OOC: Hi everyone. I am White Ember one of the co-founders of this once

active and prosperous group. TAB has been in my heart for years and I

have been thinking of starting up again lately. Anyone interested? Lemme

know.



IC: Ember trotted through the streets, he had abandond his post with his

friends and left to patrol the streets of Nome. His paws left a trail in

the snow that encased the town. Every step was high and proud. His tail

was raised and he stopped to shake his fur in exhileration. It was a

sunny day and his white coat was shining. He sniffed the ground looking

for a fresh trail. This time he was not senting for food or to kill he

was hunting for a different kind of reason. He was searching for friends

he had lost and looking to the next generation of members to populate

the town he had once felt guardian to. His leathery nose grazed the

ground and he thought there was a faint wiff of somthing. A stranger

perhaps? Only fate could tell.



He lowered his tail and raised his muzzle to let out a mournful howl

that carried to the ears of all the inhabitants of the town. The sound

echoed far into the distance. He sat and cocked his head to the side in

a curious motion and flicked his ears listening for a reply.



OOC:If i dont respond to this right away i'm sorry i'm still in college

at the moment. I'm still an awful speller. Apologies.



GO BALTO! ^__^

OOC: Rar! Ember! :-D Welcome back! Don't disappear again! You don't update your

Livejournal or anything now, it's so hard to get in touch with you. What's your

E-mail address, you crazy furburger? If you don't want it on the public board,

you can drop it off to john.w.pullinger at gmail dot com.



BIC: "What in blazes?" Cobalt's dark-furred head pushed out of the

veterinarian's dogflap in the back door of the building. He'd heard a wolf howl,

right here in the middle of town. That either meant that one of Omara's wolves

had thrown caution to the winds, or one of those black-furred bastard wolves had

acquired a positive deathwish. Either way, the charcoal-and-grey Malamute had

business with whoever this was, and he hoped he got there on his mending legs

before any humans did with guns.



White Ember couldn't have known about the recent developments. How Cobalt's

musher had been attacked by Aranok, and an equally dark female, in and around

Nome. Actually _in_ the alleys in the town. People were scared, there had been

more than one death by fang and they wouldn't stop to ask questions if they saw

a big wolf pacing fearlessly along the road.



The animal's pawprints were easy to follow, and in an awkward and painful lope,

the sled dog managed to catch up with this oblivious lupine, worming his way

through a gap in a wooden fence to reach him. It wasn't one of the black wolves,

which to Cobalt's mind meant this wolf was one of the decent ones, park of the

pack he owed a debt to. "Get out of sight, you idiot!" he barked, hobbling

across to the large white wolf, still not fully recovered from his fight with

Aranok, "D'you want to get shot??" He caught glimpse of a few curtains twitching

in the windows further down the street



-John

She shook her head and did her best to clear it of the mewling voices that had

begged her to stay.  It seemed she had been in that human place of illness for

an eternity and she had not been able to carry her cubs out.  Still sore and

heavy with milk she had squirmed out of the vets office, trying to convince

herself that her young would be better protected where they were than out here

with her where their pursuers could take them.  Still she needed a plan, her

children couldn't remind trapped there indefinitely.  She knew that they needed

her protection, to a new mother, the world was full of dangers.



It seemed an ironic confirmation of her fears when she heard the howl.  Of

course if she had listened carefully she would have heard the subtle resonances

and timbre.  She would have known that it was not the voice of the wolf she

feared, but a stranger.  However her mind was full of thoughts of attack and

abduction.  Almost unconsciously her legs began to move her with all the speed

she could muster towards the source of the noise.



Arriving in a flurry of snow and raised hackles she looked at the cause of the

sound.  Seeing not only a wolf she had not expected and did not recognise, but a

dog from the vet's, she relaxed, but only slightly.  Looking over the dog and

his injuries, she turned to the wolf.



"Who are you? Why are you here? Has someone sent you?"



She was a competent fighter it was true, but not as strong as many she had come

across, still if this wolf was here for her cubs then she would use every ounce

of strength, every iota of skill to defeat him.

OOC: John I love what you've done with the place. It's nice to see that some of

the old posters havnt left their post. ^__~ i'll send you an email. Do you still

talk to Night Tracker, Artainis, White Wolf or any people from a looonng time

ago?



IC: Ember whirled around to face the two dogs and backed into a dark ally. A

place where he could defend himself on one side if need be, if they had friends.

He lowered his head submissively. His eyes glowed in the shadows.

      "I dont recognize either of them,"White Ember muttered. The bluish gray

huskie appeared to have a terrible limp but Ember was no stranger to battle in

these parts. "Were these the bad guys?" he wondered. He took note that the other

dog that had showed up,the new mother judging by her condition, was on edge.

      "I'm not here to hurt you...or your puppies." He added alittle

sardonically, looking each dog reassuringly in the eye. He came out of his bow

and wagged his tale alittle."I use to live around here, I use to know others who

were also inhabitants of Nome. My name is White Ember and I have travled far to

be reunited with what I have lost. You two appear to have troubles, is there

anything that I should know? I would gladly help with anything anybody needs.

I'm an excelent hunter with an acute nose and a sense of what is good and pure

and what is worth the lashing of my fangs."





-WE

OOC: Gaargh, no, I haven't done anything with TAB in ages. x_o The club's fallen stagnant yet again and I just haven't had the grit to kick it back into gear again. We did try to move it to an EZboard or Invision-eqsue forum at one point, but there were split opinions about it from the start and in the end it fell through anyway. Sheer fact of the matter is, members have to post, and currently there are so many members who've left that their characters are entangling those of the members who've stayed. We need an almighty great time advance, only by a week or two, so that every single character here has a nice, fresh starting point to play from, without being stuck in limbo in a scene that's left unfinished. Who else is in favour of that? Ember's return can mark the beginning of the new timeframe, set a week or a few weeks on from the previous set of posts.

Do drop me an E-mail though, Ember, definitely! Stay in touch, you slippery muppet. X-D And yep, I'm still in touch with the others. I haven't chatted to Sparf in a while now, but I catch his posts on Livejournal and I do know he still believes in TAB. <=) Tracker's in university now but I'm still in touch with her, too, though I don't catch her online much nowadays. And oi, do I keep in touch with White? *Pulls a Lion King on Ember and noogies her* We're married, ya plum. She's living here with me now. :-D You'd have been invited to the wedding if I had any means to contact you, but you'd dropped off the planet. :-P

BIC: The wolf was backing away, slinking into an alley, though it seemed it was out of wariness rather than following Cobalt's advice. Well whatever got the animal out of sight was a good thing, in this present climate. Clearly the guy had no clue about the deaths in town that had caused such a fearful timbre to decent on Nome. Every dog knew, when a human gets scared, they're prone to act unpredictably, often rashly. Since the sled dog practically owed his life to the more benevolent wolves outside of town, the last thing his sense of duty would allow was a member of that pack to get his brains blown out in the town that had hosted him these past months.

To help, or perhaps hamper, matters, the female wolf whom he'd seen at the vet's had come running up to investigate the howl as well. She'd never looked in a very strong state, and though Cobalt had never taken the opportunity to talk to her, he had assumed she was from Omara's pack. Clearly though, either he was wrong about that, or wrong about this male wolf here, since the two of them obviously didn't know each other. And, more to the point, she was now exposing herself to the attitude of the town as well. Jerry most certainly would have his hands full explaining this to the two-man police force if the wolves were traced back to the surgery. She needed to duck out of sight too, quickly.

The malamute listened to what White Ember had to say, anxiously shifting his weight from paw to achy paw. He knew about the bitch's cubs? Their scent must have been heavy on her after just having come from the vet's. "I see," he responded swiftly, glancing up and down the street, which luckily were still empty thus far, "I'm Cobalt, technically just passing through, but we've been held up." He snapped his attention to the female, "Listen marm, please get out of sight, you're in as much danger as this guy."

Cobalt had been lead dog of his team, he was used to giving orders, fair ones, and having them obeyed. Not out of sheer authority, but because his teammates saw the sense in them, and trusted his judgement. In this precarious situation, his sled dog instincts were kicking in again, and without properly intending it, he was giving out orders to the pair of wolves. As the only domestic dog between the three of them, wearing his broad mushing collar, he was the only one not at risk of being shot if he was seen.

Apologetically he turned his muzzle back to the male. "There's plenty you should know, pal, but you sure picked a risky place to find it out. Humans have been killed by wolves here. I was almost killed by a wolf. I don't know where my musher is, but his teammate was killed by a wolf and he himself is probably still in danger." It was a lot to get his head around, even now. Pete's slaughter at the hands of that huge black bitch in the alley, not far from here, right before the attack by Aranok, another huge black wolf. Something was going on. "Something about those pelts..." he muttered, punctuating himself with a frustrated swat of his tail.

-John

OOC:  Yeah, we could do a new chapter and characters can reset where they are

again.



IC:



The she-wolf relaxed a little, this "White Ember" was a stranger to her, but he

did not smell of the Tharadra'al and so she doubted he'd be after her children. 

It was true, the pregnancy and birth had not sat well with her and the shedding

of her coat was not adding to the overall impression.  She was a medium sized

wolf, under fed and smelling of birth, but right now adrenaline was lending her

a great deal of strength and her muscles showed clearly, though, to be fair,

there was not a great deal for them to show through.



"You want to help? There is a wolf outside of this town, a large black male who

goes by the name of Aranok.  Kill him and rid this land of a monster, that is

how you can help."



She was not by nature a violent wolf or overly prone to confrontation, but she

was in a strange town and she was already berating herself for leaving her

younglings alone.  The Malamute's assumption of authority would have made

perfect sense to her before, this was after all, his territory.  Now however she

turned to him and stared the dog right in the eyes, her hackles raised, her

meaning was quite clear, if he wanted to direct them, then he would have to

prove his worthiness.

Well, im taking control of Ember again, since Christy disappeared again. :/

Plus, Ive been playing him for so long now, I almost feel like he's my character

now. Is that horrible? *clings to him* ;_; And forgive me about the she-wolf,

what is her name? I cant for the life of me remember? ^^; Im sorreh.



IC:



The white wolf craned his head. his cheerful demeanor earlier had been abruptly

severed when these two came out of the vet's office to bombard him with angry

teeth and commands to back off and get out of sight. Okay.. this was a lot to

take in at once! The once leader of Nome sat there a moment, slightly

dumbfounded.



"A wolf.. wolves, killed a man? Attacked you and your musher? In town?" His

surprise was genuine. How could he miss such news? It was a small town! He shook

his head, eyes alarmed, great ears swiveled sideways and independent of each

other. Then he glanced at the still guarded female, her plea to hunt down and

kill this wolf she mentioned made him stare unbelievably at her. "Hunt and kill

a wolf? Wouldn't that make us just as bad as those wolves who killed the

humans?" God bless Ember, he was still trying to be the Leader with the right

mind to do what was right, no matter the situation. This situation was just

trickier than the previous few he'd been in.



"How do you know this... Aranok, if you don't mind my asking?" He asked

politely. he wasn't about to do anything without a good enough reason, no matter

what was going down. He turned back to the other dog. "Do you know any more

about the wolves that attacked the humans, and why they did what they did? And

what about wolf pelts? Whats going on?" The confusion and slight creeping panic

within his voice was clear. What exactly had gone on in 'his' town while he had

been away again? He just couldn't believe what was happening, could actually

have happened. He shook his head again, his gold eyes glistening. "I refuse to

hide. I have done nothing wrong."



~White Ember



--- In TheAuroraBorealis@yahoogroups.com, silverdraiko <no_reply@...> wrote:

>

> OOC:  Yeah, we could do a new chapter and characters can reset where they are

again.

>

> IC:

>

> The she-wolf relaxed a little, this "White Ember" was a stranger to her, but

he did not smell of the Tharadra'al and so she doubted he'd be after her

children.  It was true, the pregnancy and birth had not sat well with her and

the shedding of her coat was not adding to the overall impression.  She was a

medium sized wolf, under fed and smelling of birth, but right now adrenaline was

lending her a great deal of strength and her muscles showed clearly, though, to

be fair, there was not a great deal for them to show through.

>

> "You want to help? There is a wolf outside of this town, a large black male

who goes by the name of Aranok.  Kill him and rid this land of a monster, that

is how you can help."

>

> She was not by nature a violent wolf or overly prone to confrontation, but she

was in a strange town and she was already berating herself for leaving her

younglings alone.  The Malamute's assumption of authority would have made

perfect sense to her before, this was after all, his territory.  Now however she

turned to him and stared the dog right in the eyes, her hackles raised, her

meaning was quite clear, if he wanted to direct them, then he would have to

prove his worthiness.

>