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!

P
curious happenstance


Afternoon
#1
P
11-18-2022, 05:08 AM
Set somewhere between Bluewater Lake and Rippling Heights.


He was in search of a meal, something big enough for both he and Meresankh to feed from—deer and elk were too big for two wolves to harvest, a hare wouldn’t suit, and it made him miss the goats of the high mountains for the ideal meat rations they’d deliver.

They would be why he was traveling back toward that peculiar oasis the river cut through. Mountains spilled to the earth and made for low caverns to slip into. He hoped some goat made the same conclusion.

It’d be to his confusion and potentially the luck of who he happened upon that he found the boy instead.

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#2
11-18-2022, 05:45 AM
^^Ozai had also been in the search for something to eat, but being a young little lad on his own with no assistance from anyone but Mother Nature herself? Well, the options were limited. He could hunt rabbits, and other small things, but more often than not, his prey could see and hear him coming.

It wasn’t as if Ozai could really blend into the forest of the mountains, and he had absolutely no skills in hunting. Either they saw him first, or he was just clumsy enough to mess it up. Things usually ended in failure.

And he hadn’t had the slightest clue as to how that always managed to happen. He simply figured that they outsmarted him.

Today, though, Ozai was somewhat lucky. He found some scraps. Not much; not enough to fill him — really just enough to piss him off. Typical.

So when a grown male found himself within Ozai’s company, Ozai took what he could and made a run for it.
^^

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#3
11-18-2022, 06:11 AM
It had happened rather quickly, they’d met eyes and just as M’Jakuna made to speak… the boy ran. A boy, he confirmed, old enough to spat and nab scraps, maybe even a lazy rabbit. Young enough to not know what was best for himself, least when it came to the most serious things in life—it made the dark wolf’s heart ache for the second allowed, how many had given the boy a reason to flee an adult?

”Hey! I don’t mean you any harm—wait!”

And then they were off, a two-toned boy and a wolf of split midnight, racing one after another. By no means was it a fair flight, M’Jakuna clearly had age and expertise between them both, enough hunting quick game to know they’d gotten close enough that a fierce enough push forward would land the boy’s tail between his teeth… and that was why he didn’t aim to tackle or drag backward. The boy wasn’t some prey and M’Jakuna would be damned before he’d give the boy another reason to run from the next wolf to cross his path.

Instead? He kept close enough so the boy stayed in his sight—thinking one of two things would happen. The boy would tire and have to rest. The boy would turn and face him for a fight. M’Jakuna could meet both.

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#4
Paladin
11-18-2022, 06:28 AM
^^He fled and either this dark wolf had also been fleeing something in the same exact path that Ozai took, or he was being chased.

To Ozai, this was the race of his life, and judging upon the missing patches of fur on his backside, and some old wounds that would eventually heal over, — it wasn’t the first time, either. Grown adults were bad, bad news to someone like Ozai.

He’d been carrying a bone, but dropped in an attempt to slow down his aggressor, but he could only run for so long. It was, of course, noticed that the adult hadn’t landed any attacks, but he chalked it up to pure luck; the idea of an adult chasing him not to harm him was unfathomable.

Unknowingly, Ozai had let them straight to an outlet. A curved mountainside, with no way out, other than the way that he’d come — which meant that he’d had to fight his way out. A loosing battle, judging by the size of him, but what other choice did he have?

Turning around to face him, Ozai snarled — the best sort of snarl a child could give — as he stared him down; sizing him up.

Judging.

Calculating.

He stepped forward and waited.
^^

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#5
11-18-2022, 06:44 AM
It was a pitiful situation—chasing a child like this—a necessary sort of thing, he had to remind himself for he knew his own intentions when the boy just couldn’t, but the thoughts which were made in the moments of pursuit. Each and every one that concocted an idea of what the boy had to face before their paths crossed. It frustrated him as much as it saddened him.

Luckily, at least, when the boy had ran them into a dead end and spun around to face him, M’Jakuna was carrying after at a pace he could slow before any collision. It was a clumsy stop expected of a wolf with any mass as is, but he drew to that stop with little than a couple feet between he and the boy, breathing rough and meeting silence with silence.

M’Jakuna looked to the boy for only a heartbeat before he let his gaze drop and flit up, up to the mountains at their left, a bird flying above. He’d not make himself a threat, wouldn’t maintain eye contact when he understood it’d make sense if the boy took it all as a prompt to fight. He breathed. ”You’re fast,” he said to him. ”You know… I didn’t have any want for that bone of yours.”

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#6
Paladin
11-18-2022, 06:55 AM
^^Face to face with death now, Ozai supposed; ain’t no way he could fight through this without risking his own life. The male who chased him hadn’t moved to look him in the eye; didn’t even try to make himself look bigger.

He looked everywhere else, as if he was distracted. Ozai’s attention narrowed down on the male’s throat, though. He licked his lips, nervously, unsure what this guy’s game was.

“Gotta be,” Ozai breathed, speaking slowly; best chance out of this mess alive was to sit and wait for the male to get bored and leave.

“Coulda fooled me with all that chasin' — might not want bone, butcha want somethin'.”
^^

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#7
11-18-2022, 07:24 AM
Only once the boy was talking did M’Jakuna allowed his eyes to find his, brows pinched and expression soft—another twinge of his heart. He hadn’t seen children act in such a way. Not honestly. But as he looked over that two-toned pelt and noticed the scars… well, none of the children of his world had met the Juh’harah with a taste of cruelty; for even the choice of abandonment by their parents near the pack's borders was seen as an act of love but this…? He could only presume the boy had appeared here as he did but with none of the favor of the world.

”You’re not wrong. I wanted to speak with you,” he said. ”You’re a boy now but every boy is bound to be a wolf and I just cannot imagine scraps and bones are helping you get there faster…. Does your guardian not hunt for you?” The boy was sharp and M’Jakuna wasn’t dumb—they both knew the answer, he simply needed an answer.

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#8
11-18-2022, 07:49 AM
^^There was a sort of expression on the older male’s face that Ozai did not recognize, but he knew it to be something other than aggression — which was the only emotion that Ozai had bothered to learn from other wolves as it usually meant life or death.

“Coulda spoke to me without makin’ me think you wanted to eat me,” Ozai snorted, brows arching towards the older male’s words. Though it wasn’t true, Ozai knew, because he hadn’t given him the chance — but who could blame him?

Does your guardian not hunt for you?

Ozai narrowed his eyes. He skipped right over asking about the boy’s origins, or where his family might be and went straight for guardian as though Ozai had ever had one of those.

“No. You really going to look me in the eye and ask me that, after chasin’ me from the only bit of scraps I’ve managed to find all day?”
^^

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#9
11-18-2022, 08:07 AM
"I would've liked to but you're, how do they say, quick to the draw," said M'Jakuna, watching the way the boy, tone with its warmth but not with a sense of coddling—boy as he was, it'd be unfair to treat him as a child that'd not experienced whatever harsh treatments it was that he'd found himself the victim of. "Well, it'd be a bit rude to presume without adding the niceties first."


To bring about some semblance of ease to the boy, he settled down on his haunches and breathed out, the cool air misting his breaths before his face. "As I said, you're a boy... bound to be a wolf and you can't get there all as you should without the food to make sure of it," he said to him. "Let me help you. This land, it's rich with hares, rabbits... I'll nab you one, all for yourself." After a beat, he went on. "If no one's watching for you, I can only guess it's been some time since you've had something proper."

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#10
11-18-2022, 08:18 AM
^^Ozai snorted at the joke, proving that he really did have a sense of humor beneath the armored wall he held up. He watched the older man get comfortable with a sigh of defeat; so much for waiting him out to leave.

“Least one of us here thinks I’ll make it long enough to be a wolf,” Ozai retorted, tilting his head with narrowed eyes. Why was this complete stranger going out of his way to help him?

“Now I mean no disrespect. It’s awfully kind of you to do this, and dare I say, too kind, but you an’ I both know that unless you intend on slaughtering the entire race of hares for me, one little bunny isn’t going to get me very far.”

And what, pray tell, did this kind man want in return? Nothing that Ozai could give, that much was certain.
^^

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#11
11-18-2022, 08:40 AM
"And you don't? I'd say your odds are fair... You've made it this long on your own, longer than most might have," M'Jakuna told him, honestly, tail flicking as he contemplated. Children were much more of a matter to handle than pups; full with ideas, closer to wolves than not but they were all the same in his eyes; creatures that needed guidance and care unconditionally—without a single thing asked of them beyond if they desired it. "You'll be big but not that big," a slight chuckle left his lips, an ear twitching. "Actually... I intended on asking if you'd like to accompany me—I've a pack to rebuild, a handful already following, it means you'll have more than just me making sure you're fed until you can hunt for yourself."


He said to him, lifting a paw to motion vaguely in the boy's direction. "You'd be able to rest, too, I'd watch out for you as a child should be," and after a beat, "I don't want nothing for it, in case you think I'm overly clever, and once you're of age you'd face no fuss for staying with us; all I ask is you be as bold as you were to run from me to accept an offer that'll be a lot more than the bones and scraps I made you leave."

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#12
11-18-2022, 08:53 AM
^^Oh, Ozai understood now; this was some sort of really realistic dream that he was having, because none of this seemed real. A chuckle came, and Ozai flickered an ear, though it didn’t really answer his question, until M’Jakuna laid his cards out on the table.

There was a pack being rebuilt — whatever that meant, truly, as Ozai was uneducated in the life stages of packs — but there was a following, already; meaning more teeth and claw to help feed him, and to help keep a stable food supply.

Ozai would be well fed, protected, and would likely gain more than a few pounds. He’d blow up faster than that blueberry girl from that movie about the chocolate factory. He licked his lips as his shoulders rolled back.

He knew nothing about this pack. Or packs, in general, really, but all he cared about was getting some food and some good sleep. It was exhausting, being out on his own, at his age.

He needed the help if he liked to admit it or not.

“I’ll accept this offer, and this life you are prepared to give me,” though it felt weird to take, and give nothing in return, “ but only if you tell me your name.” After all, it was dangerous to accept candy from men in vans, much less one that chased you down in the middle of the forest to have a chat.
^^

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#13
11-18-2022, 09:24 AM
Without rushing the boy, he waited patiently for him to ponder as he found the situation needed... but there was a tinge of confidence in M'Jakuna's chest, bleeding into relief, as deep down he understood and he knew every child was bestowed with the desire to be cared for—to know ease and comfort as closely as kin; it was as they deserved, too. He felt he had this on his side. The boy's innate desire to know the release of breathing without worrying for what lay behind one corner or the next, what bone would be the next meal.

That was a wolf's purpose, after all.

"My name's M'Jakuna," he dipped his head in greeting, lifting it then to meet the boy's eyes. "Leader of the Juh'harah." It was then that he rose, shaking out his fur and turning his back on the boy, motioning only with the flick of his head to direct the boy to follow after him. "And you can tell me yours on the way to the lake we've settled—I'll find you a proper meal, too."

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