[rem sleep]

Username;; Trollish
Kalon Name;; Ellanore
Kalon Gender;; Female
Story;; Lenora wandered around the empty, icey landscape. It was her home, and had been ever since her youth, the comforting yet icey winds left her feeling at peace with the world around her. She bounded through the snow, light flecks still fluttering about around her, as she danced about in the wealth of natural beauty all around her. Ellanore passed the time this way until the sun started to sink in the sky and her body became tired and heavy. Lenore gazed listfully out at the mountains in the distance before making her way back home. The wind gingerly pushed her along the frozen expanse as she walked towards the icey shoreline, the coast of the frozen 'beach' giving her a perfect view of the various small, modest wooden homes built there. Luckilly the miniscule town served as a docking point for a friendly merchant who happily brought resources to the tribe in exchange for their wisdome, as they had few resources to offer. The ship came once every couple weeks, and Ellanore knew its schedule by heart. She noticed the ship docked near the shore and felt her heart skip a beat as she realized she'd missed its arrival.

She gazed at the ship with fondness, hustling over to its open deck. She got aboard and found the captain of the ship, young and handsome, dealing the goods and sorting things out to be lowered down to the villagers, who eagerly awaited the delivery of their supplies. Lenora went over to him with open arms, embracing him in a loving hug. "Benni!" She called, enclosing him in an embrace. "Ellanore!" He called in response, voice heavy with laughter and heartiness. The two pulled away, looking eachother in the eyes with blatant smiles.

Ellanore ran off, darting around the ship's deck. The captain ran to catch her, and the chase ensued for a short while before he cut her off, she bowled into him in another hug, effectively tackling him to the ground in a bout of laughter. The childhood friends stayed in a puddle on the floor, giggling before regaining their composure.

"Benni, it's been awhile!" Ellanore smiled fondly once again, offering a hand to him to aid him off the floor of the ship. Benni took her hand with a grin.

"Really now?" He asked with a light snicker, "I could swear it's only been a month." Benni looked his friend over as if to inspect whether she was as he had last left her, and as he did this she did the same. They gave eachother another set of friendly smiles. "What's been going on here, in the icey nothings?" His tone was soft and joking, light-hearted with his easy-going attitude.

"Nothing, obviously." Lenore rolled her eyes with a small smile. "Nothing ever happens here, you know that." She held out her hands to him, holding a small bracelet in her palms. "I made this, though?" She slipped a small smile, her eyes glittering with a sense of pride. The 'snowbeads' were something that she truly took pride in, a glassblowing trade of her family line, every member sequentially was taught how to make the small, white beads, decorated with blue flecks, patterns and dashes of all variety. Some looked like gazing into a snowstorm while others replicated pouring rain, some where translucent and others a solid hue-- Benni smiled at the sight of them, gingerly taking them from her to run his fingers along the smooth glass surface.

"It's beautiful, Ellanore." He placed the beads back into her hands. "The ship's been along well enough, I've been doing more business in other places lately and I'd have to say it's doing me rather well." He rifled around in his pockets before procuring a small leather bag of coins, taking a couple from it and placing them in Lenore's palms as well. "See?" Lenora put the bracelet in her pockets before attempting to return the gold to Benni's outstretched fingers, but he closed his palm in response. "Those are for you, Ellanore."

Ellanore sighed before flashing an appreciative grin to her friend. "If you keep being so courteous to me I'll never be able to repay you." She jested, to which Benni rolled his eyes.

"I can never repay you as it stands." Benni held out a hand to her, which she took after a moment of realizing it was presented to her. He led her to the ship's front, overlooking the open seas. "I cannot ever thank you enough, and so all I do is to repay you for your deeds. Don't worry about repaying me, Lenora. Just focus on yourself and your life, pursue what you want and I will do the same."

Lenore turned to look Benni in the eyes, watching the soft compassion behind the pools of murky green. She'd known him for as long as she could recall, and with fondness she embraced him again. "I promise." She said softly into his chest. The sun set in the distance and the warmth quickly left the area.

Benni seemed to realize suddenly that he needed to finish his shipment before nightfall, but he held the embrace a moment longer. "Lenore, I have to get going." He sighed, "Would you mind helping me unpack the rest of the supplies?" Lenora quickly removed herself from him as if she'd realized the implications of her actions before nodding enthusiastically, flashing another smile.

"Sure thing!"

Walking home in the cold of night Ellanore recalled with fondness the moments they had shared, with a heavy heart she couldn't wait for the next month to pass. She thought to herself of all the masterpieces she could make in that time, and all the work she'd need to do-- however Benni's promise of return gave her strength, and she smiled to herself in the icey, bitter cold.

- - -

As children Ellanore and Benni met through circumstance. When the boat first visited the village, it was a great surprise to the entire town. All the inhabitants flocked out of their homes to investigate the bizarre ship that had appeared on their frozen coast. Ellanore slipped away from her parents to sneak aboard the ship, encountering the captain and his young son. The two were the only ones aboard the ship, and the burly seaman served well to intimidate young Lenore who'd never seen a kalon of that size in her natural life. She noticed the small kalon trailing along behind the seaman, and she hid in the shadows of the boat's facilities and followed them. Periodically she'd gingerly tug the young kalon's tail, resulting in the boy spinning sharply on his heels and looking about frantically, only to be scolded by the larger kalon who warned him on the matter of being too paranoid, as he was certainly safe aboard the ship.

Ellanore tailed them awhile longer before they parter, the sea-kalon heading off to address the people of the town, while the smaller kalon went into the bowels of the ship to his bedroom. Lenore, being rather small, slipped past the large captain's view as she crossed by him to duck into the inside of the ship. Lenore stumbled into the small kalon's room. The boy seemed incredibly baffled to see another kalon and yelped in a sincere panic. "Who are you?! What're you doing here-- h-h-hey dad say's you're not-- n-not supposed to be in the ship!" He scrambled onto his bed, ducking under the covers only to peer out just barely to stare at the other kalon with obvious bewilderment.

Lenora looked at him with wide, curious eyes. "My name is Ellanore, who are you?" She stated simply, as if nothing were odd about this encounter whatsoever. "Is your dad that big guy? They really huge dude with the beard?" She tilted her head a bit, analyzing this kit-- or what she could currently see and remember of him-- in contrast to the burly man on the deck abovehead. "You sure don't look like it!"

The meek kit seemed almost offended at this, whimpering a faint "He is too my dad! He's super strong and tough and-- and he'll kick your tail if he finds you down here! S-so please leave!" He barked, receeding under the blankets. Lenore couldn't help but laugh.

"Hey now, I'm not hurting anybody. I just wanted to talk! What's your name? Can you please tell me?" Ellanore took a seat on the wooden floor and smiled invitingly at the terrified kit, who moved out of his shelter ever so slightly.

"Benni, my name is Benni." He whispered, as if he didn't really want her to hear. Ellanore, meanwhile, barked with excitement, "It's nice to meet you Benni!" Benni gave her a loud shoosh, cowering under his blankets out of fear that his father might've heard. There was silence for a moment before Ellanore spoke again, "Why'd you do /that/?"

"My dad doesn't like anyone but us being on the ship, Ellanore." He stated timidly, slightly shaking under the blankets. "He's scary when he's mad, and I don't want to make him angry-- I'm supposed to stay in the ship so I don't get lost when we're travelling, but we aren't really at home very often and--" Ellanore cut him off, "Well I am sorry to intrude," she said the last word as if she'd only ever heard it used between adults, and that she didn't truly know what it meant, "but I've never seen another kit and I wanted to say hello, that's all."

Benni blinked, "You've /never/ seen another kit? Not as long as you've lived?" Ellanore lightly shook her head and Benni looked on with obvious bewilderment. "Well... I'm sorry, I've... never really talked with another kit either."

"Really?!" Ellanore beamed, her features lighting up with excitement. Benni slipped a small smile, enthused by her eagerness. He gave a small nod and she bounced around in a couple circles, clealy giddy. Benni chuckled softly to himself. Ellanore continued, her happiness evident in her tone, "Well, have you ever had a friend before?" Benni again shook his head.

"My dad and I go from place to place a lot, it's not like we really stay much of anywhere. Home is a long ways away, and whenever I leave the other kids just... kinda move on without me. That's why I say I haven't really talked to many kits-- they don't... really like shy kits like me who're always going missing." He gave a weak, somewhat nervous smile which Ellanore seemed to catch. She hopped up onto the bed and hugged him.

"Hey now, don't you worry about that." Lenora assured him, lightly patting his back. "I'll be your friend! I've never had any friends either, except for my family, and I'd really really like to be your friend!"

Benni's eyes lit up but then weighed heavy with water, "B-but we always travel around-- wh-what're the odds I'll ever see you again?!" He whimpered, reciprocating the hug with some doubt-- but intense appreciation for this act of kindness.

Ellanore pondered this before pulling away enough to look Benni in the eyes. She smiled at him fondly, "Well, do you guys get mail where you go? We can send eachother mail! You can send me letters and I can send them back to wherever you are when you send them! I mean, I never go anywhere, so as long as you remember where I live it should be fine!"

Benni seemed genuinely puzzled, "You get mail all the way out here?"

Ellanore burst into giggles, "Of course we do! Well, not /much/ mail but, there's a plane that drops mail, and a box in a larger town nearby that collects. It's not such a bad walk, and the mountains are so beautiful!"

Benni smiled softly once again, "You'll have to show me some time." He said, his voice now calm as the easy seas on their boarder. Ellanore gave him another big hug, "Sure thing Benni! I'd be glad to! I know all the best spots out here, and one day I'm gonna show you all of them!" The two giggled to themselves at the thoughts of great adventures, that is, before they heard heavy footsteps overhead. Benni quickly released Ellanore and looked at her with urgency. "Quick!" He blurted, "You've got to go-- can you write your address on here?" He haphazardly swiped a paper from the table nearest his bed and she scrawled it down for him in the neatest handwriting she could manage under the pressure. She looked at him with curious eyes for a moment or two, in which the world seemed silent and still, before the tension was broken again by the audible call of the sailor for his son's presence.

Benni got up to leave, but Ellanore ran to grab his hand and halt him. He turned to her with confusion, looking at her expectantly. Ellanore paused, frozen by the suspense, before taking something from her neck and extending it out to him. In her palms was a necklace, consisting of a small snowy orb, suspended on a thin leather string. Benni studied it before holding it in his hands, marvelling at its appearance. The orb looked as if a blizzard had been caught inside, and it was pleasantly cold to the touch. He looked at her, and she smiled at him reassuringly before darting off into the shadows.

Benni stood there a moment, frozen himself before hearing another call from his father and making his own escape to the docks once again.

- - -

Kalons Used
Benni - owned by me

[seijuu]

mark

[haemon]

Resss

[zoocyte]

mark

[iBrevity]

username;;
iBrevity

kalon name;;
Kitana "Kit"

kalon gender;;
female


[by Butter Dragon]

story;;
Kit met Viktor when she was twelve years old.

She grew up in a narrow house built on the outskirts of a Buryan village with her mother and father and their small plot of land. She grew up with dirt beneath her fingernails and tundra flowers woven into her hair, grew up flitting between the tall shadows of the trees that lined their property like silent sentinels with laughter in her mouth. She had a great affection for the woods as a child and would disappear among their trunks for hours upon end, while her mother stood with her hands cupped about her mouth and shouted for her daughter to come back. She was never particularly obedient, raised too kindly some of their neighbours whispered, never given the discipline she deserved, and she ran wild with the other children. She was known widely as a bad influence, this girl who laughed too loudly and found love in everything she set her hands upon.

When she was twelve years old she went into the woods and she got lost. It was not the first time this had happened to her of course, as Kitana had been exploring these trees since she could walk and there was always some trial and error involved in knowing one's way around. She did not panic as she walked, simply craned her head this way and that to look for landmarks, to spot a tree she might recognize the rings of, a berry bush that bore naked batches from her inquisitive hands.

It was only when night fell that she became genuinely scared. In the dark being lost had become something potent, something tangible; she was Lost, and her parents had no idea where she was. She was Lost, and the creatures of the night were not half as gentle as that fawn that might pluck dandelions from her braid or the songbirds who would take seed from her hand. She stopped beside a massive listing tree to catch her breath, panting shallowly and leaning her shoulder at the ancient trunk. She didn't know what to do; her mother had always told her to stay still if she got lost, but the shadows chased at her heels and the cold dampened the nerves in her fingers. Surely she should keep walking. Surely she should pray to find some other sentient creature in these woods who might help her.

While she stood and considered it she heard some small noise at her feet. She flinched, startled, and then bent down to search among the roots for the source of the odd sound, her curiosity briefly overcoming her fear. It was there she found a den some creature generations before her had followed out into the earth, a shallow, damp hole that offered her some refuge from the biting cold. Kit paused for only a moment before she shuffled in, cramming herself into the dark, crawling on her hands and knees and breathing through her mouth to subdue the smell of the wild.

It was luck that she saw Viktor at all in fact, a complete fluke that she had gotten lost and her wanderings had lead her to this exact tree, a twist in fate that she would crawl into a den without light and nudge one hand against what felt suspiciously like feathers. Kit recoiled, startled in the half-dark, but the feathers produced a pathetic sweet sound and her disgust faded. Kit, who hated being alone, who believed that every animal she met was a potential friend, who was scared and hungry and cold, picked up this small fledgling and pressed it against her chest.

"There, there," she said softly, calling to mind those words her mother had given her at night, when she was shivering in bed. "I'm here."

The bird quieted then, rooted about in the collar of her shirt until he had uncovered a batch of warm skin and then curled up there with a sleepy, contented noise. They slept like that, Kit's body wrapped protectively around the owl's tiny form, and woke the same. Kit was stiff from the cold, her fingers tingling from it, her nose spreading a strange numb sensation across her face, but the bird was alive and warm against her. When he shifted she could feel the kick against her very heart.

She crawled out of the den once she had regained movement in her fingers and toes and scooped the owl up when he bleated in annoyance at being disturbed. In the wane light of the morning she could see more precisely that he was an owl after all, a very small fledgling, perhaps pushed from the nest the day before. He seemed comically irritated, with enormous puffs of feathers that exaggerated the size of his head. He looked at her with yellow eyes and bit her finger when she attempted to pet him.

"It's alright," she said with a laugh, prying her knuckle loose. "I'll make a friend of you yet, buddy."

The sunlight lent her a sense of direction that the shadows had robbed and she walked with more surety, the owl riding in the crook of her shirt, occasionally nibbling at her collar bone or making brief complaints into her hair. It was nearing midmorning when she reached a tree she finally recognized and then Kit began to grin, picking up her pace, securing the owl's position at her throat with one cramped hand. "You'll love my mom," she told him in between breaths, zigzagging between the trees, leaves giving way to her precise footsteps. "And she'll love you."

When she rounded the patch of woods that conceded to her house's lawn she heard her father yelling for her, an unfamiliar thread of emotion in his voice that she would later recognize as fear. She ran full out then, yelling wildly back, screaming that she was here, that she was safe. Yelling that an owlet had saved her.

Her parents had fought against her bringing the owl inside of course, claimed disease and the bird's wild nature and all sorts of other things, but Kit would not agree to a warm bath until she was certain the bird was taken care of and so they relented, with shared exasperated looks between them. Surely they could get the bird away from her later, when her childish interest waned. They would only need to wait her out.

It surprised them then when, after her bath, she cleaned the owl herself, putting up with his many nips and his kicking feet and his loud, incessant noises, and then affectionately fed him hamburger she ground patiently into sludge. She sat at the table with the owl balanced before her and rewarded each plaintive cry with another hunk of meat. Her parents stood in the kitchen doorway with mutual expressions of despair.

"I think I'll call him Viktor," she said aloud, smiling despite the blood he had drawn from her hands. "It suits him."



Viktor remained her closest friend all throughout adolescence. She finished school, grew taller, grew louder, grew up. She got a job at the local newspaper and brought Viktor into work with her every single day, playing with him at her desk, looking wistfully out the window with him at her shoulder. Viktor did not remain small for long but developed into an enormous great grey owl, a rather monstrous creature, a beast with piercing pale yellow eyes. He would sit on Kit's shoulder for hours on end without movement, just some slight shifting of his feathers, the barest rise and fall of his chest. He would tolerate kisses from her but only her, and hissed at anyone else who attempted it. Kit loved him desperately, and told everyone who would listen that he had saved her. Had it not been for Viktor, she would have died in the woods, and she truly believed it. Fate had intervened to put them together.

When Kit turned eighteen and told her parents she was moving to the castle it was not even a matter of discussion that Viktor would accompany her. They made the arrangements, and Kit hugged and kissed her parents goodbye. Although she felt sad leaving them, walking away from her childhood home with Viktor's comforting weight at her shoulder eased the pain. She was going into a new life, and Viktor would be there when it all became too much. Kit could rely on him, that she knew; he had never let her down before.

The castle became her home before long before she realized her affection for the place. She was close friends with the youngest heir, Katya, in a matter of weeks and spent hours pouring over maps with them and telling them of her younger adventures in the woods. Viktor never left her side; if she needed the full movement of her shoulders to dig somewhere or carry something or hug someone Viktor would flutter about the crown of her head, his feathers silent even in the heavy pulses of his wings, his eyes narrowed in concentration or annoyance or perhaps both.

Eventually Kit became a castle guard. It was not a job she had expected she would ever want but she liked knowing she was protecting someone, that her presence helped another feel safe. In a few short months her reputation had spread throughout the entirety of the castle staff and the surrounding towns; there goes the guard with the owl, the guard who can talk to animals, the woman who can find her way home in any patch of trees. Kit did not mind the whispers because she had Viktor, and now she had Katya, and sometimes she had Pasha, when he wasn't exceptionally busy or when she was assigned to him during a diplomatic meeting.

Her friends were enough--Viktor, especially, was more than enough. Kit knew happiness because she felt it every time she stroked her fingers through his feathers, or examined his talons, or curled up in bed with him watching her wisely in the dark. She had not known her life would become this when she was a child, but she did not regret it. Kit was finally where she had always meant to be.

When Kit was twenty one years old she almost lost Viktor.

It was the first time she had been involved in active warfare. Pirates had landed on the Buryan shore and they had brought with them guns and smoke and carnage; and with the other guards Kitana held the castle ground. Viktor had always been good before about taking to the trees when the gunfire started, about going where she did not need to worry about him; but this time he did not rise from her shoulder at all, even when the first shot rang out and she flinched to avoid it catching her head, even when she drew her own gun and sought cover in a mad scramble. Viktor only tightened his grip and held on, bumping into the side of her head when she crawled, his heartbeat louder in her ears than her own.

"Viktor," she hissed as she leaned against a concrete pillar, a smear of blood on her palm from a jagged rock. "You're not safe here. Go."

He gave no sign he had even heard her, only twisted his head about and made a small, soft "hoo" sound. Kit reacted instinctively; before she could turn to take a look herself she flicked her gun in that direction and fired. The pirate dropped with a gut-wrenching cry, a hole clean through his thigh, and she hurried over to him to pry his semi-automatic from his slackened hands.

"Okay, Viktor," she said, putting the thieved gun over her shoulder and turning to see Viktor's unwavering face from the corner of her eye. "You can help. Just this once."

Working in tandem with the quiet warnings of her owl Kitana dispatched half a dozen of the pirates herself. She had stolen so many guns that she jingled when she ran but still Viktor took off from her shoulder to scout ahead, half an hour into the fight, calling down to her so she would not lose him among the canopy of trees that grew in the castle's shadow. He had been quiet for long enough that she was becoming concerned when suddenly he came rushing out of the branches above her, his wings pulled in tight against his sides, the wane evening light reflecting wildly off his eyes--and then there was a single shot, and then there was Viktor, plummeting to the ground.

Kitana could not precisely recall later what had happened, when she'd been asked. The pirate who had shot her bird had certainly been shot in respect, but the details faded from there. There was only: the sound of Viktor's body hitting the loose soil; the heady sensation of Kit's pulse between her teeth; the gleam of her gun barrel when she turned it on the man who had been trying to shoot her.

She was told at the castle that the man she'd shot had died, their only casualty of the night. The other pirates were being transported to prison already, but Kit didn't care; she carried Viktor inside rather, her eyes singularly for the shallow movements of his chest, her ears full of an endless buzzing. She was in shock, a doctor told her, but Kit scarcely heard. "Help my bird," she said instead, feeling tears in her eyes, blinking hard so they wouldn't fall. She held his body up between them like a white flag. "Help him, please."

Viktor recovered. It was a long process; the bullet had practically pulverized his right leg, and what remained had to be amputated. He was constantly unbalanced afterward, stumbling to stand on her shoulder, sliding down her clothes when his one foot slackened, picking at the collar of her shirts in his irritation and tearing the fabric apart. But Kit persisted, and she encouraged him to persist as well, and eventually they reached a middle ground they could both be happy with. When Viktor needed to rest his foot he could climb down to her palm and then sit there, his weight resting on his belly, her fingers curled up around his body; and all the rest of the time he was on her shoulder, as though nothing had changed.

The stories of them got a little crazier after that night. Kitana would hear them sometimes, walking through the halls; whispers of her, the girl who had a wild owl, the girl who was fearless with any sort of animal, the girl whose very soul perched on her shoulder and watched them all with narrowed yellow eyes. The legends made her laugh, but privately she liked them. It pleased her that in the mythology the cooks and servants passed among each other they always included Viktor.

[Gaycko]

username;;
kalon name;;
kalon gender;;
story;;

Res with their big fluffy tibetan mastiff

[SukarettoYanagi]

username;; -Willow

kalon name;; Korrina
kalon gender;; Female
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

story;;
"Wait!  Wait!  Wait up!"
The voice of a young female Kalon laughed out as she raced behind a slightly older female.  Sand kicked up behind them both.  Ocean water washed up and ebbed quickly away to their right, just barely falling short of their paws.
The two race along the shore, the younger always chasing the older.  It was apparent the two were sisters.  The way they both looked.  The way they both talked.  The similarities were too great for them not to be.

Suddenly, the older female stopped.  She bent down to get a closer look at something, her interest interrupted by her younger sister running up beside her.
"Why'd you stop?" she asked, voice somewhat pouty and holding confusion.

"Look at this, Korri!" the older said, lifting something out of the sand.  It was a smooth, pearly conch shell.  It's color was a light peach and there were few, if any, smooth bumps along the spiral.
"Wow.." Korrina breathed, following her sister closely as she took the shell to the water to rinse the sand off it.
The older Kalon rolled the shell over in her paws some, looking at it closely.  Without warning, she too a deep breath and brought the shell up to her mouth.  Blowing hard, the shell belted out a loud, monotone sound.  Similar to that of a bugle.  All Korrina could do was stare with wide, wondrous eyes.
____________________________

The older of the two sisters kept the shell for years.  It remained displayed in her room for years.  Gathering dust and never given a second glance.  After that day, it's brassy sound never again to be heard by anyone's ears.  That is, until one day the older of the two sisters took it from it's resting spot.

"Korrina!" she called through the den.  The hustle of paws could be heard trying to find a grasp on the floor.
"Coming!" Korrina called out, rushing to apear at her sister's room, "What is it?"
Her sister was getting ready to leave home and make her own way in the world.  That meant a lot of packing and a lot of things needed to go away.  It was a bittersweet time in the den.

"Korri, you remember when we found this thing?" she asked, taking the shell from where it rested.  At the sight of the shell, the younger Kalon's mind was cast back to that day and she couldn't help but to grin at the memory.
"How could I forget?  That was one of the best days of my life!" she nearly chirped out, eyes only for the shell.
Her sister took her paw in hers, rolling it open and placing the shell in the palm.
"It's yours now, Korri.  I know howuch you wanted it when we were kids." she told her, smiling fondly as she remembered a young Korrina crying about how she couldn't keep the shell.  More so about how she had ignored her older sister for days afterward.
Korrina took a sharp breath, covering the shell with her other paw.  "Sis, I-" she murmured, being unable to find the words to thank her.
"Korri, you know I'm gonna miss you.  Take care of Mom and Pa for me.  And be good." she murmured.
____________________________

As the memories faded from the forethought of her mind, Korrina realized she could no longer even remember her sister's name.  It had been years since she had vanished, and it was as though she had never even had a sister.
Her parents had died before it was realized she had gone missing.  Korrina knew it was likely for the best.  It would have killed them to know she was gone.  A body had never been found either. Korrina sat back on her haunches, rolling the leather-tied shell over in her hand.  Grasping it in both hands, she took it in a deep breath and exhaled into it.  The loud, brassy sound echoed through the snow capped mountains.
As the sound faded around her, she rose to her paws and straightened up.  The sound always made her feel powerful and bold.  Korrina smiled to herself. She started forward again, paws barely sinking into the fresh snow.  All she could think of as she walked was how calm yet empowered the bugleing sound of the peach colored shell made her feel as it gently fell against her chest as she went.

The shell horn had always been a vessel of memories for her.  There were many fond memories kept within the item, now tethered to her forever by a leather bind.  Though the leather was not that old, it was worn and soft.  It showed years beyond it's age.  For that, it had always felt as though it were a part of herself- not as much as the shell however.
What had made the shell so special to her was not that her sister had given to her, or that they had found it together.  No, what made it so special to Korrina was the fact that it's echoing brassy sound had saved her life.
____________________________

The day had gotten surprisingly warm early on and Korrina was out foraging in hopes of a meal.  The winter had been harsh, and for most of the months she had been snowed in her den.
Finally it had melted enough for her to dig out.  Now she trudged through the melting, ice-covered snow.  It was slick under her paws, making getting traction difficult.  Having grown up on the coast, Korrina was somewhat used to ground that was difficult to get a pawhold on.

The day, thus far, was like any other day in the great frozen wilderness.  The sun hanging over head and reflecting blindingly off the pure white.  The bitter chill nipping at her body.  Her coat has grown thick and heavy since she moved to the tundra and the cold wasn't so much to her anymore.
She grunted under not only the effort of getting down the side of the mountain but the sun beaming down onto her fur and heating her every movement.  The frozen pond was something of a trip from her home, and going there meant spending the night.  She had always packed prepared for that.

Another step forward and suddenly the ground below gave way with loud shutter.  Korrina didn't even have time to scream before snow was piled over top of her.  The leather strap tied to the shell around her neck caught on a branch.  It didn't take much effort for it to snap and be ripped from her.  Lost in the avalanche.
She lay buried in the snow for who knows how long. Drifting in and out of consciousness.

Whether it be by some strange twist of fate or simply an odd coincidence, the peach colored shell Korrina had carried with her for years made its way to the top of the snow just as the chaotic mass stilled.  The sun shown down and glistened off the glossy outer coat of the shell.
The way the shell lay in the snow, the slight breeze that flitted over the placid scene caught in the shell.  It was just enough to force out a low, contrabass tuba echo that resounded and bounced through the tiny mountain range.

While there were not many who lived in the area, avalanches were still monitored and counted where she lived.  Let regulation, search and rescue teams were sent out to assess the damage and see if anyone had been unfortunate enough to be out and gotten trapped in the packed snow.
As the team members reached the mountain to begin their search, the faint call of the shell-horn reached their ears.  It was that sound which put them on high alert that someone was trapped beneath the snow.  Locating the shell horn, they began using dogs to try to find who it belonged to.

Korrina had been trapped below the heavy snow for two hours, and an additional two hours for rescuers to locate her.  By that time it was unsure whether or not she would live.  A rescue helicopter air lifted her to the nearest hospital where she spent nearly a week in a medically-induced coma in the ICU before she was allowed to wake up.

When it was explained to her what had happened, she broke down into tears. She was ashamed of how foolish she had been- driven to extremes by hunger.


"But it's how you were found that was the real miracle." the doctor's droning voice mumbled.
She looked up at him, a confused and rather angered. Never did she say a word, though, instead allowing him to explain himself.
"It was this shell that alerted rescuers to the fact that you were there. Without it, they likely never would have known someone was under the snow, and you would have died." he explained, reaching into his coat pocket and pulling out the peach colored shell that was so familiar to Korrina.
Her eyes stretched wide, and all she could do was stare. She herself did not know how she had gotten so lucky, but one thing was for sure. She was grateful to be laying in that bed- alive.

It was another month before she was released as she had to be treated for hypothermia and pneumonia. Other than the lingering memory, she had no residual effects of the near-tragic accident.
She returned to the coast after that, though not where she grew up, and chose to remain there. However, during avalanche season she always returns to the mountains as a volunteer search and rescue member. Her shell always tied around her neck and ready for when some, or signs of someone, are located. It saved her life, and with her alive and well it can- and has- save others.

[.The Bootless Box.]

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[Brainiac5]

username;; pine tree
kalon name;; Noriko
kalon gender;; female

story;;
Noriko treasures her relationship with Koan, her cousin and only living relative.
When she was quite small, her parents and sister left on a hunting trip, far into the Northern reaches of the Tribe's territory. She was left with her aunt Mokari and of course, Koan. The first week or so passed uneventfully, Noriko enjoying her time with her relatives while missing her closer family members.
At about midday on the tenth day of her family's hunting trip, a massive snowstorm hit. It raged for almost two days. Every hunting group had already come back except for Noriko's family. As night fell on the storm-swept tundra, Mokari set out to find her missing relatives, leaving Noriko alone with Koan. Koan was a little older than her, about six months, and he had always held this over Noriko's head, saying he should always be in charge. But that didn't matter as the two small Kalons huddled together in the snow house, cold and alone.
When the storm finally stopped and the sun shone outside again, Koan woke Noriko. It was still freezing of course, but that wasn't the worst that had happened. As the two stepped outside, they discovered that much of their little village had been buried or swept away in the storm. There were some dead as well, half-buried in snow, their fur ice-crusted and their eyes frozen. It was in that instant that both the young Kalons knew, their family was gone. And they wept, tears freezing in the cold.
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"Keep up, you're so slow!"
"I'm not slow, you're too fast!" The air was clear and seemed to sparkle in the morning light. Koan and Noriko galloped over the snow of the far Northern reaches, Koan lagging just a bit. It had been years since the two lost their family, neither of them knew how many. Ever since that day, they had been on their own, without even a village to support them in long, dark winter. They had had to learn to fend for themselves in the savage snowy lands of their people, and both were now true masters of the tundra. Noriko slowed down a bit, letting her cousin catch up.
"We'll never catch any tiger-deer at this rate! Come on Koan, you're just getting started!" Koan smiled to himself.
"Yeah I am!" He exclaimed, shooting past her with a sudden burst of speed. Noriko was briefly stunned, then laughed it off and charged after him. They didn't need anyone else.