A Chance Meet - Lazarus x Oll

Lazarus plodded along to Fellfang. It had been a long and uneventful trip. At least on the outside. On the inside, Lazarus could not be in more turmoil. His mind told him that every step further from Aryn was a step toward a different and better life somewhere else. So why did he still feel…. Terrible? Why couldn’t he get the picture of Seven’s clear blue eyes staring up at him in horror out of his head? I just gotta keep moving… it’ll get better. Everyone is fine in Aryn… and I’ll be much more fine somewhere else…

He had told his mother, Lady Athena, he was going to Fellfang as one of the various alliance missions taking place between the two packs. But that had been a lie. He was going to Fellfang, yes, just so others traveling wouldn’t find his scent trail leading off somewhere else. But then, he would split off from here, and not return home. He would turn wherever was the opposite direction of Aryn and then just… go.

He couldn’t shake the sick feeling. He just wanted everything to be like it was before. He wanted to be happy again, but it seemed impossible. He didn’t know what to do, where to go, how to get what he felt like he needed…

Oh, he was almost at Fellfang now. He tried to push all this mess out of his head so he could act normal, in case he ran into anyone. Though he did hope that he didn’t run into anyone, maybe it wouldn’t be bad because if Aryn knew that he made it to Fellfang, that would give him more time to get far away before anyone would begin to get curious. He sniffed the air curiously, alert for anyone nearby.

Oll's nose twitched as she took in the scents that rushed past her. A breeze tugged at her hears and longer fur as she squinted. She hoped desperately to become a Vanguard member – it seemed that were possible. She needed to learn the layout of Fellfang if she wanted to impress Fable, or whoever it was she had to talk with.

She sighed.

Better than a hunter – not a job for her anyway. Too uncoordinated.

Wrinkling her nose at the thought, she turned her head to the left and quietly began to slip down the jagged and smooth rocks she had climbed moments before. She had spotted a slight dip in the land where she figured deer might hide out in the shade and so she headed that way, interested in finding some trails.

As she padded along, she ignored tiny memories of her family and past... friends... that popped up. Nope – not time for that. They were in the past.

Quite lost in her head she found herself leaping back in shock and with a slight bark of surprise when she almost walked right into someone else. She stayed still, one paw off the ground as she leaned way back, eyes wide as she stared at the stranger.

Lazarus was trotting along, and due to the wind direction he didn’t notice the wolf nearby until he turned around a large rock and there she was. Lazarus was not particularly jumpy, but in his current mental state he was (especially since he was paranoid he would run into another Arynian), so he leaped back in surprise.

He was able to deduct immediately that she was not of Aryn, which was a massive relief. She smelled like Fellfang, so she must be a Fellfangir. And she looked just as surprised as him by the sound she let out, and the way she was staring at him. “Uh..” he let his fur to lay flat, and forced his expression into a calm and easy smile. “Hey,” he said, his tail wagging a bit, “sorry to surprise you, must not have been paying attention! I’m Lazarus, Ranger of Aryn.” he introduced himself using his rank, or his former rank rather, with a gracious dip of his head.

The blackened wolf standing in front of her began to mumble and Olithia felt less shocked. Allowing her paw to rest again on the ground, she leaned forward a little – he didn't have that woods Fellfang smell everyone seemed to be stuck with.

Did she smell like it already?

Olithia wagged her tail twice in response, ears relaxing.

“Ranger?” she repeated, head tilting slightly, “is that like.. a patrol?” She looked Lazarus over for a moment, memorizing his features.

Aryn?

“I'm Olithia,” she added quickly, head dipping just slightly as an easy smile crept across her jaws.

Lazarus was relieved when the female relaxed as well. He didn’t know if he could handle a stressful encounter right now. But luckily she seemed pretty nice so far. “More like… a messenger? Or an explorer,” Lazarus said, smiling a bit at the second description. He liked to think of himself as an explorer, more than a messenger. And it was true enough. Rangers were sent to scope out distant lands just as much as they were to carry messages.

”Nice to meet you, Olithia,” he said, her smile furthering his comfort. It felt good to have some positive interaction… he had been avoiding near everyone in Aryn, and felt guilty about how he would leave them even when he was forced to interact with someone. But Olithia didn’t know him, she was a complete stranger. Someone who wasn’t going to ask him about his and Seven’s fall-out, someone who wasn’t freaking out or preparing for war, someone who wouldn’t care and even expects him to slip away and never return again. For these reasons, and the fact that she appeared to be good-natured, he liked Olithia a lot already.

Exploring sounded great.

Acting as a messenger, perhaps not quite so much. But then Olithia considered the traveling involved and she tucked the option away in the back of her mind. In case Vanguarding did not work out.

Oll watched Lazarus for a moment, her tail wagging slightly.

“Hmm, what kinds of messages do you deliver? And to who?” she asked, settling down on her haunches.

Lazarus paused uncertainly when she asked the questions, and even more so when she sat down. These general questions weren’t bad, but he feared how well he could cover up his less-than-admirable motives here for long… but it would be more suspicious to dismiss himself, he figured. Best just try to enjoy this wolf-to-wolf interaction. It may be his last in a while, after all. He sat down too. “Uhh, well,” Alright, what would he say? Such a simple question. So easy to pick an answer. But with so much mucking up his mind it was hard to think straight. Finally he decided how to handle it. “Whatever messages my Lord and Lady tell me to deliver, and to whomever they ask.” A genuine, teasing smile spread across his face when he finished.

He continued on before his joke could be interpreted as him actually trying to be evasive, “It’s true, though. Currently, I’m here to keep an open channel of communication between my pack and yours. We’re allies, after all!” Lazarus explained a bit more helpfully. My pack… ugh this was hard.

Olithia noticed how Lazarus wouldn't give her anything specific – easy to chalk up to disregarding a long answer that she wouldn't even care about or remember the next day.

Funny how he hesitated. She gave the male a teasingly calculative look.

“Allies, huh?” Olithia nodded. She had forgotten....

“So what's that actually mean?”

She could figure it out on her own time but she decided to humor herself a little longer. Her naive questions told Lazarus that she was new and oblivious to Fellfang ways. It'd be interesting to see what he'd have to say.

She tilted her head sweetly at him.

Lazarus didn’t really like how she was looking at him when she asked the question. It felt almost like a quiz to him with how his mind was right now, despite the fact that it was just as likely Olithia was new here and genuinely didn’t know. At least now he was in the swing of things, so it was easy to answer this one. “Allies is the same as being friends, in a way. Not as personal usually, since each pack has to look out for themselves of course. But, for example,” he had left Aryn to escape this mess, so he wasn’t a fan to having to spell out the situation once again. But it would be good to get this Olithia up to speed if nothing else, and the more casual conversation about it the better. “One of our juveniles is missing and we are searching for her. And so Fellfang, as our allies, is helping us look as well. And if one of your members ever goes missing, or if your pack needs some help with something like that, then Aryn would help you guys out in return.” Lazarus explained. There, it felt nice to speak generally, of some whatever Fellfang member missing instead of a member of Aryn who was actually missing.

“Does that make sense?” The black Ranger asked, to make sure he explained it well enough.

Olithia forced herself to sweep away the pup-like grin and straighten her posture as Lazarus explained.

A lost juvenile? This was news.

Oll felt her lip twitch in a sort of innocent smile, followed by a genuine expression of concern.

“I've not heard of this yet – I would love to help find her. What's she look like?”

A task, at last! Even if self appointed. Perhaps she could find something about this missing pup, or even find her, herself, and then of course she would be welcomed into Fellfang's Vanguard! She hoped.

“It does,” Oll nodded. Her mind had suddenly left the conversation and instead was already formulating ideas of how to search for a missing stranger.

Whom she knew nothing about.

“What can you tell me about her?” Olithia asked, hoping for some better indications than a false image she had conjured up in her mind.

Ugggghhh whyyy… Lazarus did his best to hide how much he didn’t want to talk about it when Olithia asked more about Merrill. But obviously he had to answer any questions! Plus, who knows… maybe she would find Merrill. “Well…” He remembered Merril quite well, as she was close friends with his brother Raphael. “She’s dark gray. She’s got light green eyes. Some lighter brown highlights but mostly the dark gray…” he ought to think of a distinguishing mark. Luckily, for all his other flaws, he at least had a sharp memory. “She’s got fluffy pale gray cheek fur, and the top of her face, like around her eyes and on her muzzle, is lighter gray too.” That was pretty distinguishing, he thought, most wolves had a darker color on the top of their muzzle if anything.

Olithia looked like a courageous and spirited young wolf, so it made him wonder about why she was so interested, and he figured it was only right to warn her of the dangers. “But don’t go off looking for her alone! My pack’s engaged with the kidnappers and strong fighting wolves got pretty badly hurt.” he thought of his brothers, several of whom were wounded from the fight. “Make sure you go with others in your pack, if you have to go, okay?” he ended with a smile, he couldn’t stay serious for too long when he was giving another wolf mature advice, since he himself was the opposite of mature.

“Hmm,” Olithia hummed.

Grey and grey. Got it.

“Oh, I would never!”

Go off alone? That's exactly the kind of thing she'd do. In lands she knew well... she resigned to herself silently that this might not be the best idea here.

Fine, she huffed inwardly, but with a nod to Lazarus. She would have to find somebody to go with her. Her nose almost wrinkled at the thought. All these Fellfang wolves would be too busy blabbing on and on about Valda.

Kidnappers? Olithia leaned forward, clearly fascinated. She ignored Lazarus' less than thrilled body language as he did manage to answer her questions.

“Ah, yes,” Oll said quickly, “of course. But do tell – who were these kidnappers?!”

“Yeah?” Lazarus responded with a knowing smile as she insisted she would never go out alone. He could see the spirit in her lovely hazel eyes, and in her curiosity with all her questions, because he himself wasn’t too far off from her. He was not nearly so interested in others as she seemed (good on her, though, that’s why she was in a pack and he was… abandoning his...) but perhaps they both has an... indifference to authority. Still, for all the dumb stuff Lazarus did, he would never go looking for dangerous criminals. He hoped that wolves who were into that, like this she-wolf might be, would know to be careful…

She went on to ask what he knew about the kidnappers. “Yeah they were once part of Blutwald.” Lazarus explained, grimacing a bit. Last time he had talked about Aryn’s history with Blutwald he had been with Seven… exploring Blutwald’s old territory. He had joked with her about ghosts, and then she really had been afraid, but of the thunder. He had comforted her that night…

He cleared his throat as he went on, “Aryn and Blutwald were at war once. Aryn won and Blutwald disbanded. Their former Alpha, Winema, actually lived in Fellfang. Winema’s daughter is your Alpha female even, Polaris. She was in Blutwald too, not sure if she was there for all the war stuff, but she could probably tell you about the pack if you wanted.” Lazarus hadn’t been alive at the time of the war, but he knew about Winema and a bit about her past because she had saved his brother Raph’s life. And then Polaris was the Alpha female of Fellfang, so being a Ranger of course he knew a bit about her too. “But yeah I guess some band of former Blutwald wolves are still angry with us about the war.” He shrugged.

“Blutwald?” Olithia repeated slowly. “Pretty odd name compared to the others around here, huh?”

Oll hadn't heard of Winema but she had of Polaris. She nodded, leaning forward more, fascinated.

“What on earth was there a big war over?”

Where she had been from, packs mostly stuck to themselves – indifference were solved by one-on-one battles. But then again those packs had all been all of 7 members at the largest.

“Huh,” the red female huffed after a moment. “So... where are you off to now?”

Lazarus paused thoughtfully, “Yeah… I guess it is sorta a wierd name, huh?” he agreed. Blutwald had been a word in his life since he was a child, so by now there was nothing outlandish about it. But it did have a certain… harsh sound to it, no other words were like it really.

“Hm...” He honestly… had not paid much attention to the story really, he didn’t think it was important. He reached way back into his memory. “Blutwald was hunting in Aryn land, and then Aryn captured a Blutwaldian, and then there was a standoff that some rogue showed up to and initiated a big battle, they fought it out, Aryn won and Blutwald disbanded…” Lazarus paused, looking at Olithia. He could see the interest in her pretty hazel eyes. He felt a bit bad that he didn’t know more about this. But being before his time, plus a subject he wasn’t fond of especially now that they were in a similar sort of war-like situation, he just… wasn’t one to think on it. “Sorry, history’s never been my strong subject.” He said with a shrug and a bit of a laugh. He was never one to live in the past, after all…

“Heading to meet your Alpha, keep him updated on the happenings, see if he has any important information for me to take back, then back to Aryn, that’s all.” He said with a smile. “What about you? I’ve been yapping away, but I hardly know a thing about you!”

Oll tilted her head.

“Blutwald disbanded over a little hunting tiff?”

That sounded like things she had almost witnessed as a nomad. Except packs never disbanded, they just battled it out until both ends were too tired to care as much.

Oll shrugged in response to Lazarus' apology.

“No prob,” she said cheerfully, perking back up. “Ah, there's not much to know about little me....”

She winked a bit as she grinned cheekily, tongue peeking out from between her slightly parted lips. Oll was a loner, always had been. Even in pack life, she'd never grown fond of or close to anyone. Even now, Lazarus' memories interested her and Fellfang seemed ripe with opportunity for gossip and trouble, but she still didn't feel quite at home.

“Waiting out the winter,” she finally divulged. “We'll see where things take me after.” She smiled up at Lazarus. One thing she despised about herself – she had always been a little short.

Lazarus shrugged at her statement of disbelief. It did sound silly in such plain terms, but he was sure there was much more to it. He was glad that she still seemed cheerful, though, even if he was a bad wolf for an engaging history discussion. “If you ever have the chance to talk to my brother, Raph, he’s in Aryn too, ask him about it. He was always the smart one, I’m sure he knows all about it, right down to the number of bites on each pelt,” he said with amusement and a bit of sadness as he thought about his brother. Raph was lame, what with his quiet contemplation of life and stuff, but Laz loved him anyway… boy would he miss him…

Lazarus perked his ears to hear what Olithia had to say about herself, smiling in return at her playful wink and expression. He tilted his head at her answer. “You don’t plan to stay in Fellfang once winter passes?” he asked with interest. If she was going to be a loner too… well with him leaving now and her leaving in a season or two, there was little chance they would ever meet up. But with his situation getting increasingly scary he found himself grasping for any comfort her could, even if with this cheerful young she-wolf he had literally just met.

Olithia's eyes widened, impressed. She committed Raph's name to memory.

“I don't know, yet,” Oll replied with a shrug, “I can't say I've seen any reason to go... it's just what I've always done. How it's always been for me. Settle here a season, move on the next when my stay has been over welcome.... I'd stay with little families, ya know?” She looked at Lazarus with a hint of apology as she spoke.

“I'd be on my way, 'til some pack might offer for me to hunt with them... I'd explain my situation, if they understood and offered shelter for the winter, I'd take it.” She shrugged again, but in a more defeated manner. “I had to.”

She noticed how Lazarus seemed interested in whatever decision she might make and so she grinned at him and wagged her tail.

“Anything I should be concerned about on my way around here?”

Lazarus listened to her answer, nodding. Maybe… he could do that too. Find little families to settle with every once in a while. “Sounds interesting, traveling around, seeing the sights, meeting all sorts of wolves.” He said. He liked traveling around, he always had, that’s why he was a Ranger. But now that he was planning on doing it perminantly, he had to admit… it was a lot less fun. He didn’t know how Olithia did it her whole life. And she was probably even younger than he was. He didn’t dare ask about why she had such a lifestyle, though. That would almost certainly be a downer, which was the last thing he wanted to hear right now. She probably wouldn’t want to talk about it anyway, so win-win. He noticed her disappointment when she spoke about not really having a choice in the winter, and having to join a pack. “So if you could, you would just keep living on your own even in the winter?” That would be good to know… maybe he could also get used to it, and eventually even prefer, to be alone.

Lazarus shrugged, smiling a bit as she asked if there was anything she should look out for. “Nahh. The mountains keep Fellfang pretty safe. Although if you are ever heading to the south west, there’s the pack called Vektren, their territory is swampy. Steer clear of them, they aren’t friendly.” Lazarus wouldn’t want her stumbling upon the Vektren border hoping for another family only to be attacked. “Otherwise most of the other packs around here seem alright, so far as I know.”

Olithia nodded at Lazarus, a small smile on her jaw, but shrugged at his question. She'd thought about it a lot while she had wandered... but now that she had found such a lush environment and security, she had begun to question why she would ever want to leave.

She thought of Durzin, and then the other Fellfangir's glares in her direction that she had picked up now and again.

“I think... for a change, I'll give pack life a shot, ya know?” Oll tilted her head at the larger male. She decided to do the polite thing, what most others seemed to do – ask him about his own experience. “What about you, you happy back home?”

The mention of swamp made Olithia raise her brows. She'd never heard of such a thing.

“I will, thanks... but, uh, what's... a swamp?”

Lazarus nodded when she admitted she would give pack life a shot. “That’s not a bad idea. Fellfang has always seemed alright.” He didn’t know much about the changes going on, but Fellfang and Aryn had long been on good terms, so Lazarus could only assume they were decent wolves.

He blinked, caught off guard by her question. “Uhh well.” he shrugged, “it’s alright. A little stressful these days but… it’ll pass.” He was definitely not going telling her that he was in the process of running away. The smartest thing would have been to just play off like he was super happy, seem less suspicious. Or maybe that would seem more suspicious. Eh, whatever, the words were already out. Hopefully it sounded honest enough. He reflected sadly on what he had chosen to say. ‘It’ll pass… will it? I won’t be there to see...’

He was more than happy to talk about swamps. “Oh swamps are just… soggy ground. You can walk through it usually, but sometimes the mud and water suck you up to you elbows” he chuckled, “Dunno why any pack would chose to live there.”

Oll didn't know what to make of Lazarus' offhand comment – what was happening back in Aryn?

She forgot as soon as he explained what on earth a swamp was. She pulled a face. Soggy ground?!

“Sounds gross,” she said honestly, glancing away. How did a wolf cross... soggy ground? She agreed with him on his final point.

“Sounds awful but I guess... maybe it protects them if the rest of us can't bother 'em, ya know?” She tilted her head at Lazarus. “Anyway....” She shifted her weight, paws dancing with desire to move onward – she had stood still for much longer than she could usually bother to.

“It's been nice meeting you,” she blurted, deciding to say something nice – most wolves she had met had no concern for it, but the more polite and patient ones thrived from it. Perhaps, if she met him again, it could bode well for them both.

He didn’t know why, but Lazarus couldn’t help but laugh a bit at Olithia’s face when he spoke about the swamp, though he tried to quiet himself. Either way, it made him feel better than he’d felt in a while. He couldn’t remember the last time he had genuinely laughed. “Yeah that’s true! Keeps me away at least, that’s for certain.” That and just the fact Vektren were well known to be nasty.

Olithia shifted, perhaps eager to continue on, as she said suddenly that it was nice to meet him. “Oh… yeah.” he gave her an easy smile. Earlier in the conversation Lazarus would have been only too relieved at the seeming wind-down of the interaction. But now he felt disappointed. She didn’t know who he was, or what he was doing. For all she knew he was just an average normal loyal wolf. And she was so nice and comfortable, and seemed fun too. He got a sudden urge to ask her to join him on his quest, but quickly squashed that down. That would be admitting out loud that he was a traitor… and that would certainly ruin this interaction. Plus she had only just found Fellfang, there’s no way she would come with him to leave it. “It’s been nice meeting you too... I’ll see you around, okay?” he gave her a nod and a grin, then went to trot onward again, toward his next unknown.