A Break in the Clouds

The air was still, almost <i>too</i> still. Even for a fine summer's day in these woods, the birdsong was a bit absent, and the critters were quite still. It was almost as if everything was waiting for something to happen.

An odor slowly filled the air, wafting throughout the entire Shining Woods, a stinky, sulfurous odor. It was stinging to most delicate noses and the weight of it in the air would even cause eyes to water uncontrollably should they be sensitive to such things. This scent hung in the air for some time and then there was a sudden gust of winds from above, as if the clouds were shoving air downwards, the tops of some of the smaller trees flattening a bit.

Suddenly, in the sky, wisps of clouds seemed to part and something could be seen. It was quite large, several wolflengths long and wide, and in a strange triangular shape. It glinted sort of silvery in the light, throwing down shining spots of reflection to the ground below. It skimmed the tops of the tallest trees as it began to move to the north, with a slow sort of deliberance. A strange sound of rushing wind could be heard from it time to time as it crept through the sky.

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As Peryas traveled along the edge of the forest, she felt on edge. Something was wrong... She turned her antlered head to the bright trees. There wasn't enough movement or sound. Her nose twitched at an unidentified, faint smell. It wound its way closer to the outskirts of woods and she wrinkled her snout. It was strange and very unpleasant. It was getting stronger and she took a few steps back from the trees. Good grief, that was awful. She took another step back as the foulness burned her nose and caused her eyes to water. With an instinctive whimper, she lay down, clenched her eyes shut, and covered her nose with her paws in a feeble attempt to block it out.

A sudden gust of wind whooshed through the air, across her long fur, but the foul scent still remained. Her stomach began to cringe and rumble about it. The wind felt and sounded incredibly strong, so she squinted her eyes open. She was given the brief impression of trees bending to the force before all of the air blowing into her eyes, despite her paws halfway shielding them, forced them closed.

She lay there, wondering when it would end, or even if it would end. Maybe it would be best if she just escaped before the scent made her vomit. The di'shei had just finished this thought when she heard something, past the rushing wind and the bending branches. Her ears twitched as it seemed to come closer and she chanced another look, this time looking sideways so her eyes weren't in the immediate way of the wind. There didn't seem to be anything, except... There was something glinting in the sky, and it seemed to be getting closer. ...What?

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With Ikanzi safe in Alfheimr lands, the Shining Woods was at risk of being taken. Resin made it a point to patrol and mark their borders. Even though it wasn't their scent, the scent of such a large wolf should ward off any trespassers that may get the idea in their heads to claim the land. As she marked the borders, a sickly wind began to blow. It felt..strange. Something was off and she couldn't explain exactly what it was. Casting her gaze to the sky, she watched as it's color shifted from clear blue to bruised and nasty.

Feeling as though this wasn't a good place to be, Resin couldn't help but hunker down a bit as she moved away from the area. The giant Lerk moved into a lope, but even if she'd run full out, she wouldn't have been able to outrun the wind that chased her. A stench unlike any other engulfed her, making her steps falter. The grey and black female coughed and choked.

She had to get away from this or she felt as though she would choke to death. The smell was... deafening. It vanquished all of her other senses with its intensity. Throwing her weight into her paws, she ran. She ran and ran... yellow eyes closed tight against the burning stink. She was running... and then she was flying. Something large in her path had tripped her up. The big wolf landed with a thud, her fathomless yellow eyes opening wide as the air was knocked from her. Unfortunately, she was forced to inhale the disgusting air in giant gulps. She coughed and sputtered with the lack of oxygen, but once she had enough, her gaze focused on that which she'd tripped over. "Peryas?" Resin questioned through a cough.

And then she saw the glowing shape in the sky. What... in the seven hells was that?

<i>ooc: More players still welcome, moving along for plot!</i>

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Shining speckles flashed across the woods, illuminating certain areas as the metal of the strange triangular thing in the air reflected the sun back upon the ground below. It shone in the eyes of many creatures that were still sneaking about in the underbrush, attempting to flee the area. The object was higher than the tallest tree of the forest, large enough to obscure a large portion of the sky, and it was ominous in that way, seeming if no wolf could really affect it. It steadily moved towards the north, a strange whirring and whooshing sound able to be heard and small hisses from time to time as it seemed to adjust position in small increments.

Suddenly, a hole opened in it's exterior and a small circular object was spat out into the air. It too, was a silvery metallic, and in the shape of an orb with one red glowing "eye" in the middle. It whirled about and then steadied itself only a few wolflengths from the ground, turning and "looking" with the red glowing eye as if searching for something.

<i>A random event has occurred that might hold significance to the lands of Sverige!</i>

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Peryas's squinted eye followed a sudden ray of light from the sky to the ground, lighting the already bright trees. From the corner of her eye, she saw more movement, but as she turned her head toward it, something smacked into her lowered body and rolled the other way. The air was knocked out of her and she gasped, but immediately regretted it as the scent folded her nose. Argh! She snorted the air out as fast as she could and tried to take shallow breaths.

It was only after she'd handled the unwanted inhalation that the di'shei noticed the coughing and spluttering nearby. It must have been whatever ran into her, but she was trying to ignore her nose so much that she wasn't going to use that to identify anyone. Maybe if she buried her nose in their fur, it would be bearable. She was suddenly filled with the urge to do just that and drown out the stench, but no, that would just be wrong.

Fortunately, the other wolf spoke her name, in a voice she recognized from somewhere. Peryas opened her watery eyes to see Resin, who seemed to be suffering from the same awful conditions. They sure were unlucky, to be around under these horrible conditions. She buried her nose under her ineffective paws again.

"Hello, Resin." She was about to say she probably was going to run away when she noticed Resin's gaze. She looked over in that direction again, narrowing her eyes against the wind. There was that thing bright in the sky, but it was larger than she thought it had been. It was intimidating and of a strange, pointed, triangular shape. Somehow, it seemed to be moving, but it had no flapping wings to propel it. She turned her head back to Resin for a brief break from the smell blowing into her nose in great, fierce gusts.

When she looked back, something small had fallen out. Was it like a seagull, depositing its guano midair? No. Guano didn't levitate, with a glowing red something-or-other in the center. Peryas stood up, filled with a sense of foreboding. She had a horrible sense for danger, but she knew dangerous things were afoot. Even her great sense of curiosity wasn't enough to drive her toward these floating, glittering things that were preceded by the foulest scent imaginable. She took a step back, around Resin. Her single open eye didn't dare ignore the red-silver sphere.

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( XD To good to pass up for a Riddle post! )

Riddle had been in the Shining woods only for a short while, he found nothing interesting; the place was ugly and looked like the Giant rat missing its fur in patches as sun and shadow seemed to trade places every few steps. He had been intent on finding other wolves but he missed the two nearby as his head not looking down, but up as he trotted steadily after the thing in the sky. Shiny, was all he could think of as he watched the large thing. The sound it was making wasn’t pleasant though, but Riddle wanted to see it; but it was just so high!

He had followed it for a while, only now was he glad of the very little underbrush to block him and the fact that the trees had stripes so he could easily spot them looking up or not. He came to halt as it shown extra bright and he watched mesmerized. He watched the sun move across the ground, amazed. What was the shiny thing, a flying rock? Oh was it a rock; a new rock! He tried standing on his hind legs but fell back over; it wasn’t something he could do. He realized the sun was gone, all but the moving bit; the thing was blocking it. As he watched the thing above he saw black, then something fell from it.

“Are you hurt something shiny rock,” he called after it only to become delight as that little piece went down. Racing toward it he slowed down as he watched it move; it had a red eye but only one. Ears swiveling he got closer and realized as he did that it wasn’t on the ground it was flying? Riddle bobbed his head looking for the wings on the thing but couldn't see any. Sniffing the ground around the metal thing he didn’t find any interesting smell, and the thing was too high to lick! “Shiny thing come here shiny! I want you, be a good shiny something won’t you?” He tilted his head as he stopped moving for just a second.

He still wasn’t very close to it, close enough he could clearly see it and wondered if it could see him just as well with only one eye; but he couldn’t touch the thing even if he had wings stretched out all the way or a really long tail. “Shiny something come play,” he did a small play bow tail wagging. It was moving, moving meant alive so maybe not a rock, not a wolf or gripe seal; not a fish or rabbit. What was shiny and had a red eye? He could smell it now, an alien something; but that odd smell making his nose burn and itch didn’t stop him from wanting to lick the shiny and see what it tasted like.

As the large silvered thing slowly crawled across the sky, casting it's large shadow down, a large wind continued to kick up in it's wake. It blew against the tops of the tallest trees, scattering even the new leaves down to the grounds. In it's wake it also left it's abnormal stench, the stench of sulfur, a dark sort of murky stench that clung to the nasal passages. All in all it was a rather unpleasant thing to the forest, and all around were the echoes of the rustlings of the leaves that made it clear that all the other residents of this area of the forest had fled.

The spherical object that had fallen from the larger object seemed to spin around in the air high above the wolves' heads for a few moments. It gave off it's own buzzing noise, that sounded rather like a <i>Zzzrrrrppp!</i> every few seconds as it's one red eye looked here and there, seeming to be looking for something to focus on. At the sudden motion of Peryas, the horns of the wolf catching it's attention, it zipped over towards him at a rapid pace, and would stop just short, a red illumination coming from it's circular eye, pointing at the di'shei's antlers.

<i>A random event has occurred that might hold significance to the lands of Sverige!</i>

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Peryas's still head jerked as she was startled by the sound of another wolf. He seemed to be talking to the sphere, calling it a shiny thing and not really noticing the other wolves. Then the silver thing moved. It had been making a buzzing-like noise, sort of like a hive of bees or wasps, with its red thing going everywhere. It stopped, though, and zoomed over to the cream-colored female. She froze, the talking wolf completely forgotten at the red glow that came from it, right in front of her golden crown.

She was not a wolf to be scared easily. She had recklessly followed those humans in what was admittedly a stupid move. Yet this thing was completely different. It was not a herd of strangely shaped creatures in a strange land. It was an unnatural floating thing that seemed to be staring at her. It had been preceded by something that was threatening to heave out her last meal and came from something she'd never even heard of before.

She raised her open eye to stare at the silver item, but the watery orb closed as the fierce gale seemed to come closer, as if with the glinting sky item. The scent, too, seemed to be getting stronger. Her shallow, inaudible breaths did nothing to mitigate the overwhelming stench. Oh, it was so much worse than that swamp. Even a decaying carcass, rotting and covered in waste in the worst part of that marsh couldn't make her as nauseous as the strangeness. Her stomach churned and her nose burned. She almost turned and ran, but the thing above her kept her rooted to the spot.

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Through his lifetimes of experience, Singed could not place a worse scent than that which descended below the sparse canopy today. He was sure that there had to have been one, but for now, he was content to walk carefully, with his ears back, his red eyes squinted and with sparing breaths taken through his mouth with his muzzle dipped to his chest fur. With his sense of smell effectively disabled, Singed was not quite prepared for company, however as he approached where the horrid stench was thickest he managed to contort his face into a worried and halfhearted smile, mouth slightly open as he was unwilling to take in air through his more sensitive nose.

"Oh, hello there. Please excuse my intrusion but does anyone know what's causing these unfortunate miasmas?" he asked, not wishing to waste breath on dancing around the question as he normally would and crimson orbs burning too much to focus on any one wolf for any length of time. Still he glanced at the smaller so far unidentified floating object. The tall, painfully thin azahi approached the sphere and stopped a few lengths away, acknowledging Peryas and the object's seeming interest in the stranger's antlers. "And what is this? If you don't mind me asking."

Riddle felt his little heart break as the shiny rock didn’t want to play. What is with things not wanting to play with him! He sat down sullenly his tail flicking back and forth erratically. Sure he had only asked the one Ubeli but still, one was a lot; wasn’t it? He heard a voice and turned to look, realizing there was quite a few wolves around. Oh. Perking up somewhat, Riddle watched the shiny move around before settling on the gold wolf with the funny branches out of his head.

He had never seen a deer and wouldn’t think to place a tree branch on any animals head. He wrinkled his nose then rubbed it along his leg to try and get the tingling to stop. The smell wasn’t really pleasant, he decided as his nose refused to stop itching. Still the little shiny settled over the gold wolf and he watched to see what would happen. Looking over the black wolf he shifted but didn’t move toward the male. He had thought the orange one was dull; this one was just; black with some white. He was quiet sure the none Ubeli black one was talking to the funny gold anyway. Least the gold one was shiny.

Shiny wolf, he wondered if he could name him, he missed his rock. He was sure it was yellow, maybe. “Shiny why won’t you play,” he cried his nose lifting up as he howled. Finished with his tantrum he flopped down flat so he could watch. Maybe it was better shiny didn’t like him, maybe it ate wolves. Did something eat wolves, gripe seals sort of did. Shiny funny smelling floating gripe seal, well maybe not. Gripe seal as far as he had seen didn’t float either. Unless they were hiding it, taking wolves unaware, sneaky Gripe seals!