The russet furred omega padded quietly through the underbrush of the neutral territory, the tranquil night air still and quiet save for the persistent chirping of crickets and the rustle her paws made as she walked across the fallen leaves and various other detritus littering the forest floor. She wasn't particularly tired; she had taken a nap earlier that afternoon, having exhausted herself from her various attempts to swim in the lake, and though she had tried copious times to fall into a proper slumber, she was currently gripped by an unusual bout of insomnia. She was restless, obviously, and she figured that if there was no use trying to sleep, she might as well take a walk. She wasn't certain why her paws had carried her here, however; she assumed it was likely a result of her frivolously wandering mind.

It was peaceful at night, quiet and calm, and she supposed she somewhat preferred it to sauntering about aimlessly during the day. There was barely a cloud in the star strewn sky, and the lack of cover did wonders in regards to alleviating some of the season's intolerable heat. The breeze was cool and the air was far less humid, and she was pleased on some level that the climate wasn't as annoyingly uncomfortable as it had been while the sun was out. That was about as far as her appreciation for the night went, however; she was simply grateful that it was quiet and cool and she could move about in relative solitude. She admired it for its practical application to her, that's all. She didn't really care for the supposed beauty of the midnight sky, or the comeliness of the forest in the dim light, or any other aesthetic her peers may have uselessly gushed over.

It was on this walk that she was somehow reminded of her sister, how Usagi used to beg for her to stay up with her and look for shooting stars, even though the rational likelihood of seeing one was slim to none. She recalled how they were often forced to sleep out in the open if they couldn't find any sufficient shelter before nightfall, because their brother and their peers had a habit of chasing them away any time they neared the den. Her sister had never minded though; even when Yuki's lips were drawn back in indignant snarls and she was muttering slews of curses beneath her breath, her sister always remained optimistic. "It's alright, really!" She'd insist as she hopped about in ecstatic positivity, the humiliation of being turned away from the den by the entire pack never once tainting her happy expression. "I like sleeping under the stars. It's comforting." She remembered her blabbering on for hours about the most ridiculous things; how she'd almost caught a mouse that morning, how pretty the pond looked when it was frozen over, how she planned on moving away from the pack someday and that Big Sister should go with her. A pang of agony sliced through her chest with the precision of a mountain lion's claw at the memory of her sibling's elated voice murmuring on and on until it faded off into a soft, inaudible mumble as she drifted into sleep. She would never hear her voice again, ever. And yet the memory that stuck out the most was the simple image of the two sleeping back to back, finding comfort and security in each other's warmth. They were all alone in the world, two sisters abandoned by their kin, stranded in the ever expanding emptiness of the reality that was their lives. Back then, they were alone together. Now she was just... Alone.

She huffed sharply as she violently forced her somber thoughts away, and she vehemently swallowed the jagged lump clogging her throat. Aimlessly reminiscing would never cure her pain. There was only one thing she was confident that would. Stop mourning, idiot. She reprimanded herself harshly as she pushed her way through a particularly dense patch of bracken, soon arriving unintentionally at the shore of the lake. You're just making things worse for yourself.

She halted a few feet away from the water then, her steel grey gaze widening slightly in surprise to see another figure seated there. His scent was enough to tell her that he was from Erenyx as well, though he wasn't necessarily familiar to her. She scoffed quietly in apathetic annoyance. Can't I ever just be by myself? For once? She was tempted to turn back around immediately and vanish back into the worthless complacency of the forest, but she knew the male had most likely already heard her approach. Not to mention the fact that she was actually quite parched, and on a slightly deeper level she was somewhat curious as to why anyone else would bother staying up this late. She narrowed her eyes in cautious examination as she observed the brute, her usually lax, indifferent demeanor subtly guarded as she padded astutely up to the lake's edge. "What do we have here? A pack mate of mine?" her bold voice was unnaturally loud compared to the relative quiet of the night, her tone carrying its usually easy, almost instinctive sarcasm. "The hell are you doing up so late? Fishing for a midnight snack?"

The russet furred she-wolf narrowed her eyes slightly at his explanation, and she scoffed at his proclamation of indifference to her own motives. "Aw, come on, that hurts my feelings." She sneered, her exaggeratedly lilting voice dripping with a venomous sarcasm. She hadn't expected him to care, and she didn't intend to share her reasons with anyone anyways. It wasn't some significantly dark secret, but she didn't want to divulge what had happened to her sister to anyone. She didn't want to talk about the gnawing source of her insomnia, the relentless memories of the sibling she loved and her almost destructive desire to slaughter the wolf who had killed her. There would never be a day that she didn't think about it, but she could never speak of it, not ever.

She padded forward slowly then until she reached the lake's edge, and she dipped her head down to lap up a few mouthfuls, the deluge of cold water a refreshing change to what she was often forced to drink from in Erenyx. She lifted her head slightly when he spoke again, introducing himself as Drake and asking for her name. "Yuki." She responded simply as she leisurely took a seat, her expression lax. She crunched in slightly on her right side to reach an itch behind her ear with her back leg before settling back into her relaxed position, her posture slouched with an almost aggravating exhaustion. "As nice as it is out here, most wolves, you know, sleep at night." She stated bluntly, her steel grey focus drifting out over the calm placidity of the lake's surface. "Don't you have some sort of useless responsibility to perform tomorrow? I doubt your superiors would be very happy to have a sluggish, half-awake wolf on their paws."

She couldn't really say the same for herself. She had no specified duties to perform, and as far as she knew, she was the only omega currently residing within the pack. He had offered no rank with his name, but there was certainly something he was expected to do during the day. She turned her snout to observe him then, her sharp grey gaze narrowed with analytical thought in spite of her aloof expression. His coat was mostly black on top, though there were several other colors like tan and cream mixed in. He seemed to match her in height, but his build was heavier than her relatively lithe figure. Ultimately he was merely average looking; it was difficult to assign a rank to him based on his appearance alone, though, it wasn't difficult to tell that he was not an authority figure. There was no way he would have greeted her so simply if he had belonged to that frivolously pompous group, no, he would have whined about how she had not tucked her tail between her legs and exposed her belly and snarled about how she should have known to show respect even though she had no idea who he was. She snorted inwardly at the thought, easily recalling her former encounters with the deltas Caspian and Braelyn. Rank is such a stupid concept.

Yuki, you are in violation of one of our rules. You may have multiple threads with a character, BUT they must not be in the same place, unless one is a MANDATORY thread. Please have your character leave at once. Posts made in this thread will not count towards your Activity Check.

From the rules:
Here on Age Of The Wolves we play with Liquid Time. Your wolf or wolves are allowed to be in FOUR threads at once. The only rule to this, however, is that they cannot be in the same place for two threads. Liquid time means that you can have multiple threads, with your wolf in multiple places. Be caught in violation of the rule and a thread may be deleted.