Bristle Cone Pack Lore [Free to post!]

Bristle Cone Pack Lore

Dawn

The Beginning

A soft tongue glided over the pups head. It was rough in texture, yet soft in action. Two tiny golden eyes opened groggily from their slumber to see a lithe she-wolf gazing down at her. The adult wolf was strong, yet elegant. Her eyes were a cold green and her muzzle was plastered with scars. It was almost grotesque to look at. However, it was clear that the figure was strong. The scent of warm milk filled the pups nose, and she greedily shuffled over the to adults stomach to suckle and shoved her siblings out of the way as she did so. As the pup fed, the she-wolf chuffed in satisfaction. "You are strong, young one. You will bring great honor to the God's." The adult wrapped her tail around her three pups, holding them tight. She spoke to the suckling bully of a pup. "The Gods have sent me a message, my child. They say you will do great things. They say that you willl shine a new light on our race and that your name will spread far and wide. And for that I will name you for what you are. You are the beginning of a new era, and the end to a dark time. You are the Dawn."

Dawn began to grow. Fast. She was the largest pup of three. Her two siblings, Aconcagua and Gerlach, knew their place. Despite her size and strength Dawn was dedicated to caring for her siblings (as long as she was in charge). It was clear that Dawn was the most dominant pup in the litter and she liked it that way. Early on the she-wolf developed a proud and righteous personality, overlain with a heavy dose of adventure. She knew she was destined for greatness, and she wasn't going to wait for it. 

The great she-wolf and her siblings aged from pups to adolescents and they began their training. They were trained by all members of the pack, honing in on their skills and discovering strengths and weaknesses. It was discovered that Dawn excelled in battle and leadership, while her siblings were more well rounded. In her mind this made sense. Of course she would do well in these things. She was a natural borne leader! However, being young and eager lead her to be cocky and overconfident. This was a lesson that she would have to learn the hard way. 

Soon enough, after months of training, Dawn and her siblings set out. It was determined that the three wolves would travel on their own. With Aconcagua and Gerlach going their own way, Dawn went hers. She was ready for an adventure. She was ready for responsibility. She was ready to do something great.

Bristle Cone Pack Lore

  Dawn 

First Steps 

Dawn padded onward tirelessly. She did not know exactly how for she would go, but she knew that it had to be far. The she-wolf wanted to put as much distance between her birth pack and her as she could. She needed to do this so that she would have room to grow her empire. This is what she wanted. Dawn craved adventure and a following. No wolf ever did something great alone, and so she needed dedicated followers, henchmen, and fellow dreamers. 

The great wolf headed east, towards the rising sun. Each day she would wake with the sun and plunge herself into its blinding rays. She traveled onward, following the dawn each day. Eventually her birth pack's territory turned from  flat deciduous forest to rolling foothills as the scent market stopped, and in the faraway distance she could she mountains disappearing into the clouds. The ragged rocks and steep mountainsides screamed danger  and adventure. Dawn was drawn to the thought of a challenge, and to the landscape that could very well end her life if she was not careful. 

She hunted here and there, and only killed what she could eat. Her journey made her strong and lean. At night, she would nest in bushes or under trees. Sometimes when the stars were bright, she would travel through the night by their light. However, when the moon was full, that is when she felt the best. The cold light of the moon electrified her paws and made her feel as light as a feather. It was almost as if the she-wolf were absorbing the moon rays directly into her body. Her yellow eyes would glow with vigor as she traveled this way, unstoppable and never faltering.

After traveling for some days in the foothills, Dawn arrived at the base of the mountain range. She paused to take a breath and tilted her head back to gaze up in awe at the giant before her. The range was as much as an animal as she was, but even more fierce. The she-wolf knew that this would take all her strength and all the skills she had developed in her young life to make it out of the range alive. She had heard stories of strange happenings in the mountain passes to the east of her old pack's home, but she had never considered them to be true. The stories were rampant with myth and lore of ghostly beings prowling through the mountains, snatching up anyone who they did not deem worthy to wander their domain. Dawn did not think much of the stories her mother and pupsitter would tell her. She enjoyed them but was convinced that they were purely tales for pups. Without a second thought, she leaped forward and began to ascend the mountains.

The beginning of her ascent was deciduous woodland, which eventually gave way to a mixed stand dotted with large boulders ranging from the size of Dawn herself to ten times her size. Sometimes, the she-would would have to scramble over a large mound of the rocks just to pass. She chuckled to herself "Ha! It's as if giants put these here...". As the words slipped out, Dawn remembered a time when her mother told a tale of giant wolves who lives in the mountains. This was just one rendition of a pawful of stories her mother would toss in the mix, but the mystified and slightly shaken feelings she would experience as a pup crept into Dawn as she walked. "That is ridiculous. Dawn, shake it off. There is no such thing" she huffed to herself, shaking her head to clear it. 

On and on she went, higher and higher into the range. The mixed woodland gave way to short grass and even more rocks. She was by no means nearing the top, but Dawn had her eyes on a pass that would hopefully allow her to pass through the mountain range without summiting. 

Soon enough, the sun began to set on her tenth day in the range. She had ben traveling for quite some time and her body was starting to feel the effects of her journey. She was not hurt, but simply in the transition from a comfortable life in the pack to a more risky life where physical and emotional grit were lessons taught by hardship. Dawn settled down for the night under a rocky overhang. She would sleep out in the open, but the weather had been steadily getting cooler the last few days and she knew she would appreciate the insulation and protection from the wind. Just as she began to drift off to sleep, she could hear the wind outside begin to blow harder.

When she woke up, she was welcomed into a world of white. 

Bristle Cone Pack Lore

Dawn

The Ascent 

The world around her was white and so, so very cold. Luckily, Dawn had a thick coat. However, she was not as prepared for the winter as she would have liked to of been. It had slipped her mind that the snow came much sooner in the mountains than it did in the valley where here birth pack was still in the throes of autumn. 

Stepping out of the overhang she had sheltered in, Dawn plunged her paw tentatively into the snow. She sank into almost a foot of the cold white powder. It would be slow going, but it was doable. The large female ventured out fully from the overhang and was instantly buffeted by strong mountain winds. At first the wind stung her eyes but she quickly adjusted the way she held her face so the wind was not so sharp on her features. Dawn blinked her yellow eyes to clear them before pushing on into the snow and wind toward the pass between two peaks. In the distance she could see even darker clouds coming her way, but she could not stay here. She had to move on if she were to ever get out of the mountains. 

Dawn traveled for hours in the snow and wind. Little by little the wind had begun to pick up until she was actively fighting it. She had failed to realize that the weather was getting worse and that the snow was piling up to just past her elbows. The she-wolf had put her head down as she traveled, focused on her pace and getting to her destination rather than what was happening around here. Suddenly, a loud boom sounded above her, followed by a crackle and more booming. With a jolt Dawn craned her head back to look up. The pass was much closer now, and the two mountain peaks she was aiming to pass between were sheer cliffs before her. She had to crane her head to a full 90 degrees just to even try and look up to the top. Above her, at the top of the mountains, thunder boomed and lightning crackles. Dark clouds billowed above her and all around. This was no typical storm. It was a thunder snow storm. And it was about to strike with a vengeance. 

With sudden urgency, Dawn picked up her pace. She needed to get to the pass before the storm really hit in an attempt to find shelter. The air around her was electric and there was a feeling of anticipation deep in her heart. The she-wolf bulldozed through the snow as best she could, her muscles propelling her forward with effort. The snow was really coming down now, and it was wetter and heavier in comparison to the powdery stuff that had fallen overnight. 

Overhead the storm roared even louder and erupted with the loudest thunder clap yet. Lightning stuck the mountain like a giant claw, provoking a cascade of snow and ice to speed down the mountain. An avalanche, heading straight for Dawn.

Panicked, She threw herself forward in a sprint. She was a few hundred meters still from the pass. In regular conditions she could make it there no problem, but with the snow on the ground, the wind stinging her eyes, and the wet snow clumping to her fur the she-wolf was having a much harder time. Dawn glanced at the avalanche as it screamed toward her. Her only option was to run toward it, toward the pass. The pass was a very narrow pathway between the mountains, with a cliff on each side a hundred meters high and only a few meters wide. They started as parallel walls, but gradually tapered together to form a sort of roof over the pass. She needed to get there in time, or she would be swallowed by the snow and crushed by the weight of it. 

"Almost... There..." She thought, panting with the effort to get there in time. The wall of snow roared with a deafening rumble and Dawn could not even hear herself breathe. Just as the avalanche reached her, the she-wolf launched herself into the pass, falling on her side and skidding across the smooth stone floor. She watched with horror as the entrance to path sealed up, except for the very top of the crack in the mountain where the dim light of day filtered into the dark space. There would be no going back that way. The mountain shook as the avalanche roared by, destroying everything in its path.

Dawn looked around once the roaring subsided and she was left in eerie silence. It was clear that she could not continue as she had before. Her goal had been to get to this pass, but being so far away before she had not realized that this saddle between two mountains was not a pass at all... It was a crack in the rock than only went deeper, and deeper, into the mountain.