❂ Citrus

Studding note: Will work on his markings when I have the funds (from breedings).
 

My 1st stud!!

Citrus's story, in his own words:
I grew up as a little pup in a small pack. Everything was great there. My parents loved me, my siblings were nice, there were plenty of food and toys. I loved it there. Those were the golden days where I didn't have a care in the world.
As I grew into a young adolescent, I realized then, that the world was unforgiving and any chance of survival was almost nonexistent. My pack, that I had known and loved, started to die. First, it was the hunters. They caught it. They came back from a hunt one day, feeling fine and hunting a young deer. One of the hunters had met a strange wolf in the forests, where we lived. Shrouded in mist, the she-wolf had nudged the hunter on, nothing more. I felt suspicious of that wolf the second the hunter started coughing and sneezing uncontrollably. Everyone stayed away from him except the healer, who soon caught it afterwards. She was my older sister. Then they started shivering, violently. My father and mother both went out to neighboring packs to find a cure, but they never returned.

I was buried in grief, by that time, the hunter had died and my sister was on her final breaths. The other hunters were stuck in their dens, all with the mysterious illness. I didn't know how to hunt, or find feathers. Some members of the pack had already fled. My physical condition started to worsen, my fur was ragged and my ribs showed through.  My coat had lot its shine and my muscles were nonexistent. I couldn't think straight, see straight. I was afraid that the illness had caught up to me. I was afraid. My mental wellness started to deteriorate. I fell into a hole of darkness with no way out. My father and mother were missing, my sister was dead, my cousins and littermates were gone, missing or dead. I was the only one left.

I fled the pack. Running into the forest, hot tears slid down my cheeks. Thorns piercing my paws and sticks scratching my coat, I ran for my life. Then, up ahead, I saw a she-wolf. She had a long cloak on, covering her face and revealing only her nose and legs. Her coat was white. Fog slid around her paws, making her seem like she was floating. Panicking, I hurriedly took a step back, right into a tree.
"Come, child," the she-wolf said, in a ragged, wise, and kind voice. I panted, a drop of sweat ran down my forehead, fear took over.
"I can't trust you!" I said and tried to run, but an invisible force held me back.
The she-wolf smiled warmly. "Oh, but you can," she said and her cloak flew over her head, revealing an old wolf scars covered her white body, crisscrossing everywhere except for her legs. Her eyes had been gouged out, though she looked like she could still see. I could tell that a mysterious force was at work.

I panicked and ran, but I couldn't escape, I felt like I was running through sticky syrup, quickly forming a barrier in front of me. I gave up my efforts as I was frozen in place and turned towards the mysterious wolf.
We were on the border line between the mountains and the forest. The white wolf turned her head towards me. I shivered as an ivy coldness passed through my body. The white wolf hissed before she disappeared into the smoke and fog. A claw passing through her, as if she was only an image. Three wolves ripped through her image, dissipating the mist. One of them looked at me, and gasped.
I looked down at myself, and saw a line of blood running down from my mouth. The wolf hadn't touched me.
"He's alive," one of the wolves said, her beautiful blue and pink fur stood out from the colors of the forest.
"Let's take him back, Mystic will decide what to do with..." the wolf paused, looking me up and down, "...this thing."
A gave the wolf a hard stare, but she just shrugged it away, her dappled gray fur making her look like a rock with snow on it. I decided she was one of the less likable wolves. The third wolf's coat shimmered in the moonlight. She was all black, save for a few patches of silver dotted here and there. she gave me a serene smile and I looked away, blushing.

I saw them walking away and I quickly followed, asking if I could come with them.

"Of course, you idiot!" the snowy one said, glaring at me in annoyance.

"Snowfall," the blue and pink wolf said in a warning tone. "I'm sorry about Snowfall here, we are trying to make her kinder, it's not working, as you can tell. I'm Glacier!" she said kindly, then pointed at the third wolf, "that's Starlight." Starlight gave a nod of approval.

I looked back at Snowfall, who was still glaring angrily. "Idiots." I heard her mutter, "this is stupid."

I slunk back next to Glacier, she was so pretty. I felt like I was in love. Snowfall seemed to be the oldest of the group, Glacier and Starlight seemed a bit younger than me.

I glanced at Starlight, who trudged on in silence. Snowfall kept on muttering and cursing under her breath. I tried not to look at her too much.

Our little group ran through the trees and underbrush of unfamiliar lands. We were soon hiking up steep, rocky slopes, gazing down at trees hundreds of feet below us.

"Where are we going?" I asked innocently.

Snowfall barked a short, sharp laughed before answering, "We, are going to a place unknown to many wolves. You better hope she likes you, or it won't end well." She finished off with a snort and set out, running ahead of us on the narrow, winding ledge around the mountain.

I glanced nervously as some stones slid of the ledge and plummeted into the deep valley below, filled with large, leafy trees soaking up the sunshine as it glazed down on our backs, warming us to the bone.

Ahead of me, I suddenly heard a yelp and a growl. Another wolf stood up ahead. Staring down at Snowfall. Snowfall glared back up at the large, gruff trespasser. Beside me, I heard Glacier snarl. The 5-foot-wide ledge was far to small for the new wolf to squeeze past all of us, but I could tell that he was clearly there to kill. He took a swipe at Snowfall, she swayed out of the way, nearly tumbling of the trail in the process, as she struggle to regain her balance, the newcomer shoved her hard off the ledge with his shoulder. She gasped as she fell off, head first.

"Goodbye!" she tried to yelp, before we heard the rustling of trees and then silence, as she landed on the forest floor far, far below, dead before she hit the ground.

Glacier gasped in shock. The wolf ahead of us chuckled. "We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," he said in a low, gruff voice. The three of us scattered. I ran towards him, jumped on his head and over his back, Starlight and Glacier followed. After that, we ran like our lives depended on it, which it did. The large wolf lumbered behind us, traveling faster than I thought he could.

"You can't escape us!" he yelled. "We'll burn you to the ground, every last one of your stupid trees will be burned! The Arsons will feast on horse-flesh! You can't elude defeat!" At that point, he slipped on some small rocks under-foot, and tumbled over the edge, hitting something solid half way down with a sickening CRACK! We winced at the sound, then heard crashing and snapping branches as he too, fell to the forest floor.

"Well that was incredibly easy," Glacier noted before turning around to face the trail ahead of us again. "I wonder who sent him."

We walked the rest of the way in silence, glad to have survived. We followed the trail down the mountain to a great waterfall spilling over a ledge into a circular valley at the base of three mountains. The valley was surrounded on all sides by rock wall, with no way of escape or entrance except for a little ledge path descending the wall. A few small creeks ran through the valley, fed by the waterfall. A herd of wild, glowing and shimmering horses galloped across the large valley.