Moonspear deception on my lips

terance was doing a very good job at pretending like his encounter with @Alya had never happened. he was positive that this time, he wasn't in the wrong, and though he was still kind of mortified that it had happened-- it wasn't his fault, there was no way he'd done anything wrong.

probably, anyway-- whatever helped him sleep.

either way, he had more important things on his mind. he'd seen a whole deer in one of the southern caches the previous day. he didn't know who brought it in, but boy was he excited to eat some of it today. he hoped it was still there, god damn he could almost taste it. he picked up his pace, he'd be there soon if he could just hurry up.

Alya was a dark streak through the woods, silent save for steps muffled by the forest floor. Everything just kept building and building inside of her. The dark woods and their mysterious denizens had haunted them for so long, now. Rannoch and Liffey lived in their midst. Redhawk machinations had killed her sister - a sister Alya had not yet allowed herself to grieve. Time after harrowing time, fate continued to get in the way of her plans, her hopes, her dreams. But, while life certainly seemed to stand still, her body would not.

And, thanks to said body, Alya felt as though she had quite a bit of explaining to do.

The dark woman tracked her prey within a few hundred yards before guessing its destination and shooting forward to head it off. When Terance arrived at the cache, Alya stood beside it, windswept and out-of-breath.

"Hi, Terance," she greeted, sounding somewhat apprehensive.

terance spotted her rather quickly. against the white snow and pale stones, the cerberus often stood out. of course, unless they wanted to be hidden, then they wouldn't be seen. at first, terance assumed it was hydra, and strode up without any hesitation, offering a grin. but she didn't greet him like hydra would've-- like best buds-- and terance didn't think this was lyra... he didn't know why, it just didn't feel like lyra. oof, suddenly he felt awkward. 

sweating.

"hey, alya," he said, trying not to be immediately obnoxious. but guilt was already taking a hold of his stomach and shaking it around-- damn why couldn't he just have a normal meal. "i'm... sorry--" he started, tail still, "--about the other day," he said quickly, ears splaying. it was her fault, but he'd been friends with hydra long enough to know not to put the blame on alya for all this-- outwardly, at least, he could think whatever he wanted in that pretty little head of his.

Alya shook her head, rebuffing Terance's apology as surely as she'd rebuffed his advances a few days before. "Don't be sorry," she said earnestly, not afraid to take credit for the awkward encounter. She'd really just wanted to hang out with him for once, and to get her mind off of all that had been happening. But she didn't have the easy rapport that he and Hydra had... she didn't have that with anyone aside from her sisters, really. "Look, I didn't mean to run off like that. I didn't mean to lead you on in the first place. You were just so hot, and I've been going a little crazy lately, thinking about boys all the time." She huffed, feeling a bit silly revealing all this, but wanting him to understand what had happened. Besides, she trusted Terance not to use what she shared with him against her. Part of her was worried that Terance would start to think poorly of her, but quite honestly, she didn't care much what he thought of her.

"But that's not really what I wanted to talk about," she went on, a wry smile on her face.

oh, so maybe alya wasn't so much like hydra-- as stubborn, that was. his ears pricked, curiosity glinting in his gaze. he listened-- giving a sly smile and a dip of his nose at the mention of him being hot. well, he could relate to that last bit. it seemed all he did nowadays was think of lyra, who he didn't even have a chance with... and then this whole alya situation... his smile turned to something more genuine-- less coy. he didn't know what to say, though. instead of speaking, terance stepped forward to give her a nudge to the shoulder-- they were all good, and he respected her honesty. 

"what'd you wanna talk about?" he then asked, doing a little circle away from her as he moved to find that deer, "and are you hungry?"

Alya pressed her lips together, wondering how to broach the subject, or if she ought to bring it up at all. There was no telling what Lyra would do if Terance took her advice, and the male might not be so forviging toward her if she burned him again. But Alya was sick of all this dancing around, and if she didn't get to do things in the bushes with Terance, then someone had to. For science!

"It's about Lyra," she said. "You and Lyra, specifically."

Urgh. Why didn't she practice before coming here? "You know, I think I am hungry," she decided, hoping to buy a bit of time while she thought this over. "Think the liver's still good?"

he paused when she said lyra, lifting his head. was lyra okay? but there was more-- and terance was suddenly numb. he stood, kind of dumbfounded, staring at alya with absolute... he didn't even know what emotion this was. was he confused? scared? excited? he just felt numb. god damn it terance, play it cool.

she brought up the deer-- his fault, he'd asked-- and he was forced to look back at it, clearing his throat. finally, his mouth moved, but it wasn't what he wanted to say. "i.. think so, it was brought in yesterday, i think," he said, beginning to tug at the thing towards them. someone had already taken one of the hind legs, but the rest looked good. "all yours," he added in regards to the liver, licking his lips as he raised his head back up. now ask.

"what about me and lyra?"

Alya tore into the belly and dove in to extract the liver - her favorite part of any kill. When she looked up it was to find Terance looking not especially hale, a stricken expression upon his fine face. "Oh, calm down," she muttered, shaking some of the excess blood and gristle from her pelt before fixing Terance with a pointed look.

"What I mean is, this good old boy act just isn't going to cut it," she said earnestly. "I shouldn't be telling you this, but I'm going to anyway because I like you, and because it's a travesty for both of us to have to lead dull, romanceless lives. So, here it goes. I ran off because Lyra would've been angry at me, if anything had happened between us."

She stared hard at Terance, willing him to put two and two together. She already felt bad for revealing as much as she had, and she didn't want to have to spell it out for the hopless sap.

terance waited for her to finish tearing out her own piece before ~casually~ tearing off the other hind leg, setting it before him and looking up-- dumbfounded again. hopeless sap indeed, terance wasn't sure if his heart had just sunk to his feet or was stuck in his throat-- it was kind of both, for some reason? wasn't that good news? he wanted to stammer out a whole list of nonsense. 'but i thought... she never said... do you mean...' but he surprisingly held his tongue. he was smart enough to put two-and-two together, sure, but he just didn't believe it. 

and he almost defended himself against the 'good old boy' accusation, but thought better of it last minute-- wouldn't want to offend alya after she was so generously offering up all this precious information. his gaze fell to his feet, a bit of laughter rumbling in his throat. "god damn," he muttered, shaking his head, looking back up to her. he'd had so many sleepless nights over this. he still wasn't sure he believed her.

"so you're telling me to bring her to the woods?" he asked with a small smirk, but with enough jest clear in his voice to show he wasn't serious-- well not entirely serious. he was still trying to find real words to respond with. he thought he'd been forward enough to her... once or twice-- right? maybe not forward enough... alya forward though? terance wasn't sure about that. he sucked in a breathe. "you're really telling me some mind-shattering information right now," he added with a cocked eyebrow.

Alya tore off a dainty shred of liver and tossed it back, savoring the taste as it slid down her gullet. She wondered how Lyra would react when Alya told her about this exchange, and then promptly decided that it needed to be kept from her sister for Lyra's own good. "I'm telling you that Lyra needs to be swept off her paws," said Alya, refocusing on Terance. "Kill things for her. Kill in front of her. Do that magic smiley thing you did at me." That would certainly get Lyra's heart pumping, wouldn't it?

"I mean, someone needs to put those trees to use," the girl added, shifting restlessly. God, this conversation was not doing her any good. She needed to get out of there and go for a long run. "I can't promise you results. But I can promise that what you're doing now won't get them, alright? And I can promise that being more forward won't ruin your chances." She paused, giving Terance another pointed look. "I think you know that, too. I think you're just pussyfooting around because you're scared of the truth. But the truth is that the longer you wait, the more you nestle into that comfortable little pocket you're sitting in."

kill in front of her? a weird way to woo someone-- not that terance's past efforts had done much much. and the cerberus was a different breed too. hm. "i can do that," he said definitively, offering a soft smile of gratitude.

then, his nose scrunched up, and an offended look spread onto his face. "i'm not in a pocket," he said defensively, tail flicking, but his expression softened and he rolled his eyes, "well, i guess i am." god damn. this was so much for him-- he didn't want to be forward though. don't get me wrong, terance would've loved to just take her to the bushes right then and there-- but he had so much of his mother in him, and like that just took so much of the romance out of it... right? he shifted his shoulders, bending down to take a chunk from the leg.

after his bite, he looked back up at alya, smirking. "is it that magical?" he teased, tail waving. he could totally do that to lyra, he decided.

Alya didn't deign to respond to his denials, and instead, focused on wolfing down the rest of the liver. She'd spent a lot of energy running around being horny lately, so the fuel was sorely needed. Perhaps she'd rip into the intestines as well when this conversation was over - Alya hated to speak with her mouth full of tripe.

When she looked up, it was to see Terance smirking at her again. Her heart fluttered tellingly. "Oh god, don't," she moaned, turning away from the dumb male. "Honestly, I think Jarilo could seduce me right now. So get lost. You've got some planning to do, and I've got some eating to catch up on."

Her ears pushed forward as she made this command, showing that she meant business. Aside from just plain not wanting to be around him anymore, Alya was also rather keen on having the deer to herself for a while.

he chuckled, pleased with her response-- it gave him just the sort of confidence he needed to pull this off with lyra. cool. he grabbed the piece of deer he'd already torn free-- his, he assumed she wasn't holding that captive, but would leave it if she seriously desired it-- and gave her a soft dip of his nose. "thanks, alya," he said through the thigh, and then took her advised and scrammed. 

and with that, terance had already begun thinking of what he was going to do. when was the only problem... better sooner than later, he figured, and set off to prepare.

Alya sniffed importantly at Terance's thanks, still looking pointedly away from him as he gathered up his meal and set off in the other direction. "Oh - and you didn't hear it from me!" Alya called after him before he slipped away entirely. She was still worried that this would come back to bite her in the ass, but at least she'd done it with pure intentions.

Feeling that her business had concluded and that a reward was in order, the dark girl pulled out the deer's intestines and began to feast.