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His return is a silent one. Slipping across the borders without alerting anyone, snaking across the fen while his mind buzzed with remnants of the conversation with Towhee; Reyes had won the fight to have the kids visit and was slowly coming to terms with what exactly had been lost in the process.
When he came to a shadowed copse of trees he could not withhold himself any longer. He paced within the boundary of the grove for a while, burning through his energy, and even spent some time clearing unnecessary brush and debris (in a more aggressive manner than required); letting all of his pent up frustration out on the surrounding foliage.
A couple of frenetic hours later and Reyes is out of breath, out of energy, and out of distractions to keep his mind off of everything.
reyes had come back, but he had not called for her, or sought her out. instead, teya found him heaving and strung with anger. the grove was clear, and reyes burned in its center.
the raven did not want to approach, and yet was compelled, as much for her rank as for herself.
tentatively she slipped closer, greypumpkin ears lifted toward him with a hesitant hope.
but he would not have been so angry had his trip to the caldera gone well.
He didn't see her coming. It was fortunate for Teya that the agitated man had burned through all of his energy while working in the grove, lest he turn that rage upon her by accident. The last thing Reyes needed right now was another enemy. When he did take notice of her, it was due to her approach, and he began to bristle.
Don't. I'm not — I can't,
his body was tired and his mind dizzy with rage all the same, making it difficult for him to explain himself. Reyes had been prone for only a few minutes but as soon as Teya's presence neared him, he bristled and stomped a few steps away.
She agreed. The kids can visit.
He eventually managed. With supervision, as if I'm — I can't be trusted.
And really, in this moment, was Towhee wrong? She was the reason he felt like this now; all that love he'd held for her, spoiled. I can't go back there again.
teya froze where she was, heeding swiftly reyes' demand that she not approach. the distance between them grew as the red wolf moved away from her. the raven listened.
he had gotten what he wanted, at a great cost. at one that still shamed reyes.
teya worried the inside of her jaw, holding herself back.
"i trust you."
she did not know what else to say, and turned her eyes toward the ground.
I trust you.
The woman claimed, while also heeding his request.
You'd be the only one,
Reyes said with a huff, resuming his pacing for a few seconds, only to deflate again. Kicking at a stick he hadn't yet snapped, breaking it and throwing it out of range of his teeth. One half went one way, one half went another. He stared for a moment at the trees as if they were somehow to blame.
She just — she makes me so —
letting out a snarl Reyes gouged the earth with his claws and circled around so that he faced Teya, his body spiked with emotion, his eyes unable to look upon her face.
reyes was still filled with a frenetic energy, but teya did not believe he would turn it upon her.
she lowered to sit where she was, watching him. and when the red wolf turned to face her, the raven only splayed her ears. "i am glad you here in brecheliant. not there."
glad he had come back;
teya did not know if what she had said would be helpful, and yet she felt that she must try to assuage this great conflagration charring through reyes.
"run with me?"
voice, breathless; teya rose and began to back toward the trees, willing that reyes would agree.
He wanted to be alone. To rage among the trees until he was too emotionally and physically drained to fight anything; it would make him safe to be around, he thought. It was Teya who refused to leave him be. She drew his attention and then, slipping backwards, tried to tame the rage inside of him by leading him away from the ruination of the glen.
The man paced for a few more steps, unsure if he should bother going after her. The sight of her slim body racing between the trees sparked some kind of reaction - perhaps pairing the instinct to hunt with the anger he felt at everything - and before Reyes could help himself, he was tearing across the fen after her.
She was quick. She knew the paths better than he did, was more attentive to places that were solid; he was too agitated to focus on any proper route and that created a safe distance between them. It felt good to have the wind in his face.
she ran.
he pursued;
and teya felt the exquisite nearness of danger as she floated through the fenways, across the log-bridge and into the misted field, heading for the sweep of sagebrush.
she felt surely that if only he could be recaptured from towhee, the man might be happy again.
teya, gleaming with her own selfishness, knowing now that only in reyes could she find the end of kynareth —
she did not yet know if she would allow herself to be caught.
Teya didn't know if she wanted to be caught; the longer that Reyes ran, the more he felt the need to sink his teeth in to something, or find more forest to trash, or something to replace the ache inside of himself brought on by emotions he couldn't properly face.
He ran, his steps pounding on the solid paths or sinking in to soggy fen water, which Reyes dragged and kicked away with new lunges. Each time he saw a flash of Teya's copper fur he tried to gather his speed; each time she slipped away from him, gaining ground or wheeling in a sudden direction that gave the impression he was close, but not close enough.
Soon thoughts of Towhee had been replaced by Reyes' need to win. He wanted to catch up to her or cut her off, whichever came first. Reyes' lungs burned, but he wasn't the kind to give up easily.
teya had expected reyes to tire. but still she ran, and still he toiled behind.
her dancing strides had returned them to the meadow of low mists, and here the last of her strength evaporated.
the girl forced herself on and on still, but her stride had loosened and still reyes was behind her.
unknowing if it was fear or desire that led her on, the raven whirled to face him, hackles flaring to life and lithe body planted in the muckwater borders of the fen here.
They ran and ran, the girl a weaving hare before the redcoat; but then they came to an opening which seemed built to welcome them, and she turned to face the oncoming stampede that Reyes had become. She bristled and watched him, and he only slowed so as not to slide across the wet fen grass or fall in to her.
Heavy breaths plumed from his nostrils, much like a bull chasing a twirling brega after being goaded. The fen gave way to her agile figure while Reyes paced to slow himself, feeling a heady adrenaline rush from the run and an overall humming in his skin. He watched Teya exclusively; his expression a mix of tired, greedy, even triumphant.
Reyes hadn't noticed how close he'd gotten to her; his breath pulsed across her shoulders, as he was near enough to grab her if he wanted.
reyes was upon her, crimson and terrible, snorting a victory through his muscular body. so close he was now that teya could smell the wet earth of the fen upon him, the rich sharp sage, the oakwood where they had first been.
he smelled of brecheliant.
the quills along her shoulderline smoothed, flattened, and she gave a slow wave of her tail. the coolwater eyes warmed to something suspended.
teya waited to see what reyes might do, the blaze of his breath dragonlike above her.
Reyes didn't know what to do. He wasn't thinking — that had to have been the goal of Teya's little game, and later when he was rested, he would think back to these moments and how different he felt beneath the chill of her gaze, or how different he felt from the rage that had so corrupted him, pulsing through him now as fuel for his body.
One look from her; that's all it had taken for Reyes to fall for Towhee, and now all that it took to push Reyes over that edge for Teya. Time hung frozen between them while she watched him; Reyes gathering his breath, trying to calm the pounding of the heart in his chest.
He closed that distance without thinking about it. As soon as he did and the ginger of her brackish coat touched the darkness of his own, he bristled again. All that he had shared with Towhee now forfeit — the patience she had once spared him, meaningless. Love she may have claimed for him, evaporated. He grabbed now for whatever he could of Teya, the way a hungry animal might feast after too many days of starvation.
Where before there had been awkward fumbling and anxiety, now there was the anger of a man wanting to prove something - to the woman, to himself, Reyes wasn't coherent to why, only that he let his aching heart devour all sensation.
the mist ignited with the collision of them.
teya was set upon a plane of lash and love mingled. it was the venting of a hungry and beaten man that consumed and encircled her now. she felt as if she could taste his longing, feel in her own heart the great shattering that reyes had experienced.
teya knew she would seek to be no more than this;
tinder for a man's anger against a dying world;
and she chose to revel in every small and mindless moment of their desperate entangling.