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[Athena Nike]

ife, love, and happiness. What more could one ask for in this plane of existence? As it turns out, one could ask for plenty. But Nature's good graces did not always have the same plans in mind. Like the wind, fate seemed to come and go as it pleased, each tide water stringing along whatever kelp, crustaceans, decaying matter, fish, or even beasts of the sea along with it to the shore. The best one could hope for was to squeeze the lemons of life, add alcohol, and drink the resulting martini with liberality. As it so happened, the personality of her wicked side had faded away in the night, leaving a sleepless zombie, kind, but clueless. This kind of beast would be used at the shopping malls to collect carts. To assemble iPads in a factory. To hand-wipe long corridors of the finest laboratories. But one's intelligence did not always ensure their survival. Both the dumbest and brightest have made it to the top, and whether a blunder would be considered corporate or personal, everyone made mistakes. It just so happened that Athena had more propensity to than others. She was not sure why she was here, or even what her business was. What was for certain was that these were pack lands, but with fading boundary lines. Had she been accepted into some sort of pack without her knowing? Whatever the case, it seemed that there was more than enough prey to ensure her survival. The grasslands felt comfortable and slightly familiar. A giggle erupted from her throat as the near elderly woman jogged along the seas of grasses, their tips rippling with delight, anxious for more wind. "Hawoooo... haloooooo!", she threw back her muzzle and howled to the wind. She thought she could be satisfied not knowing what was happening, but it seemed her instincts had gotten the best out of her. " Love is clueless, just like me

[Harriet]

H a r r i e t



Harriet took a step and scent the wind. The breeze was cold and free, she missed that feeling. The feeling how it blows to your fur and you drown into your mind, which is clear from the wind too. She has waited for day to come for so long and didn't sleep very well, like an owl watching the moon slowly pass by, but it doesn't pass second by second, as it always just standing there, and when you close, then open your eyes you see day; just like how the wolf is now being right now. Everyone asks for a lot, for everything. For much, to achieve, everything, and to win, and goals. But nothing is peaceful to win this game "life." But Harriet doesn't ask for anything just this moment to arrive, as the white firefly longed for it, a lot.

Blackbirds singing in the dead of night, kept her alive, to this sun to arise, the wind in her neck took her wings and learned to fly. All her life, she just waited to feel so free, today, even nothing lasts forever. And she has to move on. But dreamers never end their dreams, so does her; she won't end her dreaming end. Harriet freely leaped, as she was flying, feeling so relaxed. Her head was in clouds and her body was down to earth. It was so planetary. Her giggle spurt out, as she opened her eyes and found herself comfortable laying on a camouflage of long, but not that green yet, set of grass, that was brushing her fur from sides, as the wind blew.

Her eyes were zooming on the clouds passers, they were like busy people in a very busy city, always moving going to many directions and buzzing, except clouds don't buzz, bees buzz. And bees don't relate to clouds, it doesn't matter. But she still isn't ready to wake up, she rather just be like this moment forever. And never come back to real world, but, a howl in the wind has arrived and met her ears. The voice isn't familiar at all, not even a bit. The wolf stood up and looked around, there wasn't any messages from anyone now. But she did feel something here, someone, around here, being here... They seemed pretty close; she isn't sure. "I might as well try responding..."

The wolf looked at the clouds, some of them were more dark now. It might rain, unless it will clear up a bit. She walked around and howled, quite loudly, her howling is usually high pitched, it is weird. But a presence of another wolf was truly clear, what's about to come has to come.

[Athena Nike]

ittle by little, the sound of her own voice died down, leaving echoes. It was then that once more the air was filled with the sound of presence. Indeed, this land was populated, for it seemed there was another here. Her paws rushed along quicker than her mind could, each step stretching over the last. Her limbs glided along as if her feet never quite touched the ground. Her energy perhaps even unnatural for one of her age. Soon, the caller was in sight. Athena slowed to a jog and then stopped to stand before the other. "Who are you, sir? Who am I? Where are we? Am I still alive? Is this a pack? Might there be puppies around? I would dearly like to see them, I am very fond of puppies. Oh, please tell dear old Athena everything. I want to hear. I am desperate. I have been here for so long, I have forgotten why I came. You rather smell like home. I miss home. Are you my home? Where did you come from? What did you say your name was again, sir? Are you the leader of a pack?" Her eyes did not move as she spoke, fixed on the woman, and yet on the distance as well. Her tone of voice with a far-away quality, the tone of one busy but answering out of what attention that could muster. A twig had knotted itself into the hairs on her back. Multiple leaves formed like chimes on her belly. Her paws caked with dried mud, they now stood idle. Her expression quite vacant, she stood motionless, expressionless. " I shine like the wind

[Harriet]

H a r r i e t



As the echo breaks down, the presence came more brighter and brighter. It was all clear now, and even the scent was completely unfamiliar. It neither smelt like pack or someone she knew. Pretty weird. But in distance she saw someone with these said traits has come. An elderly woman with dead, fixed eyes on her. And she spilled so many questions, she cannot even catch up -- the voice was so void and lost too. Listening to her was hard as ever, and it was a bit uncomfortable, she never saw someone this lost. Or looking like this woman, who was clearly a veteran and passes trough a lot. After the woman finished her questions and just looking died, she tried to make up what she could say...

"I am Harriet. I don't know... We are in pack lands of Korinth. Yes you are. This is the pack lands. There are currently no puppies. And I am not sure about what to tell you... And you might be from this pack then? I might not been around when you were here... and probably, if you consider Korinth your home. I just joined the pack a bit ago. My name is Harriet. And no, I am just a pack member of Korinth."

That was truly hard to answer all of those questions, and it's because she doesn't know this wolf, which briefly she called herself 'Athena.' Even if she didn't introduce herself but just leap out of nowhere and ask bunch of questions. She probably was lost here, or just came here because maybe perhaps she was a member in Korinth once. This odd, yet void looking wolf was confusing her mind. Harriet, looking at her expression, just framed at her with concern and confusion.

[Athena Nike]

As cheery as this personality that roamed the vacant halls of Athena's subconscious may have been, the reflection she saw in Harriet's eyes was very different. The lush greens, blooming purples, and effervescent yellow pollens were all gray in the world Athena saw. Colorless, it was a gloomy place, with swiss cheese holes for the sun and clouds. The grass there was not furry and comfortable but jagged stalagmites, each growing up at a pace to impale one's paw and body. The trees were filled with cockroaches, each shaking about their wings and antennae, the wind creating a great roar of the sound. Perhaps something in Athena's brain had begun to go even more wrong. A loose wire here and there... Doumbfounded, it was the best she could do to gawk and try to make sense of it all in her head. With Harriet's reply, the great cogs of the gray lady's mind began to churn once more, the mechanisms moving, sputtering, processing all the input given. But Athena's face remained the same, frozen in stupidity, as if it too, had been lost to the test of time. "I suppose I will die, soon, Harriet of Korinth, whom I suppose we are packmates together. I have lived a rich old life on these lands, full of love, full of pain, full of war. I have seen enough of it all. ", her voice droned off for some time. "I think... I think that these lands may be empty now, abandoned. I presume we are leaderless, you and I. We must survive. This ship must have a captain...", she tried to look up into Harriet's eyes once more. A startling familiar gold reflected there, like the setting sun on a battle's eve, like the glimmer of a copper sword before it plunged into the belly of the enemy. Like the reflection of peace on the water, surrounded by corpses of those slain, with a great host of foul bird to pluck out their eyes before the larger predators arrived. With so many, they could feast on the delacacies alone. As if a sudden idea had occurred, she obliged, craning her neck to the sky, as if to howl, but none came. Her back, too, arched towards the heavens. There came sickening pops, some little some small. "Agh...", her breath was a gasp, as if a pleading on the skirts of Mother Nature for more time, more time. "It hurts...", she whimpered , tears streaming down her face. Her body, all at once, fell over on it's side, as if a great statue crumbling back down into the very earth it had been crafted from. "T... tell me where you are from. T...tell me what it looks like. T... tell me a story..." " I shine like the wind

[Harriet]

H a r r i e t

The wind bells trough this field of forever infinity, as it seems.
It looks there is no end in the picture frame of where Harriet and Athena are placed, like two chess bishops, one black and one white, who are supposed to kill each other for the victory of their king. But in reality Harriet realized they are just so different. Even if they would have met before in deep ways, way back to the time the gray fallen heart and the white firefly would have met, and were around same age, maybe meetings and greetings weren't so awkward. But maybe, firefly just needs to learn to see, more deeply, what did gray heart beat trough.
Like spade and a heart. Maybe a club and diamond. She felt a bit bad for Athena.
Even if they don't even know each other that much. It is so shocking how she went from happy to sad few moments ago after this secret bringer came here.

But as for bit to bits. When the gray heart fallen again now, twice. With frozen expression, and this announcement of dying soon left Harriet already dead. She is probably now, if she actually died now, is responsible for this. If someone found her already died now if thinking afterwards, and if she was here. It would result her of thoughts of murder, crime, and sin. In any way, if no blood is spilled. But goodness Harriet wouldn't even do that, the gray heart is a fallen warrior, who would dare just leave someone poor with rich life? Someone who was innocent but always being chased by dark clouds? Someone who came back to their home? No, even if Athena now fell like a great old tree. The white firefly would still shine in on how much now time for her is left, now.

As when Harriet's eyes faced down at Athena, with a plentiful of black coal fill in her eyes, presumably sadness, or longing, in any way. Harriet knew the heart will stop shining soon, unless a miracle happens. But since she asked for a story... Giving a shot, for something she did live before would be good, in such moment like this, she had to hurry. Before this time runs out.


"I... I came from... The place I came from is way far away from here. It's great view probably most appealing than the history of it, the land is now abandoned, but I still sometimes miss it... It used to be called by many names. Simplest to complicated, even ancient or just plain otherworld. It's great trees, small prey, loads of blooming plants, and great river that crossed in middle, with powerful flow always made it give names with water or anything associated with it, usually. I was living in it all alone, in a small corner, it wasn't my territory. It was nobody's territory. There were no packs. Freedom was everywhere, everything was everyone's. But it was hard, because no one was truly friendly. I was pretty alone, since birth of my unknown parents I was like this. I don't know if they were here, I don't know if I have siblings, I had no family. I decided to travel all the way here, for a better life. To find myself family, and find myself a heart for my heart, to beat together in the sky. I found this pack, in tears, I asked for mercy of an unknown but a great bird that I caught with my sight. A wolf which I never saw before in my life. I asked him to give me life, desperately, I needed one! I never felt so much fear and longing, and agony in my life... The wolf, he accepted me I guess, but I don't know my rank, my task, my purpose, my anything, I am still a lone, white firefly how I was, and am now. From that day, I never saw him anywhere anymore... Maybe I was born to be alone, and confused, and lost, just like you...?"

Harriet didn't mean to get too much in hear heart, but tears couldn't hold but drip to the ground. With ears down, and her sight slowly merging in tears, she couldn't see Athena trough her tears that well anymore, even some of the fallen heart's fur got wet from her tears dripping, and sometimes hitting the gray and worn coat.

"Forgive me... I didn't mean to..." Her words have been whispered, she barely understood by herself what she said, but maybe it came out right, as she tried to sum it up.

The sky wasn't so clear anymore, black clouds decided to stir up more ache, making everything just more, more painful than it is.

[Athena Nike]

Laying on her side, the hurt continued to throb, each wave of pain more defined, until their source was finally clear: her spine. But her mind wasn't on these things. Instead, her head was filled with images of great trees and lone wolves. In this Eden she imagined, the story was narrated by Harriet's crystal clear voice, soothing like a gentle breeze, sweet like honeyed wine. "I think I heard of this place many years... ago. When I was little. A land full of wolves, but each one sad, broken-heated, somber ... they had said ... ", she drifted off. "I will try to get up again...", she whispered to herself. With a great effort, she readied her muscles and dug her paws into the ground, but at the slightest movement of her back, her eyes widened with a horrific revelation. Unable to speak, her eyelids slid closed. But did not stay that way, bursting open to reveal the bronze hues within, lively, unwilling to succumb to death. Eyebrows knit in effort as this time she stretched her body out, and then her back in a concave arc. A disgusting series of snaps and cracks followed, like the moans of an aging wood bridge longing to disintegrate. "That old coot. Her brain is turning to mush. Soon, it will be all mine. My own. " Her head bowed to sniff her own front paw. "Hag's been wallowing with the frogs again. Brainless old fart." Effortless, Athena rolled onto her belly, laying up, and then rose, as if a juvenile once more. Stretching, her stub of a tail stuck out in the air for a few moments, while her limbs took their full length. More cracks followed, her joints releasing their complaints. As if just now noticing the woman Harriet, Athena turned to address her. "And who are you? Come to watch the old woman die? Are those tears for me? Aww, how very nice of you. " A wicked smile reverberated in her facial muscles, twitching the corners of her mouth upwards. "If you figure out how to kill her, I'll pay you a good bounty. ". "Now. We have business to talk of, you and I. Because you smell of these lands, do you not? Athena would spend her days speaking of the clouds and marshmallows like a lunatic. But I will discuss with you the Grail of Life and the Crux of All Hope. " Her voice had a new tone to it, rather toad-like, raspy, and in half-whispers. But each word perfectly precise, a sense of urgency and attention interwoven like a fine gold thread. Her stance, too, was different. Instead of one who barely knew how to hold their paws, her muscles each obeyed as a creature in it's prime, her chest held proudly out. Even the ends of her fur seemed more orderly. But no amount of pose or confidence could heal the pathetic stub for a tail that stayed at her rear. A bony tuft of fur, Athena might have looked more like a bob cat, a bear, or even a rabbit than a wolf. " I shine like the wind I will consume your heart.

[Harriet]

H a r r i e t

The firefly never understood such mind of a twin bodied wolf.
As she thought of Athena, who seems to be not her now anymore. All this whole switching process disturbed her greatly, like watching a snake crawling out of it's old skin and leaving those dull colors, replacing with something alarming. Slightly confused face, who very slowly migrated into suspicion. With her face giving more darker feeling to it. It looked like fear, but it rather turned into hysteric looking, with pupils getting all small and open shocked mouth. It reminded her something from her past, when she met a grim reaper who chased for her death, but she managed to fight off death that time, now let's see if Harriet would fight, no, rather avoid death now.

Harriet faced the dead sky and ground. This movie was perfectly acted out, or it was rather a deal of money by the game of chess? The black bishop has moved it's turn. Leaving the white bishop no more moves left, or if there are some, Harriet is too blind to see those. And fighting her way out of rose thorns would be too icky for her. But if this game would end her life by now, firefly perhaps do something, but she never, even if completely insane, would probably ever hit someone more older and whose life has been finished it's painting.

After facing every side of her surroundings, even knowing anything will happen. Harriet courageously and slowly passed further to left direction and rather suspiciously sat down, kindly facing Athena. "Proceed, observer. I am listening, very carefully." Her voice sounded like she was completely unaware what was about to happen. But she was just kind enough to stay still yet, and finally finish this, or maybe not. Until the gray heart chooses whether end or not, but heck, Harriet could leave any time now, but she is just here because she came. And even that statement about her crying by the gray heart was plainly a punchline. Like white firefly's life would be a whole joke. Oh, like she just visited a liar's castle.

Her whole frame now, even sitting. Was probably pretty ready for anything, but her voice disgusted her, and all of those cracks and snaps made her remind of a falling and almost broken old skeleton, with parts rotten and spiders, other insects living in it too. Even her eyes sort of squinted then went back normal again, just for a second so she won't suspect anything more weird. But as nothing more bizarre than that could happen, well, it was alright for her then.

Creeps and creepers, Harriet doesn't even now understand what the heck did traumatize her life, it turned her half down from her real personality, if this goes more gigantic, she isn't sure who she is anymore by then.

[Athena Nike]

I liked the chess analogy!

Athena's delusional, for the most part what she says is untrue of Torva.

This Athena was cocky, arrogant, and proud to display her ignorance and idiocy on a wide variety of subjects. From her forgetfulness of names and faces, to her inability to distinguish square pegs and round holes when it came to the different kinds of excrements. She did not pay much mind to the creature before, after all, how could she, if Athena viewed every creature besides herself as inferior. But her mind was busy at work, the mechanisms laid in place long before this personality's arrival. No consciousness could change the way her brain actually worked. Busy with menial tasks, her memory center carefully jotted notes on Harriet's appearance in stature, coloration, eyes, ear tilt, gait, and certainly smell. If you give a mouse a cookie, he will want a glass of milk, and then a bedtime story, and then a blanket, and then, and then ... So it was too with this personality. Simply being present in the forefront wasn't enough. And the longer that benefit was present, the more other desires grew. She wanted power, chaos, and to make others suffer. "As you know, Athena's an idiot. A moron. Spider than the stupidest snail's stupid feces. That's how stupid. The stupidest creature I have ever met; It's a wonder I even bothered to save her. But she has a usefulness in what she knows but chooses to be blind to. ", she began to slowly pace back and forth, agitated with some unknown source, her skin draping over protruding ribs and hanging down, a thick blanket over a cold skeleton's corpse. Sheer satin placed on a pretty runway model's body, emaciated, her strut somehow defying the very rules of nature that allowed the model to exist in the first place: the need to eat. "The wolves of this land are starving. ", she spat out, her eyes fuming. "I am starving. And you? When is the last time you tasted a meal bigger than a few slivers of small game? " "This land... it has a secret. A curse. The wolves here do not eat until war is upon them. Each of them meagerly whittles down the years of their life in company, hunting for themselves, even in vast packs of twenty, thirty, fourty-fold. Only when decimation and genocide is upon them do they realize their love of eachother, strengthen their bonds, and find the selflessness to hunt as a group, for all of their sakes. ", er eyes sparkled with an eerie self-conviction. "So .... we give them war. " "Quiet one, do you pledge yourself to saving the packs of these lands from themselves? You can be great, you will be great. We will take this pack and be selfless, we will give to others as no other pack has done before. Even the most evil, vile, cruel pack of long before, Renatio, did one good thing for these lands without realizing. We will do it again." "Agree, and we'll hunt together. We'll eat like no pack has eaten before. And when we are strong and healthy, I'll share my battle plans with you, as my second in command. We must unite the packs, and only trouble can do this. " " I shine like the wind I will consume your heart.

[Harriet]

H a r r i e t

The twisted mind, turning tables. Such plastic pockets, full of sweets, and those sweets are lies. Pretty unsure of such statement made by Athena about dominating leadership. Very colorful mirage, if thinking forward about agreeing, but the mysterious wolf, who was so-called current leader of this pack Korinth, she isn't completely sure what would happen under declared but not discussed control with the current leader. Yes it is a challenge, but would it really be it how it be promised? But the request to split in two, share blood to blood, and act as eyes to each other. Like the thunder meets earth, earth strikes against thunder. Causing fire, just like told in the gray heart's words. But fire will spread everywhere, it will burn and will never end until a cloud appears and rains, showering the land with mercy tears to stop. It's like a cursed wheel, just like how Athena said about the curse, again.

The mind of amber, probably gray heart has it, in a bit wicked way, nonetheless, the ambition of hers to control, at least for something, is really brave. Courageous wolves always win than coward ones. Courageous ones also always achieve their dreams, they try, they fail, they don't give up, they work. They are building their stairs to their dream, they win. They rule, they sit in throne, they control. Thousand eyes, thousand eyes, they spill their silver blood in war, they win, they celebrate their victory, they sacrifice, they fall, but they were great ones, they were crowned and were lost soldiers, they were dreamers and makers, their pride ruled trough everyones heart, they all beat as one, all together at same time, because of one, courageous wolf. Athena was defiantly one like that, even if age turns her half down.

"You got me this time... I agree, gray heart. Your ambition is my ambition, for better. I admire for what you are looking for, if you truthfully for your own sake, you promise it is gonna continue on..." She beamed, her eyes were full of enthusiasm. It was full of life, after thinking and going dark in her mind for such thoughts, whether support or not. But it might be better, because the current leader seems careless, if she doesn't see him around at all. Just only one that time, when asking for her good to provide her life, but also repaying with her own resources and share, and love.

[Athena Nike]

The essence of a wolf pack was really quite simple. When the times were harsh, small game were few and harder to catch, nested away in their hidey-holes away from the ravenous mouths of their starving predators. But unlike rabbits, wolves are born with an innate need for one another. Being social creatures, it only made sense to come together, as many wolves as were needed, to bring down larger prey like elk or caribou. In that unspoken bond, a quiet ranking system would evolve to keep the peace and enforce a hierarchy between wolf and meat proportions. But when the ego became involved... things were far less simple. Could a half-insane wolf lead a pack, let alone another, when it barely seemed able to sustain itself? Could the young and new play an important part as the rudder, the mental stability of such a group? Only time would tell. "Very good young one.", she crooned. "Today, we rest. Tomorrow, we hunt, gorge, and regain our strength. Athena's stupidity toils on my strength. I must recover. Meet me here tomorrow.", she added, her voice fading to a whisper. Little did Athena know that resting was the very thing that flip-flopped the personalities in the dream world that she could no longer acquire. Because at the first inkling of REM, one personality would be laid to rest, and the other emerge wide awake. Unable to sleep, the effects of shallow napping were fully evident in the circles around her eyes and the waning pool of sanity she had left. -- exit -- " Love is clueless, just like me