Ashes to Ashes -Sasha

[flare]

Death. A well known topic, but not one people like to talk about. They all knew it was coming, yet they never acknowledged it. They avoided it like the plague. Ironic.

The large, dark colored wolf strolled through the cemetery. He was a peculiar looking one, though not amusingly peculiar, no, intimidatingly and scarily peculiar more like it. He was a cross of the two largest and most powerful wolves out there. Russian and Gray. He was darkly colored, though not black per say, more of a mix of charcoal gray, sooty brown, and just plain black. His face was pure black, and his top coat was black. Not black all the way through, just the tips, allowing bits of gray and brown to peek through when he moved. His most distinguishing features were the scars. There were various scars marring various spots of his coat, but two areas were the worst. His throat had slash like scars across it, making it look like someone tried to rip his throat out. And someone had tried to do that, quite a few actually, the target that managed to land the hit didn't live very long after. His chest was also scarred. There were small slash like scars, like someone was clawing his chest relentlessly. The scars were concentrated on one spot on his left, over his heart. It was like someone tried to tear his heart out.

A sound of giggling reached his ears and he decided to follow it. He weaved through grave markers of various sizes and found a group of young humans in front of a tombstone, taking turns dancing on the grave. Kage growled lowly. He hated humans, but he hated the ones with no respect for the dead more. The dancing stopped and they looked around frightened. Kage came out from behind the tombstone and growled again, hackles raising as he crept forward like he was about to attack. The humans looked at him, utterly terrified, and then took off running, most likely for their lives. Kage smirked and chuckled. He laid down to the side of the marker, leaning against it lightly. His amber eyes roamed what he could see of the cemetery, eyes landing on a female dog. She looked like a stray and some sort of husky mix.

Kage didn't make a move to get up, liking his privacy. But if she came over, he'd say hello.

[Sasha]

THE springtime sun felt good as it soaked into the brown-gray fur on Sasha's back. Her dense coat absorbed the sunlight greedily, curling the average sized she-dog in a caccoon of warmth that suited her just fine. She liked the winter, loved snow, but there were times when it felt nice to be just comfortably warm. Curled up behind a stone statue of an angel that had a broken wing, she felt at ease in the quiet cemetery. Normally she liked nothing to do with humans after they turned her into a freak, but she had to say, she didn't mind the dead ones. Dead things couldn't hurt you anymore. The living, ha! They were just out to make you dead. That was all her owner had tried to do and all the scientists had tried to do and now look at her, nowhere to go and nothing to do with her life. Oh well. The sun was high, the sky was blue and the land around her was full of quiet dead things. This was probably as close to perfect as her screwed up life would ever get but hey, after you spent a year or so in the labs, you learned to appriciate what you had. Sure, she wasn't eating steaks every night and sleeping on a silk cushion but at least no one was stabbing her with needles, cutting open her stomach or poking and prodding her at all times of the day.

YEP. Life was good.

IT took the mere whisper of humans giggling for Sasha to go from her curled up ball of gray-brown fur to standing upright, blue eyes open, ears up and a growl in her throat. By the time her sleepy brain caught up with her instincts, the giggling had stopped and the she-dog realized no one was around. Looking all around, Sasha saw no giggling little humans. Her lips curled into a faint, confused frown. She wasn't insane, she knew she'd heard giggling but where from? Did she really want to even know? If she just walked away then she wouldn't have to deal with the nasty human brats. But...if she just walked away she might run into them and then have them chasing her or trying to pet her or some other nonsense.

HUFFING grumpily, the she-dog shook herself and trotted warily toward a hill. When she crested the hill, baby blues took in the scene below. Yep, there were kids alright. The little brats were standing on a grave which was weird, but hey, who was she to judge the oddities of stupid humans? What did get her attention was what the brats were staring at. If she'd had eyebrows like the ugly humans, they would have risen. A big black monster of a wolf was growling lowly, half concealed behind a nearby tombstone and then it began advancing toward the dumb babies. Sasha's tail twitched but she made no move to help the humans or stop the wolf. For all she cared, he could eat them, and he was certainly big enough to stomach the foolish whelps. He didn't get the chance though. The humans apparently figured out that it was time to flee and did so, leaving the wolf to lounge against the grave.

FOR a moment, Sasha watched him and after a second he watched her, golden eyes bright. Again, Sasha's tail twitched. It wasn't a typical husky curl, more German Shepherd in style. As far as body structure, it was the only sign of shepherd in her. There were phantom brown-black markings on her back that leaned toward shepherd but the rest of her belonged to husky, which served Sasha just fine. She'd heard a human once say huskies looked like wolves. Looking at one, Sasha couldn't help but think how dumb that human had been. A minute stretched as Sasha met the amber gaze without a hint of fear. Her tail didn't tuck, her head didn't duck, her ears didn't even twitch. She'd faced scarier things than him. All he had was teeth, and thanks to humans, she had proverbial teeth of her own that would do much more damage than just him.

AFTER a still minute, Sasha started to move. She strode with purpose down the hill, paws skimming the green grass with quiet whispers. Her stride accented her athletic body, muscular but not overly so. When she was within about two yards of the male, she stopped and looked at him again. Huffing a quiet snort, blue eyes rolled and Sasha turned to the left and began following the concrete sidewalk along the same way the pups had run off. "You are such an idiot." She said it without a hint of fear, as if he was just another dog, saying it over her shoulder as she walked away. So he was a big wolf? No business of hers. In an hour humans would be swarming the cemetary looking for "a big black dog" and Sasha had no desire to end up in the pound or worse. No no, not this girl. Let him get tranquilized and shipped off to be altered. She'd done her time for some unknown crime.

[flare]

A ghost of a chuckle passed Kage's lips. She thought he was just some run of the mill stray. No, he was an escaped lab dog. He figured to use his ability, seeing as the husky mix was out of hearing range by now. He opened his maw, and if his ability worked at all, the husky should be hearing "And why is that, little girl?" In her ear. One might think that his vocal cords would be damaged given the damage to his throat. It was actually quite the opposite. He knew the humans would probably come, especially since the lab was looking for him. He wasn't worried. He'd become a ghost before, he'd become a ghost again.

Hearing car doors slam, he sighed, getting up and walking after the girl, his chest and throat scars now becoming visible. Even if canines weren't interested in him, or scared of him, his scars made them do a double take no matter what. He found it rather irritating, but he dealt with it. He was now walking beside her, long strides easily keeping pace with her. The sun had moved behind a cloud, blanketing the cemetery in muted light. Kage always liked cloudy days more than overly sunny ones. But even though he liked rain, snow and winter usually more than sun, heat and summer, he still appreciated the sun's warmth.

OOC: sorry its so short!

[Sasha]

'AND why is that, little girl?'

A chill ran down Sasha's spine but she did everything in her power to stop it. She knew that power. Dogs and stuff in the labs had called it an 'echo howl' even though there was nothing howling about it. It was whispering and having that whisper travel. She could remember a lot of canines actually thought that power was a blessing since it allowed them to communicate to others. Sasha could remember one femme that had been in the cage next to hers, a retriever mix of some kind, she used to echo howl to speak to her pups, four of them that had been taken from her soon after birth. Sasha remembered her distress when all four stopped answering by barking and howling their heads off from rooms away. When someone stopped making noise, it meant they had either succumbed to the experiments and stopped fighting, they'd been put down or they'd died just from the surgeries and therapies. In fact, Sasha had been witness to more than one dog literally coming apart at the seams because the mutations of his DNA had been too much and his entire body had more or less exploded.

THIS wolf though, falling in to step next to her, was just as creepy as every other echo howler Sasha had known. He thought it was all big and bad just because he was from the lab and he was a wolf. Big freaking deal. If he was a real wolf, he'd be running around in the wildlands outside of Cold Creek, not following a dog around and scaring kids in a graveyard. The big sissy probably hadn't even faced his own kind since he'd been dragged into the lab.

"YOU know, insulting you wasn't an invitation," Sasha growled sourly, shooting a cold glare at the wolf. She became very conscious of her extra long venomous claws and felt glad for them. One good swipe and this guy would be long gone. "Beat it White Fang, I'm not a 'Call of the Wild' type of girl."

SWERVING to the left, Sasha stepped off the cement sidewalk and into the grass. In her mind's eye she could see the blue lightning of her telekenetic powers flickering to life. Again she felt comforted by her power. He was big and he may think he was bad, but he was nothing. The scars on his neck were his only war wounds. Sasha had one running the length of her stomach and several on her neck. She'd been through who knows how many tests and surgeries just so the humans could poke around in her brain for some unknown reason. Why couldn't they poke around in the brains of other humans? Was that too easy or were humans just more likely to fight back? Huh. Sasha clenched her jaw at the thought as she swerved around an obelisk-shaped tombstone and headed for an oak tree that had a bench under it.

[flare]

"Not too friendly are you?" He echoed, deciding o use his power since the female didn't seem to like it, if her shiver was any indication. He stopped at the nearest tombstone from the oak tree, watching her with raised eyebrows."Whats your story, Sheila?" Even when he was echoing one could tell he had an accent that became more apparant the more he talked. IT wasn't neccesarily European, or even Russian. "Before the Labs and all." He could tell she was a Lab dog. Lab dogs had a certain aura about them, you could say. They were usually more guarded or harsh than others.

He needed a good fight right now. He wished one of his more challenging targets was still alive, then at least he'd have some fun. Maybe his cousin would show up. Bowen did have a knack for showing up unexpectably. Kage looked at the girl again and took note of her unusually long claws. He wasn't afraid of her, and could stand any poisons she could whip up. He was mostly the offensive type, but he could dodge just as well as he could strike.

Thunder rolled in the distance and Kage smiled. He loved a good storm. With the scent of rain drawing near, and wind beginning to gust, Kage still sat by the tombstone. He didn't mind getting a little wet. The clouds darkened, and the thunder got louder, now close to beig right over them.

[Sasha]

SASHA liked to consider herself a pretty reasonable dog. Stay away from her, don't talk to her and don't look at her. Those were her conditions. Reasonable right? Hell, it wasn't like she asked for his stinking attention. The damned fool was going to get himself thrown back into the labs or shot by a frightened human if he kept strutting around infested areas. He was a wolf! Probably too chicken to go back to real wolves after humans screwed with his innards and poked at whatever tiny brain might be hiding in that too-thick skull. So, as he persisted in following her, the husky shepherd mix didn't hide her distaste as she shot him a frosty glare. What? Did he think he was impressing anybody? All he could do was make his words travel. The power was annoying as hell but it was prodominately harmless. He might be able to pester someone to death but that was it. Not impressive in the slightest. She had more power in one paw than he had in his whole body and he was pissing her off, fast. Bad idea. Oh well. She'd told him to get lost, that was fair enough warning. If he got hurt, it wasn't her fault. In fact, it'd probably be fun to make him run away with his tail between his legs.

"MY story is none of your business," Sasha snapped, reclining on her haunches, the full force of her frosty glare on him. "I told you to get lost and I'm not in a good mood. Go chase some squirrels or bark at a human."

IN her mind, Sasha felt her telekenetic powers crackling like electricity. It crawled under her skin and sparked behind her eyes. Curling her lip in a little grin, Sasha took a deep breath and let it expand. An invisible force crackled around Sasha, coiling tighter and tighter around the brown-gray she-dog. She called it in, coiling it around her and relishing in the electric feel of it. Her blue eyes flashed and a smirk crawled onto her maw a second before she pushed out. The force field around her expanded fast and hard. Over her head, small limbs snapped and big limbs were pushed back as Sasha used the force to push everything within ten feet away from her. It would be enough to take a dog off his feet.

WITH any luck, it would get the point through this idiot's skull that she was not interested in his company. She had no problem picking him up and throwing him around if that's what it took. If she needed to she'd give him another pretty little scar with her burning toxic claws. Her poison wasn't deadly but it hurt like a bitch. He'd be hard to lift because he was heavy, especially if he struggled, but she'd find a way to make him leave her alone. She didn't need other lab dogs for 'support'. She didn't want their companionship or whatever they called it. She had nothing in common with them. They were all fools. He was even more so, prancing around like he thought he was a dog. She'd have nothing to do it any of it. She didn't need to sob her heart out over her hurts and explain her life story. It was none of his business. Period. No disgussion. She wasn't playing anymore, it was time for him to go.

"SCRAM Fido before you get hurt," Sasha sneered.

AT one time in her life, Sasha had respected the power and raw wildness a wolf represented. Her mother used to tell her all kinds of stories about how wolves and dogs were relatives and how they were so powerful, graceful and regal. This idiot, yeah he was big and maybe powerful compared to a normal dog but since the labs, Sasha had a new outlook on powerful. If all he could do was whisper annoying little snippets of conversation and make them travel, he was about as powerful as a fly compared to her. He was picking fights with the wrong girl. She was not impressed, she was not intimidated and she felt no bonds with him. He was not a 'kindred spirit' or whatever. He was a stupid mongrel, just like all the rest. He might be all wolf but he was also all idiot. Sasha didn't waste her time on idiots. He didn't have enough sense to fear the humans and he didn't have enough sense to leave her alone. If he didn't wise up, she'd end him with ease.