Welcome to Canis Major

a wolf and animal rpg (role-playing game)

Canis is a writing community for play-by-post (forum-based), freeform roleplay set in a fictional dream world in the intrusion fantasy genre. Most characters on Canis are wolves; many play elements are focused around wolves and canids, but the world makes room for a large variety of other animal characters such as dogs, horses, cats, bears, deer, and many, many more.

Our community is focused on flexibility, creativity, and collaboration. That boils down to a few important features:

  • There is no set activity requirement to write
  • The setting and plot are member-created and staff-supported
  • The game is continuously improved to increase fun and decrease stress

Learn more in our Rulebook!

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#1
P
04-12-2022, 08:27 PM
Leta stared up at the stars. It seemed strange, the way they moved. Leta both wanted to stay upon the mountain, knowing that they were safe here, and to see what others might have witnessed this phenomenon... what they knew of it. But with the children still young, Leta was aware that their eyes were needed to make sure they didn't have the same idea and get into harms way from it. Staying felt like the safest bet, and as she thought of it, she equally did not want to think of Osiris wandering beyond to check things out either.

The girl drew in a breath. She felt she understood Hydra a bit better, in that moment. Because she could understand now the fear of losing all that she had found, and... and loved. Leta blinked up at the sky, her eyes sparkling with the stars as the gravity of this sank in.
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#2
World Event
Empyrean
04-12-2022, 09:29 PM
Osiris had stuck close to Leta since the storm had passed and the night-sky filled with unfamiliar beasts. Their presence had been looming and overbearing, driving the young man to lick his lips to the point that they had began to chap. He had been pacing near their shared den as she watched the sky, burning off some of his excess energy. But, presently, all the pacing in the world would not quell his anxiety.

”What do you think about all this?” he asked, still stalking about. He walked a tight little loop, keeping close to his beloved.

Surely she’d know about about this since she frequently studied the sky.

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#3
Ecologist
04-13-2022, 04:23 PM
She could hear him wearing grooves into his typical path when he felt a certain type of way about something. The imprints of his large paws would mark this mountain forever in those places. Leta turned to look at him as he circled around her, and then back to the sky again. A memory came to her then, and Leta blinked. A great man stood with her in her minds eye, so large that next to him any would like small in build. Dad, her mind recollected, even if she could not see very clearly his face. “I asked my dad once... if stars had names. He did not know. But... I thought that they must. Because they are like us, in a way. Some big, some small. Some stay within the sky, and some... fade out of existence,” though that point was melancholy, the memory was one she thought of fondly. “It was actually your family that taught me stars do have names,” she said with a laugh, looking to him now and rising to intercept the path he moved in, nosing him.

“Osiris has come to be my favorite star,” Leta quipped. “The stars do move. With the seasons change, usually. I have never seen them dance like this, but... it does not feel odd to me,” she admitted, “only new. The world... it is so old. This might not be the first time this has ever happened,” she considered, “only the first time we have been able to bear witness to it. Like... a celestial event,” she explained, licking her own chops as she again looked to the sky.
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#4
Ecologist
04-16-2022, 07:38 PM (This post was last modified: 07-14-2022, 07:01 PM by Osiris. Edited 1 time in total.)
Leta began her rationalization with a story. Osiris listened, pausing only when she intercepted and shared which star was her favorite. He smiled, saved from his anxiety for a brief moment as he looked into her eyes. During the lulled lapse, Osiris felt a sharp sting on his lips, and he pulled his mouth into a straight line. Although he knew that licking them would only irritate them further, his need for comfort trumped the consequences of his actions. Osiris licked them again, quelling the uncomfortable burn, as Leta continued to speak.

Although he didn’t necessarily disagree with her, Osiris couldn’t help but reflect on how he’d felt before the sky had opened. ”Do you think that these … ‘celestial events’” the term was new on his tongue and he spoke slowly, ”can cause us to feel things?”

”You know how weird I felt before all this happened,” he reminded her. Osiris hadn’t been alone in his feelings, either. He had met a loner, Uriel, who had felt the same. Surely it wasn’t a coincidence.


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#5
Ecologist
07-18-2022, 06:09 PM
Leta considered his question, and then nodded. “I think so,” she said in answer, tacking on, “like how a great storm can make us feel. A celestial event can bring about a similar feeling,” she supposed. She had felt strange, too, in a different way than storms. Not tense but... perhaps on edge, in a way that meant something was coming? That something had to be this. And she did remember how Osiris felt, too. Even before she herself had felt it.

“You must have a great sense for it,” at least, she thought so, that he had... “like your mothers keen sense of smell. Perhaps you can anticipate these events, somehow,” that was an interesting thought. Leta squinted at him, before quipping, “are your senses tingling now? ...still? Or have they stopped, now that this has happened?” It felt worth exploring. So, she would.
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#6
Misc Skill
07-18-2022, 07:31 PM
“You must have a great sense for it, like your mother's keen sense of smell. Perhaps you can anticipate these events somehow," Leta said, and Osiris mulled over the statement with a frown. "Maybe," he said. "I don't feel anything right now, but I've been restless for the past few days." He had run laps around The Nameless Mountain with little avail; the fluttering in his chest had not been remedied by fatigue. It was as though he anticipated all of this without really knowing what he was expecting. 

"Did I ever tell you what happened the night before I became the alpha of Firefly Glen?" he asked. His grandmother had visited him in his dreams, and it was something he had come to understand as a rare event. Maybe these two premonitions were similar?

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#7
07-18-2022, 08:10 PM
That he was restless made sense. Since this event, she had felt the same... though not due to unease. It simply felt like... a tiding, to another beginning. Or some strange sort of confirmation. The semantics of it she had yet to really untangle and dive into, partly because of time and partly because it felt like a monumental task. There were so many unknown elements that it all felt like one big guessing game... but Leta did not mind fun speculations. It was definitely interesting to think about, though... confusing too.

His next question Leta hmm'd at. She frowned as she admitted, “you... you might have,” her voice quiet. It still shamed her that there were fragments gone, fragments that she felt she would never have forgotten if she could have helped it. At least Osiris knew that to be the case, versus the thought that she would ever ignore him when he spoke. Sometimes Leta could be forgetful, but not in things that mattered to Osiris. And not in things that had to do with him, either. Anyway... This felt like that. Something that must matter to him. So, she tacked on, “...would you... mind telling me again?”
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#8
Misc Skill
07-18-2022, 08:35 PM
"It's okay," Osiris reassured Leta, nudging her cheek, "It was a lifetime ago." 

"I had a very vivid dream the night before I told my parents I was ready to leave," the finer details were fuzzy, but he was able to remember the gist of it, "My grandmother, Amekaze, and I had a conversation. We spoke of my family—our legacy—and assured me that it was time for me to take the mantle." He realized how crazy it sounded. "I learned of how my grandparent's separate packs came together to create Moonspear, and how they reigned over the mountain until my mother and father began their rule." Although he remembered a considerable amount, he knew that there was more that he couldn't recall. 

"I've never experienced anything like it before or after," his premonitions of the celestial event were the closest he had come to another spiritual event since his dream.

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#9
10-19-2022, 10:01 PM
Leta seemed to remember as he told her. Her expression lit up. “Yes, when your mother wanted your aid in building this empire,” she recollected aloud, tail waving. Her mind conjured up a multitude of faces, but they were nameless and incomplete. Still, they had been there to help Osiris in his cause, and Hydra supported each and every one of them.

“You are so lucky that she came to you. I would have loved to have met my own grandmother, even in that way like you,” her tail waved. Leta asked, “what else do you know of her? Her blessing sounds important to you,” she thought aloud to him, tilting her head.
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#10
Misc Skill
10-19-2022, 10:19 PM (This post was last modified: 10-19-2022, 10:41 PM by Osiris. Edited 1 time in total.)
"Yes, when your mother wanted your aid in building this empire,” Leta answered and Osiris nodded. "I didn't know that relatives could visit through dreams," he added. "It hasn't happened to me since—but I'd like to see her again soon." He didn't know if that was possible here; the fabric of this world was much different than the one they'd come from. "Do you know anything about your grandmother?" he asked, wondering if her family had passed down their history between the generations. History was important to Osiris, and he had already taken the mantle of educating his younger siblings about their family's legacy. He would do the same for their children. 

"My mother is a lot like her—strong, independent, smart, and a steadfast ruler. Incredibly smart, too. She led Moonspear with my grandfather, Charon, and they thrived as leaders on the mountain for several years." And then tragedy struck right before his birth. "They died together right before I was born and that's when my parents took up the leadership positions. " Osiris didn't want to go into the details of their death right now, but she'd learn in time how they'd been each other's demise. 

"I wish I could have met her ... here."

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#11
10-19-2022, 10:33 PM
Leta remembered very few things of life before here. It came to her in waves... but this... this she did not know. The name of her own father she could not even recall. She had thrown herself wholeheartedly at the family of Osiris for this reason, and clung so tightly to West for the very same. She became tightlipped then, though shook her head.

Her beau distracted her.

She was gllad for it, and these stories.  Leta knew she would never have the good fortune to know the dead, but they kept them alive this way.  Through stories. It made Amekaze as good as an immortal, in her books. And surely Hydra would be the same... Osiris, too. All who knew him loved him, and she was no exception.

“Maybe you will again,” she started, partially to comfort. But... “maybe at that same sort of time, she will come to tell you... you are ready again, or something. Perhaps your mother will want for the same thing. But... if I know her, she wants to make sure all is... well, safe,” here she might have laughed, were it not for the fact that she respected him and his mother both. She understood the necessity of that better than most, given the history she could remember.
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#12
Misc Skill
10-19-2022, 10:59 PM
Osiris felt sad for Leta. He couldn't imagine growing up without knowing who preceded him, and he felt bad for her. He had learned so much through the history that Hydra had shared with him; it felt like she had been robbed of an opportunity for growth by having her ancestor's lessons kept from her. 

"Maybe," he answered with a smile, thinking about it. "I was told that she was fiercely protective, so that'd make sense. She was a fierce fighter—she fought a few bears in her time." But she had been smart about it. "Not alone, of course. With the help of her pack." The mention of bears reminded him of one of Hydra's younger siblings. "One of my mother's siblings was stolen by a bear—sounds crazy, doesn't it?"

"She went missing and was eventually found by the pack. The bear kept her alive, apparently." If his mother hadn't been the one to tell him this story, he wouldn't have believed it.

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#13
11-06-2022, 11:53 PM
What?” She asked, shocked. Leta had never known bears to be compassionate caregivers. They were takers. Of the things wolves often worked hard for. Leta was grateful to never have experienced an encounter with a bear; she knew she would need to be braver in life, because there was plenty of time left for that to happen. And what if one of their kids was taken by one...?

These thoughts were wild ones. Why was she thinking of kids? Their kids?

And now it was all her mind could think of.

How could she get her mind off of that? Osiris musn't know! “What... uhm... what happened to the bear?” She would chalk the distraction all up to shock, if asked!
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#14
Misc Skill
11-07-2022, 12:59 AM
"The pack killed it," Osiris replied, "And I'm glad they did. I would do the same to anybody who stole a puppy." Especially if it were one of their children; there would be hell to anybody even looked at their children the wrong way. "I don't think that there were other bears that trespassed on Moonspear after that—" which gave him an idea, "Maybe we need to do the same here. It'd be a good warning to anybody who was considered trespassing." But it was a dangerous risk to take. "I'm not sure my mother would be up for it, though." he decided. 

Their conversation continued as Osiris continued to tell Leta about Moonspear's history around the time of Galaxy's abduction—about how a wolf named Titmouse had poisoned her and how they'd never caught him. He wondered if the murderer was still alive and if he had come to this strange world, too. They went to bed after the story had been told, and he looked up at the strange phenomenon one last time before retiring to their den.

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