we were born to die // oteka&open.

[vereine.knox ♔]

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Vereine gave a look of pure displeasure as he made his way into the forest. The scent of the Enclave had plagued the lands and he was in no way very fond of it. Ever since the Cadre was run out of their lands due to a storm and flood, they had made temporary residence in the Taiga. Choosing to take a bit of a break from pack life, he felt it best to stay away from the vast lands belonging to the other pack and venture off on his own for a bit. But the time for fun and games was over and now it was time to finally make a bit of a homecoming. After traveling for days on end, he had managed to finally make his way back to the Taiga, though what he would now do was something he had yet to think of. For quite some time, he had just been gallivanting here and there, hoping to encounter some new acquaintances. Vereine had only managed to meet an oddly colored myou on his endeavor, Cintrine, if he recalled correctly, but beyond that, nothing exciting had happened. Perhaps now he could take the opportunity to meet the locals, gain some insight on the infamous Aurelian Enclave.

Pine trees surrounded the jet black myou, the light of sunrise peeking through the branches. Sleep had been evading him lately, only small naps between the dark hours of the night were manageable. The pestering and constantly chatting raven didn’t help either. Though, those small naps did suffice and waking up in the early hours of the morning did have its perks. He enjoyed moments like this when the time was simply perfect. The sun created a mellow and simplistic beauty and everything was just picturesque. You sound like a bloody girl, Knoxie. Dupre mocked, a dark laugh following. Vereine rolled his eyes, not bothering with the raven just yet. It was far too early for their banter and he hated to ruin the rare silence of his second-soul. Dupre was having his as rare as can be calmer days, which made waking up a tiny bit better for the sleep deprived myou. Journeying in no clear path or direction, the dynamic duo decided to have a bit of an adventure and wander around the forest for a bit longer. Vereine knew chances of meeting someone out here at this time of day wouldn’t be as high, but it wasn’t like he had anything better to do in the Taiga.

In no rush, the myou kept at a slow and steady pace. The scent of pine and Enclave became intoxicating, but slowly started to grow on him. Or, at least the pine for the most part. It was amusing to Vereine, for usually he’d find a day like this rather dull and boring. Every day was starting to become the same, wander from one place to the next, fail to meet others, fight of the demons in his dreams, rinse and repeat. But he wasn’t bored, not quite yet. The day was still young, and so was he. Perhaps Fate would bless him with something new, and maybe the gods would smile upon him today.

But then he remembered how much the gods and Fate herself hated him.


_{word count ;; 551 !
tags ;; oteka ! chess !
ooc notes ;; pretty sure you wanted a vereine post, right?
musical inspiration ;; born to die - lana del rey !}


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[°Kirai°]

The little hybrid continued to wander along the outskirts of the territory again. She stared out into the vast empty space that consumed the world. She felt something rise in her chest. Was it pride? No, it was more like a sick feeling. She promised herself that she would get the hell out of the Enclave as soon as her little body could take the dangers of the outside world. She had been reminded day after day how she was still growing and all growing pups needed strength to get anywhere in the world today. She couldn't just waltz out into unknown land and not expect a random predator to spot her as a tasty snack.

For once, Kirai was letting her mind wander and dream of what great things she could accomplish once she left the excuse for a pack. Her father continued to drive this with hopes that maybe he could finally be proud of her for something. She knew he had an odd dislike or fear of pups so she was constantly putting a serious and mature front up. But there were times when she would slip up and become the pup she deserved to be.

"Oh daddy, I will make you proud of me! If it's the last thing I-whoa..." she paused as a black figure came into view only feet before her. She wondered what the black winged wolf was doing here and where he came from. She noticed a different smell and different pack from him as he approached...

"Stay back!" she whined at him and tried to bark aggressively. Though any pup would not even pose a threat to an outsider, she felt special enough to at least try. "Don't come any closer stranger! Who or what are you and what are you doing on my pack's land?!" she yipped, in her icy eyes part of her demanded an answer to justify his purpose... the other was simply curious enough to wonder if he could inform her of a pack she could have a future with.

[Oteka]

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[atrb=background,http://i1104.photobucket.com/albums/h329/Whosie/OtekaBackground.png] As it was Oteka had become the phoenix that had risen from the ashes of her encounter as a new being entirely. It had been with a rather bored fascination that she had continued to travel north, and she would have been lying if she said that the nervous chatter and anxious that Erena was being put through didn’t please her. However, what was supposed to be a routine trip, something she could turn around and walk away from, returning to her former life in the canyon with the pack she had joined had been ripped away. As she had gone to take a drink from the waters of the Taiga, a wolf, or a beast, she still could not piece together the brawn that had knocked into her, as he had attempted to eat her. All she knew was that he was big, and horns seemed to protrude from everywhere, and the very sounds he made had made her heart shiver, and shudder, and had provoked her most basic desire to live. For as many fights as Oteka had picked, trying to bring death that much closer, in reality when it had engulfed her in the near freezing arms of the lake she had had no choice but to fight. Struggling for her life she knew not whether or not the other animal had survived but she knew that she had opened her eyes with the warm sun beating down on her, her eyes blurry and her entire body, now out of the water and warming was on fire with pain. She whimpered for a long moment and tried to beat her beaver like tail against the ground, although it was not so wet it still hurt to move it and so she did not bother to look down at it. In a fit of anger she reached out to Erena, trying to berate her for letting her get into this horrible situation. "This is all your fault! If you could have just let me be happy in the Cadre lands, we would have never had to come here! Now I am beaten and broken, I’ll die in this forsaken cold ass land!" But only silence answered her, and that was the first moment she realized that Erena had not woken her, and she did not feel her familiar presence within her mind. She panicked for a long moment, believing herself to be dead, for that was the only way she knew a soul could be separated from another. Her paws scraped at the dirt beneath her and her eyes opened widely as she realized they were no longer webbed…! “What….what’s happened to me?…Erena! ERENA!” She pushed herself up to sit and whimpered slightly as the bones that had cracked and perhaps broken readjusted with movement which only let her know how badly she was hurt. She then crossed her eyes to look down her own face and was even more shocked that she had a muzzle instead of a bill, her face looked like a normal wolf’s. Her eyes quickly uncrossed and she lost consciousness. When she awoke it was many hours later, the sun was lower in the sky and her throat ached with thirst, and her body ached with the efforts to try to repair itself. She lay there panting and shaking slightly when she noticed a brown figure sliding in and out of the water. She tried to push herself up again but there was no use, she knew how broken she was, but the brown figure was coming closer, and her eyes were wide, the whites of her eyes shining brightly..”No! No!” The animal was pulling something with it, and getting closer and Oteka tried to shrink into a ball and would have except for the pulling sensation of sore muscles stopped her. Suddenly a voice came from the creature, “Oteka! Stop freaking out, it’s me!” Her eyes scanned over what appeared to be the strangest yet most familiar creature she had ever seen. “Erena?….Is that you?” Erena looked at her with her typical happy, calm eyes and nodded, “It is me, I brought you some water..” The thing she had been pulling was a small pile of reeds which had been pushed together by her bill which contained water. Oteka eyed it selfishly and began to slurp greedily, when she had had her fill she looked at the platypus in front of her. “How are you out here..and talking none the less?” This only further established her thought process that not even death might be able to separate them, if she could go through all this hell and be completely beaten and broken and yet Erena was still with her, only in another form she doubted anything short of true death would rid of Erena. Though as she looked at herself as best she could she was missing all of the traits that were originally Erena’s, the brown pelt was gone, and in it’s place a creamy and gray splintered pelt with a white underside, her bill was now replaced by a longer muzzle, and her tail now that she could raise it was a brushy, bushy thing instead of a flat, beaver like tail. Though, as she looked at Erena she could see her webbed feet, long flat tail and bill, all the things they used to share and for just a moment she mourned the loss of her differences. Her voice squeaked out, “Do I look normal Erena? Do I look like I’ve always wanted to?” Erena’s voice held her smile as she nodded, “Indeed, you look like most other wolves you have come into contact with, normal from your ears, down to your tail, it would seem during the time you were attacked, we split so that you could escape..” Oteka had a moment of fear…”Is that…beast still around..?” She didn’t remember exactly how she had escaped, she remember biting something, maybe a leg or something but that was about it. Erena looked around as well, “I didn’t see him come out of the water, but assumedly even if he did, he must have found you unappealing as a snack because there is no scent like his here…there is a pack here though, so I don’t know how you will handle that…” Of course Erena would have it easy, no one would think otherwise of a rogue platypus rummaging around for grubs and such, and her water tight pelt made it easy for her to go in the water. “I’ll try to provide you with water and food as I can while you recover at least enough to move, to keep you alive until you can move on your own..” With that she lumbered off to get more water for and Oteka lay back wondering just how she was going make a new life, here she was looking how she had always wanted to look but Erena was still with her, although she could probably out run her…”If I heal all the way that is..” [[Okay, playing with time here, I am going to say that in between the end of Who’s thread and the actual incident and this thread Oteka has spent the time painfully healing cracked ribs and sprained muscles with Erena’s help, and now she is ready to meet Vereine, albeit taking it slightly..xDD]] It would be a long many days, weeks even for Oteka to heal properly, she was able to find herself a fallen tree where she made a small nest for herself and Erena who had done about all she could do to ensure the wolf’s survival. Dragging reeds with water, and even digging up grabs for her, and as disgusted as she felt she should be, Oteka couldn’t stop eating them. She supposed some habits made over her life time had assured themselves within her brain and she wouldn’t be able to stop. Practically laying about had killed her, especially since she wanted to see her new visage in something other than the eyes of her companion. But it would not be entirely miserable, all around her as the sun stayed longer in the sky, the weather became warmer, the snow began to melt and spring made it’s slow climb into the northern lands. Erena had told her at one point that Rhiannon, her alphess had brought what remained of her pack into this pack’s lands for there had been some flood or something in the Canyon that made it so they could not return. This was bad news yet good news for Oteka. On the one hand she wanted to go home, she missed her den with the glimmering jewels, and the waterfall where she could go to cool off, but on the other hand she would not be hunted down or persecuted by the current residing pack for trespassing as she healed. In those long days together she and Erena had become much closer, and there was not nearly so much tension between her second soul and herself, but she supposed that was because she no longer looked like a mutant wolf of some sort. When the day finally came when she could stand again, she began to stretch herself as best she could, sore, stiff and hurting to move, but she knew she had to, it was the right time. The first place she padded to slowly, and softly was to the water’s edge where she looked down on herself for the first time, and gasped, she was normal…pretty even. She sat there for a long time, making faces in the water at herself before she turned around and sat Erena, laying on a rock nearby sunning herself. “Why don’t we go exploring?” It was practically the first time the wolf had invited the platypus to do anything, but then again they were never two separate beings either. With a slow trot she began to move through the forests of the Taiga, feeling more free than she ever had before, that was until she heard the commotion of a voice and what she saw before her made her stop a few feet away from the commotion. A pup was saying something about her pack’s lands, and there before her stood Vereine. She should have known he would show up after all, if the rest of the Cadre had come, why should it surprise her he did? She really didn’t know what to say or if she wanted to draw attention to herself, because of how differently she looked. She had no doubt he wouldn’t remember her, he never did in their meetings after the first one. Not only that but she doubted he would find anything about her amazingly transformed, in fact he would probably have even less to say now that he couldn’t insult every aspect of her being. Erena said gently before wandering off to look for grubs, “You never know Oteka, things between you two are always fiery and you’ve always wanted the upper hand, so why not take it?” Her eyes glared after the platypus and she swore that even with her own body Erena would always be a pain in her ass. But deciding she had nothing to lose she took a few steps forward and with her head tilted, and ears perked, she spoke, “Vereine?” She looked to the pup and questioned it with her eyes, she never knew how to handle pups, and this little ankle biter seemed especially aggressive…what to do..what to do… "speechtest"

[Leo]

He leapt through the forest, glad to have left the steep, icy mountains, where death was present at every turn. He was coming closer to admitting to himself, that he did indeed have a fear of heights. He was glad he was not a Keiyou. But then again, a keiyou that was scared of heights, was an idiot. They didn’t fall, they flew. He would just plummet to his death. He could try using his legs as wings, but that wouldn’t work, and would result in a rather undignified death. Still, he was off the mountains now, and in a forest, a place that was safely on the ground.
He moved quickly, and quietly, enjoying the pleasure of not having to focus on every pawstep like he did on the mountains. He became a shadow of the forest. Moving unseen. Stealthily making his way towards the East, where he had been told a pack resided. He had also been told that there was a pack here, in the forest, but from what he could gather, they weren’t much of a threat. Besides, if he was attacked and had no way of outmatching them in a fight, he could easily talk his way out.
For now he was enjoying the freedom that being a loner presented. It wasn’t that long ago he had left his small pack. His parents no longer needed him. He was no longer their one surviving pup. No, they had a new litter, and they now cared even less for him, then they had before. His dominant ways were a threat. He could have taken leadership, but why? So he could lead a pack full of small, needy pups, his pathetic excuse for parents, and two wolves who were probably too old to remember their own name. No, he preferred to become a loner. To leave, and start a new life.
For a while, he was content to remain a loner, entertaining ideas of becoming a rogue, but after a couple of months, he realised why wolves were social animals. Being a loner was hard. Being a loner, and expecting to survive into old age was pretty much impossible. By becoming a loner, you were both predator and prey. Animals that couldn’t take on a pack, could easily kill a lone wolf. Prey that a pack could hunt, could injure a lone wolf. For his own survival, he knew he had to join a pack.
If only there was a pack that didn’t expect him to take orders, and that he could be high ranked enough to ignore them, without having to utilise an almost non-existent ambition. There was one thing that drove him, and that was his pride. His stupid reckless pride. But pride nonetheless. And his pride was pretty selfish, and didn’t want to appear weak. He didn’t want to appear weak by taking orders. Maybe he would have to issue a challenge to the alpha of whatever pack he joint. Better to be ambitious, then lose his pride.
He slowed to a gentle walk. He sniffed the air, searching for a source of water. He was thirsty. He came across the scent of prey, but for the moment he wasn’t hungry. It didn’t matter if this pack was a threat or not, if this was their land, and they caught him hunting, and they outnumbered him…Well, it wasn’t hard to see that they wouldn’t be very happy. He would hunt once outside their territory, but for now he would drink.
He managed to pick up a faint smell of water, fresh and refreshing, calling to him. He followed it, his throat becoming drier and drier the stronger the smell got. He escaped the confines of the forest, and reached the river. He smiled, coming closer, and kneeling down. He began to lap at the surface, the cool liquid soothing his throat, and renewing his body. He was there for a while, just drinking until he could drink no more. He lipped his lips, so as to capture any excess water in his tongue. He might not like water when it came to getting wet, but when it came to drinking it, it was like a personal paradise.
His fur bristled as he caught the scent of several wolves. He assumed they were all part of the same pack, and so made to leave, but then he realised the scents were unique to each wolf. He raised an eyebrow, staring in the direction that the scent came from. Three wolves, not part of the same pack, meeting in a packs land. That was just interesting. His curiosity took control, and he started padded towards the wolves, following his nose.
When he reached it, he saw the three wolves. Or two and a half wolves, seeing as one appeared to be a young pup. The pup looked like a hybrid, and smelt like the scent border did, so the pup at least was from the pack. The other two were harder to place. The male looked a bit odd, but their was nothing distinct about a female. He sniffed. Not a lupus, so a…Myou? Yes, it seemed like it, although the female’s scent was distorted. He glanced at her. She didn’t have any markings that revealed a second soul. It was then that he spotted a strange creature near her. He knew the creature. The name was lodged at the back of his mind, and he couldn’t retrieve it. Oh well, it was a water dwelling creature, that he knew. And, its close proximity to the wolf suggested it was more than just another animal. He had heard of Myou who could have their second soul split from them, and in the form of another body. Certainly interesting.
He had missed their conversation, but he was too curious about the strange meeting to remain hidden. He padded into the open, standing nearer the pup. The two older wolves seemed to know each other, so they would be the most interesting to watch. Plus, if he was being truly honest, he felt the pup should have some protection from two older wolves that were clearly from a different pack, and could be a threat.
“Odd to see so many wolves in a territory that belongs to a pack, that isn’t theirs?” He said, phrasing it as a question, but his tone was slightly mocking. His tone wasn’t threatening at all, as he knew it was quite clear by his scent that he was just a loner. But, it would suggest to the pup that he was on her side. He scowled mentally. Why did he have soft spots for pups? They were just smaller versions of every other dull and boring wolf. Tossing the thought away, he awaited a reply.