Sleep, Child

[Mikayla (back <3)]

Sweat poured in silky wet lines down tanned skin, tossing only spreading strands all over a fit, thin, and slightly muscular body. Clothed in nothing from head to toe, the girl had spent the night a near-by forest after having eaten her late meal. The forest should have been a reprieve as it ran through her blood like liquid fire, yet here she was rolling about a pile of grass and leaves, salty sweat tickling her. She awoke with a start, sitting forward and gasping as if she had been below water. And then, perhaps she had...

Mikayla's bright blue eyes shot open, looking about her for whateveer danger had raised the hairs on her arms. She sniffed the air, cataloguing the scents from trees to small animals. There, in the distance, was the heavy scent of decay, death. She got up on shakey legs, stumbling into the graveyard, not caring that she was unclothed. Someone might care, a reasonable part of her frightened mind mentioned, and Mikayla, listening, changed to wolf form. Her body, muscles, bones, structures morphed into that of a wolf, and she went forward once more. The first thing she saw was a stone tablet of sorts jutting from the ground. Then she noticed a few more, and more yet until her mind could realize where she was. A graveyard. Which may have accounted for her dreams of drowning in blood, being buried alive. The scent of death was not exactly lavender to dreams, especially to imaginitive little minds.

A whuffle-whine escaped the brown wolf's muzzle as it crept through the graveyard. She would have to remember this place and never return again. The retch-worth smell of dead bodies rotting had the wolf sneezing every few moments, trying to remove the lingering scent from its delicate nostrils. Hearing a noise, the wolf froze, turning a slow circle while watching the darkness. The question running through her mind in that moment was: pretend to be a roaming wolf, or let the possible predator know how very much more dangerous she was. She decided to wait it out, see the predator, then put her teeth on display.

[† Cealla †]

It had become a bit of a ritual for her.

The moon was close to full as the pup padded along the path from the Tunnels to the Graveyard, silent as a night shadow with a pelt to match. In her mouth she carried a bouqet of white lillies, which was the only thing besides her blue eyes that really stuck out in the total darkness. She knew the way to the graveyard almost by instinct now, so she hardly cared how dark out it was.

Xavier must think that she was just such a spoiled little brat. Deep down inside, she really did care what he thought and wished that he wouldn't try so many things so soon. Was she not allowed any time to mourn? To say goodbye? It was like he didn't care some days, just inviting lycans in like it was an open house. But no. It wasn't. It never would be, at least not to her.

Nudging the graveyard front gate open with her muzzle, she trotted in and then cast a wary glance around. At this hour of the night, she doubted that many students would be in the graveyard, so she had nothing to worry about. Her paws led her over to a grave in the way back, far away from all the others and resting under a small willow tree.

Inscribed upon a small piece of marble was an epitaph, one for Amelia. Daughter, Wife, Mother, who died not more than a month ago. The grave still wasn't completely covered with grass, merely amplifying the fact that it was fresh. Sighing, she laid the lillies down and carefully arranged them, not caring about the being that she sensed lurking not far away.

ooc: Muse died near the end... but it works.

[Mikayla (back <3)]

Mikayla continued her search for predator or prey, looking about her while scenting the wind. It wasn't long before a new lycan's scent wafted to her sensitive nose, and Mikayla breathed a soft sigh even in wolf form. It was the girl...the one that hated her. Hated was a strong word to use, but it was correct in the context. The girl had some mixed up idea that Mikayla was taking over the tunnels or stealing her grandfather or doing something, and nothing she did could change the girl's way of thinking. She resigned herself to rejection and padded forward on soft paws, towards the girl, who was in wolf form. Beside the pup was a tombstone, presumably someone the pup knew.

Electric blue gaze carefully neutral, Mikayla slowly, easily moved towards the pup, then sat on her haunches, watching Cealla. "Good eve, Cealla," her voice was a soft, soothing wind in the middle of a horrible nightmare, the same smooth voice she held aloud. "How are you, Child?" The question was stated with some level of concern in the wolf's gaze, a simple glow to the eyes and pricking forward of the ears. Cealla was in pain, anyone could see that. Then, emotional wounds were the destroyer, the end-all, the final battle to corrupt and exploit an innocent mind. How very well Mikayla knew that. She just wished that Cealla would realize they were on the same side of a loosing battle, comrades even as the ship sank and they met their fate.

Mikayla scented the area from habit, almost a protective gesture, assuming responsibility for the lone lycan. Not that the Child truly needed any help in that sense, but one never knew, and Mikayla was the kind to sacrafice her own life for one she didn't know. A character flaw rather than anything else, to be sure, but that was who she was, dominant even as she gave the final judgement over to another wolf, in this case, Cealla.

[† Cealla †]

She could smell Mikayla's scent wafting through the air and watched her approach, yet did nothing. Contrary to what previous moods might have ordered her to do, she just stood there and watched the lycaness with careful eyes. So, what was she doing here? It seemed like everywhere the pup went or tried to get some peace, she was always running into her. And now she had just been trying to give a small gift to her mother, yet had been "caught", in a sense. Maybe a month ago she might have been fearful over being out late at night, but now she wasn't.

Swishing her tail, she placed it delicately over the gravestone as she sat down. It was her secret, in a way. She didn't want Mikalya's pity. She didn't want anyone's pity. It wouldn't bring her mother back, would it? No. It wouldn't; even she knew that. She didn't want the sad looks, the gossip about how she was such a poor little puppy. If she had wanted pity, she would have been crying and cuddling up to everyone stupid enough to listen to such moaning.

'I'm fine.' She replied, her tone merely casual and not menacing in the least. 'And you? Why are you here?' A bit of investigating certainly wouldn't hurt, after all. It was late at night; not many humans or beasts were out at such hours. And if the girl attended the school, that probably meant she was breaking curfew.

Sighing with something that might be boredom, the scent of the fresh flowers filled her nostrils with every breath she took. It smelled so beautiful, like something out of a fairy tale from when she was small. Sweet, yet stinging the fall air like a knife. Why couldn't she be more like the flowers? More peaceful, prettier, more like her mother. More like Sealla.

[Mikayla (back <3)]

Mikayla watched the she-wolf child pay respects to the grave, then look up with blue eyes to rival her own. Their eyes met, and Cealla answered her, kindly no less. She relaxed a bit, allowing her shoulders to ease from their run-for-your-life position. She noticed something else as well, where the child seemed to gain comfort from the graveyard, she only gained a weariness. Perchance from the haunting ghosts? Mikayla prayed she would never know, because by then she was sure whatever hell Cealla was living in would only be that much worse.

"I am fine, thank you for asking," Mikayla murmured politely. Her eyes drifted to land on the trees, wondering if there was some life, something far into the woods, watching them. It did not bode well with her. After all, it hadn't been that long since she broke her arm, scared whitless by the ghouls. "Definately not here for the sense of comfort," she answered the wolf pup with a shift of her paws. "I was sleeping when the scent of decay brought me nightmares. I came to see just what had given me such horrid painful dreams."

Mikayla tore her gaze back from the forests, looking once more into the so-blue gaze of Cealla. "And you? Why are you here this evening?" She had a strong urge to tell the wolf pup that it wasn't safe to be out so late. That the grounds of Horizons was incredibly dangerous during the day, let alone the night. Staring at those eyes, however, Mikayla knew that if she spoke a single word of danger to Cealla, the wolf pup would show her disdain and walk away.

[† Cealla †]

Her overall posture was relaxed and as natural as if the pair were sitting around the lake, for Cealla didn't feel like she had anything to fear from the night. The night meant safety, something that could cloak her and hide her from everything that went on around her. Out of all the tormoil, the night was the only thing that could offer her the proper cover, the proper protection from being seen. She could disappear into it and nobody would even notice- that was a power she enjoyed wielding.

'Why do you fear this place so much?' She replied, a calm feeling drifting on her voice. Her tail flicked idly back and forth as though she were a cat sitting in front of a fireplace, content with a blow of milk and a warm hearth. Her blue eyes occasionally scanned over the row of trees near the forest, not feeling the fact that danger could be upon them in an instant. It did not worry her in the least.

'I was simply paying my respects to the dead lycans of our pack.' She stated very simply, casting another glance at the flowers. 'Some choose to be buried here, away from the student graves, since this is the only graveyard near to the pack.' It was almost ironic, in a way, the respect that the young lycaness held for her own dead mother. It was respect unrivaled by death, something that she could never replace.

[Mikayla (back <3)]

Mikayla stared at the girl through new eyes. Perhaps what had brought her nightmares had brought Cealla peace. The difference between a painful upraising and a loving one, Mikayla thought. "I find no comfort here, young Cealla, because when the vampires burnt my own home to the ground the scent of decay and ash brought me to my knees. I had not loved anyone there, so instead of being watched over by them I was haunted, hunted down by their spirits and tormented to no end. The smell here, the smell under the ground....it is not nearly as bad, but a reminder of sorts."

Mikayla lay forward with a whuffle-whine, tired muscles protesting their lack of rest for so long. "Then there is the forest here to be feared. The monsters of the night. I have had more than my fair share of those as well." She began to clean her paw, anything to distract her from the dark forest and that choking odor of death. Her eyes rolled up to watch Cealla, the deep blue glittering with interest as she considered what the wolf pup said.

"It is good of you to visit your dead," Mikayla's voice held an edge of a smile to it, the facial expression she could not give while surrounded by such horrors. "And good of you all to bury them where they wished to lay for all eternity." It would be so easy, so simple to just sleep for the rest of time. To never breath again, never squint eyes at the sun, never utter a cry of triumph, pain, or joy. Never to be again. "Are you hungry, Cealla?" she asked, reigning her wandering mind in. "I'm sure we could find some small meal about the woods."

[† Cealla †]

The wolf pup's own mind had begun to wander, having lost intrest in the graveyard. She had done what she thought to be her duty, considering that her father wasn't around to leave flowers at his own love's grave. And so she contented herself to doing the task, though she hardly found it to be that much trouble. It helped her to accept things a bit more, to come to the realization that those who were dead, were dead. There was no coming back from death- it was like a grip that you couldn't escape.

'I think some food might be nice.' She replied, placing her nose in the air and taking a good, long whiff. There were a few rabbits around, as well as some larger deer. Deer was one thing that Cealla was certain she couldn't hunt- she still depended on Xavier to catch her most kinds of larger prey. Rabbits were a bit more managable, but she didn't want to just go darting off.

'There's rabbit around here.' She stated rather simply, getting up from the gravestone and shaking her pelt to rid it of the leaves. Her stomach suddenly growled, reminding her of exactly how hungry she had gotten. She hadn't eaten since breakfast time, since she enjoyed a nap that lasted right through lunch.

[Mikayla (back <3)]

"Sounds good to me." Mikayla stood and stretched, haunch high in the air as one paw went out, then the other. She lifted her head high and took a deep breath, smelling the rabbits Cealla had spoken of out in the woods to the east. As she lowered her head, Mika spoke out once more to Cealla. "I'd rather hunt seperate. I smell a few to the east and a few just behind them, so I'll go around the back to snag the laggers, you can take as many as you'd like from the front."

Mikayla turned, shook her entire body out like one intense whip, and bounded off, deathly silent in the night forest. Her strides were long and even, taking her past the rabbits in just over thirty seconds. She doubled back, watching one particularly fat bunny hop along. The rabbit stopped, nose twitching, then glanced in Mika's direction. Now or never, she murmured and flew from the brush to land, skidding on the other side of the rabbit. Just as she had predicted the rabbit ran from the original direction something came hurtling at her-right into Mikayla's waiting paws. She clamped on the frightened rabbit's neck with dangerously sharp teeth and twisted her head rapidly, a sick snap issueing from the neck.

Prize found and set, Mikayla sauntered back within feet of the gravyard, waiting for the young lycan pup to return. As she waited, she idely ripped patches of fur off, readying it for their meal, but politely awaiting Cealla's return first before digging in.