The Heartwood a wild weird clime, that lieth, sublime

For @Lagan. I’ll edit this in with a better post later, but I wanted to get something up before work.

Cypress thundered through the unfamiliar territory with little care to his surroundings, saliva dripping from his jowls as he sped after a fat cottontail. He had that feeling. Somehow, he just knew he was going to make a successful kill, and it wasn’t even that he’d done everything right. He’d botched the ambush and he’d made mistakes, but the rabbit had made them too — and today Cypress would come out the stronger. He hurtled through the underbrush and, just as the rabbit paused in indecision, he made a desperate, swiftly calculated leap. Powerful jaws clamped down over the lagomorph’s neck just cranial of its shoulders and sundered its death cry mid-screech. Triumphant, disheveled, and proud as hell, he lorded over his kill and imagined how it’d feel to bring it back to the group. It wasn’t for him, after all — this was for the pack.

Sorry for the wait, thank you for starting love!

Lagan was getting very close to home, he could just feel it. He found himself in another forest, but he'd never been in this one before. It was more north of the Caldera than he'd been in this direction before. It was a weird forest, the trees were more greyscale than he expected from a spring forest. He paused on his tracks when he heard commotion nearby, skittering of feet upon the ground. Curiously he started off in that direction, hoping he might run into another wolf.

When he arrived at the source of the ruckus, he found himself looking at the most beautiful guy he'd ever seen. Black fur like midnight, eyes like the sun. He was holding a dead rabbit in his jaws, and he looked rather proud of it. Lagan stared at him in awe for a moment, and suddenly felt the urge to say something.

Hey, nice kill. He stammered our kind of awkwardly, trotting towards the other male. For some reason Lagan's heart was thumping quicker than usual, and he wished it would stop. His fluffy tail wagged behind him, his white chest puffed out.

His nose was full of bloodscent and his veins were full of adrenaline, so maybe it was understandable that the first words out of Cypress’ mouth were: “Mmph, mm — hm. Mmm…? Mmph!” It translated loosely to, “Thanks, Liff — wait. Who…? Eyes!” but as he dropped the rabbit and stepped protectively over it, he tried to repeat himself a little more coherently. “Thanks,” he murmured, a little edgily as was his wont when talking to strangers. Apart from the Cerberus, Cypress hadn’t met or expected to meet any two wolves who looked so alike, but this wolf was Liffey’s carbon copy — aside from the eyes and the gender. “Wouldn’t happen to have a sister, would you?” he questioned carefully, Eshe’s easy, meandering manner of speech shaping his baritenor into something almost inviting, not wanting to spill Liffey’s name if by some miracle this wolf didn’t know it already. Because he did think this wolf was related to Rannoch’s friend, he didn’t protest the cheerful-looking male’s proximity breach. “Are you joining the ranks?” he went on, borrowing his brother’s phrasing. He couldn’t smell Rannoch or Rian on the male, but it was best to ask anyway.

Lagan seemed to have taken the other guy completely off guard, for he made a couple muffled noises then jumped protectively and surprisedly over his kill. He seemed kind of edgy now, and Lagan definitely hadn't meant for that. The silver boy bowed his head slightly, shifting from foot to foot and staring up at the black furred male submissively, showing that he meant the guy no harm. Don't worry bro, your foods safe. Lagan said with a smile. The other male asked a question that Lagan heard quite often from outsiders, and he nodded with a sigh.

Yeah, you know Liffey too? She's my twin. He asked, wondering if this guy was part of the pack that his twin had run off to. It would be ok if he was, but still, Lagan wasn't fond of the pack. They'd taken his sister and his cousin from him, and he wasn't ready to forgive that. The guy asked if he was joining him, Oh no, I'm just out exploring. I was kind of hoping I'd see Lif, but I haven't yet. He said with a shrug. I'm Lagan by the way, you? He said, looking over the other male again.

Though he wasn’t an excessively dominant wolf, Cypress found himself appeased by the silver-furred male’s show of submission. “Thanks,” he intoned quietly, easing up on his posturing a little, “and sorry. It’s not for me or I’d ask if you wanted to share.” Rannoch would know best what to do with this meat, as they didn’t presently have a cache to speak of. The raven watched curiously as Liffey’s twin — Lagan, he reminded himself — gave a good-natured sigh, and a roguish half-grin played about the rightmost corner of his mouth. “Sounds like you get that a lot,” he mused in a curious baritenor that scaled up just slightly at the tail of his sentence — not quite a question but near enough. “I’m Cypress Frostfur. I met her awhile ago, when she got into some trouble with a wolverine. Seems she’s all fixed up now.”

Normally Cypress liked his secrecy, and wouldn’t have dreamed of bringing an outsider to the band’s current hideaway — but he was a brother, too. He knew what it was like to look for someone and come up short. He thought probably Rannoch and Rian would understand if he brought Lagan to where Liffey currently was, and maybe that was naïve of him — but he loosed the tension from his muscles with a mighty shake, his wild eldritch fur settling into a new manner of disarray, and offered, “If you want, I can take you to Rannoch or Rian. She’s probably around here somewhere, but I haven’t seen her in a bit.”

Ahh, it's cool. I'm always hungry and all, but I don't want to take your food, especially if it's for your family. Lagan replied to Cypress's comment about the rabbit, a humble hum in his tone. He nodded when Cypress commented about Lagan hearing the twin thing a lot. He did in fact, hear that all the time. How was it that Liffey knew everybody outside of the Caldera already? And did they really look that much alike? Yeah. Alot.He brushed it off with a chuckle, though he sometimes found the mistake kind of annoying.

After introducing himself as Cypress Frostfur, the other man asked if he wanted to see Rannoch or some guy named Rian, if he wanted to see Liffey. Lagan had to think about it for a moment, but he shook his head. Nah. I think I'm gonna leave her on hold for a little. When she wants to come visit me, she can. He replied, because he'd decided that even though he did want to see her again, he also wanted to test whether or not she really was gonna be gone for a while or not. It might've been a mistake, but he was still kind of frustrated with his twin.

Cypress didn’t really like the turn the conversation had taken. It was no fault of Lagan’s — the raven simply felt like he’d made a grave misstep. He’d assumed erroneously that Lagan would be happy to have someone he looked just like and would want attention to be called to it. After all, Alya, Lyra, and Hydra looked so alike that sometimes they were one and the same, switching places with uncanny ease. They worked at being identical, dissecting their personalities to achieve a certain mastery in being who they wished when they wished. It was confusing for Cypress, who looked nothing like his littermate or either of his parents. (It was also confusing because…did his fondness for Alya mean he was also fond of Hydra and Lyra by extension? He didn’t know.) Maybe if Scimitar and Eshe had lived longer, they might have told him stories of his great-grandparents, particularly his great-grandfather — but they hadn’t, and they didn’t.

“Well,” he said a bit hesitantly, his quiet baritenor slow and easy as he felt his way along, “I see you — Lagan — and it’s you I’m talking to.” Did that sound weird? Cypress thought it probably did, and ticked his tongue against the backs of his canines, an inaudible habit akin to chewing on one’s lower lip. A nervous habit. “I mean,” he hedged, one ear fanning out and to the side, “well, I — ” Oh, no. Don’t do this. The raven didn’t like stammering or being caught off guard, but here he was, stuck for words. “I would’ve wanted to share my food and talk to you no matter who you were related to,” he decided on. It felt true. He didn’t know if he’d have warmed up quite so quickly without the Liffey Connection but Lagan was so easygoing it was hard to imagine not wanting to befriend the apple-eyed wolf.

Cypress started to speak, but it came out in stammers. At first Lagan wasn't really clear on the message the other boy was trying to get across, but with a little thinking he got it. And it brought a big grin to his face. Cypress wasn't just attractive (what? Attractive? Had Lagan just thought that?), but he was sweet too! Lagan blushed under his white face mask, his front paw swinging off the ground for a moment. Thanks, that's nice to know. He said with a chuckle.

So does your pack not live in bramblepoint anymore? Lagan asked curiously. He had sort of been hoping that they would stay close, so that he could visit Liffey when he felt like he wanted to. But if they were moving further away, it might be harder to make visits.

“No. Thankfully,” Cypress answered with feeling, blowing out a sigh of relief at mention of the bramble-riddled forest they’d left far behind. “Stayed there, what, a couple of weeks at most?” He shook his head in disbelief, muttering in a disgruntled tone, “Seems I’ll be pullin’ out thorns for the rest of my life.” His grumpiness at this point was mostly feigned for comic relief — he snuck a glance at his newfound acquaintance to see if it’d done the trick — and he offered a toothy half-grin to show that he wasn’t actually that riled about it. The heavily scarred left corner of his mouth never responded the way he hoped it would, but he didn’t mind so much anymore. He shifted the topic to Lagan himself, giving in to curiosity, trying to get comfortable with the whole “talking to wolves who aren’t Rannoch or Rian” thing.

“What about you?” he asked. “Do you live far from here?”

So it seemed the pack had indeed left Bramblepoint. Lagan found upsides and downsides to that. He couldn't decide which outweighed the other, so he just moved passed it with a smile at Cypress's comment. Lagan had never had too much problem with thorns, his light grey coat was slick and didn't snag them too badly. But a longer furred wolf like Cypress was probably a thorn magnet. Ouch. Lagan said in response.

Cypress asked where Lagan lived, and Lagan looked around, trying to figure out the direction of home. I liiiive... He jerked his head behind him, That'a ways. It's a place called Redhawk Caldera. It's a really great home. I don't know why Liffey wanted to leave. He thought but didn't say.

Actually, Cypress was wondering the same thing. He, Rian, and Rannoch had had good reason for leaving Neverwinter Forest behind — missing family members, dead family members, the wicked witch of the wilds becoming the pack’s new alpha female — and it hadn’t felt like home for more than half of the raven’s young life. That being said, he also had to wonder why Lagan didn’t just go with his sister. The strongest personal ties Cypress had were to his brothers, and he wouldn’t have been happy to go anywhere unless the three of them went together. Fortunately his loyalty hadn’t been tested so cruelly, because Rian and Rannoch felt largely the same way. In that way, Cypress’d had it easy — he hadn’t had to choose between home and family the way Liffey and Lagan had. “Why’s it great?” he asked, shaking out his wild eldritch fur and stretching out on his belly. What he imagined in his head was an oversized bird’s nest.

“I’ve never heard that word before — caldera.”

At the risk of sounding like an idiot, Cypress dipped his chin and scuffed a paw in mild embarrassment before asking point blank: “I mean, is it like a giant bird nest, or what?” in a bashful mumble.

Why's it great? Glad you asked. Lagan was very willing to explain. Because I have like the coolest family in the world. My mom is super awesome, she is the alpha, and she is hardworking and she kind of kicks ass. And my papa is really nice and understanding and so I go to him usually when I need things. And I have my older brother and he's great and he helps me babysit my cousins, who are so adorable. And there's my other cousins who are cool and stuff, and there's Birk. Not really sure if he's actually related to us. One day he was just sort of here.

He explained in basically one long breath. He was always proud to talk about his family. If Cypress asked for more details about a specific person, Lagan would give a lecture about their entire life. Perhaps the boy should look into being a chronicler, for he did so love talking all the time telling stories. It hadn't occurred to him until Cypress asked about the word Caldera, that maybe his new friend had been referring to the actual land he lived on and not his family.

Lagan snorted, holding back a laugh as best he could when Cypress asked if it was a birds nest. No- well take that back. A little bit. The land is kind of scoopy... I guess. It's really green, and has tons of different little areas in it. And since it's scoopy, it's kind of protected, like a nest. He explained, thinking for the first time that he didn't really know what a Caldera was either.

The hurting started almost immediately, but Cypress bit his lip to keep it quiet. He drew parallels from Lagan’s story that weren’t 100% accurate, but glossed over this way, their families sounded almost exactly the same. “My mom is super awesome,” check, “she is the alpha,” check, “and she is hardworking and she kind of kicks ass,” double check. Once upon a time, Cypress could have said the exact same thing — right down to the “nice and understanding” father, the helpful older brother, and the cool cousins. Rannoch hadn’t gotten to know Kjalarr, but Cypress had depended on him heavily when everything else had fallen apart.

“That sounds awesome, Lagan,” the eidolon said, but his tone came off a bit flatter than he would’ve liked, “and the caldera sounds real pretty.” He could see why Lagan didn’t want to leave — and again, didn’t fully understand why Liffey would. He fumbled around for words: “I — your — ” but couldn’t think of a single intelligent thing to say. Missing his mama and paw had kicked the enthusiasm straight out of him, so he looked a little desperately at Lagan to lift the mood again with his sunny disposition and engaging way of speaking. Usually he looked to Rannoch when he got tongue-tied, but the turquoise-eyed alpha wasn’t around at present — and anyway, there was something about Lagan that reminded Cypress of Alya. It wasn’t his personality or his appearance, but the fact that he had met Cypress outside the shadow of his betters. “I’m a bad conversationalist,” he confessed. “Your family sounds real nice — I’m sorry if I said it weird before.”

For some reason Lagan's description of his family and his homeland made Cypress seem sad. Lagan didn't know anything about his family, so he didn't make that connection. The silvery boy worried that he'd somehow been rude, over spoke, or annoyed his new friend. He definitely hadn't wanted to be annoying, he just loved talking. Cypress fumbled over his words for a moment, he looked and sounded as if he were drowning. Lagan just looked at him with a confused expression on his face.

Then the raven boy said that he was a bad conversationalist, and even apologized for it. Lagan shook his head, hoping to console him. No not at all! Just because you don't talk as much as me doesn't make you bad at it. I should set you up for more opportunities, sorry for taking up the spotlight. Lagan said, then tried to think of a way to get Cypress more involved. So what do you like to do for fun?

Tagging for reference ♥

“Fun?” Cypress repeated, looking a little more forlorn than he cared to as he tipped his head to the side and looked at the apple-eyed Blackthorn. “Well, this is fun,” he said a little haltingly. “I kind of like it when you take up the spotlight.” He grinned, the expression made incongruous by the way the left side of his mouth remained static. “Before I left home, I found this…swamp. If I felt sad or lonely I’d smash up the winter ice and rip up the dead trees. It felt good, but it wasn’t really fun until @Rian came and joined in.”

He decided to come clean, hoping that it wouldn’t destroy their burgeoning friendship. “A bear killed my parents,” he said, “right before it got really cold. I had an older brother, who became the alpha alongside my aunt, but he had a mate and they had a son and I felt sort of funny about it. Kjalarr — that’s my brother — stepped down and his mate stepped up and, well.” He cast a sidelong glance at the other wolf, nervously licking his lips. “I can’t explain it except that I couldn’t stand for that. It’d be like if some wolf you never met before who didn’t even know your name tried to take over the caldera if your mama ever had to step down.” He frowned, trying to rein in his feelings about the whole thing. “I found the swamp because I was alone all the time — because I wanted to be, until Rian and I got to be close — and that was the place I stood up to her. I challenged her for leadership, but I lost.” He didn’t like to admit that.

Rallying, Cypress he found a modicum of humor and hung onto it for dear life. “I guess you could say I’m starting over learning how to — you know, get along with others and have fun. What do you do for fun? Maybe you could teach me how to be…funner.”

Lagan grinned bashfully at Cypress's complements, the dark male sure knew how to flatter. Lagan listened attentively as Cypress started to talk about a swamp- and about this Rian guy again. Now Lagan really wished he knew Rian, so he could feel in the loop. He was thinking about Rian and trying to imagine what he might look like, when Cypress threw in a wild card. A bear killed my parents. The grin flew off Lagan's face as if it had been slapped off. Cypress continued talking, but all that Lagan could think about was the other boy's dead parents.

Finley and Elwood were probably the most important wolves in Lagan's life. They were always there for him, always caring and understanding. He loved them so so much. If they both died, his world would be turned upside down. Shoot, if just one of them his world would probably implode on itself. Sure he would still have a big family to support him, all his pups, Raven, his big brother. But he would still be devastated. It occurred to him then that he wouldn't have Liffey, and suddenly he felt as if maybe he should go find her.

When Cypress finished his story, Lagan found that he had been about to start crying. Hot tears had prepared to stain the fur around his apple green eyes, so he blinked a few times to put them back. Then he said, I'm so sorry. His tail had dropped behind him, but he was doing his best to round his mood back up to a ten. Cypress asked if Lagan could teach him how to be funner, and the boy nodded, a smile beginning to return to his face.

Sure, I'm like the king of fun. I cut down boredom like a... uh... big stick! He replied, chuckling a little at his own snafu. He looked around at the forest, scanning it for something amusing. His eyes landed on a small grey stone, poking out from a patch of dirt. He bounded towards it and began digging it up, his big white paws scuffling around it. When he got it out he turned around and kicked it towards Cypress. Have you ever played kick rock? He asked.

Cypress, whose knowledge of play was limited to physical contest -- that, against Rannoch, he was hard-pressed to win -- shook his head and stared down at the rock with a furrowed brow and a near-glower of consternation. "What do I do?" he asked in a small voice, actually made unnerved by the introduction of the unfamiliar, no matter how innocuous it seemed. He was good at patrolling borders and giving serious advice, but this whimsical stuff? He didn't have the faintest clue what to do or how to behave. "I might be real good at this," he warned Lagan just as he'd warned Alya in the dead of winter. "Prepare for disappointment!" he seemed to say.

Cypress seemed very unnerved at the unknown game, and Lagan smiled. The other boy asked how to play and Lagan replied, Well, I kick the rock to you, like I just did, He paused to gesture to the stone that landed by Cypress's feet. Then you kick it back to me. And then... It was then that Lagan realized that kick rock didn't actually have rules. When he and Liffey had played, they'd always just kept kicking it until they started kicking it super hard at each other and one of them yielded, or until one of them kicked it in a really cool way and 'won'.

...then you just keep doing that! And try to do tricks, or get it past the other person, you know just be cool. You can't really win I guess. He said with a shrug. Cypress warned him that he would be good at this and Lagan raised an eyebrow. Oh yeah? I'm ready when you are champ! Lagan teased, already in a play bow position and ready to kick some ass (and a rock!).

LMFAO I DEFINITELY TYPO’D THAT POST OH WELL LET’S CHALK IT UP TO CYPRESS TALKING DUMB INSTEAD OF ME TYPING DUMB

Somehow Cypress had gotten completely tongue-tied. “I mean — no, I meant — I meant not. I meant I might not be real good at thi — aw, damn it!” he sputtered awkwardly. “I’m not a — a champ…” He murmured this last as if it was some kind of shameful utterance, scuffing his paws embarrassedly in the dirt. Being that his opinion of himself was generally pretty low, the thought that Lagan might find him conceited was crippling for Cypress. “I didn’t mean — ” Utterly flustered, he kept his eyes down as he finished his sentence in a series of unintelligible murmurs. “I’m just gonna kick the dang rock,” was his last utterance.

Although he was clearly inept at using his words, Cypress kicked the rock with relative success. It wasn’t a particularly spectacular kick, and it wouldn’t win him the FIFA Wolf Cup, but he couldn’t help feeling a sense of accomplishment that it didn’t fly back and smack him in the nose or something.

LMAO YOU'RE SO FINE LIKE I SWEAR THIS JUST MAKES IT BETTER

Lagan's face turned into a confused frown as Cypress began sputtering out words like Porky Pig at the end of a Looney Tunes episode. Had Lagan done something to upset him? Had Lagan broken him? Or was the raven boy just self destructing? Finally Cypress managed to piece together his sentence and it seemed what he had said wasn't what he'd meant at all. Lagan hadn't noticed, because it'd sounded like Cypress was just bragging playfully. That was the kind of thing Lagan would've said to Liffey when they played together. But it seemed bragging wasn't condoned wherever Cypress came from, because boy was he apologizing for it.

Dude it's all good! I don't get offended by bragging, and who knows. You might be like a kick rock star or something! Lagan replied, very chill as usual. Cypress explained that he was just gonna go ahead and kick the darn rock, and Lagan chuckled. He resumed his play bow, and zoned in on the stone. Cypress let loose on the thing, and it arched towards Lagan. It was not at all a bad kick, but unlike Cypress, Lagan did think of himself as a bit of a kick rock champ.

It skittered to the ground and Lagan was on it in seconds. He got a running start and kicked as hard as he could, he watched the rock go up into the air, then land at Cypress's paws. It wasn't as cool as he'd hoped, but he hadn't failed either.

The two boys played kick rock for quite some time, and it came to a point where winning didn't matter. When finally a tired and chubby cheeked boy called it quits, the two new friends said farewell and returned to their homes.