lupei

What the truth is, I can't say anymore

He should probably go home. Probably. But the weather is amazing and the leaves have just begun to turn, and it honestly it would be a total shame to miss out on such a perfect opportunity to shift, maybe hunt a little bit. The Forest had always been a favorite area to do such a thing - it was relatively covered, and hosted enough small, furry little beasts to satisfy his whimsical need for flesh. In the daytime, he stood out like a sore thumb, (a handsome one, if he could say so himself) but in his other body he blended all too well into the background. With the kick of his heels he canters full on into the heart of the wood, whizzing past the less-interesting life forms until he comes to a seemingly secluded area of brush. He slows, lowers his velvet muzzle to the earth and inhales deeply. Perfect.

Within a seamless moment he’s no longer horse, but wolf. A great, shaggy, black beast that retains his blue eyes. He yips, feeling good in his other skin. It’d been too long since he’d kept this form, and the horse part of himself seemed to serve no purpose now that he’d got breeding season out of his system. He flops to the ground, rolls in the intensified smell of the forest floor, and then leaps up to bound into the shadows. He feels pity for all of the horses here in beqanna that will never experience this kind of freedom - the freedom to truly lose ones self to another shape, another purpose. When Lupei was horse he had people who depended on him, responsibilities. But when Lupei was wolf, there was no one person nor any one thing that held him back.

The splattering of light against his pelt feels good, and with his nose tipped to the air he can already sense something tasty not far off. But there’s another smell, fainter, unrecognizable. Lupei lowers his head and stands his ground, the scruff of his neck standing on edge. “Who’s there?” He snarls, tongue flicking out between his front teeth to test the air.

lupei

What the truth is, I can't say anymore

That shade of green. It taunts him, even as the filly stands there and keeps her mouth shut. “Astri...” He thinks, but it couldn’t possibly be her. A sibling then? One his mother had never mentioned? Impossible. The Chamber mare would never abandon any child of hers, and this particular foal has most certainly been abandoned. The silence between them deepens and Lupei finds himself one second away from bounding forward to press her into the earth and demand where she came from, but the girl is quicker to respond (rather, her body is) and she buckles before shifting.

His eyes widen. Another shifter, and wolf at that. Her snaps and taunting cause the brute to raise his head, jaw snapping open to let a single snarl rip through him. Whereas the horse had been timid, the wolf is unafraid. Lupei paces, tail sweeping upwards to curl over his backside in a display of dominance. She may be shifter, but from the looks of her transformation she hadn’t quite gotten the routine down. He eyes her, ears flat and gums bared, daring her to challenge - but he won’t give her that opportunity.

He lunges, letting loose another cry before bearing down on her, teeth gnashing together to try and grab her scruff and force her to the ground in submission. She’s no match for his size, but he’s not trying to kill her - only teach her a lesson. “Give in!” He snarls, the words coming out in mangled mess, “Give in or I’ll do much worse than this.” He offers. He didn’t want to maim her, certainly didn’t want to kill her, wolf-shifters weren’t common around here, but he’d be damned if he was going to let some pumped-up little mare threaten him.

Green coat or no.

lupei

What the truth is, I can't say anymore

He doesn’t release her until he can physically feel the tension between her shoulders dissolve. His jaw widens, slowly, and his teeth release the bulk of her scruff leaving her with nothing but perhaps a sore spot. Lupei rolls his tongue across the roof of his mouth to rid his palette of her unkempt fur. Children. “You’re strong, I’ll give you that.” He admits, turning away from her to shift back to his equine body. “But you’re untrained, irrational.” He tells her. His eyes pin her, mulling over her malnourished state for a moment before thinking about opportunity. On the one hand, he doesn’t want to offer a stray any hope, but on the other, he could gain a valuable tool. “Where are you from? Who’s your parents?” He questions, wondering if even the girl knew herself.

Lupei finds it a shame that gifted horses go abandoned in this world. Not only was it dangerous, as he’d showed her, but it made for trouble down the line when they couldn’t control themselves. Astri, his dam, had tried her best but being un-gifted herself she’d sought help from outside sources. Lupei had slipped up once, and it had cost a life. Now it’s no longer a matter of what he wants; taking in this girl seems a matter of necessity. “I can help you, train you, if that’s what you think you’d want.” Lupei says, tail twitching with the effort of being responsible. “I’ve been a shifter since birth, but I mastered it at a young age thanks to another horse.”

“You could be great.” Lupei ponders aloud. The true strength of a wolf lied within the pack - the hunt was stronger, more deadly. If this filly was willing to learn, Lupei could bet there would be others too. “But greatness comes with hard work.” He finishes, ending his talk with a hard stare at the younger wolf. If she turned away his offer, then Lupei would think her a fool. But, he wouldn’t think that this particular shifter was fool enough to turn away protection, food, and guidance.

lupei

What the truth is, I can't say anymore

He doesn’t notice her confusion at first - he’s so wrapped up in his own speech. That’s typical for him though; Lupei is as narcissistic as they come. Of course he doesn’t see when her gaze begins to narrow and a frown tugs at the edge of her lips. He can’t tell that she hasn’t remembered a thing at all about her shift, about being a wolf. He keeps talking and finally the girl answers, a name that has him digging as deep as he can into his subconscious. He can’t recall a Zwander, but the more he looks over her green coat the less likely it seems that any other horse around here would pass on such a specific coat gene. Inwardly, Lupei feels like he’s been hit in the gut. First Lestrade, now this filly. Zojja was right - he’d been a bit too busy for his own good.

When she asks him what he’s babbling on about, it sort of clicks in a section of his brain. Her face, her timid nature, the way she was tensed to run at any moment, like a faun. Lupei shakes his head slowly, eyes closing before he sighs and looks at her again. “You don’t remember, do you?” He asks, head lowering to meet her frightened stare. “You don’t remember changing into a wolf?” Lupei prods, ears falling forward to hear her reply. Normally, he’d be gone, casting her off as a loony like the greying stallion he’d met so long ago, but he can’t exactly abandon any life that he’s helped create. Astri had made sure to imprint upon him that family - no matter how unknown - always came first.

He’s not sure where to go from here - had her memory been wiped? Was her shifting a curse? He’d always remembered who he was in either form, so had Zojja. Clearly something in this young girl was missing. “Do you remember anything of your past? Do you even know your name?” He asks her, thoughts turning to who could help her if she really had no control over her gift. He’d never really been confronted with a problem of this magnitude before - but he wasn’t so easily willing to give up on her.

lupei

What the truth is, I can't say anymore

It’s her softness that irritates him the most. That shy, coy attitude bred into her no doubt on her mother’s side. He loathes it - the nature of women to be meek and mild. The bottom lip held precariously between her teeth grates against his nerves. If she were a colt, he’d be telling her buck up, to look him in the eye and never show cowardice against a larger enemy. But he withdraws these angry, irrational thoughts. He’d seen a flash of defiance in her - the side that had been given to her from him. All was not lost on this youngling. Her sporadic memory comes as a bit of a hinderance, but Lupei has never been one to back down from a challenge so he looks her over once more (Astri’s cold eyes peer at him from the netherworld) and clicks his tongue aloud instead of sighing.

“Umqra,” He begins, testing the name to find it satisfyingly bold. Not a name one would usually give to a filly. “I’m your sire, Lupei.” He ends, casting his die in hopes that the filly won’t question his authority. There was more of a chance that she was his anyways, and he knew that. There was the question of what to do with her now, what purpose she could serve in the long run if she couldn’t get a handle on her gift. Lupei has never been a teacher before, much less a father. He figures, though, that if he can stomach the burden with Zojja, another body to tag along can only do more good than harm. He doubts his wolfish counterpart will object too highly to the strange green filly before him - and if she did, then Lupei would find other means to house Umqra. But until that moment came, he’d keep her close by.

“You’ll be living with me now, understand? I’m going to help you fill in those gaps.” He commands, tail swinging behind him with relative ease. If Umqra really was his, and she really could find a way to get a grip on her powers, then there was no telling what other offspring of his may be lurking out in the wilds running rampant with some form of his genetics. The girl couldn’t possibly know it, but she sparked something within the two-toned stallion. An idea, hazy, unformed, but seeded in the back corners of his mind where it would grow and flourish. His eyes connect with hers and he smiles briskly, shortly, but still a smile. Yes, he reasons that little Umqra would make a fine addition indeed.