Don't second guess what you see in our eyes.

[evernight]

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[atrb=background,http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac345/indiegrrrl/admintablemiddle_zps0863fe48.png] In the beginning, there was peace. Once, long ago, there was a land set within a land.  Miles of forest stretched on every side, the tightly knit canopy hiding the ground from the sun's eye and providing shelter for the diverse realm of species who took shelter in its privacy.  It's here our story starts; Here, in the world of Doux Reves. You see, this land held a special promise.  To any wolf who was searching for a new beginning--or rest--Doux Reves was their haven.  The broken came to find healing; the weary, rest; the lonely, family; and the lost, a home.  And behind this promise stood Fenris and Tor, the Alpha and Alphess of Doux Reves. As the years passed, wolves continued to filter in and out of Doux Reves, some with powers and others without.  This didn't come as a shock to the Alphas for very long, for Fenris possessed three elements--water, earth, and fire--while Tor, who was born to a pack descended straight from the wolf's first ancestors, was without a gift.  But all the wolves who came, whether they had powers or no, came with one thing in common;  a burden.  And it was this one thing that drew them to Doux Reves, the land of sweet dreams. But, as we all know, every dream comes to an end, often followed by nightmares.  And even in this land of healing, danger lurked.  For the Alphess, Tor, held a secret grudge against her mate and the other gifted wolves, a grudge that drove her to look for ways to steal the powers she hoped her offspring  would have.  As fate would have it, however, her offspring didn't carry their fathers gene.  Instead, they possessed half of his genes  and half of their mother's, thus allowing them to be given one power each from a willing gifted.  With her plans foiled, Tor fled into the night, never to be seen again. Two winters passed, the three siblings who had been born to Tor and Fenris growing and learning under their father, before another calamity hit the peaceful world, this time in the form of death.  In the blink of an eye, a fatal disease overtook Fenris.  No wolf knew where it had come from, or how he had gotten it, only that it was soon to take their beloved leader from them.  Fading quickly, he summoned his children one last time.  He explained to them how much he loved and cherished each one of them, then told them the plans he had for Doux Reves after he passed.  They would all, he said, rule together.  Not as one Alpha, but as three; each equal to the other in power and all three answerable to one another.  When all this was said, he gave each of the siblings a portion of his power.  To the gentle-natured Jesen he gave the gift of earth; To the protective Amarok, water; and to Deisre, the passionate one, he gave the gift of fire. The three obeyed their father's wishes by taking on the pack as Alphas and doing their best to carry on the Doux Reves promise--though it was much easier said than done.  But no matter what they did, the siblings couldn't seem to stop the "pull" that their followers felt towards each of their Alphas.  It was an inevitable effect that the separation of elements seemed to have, and there was nothing to be done but accept it and move on.  Regardless, none of the siblings ever strayed from the idea that they were still one pack.  Their lives were coming together beautifully, a hundred times better than any of them would have imagined. ------------------------------------------- Until the Darkness came, that is… Before the pack had time to fully recover from their previous tragedy, Nightmares began to plague the Alphas minds.  Every morning the siblings would wake bathed in a pool of fear, questioning whether or not the things they had seen and felt were real or just a figment of their imagination.   Their nightmares were often filled with war--the siblings pitted against a pack of cold blooded wolves with marred faces covered in blood--followed by disasters of every kind.  Tornadoes, fires, and the fiercest of all blizzards wreaked havoc on their precious lands in the surreal world the darkness had created.  But, most imporantly, their mother, whom they had assumed would never show her face in Doux Reves again, appeared in their dreams, her once beautiful body ravaged by time and the bitterness in her soul. In the end, the nightmares proved to be visions of what was to come.  Disaster after disaster wreaked havoc on the beautiful Doux Reves, tearing everything they once held dear from them.  In the end, however, their mother proved to be the worst nightmare of all.  She and her hell hounds pillaged the lands mercilessly, determined to shatter the bonds between the siblings, save for the rebellious blood that ran within Deisre's veins.  In the end, however, it was the energy itself colliding between the hundreds of wolves that brought about the catastrophic end. It was at their highest point of love for their father, their pack members, and Doux Reves, that the brothers were able to force their mother from the lands, the sheer force of their power cracking the mountains in two, their beloved sister falling into the never-ending black abyss. -------------------------------- Once again, peace came…  And went. It had taken many moons to repair the earth they once claimed as their own, but Jesen and Amarok managed well.  The pack that had once been Doux Reves was splintered, the members scattered once again across the four corners of the earth, but not for long.  Some would return in the few years of peace, and, of course, weary paws always carried new members into the healing lands.  Doux Reves, though, remained in the past.  From then on, the brothers split the pack--and the lands--in two;  Mitica and Arlyn.  Separate packs living in peace with one another.  And then, as a strange and ominous presence began encroaching upon their lands, two others joined the brothers.  Isfet and the Rogues, very different packs attached to the lands came to the brothers seeking an alliance, the two new alphas bringing stories of two-legged demons from beyond the borders of the lands, and the devastating wars between their kind. No one from any pack, however, was able to stop this newest madness from overtaking the packlands.  The humans swept in with their glittering weapons and insatiable appetite, their silver machines sweeping away miles of forest.  The Rogues were the only ones who stayed.  Isfet, the war pack, was the first to fall, with only a few survivors making their way out alive.  The Rogues, loners to the bitter end, stayed behind when Jesen and Amarok took their packs and left;  no-one knew what became of them.   For a while, the two packs stayed near the lands, the brothers hoping, vainly, that the two-leggeds would grow bored and leave.  Then, as time stretched on, and tempers grew short, the packs began to dwindle away in numbers again.  Many, as before, left.  A few, however, stayed behind for a while; the ones who had been through the nightmares before and survived.  And finally, even Jesen and Amarok were forced to concede to their follower's wishes.   So they disappeared deep into the mountains, the packs splintering off into groups of four or five wolves for survival purposes.   But only until the final disaster hit. -------------------------------- It was like nothing any wolf or human had ever seen, this disaster.  First, an explosion hit the earth.  It wasn't overly shocking event; the wolves were used to the humans strange weapons.  What was concerning, however, was what followed.  Tremors shook the mountains for days after the initial explosion,  and the sky, usually a hazy grey color, grew dark and rained ash--something the wolves hadn't seen since the fires that ripped across Doux Reves.  Even more odd , though, was the fact that the strange weather didn't stop.  Instead, it continued almost nonstop for several months.   Throughout most of it, the wolves stayed in the caves, only venturing out when it was necessary.  They were well aware of the dangers of inhaling the black rain that fell from the sky, and, deep within their mountain stronghold, they remained safe.  Then, without warning, it all stopped.  The wolves woke one morning to  sweet smell of fresh air drifting into the caves and, when they went to investigate, the comforting grey of their mountains had returned to them.   In the following days, Jesen and Amarok decided to head towards the lands.  They couldn't quite explain it, but something in the air had changed after those few months, and both of them had been plagued by the desire to return to Doux Reves, regardless of what state it was in.  What they found when they got there, however, was a little more than they had bargained for, and a little bigger... Neither of the brothers was prepared for the sight that met their eyes when they reached the base of the mountain.  Trees and plants sprawled across the strange landscap--a landscape that, only months ago, had been covered with concrete and buildings--most of them hundreds of times the size of any Jesen and Amarok had ever seen.  Strange colors and smells met the brothers as they entered the strange world, and they were left wondering if, maybe, they had somehow managed to lose their way coming down the mountain.  This place they were in looked nothing like they had ever seen, much less lived in before.  They could hardly believe that this strange place was their beloved Doux Reves; it was alien in every sense of the word.  Mushrooms the size of small trees grew amidst forests of grass, and the once grand skyscrapers the humans had built groaned under the weight of the massive tree roots.  It was an awe-inspiring experience, but also sobering.  Bones of humans and wolves alike littered the ground as the siblings walked through the remains of the human cities, and the smell of death and ash still lingered faintly in the places where the trees didn't grow quite so close together.  Even more strange, though, than the massive world, were the living, breathing things that the brothers found within--including themselves.  They found that it wasn't just the trees and plants that were changing; it was the beasts as well.