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Thoughts of the Forsaken by SnowblindOtter

Has it truly been so long that I have been away? I never learned to tell time as accurately as the others that I had known. The sun and the moon had always guided me in my travels and my perception of the length of the seasons. In a way I admit I was deficient in that aspect, but it always seemed to serve me well enough to survive on my own, or with what little companions I could gather. Was the pack threatened, or was it they decided to move on? Had what only felt like a fortnight of separation; of hunting, really been a span of time larger than I had perceived? I do not know for certain. I do know that what I came to return to after my leave was not what I had left. When I had turned to look back before leaving I had seen a thriving family, young ones playing and learning. I remember the sound of a softly bubbling stream and the tender lapping of waves at the shore of a lake. Laughter and the playful barks of the other members mingled with the air, a sound that I reluctantly admit to have been pleasant to my ears after such a long time alone. Now there is nothing.

When I returned, happily trotting back to the clearing through the way that I had memorized by the rocks and trees, I expected to be greeted by the rest of the pack, accepted at least as an Omega if nothing else. To play with the pups and bask in the sunlight, swim with the others and fish and socialize again. But upon entering the clearing my spirits fell at what my eyes and ears found. Or, rather what they did not...

The once bustling clearing was barren, rampant with weeds and wildflowers that had overgrown the areas the Zetas had carefully tended to. The homes of rodents covered what spaces were not coated with grass and shrubbery, and the homes and dens of the wolves that I remembered being there were barren and as lifeless as the stones some of them were weathered from. Even the alpha's den was barren, devoid completely of any sign that it had ever been inhabited. The trees at the edges have overgrown and been covered with moss, their dense foliage blocking out large areas from the warming rays of the sunlight.

The area of packed-earth where the pups had once played and wrestled with one another was cracked and littered with the creeping roots of the tree that it had existed under, and even my own former den beneath the roots of a pine tree was no more, the elements seeming to have taken enmity towards my home in my absence. The stream nearby seemed dead, the silently flowing waters clouded with mud that left a sour taste on one's tongue, and the once shimmering lake seemed devoid of any life filled as it was by debris from what I could only guess were violent tempests that would be more suited for the coasts. I can't help but wonder why or where they had gone...was it again that I had been deliberately abandoned? Or am I seeing the desolation in the eyes of one that was merely forgotten in a time of desperation? I may never know. Occasionally I catch glimpses of wolves skirting around the bounds of my home, and evidence of their presence in the region is pronounced. They know I am here, whoever they are, and yet I mean them no harm they come no closer than shadows at the edges of the light.

I will stay here, and gather what knowledge I can about what happened here. Yet, I fear that it will be I alone who remains, hoping that this is all a dream and that they will all be returned when I wake, and that the cryptic message I found is merely a figment of my imagination.

Thoughts of the Forsaken

SnowblindOtter

Something I typed up a while ago, and decided to submit here as a test to see exactly what I can do.

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