Esoteric Wild

His arm was gone, but he deemed it no different than he was before, save he could only do alchemy with arrays. He didn't mind too much, considering he wasn't sick anymore, and he got visits from Dilandau and Fighter.

It had been a good, long while since Cayliss' operation, and everything had gone swimmingly, which attributed to the fact that he was now sitting next to his lunchtime tray, munching on some fruit and meat. He turned the tray over when he was finished, searching for any more, and making the lump of watermelon mush fall to the floor- he hadn't found the pieces in any way delicious, so their punishment was being smashed into a nice, red pulp. He liked the seeds, however, and crunched on them as he paced back and forth, wondering when his next visit would be.


It was thereabouts that Doc opened the door to his private enclosure and slipped inside. Cayliss' ears immediately perked, expecting Dilandau or Fighter, but when the doctor closed the door behind him without anything but a leash, he immediately drooped.

"Aw, come on, boy, don't be like that. I thought you might like to go out today; you've been in for so long."

Cayliss turned up his lip at that, and whined, wondering if maybe that would work to give him his mates, but the doctor seemed to ignore him, instead focusing on getting the harness and leash on him, which the Elric didn't like too much. However, whenever Dilandau and Fighter came, they were wearing the stupid things so-...

The leash and harness on, Doc smiled and tugged Cayliss forward gently, opening the door to his enclosure. "C'mon, boy. Let's go see your mates."

It was quiet in the enclosure without Ter around. Dilandau shifted on his feet and sighed softly. The kits played as young ones were prone too. The adult Edward considered sleeping, but he was restless. This was not their home territory in the woods as he knew. It made him jumpy now that he was not lost in grief. The major watched his kits play a little longer before he got up and once again fell into the routine of patrolling the edges of his temporary territory.

The Lust slow padded down the path, silent and alert. She had been gone for quite a long time now... exploring the surrounding forests to it's very out skirts. Along the way... she made a new friend.

Just as she stopped, a small Gluttony Kit passed on by her, happily barking and prancing about. Laughing softly to herself, she walked on forward, watching the little kit as it played about. < Come on little one... we need to get you something to eat... >

Suddenly, she stopped as a young doe came into view just a few yards away by the river. Perfect timing. Motioning the kit to watch and learn, the Lust laid low and slowly made her way, just behind the doe... ready to strike...

It hadn't stopped snowing within the past five days. The biggest trouble with that, was that Edward wasn't the kind to hibernate unless it was necessary. It wasn't an unnerving situation; he had collected more than enough for him and Roy to survive throughout the entire winter, maybe even farther into another season. What had made him uneasy was that a new predator had entered their territory, an Envy. It was much bigger than the others, and seemingly more ferocious. It had quite the reputation, one of killing anything that got in its path, even if he didn't kill it for the meal's sake.

Edward was particularly careful when going out of the new, cozy den they had gotten, and went out alone every time. He was stubborn over having Roy go with him. Didn't want to risk his mate getting hurt, not like their last few feuds.

He stalked through a parting in the trees, watching a plump rabbit hop itself along the sort of rugged clearing in the woods. It was as if Edward was meant to catch it; the light shone through the trees directly down on it, a spotlight in a way. Edward narrowed his eyes, withdrawing only a little bit and then dashing forward, pouncing on to the unexpecting rodent and dragging it down to the ground. He bit into its neck, and that was the end of that. He lifted up, puffing his chest out, proud of himself as usual. But suddenly, something was different. His body was shoved forward, pinning him to the rabbit's corpse, and pinning that to the ground. He growled and tried to writhe into a better position, but he couldn't move so much. Edward looked up, finding the very creature he had tried to avoid for so long, peering down at him with a toothy grin.

Aru's sleep during the night and early morning had given him a chance to recover from his pregnancy, but still he felt lethargic and would need some time before he was fully recovered. He was currently curled up beside his mate, their two newborn kits snuggled between them. He yawned softly, slowly sitting up and holding the two kits to his chest, purring to them when they mewled and squirmed.
"Tal..." he said through a yawn, nudging his mate gently who was asleep beside him. 
Aru wanted to go to the stream and bathe, both him and the kits definately needed it.

Mere minutes after Havoc and Hawkeye left to hunt up some food, Puck decided that the tree trunk he'd been shredding was Not Fun Anymore. What he really wanted was food. Glorious, tasty, still-warm, blood-drenched food. He bit a piece of bark, trying to pretend it was the carcass to a really tough squirrel.

Blech.

Why weren't the adults back yet? This was boring! And he was hungry! And the Mustangs were being annoying with their sitting there and not doing anything! Oh, life just sucks so much at the moment. Puck fell over melodramatically and laid there. Maybe that'll make the adults hurry back.

Maybe not.

It had been a while since the kit had been taken. Dilandau sighed as he moved about the enclosure following the habit of a patrol. The sound of footsteps in the hall had the beast perking his ears. What was going on now?

Havoc, loathe to incur the wrath of a saddened and injured Puck, ended up carrying the Envy back to Greed's den.

The closer he got, however, the tighter his chest seemed to get, the lower his ears and tail lay, and the slower his steps became. In fact, he realized, it was almost like he was... scared to return.

Greed had been saddened when Havoc had left, but had let him go with a promise that he'd be welcomed back- it had been so long since he'd actually gone, a part of him- more of him than he'd like to admit, actually- was wondering if he'd actually be accepted.

Finally, he wound down and stopped, watching the thinning trees before him; they were close. He shivered once, his tongue darting out to wet his lips, and glanced over his shoulder.

.... Should he really go back?

It had been raining the past 2 days and hadn't stopped. She had gotten much ground since she left late into the night. She had no clue where she was going--but she had to get away as far as possible. Her pelt was dirtied with mud and blood--mostly her own for she cut herself on certain branches and tripped over some roots. Her head-fur in slight disarray. She tired to make it look as good as possible for she still has the ponytail band the professor had given to her to keep it out of her eyes when she was about the house.

Her family. She wondered how they were doing--but she felt that they didn't make it. She gave a fore-loren whine and sighed. Trisha was hungry. She reaches into her apron she snatched on the way out to put some berries in her Stomach. They were delicious. Wild strawberries. The rain finally let up to allow clear skies. She shivered and looked around. Nothing but grasslands--but wait--what was that noise?

She was cautious as she went closer and heard rushing water. It was a river; the third one she came across. This one seemed a bit swifter current then the last 2; well because of the rain, Trisha came across the second one by accident and was taken down stream. Finishing off her berries, she jumps in. Nearer to the shore--the current isn't bad--but the other side was a different story. She paddled for her life! Making some startled noises of slight distressed as the current takes her for a short ride until catching a rock not so gracefully. A painful cry is made as she winces. The right shoulder now cut and bleeding, but the frigid water was making the wound slowly stop bleeding. Quickly situating herself, Trisha shoved off the rock to scramble and catch another before pulling herself onto the shore. Looking exhausted, Trisha mewled. She wanted a warm bed again. A warm family. She wanted to move on but her body protested. Bringing herself back to her feet, she walks a bit more until hitting tall grass near the shore. There, she collapses and succumbed to unconsciousness..

Boy awoke slowly, to a sight he’d never seen, much less imagined waking up to. Sky, blue sky, above him, as far as the eye could see. He’d seen the sky before, of course. Seen it from the window. Seen it on the television. But this vast, open expanse above him was new. He wasn’t quite sure he’d liked it.

Sitting up, he took stock of the wide field of grass surrounding him. He didn’t know where he was, but wherever it was definitely wasn’t home. His ears pressed themselves against his skull at the thought.

He’d smelled it on the Lady, had been smelling it for weeks; that subtle cloying scent that made him stick as close to her side as she would tolerate. It wasn’t a bad scent, but it set him on edge. He would pace whenever she wasn’t within his sight, whined despondently whenever she left the house.

And then one day she simply didn’t come back. She didn’t come back for days and days and he’d been hungry. He was still hungry, except now he was here, where there were no food cupboards for him to sneak into. He whined softly. He wanted to go home.

Pushing himself off the ground, he examined his surroundings. There was a tree line, not far off, and he headed for it. He could have stayed where he was, but he doubted anyone would be coming back for him. The Lady hadn’t and he wasn’t even at their house any more.

As he entered the trees, light filtering through the leaves to cast mottled shadows on his face, his stomach growled. Pausing and glancing left then right, he wondered just where he could find food.

He’d run after the sleek metal box that his humans rode around in for as long as he could stand, but the ground hurt his paws and other metal boxes were zooming by also, moving past him at a speed that sent a cold wind cutting through his pelts. Finally the box disappeared, and Wild moved away from the hard ground to stand in the wet grasses alongside it.

For a few moments the Mustang stood there, watching, hoping. Surely the humans wouldn’t just leave him here? But as another metal boxed zoomed past, Wild was spurred into motion, skulking towards the tree-line in the hopes that he could find a place to stay the night.

Sunset was soon coming and, after all, the humans weren’t coming back. He’d heard about it, once, as a pup. An old Havoc had told him and two other pups the story. Still, he’d never thought it would happen to him, he never thought his humans would leave him alone and defenseless in some place he had no business being. They’d even brought him home pack-mates.

His ears drooped and he gave a soft whine at the thought. He hadn’t meant to hurt the kit. He’d only wanted to know where the rumbly feeling had been coming from. The kits had been cute, squirming with high-pitched mews that were easily heard, even by him. They hadn’t liked him much, but when he’d stroked them just so they would make the rumbly feeling. He had only wanted… and then the kitten had gotten so still…

He looked up at the canopy of leaves overhead, trying to not to think about it. He didn’t want to think about any of it. Yet here he was. Abandoned.

Everything hurt, but his shoulder was the worst, and even his automail twinged in pain.

He'd gotten injured before, and thought it felt like dying. But that pain was nothing compared to this. So. He really was dying.


There were people now, he was pretty sure. Lots of incoherent blabbering, lost on him.

Suddenly, he was lifted, moving. On something hard and cold, and moving again, rumbling along the corridor.

It hurt to breathe. There was something on his face, puffing air at him. What was- did-...?

His vision hazed, and he was under, still wracked with pain, but too out of it to care.

Cayliss had really only gotten to doze; those stupid humans kept waking him up for some reason. He didn't know what a 'concussion' was, anyway.

It was late morning when they came in, satisfied, apparently, that he was out of the danger zone, and fiddled with the plastic and metal, poking at him.

He lay there and took it, bored and still depressed over his self-imposed solution that his mates and kits had died.

Eventually, the restraints were released, and he found himself gathered limply into one of the humans' arms, the other taking the IV from his arm.

He whuffed, and was then picked up and taken out of that horrible-smelling room, into a weird tunnel that didn't smell like anything but humans. He didn't pay much attention, closing his eyes again, his automail hanging limply to the side and his shoulder hurting a bit where it was red and slightly swollen.

After the incident with the hunter, and falling asleep in the sight of the Izumi, Havoc had been unconscious for three days straight.

He was still fuzzy on what had happened during that stretch of time, but when he had woken up he had felt at least a bit better.

The Izumi had gone not long before he had opened his eyes, but he was still alone.

He had checked himself over to see that the wound he'd gotten was healing, scabbed and definitely going to leave a scar.


Now, after resting for a few more days, he had been wandering for weeks, hoping to come upon anything that would give away where Puck had gone. He'd had to go slow, because of a light, though persistent limp that favored his left leg, but at least he had gotten somewhere...

It probably didn't help that the somewhere he'd gotten was also unfamiliar to him. His ears back, he continued on, further into the southeast, and the new territory.

Muse was laying all flopped out in his nest as had become his habit since coming to this place. He was still a bit sick, an effect of spending so much time wet and cold, which were bad things for Mustangs. The humans here had tried to get him to play with some of the other younger-things.

Muse just generally ignored those in favor of hiding in his blankets and whining till they left.

He woke alone. Dilandau couldn't recall the details of just how he'd wound up out cold. The idea of it had him pressing his lips in a thin line as he shifted to get up. He called for his mates, but upon recieving no answer he felt the first trikle of fear. No. Not again. Oh, please don't let them be back in the cold dark. The major cried for Cayl and Ter again trying not to sound panicked and alone. Without his family, Dil was just a soldier without a purpose who had failed one too many times.

The purple hues of the twilight were slowly sifting into darkness--and the young Archer was running short on time. The scent of other animals were on the breeze, and he'd yet to find a place proper to sleep for the night. Frank bit worriedly at his lower lip, eyes darting around his surroundings--ever searching for a place of refuge. A den, a cave, --ANYTHING! His choices were narrowing down to nil. He growled softly to himself, mostly out of frustration than anything else.

He wants to be out of the way--! Hidden--! He wants to be--

The Archer finds himself knocked flat back onto his rear. In his flustered state, he'd run himself straight into a tree.

But as he looks up the trunk, it dawns upon him how thick and sturdy the branches are...the foliage too, is leafy and green--still not having succumb to the chills of fall. He gives another look around to make sure he's not been followed. With a resolute huff, and a double-check that his gun still be firmly at his side, he stand and promptly throws himself at the tree--clawing and scrambling, trying to shimmy up the trunk and into the higher branches...

Unothodox, yes, but a view of tomorrow's sun was preferred. He'd like to live a bit longer, thank you...

The poor dear is a late bloomer, and found himself ousted from his pack far too early for comfort. He can barely swim, he's not much of a runner, and as for firearms...he's lucky he can aim straight...

He's been traveling west--as the north smells uncomfortable--he'd seen the sky darken in that direction at one time. The south was just as bad. If he traveled too far that way, the loud noises would scare him back into the woods.

So now he sits up in a tree--his brothers would have laughed at him--an Archer--a proud creature hiding up in a tree of all things. He whines and tries to get comfortable, his stomach growling and protesting loudly against it's empty state. Tomorrow he'd have to hunt...



_{Erm--hey there. Guess I'm your Archer! ^_^;}

It was another three weeks since the day Aru had first found out about his pregnancy. He awoke this day feeling ill and nauseas.
He often awoke feeling this way but today it felt different. His stomach had a tight feeling which became more intense now and then.
Aru, panting softly from the pain, curled up in their nest in the backroom of the den and placed a hand on his stomach, rubbing there to try and sooth the pain.

Ward’s eyebrows furrowed in a frown as he clenched his eyes shut even tighter, rolling up into a ball. He could smell the musty forest floor, strong after the morning rain. Nose twitching, he tried to ignore his stomach as it growled. He hated mornings, loathed them. With their horrid brightness, birds chirping and who knew what horrors the day would fling at him.

Muttering to himself, he slowly open one eye and observed his surroundings from where he was curled up under a quickly made resting point. The storm last night had come upon him quickly, and he’d only had time to use his alchemy to fashion this quick resting place, sloppily done in his haste. Chiding himself he sat up, shaking his head as the golden strands glinted dully in the light. He was all muddy, dirty and smelly. He growled to himself, <‘An Envy would smell me a mile away! Stupid, stupid, stupid…’>.

The Edward continued on in this manner as he attempted to clean himself out, snarling in distaste at the state of his pelt, the red streaked with dirt.
<‘Oh, perfect!’> he growled, <‘Yes, what a perfectly lovely day, thank you very much!’> he grimaced sarcastically as a bird dared to tweet at him.

<‘You shut up!’> he pointed an accusing finger, <‘Don’t make me eat you!’>
Grumbling, he stalked down to the river that flowed out of the Rengen Lake and it’s Mustang territory. The still wet ground squelched beneath him as he leaned down to get a morning drink, still berating the world for constantly inconveniencing him.


_{ooc: hi! New to this, so please tell me if I make posts too long. I tend to get excited and ramble. I hope you all think well of me.}

It had only been a few days since the kits had been brought from the gate, and already, they were squirming about and interested in everything. Even the albino one, though the sun was a tentative place for him to be, embraced his life seemingly without a care. Though he was a bit more bundled up against the bright light, he romped and played, just like their gold-eyed Mustang and other, black-toned Edward.

Cayliss, Dilandau and Fighter had spent every possible moment they could together, cuddled close and watching their kits, and their bonds had become unmatched because of it. The three of them were as one, and inseperable.

They'd worked out a hunting routine, as well, one staying behind with the kits while two caught game. It worked splendidly.


However, they all seemed to think the same thing: this place was too many bad things. Too close to humans. Too far from water. Too far from good hunting grounds. Too open. Too small.

It was inevitable that they would have to leave, and today was the day.