- underneath this concrete sky • (pic;)

[rayne]

The tan-furred shadow slinked through the shadows of the empty building, her nose keen on the scent of a recent passer-by. The scent was dreary and dirty, but it was food for the afternoon, and promised to be an easy catch if she could finally close in on it.
With her amber eyes peeled on the dim-lit floors, she continued the slow chase, taking precaution with each step so that the click of her nails on the pavement wasn't loud enough to startle her upcoming snack. Rats, as careless as they were, didn't fancy the idea of finding their way into a predator's mouth.
However, when she was nearly close enough to taste the blood of her prey in the air, her head smacked dead against the cold, metal exterior of one of the contraptions the humans had left behind. She recoiled quickly, a snarl on her face like it had been the one to get in her way, rather than it being the simple story of someone who was far too distracted to notice her surroundings.
The fit of anger, however, was brief, being cut short by a loud wail from the hunk of metal before her. Startled by the outburst, she nearly left her pelt laying on the ground as she leapt away from the beast.
"What the devil.." she spat, her eyes agape as she looked over the loud mass before her. Two bright beacons of light flashed on and off consistently, on the front and rear of the machine, almost like two pairs of glowing, blinking eyes. She'd certainly not seen anything like that in her childhood home. Though she'd seen the same masses of metal before, luck had decided to spare her from seeing the cave-like things come to life and scream.

Her ears sat atop her head, perked like two satellites as she stared it down. It wasn't a very useful move, but she hoped it would somehow get the message and shut off its incessant crying - it was worse than a pup! What in the world would make such an annoying thing?
She snorted in distaste, her tail flicking around her ankles anxiously as she took a few more steps away from the loud siren.

[♥Picasso]

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[atrb=background,http://i41.tinypic.com/30k6nv6.jpg,true] It had been surprisingly easy for the three month cub to sneak from her mother's clutches and explore the world for the first time. It was a dangerous and perhaps even fatal journey for a cub to make, but every cub got curious, and every cub sneaked off for a look around. Orion's ebony paws led him away from the safe haven of his Pack, and towards the depths of the city, into the bowels of danger. It was foolish, and one day Orion will look back on this day and wonder how he had not been killed. Ruthless killers lurked in every shadow, waiting to pounce on their next prey. Yet... Orion was fine. Perhaps the scent of Tempest scared them away. Perhaps the weather was too cold for the killers to stick around very long. Whatever the circumstance, Orion was one lucky cub. He reckoned he only had an hour or two before his mother woke from her exhausted slumber and realised he was missing. Stomach rumbling, Orion padded through the streets, nose high in the air. There was nothing he'd be able to kill with his blunt fangs, but there was always the chance of a carcass freshly killed. The likelihood was low, especially in such cold weather. The sky was a deep black, and ice coated the roads on which he walked. Orion wasn't used to walking such long distances, and several times he'd miscalculated his steps and stumbled, sometimes even fallen. His legs were covered in scratches and bumps from the countless falls he had. His siblings didn't seem to make as many mistakes walking as Orion did, and he even had trouble eating and focusing. Countless times Orion had found his gaze wandering to something else, and he had to refocus himself. Orion didn't understand himself, but he could feel he was just a bit different from others his age. Shivering, Orion braced his body, before suddenly stopping at a piercing noise. The shrieking pinned back his ears, and Orion looked around wildly. It was nothing he had ever heard before - surely not a natural noise? Insanely curious, Orion let his ears guide him into a nearby building. The unbearable noise wailed out at him as he took each step. Narrowing his amber eyes, Orion squinted through the darkness, to see a figure standing close to a flashing vehicle. Orion had once been told that they were cars, and they had been used to transport humans around. From what Orion had heard, he was glad that humans were dead and that they owned the city now. Breathing deeply, Orion pondered whether to turn around and leave, or whether to approach the stranger. She didn't look threatening. In fact, she just looked shocked at the loud contraption. The black wolf cub wondered what had set the thing off. It looked as though she hadn't noticed him yet, and Orion was still contemplating turning and leaving when the ground below him suddenly went uneven. Shocked, Orion slipped and fell in a heap in seconds, and Orion grunted from the pain. He immediately tried to get up quickly, only to have trouble coordinating his limbs effectively, and it still took several seconds before he managed to steady himself. Finally on all fours again, Orion gritted his teeth and looked up with a faintly irritated look on his face. That was not the entrance Orion was hoping for. Who would take a clumsy cub seriously?

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[rayne]

Her eyes stayed locked on the flashing, attention-guzzling contraption before her, her legs subconsciously inching away from it. It wasn't like it was going to lash out and take a bite out of anything, but it might have been attracting something that would. Other dogs were fine by her, and even cats were - but that didn't mean that she'd get a free pass simply because she was 'neutral' in the war.
At the moment, the wailing was only heightening her chances of attracting unwanted attention. And so, she finally turned her body to leave, walking off a few feet before something caught her eye. It looked like a shadow at first due to the dim lighting, but after focusing on it a bit more, the blur that stood in the distance finally took the shape of a stumbling cub. A smile brightened her expressions, washing away the annoyance and worry that the dreadful, loud thing behind her had sparked so easily.
She kept her distance at first, however, her eyes searching the distances of the building in hopes of finding some other scent - one to go with the cub. Surely, such a young thing wouldn't be wandering alone - would it?
"Well hey there, are you all alone?" she asked, curiosity pooling in her tone as she drew closer a few steps. However, as soon as she did so, the pup's scent finally registered in her memory, bringing up a solid, red flag in her mind - Tempest. It was a faint scent, but it was there. If the fuzzy wanderer was alone for now, someone would come baring teeth and nails to retrieve him. While Andy didn't exactly have a menacing presence, she wasn't too eager to end up in a staring contest with a defensive psychopath.

"You sure are far from home," she added, the Southern drawl thick in her voice as she tilted her head. Taking a deep breath, she eyed the cub a little longer, a smirk tugging at the edge of her snout due to the previous display of clumsyness. She'd been just like him once - and hell, she still was every now and then. Sometimes, falling and tripping and bumping into things weren't all that easy to avoid.