Wild Berry Meadow you're an original sin

His nostrils flare as in one inhalation does he breathe in the scent of @Alya, not far from the eastern border where the river meets the dark woods.

No doubt she is hunting or scouting;  to venture this close to Blackfeather without summoning his presence tells him that he is not here for her. But he has nothing better to do in the mere days leading up to war, and if he should no longer continue to live after the event, he should like to see her one more time before. Her trail leads him along the riverside, stopping and going, before losing track of the river's course to meet the vicinity of an even bigger mass of still water. In the near distance, Vaati catches sight of her form, moving delicately through the thinning patch of trees and he slows his pacing to a soundless prowl -- not as hushed, feathery as her -- but well enough to go unnoticed should she be otherwise preoccupied. If her acute hearing should fail to pick up on his presence, he should aim to catch her by suprise as he moves, closer and closer forth.

Perhaps a foolish idea if he has caught her at a bad time, but then again, he has settled into whatever relationship exists between them to comfortably believe she would do him no serious harm.

Alya was preoccupied. There was a mountain in the distance she had never noticed before, and while part of her wanted to scale it, she knew that it was too far to get back to Moonspear before she was missed, and her family needed her right then. Months and months had passed since the last time she hadn't felt needed. It was wearing her down in ways she did not understand.

She sniffed along the riverbank, trying her best not to look up at the glorious peak in the distance, but in the end, could not help but stop and stare. A terrible longing rose up in the woman's heart as she gazed up at the proud, jagged peak. One day, she would climb that mountain. One day, she would be unchained from her family's sorrow, and she and her sisters would run wild and free.

Such was her introspection that she did not hear the fall of paws behind her - a dangerous thing, these days.

She does not take notice of him, and at the right moment does he lunge from the bushes; playfully yet in-character as an attacker, all without the intent of claws digging into her skin. If anything, the only thing he aimed to do was startle her, perhaps throw her over if she was truly that within her own mind.

At the last moment, she detected the presence of her assailant and whipped around toward him with flashing teeth. In the same moment (a beat later, albeit), she caught his heady scent and took in his handsome visage. Vaati, she thought, the name coming to her with a fierce grin. She caught his attack on fleet paws, rolling with the blow and popping right back to her inky paws.

"Vaati!" she complained, her voice a huffy laugh. She reclaimed the space her maneuver had put between them to rub her body under his chin, claiming him like a cat. "Will you always greet me with fangs bared?" she asked him, ready to answer with her own fangs, should he launch another attack.

Her recovery is as graceful as she, moving in delicacy and speed as she returns to her feet following his rather tame attack. Alya's exuberant laugh indicates she holds no qualms over his fashion of greeting, something that would likely have earned him a few scars if he had done so, only a few weeks prior. "Is that not how you like it?" His brow quirks with a suggestive grin, leaning the weight of his body against her as she moves possessively beneath his chin; a feline sort of way that characterizes who she is in the very action -- delicate on appearance yet strikingly vicious in nature.

Boldly, he moves to her neck, grazing bared teeth along the exposed skin in an odd struggle not to outright grip her in his jaws. It had been clear that the last time he had done so, the act had not been entirely welcome by her. A pity really; their unsuccessful attempt at mutual satisfaction would work itself out much sooner if he did not have to worry about her opposing his hefty figure atop her in a manner that only appeared constricting. It is where her hesitance to actually do the deed comes from, he figures. Perhaps if it was even physically possible, she'd likely request that she be the one on top, the one in control. Alas, control is something he is unwilling to give up and he goes in anyway, seeking out the tenderness of her neck with his canines in a manner that indicated where he wanted to go with it all.

Alya stretched her neck to allow him better access and let out a deep sigh. Her eyes were half-lidded as she gazed out toward the distant spire, its silhouette seeming wild and violent even from down on the valley floor.

"It is what I like," she admitted, her mind still elsewhere. Distantly, she wondered if Vaati would kill her while she was so focused upon the spire. The thought flickered in the back of her mind and slowly died down. Perhaps it would not be the worst thing in the world. "Do you want to go somewhere?" she asked, shaking away from him and turning to face him with a hot glint in her blue eyes. "Somewhere away from all this, where no one can find us?"

To his surprise, she does not shove away his advances on her neck, instead, contradicting her earlier impression that any form of perceived domination from him was presently unwelcome. Perhaps the problem had not been his hold on her neck in the first place, but instead was the fact that he massively outweighed her in muscle and draping himself over her was rather uncomfortable. Releasing his grip as she turns away from his physical comfort, his ears fold back slightly as she looks to him with a burning gaze, one filled nought with anger but with a tame lust. 

His brow quirks at the thought of her proposition; his lips graced with a mischievous grin, evidently intrigued by the notion of the two of them alone... together... in a secluded area hidden by wandering eyes. "Do you mean... the depths of a dark, shadowy woods where others will know better than to ask questions?" Vaati is not opposed to introducing her to his home, finding she may appreciate its secrecy. Perhaps it is slightly premature and the tiniest bit irresponsible to propose such an offer, for it had not been that long ago that she and her sisters had been calling for his head. But, he feels he can trust her enough not to betray his fidelity, and feeling she knows well enough the precautions of doing so. In turn, he would not dare to do the same to her, and so their relationship functions on a basis of knowing exactly how much blood would be shed if one was to betray the other.

Alya shook her head; the woods did not scare her the way they used to - and indeed, she was curious about lay within their shadows - but she was her mother's daughter, at heart, and a mountain would always be more attractive to her than a stand of trees, no matter how mysterious they might be.

"There," she said instead, indicating the towering spire. "My sisters and I want to claim our own mountain one day," she added, not quite sure why she was sharing this with him, of all wolves. But she was, and she couldn't bring herself to feel silly or regret it. If nothing else, she was just making conversation. "That one looks scary enough for us, don't you think?" she asked, her voice a bit teasing.

It doesn't surprise him when she votes against venturing near his home, yet for different reasons does he believe to understand why than her actual reasoning. Yet, he doesn't press it further. What takes him by surprise is the news that she and her sisters may soon relocate homesteads, having seen her as a "loyal until death" type of woman that would sooner be ripped from Moonspear than willingly leave. However, he knows the Cerberus as also ambitious without fault. Perhaps they have outgrown their parent's nest in the manner he has outgrown the familiarity of family. Perhaps what they have been given is not yet enough. He doesn't blame her. He nods at her jest, peering up at the spire whom he has associated with a sliver of abandonment for some time. Perhaps this too will change, and perhaps he too can change with them. Perhaps. "Maybe I will join you." It is barely above a mumble yet clear enough to hear. Vaati has yet to live life without the dark woods. He has not yet lived beyond its shadows and confines whilst chained to its throne. For the sake of being grateful, he has not yet said it aloud, but the dark woods and their burdens has taken more from his childhood than he has lived it. It would not be such a bad thing to let it go.

Alya turned her head back toward the male, blue eyes searching as she processed his words. She was struck again by how hale and handsome he was. Somehow, despite all that had transpired and all that she knew would come to pass, a kernal of something had grown for him in her chest. She looked at him, and it fluttered like the wings of a butterfly, still wet and weak from the cocoon.

"I would like that," she said in a hushed voice, feeling as though any sudden movement might break her out of the strange dream they were sharing.

Hesitantly, she leaned toward him, so that the fur of their shoulders mingled. Her eyes returned to the spire so that he would not see the strange mix of emotions swirling in her eyes. There was so much that she wanted, and there seemed to be so little opportunity. "When things have settled down, we should take a trip. Just for a while - and just you and me," she suggested without inflection.