the pull of the area up ahead like iron filings to a lodestone. His whole body began to hum with eagerness— Light! I feel like it’s that Bel Tine Festival when I danced with Amaria, and when Deylene had kissed me in front of— Fool thoughts for a fool on Foolday. Erik could still here his father’s sayings rattling in his skull sometimes, which was better than the other voice rattling in his head any day of the week.

 

The clearing emerged suddenly, a small glen set atop the mountains. His golden eyes watched the moon as it crept closer to its peak as the group crouched in the middle of the clearing and waited.

And waited.

And waited.

No one said a word, every breath hushed in waiting, in anticipation for something. Something building, growing; Erik was certain it was not just his anxiousness brewing inside of him feeding on itself.

Erik could feel goose pimples spread out in a rushing wave down his hackles and back, across his arms and legs like a trickling stream, every hair and fibre was standing on end, golden eyes glowing with a fiery heat behind them, hungry eyes— the moon was high above them at its utmost pinnacle.

“Are you ready Erik?â€

The question hung in the air like tabbac smoke, hovering, almost missed. Erik turned to Janna- she had been the one that spoke, but he had only an instant to look into her golden eyes before a celestial body of wolf eyes gleamed back at him. Light, how he had stared at the heavens and now more than a hundred— a thousand?!— pairs of eyes watched him from the woods. His tongue clung to the dry roof of his mouth as he gaped, head twisting around to view the massive circle of burnished golden orbs glittering in the moonlight.

The three other Trackers backed away slowly, crouched, eyes intent on him; all eyes on him.

 

Darkness and mist began to slide together as the night melded with the wind, taking form. Something near eminence struck Erik as he watched a large wolf, larger than Scar or Smoke, built with a shaggy coat but hazy even to his eyes in the pale moonlight. The wolf moved towards him as howls began to pour out from the night, from the other Kin, echoing around him, enveloping him, vibrating within him. His eyes were only for the large wolf that smelled of a grandfatherly musk, the wolf made him feel like running along lush green grass on a spring night chasing the very moon beside millions of stars filling the sky around the two of them. Moonhunter.

 

What felt like an eternity of howling, of ringing in the small glen from thousands of voices, and an instant, ceased abruptly.

Erik could only match stares with the large wolf. Only five Winters back and if Erik had encountered a wolf that size in the woods.. It would have been doubtful his breeches would ever smell the same again, but now he stood before this great wolf, and what must be all the wolves Erik could ever imagine. And before three friends.

 

Erik waited, eager and ready for whatever lay before him.

[Guest Allisa]

The forest was outlines in the silver of the unnatural moon and the darkness of the shadows. From those shadows a multitude of golden eyes weighed and measured the new Tracker. Beside her Windracer rumbled deep in his chest and the hairs on Janna’s neck stood on end.

 

Moon Hunter

 

As it always did the presence of the magnificent wolf filled Janna with awe, silver like the moon he moved with predatory grace as he crossed the clearing. Eyes more golden than any passed over the waiting Trackers and Janna shivered a bit. He really was the most handsome wolf.

 

Windracer growled, Not so very handsome he told her grumpily.

 

The Head Tracker nearly laughed out loud and placed a gentle hand on her companion’s head, No, not as handsome as you. Now hush, its time for the questioning.

 

 

Janna Telenvar

Twisted Chime

Head Tracker ~ Wolf Sister

Companion to Windracer

 

OOC: Sorry for the lateness and shortness of the post! Holiday! :P