Rowan Hathbi
Desert Rose
Equipment: Outfit
Tags:
Valery Noble
The north was a strange and foreign place to the one that had walked the scathing sands of the planet. Often without shoes or little more than a thin wrap about his body. The sun a constant reminder of the perils that could bring even the most prepared groups to their knees in the shifting sands.
A warmth that seeped into his bones and reminded him of the connection he had with a great many things that shared their existence with the planet.
But now, he and his had been chased from their sanctuary. Chased from the comfort of the blistering sands, from the beaming sun, and the comfort of what they knew for so many generations.
For the Hathbi Alpha, it was a time to become reacquainted with nature as it presented itself here in these foreign lands.
The same vein of life thrummed beneath it all. Sang with vigor and a joyous connection with all things that the north contained, produced, and devoured. Nature and its cycles a process that even the wheel of time could do little more than perhaps delay.
But never stop.
Nature only ceased when the greed and ambitions of two legs brought with it the promise of profit and carelessness.
Even the stones and mortar that made the home of the northern clans held some semblance of that connection. Singing old songs long forgotten perhaps by those that lived there now.
Some may have heard the subtle chants, the songs of memory, though even he struggled to make out more than the occasional word.
The half staff clacked against the ground, his steps cautious as he followed the trail of life laid out before him. A moss, growing along a log had caught his attention, kneeling enough to examine it with reverence before carefully removing a portion and placing it within a pocket of his garb.
Nestled alongside roots and dried herbs from his own lands, his acquaintance with the land slowly becoming more familiar as he identified the feeling of the plants around him.
Tread paths that shown in his mind as natural game paths and those that led to sights of natural splendor.
His attendance was not yet required anywhere, giving him time to do as he was pleased to do. His hand slid across the log, his head bowed to the offering that had made itself known before using the staff to rise and walk further.
The wind shifted as he moved, his body becoming rigid at the unfamiliar scent. The parts of which slowly identified in his mind. Fire. Unnatural at that. Wood always held a certain aroma, and what danced along his tongue and nostrils was anything but pleasant.
He adjusted himself, tracking the wind and scent before shifting to further trace the offending source.
His ill suited colors brazen against the woods and Northern colors that he ran against to find his target. Had the north been found out? Were there hunters nearby?
His own worries and anxieties of a similar event occurring driving him across the land with a fervent speed, his eyes settling along a sight of a great calamity for whomever had been involved.
A vessel, unceremoniously jutting from the ground, carving into the earth with the grace of a hammer applied with no care. It made his blood boil to see. His nose pressed to the ground, he circled the site until a strange odor presented itself upon his third turn around.
His ears flicked backwards, muzzle rolling with a contained snarl. A two leg had survived.
Another scent, much less noticeable was present, but his mind focused on the wrong one. Cared little for the notion of something familiar in that heated moment of spite.
"You cannot hide." The scathing remark from the Hathbi Alpha lingered among the trees and cold for none to hear, his paws unfeeling as he glided across the ground with a purpose.
The earth rolled with every step, the tremble of the ground at first soft with his anger before rage took its place. The trees swaying as the wind mimicked his breathing. His pace steady and concise, hunting, tracking.
Prepared.
The force swirled around his lupine form, the snow whirling as a protective element to hide him. The surrounding area becoming snow tossed as the wind carried his steps farther and faster, the earth marking his approach as nature lent itself to his body and being.
