A swift, gentle breeze rustled the remaining leafs on the trees around Rumour. The air was growing chillier, the forest preparing for the harsh winter that laid just around the corner.
The year had been overly harsh for the forest's inhabitants. Hunters had killed off such a large portion of the prey that the wolves that lived in the shadows of the towering pines barely had enough to eat by fall. As time wore on, things simply worsened. Soon loners were venturing deep in to pack territories to find food, and skirmishes over rotting corpses had grown violent. All that seemed trivial to the female wolf now.
The large, sleekly built female sat in the shade of one of the many pine trees, her eyes lackluster and dull. Her fur hung on her bones raggedly, and her beautiful fur looked dirty, mud caked on her paws. Her elegant face had once been full of joy and life, yet now looked blank and empty, a frightened edge to her piercing hazelnut eyes.
Cautiously a much older wolf approached Rumour, his head bowed slightly, his ears perked, eyes carefully watching her. His fur was a grayish color, and his old age showed in his white muzzle and paws, graying hairs scattered all over his already light colored coat. His yellow eyes looked worriedly at Rumour, tail carefully lowered. Cepheus slinked up to his mate, pausing before sitting next to her, as if making sure she wouldn't maul him.
Rumour glanced sharply at the male, but did nothing to show him that she wished to be alone, though her ears turned back slightly, her muzzle twitching.
Cepheus scooted across the ground slightly, edging closer to the female. His gaze was that of a gentle old man, full of nothing but comfort for the female, his gaze un-judging of her behavior. Gently the male leaned his shoulder against her's, seeming to give her a small smile. Rumour growled sharply, snapping at the male's muzzle, scooting away. Cepheus bowed his head low, getting down on his stomach before slowly scooting back to the female's side, rubbing his head against her side.
Rumour's hard exterior of coldness towards the male softened, and she laid down, allowing him to lay his head over her neck, the two snuggling as well as two wolfs can. Rumour's body seemed to shake slightly, a low coughing sound coming from the female's throat. Cepheus raised his head, cocking it to one side as he looked at her worriedly once more, before giving her muzzle a lick, growling softly as he nudged her head with his muzzle.
Slowly the female stopped shaking, curling closer to Cepheus for comfort, wrapping her tail around her body slightly. Once, there was a time when the female would've never allowed the older wolf to comfort her, to get this close. But things had changed drastically, only two nights before.
Food was low. No, food was gone. There was nothing. The rabbits were thin and half starved to death, the deer none existent. The moose were also gone, except for the occasional one that came through, but the pack was too hungry and weak to hunt them. Rumour was forced to leave the pack's territory for days on end to find enough food for her self, and even longer to find enough for the pups also. The pack had been blessed with three beautiful, strong pups. Delta, Rosco, and Summer were all strong pups, but no litter should have been left alone as long and often as Rumour was forced to leave them. Cepheus and Centaurus tried, they really did. They attempted to help feed the pups, but the two wolves were eventually forced to give up on that path if they wanted to keep them selves fed, but still ended up half starved even with putting all their energy in finding food.
Rumour knew Centaurus was taking it hard, that he wasn't able to provide for this pack. The two barely ever saw each other, each spending all their waking moments scrounging frantically for food. Only once fall began, and a sudden herd of deer arrived, that the older wolves were able to relax, if only for the short time it was. Cepheus had made himself scarce as the two mates had nuzzled each other, growling softly. It was the only happy moment the two had been able to have since the pups were born.
Centaurus had been growing thinner and thinner, dangerously so. His fur hung off his body loosely, and his eyes grew
more and more glazed with each passing day. It was clear that the male was starving, even with the extra strength his youth gave him.
Cepheus wasn't handling it much better, but the wolf had eight years of life behind hung, four more the the other. The old wolf had lived through enough tough times to know the tricks of keeping fed, using only the minimum amount of energy so that he'd be able to snap in to action and chase after a rabbit when the chance arrived.
But it became clear to Rumour that they were all in danger of dieing when she and Centaurus had fought over a rabbit. They'd both chased after it, shoving each other out of the way in their desperate attempts to catch the sickly animal. It was only luck that Centaurus had stumbled in exhaustion, making it so that Rumour was able to race ahead and snatch the animal off the ground.
But the death of her mate was something the young female never expected.
She knew he was starving, but he was Centaurus. He was strong, brave, sometimes foolish, and loving. He was the one who whined and begged to see his pups when they arrived, disheartened when his mate practically attacked him when he became to snoopish. He always found a way to get to food, and last winter when the blizzard came, he was the one who kept everyone calm, even at the time having only become alpha a little bit before.
But he was dead.
Gone.
Centaurus was gone from the world, his body slowly rotting in to the ground.
Rumour had been forced to travel frighteningly far from the den, so far that she almost lost her way home. She'd actually been forced to steal from another pack, something that scared her down to her core, to have heard their howls as they attempted to track her down so that they could attack the intruder. Somehow, in her half starved stumbling and snuffling, the female had stumbled upon a deer that had injured it's leg, and must've died of natural causes. She'd eaten so much that her stomach bulged, and had ripped off extra for Centaurus, knowing she had enough in her stomach for the pups and herself.
The way back had been harsh on her, and she was already hungry once more when she finally got back to the den, the large chunk of meat still clasped tightly in her jaw. Her children had stumbled over their stocky legs to her, whimpering in both joy and hunger at the sight of their mother, large eyes welcoming and all too happy to see her once more, alive and with food.
Rumour had been walking along the river, trying to find a rabbit to eat, her stomach rumbling in protest to being starved. The young female's intelligent eyes had narrowed at the sharp stench of death, and had slowed to a careful walk, her ears swiveling back as she slowly shifted in to a careful crouch, slinking across the ground silently. The smell of death usually meant food and a carcass, but the hunters had been trigger happy and now it was a bitter sweet smell, one of both hope and fear.
Her body froze at the sight of that thick, dark black fur. Her eyes had slowly traveled up the body, to that face she knew all to well, a shriek of a howl growing in her throat. The female's howls sounded like screams, and Cepheus had arrived in record time, eyes fearful and teeth bared in case of a attack.
Rumour had nudged and licked the body frantically, whimpering in her dead mate's ears, refusing to look in those glazed over, lifeless eyes that stared unseeingly up at the sky. She refused to admit the father of her children had died, and that it was her fault for not being there to help him, or to at least drag him to food by his scruff. It had to be her fault.
The old wolf knew he would never lifelong enough to sire another litter of pups with the young female, and honestly he knew his body wouldn't be able to. He was only there for emotional support, and knew he would never replace the hole in Rumour where her mate used to be. He also knew that Centaurus' own children were to young to remember anything about their own father, and that made his own heart twang even more for the young female. He'd already seen two mates to deaths door, one by a shot to the neck by a hunter, and the other to a botched hunt. He understood the undying pain that followed after loosing something so precious, but he also knew that the pain eventually numbed somewhat.
Cepheus allowed Rumour to grieve for only four days before he shoved the wolf to he feet, growling harshly at her, grabbing her scruff and shaking it lightly. She had pups to care for, pups that they both knew he wouldn't be able to feed adequately.
Life would never be the same for her. Both of them understood that. But it was time for her to move on, and to continue with life.
That is, if the food lasted long enough for them all to live.
~!*!~
True story, mostly. I've dramatized it, obviously, but I'm actually really upset.
Like WOLF is, my game has pretty much run out of food. And to make things worse, I honestly can't figure out how to do that neat little trick where you refill the map with prey, and trust me, I've tried. Many, many times.
But today I was playing the game, and fighting to keep Rumour alive, when Centaurus just.... died. Of starvation. I knew he was starving, but I kept going "It'll be okay! He's almost starved before. Now, on to other things!"
But nope, he died. And it was actually quite sad, because I couldn't find his body, and I think Rumour deserved to at least say goodbye.
About this, I know it might've worked better if I'd had the wolves talk, but.... I don't really enjoy writing like that. It takes a bit more then what I've got to pull that off properly, in my mind at least. And I don't see Cepheus as Rumour's new mate, but as someone who was forced in to taking that position by nature, and I can't see him having romantic feelings towards her, not that wolves do that, but you see my point (I hope).
I'm a bit iffy about the spelling of names, as I didn't feel like starting up the game to double check, and this was honestly written in a moment of "Holy shez, he just... died. Oh sh#t."
(Been quite a long time since I visited the site. I know it's off topic, but I'm really glad to see this site hasn't died! You people here are quite wonderful, and I'd be heart broken to see this place die off, WOLF Online aside. I really have enjoyed the community.)
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Subject: A father lost, a lover lost 
03/06/11, 03:31 pm
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