Stone Circle brother i go to my lair to die

for @Regipre. staying vague until the LCH thread is further along!

the sunset concluded itself and cast long shadows over the odd circle of stones as shardul prowled through its growing darknesses in search of an alcove, a cave, a locale safe for himself and the coyote child. his steps were broad and yet a strange sort of consideration for her handicap had grown into his bones. presently, he motioned with a flick of tailtip toward a small depression beneath a mound of stones, only sown with stale scents.

he himself went down first, and then turned to make space for the girl, though there was scant room betwixt the side of his foreleg and the stone wall. his yellow eyes fixed themselves upon the dimming sky and he at last let go of a small duck, beginning to pluck it before tiring of the insipid task and passing the avian to the child. "what is your name?" he asked at length -- he did not know it, for he had never asked and she had never offered.

Her single foreleg was bothering her, presumably because it now assumed the missing limb's burden, not to mention took many more steps than when she'd had four. She and the cat had been on the move a lot lately, which further explained the aching. It would be months before it was properly conditioned, even if she learned to run as swiftly as before.

She was glad for the opportunity to rest and sprawled beside Shardul, then began gently licking her forelimb to soothe the weary muscles. Meanwhile, the cougar carefully plucked a duck, which he passed to Reggie when he was done. The coyote gave a grateful grunt, then began to feed. It was her fair wage for a job well done at the hollow's borders.

His question gave the coyote pause. She swallowed the morsel of flesh in her mouth, then answered straightforwardly, "Regipre."

"regipre." he rolled the name in his heavy tongue. "i am shardul." there it was -- the sharing of their names -- and he looked upon her leg now. "you have slowed me." but there was no malice in his tone, naught but a base curiosity. the coyote had matched his pace thus far, but he recognized the pain in her, and if she was to survive the winters, it would not do well for her to lag behind, prey for a wolf or bear, perhaps. he looked at the shining white bones beginning to show beneath the meat of the duck -- he himself had felled a fawn for his sustenance, and so did not not hunger, only drawn by the sight.

When he gave his own name, she merely blinked. She absently licked her chops; the duck fat clung to her lips like grease. She froze again at his remark, not quite sure what to make of it. Reggie tipped her head to glance at his face. His tone betrayed no hostility, nor did his features. She let her eyes fall again, resting now on the remains of the duck.

"I'm getting faster," she said quietly. A bit of down drifted near her muzzle and she clipped her teeth at it, catching it only to rub her tongue against the roof of her mouth to spit it onto the floor. She felt words building in her throat but even Regipre didn't know what she intended to say until she said it. "I enjoy our work. You are my Khal now."

he shifted, turning his attention from the skyline to the coyote pup at his side. perhaps 'pup' no longer accurately described the cunning tabaqui child; she had grown strong, her form given its height and a new breadth. and she had served him faithfully, dutifully -- he had not expected the level of servitude she proffered. regipre had not attempted to escape shardul at any moment of their time together -- he wondered if this was due to some innate sense of automatic loyalty, or if it was of her own accord.

"khal. i do not know this word," shardul rumbled deep in the recesses of his grey throat, before lowering the broad square muzzle to extend the salmon tongue and rasp it along his foreleg in a slow grooming motion.

When he said he wasn't familiar with the term, Reggie recollected a similar conversation with Saena. When she thought of the pale Alpha female, her jaw clenched. Although it had been one of Saena's henchmen to maim her leg, Regipre blamed Reek's horrible mate. She also blamed Reek himself for what had happened to her. Time had not tempered her resentment. Rather, it had grown.

"You are my Alpha," she replied after a beat, unaware that the cougar might not understand that word any better than Khal. She lapsed into silence, one paw absently clenched atop the duck's scraps. "May I ask you something, Khal?"

alpha. he knew not the word, but understood the concept: he was leader unto her, she having accepted a cat as her king despite her predisposition for packs and sundry. shardul favoured regipre with a long and wordless look as she she posed her inquiry, and his gaze bade her speak. for though he despised canines of all shades, she was an anomaly, be it through her fealty or another means, and he would listen to her words.

the silver tailtip flicked against the ground behind him as he waited.

I think it's safe to assume they don't kill Mordecai? <___<

He made no answer, though Regipre could feel his gaze weighing expectantly on her small head. She thought again of Saena and Reek, then reflected on their recent visit to Lost Creek Hollow. The two of them had really begun to perfect their trap. They had yet to make a kill, however, and she thirsted for the blood of wolves—literally and metaphorically.

"There is a pack not far from here, in a place called Phoenix Maplewood," the coyote began. "One of their Alphas took me from my mother, the other did this to me." She pressed her nose against the place where her leg should have been. "They still have my sister, Sart. I would like to watch them die." It would give her great satisfaction to bait them and then watch as Shardul tore the dread Alpha pair limb from limb, making them pay for what they'd done to the innocent young coyotes.

i think so! <3

if shardul was surprised to hear a request for vengeance upon the lips of his ward, he did not show such unto her. the lemon orbs turned skyward -- he mulled her words slowly in his mind. there were certain details for which to be accounted -- he could not simply stride into a grouping of wolves and seize one of them. he had scantly escaped with his life upon the mountain, as the scar across one flank could attest.

"how many wolves didst thou see?" shardul inquired, turning back to regipre as he lapsed into the tongue of his mother. traveling with the coyote and hearing the speech of the wolves had modernized him, but the silver panther would disallow himself the luxury of forgetting from where he had come.

She wasn't quite sure what he meant, so Regipre took a moment to ponder the query. Then it clicked. Shardul wanted to know how many the wolf pack numbered. Things might have changed since that fateful day when Saena's subordinate had mutilated her leg at the Alpha's command. And though she was a clever and observant beast, Reggie wasn't necessarily that adept at counting.

"The two of them and a few others. There are some pups there too." She remembered running into the one, though she couldn't recall her name. She had been a pest. Regipre wouldn't mind seeing her killed along with the Alpha pair and the whole lot of them. Even Auntie. "They deserve to die. All wolves deserve to die," the young coyote thought aloud, wondering if the big cat agreed.

She pressed her lips together, then bent over her meal, polishing off the rest of the duck and then shifting her weight onto one flank. Reggie kept her head upright and began to absently groom her stumped leg with a pink tongue, looking very catlike. She had always favored felines in her mannerisms, though now more so than ever before with a cougar for a Khal.

she had adopted many feline mannerisms, and the moonlit beast felt a rare smile tugging at the end of his mouth as the coyote spouted the singular motto that beat in his breast, coursed through his body with his blood. he joined her in languorous grooming, though he had done so post-meal before their arrival to the cave. it was a comforting thing, and presently he shifted about until his spine pressed against one wall of the small enclosure and the four of his paws touched the other, with regipre moved between them, against the plush undercoat that lined his abdomen, rather like a pantheress might lie in satiation with her cub.

"why dost thou say that?" shardul asked in a low rasp, eyes falling to half-mast as he relaxed more fully. "and tell me more about what is it to be a khal. what dost that make thee to me?"

Reggie felt no trepidation when the cat curled around her. Rather, she found security and warmth in his proximity. It made her drowsy. With a weary body and full stomach, the only thing she wanted now was sleep.

But Shardul wasn't finished questioning her. She would remain awake as long as he required. "They're evil," she replied simply. One had kidnapped her, another had maimed her, all of them had treated her like some vermin. Her absent leg was proof enough that they deserved a death sentence.

She pondered his next question. He already was her Khal, her declaration merely formalized it. "I am your zafra. I serve you." Born and raised a slave, Regipre was most comfortable with a master but was much happier serving beneath Shardul than the despicable wolves.

he sensed her exhaustion, but was not ready to halt his questioning. "what tongue is this that thou doth speak?" he inquired, though he was rather amused by the idea that he possessed a zafra, the word which he took to mean slave. "from whom wert thou taken? thy masters before the wolves of maplewood." he was not a talkative beast -- 'twas the end of his questioning -- and he glanced away from her to watch the night falling into deeper shadows roundabout their den.

the cat rather wondered if regipre would press her small frame into the stone wall opposite his own, or lie against him. in the weeks past, shardul would have thrust the young coyote aside in disgust, forbidding her the touch of his body, but she had come to inspire some small emotion akin to protection within him, and so he would allow it this eve, if not only for the creeping tendrils of winter cold.

She didn't know how to answer his question, as Reggie did not know what he meant about her speech. The young coyote shot him an apologetic look to convey this, though he had another question for her. Again she was reminded of being grilled by Saena. The Alpha female had treated her like a pest and a criminal. Shardul did not coddle her, yet so far he was a not a cruel master, except to their mutual victims. Theirs was a mutual respect, a symbiotic relationship.

"Reek took us from the plains. We lived there with wolves but they disappeared. My mother was a zafra and so were we: Sart, Papref and myself," Regripe explained. "I do not remember the Khal very well. He was like you: powerful but not unkind to us." Her eyelids drooped, as if by closing her eyes she could focus better on the dim memories of her infancy. "Reek and Saena were not proper Khals," she added, lip curling. Just because they were slaves did not make them fodder. She was a gift.

Eyes opened again, to see what the cougar made of this information but he appeared to be readying for sleep. Reggie righted herself so that her pale belly lay flush with the floor and her single foreleg she tucked beneath her breastbone. She leaned toward Shardul's plush belly fur, her slender shoulders forming two peaks as she hid her muzzle away beneath the black tip of her tail.

fade <3

she spoke names he did not understand -- all that stood apart were the titles for king and slave the girl had taught him thus far. but sleep called and he watched silently as the coyote leant against him and lowered her muzzle to sleep. he too followed her thus, waking from time to time and flexing his forepaws against the itch of the healing scabs betwixt his toes.