+ The Twilight Path

+ Roxas +
 

The sound of the wind whispering in his ears woke him up. He groaned, lying on his stomach, legs splayed, as if he had fallen where he lay. He lifted his head and the world spun around him. Where am I? he wondered. What is this place? He came to a stand and stumbled, his legs giving out beneath him, hitting the soft sand. He rolled on his back and found himself looking up at a twilight sky, painted a blended array of lavenders and ambers. He could even see some stars poking out of the midnight darkness at the highest point, twinkling as the golden sun set along the horizon. However brief, it was beautiful, and captivated him for a few mere moments. But as he lay, his senses returned. He had to keep moving.

The young wolf rolled onto his feet once again, pads splaying to keep his balance. He was by no means a whelp, but not an adult, either; a full-grown yearling, at the most. His throat was dry and his stomach growled in hunger. He lifted his nose to the air and inhaled, hoping to catch the scent of prey, but that was not so. Instead, his nose found fresh water, and not far from where he stood. If he was lucky, there would be something to eat there...

By the time he reached the oasis, the sun had set. The sky was now an indigo-violet mirage, a silver cusp of moon suspended in a starry sky filled with rainbow nebulae and stunning constellations. To the east, a spectacular array of shooting stars rained down like angels from heaven. Roxas paused to watch for only a few moments, but his instincts pulled him away and towards the oasis. It was a meager place with only a few plants and trees, but it was enough for him to take refuge in for the night. He drank his fill at the water hole and sniffed around, for prey or otherwise. He had no idea how many others were in the desert, but one could never be too careful. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew it was not wise to trust those of other families...

The gold-hued hessian rested on his stomach beneath a palm tree, facing eastward to watch the stars fall. He closed his eyes and tried to remember what he had been doing prior to waking up in the desert, but what it was, he could not recall. Faces floated behind his eyes and words murmured in his head, but he could not remember their names nor voices... Somewhere, out there, there was someone who knew... But who it was, he could not be certain. He sat up, considering this. Perhaps he would have to call them, tell them that he was alive and awake. And thus, he raised his head, and let out a howl that only lone wolves could do.

+ Roxas +
 

It wasn't long until a howl returned his. Roxas lowered his head, black auds twitching. Suddenly, he wasn't alone at all. What made him jump in surprise, though, was a voice - a very nearby voice. "Huh?" he said, standing and turning to find a pup, somewhere between being a whelp and a yearling, gazing at the pool of water he had drank from only moments ago. How had he not noticed her there? Roxas exhaled and sat back on his haunches, ears falling. His blue eyes looked to the pool of water as well. The crystalline surface reflected the shooting stars in the midnight sky.

"I feel like everything already has," he sighed, closing his eyes. "I feel like a part of me is missing, but I can't remember what or why. I feel like I'm supposed to be somewhere important right now, but I don't know where or when. I can't remember anything, but I hear and see things that I know I should know." He wasn't sure why he was sharing these things with her. Perhaps it had to do with something about being alone together in a big, big world. "I'm Roxas. What about you?"

+ Roxas +
 

Roxas watched her, his blue eyes sparkling. He tilted his head as she spoke and frowned. She didn't know or remember what she was doing either...? Things just seem to keep getting worse and worse. He smiled, however, when she complimented his name, but it fell once more when she reminded him of not remembering anything.

"Not really," he replied. "But you see, I have these dreams. Really weird dreams. Like, I'm there in the dream and I'm a part of everything, but at the same time, I'm not. I don't know if they're pieces of my past or my imagination. All I know is that I woke up in the desert and my name is Roxas." He paused, the thinking of the characters from his dream... One of them was more prominent than the others. A chocolate-brown wolf, one with bright blue eyes and an even brighter smile. Sometimes Roxas was running alongside him, and sometimes, he was him. He wished he could remember the boy's name... He seemed so familiar. He turned to the pup beside him. "Do you ever think that maybe you lost your name?" he asked, black-tipped tail thumping on the sand. "You can't remember anything either, right? Maybe, if you forgot it, we can go looking for it. What do you think?"

+ Roxas +
 


"Oh," was all he said. It sounded like such a tragedy for someone so young. He turned his gaze to the reflection in the water, his pale face staring back. Somewhere inside, it felt as if he had tragedies too, and he knew he should have felt sad about them, but he didn't know why. This bothered him. Things had happened to him, things he couldn't even remember, and now he had no clue what he was doing. He sighed. Where was his family? Where were his friends, if he had any? His pack? Surely, there was someone out there worried about him, looking for him... Unless he had run away or thrown away, like a handful of sand tossed to the wind... As sad as it was, this fae was speaking a strange truth, the kind that reached into his heart and made him agree. Dreams were his future and his past, though he wasn't always sure if they were his...

He lifted his head, though, when she said that someone was approaching. Roxas stood. "I let out a howl earlier, and someone answered back. I guess this must be him," he replied, though the orange body and matching orange eyes did not seem familiar, unfortunately. "And I don't think I know him. But maybe he has some answers for us."

+ Roxas +
 


Roxas held his tongue, watching this large male and listening to him speak. His words were sharp and blunt, like the hot bite of the fire. His temper flared as he was called a pup - if anything, he knew he was more than that. Sure, there was still space for him to fill out, but to say he was no older than the whelp was insulting. He let his expression betray his emotions as his smile sifted into a frown, not sure if he was glad that someone had answered his call. He wasn't about to take immediate offense, though. There could be answers he needed at stake.

"I'm Roxas," he replied, standing his ground, though the male had made no threat yet. Something about him, though, kept Roxas on his toes. "And I'm not really sure where I'm going, but, I'll find out. Who are you?" He turned his gaze to the pup. There was an urge to protect her, if things got bad, even though they didn't really know one another. All they had shared was a conversation, but it was enough.

+ Roxas +
 


He listened to Sephiroth talk about a storm... A storm... Yes, there was something familiar about that, something about an awful storm ravaging some place in the recesses of his mind. Roxas closed his eyes as Sephiroth spoke to the pup, trying to remember. He could see himself standing on a beach in his mind, the wind in his fur, the scent of salt on the breeze. There were two others standing beside him, but he could not turn his head to see their faces or learn their names. And he watched, from where he stood, as a dark storm overtook a tropical island across the ocean water, the twilight sky above him blackening. He wasn't sure what had happened during this storm... Perhaps it was what was before he had woken up, or perhaps he was seeing through the eyes of the mysterious brown wolf whose name he could not remember...

He looked up again when Sephiroth had finished speaking. He caught the last of the bru's words, the ones about chasing a dream. He wasn't sure what Sephiroth had said to the pup, but he still felt the urge to protect her, even though nothing physical had happened. He stood silent for a moment, contemplating his words. "So, you have... others?" Roxas said, wondering where these other wolves were hiding. There was something about the way Sephiroth's orange eyes flickered in the moonlight that made him cautious to trust him, or perhaps, it was some kind of instinct. A smile tugged at his maw. "Because to me, you really seemed like the type to run alone."

+ Roxas +
 


"Interesting," Roxas replied to the brute, still skeptical. It was as if there was some kind of hidden agenda behind Sephiroth's dancing orange eyes, and Roxas couldn't quite put his paw on it. When the pup spoke, he was surprised to hear her give him a name - Specter. Roxas wondered where she had come up with it, or if she had suddenly remembered it. Either way, he was beginning to get the feeling that Sephiroth wanted to come with him, to reclaim his lands or take back the pack he spoke of... Everything Sephiroth said sounded familiar, as if in some past life, Roxas had been fighting to reclaim a lost land...

"So, if we do go with you..." Roxas began, the gears turning in his head. "We'll get a place in your pack, and... then what? What happens if we don't go with you?" He said this in a non-offensive manner, blonde head tilted in curiosity. He knew that there wasn't much for him in the desert, or rather, there wasn't much for him in general. If there was one thing he needed, he couldn't remember it. And it was exactly what he needed to find. "Because... I know I called you here, and you answered. But how do you know if I'm what you want in your pack?"

For all Roxas knew - or, for what he didn't know - he could be a complete failure.

+ Roxas +
 


Roxas watched Sephiroth with careful azure eyes. The large brute still seemed untrustworthy, or that he had something sinister hiding beneath his pelt. He felt Specter lean into his back leg, as if hiding from him, and Roxas couldn't blame her. He was thankful that he would be given some time to mull it over, but when Sephiroth mentioned that if he declined and step aside for the adults, he put his foot down and took a stand. "Okay. I'll help you. As long as Specter can come with, and nobody hurts her," he said. It wasn't much of an ultimatum, but Roxas didn't like the way Sephiroth looked at her. It was like she was something tasty to eat. He still had no idea what Sephiroth meant by dogs from the city and taking over the lands, but he guessed that he would find out when the time came. He had never met a dog, or at least, he couldn't remember if he did. Regardless, he refused to be pushed aside like some pup.

Seeing as their conversation was just about over, he turned to look at Specter and gave a small smile. "I guess we'll be in a tight spot for a while. But we'll get through it, okay?" he said, and gave a soft wag of his tail. His stomach rumbled, and he wondered when the last time he had eaten was. "Now, I don't know about you, but I'm hungry. Let's see if some other traveler buried a meat cache around here." He put his nose to the ground and made a wide berth of Sephiroth, careful to watch his back. He picked up a meaty scent close to the water, where the sand was more mud than anything else, and began to dig. Just below the surface, he succeeded in finding a meat cache, pulling apart the hindquarter of a water buffalo. He licked away some of the mud, but most of it did not stick. He ripped off a piece with his teeth and set it down for Specter. "Er, you can eat meat, right?" he said, not really sure of how quickly pups aged. She had a mix of adult and puppy fur, but he couldn't tell what kind of teeth she had.