To hear nothing but silence IP: 65.29.75.36 Posted on July 9, 2018 at 02:50:22 PM by Ikuseghan
Silence.
Whenever new life was brought into the world in the form of a wolf, they were robbed of two of their five essential senses - sight and hearing. They could still feel, could still taste, could still smell. For weeks, they lived off of only those, and learned to recognize their parents and siblings by their scents, by their shape, by their size. By how their bodies interacted together, by how large they were. Their mother was their only source of food initially, gifting them sweet warm milk that coursed into their mouths and filled them to the brim. Their father was absolutely aside from grooming them occasionally. But later on, they were eventually weaned. Their parents, both of them, were the ones that fed them, soft, warm meals of regurgitated and partially digested food to fill their bellies after they have been weaned off of milk… But usually by the time they got to hard food, they had been gifted their other two senses. But it was not the case with this one, not with this little mishap of a pup who had not been planned at all. And the gods above, whether there they were real or not, had chosen to give this child a disability. On the same day as her siblings, her eyes have opened, revealing bright, inquisitive emeralds. As soon as those lids peeled away from one another for the first time, they were constantly open so that she could explore everything the world had to offer, each nook and cranny of anywhere she went. But whereas her siblings also gained their hearing, their ears having fully and finally developed their innards, she did not. Ikuseghan’s body was defective – when the two gamestes came together to form her and became one, when the cells started dividing, when the body began to form… two of the three petite little bones in her inner ear failed to form, were missing. Without them, it made it impossible for sounds to relay from her pinnae to the inside of her cranium and prevented the noises to be transposed into nerve stimuli that was sent to her brain and then transcribed into actual sound. Iku watched as her siblings would become amazed by something… But she couldn’t understand what. At first she thought that they were simply more overjoyed then even she at the discovery of sight… But she soon found out that that was not the case. Her mother’s lips would moved, and her siblings would respond, moving to Seraphina’s side. Their mouths moved too, and she could see her mother and father‘s ears turn… But why? Ikuseghan tried moving her ears, but she heard nothing. Not that she felt that she was missing out on anything… But she simply could not understand what the big deal was.
Days past, and Vladimir had initially thought that perhaps she was a day behind, but it had quickly become apparent that Ikuseghan was not simply behind in development, but was actually deaf. Her father had never before interacted with a deaf wolf, had never really ever heard of one, no pun intended. How would he be able to train her? How would he be able to ask her what was wrong when she cried? How would he be able to tell her he loved her? All of these fears pass through him, but though she could not hear, she could see the pain written across his face. Her brows had furrowed, and she had pushed her snout into his shoulder, questioning silently what was wrong. She had no words, because she was not aware of them. She did not know that such was a thing… So all she knew was body language. As she grew, she became overly expressive, and although she would never gain the ability to hear words, she was incredibly intelligent, and came to realize that when her parents moved their lips, they were somehow doing something that her siblings noticed that she did not. She would never have a word for sound, but she came to realize that she was different, that she was missing out on something. And that was when she realized that there were patterns - the mouth would move in a certain way repeatedly, often at around the time of certain things. Her siblings often had water flowing down their faces and would make a shape with their mouth open, then closed, then pursed, then wide… Ikuseghan could would not know that they were using syllable to make the word ‘hungry’, she came to recognize that that particular pattern was something meaning that they wanted food. She had tried making them, but without realizing that she was supposed to breathe at the same time, she realized her parents did not hear her. It was not until she was nearly 3 to 4 months old and a snake bit her and she cried out in shock and surprise that she realized what her vocal chords were for. Her parents had rushed over, concerned, and she realize that the trembling, the vibrating in her throat had done something. And that was how she learned how to speak… And how to read lips. Learning was a slow process - it went a single word at a time, and was said more in disjointed single words than in sentences… But it was something.
Despite her disability, it was not a hindrance on her at all. She remained a curious wolf, and an adventurous pup, and was constantly exploring within Dierne Hrof… But today she had seen a flash of color right at the break of dawn, and had gone after it, using her nares and her improved sense of smell to follow it. Weary paws, not used to travel this far, finally brought her upon a wolf made out of a rainbow… With soft brilliant colors splashing over her - it reminded Iku of Scamander… Only difference was that she was prettier… Or something of that sort. She would never be one who was good with adjectives… Ikuseghan walked closer to her and sniffed at her, her nares flaring as she neared her. The uniquely colored wolf spun around, and she could see lips moving. Ikuseghan’s eyes furrowed, and she concentrated on the movements, her own lips mimicking the motions. She only recognized two of them, but two out of the four was pretty good odds for her. She recognized the first as a greeting, and the second as a question. The pup smiled and wagged her tail.