Ignite the Light

 He woke at the base of a mountain.

 Blinking, he lay still, marveling at the easy rise and fall of his chest. When he rose, he steeled himself for pain that did not come. Above him a ridge of stone lay in thick slabs across the land, bunched like a granite tablecloth. 

 This was a vivid dream, to be sure. 

 For no other reason save for curiosity and the desire to stretch his working limbs, Sylas loped up the steep hillside, trekking in a zig-zag up the mountainside.

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In typical fashion that was Genevieve lately, she had stepped out of the Hollow with her confident, elegant gait and drew herself down the mountainside with ease. She had become quite used to the trek now, the uneven ground barely registered to her as she pressed on with an experienced step. Only... she was not destined to go too far down the mountainside for it seemed someone else was opting to scale up the mountain. Her nose twitched as she stilled in her movements, dandelion gaze inquisitive as behind her, her tail flowed slowly from side to side as she watched. Decorated in various shades of grey, he was, aside from Tetsujin, the only grayscale she had seen in a while. 

He wasn't particularly close nor far from the Hollow, middleground if anything but he was actively no scaling the mountain. Curiosity got the better of the Rose as she tilted her head, "you do come quite close to claimed land." She sung, remaining where she stood upon a rocky outcrop that loomed over, dandelion gaze glinting with mirth. ^^

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 Sylas stopped when a voice as lilting as birdsong met his ears. Swiveling around, he set his gaze upon a copper and white she-wolf. A peculiar dream indeed, for he was sure he'd never met this woman before. 

 His vivid, unconscious imaginings gave him free will and a voice. Tail mirroring the others in a slow wag, Sylas dipped his head in greeting. “I have not traveled this land before. I apologize for my ignorance. I'm Sylas - who might you be?”

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He had manners, she thought in amusement as he dipped his head and spoke his apology and greeting. Well there were two ways she might take his words, that he was a native but simply not to this region or he was like many others, being lodged in this world without a choice. She hummed, "it is quite all right, you haven't crossed any boundaries. You are simply walking towards them." Mischievous as she was, Genevieve wasn't always being a tease. "Genevieve-Rose," she cooed softly, dandelion gaze washing over him before she looked past him, making sure alongside with her flared nose that no one else was with him.

"You say you have not travelled these lands before, but are you native to the lands around it?" She was sometimes too curious for her own good, her thirst for knowledge never quenched. It would do her well to know who she was dealing with, after all. Cunning as ever. ^^

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 Sylas faltered, looking around to take in the wild, unfamiliar landscape. “I hail from Whiterime Ridge. It's a mountain range very similar to this but...I know I have not been here before.” 

 Hills bound towards the heavens, cresting tall as patchwork clouds shadowed the sunshine. Soon the resilient star would burn away the cover, but for now, the light faded in and out like a breath. 

 The gray wolf shrugged, at a loss. “I don't know how I got here.” Doubt hindering his total belief that none of this was real. How could a dream be so alive?

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She was still working him out, her calculative observation watching him with ease as she filed away every bit he gave her. From body language, twitches in his face, to the words he divulged. Whiterime Ridge. "Most mountain ranges tend to look the same," the Rose reassured him with a slight smile, "the one you venture close to is called Highvalley Hollow, though I call it home."

Genevieve divulged sparingly, an ear twitching as she watched him. He was near enough to the Hollow that had he continued on without her interruption, he would have happened upon it so telling him of the existence was not a wrong move. She would not lie and say seeing another decorated in the shades of the night and moonlight was not intriguing to her but the Rose was rarely someone who was inclined to make decisions based on more trivial things. Still, she wasn't the type to ward someone away, either. "Ah," she sung in amusement as it made sense then, he was one of many, then. "Do not worry, Sylas. You are not insane, if that is one of your worries," the Rose teased as she danced a few steps closer, dusty pink nose twitching as she appraised him. "You are not the first to arrive with little understanding of how, nor, I suspect, will you be the last." 

She motioned with one delicate paw towards herself, "I vanished from existence in one plane and then I arrived here. I thought I had been in a dream! So vividly. I recalled someone telling me that you cannot feel pain in a dream... so I, of course, as any sane woman would do, experimented how true that was. Luckily my brother -- of sorts -- had been popped here too and had found me." Perhaps telling him of her own tale would soften the blow that it wasn't particularly... normal, how his reality had been changed like magic. "Others have arrived similar. Be it they had just died and woke here, or like me where it had taken no real event yet here I am." ^^

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 “I was in the middle of a battle.” He replied, his voice taking on a trance-like quality, all thick baritones and hazy notes. “We were losing. I was dying.” What she said, as impossible as it was, made sense. Perhaps this was some kind of afterlife, a limbo for souls to wander between reality and what was beyond. 

 For a man so enraptured in religion, it did not do him well to think of this as the final step, so he chose to think of it as merely the next one.

 At last he turned back towards the copper-white woman, blue eyes meeting pale yellow. “So there is no war here?” He asked, needing to be sure, his muscles tense with the prospect of more violence.

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The Rose looked him over then, dandelion gaze squinting as she sought out after wounds that may have followed him into his new life. He had been in battle, dying, he said and now here he was. It wasn't unheard of, she had heard of tales similar. "You deserve some rest, then," Genevieve rose a pale brow as she observed him, watching the way he held himself as if awaiting the next blow. Genevieve would tut then as she shook her head to his question, "certainly not. I fear I would not last in a war, on the front-lines. I am more of a medic and strategist, myself." She stated smoothly, offering him a small smile.

"No war here, Sir Sylas. You may rest easy," she once more stated as she inclined her head to him, "do you feel as if any of your wounds carried over?" The Rose inquired as she continued to observe him. "Perhaps you might ease my worries if you would let me give you a once over," the copper and white lady posed, tilting her head to the side as she wondered if he would let her. ^^

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 He huffed out a small laugh, the erudite title pulling him from the trenches of his thoughts. “I'm no 'sir', just a commoner who enlisted for the survival of his home pack.” A band whose existence lay unknown to him now. Had any of them made it here with him? Was there anything left of the world he'd slipped from?

 His body felt wholly unmarred, the gashes from fatal wounds more than miraculously healed - it was as if they were never there. He had not a single scratch on his body, but the soldier dipped his head in acquiescence to the good samaritan, allowing her to check in him over. 

 “Have you been in this land long?”

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A brow quirked at his dismissal of being called with Sir in front of his name and she tilted her head, "well, what more could be deserving of being called Sir?" Genevieve enquired. He was brave, then. Eager to defend his home, even if it meant his death. "A brave heart you hold, Sylas." The Rose stated softly, dandelion gaze roving over him in a new light. She hummed, wondering if he brought with him his sorrows, too. It was unfortunate that his last memory of his home, his last life, was dying for them. It was likely he knew nothing of their fate, now that he had woken here. Certainly something that was likely to play on anyones mind.

He gave into her request and with a risen chin, the Rose stepped forward on lithe legs and let herself into his personal space as she went along his side, dandelion gaze observing him keenly. "Not terribly long though quite a few months now, I would say," she revealed as she cast her gaze up and down his legs, flanks and what she could see of his spine. The Rose came to stand before him and declared, "chin up," she wanted to check there were no hidden damages on his more delicate flesh. "It worked out quite nicely for me. I have remained here, nestled away in the Hollow with the Pack called Windmere. Though between us, I take a trip here and there," Gen mused, playfully secretive though she knew that Tetsujin would have noticed by now that she often left the territory. ^^

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 He tilted his head towards the sky, broad muzzle tilting towards thin, patchwork clouds. Windmere. Steeped in uncertainty, Sylas moved to look at the she-wolf again. If he had truly transcended his old life and been birthed into this new existence, he would need time to acquaint himself with this changed reality. 

 A pack might provide the stability he'd need to help him on his journey towards acceptance. “Tell me of your people. Are they friendly to newcomers? Would they allow a stranger to take refuge with them for a spell?”

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Genevieve's smile was small and appreciative as he did as she requested, his neck exposed as she gave him a quick look over. Nothing, she thought thankfully and with a small nod and hum, she stepped back with a half curled tail. Sylas requested information and Genevieve watched him, her dandelion gaze calculative but in the end, she gave a nod. "Certainly. Our King and Queen are fair rulers," she divulged and tilted her head, tongue coming to slither over her dusty pink nose.

"We would perhaps take great appreciation at having another able body around as you gather your bearings," there was a chance he would not wish to leave, so she treated this as an opportunity to link it to a possible recruitment. Of an able body. Genevieve tried to not think of the fact he was handsome. It certainly wasn't a factor. "Our culture values bonds of man and woman but I believe that it is our kind and loyal hearts that make us." She didn't think on her failed marriage. "Arranged marriages are quite popular," she mused, but fell silent for but a moment. "Perhaps, if you're good, I'll show you my favourite place whilst you stay," she sung playfully.
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 The details of her pack remained in a pool around him, his mind an over-sodden sponge unable to absorb any more. This land, this she-wolf - the war and family he'd left behind - this salvation was as much a burden as it was a curse. To start over, to change and reshape all he knew...

 “I think I need a place to rest.” He said, his limbs suddenly trembling with the trial of change. “Will you take me to your pack?”

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