There was something about the atmosphere when Juno awoke, maybe it was the dense mantle of white that covered the top parts of the mountain she had taken as refuge. Fog was depressing for the rusty daredevil, for some reason being surrounded by fallen coulds made her feel like just a speck of brown dust withing the galaxy -- a thought too extense to be comprehended by the youth's mind in just one go.
She was not dumb.
She was far from it -- yes she tended to be a little clumsy and her attention span could be compared to the one of a newborn; but when she wanted soemthing, boy there was no way you could avoid being fooled by her eyes. She was a clutz and a foolish teen in the body of an adult -- but she was also a hell of an actress.
The Pharaoh had a quiet way about him. He was reserved, though not to the point of being withdrawn. The wolfdog could understand the benefits of companionship and conversing, and he was no stranger to the idea that wolves were stronger when they were surrounded by others. Ankh was prepared to leave the lone wolf lifestyle behind, but he knew that there were preparations to be made before he could shed his solitary coat. He would need to find his siblings first; though it had been several months since they had been in the same vicinity as each other. The pallid Pharaoh was young, but his impatience forced him to seek out ways to grasp his future before it was ready for him. A large hare was clasped in Ankh’s mouth, coating his white pelt in a deep crimson. Trailing the lush greens of the vale, Ankh could see the pleasure in such a place. It was secluded, soundless – save for the occasional flutter of wings overhead, or the toss of wind against the tree line. His boxy frame was carried through the center of the territory. There was a gurgling up towards his front. Drawing his long ears forward, Ankh breathed in the scent of a creek… and another wolf. Flicking his tail upwards, the wolfdog trotted forward until his pale eyes fell on a rusty-colored female. The rabbit in his jowls would either act as a point of interest for the female, or she would simply ignore him. Mouth full, he could not speak up to warn her of his presence.
Another heavy sigh escaped from her lips, quickly merging with the dense clouds of fog that rested lazily over the tip of the Vale, blinding her to the spectral silhouette of the peering hybrid. If it were not for the sweet scent of rabbit meat that accompanied him and his ghostly bright eyes, she would've remained oblivious to his presence.
Feeling drawn to his eyes instead of intimidated by them, the rust-colored girl sniffed the air curiously as she swished her tail over the ground as an inviting gesture for whatever creature that laid out there to come forth. Though she had now spotted his location, she had not yet had the pleasure of laying eyes upon his foreign features.
"I don't bite, scout's promise"she purred softly, feeling glad that she was not the only one passing through the mountain. Loneliness was the only monster that Juno feared.
The rust-coated female turned her attention towards him, he did not think that she could see him. His pale gaze was settled on her features with some mild interest. She did not appear to belong to a pack; her body was gaunt to a point that suggested she was a loner in those lands. Though Ankh would not have been able to scent the marking of a pack through the perfume of hare blood that coated his jaws and neck. The Pharaoh remained where he stood, legs locked, eyes peering curiously at her frame and attributes. His boxy frame then took a few steps forward until he had nearly closed the distance between the two of them. Blinking slowly, his champagne-colored gaze roamed her facet with a blank expression. Ankh could always marvel at the features of others; only his brother possessed a wolf-like bearing that surpassed his other siblings. The ghostly wolfdog dropped his catch to the earth with a dull thud and then lifted his muzzle upwards towards the female. She had purred and invite to him, suggesting that she did not bite, though he had not been concerned for her fangs. She was thin, perhaps malnourished, and she looked as though she had traveled a good distance. Ankh dropped his muzzle once more and nudged his hare in her direction before darting his gaze upwards to focus back on her profile. “Do you hunger?” he inquired in a careful voice, a small accent having leaked its way into his few words.
She waited for the individual peering on the other side of the thick mantle of fog to make an apparition or to at least give some kind of sign to indcate his departure. She had thought he had slipped again into the unknwown until finally his sleek ivory figure came out,cutting through the fog curtain like a knife.
Her eyes widened at the sight of him, his foreign features and hybrid blood flowing through his veins didn't make him any less beautiful to her -- in fact it were those things exactly what made him so appealing.
The girl's tail began to swish across the floor once again, out of all the wolves she could've encountered she was delighted to have him in front of her. Not only did his presence help to alliviate her lonely heart, it also made her day a little brighter -- it was not often when a man like him crossed her path.
Again, silence swept over them, this time in a more comfortable way than before. Her eyes were stuck to his own, a million of questions twinkling across her pupils. She only broke contact when he dropped the rabbit from his jaws, the plump figure aroused the monster in her belly, which allowed a low grumble to bubble from her insides --oops. "Yes, always" she admitted while lifting her gaze to meet his face again. This was not the first time she had been offered food from a man, but his offer had taken her by surprise this time. Usually, when they tried such trick on her, she was actually the one pulling the strings to make it happen -- but not now. His offer had come completely spontaneously. Were men really capable of being kind, or was it because of his exotic heritage?
There were more things about his heritage that would disgust the mysterious honey-colored girl than she could ever imagine. To the outside world, his customs were bizarre and oftentimes disturbing. Even Ankh had come to understand the perversion in his society, but he cared for it in the very marrow of his body. He had been born and bred into it. Through years of incest, murder, and a bloodline of kings… it was every bit a piece of him as was the pale color of his coat. Nothing could be done to remove the fire that had been forged from the very lips of Ra. So, perhaps she should not have been surprised by his actions, and then maybe she should. It was uncommon for a man of his blood to treat a woman of the wild with such civility. It was even more unusual for a Pharaoh to offer his catch to the same sort. His offer had been met with a quirky response, but Ankh did not understand the humor behind the remark, so he could not truly appreciate it for what it should have been. Flicking his ears forward and blinking at her in a confused manner, the hybrid glanced towards the hare that he had left at his paws and frowned. “Then eat,” he instructed with a cool expression. His pale eyes seemed to scope her figure once or twice before they settled on their uninteresting surroundings. Finding their awkward silence an opportune moment to find answers, the Pharaoh turned his attention back to her and peered with a curious expression on his strange face. “What are these lands called? Do you know?” he inquired of her, gesturing with his muzzle to their vicinity. He imagined that she may not have had an answer for him because of the mixture of scents that were carried in her pelt. Ankh could surmise that she was a lone wolf – like him – and could have been just as new. Yet, she seemed to know the expanse of land far better than he did. He was more lost than he ever would have imagined. A man of the desert thrown into a cold and bitter northern terrain without a hope of how he was supposed to survive. Ankh stood formally; stock still in his limbs with his tail raised only slightly. His chest was tight, thrust forward, while his head was held high and his ears did not leave their upright position on his skull. The body language was evident enough, had his accent not given it away; it was very unlikely that he had ever encountered a land mass quite like the Teekon area.
While she was oblivious to the man's upbringing and the ways of his people, she was mesmerized by the stocky structure of the man and his velveteen fur that unlike hers, stuck close to his body like a thin veil of the same fog they were wrapped in. She traced the outline of his physique with her eyes, studying the remarkable features the dog blood in his veins had done. He was a creature unlike any other, a half-breed without much to highlight in another's perspective but an exotic god in the eyes of the girl.
She did as she was commanded, taking a small bite at first thinking that the strange creature in front of her was just some sort of crazy illusion and that the rabbit she had in her mouth was a cruel joke from her makers. He was close enough to be real, though his pigmentation didn't discard the chance of him being a ghost. But if he were a ghost, why was he here? Was the afterlife so boring he had returned to feed stray women on the road?
After she ripped off a good chunk off the rabbit's body that would surely sate her hunger, she looked up at the man, her ears swiveling on her cranium as he voiced a single question. One that unfortunately Juno could not answer. " No. Sorry, I'm not from here" she barked with a light shrug of her shoulders, it was a beautiful place that surely had an equally stunnning name to go with it but she didn't know it yet.
