Open throughout the time event!

[werycherk]

Date & Time: Jan 19th- Feb 1st
Location: all around the city.
Characters: Isaac Hunter (age 7) and YOU
Summary: Suddenly a 7 year old is lost and alone in a strange place without the family he's been very dependent on until now. Yeah, he's going to be upset. Also howling.
Warnings: Werepuppies and lost children, oh my?

One moment, Isaac was inspecting big brother's new cast, and the next he was standing in a strange room. There were faint things swimming in his head, like a forgotten dream, but what hit him first is that he was alone. He couldn't smell his family, or hear them, or see any signs of their presence. For a moment he stood, breathing faster and faster, and then he ran. Had to find them.

He called the names of his siblings, and "Mom" and "Dad" over and over as he ran, switching between English and Yurok. There were other doors and hallways first, and if the doors opened he looked inside, frantic.

As time passed with no response, even some tears started to fall, and Isaac shouted more loudly, running faster through buildings and streets until he could run no more.

And at the end, when he could think of nothing else, he climbed to the highest spot he could reach and howled. The sound was long and lonely, ululating along a pattern that any wolf would recognize, and yet obviously not coming from a wolf's throat. Surely his family would hear. Surely, if not them, someone who would be safe would hear and understand that he was lost and alone and come to help.


[Specifically the night of the 27th, after moonrise]
It came as a surprise, the arc of pain along his spine. It was nowhere near the full moon. And yet, he could do nothing to stop it, and through a parting in the clouds, there was bright light streaming down from a moon that was somehow, impossibly full.

The high sound of pain escaped but he couldn't do anything to stop what was happening. Doubled over, he clawed at his clothes and tried to stumble somewhere out of sight. Isaac had no way of knowing if he'd made it, because the rising tide of pain culminated in a sickening snap, and the fresh wet feeling of split skin. He could hear himself screaming, and then nothing.

He came back to the constricting feeling of something around his neck and shoulders, and yelped and growled as he clawed and bit at the offending object--his shirt. When he was free of most of it he shook himself and then promptly sat down to whimper. What could he do? He was starving but there was no one to hunt. There was no family, no pack. No one. Isaac howled, lonely and desperate, but it didn't last.

Somehow, he had to find something to eat. They'd been feeding him here; maybe he could get food over that way?

With no better ideas, Isaac trotted his way back towards the hold, completely unaware of the picture he made. A wolf pup, nearly as large as a full grown gray, with a stray bit if torn t-shirt around his neck like a collar walking boldly through the streets.

Comments

[notyetwonderwoman]

Sakura had seen the Akamaru Clan around the village, their remarkably sized canines commonplace when paired with their shinobi counterparts. Large wolfish creatures weren't unehard of, but none of them had ever looked like a real wolf.

Let alone a real wolf with the awkward proportions of puppyhood, crossing the street at night like it was the most normal thing in the world.

Sakura stood frozen in the door of the apartment complex, eyes locked on the wolf. He was collared, she thought, so he was probably someone's pet, but she didn't know if that meant she should say something and figure out if his owner was nearby.

She's only six, and she's not a fully trained shinobi. But maybe Ino would know what to do...

"Here, boy," she calls out in her childish voice, uncertain. "Doggy?"

[werycherk]

He's not expecting to be called. In fact, he's so focused on finding food that he doesn't even notice her until she speaks. There are so many unfamiliar scents, that he didn't even realize one was getting much stronger than the others.

He startles, and ends up skittering a little from overbalancing on a sudden turn towards her. There's a moment where he looks like a little kid caught sneaking from the cookie jar, but then he takes in the colors of this other girl. Children are automatically safer than strange adults, and he's never seen a girl with her color hair before.

She's calling him, and he doesn't know what to do with that, so he just sits and looks at her, cocking his head to the side.

[notyetwonderwoman]

Sakura hesitates. She knows the dog-wolf heard her, because he looked surprised, and now he's looking her way. Only he's sitting there, like he expects something more.

"Um... Good boy. It's okay, I won't hurt you." That's what peole said to animals, she was fairly sure. "Come. You're okay, you can come inside."

Ino would know what to do with him.

[werycherk]

Isaac sits there for a while longer, ears flicking back and forth between mildly annoyed and perked up. He doesn't much like being given commands like a dog. He's not one! But... maybe she can open doors and help him get some food. He's not sure he can open doors on his own.

So after deciding that this will work out he comes over, padding across the ground on paws that look comically outsized. When he gets within a foot or two he looks at her and then back at the door, with an expression that could almost be 'okay, I came; now what?'

[notyetwonderwoman]

He's intelligent, that much is certain. Sakura knew the Inuzuka treated their canines as people, and so she wondered if it wasn't better to follow their example.

When the dog-wolf-whatever he was stopped, she looked back behind her into the lobby, then to him again. "... Are you hungry?" she asked after a moment of hesitation. "I'm sure we can find something at Ino's place to eat. Or even where I live." When she was big, at least.

[werycherk]

Isaac doesn't think anything of nodding, because she has to know, right? She's talking to him normally now. So he went to the door and pawed at it a little. He probably could have opened it on his own with a lot of work, but she had hands right now so it was easier to ask her to do it. He was so hungry that he couldn't wait, starting to bounce a little on his paws. Hurry up!

[kontirio]

Connor had woken into a strange place several days ago. He hadn't recognized his surroundings immediately, but a sense of familiarity had settled over him as he'd walked the streets. He'd known the strange buildings around him, somehow: he was not lost as he moved between and over them in his search for answers to too many questions.

He had dreamed of this place once before, he'd eventually decided. Since that was the case, it stood to reason that this experience was also a dream. A very different dream than the ones he was accustomed to (no smoke, no fire, no heavy debris refusing to be lifted, no Charles Lee)... but a dream nonetheless. That idea had stuck with him, imbedded in his mind as an arrow through tough hide and flesh, even when half a week passed by and his dream had gone on to feel disconcertingly real.

He wondered if perhaps the spirit he'd spoken with back in his people's village was responsible. Maybe she meant to show him something else or impart some new wisdom upon him, that he might follow his path more closely.

Even if the spirit wasn't making this strange dream for him, he was sure there was some significance to be found in it. He would understand in time. For now, there was nothing he could do but go along with it and keep his eyes and ears open.

Having purchased some food to stave off his hunger (he could not remember ever having felt hungry in a dream before), Connor took to the rooftops. He'd keep an eye out on the streets around him while he ate his meal.

A howl reached him just as he was taking a seat on the roof's edge. He turned in place, looking in the direction it came, only to spot a small figure not far off. Getting right back up, he crossed the roof and jumped on to the next, heading in the boy's direction. The boy was calling out like a wolf would. A child playing a game... or something more?

"Hello?" Connor called out, slowing down slightly as he approached.

[werycherk]

"Bro--"

At first, for just a split second Isaac had the wild hope that it was his brother come at his call. But as the approaching boy got closer his eyes told him what his ears had already registered. A stranger. His face crumpled, and Isaac hugged his knees to his chest. He hadn't been wearing shoes, but didn't seem to mind being barefoot, even though his t-shirt and jeans were starting to get very wet from the weather. For a second he wallowed in the aching loneliness and encroaching terror, face pressed to his knees.

But the stranger had come when he'd called out, and to Isaac he looked like he might be dressed for a dance or ceremony, even if Isaac didn't recognize anything belonging to a tribe he knew. But he didn't recognize this place either. So maybe...

"You came. Do-- Do you know...? I'm lost and I can't find my family!" Isaac hiccuped with the rising anguish, but his expression had a little hope in it.

Mom and Dad had always said to howl if he got lost, because if they couldn't come, someone else who knew and would be safe would answer. Maybe this older boy knew how to get home.

[kontirio]

Connor's spirits were also lifted at the sight of the other boy, but while Isaac's hopes plummeted as they drew near one another, his own soared high. He didn't recognize the child, exactly, but he found him familiar in a very promising way. Maybe this was the important something Connor had been looking for to make sense of his dream. A tentative smile pulled at the edges of his mouth as he stopped near him.

"Know? Know what?" He asked, only to go on without waiting for an answer, his smile traded for a serious but sincere expression, "I will help you find your family."

It wasn't the straightforward answer he might have preferred, but it was a start and a direction to head in.

[werycherk]

He was still feeling curling fear, and aching empty loss of being so alone, but that was a smile, and when Connor offered help, Isaac smiled back. A little teary still, to be true, but open and relaxed.

He thought nothing of getting up and coming closer, and seemed to get more confident and relaxed the closer he got. This boy was older, almost old enough to go on trips to practice for his own pack, Isaac thought. Even if he didn't smell like anything other than a normal human. But that was okay, there were plenty who knew the clans and worked with them at home.

"Where we are? I don't recognize anything at all, and they won't answer when I call. I don't know if I'm not loud enough or..." He wrinkled his nose, not wanting to admit that this place was so strange that they might now be here at all.

[kontirio]

"I am not sure where we are," he confessed, tucking the bag with his dinner in it under his belt and moving toward the edge of the roof.

Eager to get the search started, he made a small gesture for the boy to follow him as he started down the side of the building. He paused only briefly as he went, wondering if the young stranger could make the climb but figuring if he'd gotten up, he could get down, as well. He'd been about that age when he'd really started spending a lot of time in trees, anyway.

He waited until his feet had found the ground before speaking again.

"Was that what you were doing with your howling? Calling for your family?" That was different. Different but not especially strange.

"This place is very large from what I have seen," he cast a quick look around the street. It was indeed a spacious area. Spacious and rainy, "Perhaps they are some distance away and that is why they could not hear you. Or they are in a noisy area."

[werycherk]

Isaac followed, though climbing slowed him down a lot. He liked to climb trees, but the building was different, and it was harder to get down than up, he decided.

But he made it down without falling, though he had to concentrated on what he was doing and it took a couple minutes before he could answer.

"Yes! And grown-ups who hear and understand are supposed to come, even if they're from a different clan. And if my family can't come right away, I'm supposed to stay with who comes until they can."

And the other boy wasn't really an adult...but he was close enough, right? And the suggestion made sense. If there were really loud noises, they might even have earaches and earaches made it hard to concentrate on sounds.

"Where would the loud places be though...?"

[kontirio]

"Somewhere where there are many people around?" he pointed out the obvious, waiting until Isaac was at his side to venture down the road. Connor kept a watchful eye on their surroundings as they walked along. Who knew what might happen next in this dream of his? Especially now that he'd run across the younger boy.

"We will find these places if we have to."

One thing was for certain: he would need to take some time away from training to visit his village once he awoke. For all of Achilles' wisdom, he doubted the old man would have much insight to give on a dream so complex and unusual.

"This way," he had seen a building that seemed to reach up to the sky itself earlier. There had been a lot of people going in and out of that building. It was as good a place as any to start an earnest search.

[werycherk]

"There are a lot of people around everywhere," was Isaac's counter. And to Isaac, there were a lot of people around. He wasn't a well-traveled child and had never been to a city before.

But he didn't want to lose the other boy so he broke into a trot to keep up, but he didn't stick to Connor's side. Isaac was overflowing with energy and then when something caught his attention he bounded forward and then circled back. He capered in circles, checking out everything he could, though he was careful not to stray too far and let Connor have the lead.

[kontirio]

"But there are more people in some places than in others," Connor replied smoothly, keeping track of Isaac's scampering around but making no effort to keep him near or slow him down. Sometimes a boy (even a dream boy) just needed to move - he understood that well enough. He probably understood that better than most, really.

"Look."

He pointed out the distant shape of a towering building.

[werycherk]

"I guess so--oh."

Isaac looked, and he really noticed how big the building was for the first time. It made him feel small and unsure in a way even the largest of the trees couldn't. His energy temporarily stopped up, Isaac drifted closer to his new friend, subconsciously seeking out the comfort of company.

"Do you think my family is in there?"