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+--- Thread: AW New Life New World (/showthread.php?tid=12475)
New Life New World - Yelp - 7/3/2026
The afternoon had settled into one of those lazy stretches where nothing important was expected of anyone. Yelp preferred those. Those types of hours made him feel less seen somehow.
He wove between packmates through the tall green grass, laughing a little too loudly at his own jokes as his parents walked alongside him. His father rolled his eyes for what had to be the hundredth time that day while his mother snorted into a smile, both of them indulging him with the same endless patience they always had. His parents always seemed entertained by him, though he was sure they didn't quite understand his sense of humor. But they did try to at least keep up, making teasing comments in return at their boy's silly antics.
They would all laugh, but sometimes, in the pause that followed, Yelp found his eyes lingering on his parents. Had those wrinkles always been there? Was his father favoring that right leg of his more? His mother looked so tired, softer around the eyes. Their fur had more silver than he remembered. The signs were impossible to ignore, no matter how he tried...His parents were old, and soon, they’d step back from pack life. The pack would care for them, of course, everyone knew that. But as for Yelp, he was barely an adult, and he hadn’t done much with his life to amount to anything really. He’d never hunted, never fought, never even left the boundaries of home. Most days, he felt forgotten, untested, while trailing behind everyone else. Whenever he voiced any of this, his parents would offer their gentle reassurances.
It's no rush.
You'll figure it out.
We love you no matter what.
Life isn't a race.
Maybe they were right. But everyone else seemed to be racing anyway, and the more he noticed it, the more exposed he felt. His peers were leagues ahead, while he was still at the starting line trying not to look lost. The guilt made him restless, but he did his best to ignore it.
"Alright, don't go missing me too much," Yelp called, already turning away.
His parents would wave acknowledgment and continue their conversation
Yelp padded into the trees, the hum of voices fading behind him until only birdsong and the gentle rustle of leaves remained. He found a quiet pool nestled in the roots and bent for a drink.
One lap.Two.Thre--
Huh?
The texture of hard earth changed underpaw, causing a sinking sensation. Grass became wet sand, and the cool forest air was replaced with something briney and warm. The quiet pool’s hush exploded into crashing waters.
My mouth--
"...BLEGHKK-KK!!!" Yelp spat a mouthful of seawater, coughing as he scrambled back, tongue flailing all around. "PTUH! GAHHH! WHAT the hell?!" He swiped at his tongue with a paw, only succeeding in working sand deeper into his mouth."What the HELL?!"
Green eyes darted everywhere. no trees, no fields, no familiar scents. Just endless blue water, strange birds overhead, and a place that looked all wrong. His ears pinned back as he tried to slow his breathing. "...What. the. hell..." The words came out smaller this time. He turned in place, heart pounding so loud, staring at the alien horizon like he could will the forest back somehow.
"...What..."
Panic finally burst free.
"WHAT THE HELL?!"
RE: New Life New World - Gemini - 7/6/2026
"You're doing the face again," said Dove, flopping down beside her in a heap of legs and burrs. Dove was young enough to think everyone's business was hers, which Gemini found tiresome and also a little dear, if she was being honest. "The far-away face. Bracken says you'll do it when you're planning to leave us."
"Bracken says a lot of things. Bracken once told me a badger cursed his grandmother."
"It did," Bracken rumbled from across the hollow, not lifting his nose from whatever he was fussing over in the leaf litter. He was an old lout of a wolf, grey to the gums, and he treated every camp like a den he'd owned for years. "Died with mange and a bad temper, didn't she? Curse."
"That's just being a grandmother," said Alder, who was watching the treeline. He was the sort who slept with one ear cocked and never told a single joke the entire time Gemini had traveled with him—which was long enough to assess him a chronic bore. The closest he'd come was when Gemini had tried reading his pads once, a moon ago, and he'd let her hold his paw for a full minute before saying, flat as slate, "It says I don't believe in this." She'd laughed so hard she'd choked.
Three moons she'd traveled with this troop. Longer than most. Long enough that Dove had started sleeping against her flank and Alder had stopped counting his cache of pretty stones when she walked past, which was foolish of him, because there was a snail shell in that cache with a whorl like a curled fern and it was going to be hers eventually.
But Dove and Braken were right. That the leaving-itch had crept back in under her skin. They were almost to their destination: a bustling trade hub on the far coast. The perfect place for Gemini to continue her search and bid a fond farewell to her new friends.
"HA." Bracken reared back from the leaf litter like he'd unearthed a king's leg bone. "Ha! Come see. Come see and be humbled."
Dove got there first. "It's... weeds."
"It is silverleaf, you unlettered pup. Dried on the stem, sweet as a spring morning, and not a spot of rot on it." The old wolf was near trembling. He had one true love in this world and it was steeping plants in warm water and forcing everyone to pretend to enjoy it. "Do you know how rare this is, this far north? Do you? A find like this wants brewing! All I need is water and a sun-warmed stone."
"The creek's a fair walk," Alder said, in the tone of a wolf who was not going to be the one walking it.
"I'll go," said Gemini.
She said it fast. Gemini was usually the first to volunteer, the same way she was first to fetch and first to scout and first to carry messages between camps. An errand was a door left open, and a wolf who ran errands was a wolf nobody chained down. Generosity with an exit built into it. Her whole life, more or less.
"See how she serves her elders?" Bracken said grandly to Dove.
Gemini was already trotting, laughing as she left. Under her breath she hummed as she made her way towards the trickling sound of the creek somewhere ahead through the birches.
She followed and followed and followed. Strange, she didn't remember the creek being this far out of camp.
She stopped. Cocked her head. The water sounded near, then far, then to her left where the ground rose. Her hackles stirred as a strange feeling crept up her spine, and she turned to mark her backtrail.
There was no backtrail. There were no birches. But there was mist, thick and sweet-smelling, and under her paws the ground had gone from loam to cool sand that gave easily under her paws. The sound she'd been chasing wasn't a creek at all. It was surf.
"Ah," she said to no one. "That's a new one. Bracken…? Dove…?"
Her calls went unanswered, which wasn't surprising. It wasn't even the same time of day. Evening had begun to set in when they stopped for the night, but now it was hot and so sunny that she had to squint against the glare of it off the sand. Gulls squalled overhead, replacing the gentle birdsong of the clearing she'd just been in.
Behind her, foreign trees and rocks. Before her, dark water to the world's edge. Wet sand in her fur, so perhaps she'd washed up; she had no memory of swimming. For a long moment, she looked around, frowning, ears swiveling. How did she get here? Was this the coastline they were headed for, and she somehow forgot the rest of the trip? No, it should have been a hub bustling with wolves, and there was no one here.
Wait, there was one wolf here—a scruffy youngster who promptly shouted: "WHAT THE HELL?!"
My thoughts exactly.
Giving herself a quick shake, she trotted up the beach towards the bi-colored yearling. He reminded her of herself, only instead of his colors being split bilaterally, it was as though whatever gods had created him had simply stopped coloring him halfway down.
"Hello?" She called out as she approached, her hesitance clear in her voice.
RE: New Life New World - Marall - 7/6/2026
The swamp released her with one final squelch of mud.
Möngön!Maral called, her voice carrying across the unfamiliar landscape.
Möngön!
There was no answering whinny.
Her brows knit with worry as she stepped from tangled reeds onto blinding white sand, blinking against the afternoon sun. Salt hung thick in the air, the endless sea glittering before her like polished glass. This was no marsh she had ever crossed, nor any coast she remembered from the steppe. The warmth was foreign. The palms stranger still.
Möngön...she called again, quieter this time, amber eyes searching the shoreline.
Nothing.
Only crashing waves... and voices? The widow turned toward them at once.
Two wolves stood farther down the beach, both clearly as bewildered as she felt. One young male was sputtering and shouting at the ocean itself, while the other—an older she-wolf with an observant gaze—had approached him with cautious curiosity. Their words reached Maral clearly.
Common.
Relief loosened the knot in her chest, they were not han. At least, she assumed they weren't.
She approached at an easy pace, careful not to startle them. Her feathered tail hung low in a peaceful posture, ears forward, concern softening her already gentle features. Damp earth still clung to her paws and lower legs, carrying the scent of marsh water into the salty breeze.
Excuse me...she called softly, stopping a respectful distance away.
Her amber eyes moved between the frightened youth and the older traveler, lingering on the panic written across the younger wolf's face.
Are you both alright?The question came instinctively, spoken with quiet sincerity rather than caution. Whatever strange place this was, it was obvious they were just as lost as she was. Maral offered them a small, reassuring smile, though it carried a melancholy that never quite left her eyes.
Gemini Yelp
RE: New Life New World - Yelp - 7/6/2026
The sound of a new voice caused him to jolt hard, his front paws sending an arch of sand skyward.
...Random lady.
The knot in his chest loosened somewhat.
"Oh thank God."
The words escaped him before he could even think. The relief at seeing another of his own kind was rather small, but another wolf meant he wasn't completely alone in... whatever this was. And other wolves meant help. Or something like that... He didn't stop to wonder whether approaching a stranger was wise or not. Yelp wasn't exactly wired to view other wolves as potential threats or beings to be wary of. Wolves were wolves. And every wolf he had ever interacted with was nice and helpful. So he figured even some random stranger would make no difference.
Yelp hurried toward her with quick, uneven strides, only slowing once he got close enough to really look. "...Whoa." His ears flicked forward. Her face was split, pale on one side, dark on the other, tiny pale flecks scattered across the black like stars. He'd never seen markings like that before. For one distracted second, the panic in his brain stalled.
Hey, that's kinda cool!
However, the thought was shoved away almost as quickly as it'd come, his green eyes now darting past her shoulder to scan the shoreline once more as if there was some kind of answer to be found there.
"So, like," he blurted, almost talking over himself, "I am so confused." He gestured one of his large forepaws wildly behind him toward the ocean. "I was in a forest, right? Grass. Nice little pond. Trees, it wasn’t hot as shit. I bend down for a drink—" As he prattled on, he mimed the action of bending down to take a sip of water, his brows pinched tightly as he worked through his jumbled mess of a story. "—and then suddenly..." He sat up and fanned a paw at the air. Everywhere, so to speak. "And now I got sand all up in my mouth. Why does the water taste like that? And where am--" Seeming to catch himself, Yelp cut his chatter off with a slight vocal hitch as his gaze traveled back to the stranger.
He didn’t get the chance to apologize for his word vomit before another voice, a gentle accented one, carried over the sound of rolling waves. Yelp’s ears flicked up and he turned to find another random lady standing just far enough away to be fully seen and heard, concern clear in her amber eyes.
The question, “Are you both alright?”, was simple and seemed honest, but the sincerity made Yelp pause for a moment and straighten up a little, drawing in a steady breath. Of course he was alright, right?
Maybe I need to get a grip...
His tail gave a weak wag as he tried to answer her gaze with something that looked assured.
“Yeah,” he said, a genuine attempt at bravery surfacing as he looked at one wolf to the other. “I’m good. Just uh, I think there are some things to figure out here?”