Wolf RPG

the surf lapped o'ertop lasher's paws as he paced the shoreline, drawing near to the borders of saltwinter. it had been some time since he had laid eyes upon the priestess -- he wished to be in her presence once more, if she would have him. they had parted on a bitter note, and he had brought a gift for her, hoping to soothe the rift -- a creamy pearl plucked from the throat of a large clam.

putting it gingerly upon the sands, he called lowly across the twilit waves for @Caiaphas, standing in silent reverence of the cove as he waited for her to draw near.

a sound soft as a hum rolled across the cresting waves, a gentle melody that commanded caiaphas' attention. her slender ears pulled forth as she differentiated from the thrum of the sea the source of the sound: lasher.

she picked up a trot down the panning shelf of the cliffs, towards the exit of the sound where the boulders tumbled brokenly into whitewashed sea. offering little in way of greeting she slowed once she was near enough to meet the murkwater glow of his gaze, wondering if he carried with him still the bitter sting of their last encounter.

he did not; upon seeing her slight form, the druid lifted the large pearl and carried it forth to place reverently between her paws, and if she allowed, he would turn his muzzle to kiss briefly with feathered lips the inside of one slim foreleg. "i was wrong to go alone to the pirate, and i hope you will forgive my stringent words," the man spoke formally, meeting the foxfire of her pointed gaze with a contrite expression.

alongside them the sea roiled and thrashed salt.

as the sea thrashed besides them and stung the air with its salt, caiaphas was reminded of their first encounter so many months ago. her gaze fell to the pearl, round and dazzling -- a pale, bone color with a faint radiant pink sheen. a token. she turned her gaze up to lasher, her cheek lifted as his muzzle traced along her forelimb. "a present wasn't needed." she returned somewhat stiffly, having never been one to willingly admit her wrongdoing. all the same, for lasher, she tried -- "sorry for what i said." her gaze fell to the sand in child-like shame.

caiaphas responded with a tense apology, and though he had sought to dispel the tension, lasher cupped her words with eager ears. "no need -- i was rash and such things must be said. i am a stubborn creature, priestess." he met her eyes with the inviting glow of his own, lips curved into a small bow. "but if you have need of my forgiveness, i grant it, freely and completely. let us speak no more of this. it is forgotten."

"it is a gift for your grotto," taltos said softly of the pearl. "it came from the sea, but it was too lovely to cast back into the waves, and so i brought it here, where i know you shall keep it close to the saltwater and give it a purpose. in addition," he went on, albeit somewhat cautiously, "it complements well the hue of your cheeks."

all this open talk, while easy to lasher, came with difficulty for the siren. she had never been outspoken, had always been proud, and sometimes, had been a little stupid. this limited her willingness to feel vulnerable, even alongside a trusted confidant such as lasher. the pearl, pale as a conch's brim, mesmerized her -- she had never seen one so well rounded or coruscating coral in appearance. his compliment caused a sharp jerk of her gaze upwards and she cast him a cold glance, her fierce yellow eyes lidded in a sly squint. "and it brings out the distinguished grey flecking your temples too," she joked wryly, knowing full well that in the compliment department she was far outgunned.

she was sly, and he tossed back his head and laughed at her scathing words, knowing her to be dry of tongue indeed. "it is true; i am quite grey these days," he murmured, eyes afire with the pleasure of her cool company. "and yet, i find that i have earned each grey hair, for i am a curator of many experiences. some dark, some light. many carnal," he added, and here he was pointed,  teasing her as she had done him, his eyes fixed upon her own as if to engender some blush beneath her dark fur.

he laughed: her mule-length ears pulled back at first in surprise -- he had a much better sense of humor about himself than she did. slowly her ears returned to their normal state, though she remained skeptic. while it seemed he enjoyed her company, caiaphas knew her company was usually a deleterious and unwanted thing. his last comment evinced not a blush, but a raise of one eyebrow -- what did he mean by carnal, exactly? the irony of the situation was lost upon caiaphas -- lasher, a purveyor of many pursuits (including pleasurable ones) and caiaphas, a purveyor of .. food. and sometimes puppies. "how carnal?" she queried finally, her curiosity sharp.

the memories of their interludes together were considered -- caiaphas was decidedly not one who pursued fleshly pleasures, and he found himself both amused and roused by her seeming innocence upon the matters of which he spoke. her question was met with a small smile; he glanced toward the sea and then found her piercing gaze again, twin blades of a hawk's-watch. his touches thus far had been received well, but perhaps she had merely tolerated them. 

then again, taltos had reined himself back for such reasons. "shall i show you?" he asked, humour flickering 'round want in his tones, though he was light in his query, in case she wished to pull away from this subject.

where lasher might have imbued a situation with warmth and gentility, caiaphas sucked the soul from it. where he might have performed some romantic and outlandish gesture, caiaphas would be inclined to fester it with clinical deprivation and awkwardness. he was a heartbeat, and she was a flatline. his suggestion was met with a blank stare; and if there was any invitation in her cheerless gaze, it was fraught with teeth.

"i'm good, thanks." she quipped, though maybe a part of her wondered. "wouldn't make the missus care for me anymore anyway." she added in an afterthought, deflecting her true trepidation onto the fact she thought it strange one could be so free with their 'carnal' obligations.

despite the curiosity that had glinted in her guarded eyes, caiaphas declined, and lasher nodded with respect for her choice. he invited, and she turned him aside, but not direct negative. "she is free to take her own lovers, and i am free to do the same," he murmured gently, knowing it was unheard of among his kind. in truth, he and blue willow might very well be the only ones who practiced such, now that peregrine had closed himself to all but fox. 

the invitation to fulfill her curiosity hung between them, full and bell-like, bursting with the juices of its own promise, to be batted away and circle back around, until it either came apart with want or withered for lack of address. no matter -- lasher would keep himself aside until caiaphas decided upon her own course of action.

"there was a curious thing i saw upon my way here.  a jelly-like, viscous animal, with long trailing legs. it lay upon the sands and did not breathe. do you know what it could be?"

he handled her rejection well; much better than she would have. in some ways she realized she was cruel to lasher, but she was too selfish to make any sort of amend. she couldn't understand it -- she wouldn't -- and the conviction was stamped clear across her face. "i'd hate that." she said with finality, sticking her nose primly into the air to dismiss the topic of polygamy. blue willow was mature, and likely secure: unfortunately for lasher, caiaphas was neither and would have made a belittling, greedy, and demanding lover. 

he was smooth, changing the topic away from her scarcely veiled barbed tongue. she eyed him in a manner that suggested she was fully aware of this. "how big?" she asked, wondering if it was some sort of verbal trap.

cruel though she was, lasher found affection in the dark glut of her tongue's venom upon her -- if they came only to this point, he preferred her thorny presence to none at all, and so let his eyes fill with humour at her own prim lip, flashing her a wide and mysterious grin, though he said aught upon their previous talk.

"about this large," he murmured, drawing lines in the sand a mere five inches apart. "i have never seen such a thing. it did not look edible or i might have brought it as a dessert for you."

the siren watched him, albeit prickily, as he drew a line in the sand. she knew immediately, for many rung the shores during particularly vehement storms. "jellyfish." she supplied, briefly toying with the idea of telling him they were harmless. an impish gleam flew across her eyes and faded. "edible, but painfully so." she joked, returning his smile with one of her own. "they sting, it kind of feels like bees. i don't eat them, and avoid them in the water." while fur provided some protection, caiaphas had felt them lance her leg on more than one occasion. "too much contact with them, and they will kill you." as did most things in the sea, she had found.

his eyes widened as caiaphas described the hateful nature of this 'fish,' and that ultimately it was lethal. eyeing the sea with some small bit of trepidation, he laughed with a lacing of nervousness to his tones. "i am glad that i did not bring it, then!" the druid exclaimed, though soon his apprehension faded. "such a curious thing --  are there stranger entities in the saltwater?" he was content to be her pupil, though she would not relent to be his own -- he found this a tantalizing thought, but stifled his desire as he trained his eyes and attention upon the priestess.

there were many curious things in the sea, and lasher's question caused the siren queen to fall quietly into thought. she had seen many things wash up on the shoreline -- some seemed to be giant fish, though others were far beyond any concept of life caiaphas had ever encounter. it bothered her knowing what she knew about the sea; that try as she might, she would never learn of all of its secrets before she died. she thought it a pitiful thing to be bound by the flesh of a terrestrial, and inwardly had always wished she had the power to shape whatever form she wished at will; to go where she wanted and where no other coywolf had been before.

"many." came the much anticipated response after a lengthy pause. caiaphas swept her gaze from the roving breakwater and looked at lasher. "things beyond our scope of imagination. i imagine it must be a terrible place to live, deep underwater."

he would not have mocked caiaphas for her aspirations -- it was a deep want of the druid to return to the elements from which he had come, to the storm and to the lightning, the thunderous roll of grey clouds across the heavens. he had said nothing of this to anyone living or dead, fearing it would amount to a betrayal of his life upon the earth. he and the priestess were well-met with their inner wanting, it seemed.

"the very sight of the ocean constricts my breath. when the storms crash and roil, the air here stings my eyes and burns my throat. it is a strong creature to reside so close to the saltwater and eat of its bounty -- it is a more powerful wolf to command it."

here he looked to caiaphas and smiled wanly, holding her eyes for a long moment. "i must return to donnelaith," he muttered with much regret, "but as always, i shall return. may you be blessed," the druid intoned, reaching to kiss her cheek with only a hint of lingering -- he would not press where she had turned him aside -- and then moved to trot up the sands in the direction of the redwood forest.