Aleu and Niju

Cliffside Cave Above the Sea

The day had come and they awoke. Every move they made was in silent preparation for the plunge. Neither thought about the actual jump, for they feared if they thought too hard, it would seem like willingly jumping into a watery grave.

They climbed down from the cave, and moved boldly to a less rocky edge in which to enter the sea. The climb itself was full of peril, with them starting from hundreds of feet above where they needed to be. When they finally made it to the desired edge, they both hesitated.

"Okay…" Aleu futilely muttered under her breath. She seemed lost in thought, as was Niju.

Niju was doubtful of this plan, as he had been all along. He thought he must be crazy to jump into the icy depths, to jump into uncertainty when he had solid ground right beneath his feet. He was bringing his dealings with Aleu and all of the near death experiences over the past few days to full circle now.

As a loner- he could scrape an existence, maybe. Live on rabbits for the rest of his days. He also had the curse of being a wolf, a pack animal. Even as infallible as he saw himself, he couldn't deny the void in his heart now that Nava was gone, and his pack had gone with some strange mutt. It was an existence he couldn't survive past the physical meaning of the word "survive", he'd become more empty that he feared he might already be.

He could escape this life, become what he knew he deserved to be, and gloat over his rival- but in moderation, Nava had taught him to restrain himself somewhat. Said Rival was standing next to him on the cliff right now. This plan of hers would involve him trusting her to know what she was doing. It was true she had survived the swim a few days ago, but if she could do it again was a question they both had.

"Aleu, I don't see any icebergs." He tested her, he wanted to see if she was just as doubtful as he was.

"Niju, I know!" Aleu snapped. " I-I don't see any either, but we have to take a chance. I made it last time… We'll just have to try for it!" She tried her best to sound experienced and seasoned at this. Her voice wasn't cooperating.

"Aleu, I found you collapsed on the beach… Or did you forget?" His temper flared as he faltered back a few steps. He tried his best to hide his uncertainly and blatant fear in a mask of misdirected anger at her.

"I know, Niju, I know!" She saw him take those hesitant steps backward.

"Niju, just- just trust me. We can do this. We survived a bear, a river and a forest fire. The water is calm- the time is now!" Her desperation was evident in her voice.

He walked forwards silently as did she. Reaching the edge, they took the plunge together- perhaps for the first time truly as a team.

The depths were icy now that their fur was drenched. They both came up for air, gasping with the frigidness of it. The morning sun warmed their coats as they surfaced. The way was clearly forward, but they needed to find some scrap of an ice floe. The sea wasn't nearly as cold as it would be in the winter, but without the sun even the summer temperatures could be lethal to those succumb with exhaustion. They swam forward silently for a few minutes, settling into the shock to the system.

"How long did this take you?" Niju asked Aleu first.

"I don't know …We just have to keep swimming on." Her beautiful eyes were pinned ahead, but she momentarily turned around to look at the landmass behind them to make sure they weren't accidentally turning.

Finding a very small island of ice gave them a glimmer of hope. They stopped for the briefest of moments to cling to it. Their bodies comfortably numb.

"So, now what?" Niju came off impatiently, while catching his breath. "Does this look familiar?" He added in between breaths, a little less crossly than his last statement.

Aleu shook her head. "No, not yet. But I think if we keep going we should find the big ice floes in the middle. They are sparse, but there is enough left to get from the middle to the pack-lands. That's why I tried to make it to the old-lands in the first place. What I didn't know was that the sparse floes would be almost completely gone after a certain point."

She still felt a little foolish- having arrived at the old-lands half-drowned and collapsed on the beach. Of course Niju had to be there to see it. In the cold water, Aleu felt her face burning. Niju smirked, and Aleu wanted to nip him until he bled.

Thankfully the smirk was replaced with an honest question. "Do you think we could just float on this one until we got closer to the center- where the ice floes were apparently greater in number?"

Aleu who was looking off into the distance with her paws and head resting on the ice-buoy, finally regarded him. "No, that'd take too long, and it may push us in the wrong direction. Plus the water will be much too cold for us at night."

He nodded. "Yes, it's much too small for either of us to climb on, and it would take a while."

Aleu looked off in the distance. "Yep. I'd really like to get out of here before that hits, too."

Niju's brows knitted in confusion. For the first time in a few hours he regarded the sky, but the low rumble in the distance already confirmed his fears before his eyes could. There was undeniably a storm beginning to brew in the distance, a frequent occurrence in the summer. Big black and blue clouds were piling up; Niju could even feel the wind pick up as they moved at a dooming crawl- set on covering up the sky.

"Yes… We'd better keep moving." He swallowed audibly in his fear; it was evident in his face that he was petrified.

He avoided her gaze, damn her sympathy. Little mutt should be apologizing for her horrible planning. He berated himself mentally for listening to her, against what must have been his better judgment.

Finally letting go of the ice floe, they swam with a new energy between them- Niju could feel his hate for her bubbling up once more. Keeping optimistic, he thought of all the ways he could humiliate her when he reached the new lands. He wanted her to stick around- every pack needs an Omega, after all. Entertainment, stress relief and knowing someone was always worse off than you were very important in keeping a pack healthy and all an essential part of an Omega's role. Traditionally, clan members were encouraged to humiliate and taunt the Omega. Of course, when Nava came to power he eliminated the role of Omega completely, he found it too cruel. Niju yearned to change that rule.

They kept going until the landfall they had come from became a very small dot on the horizon.

After the blue-blackness and soft rumbling had covered up the sun, the water churned more and more. They could both feel the wind biting at them as it whistled past them- sealing up their fate as the clouds blew together and fully cloaked the sky in a darkness that preceded most storms. The sun was just beginning to show the signs of its late afternoon glow, when it was smothered by the storm clouds.

Saltwater filled up Aleu's mouth as she and Niju were bounced up and down by the water which was rapidly working itself to a rolling boil in its wild frothiness. They had to madly paddle under waves before they crashed on top of them and work their way back to the surface when they didn't make it underneath the crashing wave crest in time.

Colliding with something solid, Aleu called out to Niju just after bobbing to the surface. The thunder was becoming less and less distant now as she struggled to make herself clear over it.

"Niju! Over here!" He fought the water to make it over and cling to the solid chunk of ice she'd found. It was almost as small as the one from before- but big enough for both of them to cling on using their paws.

She'd kinda just saved him- but he'd have figured it out, he liked to think. The ice floe made the fight to stay afloat a bit easier, but the iron grip they had to apply to keep from slipping off in the choppy sea was almost painful.

They both turned at the sound of what sounded like a hundred waves crashing. In the distance the horizon blurred as one by one the clouds above them burst and released what seemed to be a second sea above their heads. They winced as the torrential downpour came closer and closer, until it was finally upon them. The storm was here.

Twisting and turning, the way the wind blew the rain against their faces made it almost impossible to tell which way was underwater and which way was the surface. Thunder cracked deafeningly and the lighting was a spectacular sight. Aleu kept calling out for Niju, but never quite finished before the water would crash down upon them. She could barely see him amidst the chaos, but she could feel his paws underwater.

"Niju! Whatever you do-" she was cut off by a wave sending them underwater again. The ice-buoy proved most useful as it rocketed to the surface while they clung to it.

"Don't let go!" One of her paws gripped his. She had lost her grip on the icefloe under the water, and was clinging onto him. He shouted above the thunder from the sky and the waves.

"I'm not! I promise!" He promised before he could think of who he was promising to.

Despite all of their past experiences, letting go didn't cross his mind for a moment. Even while his mind was lost in the chaos, his body seemed to still remember his plan, and how Aleu was instrumental to it.

Lighting cracked as the sea seemed suck them forward infinitely. The water had gone still for a moment but as the lightning flashed again- they could see why. A huge wave had formed before them, rising up higher than any had before and they were too late to get out of the way. Then it happened.

It crashed down upon them- splintering the ice buoy they'd clung to and forced Aleu and Niju apart. They reached wildly for each other underwater, but the boiling current sent them tumbling apart. In an instant he'd been forced to break his promise. He rocketed to the surface by his own propulsion and called out to her. She sounded back- farther away than before. Over the crash of the waves around him- he couldn't make out what she was desperately screaming to him. "Aleu! I'm coming back for you!"

He didn't know how he could help her or himself by finding her in the storm, but they'd figure it out. He called out once again after making his way to the surface. "Aleu!" She sounded distant through the booms of thunder. He heard her call out his name, but she was cut off suddenly.

Another wave sent him under as it hit him square on. When he surfaced, he thrashed wildly, searching for her form or voice anywhere in the chaotic waters. He heard nothing and saw even less as he was thrown about like a ragdoll by the sea. He. Would. Find. Her.

He collided with something heavy against his head. Instinctually he hauled himself onto the object- but it pitched violently and he was thrown under. He groped through the waters, and found it once more. This time he just held on with his upper body. He'd found another icefloe that the storm hadn't destroyed.

Niju called out to Aleu one more, but received no answer, but he tried again and again- his eyes searching madly for any glimpse of her. He continued to strain his ears for any sign of her- even as the sea began to grow calm once again and the booming stopped. The rain stilled to a drizzle, and then nothing.

The sea stilled eerily around him, and the clouds began to dissipate one by one. Just how cold that water was began to gnaw at him as the stars were born from what were once dark clouds. He didn't think about swimming back, he knew he was trapped.

His rage with the halfbreed dissolved along with his body heat. She didn't foresee the storm- which meant Aniu hadn't helped her. She was just as lost as he was, now, guideless and not trusted with power that should "rightfully" be hers. He knew the bitter taste of that sentiment.

The fall of night and rise of the moon didn't deter him. The cold of the water was becoming overwhelming now- Niju could feel a shiver set in. He stopped calling out and paddling the icefloe madly, his eyes, however, never stopped their search as he floated along. Time passed slowly as the night wore on. His back legs were numb, and felt unmovable now, so he just floated on.

He briefly thought about falling asleep, but whatever was left of his commonsense told him he would never wake again if he did that. He felt fairly sure his luck had run out, but he'd had a promise to keep. His fate wouldn't be so unbearable if he could just fulfill that one last thing. It wasn't in Niju's nature to break promises. His father had called him a liar and a schemer, and Niju would rather face death than let his father be right about him. If he didn't keep a promise, then what made him anything but a liar?

He wondered if Nava had reflected like this, before his passing. Niju wondered if Nava had anything he'd left unfinished or unfulfilled, ever, in his entire life.

Knowing Nava, he was probably perfectly content- but then Niju remembered with what frantic urgency Nava had sent him out to "find a new light." It occurred to Niju, he might never figure out what those cryptic words meant, but right now finding Aleu was more important. Before Niju could make the coherent connection, he saw some movement ahead.

Among what appeared to be fragments of ice much too small to float on, he could make out a figure. The figure of his greatest struggles and his greatest triumphs…None other than Aleu.

She was clinging to an icefloe that was barely big enough, but she was clearly alive- or so he thought. He tested his voice quivering with the cold. "Aleu?"

Aleu and Niju

Night upon the Frozen Sea

He had found her. Her eyes weakly lit up in the moonlight as they grazed over him. She was huddled onto an ice floe that was smaller than his. She was shivering violently as she instinctively let go of hers and clung onto his. She could barely paddle with just her front legs, but she somehow managed.

The floe tipped and swayed violently, so neither of them could actually get onto it from the water, now that both of their blacklegs were so stiffly rigid and freezing, plus the exhaustion that set in after the storm, they weren't sure they could, anyways. She held on right next to him. He swore he could feel her warmth through the numbness and her clouded breath melted the faint ice crystals forming on his whiskers.

"So mutt, I guess thi-this is how it always is going to be, huh?" Niju shivered and stammered through his words, but he regarded her with a rare smile.

Aleu nodded, the moon on the water was the same rich blue as her eyes. "Ye-yeah. We m-make some te-team, huh?"

He could only nod at that. "W-we certainly do."

Even in this state, she knew she should be asking for favors. But knowing what the future had in store for them, she was clear headed now. He didn't really let go- he didn't forget her. In this whole wide sea, he was fated to find her again. Knowing her life was meant to go like this, let her accept the fact that her life was drawing to an end. She didn't know if he was ready to accept it; she'd lead him into this, but he still came back for her, just like he had promised in the heart of the storm. "Ni-Niju?"

"Hmph?" His breath was a blue cloud as the moon illuminated it.

"I-I just wanted to s-say thanks." When he gave her his best attempt at a confused glance she covered her small paw over his. "I-I have never been s-so close to knowing who I am than I a-am right now." She finished the last sentence in one exhale as to minimize her trembling stutter.

They both knew this wasn't the first time they had been tested by the elements as a team, only to be thrown together at the end, barely alive- but somehow together. "O-our luck m-may have r-run out this t-time…But I know w-we were f-fated to be in th-this as a clan. Aniu h-hasn't f-forgotten m-me or you. S-she planned i-it to be th-this way."

She gave him a frozen grin, her teeth appeared blue in the moonlight. Ice crystals were faintly present on her cheeks. His warming breath melted them and her muzzle was near his ear when she whispered. "N-Niju…I-I know I c-can surv-vive when you're w-with m-m-me." She needed to speak while she could, the shivering was getting stronger. She needed him to know. One more favor.

"I-I know Aniu is with m-me. D-Don't leave h-here without me." She trembled into him, her voice quivering. She felt as if it was no longer Niju beside her, not the Niju she was familiar with.

"A-Aniu or not…You have m-my word." Niju's voice was shaky, but his promise wasn't. They would join Aniu and Nava together.

"Aleu! L-look!" Niju rose his head to the sky as the dark waters around them were suddenly aglow. Aleu could only manage a gasp. Unless her eyes had failed her- there were the aurora borealis.

The most beautiful lights imaginable lit up the sky with violent shades of green with faint pink, purple and blue hues that stretched far into the lonely atmosphere above. Aleu sighed contentedly. She had no more will to fight for her life and neither did he. So, it seemed that whatever was left of their time here was to be full of the splendor of Aniu's wonders and the company of each other. Her body was numb to its own freezing by now, but her heart felt warmth spreading. Dying alone would be such an awful fate; she thanked Aniu she wouldn't have to be alone.

"Th-they're beautiful." She shivered, a little dazed and distant. She wondered how long she might have to view them before the world would go dark.

Being on the edge had put them closer and weakened their barriers and inhibitions. It made them raw and exposed their kinder natures like nothing else could. Niju felt the warmth inside difficult to fathom. Bu it didn't matter now.

"Y-yes. Be-beautiful." His gaze was no longer on the lights, but rather upon the way the lights reflected in her eyes and the way they illuminated her face in a way the moon couldn't. He wondered if he should ask Aleu to rest her muzzle against his and close their eyes together. He shook fiercely and she scooted until she could move no closer. They faced the lights which seemed to intensify in their luster suddenly.

They were both startled and jolted violently when their floe struck against something. Something much larger.

They faced forward and their gaze was rewarded with the sight of a much larger ice floe. They couldn't believe their eyes. They even hesitated at swimming for it- being so ready for the welcome oblivion. It occurred to Aleu that Aniu might have changed her plans, or they just got lucky, if it wasn't already too late.

After exchanging glances and reaching an understanding, they made a swim for it. Their movements were jerky seeing as their back legs were currently fairly rigid and their front paws were shaking violently but they finally made it over. Clambering on top of the slippery-but-solid-and-steady floe was a different story. Aleu made it a few feet, but her small front claws were not sufficient without the aid of her back claws which she couldn't currently feel or move.

Niju used his larger claws to dig into the ice and haul himself onto the floe. His back legs were essentially dragging behind him as he reached for Aleu's scruff to pull her after him. If he were truly evil, he would say he helped her as a form of self preservation. But of course it was much deeper than that now. The fact seemed to be that together they were lucky, no matter where he was- as long as she was with him, he had a hope of survival.

Their breath came in shivering pants as they lay on the floe. Wordlessly they embraced, struggling to find what little warmth they could in one another. They shifted positions until they found one that felt a little warmer. It mostly consisted of him lying on top of her as their bellies warmed each other. Periodically they shifted positions until they could feel their back legs again. They ached, badly.

Niju could finally laugh at their fate. A few breathless chuckles came forth. Aleu followed suit as they finally had the dexterity to curl their bodies around each other. They were far from warm, but perhaps not fatally chilled. If they could just make it through the night…Luckily the sea was calm now.

"Niju…" Aleu's voice was a bit husky- but not weak and broken by the quake of her body any more. She wanted to say so many things now that his face touched hers. She could feel his breath warm her cheeks. "Have you…Have you ever had someone you couldn't live without?" She could feel his head shake.

"No. Not physically. Until now. This is…strangely physical, the actual meaning of that right now." He exhaled his exhaustion, but contentment. His chest felt strangely warm. His body had stopped quaking as well.

"If I close my eyes, will you be here in the morning?" She still felt a little dazed, like after the forest fire when they washed up on the river bank.

This time he pressed his broad jaw into hers but not out of a necessity for warmth- but general reassurance. A pack-mate's move of comfort.

"I don't have a choice, I can't stay away. Fate won't let me." He half joked.

In order to leave, he'd have to leave the ice floe, her warmth and something else that he couldn't see…but rather feel inside of himself. Sort of how he'd come to feel for Nava, but lacking the admiration aspect...But possessing something additional he couldn't currently identify.

"Hmm.." Aleu drifted.

He rest his cheek against hers, almost wanting to revel in the feel of her silky looking fur against his tongue. However, if he did that his saliva would evaporate and leave her colder. Plus he didn't want to change the way things were, on so many levels.

Aleu mumbled something against him as she drifted off, her paws tucked underneath herself. He let himself finally rest his eyes, but not before glancing once more at the lights over head. With their fur mostly dry, there was no risk of freezing while they slept, being adapted for the arctic, their fur could insulate them perfectly, so long as it was dry. Together they would face the dawn.

Aleu and Niju

Sunrise upon an Icefloe

Aleu was the first to stir, immediately followed by Niju. They had not slept for long, but the faintest orange glow of the dawn was visible in the cloudless sky. They could feel it softly warming their now completely dry fur. They huddled closer as it broke free of the horizon. Aleu yawned, nudged closer to Niju and drifted back to sleep. She was waiting for the mid afternoon- when the water was warmest to take action. He laid his head down again, knowing their survival was still precarious with no sight of a landfall. He felt the need to speak. He silently asked Nava to give him help, so the words didn't come out a jumbled mess.

"Aleu…I don't really know how to phrase this…So…I suppose..." He seemed to find clearer speech. "I thank you, halfbreed... I feared leaving the homelands, to live beyond tradition…The change it would bring… You showed up and… You made me accept my fate. I've spent my whole life trying to fight it. I've been trying change and control the design for so long." He spoke as if there was still sea water in his throat. Almost as if the words he spoke were causing him pain.

"Perhaps I am not in total control of my design, but rather just a part of it." He sounded a little distant, staring off into the sunrise.

Aleu could feel the frustration that boiled inside him, as always. He stressed the word "perhaps", as if there was still something that remained to be seen. That he might still be right after all this time and Nava might be wrong.

He never turned to look her in the eyes. "But I should have already known that well."

Aleu couldn't find anything to follow that statement. She didn't need to. She curled up tight and rested again.