English Profile paper
Mar. 25th, 2008 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schizocherriThis is a gathering of two integral accounts regarding the gray wolf Selene, one of the animal companions of the ex-terrorist group AVALANCHE, from early in her life by two who knew her best..
from Cherri Shinra:
I was eight when I stumbled upon the carcasses of the wolves that littered the ground near the edge of the Sector Four slums, slaughtered by the dwellers when they wandered into the city looking to find the nourishment unavailable to them in the wastelands surrounding the city. My companion, a girl my age named Kitty, grew sick at the sight and begged me to leave, but I had noticed movement beneath one of the corpses.
Ignoring my friend I stepped forward and pushed the slowly rotting mass away, revealing a small wolf cub that couldn’t have been more than a few months old. Its fur was stained red with drying blood, and it let out a pitiful mewl as it latched on to my finger in search of milk. Removing the appendage from its mouth I then scooped the tiny form up and cradled it in my arms.
“He won’t let you keep it,” Kitty had said, referring to her older brother Reno, the oldest and unofficial leader of our pack of orphans.
“He can try,” I had answered defiantly.
Kitty had been right, and Reno tried his dammed hardest to get me to abandon the pup, which I had named Selene -as she was female-, a name that I vaguely remembered a woman’s voice saying how it reminded her of the moon, after the cub’s lustrous silver-gray fur. I had persisted and finally Reno caved one night after we had been alerted by Selene’s barks to adults trying to steal our hard earned food. He also admitted having wolf would deter people from bothering us, especially after she became full grown.
Speaking of growing, Selene did so quickly, nearly tripling her size in half a year. Along with her growth Selene’s eating patterns changed, going from needing milk to needing meat, which was an incredibly rare commodity for us slum dwellers to get fresh. But Selene never seemed to mind, and was content with what we could give her.
Soon after the sixth month mark of Selene’s living with us had passed, another orphan joined our ranks. Reno, Kitty, and their sisters Aelia and Momo, along with the other orphaned slum kids and myself, had turned in for the night and were gathered around the small table in the living area, sorting and distributing the wares we had accumulated over the course of the day. Selene was gone on a late night prowl, something she had taken to doing many months before after the time the adults tried to rob us.
A scratch at the door had let us know she was back and I got up to let her in, but then stood back in horror as she slowly made her way in, dragging a small body by the collar of its shirt. Selene dropped it gently at my feet and nudged it toward me, eliciting a hoarse whimper from the otherwise still form.
I quickly knelt next to the body and pulled its torn, blood soaked yutaka -though I didn’t know that’s what it was called at the time- away, revealing the frail and beaten form of a young boy. As I pulled the material away my fingers brushed against a multitude of small lacerations hidden by the slick blood as I touched the boy’s stomach. Selene made a harsh noise in her throat and leaned forward to nuzzle the boy’s cheek as I turned fearful eyes up to look at Reno, who nodded and knelt at the boy’s other side, carefully lifting him as he called out orders to the other orphans. “Aelia, Lezard,” he said, calling out to his older sister and the only other boy in the group, “clear the table. Kitty, you get the bandages, and Momo, some warm water. With various confirmations they hurried to their assigned tasks.
The next few hours were long. Selene sat on the floor curled in a tight ball with Momo as Reno, the others, and I tried our best to patch the boy up, occasionally running to get more water or clean cloth. We managed to save his life, and Selene didn’t leave his side at all until he woke up. He didn’t speak Common, but we managed to get that he was from Wutai and that his name was Kyoya Hibari.
Kyoya was wary at first, and would only let us near to change his bandages. Selene didn’t leave his side though, and he tolerated her. We didn’t learn until much later, when he had a good grasp of common, that he had been the Crown Prince of Wutai and had been kidnapped and left for dead so that the title would go to the only other applicable person; his cousin, Yuffie Kisaragi, daughter of Wutai’s lord.
The next few years passed quietly, until Shin-Ra got wind of Kyoya’s survival and sent a group of MPs to kidnap him again and finish the job right. Selene had been with him at the time, and by the time the rest of us got to them, they… had killed the MPs in self-defense.
from Kyoya Hibari:
I was kidnapped from Wutai by Shin-Ra grunts when I was five. As I was the male heir to Wutai’s throne, they hoped that with my disappearance it would fall to the lord’s daughter, my cousin Yuffie, whom they hoped would grow up weak. Like that would happen. She was stubborn then, and even more so now.
When we got to Midgar, the grunts took me below the Plate and beat me nearly to death then life, thinking I would die from the injuries I sustained. I might have, but I remember before passing out that something took hold of my yutaka’s collar and began to slowly drag me along.
I woke to find kids a few years older than me looking down at where I was lying. I was afraid of them, give what I had just gone though and the fact I was young, and quickly moved as far from them as I could. They let me, and one of the older ones, a red-headed boy, said something to them in Common, which I couldn’t understand. As I watched the older children talk amongst themselves I felt something hit my hand, and looked down to see the head of a gray wolf under it, resting on my leg, looking at me with dark gold eyes. Even at a young age I was good with animals, spending lots of time with the birds and cats, and even some wild animals, back in Wutai, so I knew instinctively that this wolf had saved my life.
Running my fingers through the thick fur at the base of the wolf’s neck I smiled slightly. “Arigatou,” I murmured softly in Wutaian, feeling sleep steal up on me again. I curled up into a ball on the floor with the wolf beside me, acting like a pillow as I drifted off.
As I healed I slowly grew to trust the children that had saved me, though I immediately trusted Selene, as I learned the wolf to be called, and the one she saw as her mother figure, a girl three years older than me, Cherri. The youngest in the group, four-year-old Momo, was also easy to trust, but the three oldest, red-haired Reno, his older sister Aelia, and a sly boy name Lezard were another matter entirely.
Two years quickly passed, and while I was out with Momo and Selene we were surrounded by three Shin-Ra MPs that had learned that I was still alive. Momo managed to get away and ran to get the others while I was slowly surrounded. Selene crouched in front of me, growling at the men. One of them came to close and she lunged at him, clawing at his arm. He managed to shake her off but she wasn’t deterred, latching onto his hand. A loud crunching sound and his scream echoed through the air as Selene crushed the bones in his hand. Another lifted his gun and shot her in her left back leg, making her let out a howl as she ran toward him with difficulty and jumped, tearing into his shoulder.
The third MP had snuck up behind me and had his arm around my throat, trying to strangle me. I did much as Selene had and sank my teeth into his arm, breaking the skin and piercing into muscle. He dropped me and I spat the blood from my mouth as I spun around and kicked him in the groin. As he fell to the ground I planted my foot into his side and felt bones snap.
The second grunt was on the ground, crimson pouring from his jugular where Selene’s teeth hand bitten. She advanced on the first guard, the one who’s hand had been crushed, fangs bared and stained with blood as she growled. “Please don’t kill me!” he begged.
“Then run, pathetic herbivore,” I growled as well, my tone matching Selene’s. “And if you or any other Shin-Ra grunt tries to kill me again, we won’t hesitate to bite any of you to death.” The man needed no second chance and ran, leaving behind his comrades, one of which was already dead for sure.
As soon as he had gone Selene wobbled and came over of me, leaving as much weight as she could off her rear leg. I knelt to her level and she nuzzled me, checking for injuries. Making sure I was unharmed she began to lick at my face, cleaning the blood away.
Cherri and the others arrived soon after, and were sickened by the sight of two dead bodies, as I had caused a rib to pierce the lung of the one I’d kicked and he had choked to death on his own blood. Selene growled at them as they tried to reprimand us for what we had done, but I just glared and said, “It was bite or be bitten.” Selene nodded as if she understood my words, and then turned her attention to her injured leg. Cherri ran forward to bandage it but the wolf just snapped at her and resumed licking. The girl looked to me for help, but I ignored her.
The other orphans tried to forget the incident, but it was hard, as the limp Selene gained from the gunshot wound was a constant reminder, as was the seemingly bloodthirsty and short nature I began to show.
Wutaian – Japanese
Common – English
