The Way It Used To Be (Echo, Open)

[Alpha Luna]

Luna looked over at the Lake, their new home. It was now half way through October, and the weather and prey amount was only going downhill. As she sat there, she suddenly wondered if the lake could freeze over. That would mean no more fresh water from there. They would have to find another water source, but what else wouldn't be frozen if the lake was? However it looked very big, and from her experience water that big didn't freeze unless it was very very cold. However, here on Adalwolf Island, she knew that the weather sometimes didn't very strange things. One side of the lake could be raining, and the other side dry. She knew that things like that would have to happen somewhere, but everyone always thinks that the rain goes on forever and thinks that it happens 'somewhere else'. Well, that place was here. It was one of the few places where things like that happened all the time, not just occasionally you might get lucky and watch the other side of the street get rained on. It was completely unexplained, but the inhabitants of the Island didn't question because they knew no different. Until the book.

It was almost a shame that scientists didn't know of the island, but If they did then they would ruin it with their equipment and their hotel resorts. It would have been a scientific marvel, and the whole world paying to come there. But it stayed a secret, and the animals stayed safe.

Luna was just strolling along the lake and forest, looking for prey and making sure no wolf trespassed, when she found a book. She thought she had heard a mouse scuttle onto a cave. She entered, and smelt the salt straight away. It was just lying there, at the back of the cave. At first she was scared to touch it incase it disappeared like dandelion seeds in the wind, scattered forever. But she inspected it closer, and saw that it wasn't very damaged, at least for a time. On the front cover she could just about make out the faded writing. It read "Do_tor Wh_", but the rest of the writing was too faded and in a different font than Shen was used to. She wondered what that meant. She guessed that the first word was doctor, but the last one she wasn't sure on. It could have been who, but that didn't make sense to her. Why would it be called 'doctor who?'.

There had been a few books in her old pack, she had learnt to read at lest. Just about that is. It took her a while to get through any text, but at lest she could do it. She remembered that Echo had mentioned that she would like to be a Biblos before she became the Beta, so she thought that she should take it to her. Moon guessed that the salt preserved it, and also that proved that humans had been to this part before. She looked around for more clues, but found none. She decided to leave the book there. That could be the library for now. She howled, but not the urgent desperate howl, but more the inviting howl that told Echo that She had found something.

(OCc: if you have never watched doctor who we can do another book if you want The book could either be based on a past episode or on our own, future one that hasn't been made yet because this I rpg think is in the future a little bit)

[Beta Echo]

Echo stalked through the forest, downwind of a particularly fat squirrel. She moved almost silently across the forest floor toward her prey, avoiding the dry leaves and twigs that surrounded her paws. When she got close enough, she tended her muscles to spring, about to make the kill. Suddenly the silence was broken by an inviting howl from Moon. Surprised, Echo lept hastily toward the squirrel, killed it with a messy blow to the head. *Not my best kill, but at least I didn't miss it.* she thought. *Now let's see what Luna found.*

Picking up her prey, Echo bounded through the trees toward the source of Moon's howl. She caught her friend's now-familiar scent and traced it to a cave that smelled of salt. Setting her prey in the entrance, she made her way carefully to where Luna stood. Her eyes widened with curiosity and excitement when she saw what sat at her alpha’s paws. It was a book!

Echo’s love of reading had started as a pup, when her parents used a book they had found to teach her to read. Later on, when she left her parents, Echo took that wonderful book with her. The front said en-something-lo-something-a, but she had never been able to figure out exactly what the world was, since the cover was so dirty. The inside was in much better condition, and contained fascinating information all sorts of things. Echo would read her book almost every night during her traveling, whenever she felt safe enough to stop for a little while. Unfortunately, she lost the beautiful book in the winter, and never forgave herself for it.

As Echo looked at the book at Moon’s paws, she promised herself she wouldn't let the same thing happen to it, but her mind couldn't stay in the past for long. There was a book in front of her, and she wanted to look at it. “Luna, this is an amazing find! Have you looked at it yet?” she asked. She crouched down and squinted at the cover, trying to read what it said. "Doctor Why maybe? Or Doctor Who? But what could it mean?" she murmured, confused.

[Alpha Luna]

"No, I haven't opened it yet. I was waiting for you, and I was also frightened of damaging it." She said, although it didn't appear as fragile as she first thought. It appeared to be a soft cover book, with a thin layer of dust. "Hmm, yes one of those two. Perhaps the inside of it will give us more insight."

She gently blew the layer of dust off, to reveal the cover of the book properly. "Dooctor Whooo" She read, managing just about to read the last faded letter. She also was a bit exited. She wanted to find out about the humans and the way that they lived. She hoped to learn from their mistakes and glean any information that could be used, like for example herbs. This proved that the humans had been here before. She wondered why they came and then left, why they hadn't come back but also most importantly if they would come again. She knew that there must be other revealing evidence of their presence, and She hoped to find it.

Gently, very gently, she turned over the first page with a claw. It didn't disappear to dust like Moon had maybe feared, but instead was just the same as ever. Her brow furrowed when trying to make out the words. This was partly because of the condition of the book, but also her own reading abilities. She had barely been taught, only quickly at lest. She noticed that a good deal of the page was blank, but there was some writing in the middle.

(OCC: so I think that is the publishers page? Feel free to describe any part of the book or make up some pages )

[Beta Echo]

"Doctor Who?" asked Echo. She sat down beside her friend and squinted at the page Moon had turned to, trying to read the words. "This bit is just a bunch of names I think. I'm going to flip forward a little." She turned the next few pages with her claw, careful not to tear them. Finding the page labeled 1, she began to silently read, furrowing her brow with confusion. "The book talks about someone called 'The Doctor', so maybe it's a medicine journal. But what on Earth is a TARDIS?" she asked with a laugh. "I guess we'll have to read the entire book to understand it." Shrugging, Echo continued to read, enraptured by the mysterious content of the strange book. She soon realized that the book was telling the story of this Doctor person, and figured the book must be a history book. “Maybe The Doctor was the humans’ alpha.” she suggested to Moon, tilting her head slightly.

[Alpha Luna]

"That makes sense, the humans would write about their Alphas. Or maybe he is a ledged, from before even then." However, that didn't seem quite right. She was sure that she recognised the word doctor from somewhere...Then she remembered. It was in the book she had learnt from. "I know what he was! A human doctor is a medicine wolf to us. He must have been a famous medicine wolf." But as she carried on reading, that didn't quite make sense. Echo was a better reader than her (I think ) but she could still understand the brown, faded book. "That doesn't seem quite correct. He doesn't do much healing. Maybe he has more than one rank, or had gone rogue by leaving his human pack, and just wondered about the place meeting people." That was probably the closest the wolves had got so far. Luna kept reading, and she found that after a while her reading skills had improved slightly. Then her stomach started to growl, and she realised that they had been at it all afternoon. Her eyes had grown accustomed to the dim light of the cave, and walking to the exit was a bit of a shock. Lights flashed at her, and it took her a while before she could take in the dying sun before her. It cast beautiful rays of golden light over the landscape, and creating a reflection in the river. She noticed that echo had caught a squirrel, and carried it into the den and dropped it by Echo. "I think that we had best leave it until tomorrow, unless you would like to spend the night here. But talking of medicine wolfs reminded me; we still don't have a medicine wolf, or a biblos to look at this. The biblos doesn't really matter, but we don't know much if anything about herbs and there are only two of us. That's easy prey. Well, we might find another book about herbs." She said.

[Beta Echo]

Echo spent the rest of the afternoon reading alongside Luna. She thought her friend was right, but she still had so many questions. If this Doctor didn't practice medicine, then how did he earn his title? And what was the purpose of this book? Despite all the things she didn't understand, the young wolf was captivated by the story. The Doctor and his companion reminded her of Luna and herself and their pack of two, and she smiled to herself. She wanted to stay and finish reading, but knew that it would be best to just return the next day. Picking up the squirrel Moon had returned to her, she carried it to the cave entrance, blinking rapidly in the bright light. She set her squirrel at Luna’s paws, having noticed her hunger. “Go ahead and eat, you must be starving.” she told her friend. Moon’s talk about a medicine wolf made her nervous, and she hoped they’d find a book on herbs like she said. “What if we met another wolf who knew about herbs and medicine? Would you let them join our pack?” she asked. She knew the scenario was unlikely, but so was finding exactly the right book at the right time, and she wanted to hear her alpha’s thoughts on growing their numbers.

[Admin]

She nodded her thanks, and went outside. She felt the wind in her fur as she ran along the lakeside, glad to get a gasp of fresh air. She tried to sniff out some prey, and slowed as Shen reached the forest. She stood deathly still as she realised a rabbit was infront of her, completely oblivious of the predators presence. She stalked it, making sure the wind was blowing toward her so the rabbit couldn't smell her. Just as the rabbit was about to hop peacefully back into its hole she pounced. She finished it off, and ate it right there.

She made her way back, feeling glad that she wasn't a Biblos. She approached the book. Moon knew that Echo would have read on, but that didn't really bother her. She just managed to pick up the story and carried on reading. It was now dark outside. "Perhaps we should spend the night here." Luna said. Then the Beta asked her about numbers. "I don't see why not, in fact that would be very good. Just as long as the wolf doesn't have any troubling history that we might somehow know. I think we need some more wolves in the pack if any would like to join, especially wolves that know herbs and others who are good fighters. But we also couldn't just turn away a wolf who is weak and useless who asks for our help. What is your opinion?" She then asked, prepared to listen if Echo thought differently.

[Beta Echo]

“I completely agree with all that you just said.” replied Echo. “I'm glad we think so alike.” Though she was hoping to allow a few more wolves to join them, she enjoyed living with just Luna in their small pack of two. Moon was her first real friend and her favorite wolf in the entire world, and she enjoyed every moment with her. Even reading together had been amazing, and Echo couldn’t wait to see how the book ended. She was still quite confused by the story it told, but it was exciting and taught her quite a bit about how humans lived. The young wolf couldn’t fathom how humans had lived the way they did, or why they looked and acted so weird. Despite their oddities, humans were very intelligent, and their stories were fantastic! “If we're staying the night here, do you want to read a bit more before it gets dark?” she asked hopefully. There didn't seem to be anything better to do, and they were safe for the time being. Besides, before today it had been months since she had read anything, and she had forgotten how much she had loved and missed the comfort of reading.

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