Life with Koda: Cont'd

[Nikiski]

Sila tells me to lie down... I can tell she is trying to sound like she is not concerning about me... but... I smile and lie down...

Then Sila asks me a series of questions...

"How could you run from a...cub?! I mean, I've got bitten by cubs before--and I was able to get a piece of them!"

"Well... it's hard to explain..."

"Uhm...what was with that cub anyway? Was he Ken'ichi's evil twin, or something?"

"Well you got it quite right there, Sila... the spirits told me that it is Ken'ichi's darksoul... and it is formed due to an accident when I used the prism to purify Ken'ichi... anyways a part of his hatred materalized and... forms this darksoul... and when I first slashed the darksoul, Ken'ichi yells in pain... and they are somehow connected... that I cannot attack him physically..."

[Chasca]

Oookay. I wasn't expecting one of my sarcastic remarks to be right. My mouth is agape and eyes wide in shock and confusion. Well, I get it...but I don't really want to get it. These past few days have been excercising my mind more than my life has, and I'm tired of it. I mean, spirits...yes. I get them. But...a darksoul?! Can that actually happen?

I manage to quickly go back to looking calm, and reply. almost boredly, "Oh. So...will it come back?"

[Nertuark]

I keep jumping on the wolf until he finally gets up...

"C'mon, Ken'ichi is hurt!"

I keep repeating until he FINALLY gets into a stand position...

"...Ken'ichi..." the wolf says.

I follow him to where Ken'ichi is, and he takes out a translucent red looking thing... I jump and jump but I still can't see what he's holding... He tells me to stand aside...

"What were you doing when you bit the string laced around your neck and let the prism fall to the ground?"

Then he tells me what I'm about to see will amaze me even further, so I stand aside and watch...

"Whoa!"

"Before I do anything more, what is your name?"

"My name is Nertuark!"

Then the wolf (now fox) breaks the prism and the piece flies towards Ken'ichi... then, after a while... Ken'ichi roars so loud that the cave almost collapse! I cover my ears... and then I see Ken'ichi with his eye opened... He's awake and OK!!!

"Ken'ichi!"

I run along with Koda towards Ken'ichi. I jump on him and start licking him. I'm glad he is OK!

-- TO BE CONTINUED --

[Nikiski]

"Oh. So...will it come back?" Sila asks.

"Hhm... well... I hope not... but it doesn't look like it is giving up on Ken'ichi's heart..."

I look towards Ken'ichi... thinking what I can do to protect my little brother... but... if the spirits says to me... we have to use both of our power...

"So... Sila... where is Nertuark?"

I ask Sila, just to make sure everyone is safe... I don't think I want to lose any of my friends...

[Chasca]

I feel a shot of pain when I hear the way Nikiski speaks of Ken'ichi. I mean...despite it all being very high on the weirdness factor, I hope nothing happens to either of them...for their sake.

"Huh, Nertuark?" I reply to his question. Where is Nertuark? Giving a bored shrug, I reply, "Don't know, don't care."

Okay...so that's not entirely true. But I'm sure he's safe...he doesn't really seem like the kind to go looking for trouble, anyway. Or else I'd be following him everywhere...I care too much about the possibility of a pack to have it all thrown away. "Probably playing in the river somewhere, or something..." I add, even though I don't have any idea.

I sigh. "For brothers you two sure have to go through a lot, don't you?" I say...but then notice that that's SO out of character for me. "Well...it will probably take a bit longer, but you'll be able to walk soon enough..." I add quickly, looking away.

"Those crystals are more trouble than they're worth..." I mutter, looking at the two. The crystals, after all, are the reason that now we have an indestructible enemy around us at all times. At least you can kill a hunter. But since Ken'ichi's around...I don't want to really ask Nikiski about Ken'ichi's...darksoul or whatever. I dunno...despite his explanation it's still above me.

"So uh...how are you feeling yet?" I ask. Stupid, yes, but it's one way to stick off the subject for now.

[Nikiski]

"Huh, Nertuark?" Sila says as she shrugs, "Don't know, don't care. Probably playing in the river somewhere, or something..."

I look around... well... Nertuark is having fun in the shallow water, playing with flopping salmons... I smile and Sila continues.

"For brothers you two sure have to go through a lot, don't you?"

That makes me think... yes indeed we did... basically since the first day I met Ken'ichi... we went through a lot of things together. Before I can give an answer, Sila changes the subject...

"Well...it will probably take a bit longer, but you'll be able to walk soon enough..."

Sila looks away as she says.

"Those crystals are more trouble than they're worth..."

"Well... you'll never know what it comes out to in the end... it might turn out to be something good?"

Sila changes the subject again... "So uh...how are you feeling yet?"

"I'm feeling ok..."

I lift the piece of salmon up a little, looks like it has stopped bleeding...

[Sioul]

OOC: My brother will be posting for me. I’ll just supervise. Warning. Quite long. Very sorry for the inconvenience. Just blame it on Truttle.

BIC: After having helped that wolf pup, I ventured to do some exploring around the woods. With utmost eagerness I ran through a deep part of the forest. Going very far from the salmon run. I stopped to take a look at my new surroundings. I smelled moist earth, rich leaves, and pungent moss-encrusted bark. All around me, birds sang, squirrels played and insects buzzed. I was totally content standing here. But it didn’t last long as I heard a low growling. I turned around to see a set of eyes looking at me from the bushes. I begin to back away slowly as a saber tooth tiger began stalking me with an intent to kill. I quickly turned and ran. The tiger ran after me roaring in hunger and rage. I could feel the tiger quickly catching up to me as I kept running. My face brushed against leaves curtain of leaves that whipped my face aligned in my path. Quickly, I pushed through an opening. Suddenly, the ground tilted violently. With a shrill cry, I was sliding down a sharp incline. Bushes lining the hill whipped up in front of me and snapped as I struck them. My body tumbled end over end, and I felt every bruising, jarring impact. Finally, I skidded toward the base of the incline. I flipped over one more time, onto my back. A cloud of dirt rose up as rocks and debris scattered down around me. I cringed from the scratches I got but remembered the tiger. I look up at the tiger to see it scanning the incline. It seemed that I bought myself some time but I don’t think he’ll give up that easily. I forced myself up and continued to run. I came to a halt as I reached a river with a strong current running trough it. I wouldn’t be able to swim across it but there were some rocks laid across it that I might be able to jump across. I slowly walk across the rocks as I hear the tiger behind me. I had barely made it across half-way since the rocks were wet and slippery I couldn’t keep my balance very well. The saber toothed tiger was a lot more graceful at crossing the rocks than I was. He would be on me before I made it to the other side. A log flowing on the current passed by and I jumped on it as I felt the wind from the tiger attempting to slash my face. I rode on the log for a long time but the tiger just followed the river after me. I didn't know how to lose this guy. The current started to get faster. I looked ahead down the river and noticed that it disappeared at a point, dropping over a ledge of a waterfall. The tiger walks out on the boulders hanging over the ledge, waiting for me to come closer.

“Great! I’m stuck between a log and a high place. On a boat without a paddle. Taming the hungry tiger without a whip…okay that’s enough.”

I was getting closer to the tiger. He already had his teeth bared to chow down on me.

“If you think I’m going to be your next meal! Then your going to have to take it to go!”

Waiting until I’m close enough, I jump back, kicking off the log with all my strength. Just missing the tiger’s claws. The force of my kick sends the log into the boulder, bouncing up on it, and crashing into the saber toothed tiger. The saber toothed tiger roars as it plummets over the falls. I grab onto the boulder and climb up. I look over the falls and scream in triumph.

“Thank you! Come again! Ha ha ha ha!”

I walk across the boulders back to dry land, shake my fur dry, and try to make it back to the salmon run, but I notice the sky was darkening. I didn’t want to travel by night, so I walked into the woods, found a good spot and fell asleep.

The next day. I had been traveling for quite a while. That whole ordeal had taken me off quite some distance. Soon, the sky was darkening. a rumbling sounded from far off, in the distance. Was it thunder? I kept moving picking up my pace. The rumbling came again. The day was deepening and clouds were moving in. I felt the wind start to pick up. I liked being out in the rain. I looked forward to rainy days the most. Everyone back home was too miserable over the weather to get on me. Me and Truttle loved the rain. We would play in the rain all the time. I reminisced about the times me and Truttle would slide on the mud and play games. I heard the rumbling again. It was still so distant, yet…

I traveled for hours. The sky remained bleak, the thunder a threatening phantom I appeared to be chasing. I hadn’t noticed it before, but the silence was getting to me. Not until the last few hours that I started to remember my brother. That I realized how much I missed being with him, since I last found him. I couldn’t help think of all the fun and laughter I would miss if I wasn’t with my brother.

“I shouldn’t have wandered off like this. I’m always doing as I please. Not worrying about the consequences that may come with it. I gotta start listening to my conscious more often.”

The thunder sounded again. It was louder now. Closer. I kept walking looking up at the dark sky. The darkness was shattered by a savage crackling and a brilliant flash of blinding white bolt of lightning struck a tree ahead of me. Causing it to explode and cinder with fire. I was frightened by this and quickly began to increase my pace to a dash. I knew I couldn’t stay here. It was too dangerous. There was no protection from the storm. No tall trees to draw the lightning, only some small shrubs. I was out in the open. I looked up. The rain was getting worse, and in a way, that was a comfort. My brother had taught me that the most dangerous time to be out in storm was just before it really opened up-and just after. The times when it looked calm were the most threatening. The lightning was more likely to get you then. The torrent was freezing. Lightning flashed and I saw it rip apart a solitary tree in the distance.

“That was close!”

I finally approached a valley. With a river and some mountains. A cloud burst overhead made me jump. As a harder, colder rain beat down upon me. I look down towards the river and gasped at what I witnessed. I saw a towering curtain of brown mist a few hundred yards downriver, moving in my direction. In seconds, it swallowed the horizon. There was no more time for thought or speech or even reason. The wall was upon me, and the mist I’d seen was little more than a herald for the raging, towering, all-encompassing flood of rain and rising brown water that came my way, a thick, dark, muddy torrent that snapped trees and swallowed whole anything that waited in its path.

“Flash flood!”

I ran for the nearby mountain. Climbing a slanted incline. Climbing as fast as I could. I had climbed pretty high very quickly. Just barely avoiding the wave of water below. On a ledge, I look down at the flowing water. Sighing in relief I set off once again. Walking a path through the mountains. The rain had settled to a small sprinkle. When I reached the other side of the mountain. I recognized some of my surroundings. I knew I was close to my brothers den. I found it and slept inside until morning.

“The next day I came to the salmon run, in hopes that I’d find you. And here you are. Well that’s what happened to me. So what do you think?”

“…uh… Truttle?...Well, say something!”

Truttle just stood there. Eyes wide open, mouth all agape.

“Ha ha ha ha! Well it was quite an adventure. Now that I think about it. Aww come on. It wasn’t that bad. Relax you look like a dear caught scared by a hunter.”

[Kirchy]

Koda asks if I am OK. Ken'ichi tells me to hang on to something. As much as I hated to take someone's advice, I grabbed onto a near by tree branch. The trap let go and a let go of the branch and fell to the ground.

"You OK?" Ken'ichi asks me.

Before I could answer his eyes widened and he fell to the ground in pain. His arm had a slash wound. Suddenly we see a bear running away fron a cub. And the cub looks just like Ken'ichi!

Ken'ichi and the cub started fighting. Koda, Kia, and I hid behind a tree. Ken'ichi glanced at us. The cub jumped on him. Then Ken'ichi had a red aura around him and the cub flew off. Then it ran away. Koda started talking to Ken'ichi.

The bear, who Ken'ichi called Nikki, had a wound. The two walked away to the river. Koda, Kia, and I wait for a while before going back to the river. There we see Ken'ichi sitting by Nikki. Nikki had a salmon on top of his would.

"Is he OK?" I asked Ken'ichi, pointing to Nikki.

[Ken'ichi]

I watch as Niki took Sila's advice and placed a piece of meat on the wound with the piece of salmon I tore from a salmon. I still have a feeling that cub may come back, but why did he attacked me and Niki?

"Is he OK?" I hear Kirchy asking me as she points at Niki.

"He'll be alright, he's been in worse situations." I reply.

[Kirchy]

"He'll be alright, he's been in worse situations." Ken'ichi replies. .I watch him for a while. Then I glance back at Koda and Kia.

"Are you going to stay here, or do you want to play with us?" I ask Ken'ichi, nodding towards Koda and Kia.

[Kenai#2]

OOC: Well here is my first post as Kenai. Wish me luck!
BIC:
As I was deep in my sleep I suddenly saw the northern lights, or wait, I was feeling them too! I haven't ever had a dream this real! Then I see a bear that very closely resembles Ken'ichi. He motions for me to come closer to him. I feel a little uneasy, but I come forward just as he gestured. He puts his paw on my forhead and suddenly I am whisked to another place and time! I was also smaller and...suddenly I notice a very familiar scar on me and then I realize that I'm Ken'ichi!
However, I also notice that I don't have control over Ken'ichi's body. Somehow I'm quite sure that this isn't going to be a pleasant experience. Suddenly, I'm jerked back through time again and I realized the scar was gone. Then I understood what this was all about. Kamali,Ken'ichi's brother, was going to show me Ken'ichi's past. Wait! How did his name and how didI know he was Ken'ichi's brother!?
Regardless of what I was thinking, time began to move again and what I saw was horrifying. I saw a dead bear in the mud whose body had been mangled. It was all but torn to shreads. I noticed that I was crying and I said,"Mom.....no!" Then I, I mean, Ken'ichi turned away and suddenly I was slung through time and space again. I really hoped I wouldn't be getting many more chances to experience that feeling.
Next, I was playing with my, no, Ken'ichi's brother and having a blast. Then, without warning, a hunter leaps from a nearby bush. I try to a attack the hunter, but it is useless against him. Kamali told me to run and hide. I hide In a cave and can't help, but watch as they kill Kamali and drag him away.
As the fear and pain wells up inside me, I am once again traveling through space and time. This time I am on a mountain top. Now I'm sitting with my father, wait no, Ken'ichi's father. Once again I found myself wondering how I knew who these bears are and why I keep thinking of them as my family. I guess its because I'm feeling all of Ken'ichi's thoughts and emotions.
Suddenly, in an act that was completly uncalled for, hunters begin to attack my father and I. My father is killed and I have a huge gash in my side. "Ken'ichi's scar...", I ponder. I am once again moving, but this time it's into the air! Then,, on the ground I see Ken'ichi having fun with us and my gaze is directed towards the mountain where, having travelled through time yet again, I see Ken'ichi show Kamali's spirit a crystal. Kamali puts some magic into it and now there are two bears inside of the crystal. Then the last thing I saw was Ken'ichi and Nikiski together, now bonded as brothers. Just like Koda and me.
Quite instantly I woke up and realized I was in my den. Koda wasn't there; so I assumed he had gone out the play. That dream had been very disturbing. Not because of what had happend to Ken'ichi. Because it seemed to me that everything had been patched up there. What worried me was the hunters. How could my own people have been capable of commiting such atrocities? My tribe had never been such bloodthirsty killers. What would make the other tribes act that way?

OOC: Well there it is. I hope you guys like it!

[Spectrum]

OOC: OYYYY!!!! I'm WAY behind! Wait up, guys! I'll try to make a post here soon!!! Sorry!

[Nertuark]

I look at Nikiski who's still on the ground... doesn't look like he's getting up... what's wrong with him? I watch Sila puts piles of rock on Nikiski's body, I laugh... but soon Nikiski gets up... and he eats a salmon with Ken'ichi feeding him... soon Nikiski falls asleep and I curl up beside Sila to sleep...

***

Nikiski and Ken'ichi wakes us all up, and we all go back to the salmon run together. I follow Sila all the way until I see some salmons and I chase after them... I come back after the fish are all scared and swim away.

I see Nikiski being chased by a cub, then Ken'ichi glowing in red aura... weird... I've never seen it before... but anyways, I walk back to where Sila is and sit down beside her.

[Kia]

"Are you ok Ken'ichi?" I ask him.

[Ken'ichi]

(Ken'ichi)-(1st person)
"Are you OK, Ken'ichi?" I hear Kia asking me, I look at her and nod.

"Are you going to stay here, or do you want to play with us?" Kirchy then asks me.

I look at Niki, then at Sila. But my thoughts quickly shifted to that red aura thing, I know my eyes turn into a fire red ruby color because of Spectrue's prism piece inside of me, but was that aura the fragment's power? I have to ask him.

I look at Kia, Kirchy and Koda, "You three go on ahead, I'll catch up. I have some things to do first."

They nod and they pad away to play some more. I sigh and look arund and see Spectrue some distance away, I run to him and start explaining him what happened, about that strange cub that resembles me and about that red aura that must've appeared because of the piece of prism inside of me.