Bound by Blood

[Saosin]

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Autumn’s earthly breath was brisk in these subtle morning hours, a time when the light of the newly risen sun only softly caressed the contours of the world, painting it in subtle pastel colours. The landscape was lush, recovering quickly in the absence of the stark summer heat, and yet the trees remained mere skeletons of their former glory, displaying a wardrobe of scant leaves and burnt sienna starlets. The descent of those leaves had seemed to come early this year, for the summer months had sucked all the life out of the delicate emerald leaves. Those days were past now however, and the air even now spoke of distant months when winter would be upon the island of the moon once more, and the creatures who heralded unto the stars would know their true season once again.


Atarax had blossomed in this cool sultry air of fall. His pallid body was rather burly for his age, and though still young, even now displayed the features he would bare into adulthood. His eyes were that of an adventurer, mirroring a gentility instilled by that of his mother, as well as the nobility of his father. He was of quiet nature, always thoughtful, always pondering the unexplained and the unknown. Perhaps this is what caused him to gaze out over the rolling timbres from the highest outcrop of boulders he could find, seeking out the distant horizon inquisitively. Perhaps he sought out his missing mother, or the brother that had gone astray, perchance searching for her as well. One thing was certain however, though a churning welled within the pit of his stomach, not of hunger, but of need, a need to explore, to find adventure, he could never leave this majestic place. Though he looked to worlds beyond their own, he was bound to this forest clan, by blood, and by soul.

[Saosin]

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She abhorred his constant wondering usually, and though he did not truthfully implore her company, she felt as though it was needed. She fretted over the length of his little adventures, and worried as to the possibility of them getting lost, or into some sort of peril, and would be too far from the pack to rally for help. It worried her too, that far away look within his eyes as he looked into the distance, of places they knew not, of places beyond their pack’s home. She knew inwardly that he would not abandon his family, yet that did not mean that he would not leave some day, in search of the unknown which he so often spoke about, to find things which he did not understand. Such ideas he had, such stories he managed to conjure… Compared other brother, she was a simple wolf, a solitary wolf, who did not crave the limelight, nor the attention of others. She found solace in the solitude of the trees, and often walked the elderly pathways through the forest, as if absorbing the archaic knowledge lent to the wind by the aging trees. She never strayed far though, from the den site and the cautious eyes of her father who watched in their wake with much worry, and much love. These past weeks had had been even more agitated, no doubt by the absence of their mother, and she had felt nearly claustrophobic with his presence, and so had willingly accompanied her brother upon his most recent escapade.


The soil was subtle beneath their pads as they cavorted through the timbers, and soon those pads found purchase upon hard cool limestone in the form of bulbous boulders reaching out from the side of the mountain. She felt willowy and uncertain upon such heights and wished once more for the stability of the forest floor. Never the less she followed Atarax to the pinnacle of this place, and stood in awe of the view from this standpoint. The trees seemed to move like ocean waves in synchronization as the breeze enveloped them. Birds danced across the canopy like squirrels across the forest floor. This was a completely new atmosphere then below the boughs of limbs and found herself speechless.