Sophia

Sophia the SunBright and The Sordid Screech Owl Like most springs in Noel Winter Eve, the pale sun was just the right amount of heat to open the meadow blossoms strewn across the mountain. A mild wind was a blessing to wolves adapted to icy cursed winters, but this mild wind that danced beneath that pastel sunshine made for the perfect day for the coming of a new pup. Dessert Sun, a wolf so beautifully strewn with sunflower yellow and patches white as the snowy cliff tops, was to give birth to a young wolfess that possess a gift like no other. Sophia was born, and much like her mother, her life would be lived with a unique challenge of being deaf. And more so challenging than her mother, she was also blind. Dessert Sun welped her newborn on that spring day, whining in joy and licking the featherlike fur from sticking to Sophias skin - she knew her pup did not respond to light or sound. Even as a seasoned pupsitter, Dessert Sun knew that raising Sophia was not a challenge, but an unraveling destiny for the newborn SunBright. SunBright, a term well known among the Noel Winter Eve Wolves, was a wolf becoming of a shaman of mystical power. Sophia could not hear or see, but she could feel everything, taste the world, and smell the vast horizon. At the precipice of being weaned, Sophias imagination was sketched before her on a blind canvas. Vibrations became entities, smells became invigorating sensations, and taste became power. It was an indian summer night, when the wind lay flat and the nose of Dessert Sun lay rested upon Sophias shoulder - the young wolf had a dream she would not forget. Her mother came to her as a Sunbright Spectre, a power passed down through mystics, and she said; "You will follow the song of the sun, A sense only a SunBright could know . You will feel the whisper of the wind, which is more than ears could hear. You will see inside souls, which is more than any eyes could see." Even though Sophia could not hear in her awoken state, she clearly could understand the reverberations that came to her from her mother in this dream. Days passed and Sophia continued to wander. She wandered far and fast from her mother's watch. As a busy pupsitter, Dessert Sun found it harder and harder to watch after Sophia. It was early Autumn, when the wonderful smell of leaf rot wafted in the wind, Sophia decided she wanted to run. She hadn't run before, as she was too careful and mindful of the things could not sense around her. But with all her courage, she ran fast and long, her howls so joyful it came out almost like a scream. But what fate had in store for her, was an untimely step from a far cliffside. Sophia slipped and fell from the cliffside of a mountain, tumbling through the air and splashing into a river that would take her far away from her home.It was night when the young wolf found herself alive by a thread. Choking on the cold frosty air, gargling the frigid water from the depth of her empty stomach. She could barely feel anything, as the pads of her paws were numb and her body was empty of nutrients. Sophia sauntered along the shoreline in which she washed up, clumsy and forgetful, too scared to consider caring for her surroundings. All felt to be the end for young Sophia, the dream of her mother repeated in her mind - she cried out in pain. She may never see her mother or the Noel Winter Eve Wolves again. But fate had a plan. A bird. An owl in fact, hopped in the clammy sand, watching the sad wolf hang her head low. The bird, not able to fly with a wing bent in such a gnarled and painful break. She screeched and scratched, her head twisted towards the wolf, wondering if the predator would react in anyway. Nothing. "What is this? a wolf that does not see? can you not hear me either, fanged beast?" Sophia did not respond, as she could not hear. The owl felt a sense of relief, as she was an owl who could not fly, with a wolf that could not see or hear. The owl jumped and perched atop Sophia's head. Sophia reacted in a panic at first, but the owl did not tense her talons, but just lightly pecked Sophia's head. "Stay still you silly beast! I will stay here until you are calm. We are here because we need something from each other. I need your fangs, you need my wisdom!" Sophia tried everything to free herself of the owl, but alas her energy would give in trying to scratch the poor owl from her shoulders. It was no use. Slowly, the owl pinched and pecked at Sophia hoping she would find a sense in the hidden language. "This means forward. This means bite. You will learn in time. But for now, your stomach is as loud as mine, we must find food." Time would pass before the owl and the wolf would successfully hunt together, using each others strengths as one - together. But even in their first successful hunt, the bile of Sophia's stomach had become soused to starving, it rejected the flesh of a tasty rabbit and she threw up. "You must heal your stomach wolf. Let me show you the way of the herbs." Sophia was weak, stumbling through the field. She would grab one plant with an angry hiss and peck from her owl friend "no! not that one!" with another try, Sophia would remember the scent of the blossoms of healing herbs that the owl intended for her to pick "Yes yes...that one! Now, my quiet no-seer, I will show you how to mix." The owl came to the ground and plucked the blossoms from the herbs, touching them to Sophia's nose so she would recognize the ingredients. "Now. You try." It would take Sophia sometime to repeat the steps of the owl. But that night, she was able to heal the acidic slosh of her stomach enough to eat a meal again. It was the first time in what seemed like a lifetime that Sophia was happy again. Weeks turned into months, and the cycle of seasons danced before the Wolf and Owl in one swift year. Sophia had another dream, in her dream she could see the Owl upon her head, its wing damaged and unable to fly. She imagined through memorizing vibrations of the tall grasses and the subtle squish of soil that they are hunting in a field hued with bright pink blossoms. In her dream, the Owl repeated what her mother had said in a dream long ago, "You will follow the song of the sun, A sense only a SunBright could know. You will feel the whisper of the wind, which is more than ears could hear. You will see inside souls, which is more than any eyes could see." Sophia woke up, as if she woke up for the first time in a new life. Rejuvenated, calculated, and aware. Her muttered voice could not form speech like most wolves that could hear themselves, but she touched her nose to her owl and muttered a name. "Sky Raid" The name she bestowed on her companion. The Owl screeched in acceptance, and took to her perch on Sophia's shoulder. Sophia had changed in that one night. As if completely inept to the world around her, and then suddenly immersed into the fabric of nature itself. She raised her face to feel the rays of the sun, its song she followed the heat of the sun. Next she felt the wind tickle the small hairs on her Arkose fur its whisper. and as she came upon a thundering vibration of a traveling wolf pack - she howled out to it. There was a weakness in the vibrations however, the depth of each paw as it hit the Earth was not as strong or defiant as rogue wolves she had met in the passed. As if the spirits of this pack were but fading lights. The illustration her blind canvas amassed before her was of sick ghouls and pained shadows. The pack had a disease. Sophia remembered what Sky Raid had taught her. Where the blossoms grew with a bite, where succulent fruits possessed powers, and what sharp bark from trees could be tasted and felt from the tips of your paws to the depth of your stomach. She was quick to make a cure. When she returned, Sky Raid helped Sophia disperse the medication. A wolf muttered, "....Sophia?" The echoes of the whine touched Sophia's fur, the scent of the breath was all but familiar to the lost wolfess. It was her mother Dessert Sun. Sophia was quick to race to her mother, with a warm embrace to her fragile skin. She spoke through her mind to her mother "Do not worry mother, my medicine will make you strong." Sophia was welcomed to the pack she once lost, saving them all from what seemed to be an terminal illness. The Noel Winter Eve Pack was whole again. And with Sophia as their master Herbalist, a SunBright who weaves dreams made of rhythm and soil, they would come to be a powerful in their steadfast adventure towards surviving the icy mountains. Sophia continued to learn the ways of herbs with Sky Raid, enabling herself to be not only valuable to her own pack, but to those that surround her. Her intelligence was taught and traded among neighboring packs during the winter months as she grew to a full grown wolf. What dreams may come next for Sophia? credit to Hydrus # 49065 for writing the bio.