It wasn't often that Lyre thought of Terry. It was a true fact that she had loved the pup and, even know, had missed his presence tremendously. Not even Vermilion, bless her best friend's existence, could completely wipe away the ache that had accompanied the wolf's death. It was strange to say that Alpha preferred to forget about Terry on most days and, for a fact, managed to accomplish just that many times. Who would want to forget such a great friend? Still, Alpha didn't wish to recall the pleasant memories if she would just drown and wallow in misery. Now was such a time where she chided herself for feeling a tad bit emotional for a digital friend. A moment where she couldn't stop herself from reminiscing of her fallen friend who she considered to be both her own child and best friend. "Terry," she whispered as she grabbed the glowing red fragment that was placed neatly in her own satchel. With all the recent events, Alpha hadn't been nearly as considerate of the remnant of Terry as she should've been. Sure, she had lost much hope of him ever returning from this form but he was still someone she had to protect. She clasped the warm fragment and it seemed to comfort her; soothing her soul as she held it to her chest. She raised a hand and wiped a stray tear forming at the corners of her eyes. The best thing to do was to live the life Terry would've wanted for her; a completely free experience without any mind for the consequences. To do what she wanted. To help out her Vermilion to the best of her ability. As she stood up from her crouched position, she pocketed the fragment back into her satchel and took a look around at the desolate landscape. That was enough reminiscing and sightseeing for one day. Maybe she'd pay a visit to Druuk Island and make a pirate crew. Plunder a few towns. Liven up a bit with uproarious partying. That sounded like a good idea.
Having once been in one of the starting areas, Elise found herself wandering in the barren landscape away from town. She had a map in her hands, a rather shoddy looking rapier sheathed at her waist-side and seemed to be perplexed while looking over the map itself. How did she end up all the way out here of all things? Well the truth of the matter was, as good as Elise's real life counterpart was at mapping, her in-character self was abysmal at it! Her sense of direction was still very poor and it wasn't all too hard to guess why when your player is a NEET that only knows the way to her local coffee shop and general snack store. Her heels clicked against the ground as she stepped along the area, she looked almost like a nun with the outfit she wore, the white hair-band definitely not helping that case one bit. Still, it wouldn't have been too far from the truth given her religious views on the world. Her mind was snapped out of the attentions towards her map when the sound of a loud 'YIP!' met the air and the girl turned her head around to see a slightly teary-eyed wolf pup that had it's tail stepped upon by Elise's heel. "Oh no, you poor thing!" Immediate regret and concern flushed over Elise, having crouched down near the wolf pup to check and see if it was alright. The wolf pup was a light brown, looking rather dusty which probably was a good indication that it wasn't the same type of wolves found in the forest areas near the spawn for beginners. As she reached her hand out, attempting to give the canine a comforting pet to show that she didn't mean to hurt it, the little one bit her hand causing her eyes to tear up and shake her hand slightly from the simulated pain. It was minor in comparison to what it could have been in reality but it still hurt! "O-oww!" She exclaimed but as the pup landed, it barked at her and soon enough the ground began to rumble a little. Other barking calls began to fill the air and as Elise stood up, she saw it. A pack of wolf pups that all began charging at her, in an effort to group up together to conquer the fiendish girl that had stepped upon their brother's tail! "Wait! Aaaaah!" The girl turned around and began to flee as fast as she could, running across the landscape with, of all things, a stampede of wolf pups! Her ocean blue eyes set upon a girl that had seemed to stop crouching and was looking around the area, not knowing that it was Alpha. "E-excuse meeee! Can you please help me?!" She cried out, bolting towards the girl while giving some desperate plea for aide against the little grouping of wolves that pattered against the ground in hurried chase. Of course Elise could have easily tried to fight her way against the pups but, come on! They were just pups, they didn't even grow up fully yet! She couldn't in good conscience kill such a young creature!
Alpha's eyes widened as a voice pierced through her thoughts and, as she turned, she found that an unusual sight had greeted her. A girl of exceptionally tall size (at least a foot taller than Alpha herself!) bolted straight at her and, on her heels, was an entire pack of wolves. Despite hearing the girl's pleas for help, Alpha herself felt panicked by the suddenness of this onslaught and, without a thought, dashed away in the opposite direction, her speed as a rogue giving her a slight advantage. "You'll never catch me alive!" she yelled out at the top of her lungs as she jumped over a few obstacles in her way. After a few seconds of running, she decided to look back to check the distance between her, the exceptionally tall girl, and the pack of wolves were. That turned out to be her undoing as, within that very second, she crashed straight into a boulder. "Ow ow ow!" she cried, rubbing her swollen cheek as she stumbled, dazed. By the time she had regained her thoughts and composure, she was welcomed by the sight of a circle of wolves surrounding her. She squeaked and closed her eyes, hoping the girl was here. "Uh, if you're here strange-blue-haired-girl, can you give me a sign? Actually, it'd be better if you'd tell me what's going on here and how we're gonna, uh, get out of here alive? I really like living, you know? I mean, it's just something I really like doing. Living. So, uh, let's not die. Er, well, don't let me die, alright?" @Élise Colette
What hope that Elise had of being rescued by the other girl was quickly flipped on it's head with Alpha's turning away to instead flee instead of aiding Elise in this peril. As a result, Elise ended up with more tears in her eyes and a quicker pep to her step in trying to keep up with the other girl. She dashes after the running girl, having to jump over a few obstacles but with less finesse than the roguish girl had and merely dumb luck and good angles. How did she end up in these predicaments? Well she'd just have to chalk it up to the work of the gods and lament this series of unfortunate events. Alpha turning to look back would see the blue-haired girl closing in only for the inevitable crash to bring the two girls side by side with the wolves surrounding them both. They were still young things and thus weren't very tough as far as enemies could go but it was mainly the amount of them that proved the problem. Elise listened to the other girl's plight and offered up her own words in return. "I'm still here, no worries, eheh... though I'm not sure exactly how we're going to deal with these little fellas. I ended up stepping on one of their tails by accident - I didn't mean to, honest!" She removed her rapier from it's sheath and pointed it outwards in some minor attempt to protect herself. "Should we fight ourselves out of this? I'm still quite new but I could try to at least fend them off somewhat? Maybe we could just scare them away by swinging our weapons their way?" It was a positive outlook on their situation but the only real choice there was for Elise since she was still a beginner in most of her skills. Her swordsmanship needed work and she hardly had any abilities that she could utilize effectively. "Additionally if you know how to deal with animals that could help? Anything like food or meat you could toss at them as a distraction so we can run?" More running? Well it wasn't the worst idea, better than sticking around here and waiting for their bodies to be bitten to heck by angry wolves trying to avenge a tail stomp! Elise swung her weapon, managing to hit one of the wolves that had jumped at her and knock it back to it's starting position. It barely took off any health but it was enough to at least make that wolf think twice before coming in for another shot towards the weapon's wielder. "Any ideas, miss...?" It occurred to her that she never introduced herself within all of this panic. "Ah, I'm Elise, Elise Colette by the way! I'm so sorry I got us into this mess."
Hyperventilation. Apparently it was one of those serious medical conditions that Alpha never took the time to read up on. She knew the basics, of course. And she definitely knew that she was going through the stages of that particular condition right now. Unfortunately, she had little time to think about that on top of the added stress of being chased down by a pack of ravenous wolves (which, while cute, reminded her too much of Terry for her own good) and being given a reassurance that seemed dubious at best. And then, suddenly, an idea flickered into her mind. Hastily, she turned to face Elise (drawing some wary growls in the process) with eyes befitting an anthropomorphic light bulb. She pointed to her flickering ears which, while merely a particularly nice costume choice, had an uncanny resemblance to wolf ears. She whispered across conspiratorially, as if the wolves could understand their language perfectly. "I think maybe I can trick them into thinking I'm a wolf, too. And then I can convince them not to eat us!" It was easier said than done, however, as the moment she finished saying those words a sense of unease fluttered through her. Almost immediately, worries began to float around in her mind. What if they didn't believe her? What if they try to get her to eat wolf food?! She'd seen dog food at the supermarkets and she remembered Terry's disgusting habit of eating raw fish. She shuddered. She did not want to eat that kind of stuff. Hesitantly, reluctantly, and slowly, she bent down to a crawl and started to make her way closer to the nearest wolf. "Awoo," she howled, poorly mimicking the creatures in question. "Arf. Wolfy. Woof. Bark," she said enthusiastically, completely failing to properly enunciate the onomatopoeia and instead simply reciting the human pronunciation of each word. The wolves looked unconvinced. Finally, after seeing that the wolves made no move to attack, she turned around to look Elise in the eye. "Arf!" she barked, gesturing for the girl to follow her example. If the girl took the hint, hopefully they'd be able to get out of this sticky situation alive and with all their limbs intact. @Élise Colette
Elise could tell that Alpha had begun to panic, it wasn't something in the voice more in the way she physically reacted to the situation they were in. A quickened breathing pattern and sweat slightly rolling down the corner of a brow. Elise wanted to help calm the girl down in whatever way manageable but she was having a hard time keeping herself under control with how they'd ended up surrounded like this. With her weapon drawn, she was afraid it'd come down to a fight and if it did she didn't know if she could protect Alpha let alone herself! However that didn't come to pass since the other girl seemed to speak up towards her with a rather unorthodox idea in mind. Hearing Alpha lean over, she perked up and began to listen. The idea that the girl could pass herself off as something similar to a wolf with those cosmetic ears of hers atop her head was something that made Elise surprised and unsure if it'd really work. In fact she was doubting the plan at all, even though she really really wanted to believe in Alpha and that the plan would instead prove to be a success. Instead of raising any verbal complaints or doubts towards the other girl, she simply nodded and allowed her to try her best to try and soothe the beasts and calm them down at least to a passive level. Just in case, Elise grabbed onto the handle of her rapier tightly, prepared to use it should one of the wolves attempt to attack the other girl. She was less worried over her own well-being and instead placing her safety behind Alpha's own, after-all the other girl had offered some form of a plan where Elise could only think to run and hide. For that, she had Elise's respect and protection, she'd brought Alpha into this mess so it was also her responsibility to get the other girl out of it! Elise did have to hold back a bit of snickering and giggling though once Alpha began to make little wolf noises in some attempt at communication. Oh god, what was she expecting out of this? She had to do everything in her power just not to laugh outright at Alpha, if it wasn't for the fact that the noises themselves were so gosh darn humorous she might've even thought that Alpha looked ridiculously cute doing them! The wolves didn't seem all too impressed and still had their short little grumbles and growls, even if they weren't attacking it didn't show that they weren't going to eventually. When Alpha turned to look at Elise, the latter was confused! What did Alpha want her to do? W...was she asking for her to make the noises too? Oh gosh, anything but that! Having seen Alpha do it was embarrassing enough and that was just Elise being embarrassed for Alpha! With a shake of her head and a redness to her cheeks, she showed her dismissal of the idea. Elise looked to the wolves and eventually one of them jumped up towards Alpha with it's teeth opening up and shining with a sharp glint to the air. "Look out!" Elise called out, her body reacted on reflex and she lunged forwards. She wasn't sure what she was doing anymore, merely swinging her weapon outwards towards the wolf and batting it down against the ground. It was a solid hit, definitely not a skillful one but at the very least it got the job done. The wolf had a minor injury now, it's health gauge showing that it definitely didn't take that blow well. "Y-you should run! I don't think our plan of distracting them with wolf noises went too well. I brought you into this mess, you don't need to stay here in it with me. Y-you've got experience in the game already right? Don't waste effort on someone new like me, you can escape. I'll um, I'll just try to fight them off for as long as I can. Maybe I'll even be able to escape once I've taken down a few of them?" Elise was frightened, of course she was. She didn't have anything really to her, she was still fresh to this world but she took on the fault that this started because of her and she didn't want to put another person at risk because of her. If she died here because she messed up then that was all because of her, she didn't want Alpha to suffer because of a mistake that she herself made. "I'm Elise by the way, Elise Colette... it was nice to meet you, even if it was under such weird circumstances!" She offered a smile, best that she could, she didn't want to show just how completely afraid she was. @Alphabet Chocolate
The salty tears stung as they dripped down Alpha's red cheeks, a bit of snot poking out of one nostril. There was a quivering smile that seemed to feel at home on Alpha's lips as she raised her hand to wipe some of the excess water pooling around her eyes. "That's just so sweet and noble and beautiful!" Alpha wept, swooning over Elise's profound words and magnificent sacrifice. This reminded her of a scene straight out of a Renaissance-period romantic play of some sort and it moved Alpha to the point of tears. Never before had she met a girl like Elise and, with her words, a spark of courage began to get all riled up in the pit of Alpha's stomach, her eyes blazing as she steeled herself. She lifted herself up the ground, her cosmetic ears twitching as she did so, and she placed herself protectively in front of Elise. She turned her head a bit back so Elise could see the reassuring wink Alpha had given her. "Don't worry!" Alpha smirked, toothy and confident despite her reddened cheeks. "I've got this! Name's Alpha, by the way! Alpha and Elise...it has a ring to it!" And then Alpha looked over the pack, tossing a quick glance at the hasty one who had been pushed back from its assault by Elise's blade. She cleared her throat and, after a few seconds of tension without a movement from either side, she tossed the wolf a considerate glance. "Is this how you want to live your life?!" Alpha said, stern and authoritative in spite of her small frame and chubby cheeks. "You remind me of a friend, you know? I can bring you with me! I'll teach your about the wonders of the world from the Sweets Emporium in Stokbon to the cheesy mushroom makers in Dormont! We can be friends, you know?" Alpha extended a hand to the injured wolf. "I am offering you a potato," Alpha announced. Then, she turned to face the rest of her canine audience. "And the same offer extends to all of you! Stop the fighting and stuff and I'll give you all potatoes!" Beast Taming Modifier: +30 Thrown die: 57 Result: Success.
