Wolf RPG

@Charon!

Althaia rose to her feet with a wobble. Gingerly, she pressed her paw to the ground, testing. She yelped in shock when pain lanced through her leg, suddenly, and was quick to draw her leg back towards her body. She took a few steps into the clearing, gradually becoming more stable. Some of the lighter scratches around her torn up ankle had healed, leaving a light pink line. But most were still raw, and would twinge with pain whenever she moved. Tiny grass poked the bottom of her paws, and she nosed them with interest. 

Something had had been gnawing at the female as of late. Once she had gotten over her shock of being omega and slave to a hostile pack, a growing feeling of hate grew in her. She had seldom felt hatred for something before, not just dislike. But she truly hated the pale alpha and his midnight mate, and hated herself for crossing the borders. She growled, a tiny, low sound, as these thoughts filled her mind.

Teeth snapped shut but a hare darted into a hole and out of grasp. A frustrated growl brewed in Charon's throat as he licked his lips, which were free of blood. Feeling unsatisfied, Charon started up the mountain trail that lead through the forest until he breached through and into the open.

Unfortunately it was without any food that he arrived by the side of the thrall. He'd hoped to spare a scrap so that at least he would be able to keep her alive, but it was without such that Charon arrived. Tail curled over his back and his head was lifted proudly as he approached her and asked, almost accusatorily, "Settling in well?"

Then he arrived. Boldly, proudly, dominant and arrogant, she thought to herself. She stood still a moment, her anger preventing her from submitting to him immedietly. She eyed him almost bitterly before flattening her ears against her skull. She watched him with pale green eyes, the memory of their last confrontation sending an odd mix of fury and fear coursing through her veins. She succembed to neither, but stood awkwardly and address him. "As well as one can settle in as a Thrall" she said, bitterness leaching into her words. Her anger had won, it seemed, but she regretted the words almost immedietly. She said nothing else, holding her tongue and sinking lower to the ground, ignoring the pain in her muscles.

Anger settled in, fueled by the helplessness that he could not even properly feed his own thrall, couldn't have brought her anything more. The fact that she did not instantly submit to him irritated him, and he felt the urge to lash out. Yet he did not, a moment's reprieve reminding him that the anger would be misplaced.

But when the defiant words came from her mouth, something snapped. He was reminded of everything he'd lost recently, and how this was all that had replaced it — Dhole's defiance the day that she left, the painful words she had shouted at him, he saw mirrored in the female's bitter words. Teeth were bared in a display of anger, and just as he was about to snap and grab her face, she lowered her body further to the ground which caused him to feel a little bit more in control again.

Charon calmed down a little, though he still felt like an elastic band that was ready to snap at any moment. Yet the snarl disappeared from his face, for now, the anger dissipating; at least until the next time defiant words would roll from her mouth and remind him that he wasn't in the driver's seat as much as he'd have liked.

"Good," he said, his own words bitter and laced with anger; stone cold words that mirrored how very little he cared for her as anything more than his pawn. "How is the leg healing? When can you hunt for us?" he asked, is tone cold and uncaring. She was here to be of help to them and she would provide for her pack like she had promised as soon as possible.

A snarl wretched his face into an angry mask, she flinched. However, his anger disapated, and she did not move from her stance but relaxed the slightest with relief. Heart hammering, and knowing that if she were to push him further his teeth would snap, perhaps on her flesh, she relented. She would have to be more careful, she reasoned, more thrall-like. 

And so she molded her expression into that of docile subservence, or as close a semblance as she could master. She sunk low as words cold and bitter leaked from his mouth, and she answered in as even voice she could manage, though it still trembled from fear. "It is healing, sir. I can hunt in two weeks, at earliest, though I can walk fairly well in one, I think"

Her reaction pleased him, because the thing Charon craved more than anything else was to be in control. Having a thrall was like a silly boy's dream to him. He'd had Saskia, but she'd left, was nothing more than a vague memory and his mother had been Alpha at the time, and she hadn't even known. He'd grown attached to Saskia, in the end. He wondered if it'd happen to this wolf, too, but then, circumstances were different. It wasn't a storm that had brought this one here, but her own behaviour.

He nodded absently when she spoke of her leg. Charon sat down and his tail fell, his stance relaxing knowing that she had submitted. "What sort of things are you good at? What did you like doing most?" He may as well know her strengths so that he may play into them, Charon reasoned — and perhaps they even had things in common that he could teach her about, or the other way around.

He seemed more relaxed, more casual, and Althaia was relieved. Her own stupid actions had almost gotten her hurt, she would do well to not act such in the future, she mentally scolded herself. His next words caught her by surprise; what did she like to do? As such she hesitated a moment before answering, staying firmly in her somewhat relaxed submissive stance. 

She answered softly, voice carefully level. "Well, sir, I like to observe the world around us...the plants, the stars, the weather...and learn from it. I like exploring...I have traveled far before reaching the Wilds." it was an honest answer, and the best she could think of off the top of her head. She may have given a more polished answer, but at least hers was sincere and true.

He absently listened to what she said in regards to her hobbies, but only when she mentioned the stars did his ears perk up, visibly showing that he was interested in what she had to say. Exploration sounded good to him too, for he had some wanderlust raging in his genes, but his ambition and the things he'd achieved so far had gotten him to settle down anyway, now.

Yet above her travelling he was interested mostly in her knowledge of the stars. "Do you know a lot about the stars? I know much about them, but always looking to know more." He waited then to see if she would share something with him. If not, and her interest was purely aesthetic — which he wouldn't mind, as it was still a positive thing — then maybe he could teach her a thing or two instead.

He asked about stars, seemed specifically interested in them, and Althaia almost smiled in the slightest. Almost. Her interest in stars was also great, and she had a great deal of knowledge in them, stars being one of her favourite subject. They were a mystery, she deemed them, something unexplained. Were they hundreds of moons in miniature? Hundreds of suns? Holes in the fabric of night? The possibilities, it seemed ,were endless, though she somewhat leaned toward the moon theory. 

She nodded, saying "I do. The constellations, in the stars, they differ as you travel, and with the changing seasons. I know of a few that do not even show themselves here, one's far to the north. I use them for navigation, and they are my favorite subject, I think." she rambled a bit, fading her last sentence and hoping that he wouldn't mind.

"They change?" Charon asked, his features marred by surprise. He hadn't ever been anywhere far north, or anywhere other than here for that matter; he'd been born not far from here, after all. He felt wanderlust prickle as he thought of how the skies may differ in different areas. He knew that they could change over time and not all of them were always visible all the time, but not that different areas had different stars, too.

"Tell me about some that aren't here, so that I'll know when I see them." Maybe not right now, but some day he would see these stars — and then he would know what they were called. For some time more they talked and shared stars, and for just a moment in time they were not master and thrall, Alpha and Omega, but just Charon and Althaia. Tomorrow things'd be different.