He trembled as he stood, wavering, hesitant, as if he couldn't exactly trust his own paws to hold him upright. In a way, he couldn't.
What was this place? The world faded into shifting darkness at the edges of the small, rocky expanse, with seemingly no source to the light that dimly illuminated his surroundings.
Revenant lifted his head heavily, motions sluggish, and strained to orient himself. His body felt weighted - constricted, as if something were wrapped around it...
Upon inspecting his own legs, the echo of what was once a wolf was surprisingly unsurprised. Revenant didn't seem to want to feel much of anything, he noted with a passive frown, returning his paw to the earth.
A ghastly emerald wolf stood, solid form here in the fading territory, a few tail length away from the raveled canine, a pompous expression on his smug face. It was only a few months since his death, his side still dripping openly and a seam of crimson blood across his broad forehead. There were several patches of skin showing, and when he smiled, many of his teeth were either missing or crooked and cracked.
"You are the one who was stuck in the void? How does one manage that?" he chuckled. Then his face fell, his eyes becoming hard. "You are mine now, ravel. I have been working to draw you out of the void for moons, taking energy that I could have used to get back at those damned wolves on Compass Rose. I must continue my task of ensuring my rein over the Night Minions pack. You, my friend, will make sure no one tries to overthrow me or thwart my plans, and do anything I ask of you. I am the one who saved you, and now you will do my bidding. Understood?" the fallen alpha commanded boldly, his eyes looking at the other wolf to see if he dared defied him.
A deep voice reached out and yanked his attention away from his strange new existence. Revenant recoiled and lifted his head to search out for the source of this new sense, when a shifting mass of green emerged from the colorless black.
The wolf - if he could even describe the thing as still a wolf - was dripping scarlet over the grey ground. It held a contemptuous, pompous air as it stalked closer, and despite the fatal-looking gorges in it's flesh, it seemed relatively unfazed. It spoke in low, even tones, and Revenant found himself compelled to do nothing by listen.
"You are the one who was stuck in the void? How does one manage that?" came his first chuckling inquiry, which reflected Revenant's own thoughts. The Void...? The wolf bit off his own questions as the walking corpse continued, voice commanding. "You are mine now, Ravel. I have been working to draw you out of the void for moons, taking energy that I could have used to get back at those damned wolves on Compass Rose. I must continue my task of ensuring my rein over the Night Minions pack. You, my friend, will make sure no one tries to overthrow me or thwart my plans, and do anything I ask of you. I am the one who saved you, and now you will do my bidding. Understood?"
The male had addressed him as Ravel. Was that his name? He felt as if he were dragged out of some dark dream, but this place was of no KaiSeerian terrain he'd seen before. His memories were stashed behind a swirling fog as thick as the smoke around the two.
Ravel's brow knit together as an objection that had been forming in his mind disappeared. Why had he thought of objecting...? It was only sensible that he would follow the male, wasn't it...? Of course it was.
He moved to open a maw that no longer existed, and instead was mildly surprised to hear his own rasping hiss of a voice sound out from his throat. "I..." the wolf found himself saying, crystalline eye staring blankly, "Wh..." Ravel seemed to struggle with forming the words, as if what he wanted to say was being snuffed out. "Understood..."
Hearing his new minion accept his fate at Fleshspark's side, the corpse spirit wolf nodded once, then turned towards the center of the territory. There it was fully formed, even if it had a low contrast to its colors.
"Come along then, pet. I must show you around you new home. Oh, and do watch where you walk. Many of my pack mates here are a tad territorial of where they rest. Don't take it to heart, though, if you've got one." With that remark, he set off, leaving a trail of thick, sanguine liquid across the colorless, lifeless ground. Its hue soon faded as well, leaving a dark gray stain on the forest floor. He didn't stop to see if his transporter was following behind him.
As they walked, wolves slowly began to appear around them. Some watched in silent curiosity, but most ignored their presence after giving their alpha a polite nod. These passed wolves weren't very friendly.
Ravel followed without a word, skin crawling. Unbeknownst to the void echo himself, he trailed afterimages as he moved, the warped and wrapped skin loosening with motion. His paws walked on their own accord as his focus wandered.
The wolf had mentioned packmates, but this desolate forest seemed no place for a pack. Wolves of various, mismatched colors and patterns shifted in and out of the fog. Were these his family? Ravel wandered deeper and deeper into confusion as he went along. None of these wolves seemed related.
Of course, that doesn't confuse you, a small notion whispered, and Ravel found himself agreeing. It made sense, didn't it?
He followed the rotting wolf toward brighter ground, his focus kept in front of him, and noted distantly the tension and unrest that sucked sound from the air.
The fallen alpha brute watched the strange beast that claimed to be a wolf from the corner of his eye. He ignored the either cowering or snapping wolves around them as the pair passed them, keeping on the trail toward the center of the Fading Territory.
"You are an odd one, aren't you?" he questioned with mild curiosity, not caring if he received a reply from the entropy male. He continued on at a leisurely pace. Slowly, the forest foliage around them grew more colorful, but with too much exposure, the colors bleeding outside of their confinements. Here, they were surrounded by roughed up, aggressive wolves. One silver wolf was hunched over, sitting beside a pile of rocks, a hole shaped like a rectangle in the center.
"This is my den. And here is my most loyal, Chronospark."
At the sound of his name, the shining wolf raised it's thin, angular head, its one white and one golden eyes fixing onto them. Something akin to gears moved inside its golden eye as it dipped its head in greeting.
NOTES: I'll probably make an adoption thread for Chrono... And sorry for taking so long
Welcome to Compass Ross Packs territories. These wolves are... different than those of Earth. They live in a different realm, and the only way in or out is through the Transport wolves.
What are these wolves, you ask? These wolves have magic on their fur and the elements in their blood. These wolves have power. But will they use them for good, or for evil? That is up to you.
Compass Rose was created by Sentinel. Content is copyrighted to Compass Rose unless otherwise stated. The skin is created by Wolf of Gangnam Style. The board and thread remodel is by Kagney.
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