[PurpleBox]

this is a RP between myself and CactuarJoe. Don't post unless you are one of us, feel free to creep and stalk the rp though ^^

[PurpleBox]

Storkall was a cold land, winter lasted for a good portion of the year, making it hard for the inhabitants to grow food, game was rich so they lacked for no meat. Humans, elves and dwarfs came and went form the capital city on the southern cost of the land, trading and selling wears form across the sea in warmer lands. Why would people even want to settle in this cold land? There are two reasons.

The rich ore and gem filled mountains that covers most of the land to the north, and for the rulers of the cities, The Round, it was the magic that lay in the land.

The first to even come to this land where the founding memberd of The Round, they found a rich yet cold land, and they met the 'natives', packs, clans and herds or wild beasts with humans form.

Dubbed Shifters by all who met them and survived the native enabitances of Storkall fought visously against those who dare invade thier terrytory. Slowly but surely the advanced weapons and magic of The Round won out.The Shifters surrendered themvels into the care of The Rounds embrace.

Now they work the mines that have been carved into the mountians and fight in the pits for teh amusement of the other races. The once proud people are a shadow of their former glory, still they are deadly and restless, unrest inwithin their ranks, fights against gaurds and whispers of a Uprising move around the capital.

The gaurds where crackign down on any shifter even putting a toe out of place, they where rarely allowed to tak eon thier 'Soul' forms, as the Shifters called their animals selves the true shape of thier souls.
The shape they wehre most comfortable in.

On this day teh garuds and several soilders wehre tring to serpess a riot in one of the fight pits, it was hard to tell the new blood on the floor form the old, fangs clashed with swords, fur with metal armour. Pale blue eyes watched form the shadows as dirty and bloodstained fingers tugged at the tight collar around a pale neck. Curly pale blonde hair like moonlight was matted with dirt and blood aswell.

Tristan bit his lip hard enough to almost draw blood, this woudl be his only chance to escape....so with his bear feet not making a sound the blond shifter kept the shadows as best he coudl as he made a break for it.
--------------------
It had not gone as smoothly as the blonde male would have liked.He'd run into a new lookign gaurd, in leather armor instead of metal.
The yougn gaurd had drawn hsi sword when he had spotted Tristan,
and Tristan couldn't stop himself as his instincts kicked in, his limbs changed with a fluid grace that few new shifters possessed and soon as a pale wolf lunged at the gaurd who never stood a chance.

What was left of the guard was unrecognizable, parts torn off and chewed on, blood decorated the cobble and dirt back street and wolf paw prints could be seen sprinting away from the scene.

The pale wolf found his way out of the city threw a drainage grate for waist. Tristan was more then used to smells like this so it didn't bother him at all, and the sun was falling behind the mountains so darkness would give him more cover.

Guards posted on the walls of the city woudl later that night gossip about the white animal they saw darting into the forest and sticking to the shadows soon after.... few woudl even relies that a 'tamed' Shifter had just escaped the city.

[CactuarJoe]

The day was overcast and cool with a mild breeze rustling the branches of the nearby Fir and Maple trees. A slate blue sky streaked messily with large gray clouds provided backdrop to the verdant mountain side, it was a quiet corner of the world bothered only by the sound of the wind, the call of birds, and the muffled, yet rhythmic and steady sound of a pickax striking dirt. The reason for this out of place sound was because of a cave-in from a small personal nearby mine. The reason for it being so muffled is because the digger was trapped behind said cave-in.

Embla Truvein buried the head of her pick deep into the wall of soil in front of her. Muscles built up over years of solo mining easily helping her tear away rock and root and clay. After what seemed like hours her ax finally broke through to the outside, allowing a thin stream of cool air to push into the tunnel and cool her sweating and hot body. Moments later the thick blonde braids of the solitary Dwarf were swaying gently in the mountain breeze as Embla rested upon a fallen tree.

She had been mining on the small bit of the large Fuurial Mountains, a chain that stretched from far to the Northwest to even further South. Finding such a secluded and unclaimed area wasn't as hard as lugging the supplies and equipment to keep her going as she mined her claim. It was a quiet and, sometimes, lonely existence but Dwarves were known for their stalwart nature and even with the rumor of bands of wild Shifters in the mountains she hardly ever felt unsafe. There was more to fear in the mines by herself than out in the wilderness. Dangers like the cave-in she had caused bumping her heavily laden cart into an ill set beam on her way out. "Gonna need ta check those beams every rainfall." Embla grunted to herself quietly as she took a pull from her water-skin next to her on the ground.

Despite the setback, her haul of rocks and earth were more than enough to lift her spirits from the drudgery of a few tense hours of digging out. Embla may not be the best of Dwarves but she definitely was an optimist and she could just feel it in her bones that there were gems hidden in that cart, or at least some workable ore. She'd take either happily enough, though she preferred finding a glittering treasure peeking out at her as she prospected her haul. Greed wasn't her driving force so much as the thrill of discovery and she sought it constantly. Picking the relatively flat hill top at the base of the mountains here had been a large boost to that joy. The following weeks of chopping wood and building her cabin had passed easily and now she had a warm home to retire too each night after a day of digging and caving. It was a good life for Embla who had been yearning for a place of her own since she was young enough to lift a pick.

[PurpleBox]

For the first two days after his escape, Tristan was pursued by guards, he hadn't gotten far into the forest before it was dark. Normally the dark was a friend for him, a quite, comforting time where he could sneak around as a pup to try and see the stars in a open area of the pit.

But, the pale blonde shifter had not even seen the outside of the city ot the pit since he had been small. A young pup that had been snatched from his family in the northern most mountain.

Every couple of years The Rounds special trained soldiers made excursions into the northernmost forest and mountains to take children from the wolf pack and the bear clan. Equipt with silver weapons and magic that kept the human bodies warm in the harshest climates of Storkall.

Those where not fond memories for Tristan, he remembered the day he was caught though, very well remembered it. It pale skin still held some criss cross scars across his back from being caught in a silver net, after all the younger a Shifter was the more effective the silver. That was one reason that The Round tried to capture young pups and cubs, who were not strong and who would be vulnerable without their families.

Tristan came to the base of the first mountain after the third day. His clothes had been destroyed days ago when he had killed that low level guard, shredded form his transformation, not that Shifters truly needed cloths... if they were cold they could become their true shape to keep warm, and that is just what Tristan had done for the past three days.

He had to turn back to his two legged form eventual though... if anyone saw his true soul shape, a pale, almost white wolf, they would be terrified. "Because that is what The Round had told them all." he muttered to himself, his voice ragged from not being used. Most Shifters in the pits talked to themselves... after all what were once a people that trusted one another no matter what their true soul shape was,were now so untrusting of each other that it was very rare for a shifter in the pits or mines to trust someone outside their immediate family.

Tristan had no family in the pits... he'd been the only pup taken from the mountains the year he had been taken to the pit. Suddenly a scent found its way to Tristan's still sensitive nose. It wasn't a human or elven scent... it smelt of earth, stone, forest and sweat. Someone was living here, who wasn't part of the mining operations of the Round because Tristan could only smell one person's scent....

Curious but cautious he tugged at the heavy leather collar still fashioned around his neck, the lock was silver, the skin it touched felt no sensation anymore... and bore a scar that looked very old. There was no way in either form for him to get it off so he had left it.

Slowly Tristan moved his mud, dirt and twig dusted body through the underbrush, moving closer to the scent, it soon gained a feminine aspect to it and that intrigued the lone wolf even more. His blue eyes seemed to glow from the shadows, something he couldn't stop even if he wanted.

Tristan didn't know a lot about his own kind... he knew what lore still lived on in the pits... but since he had been born outside of the pits he KNEW that they had more lore...he just didn't remember it all...getting hit over the head as a child would do that. The closer the got to the scent the more he felt his stomach begin to grumble at him...he'd be fine... he hoped.

As much as he could eat the flesh of another person without blinking he preferred to save that as a last resort.... beef or deer was much better, the area around his lips was slightly blood stained as well as his finger from the small rabbit he had found last night.

[CactuarJoe]

Moving the cart to her home and replacing all of her mining tools to their proper places occupied Embla as the sun set. There wasn't enough sunlight to be able to prospect by and she knew it would be an amateur move to try and go by fire or oil lamp light."No, it'll jus have ta wait fer mornin'" Embla grumbled disappointed. When she had something she wanted to do or needed doing she wanted to get it done right away. "Don't wanna disappoint Flatbeard, he'd be more gruff if I screwed up my find." So Embla busied herself instead with preparing dinner. She grabbed some meat that had been curing, potatoes, onions, some herbs she had found growing in the surrounding area and got herself a large mug of ale from her personal keg.

Dinner was soon finished, and even sooner devoured, and Embla found herself sitting on the single step she had up to her cabin, a newly filled mug sitting on her knee as she lounged with her back against her door. Off in the distance she heard the nocturnal animals of the forest waking and going off for their own meals. Wolves howling, owls hooting, and every once in a while the thump of a dead tree falling over from, something. Embla still didn't know what was knocking them over, she lacked the imagination to really care except in the moment. Her mind was for the most part on her quest for gems. Big gems, small gems, gems that hide in rocks, she thirsted for them. Craved them like her kind do for precious metals, or money, or adventure, Dwarves could be very single minded.

As her gulps of ale brought her mug closer and closer to empty Embla found that warm embrace of sleep and drowsiness wash over her. She stood up and put out the small lamp she had next to her front door and went inside, closing the door behind her. Soon she was comfy in her hammock on the far wall, preferring sleeping up in the air compared to a bed on the ground, a strange quirk for a Dwarf. After going over a mental list of what she needed to do the next day Embla was soon happily asleep, dreaming of what she would find in her cart.

[PurpleBox]

Soon the pale blond found himself at the edge of a small clearing that held a cabin, the feminine scent covered the area so he had to guess that this female had been here for a while at least. A he moved around the edge of the clearing another aspect of the scent came to him,it was dwarf...the shorter people of the stone that he had seen in the stands of the pit.....a female dwarf out here by herself? What was she lookign for.... he hesitantly poked into the clearing, he found mining tools so his question was answered... she was mining for her own.

He was still crouched low as he moved towards the cabin, his crystal blue eyes seamed to glow in the night and because of this he had no trouble seeing in the dark and found his way towards a window at the cabins side. Tristan had always been to curious for his own good,curious about the world around him and curious about the other races that had come to Storkall.

Looking in through the window he didn't see a bed so his eyes roamed around what they could see and then he saw a shape sleeping in, what to him looked like a hanging sack... only bigger and with more room. Like
a puppy almost he tilted his head wondering why someone woudl want to sleep suspended over the air....more so a dwarf, what he knew of them was limited to what he had over heard, and he had gathered that they were all greedy gem, metal and stone loving beings....beings that valued wealth and material things.

The dull warmth from the cabin was making Tristan sleepy... he knew it was a bad idea, but he moved to the back of the cabin, making the change back into his true soul shape, the layers of fur adding to the warmth he was feeling as the pale wolf now curled up with his back pressed against the base of the cabin, crystal blue eyes looking up to the moon one last time before they began to slip shut.

[CactuarJoe]

The soft creaking of wood and rope mixed with the swelling and diminishing of bird calls acted as a gentle wake up call for Embla, who drowsily rubbed the sleep from her eyes. Rolling out of her hammock she stretched the stiffness from her limbs and walked to a barrel near her front door containing mountain spring water. There she splashed some water on her face, got a mug full for refreshment, and dressed eagerly to go and investigate her find.

"It's gonna be a good day for 'ol Embla." she said happily as she stepped out her front door to head for her prospecting stand. Stepping down into the dew soaked grass Embla halted. Looking all around her she surveyed the surrounding mountain side. There weren't any sounds of moving wildlife, nor had the birds ceased their relaxed songs, yet still Embla felt a sense of disturbance in this area she called home. Casually, Embla walked to her stand and grabbed her mattock, years of using it had built up her familiarity with it along with the muscles needed to wield it well in both combat and the mines.

A good piece of iron in hand Embla began to search her surrounding land, her own cabin. Obviously nothing, or no one, had been hiding inside so she walked the perimeter to check the outside. Her barrels of supplies had no intruders hiding behind them and Embla began to calm down about her domicile before she walked around to the back of her home and saw something white laying and snoozing against her home. Embla wasn't sure if this was a dog or an albino wolf, nor was she sure why it was even sleeping against her cabin but it couldn't stay, not for her own safety. So she planted her feet, readied her mattock on her shoulder, and called out in a loud voice, "OIIIIIII!"

[PurpleBox]

Tristan had been in a light sleep when the sun had risen,warming the small clearign around the cabin and warming the pale wolf, makign him curl up tighter into a ball in content. HIs ears twiched when he picked up the dulled sound of the female dwarf inside movign about. Slowly he opended his blue eyes when he heard the footsteps moving towards the back of the cabin where he was.

He tensed closing his eyes again, hoping that she would be intimidated by the sleeping form of him...that was dashed when her loud 'OIIIIIII!' made Tristan's ears ring and his form to uncurl and spring up. His paws dug into the dirt as his blue eyes made eye contact with the dwarf.

Sometimes Tristan cursed his sensitive ears... in both his human skin and his true soul form. Pale ears where now pressed down back against his head, his pose was a mix of defensive and non threatening, he held himself back form bearing his teeth... he didn't want to fight... The young wolf had more then enough of fighting in the Pits.

Tristan wondered if this female dwarf could see in his eyes that he wasn't just some animal, he'd heard the guards in the city say that his peoples eyes always held a human intelligence to them... unless they ended up a berserker int eh Pits...when a Shifter let go of the part of themselves that allowed them to maintain a human form they where no longer Shifters.... not to their own kind at least. They became a lost one, because they lost the part of them that kept them form being a mindless animal, unable to be reasoned with.

It was clear that the wolf that stood before the lady dwarf was scrawny, under fed. Not starving but not as filled out as a normal wolf, Tristan stood taller then most normal wolves... he came up to a humans chest most of the time. His light blue eyes looked over the form of the dwarf in front of him, taking in her muscles and the peppering of dirt on her hands. He'd never known a female of any race to have much muscles... it was interesting.... he found his curiosity taking point over his need to protect himself, his human body held scars from the times his curiosity had gotten him beaten as a pup by either the older shifters who where not nice or the guards for 'trying to escape'.

The pale wolf didn't think it woudl be a good thing to change forms right in front of this dwarf. The sunlight glinted off the heavy metal ring around his neck, it stood out against his pale fur in the early morning light.

[CactuarJoe]

The echoes of Embla's shout slowly faded off with the sound of surprised birds fluttering off. The wolf remained, it hadn't bolted, it hadn't charged, it just stood there, watching her. Embla slowly lowered the mattock so the iron head touched the ground, she kept a grip on it in case this was a smarter than normal wolf who was trying to trick her. "Shoo shoo." she said softly, waving her hand to try and get the wolf to leave. "Is this a wolf?" Embla thought to herself "Maybe it's only half of one." It wasn't uncommon to find half breed wolves near mountainous regions.

"So what are ya, wolf or no?" Embla asked crouching down and slowly extending her free hand out palm down. She knew this was risky but if what was in front of her did decide to attack she was confident she could handle it even in her crouched position. She was a stock dwarf and had powerful legs, it would be fairly simple to roll back and kick the wolf away should it pounce. Also if it did manage to get a bite out of here then she'd finally have some battle scars to bring home and tell stories of. Embellishments about the size of the wolf and her own actions would be weaved in but such was the norm with dwarves.

"I've got things to do today Wolf." Embla grumbled not wanting to turn her back without knowing the animals intentions, there was definitely something odd about this wolf though. It's eyes were locked on hers and followed her in an almost intelligent way. She definitely didn't want to turn her back to it without either scaring it off or killing it. Not that much else could happen in between, a druid she was not.

[PurpleBox]

Tristan held still as the dwarf female extended her hand, palm out towards him... he couldn't hold back the instinct to sniff at the palm. To take in more of a new scent and commit it to memory, his nose twitched as he breathed in and the scent of the female in front of him filled his mind for a moment.

Tilting his head his ears twitched as she asked if he was a wolf or not, it sounded rhetorical, yet at the same time he knew he wasnt acting like a real wolf or dog. His eyes were a clear sky blue that no feral animal had and he knew that his eye's had never lost that intelligent stare when he was in his true soul form.

Part of the young shifter wanted to find out what this dwarf would do if he turned back to his human form... so slowly and with careful steps he moved around the female, keeping his blue eyes on her as he stopped close to the tree line. Ready to run if she turned violent at the change. He had no clue how she would react... and it was his dammed curiosity that was pushing him to find out.

Relaxing his mind and his body, Tristan let himself slip back into his human shape. Bones collapsing back and stretching out into new shapes, his eyes closing briefly as his muzzle worked it's way back into a small nose and mouth.

Soon a pale, dirty and naked male was standing where the wolf had been. "Not... A wolf...really..." His voice sounding rough and unused. There was dried blood from his last kill, a rabbit a few days ago, smudging his fingers and his nails, his pale blond hair was a rats nest of tangles and a few small twigs and the like. His hair matched the color of the wolf's fur and his eyes where still the same intelligent blue that matched a clear sky.