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Lonely Traveler
Death seemed strangely more terrible then Ripty expected, since in fact it felt just as painful as life and with no light to walk towards. He did not know how long his body drifted under the ice and how it was possible that he had found himself washed up on the shored of some unknown lagoon. The truth was this was not death, no, it was far worse. Ripty lay broken across the jagged rocks of a gravely sandbar. His formed seemed completely lifeless except for the shallow, weak rising and falling of his chest. but the pain in his body was not nearly as painful as that in his heart. The pack would surely believe him to be dead. The clan would continue on and take his beloved sister with them. He could not bare to think of how the youngster would blame herself for his death, just another weight thrown across her tiny shoulders. She was out there now, probably far far away from him grieving for the brother that had been her only sense of family her entire life. It sickened him and distracted him from the pains of his battered and bruised body.
after several hours of lying motionless with water lapping at his hindquarters, Ripty attempted to move. he lifted his head to peer around but the fatigue ad stiffness of his muscles made him lay it back down instantly. Every inch of him ached and felt frozen. he felt as though lead weights had been attached to his extremities making it impossible for him to bring himself to rise. but he could not lay here and allow himself to waste away. He had to get up and he had to try everything in his power to continue on so that he could find his sister. Returning to her was what gave him hope to continue on. Ripty struggled with several failed attempts to get to his feet but ended up succeeding. He stood wobbly on his feet and coughed up all the remaining water from his lungs. His front paw had been twisted unnaturally and now felt tender to put weight on. He managed to pull himself out of the water and higher up onto the shore where he found a dry spot to lay down and rest…..
His new surroundings were oddly different from the mountainous cascades where he had fallen through the ice. He observed that there were mountains all around him, peeking down from above the tree tops. Yet where he now stood seemed to be in a dish, or valley cupped in the palms of these strong silent mountains. Trees that seemed to have stood for hundreds of years waved unsympathetically at him as he slowly began to recuperate from the whole ordeal. This place felt wrong, it felt old and resentful. the lake from which he had drug himself out of was fed by the waterfall that seemed breathtakingly high. Once more Ripty wondered how he had managed to survive. It took him several cold lonely nights to finally feel brave enough to stand once more. his stomach snarled with hunger and his throat burned with thirst, these two basic needs for food and water however where not his main motivation. His motivation instead came from the thoughts of his sister who now had no one to look out for her. this thought sickened him, it made his heart ache with sadness that he had broken his promise to always be right where she needed him to be.
Finally finding the strength to stand, Ripty quenched his parched throat and scrounged around looking for edibles within the old forest. when he had managed to find a few morsels he continued on in the same direction he knew the clan would have continued forward in. In his mind he reassured himself that he would see Ryn again, she would surly be waiting for him when he reached the no clan home. it lifted his spirits as he traveled to the far end of the valley and continued to move for several days. His progress was agonizingly slow since he was held back by the battering his body had withstood. but as time past his legs became more sure once more and his breathing easier. His body however was shrunken from the lack of a decent meal. His coat had lost its lustre and hung off of his bony frame like moss on an old branch. This forest, although beautiful, was more like a desert then an oasis. it lacked life other then frees and grass, bushes that might have produced berries seemed to be withering and held no fruit and not a single sent of prey lingered among the leaves or litter. This place felt frozen in time where everything, especially the trees slept.
~~ Few weeks from when the journey began ~~
The endless days and nights alone in the wilderness was not the hardest part about being separated from his family. It was knowing that his little sister was out there with no one to watch out for her, she was still so young and so vulnerable. Ripty trudged on and on, his legs grew weary with the lack of rest and the emptiness of hunger, he didn't want to be away for much longer. But he had no clue where the clan was heading, There had been little talk about where their new home would be exactly. All Ripty knew was that it was beyond the mountains which he had nearly completed crossing. He wondered what lay ahead for his clan and what other clans might be awaiting their arrival. This hastened his pace instantly as he feared they would not be greater with kindness and that he would not reach Ryn in time to protect her from an attack she would not be prepared to escape from. This is why he traveled restlessly on through night and day. His shoulder wound that had ailed him at the beginning of the journey had now healed completely and his trip down the frozen river had released its grip on his tired muscles. He moved with speed now but he was flanked by loneliness and constantly felt the knot of hunger in his stomach.
Something within him told him he was finally close to the end of his journey. It had been almost a month of endless travel and his body showed the ware and tare. His coat was dingy, his ribs showed through and his body was lean and thick with newly toned muscle. Ripty's heart had changed as well, he no longer looked to the kindness of others, because in his own mind there was none to be found there anymore. He now saw the importance of being completely self-reliant, the only person who mattered now was him and his sister. The end was in sight, but would his body hold up until he reached it, only the last leg of the journey would stop him from reaching the the place where his sister waited for him.
~~ A few days later ~~
How much longer could he force his body to continue, a day? a week? he knew he would not last another week and certainly not much longer then a few more days. If he did not reach the new lands by the following night he feared he would surely die and in his death he would have failed both his mother and his sister. His pace was agonizingly slow and every step felt as though it might be his last. his tung lulled from the side of his mouth as his ears drooped. His breath ached and his legs shook as he fought to stay standing. He was about to give up, lay down on his side and awake death to come and relieve him of his pain and suffering so he could find peace away from here. But then he saw it. he blinked his eyes as he crested the last rocky jut tout and saw the world beyond. This place stole his breath and he found himself numb to the pains of his body and he stared in Awe of the beauty of it, this had to be the place. There was no other that could possibly be the place of his clans new home. In his excitement he forgot all feelings of pain or exhaustion and flew forward in a mindless exploitation of energy. he charged down the side of the mountain as fast as his travel wary limbs would carry him, till they failed…
Just before he the slope of the mountain began to level off Ripty tripped. his speed made it impossible to recover his feet and he rolled nose over tail tip down the remainder of the mountain and came to rest in a crumbled heap against a tree trunk. his body appeared broken and lifeless. He did not rise and it seemed as though no life remained in the shadow that had become of him. Here he lay till night fall, a chill fell around his lifeless form. This how he was found, thought to be dead until he was rolled over and let out a slight whimper. He was cared for where he lay until he was able to fight himself out of the sleep he had been forced into by his weak and frail body. When Ripty finally opened his eyes he looked up into the face of a female with golden war paint. This fox explained to him about the clans of this territory and that he was now in the territory of the Voidrunner Clan and she was the alpha. Ripty was fascinated by his new found acquaintance and questioned her hesitantly about the possibility of a new clan moving through the territory, But to his horror the female confirmed his worst fears. there had been no signs of his clan clearing the mountain. His only thoughts where that his sister and all those who knew had perished and that it somehow was his fault. The female told Ripty that he could not leave this place now, for her clan was a secret and for him to leave and go forth to find his clan would be a deadly threat to her and those within her clan, he agreed to her terms. Here he would remain and pay the debt to his new companion who had nerved him back to health.
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