Wolf RPG

Inkeri hadn't left the borders of Kvarsheim in sometime and she found she was quite nervous about it. She had turned around at least a dozen times and backtracked only to turn back around and keep going. Her chest was tight and her breathing was thick like the bellows, but she could do this. She hoped. When she finally made it to where she could smell @Atreus scent. she froze in absolute fear stricken at the foreboding walls and the tall stone.

She stared up with her tail tucked and ears to her head. She shouldn't be here. Right. This was silly? Wasn't it? He was younger than her, by quite a bit actually, not to mention....she was damaged goods. Should she be here. No maybe she should go home. She moved poised to turn and run, body lower to the ground. Every inch fearful.

Caracal didn’t come back, so Atreus assumed he’d reunited with Towhee in Epoch. Atreus still hadn’t found Killdeer yet to relay the message, though he knew they would bump into one another eventually. They just had a lot of stuff to keep them busy whilst the Imperator was away… doing whatever he was doing.

He found himself on another patrol, his mind once more swarming with daydreams. But this time when he kept a hopeful eye out for Inkeri, he actually saw her. Atreus paused, wondering if she was an illusion he’d conjured through his pining. He blinked a few times, saw the way she was positioned, and decided this was no fanciful vision.

Ink! he called, hastening toward her. Are you alright?

Inkeri was just about to run, when she heard a voice calling for her. Full with nickname and warmth. She lifted her ears forward and then her head followed and she turned aquamarine eyes to Atreus, but here. She looked around again.

Iiiicarus. She sniffed once. Sorry. Sorry. It's been sometime since i came so far. Far. Your walls. Walls.

She motioned at the tall rock formations, black and white paws anxious. They are quite Skremmende

She looked over his shoulder at the tall rocks and without thinking tucked her head underneath his neck and into his chest. A small shiver of fright working through her.

She called him Icarus and it jarred him before he remembered she was only honoring his wishes. His heart did a funny thing in his chest, although all that was forgotten two seconds later as he took her gently by the shoulder. He felt instinctively protective of her and tried very hard not to get distracted by her soft warmth.

He didn’t know what skremmende meant but Atreus thought he understood the gist of her concern. He maneuvered himself to sling his right foreleg around her neck and crouch beside Inkeri. He pressed his nose to her cheek, nuzzling the smudge of dark fur beneath her eye. Without thinking, he kissed the fur at the corner of it.

I’m so glad you’re here—it’s so good to see you—but we can move away from the canyon a bit if you want, Ink, Atreus murmured.

Inkeri had almost called him by his name, but she had remembered at the last minute. Hence why she stumbled over his name at first.

Right foreleg over her back and she was immediately hot beneath her fur. She had to close her eyes, and keep her face buried. Remind herself that even if they were going to have something, right now he was still young.

A soft sound came from her throat at his gentle ministrations and her agitation began to leave her.

Yes. Please. Please.

She looked over his shoulder again and then with a crouched slowness she moved away from the canyon until she felt comfortable. She was still within eyeshot of it, because she would need to get used to it. If she was going to visit him here. It was just a lot today.

She ducked her head shyly. Thank you. You. Sorry. I was so scared. Scared.

He shuffled her away from the edge of the canyon, guiding her toward Arrow Lake. Hopefully she would find comfort in such a place. Perhaps they could even find a spot on the sloping shore that overlooked her home in the distance.

Before they reached the lough sunken into the mountainside, Inkeri came to a stop. Atreus immediately halted, pressing his whole side against hers. She thanked him, then apologized and confessed feeling scared. Atreus weighed these against her earlier words.

It’s okay, Ink. What scared you, exactly? he asked gently.

She followed him, eyes taking in everything. It was very pretty here, even if she felt frightened. She would like to calm down and take it in again. But she couldn't quite understand why she had been so scared, and nervous. it didn't make any sense. She left places all the time. She had traveled from her old home to here. But she had company.

I have never been anywhere by myself. Myself. That was near my old home or Kvarsheim. Kvarsheim. And your walls are very.

She made a face. stoisk, stille, urørlig The english words wouldnt come. She had to take a deep breath.

They are very big and unyielding. Unyielding. Stoic.

Atreus listened carefully, though he couldn’t say he quite comprehended. Well, he understood the bit about traveling by herself—which caught him by surprise, if he was honest—but he didn’t get why the walls of the canyon would affect her so terribly. He didn’t say anything right away, pondering her words.

I had no idea, he said, that you were scared traveling by yourself, I mean. There has been no indication of this on their trip to the lake, though they had of course been together. You don’t have to come to the canyon, Ink. I can come visit you. I don’t mind. I like scouting on my own…

They ought to sit, he thought, and motioned for her to make herself comfortable as he dropped to his haunches. They could see a glimpse of the lake’s glittering waters from here. Atreus still hoped Inkeri found the sight soothing.

You sometimes say words I don’t know. Is that another language? Atreus asked conversationally.

She blinked at him and then pointed at the walls again, making a face. Where I grew up. I was not treated well. Well. I should not have been born. Born. But I was. And I would often be kept in caves and beaten. Not allowed out. Out. Your tall walls remind me of this. I cannot see past them. Them.

Inkeri frowned when she looked at him. That would be unfair. Fair. No I need to learn to do this. This. I cannot always have someone with me. Me. I will learn to do this. So you're not alone. Alone. In travel.

Aquamarine eyes found the lake and stayed there as she calmed down. Yes. It is Norwegian. Where I was from. Sometimes this language. I forget words, especially when I am upset.

Inkeri told him about her past, the words so incomprehensibly heavy that Atreus didn’t really process them at first. She insisted she would overcome her fears in order to visit him, though he barely registered this or the answer to his question about foreign words. He was more than a little hung up on “I should not have been born” and “I would often be kept in caves and beaten.”

W…what? he whispered, lips barely moving.

He thought now was a good time to reach out and comfort her in whatever way he could. But Atreus was frozen in place by the weight suddenly placed on his young shoulders. He was, in a word, dismayed.

Her ruff rose and she shrunk slightly as she remembered, but she too reminded herself that she was not there. They couldn't hurt her anymore. She was free. Perhaps that was the reason for her fear. Those walls made her imagine not having freedom again. She would need to get over that if she were to visit. There would be some point she'd be in there, whether just to visit or what have you.

Yes. I am Kvitravn, but my father was Svartravn.....ravn. Warring villages, warring people. Two found love, but. But. Father was killed before we were born and mother, well she went crazy. Blamed us. Us. Anja and Me. Me.

She shifted and curled her tail tighter around her paws, wondering if this were a deal breaker with him. Perhaps they could be friends. Friends right? She had a lot of baggage she knew this.

It was awful of him, he knew, but he shrank back from her a little bit as she told him more of her backstory. He didn’t quite follow this either, though he supposed he understood the gist of it. She had come from a war-torn place and had been furthermore victimized by her own mother.

Atreus thought of his own parents. He didn’t remember Arielle at all at this point. There was quite a lot of contention in his memories of Aventus, complicated further by his aunt’s treatment in the end. He knew what it was like to be mistreated by family, he thought, but not abused. They had never beaten him.

He didn’t know what to say. Atreus liked Inkeri quite a lot but he was in over his head. And the touches that had come so easily suddenly felt completely insufficient, even inappropriate. Any urge to reach out and comfort her was thwarted by a growing feeling of overwhelming perturbation.

There it was. A sadness settled somewhere in teh vicinity of her already tattered heart. Because she knew what he was doing, what always happened. They realized how much work she was. How much of an absolute disaster she was. So she did as she always did, pretended it didn't hurt. To spare him.

She blinked at him with a small smile. But that is the past. Past. She looked around and then met his multicolored eyes and booped him gently near his shoulder.

I should go. Go. You have a lot to do, yes? Yes? She hadn't meant to cause him sadness or irritation. And now she wished to leave with as much grace as she could msuter.

He nodded mutely at her reassurance that it was all in the past. Was it, though? It clearly still affected her in the present day. His lips pulled into a frown at the unfairness of it all and his own futility in offering any sort of comfort whatsoever.

Her nose touched his shoulder and Atreus flinched away. He hated himself for it the second it happened and looked at her with apologies in his eyes, not just for the knee-jerk movement but his inability to react in any meaningful way. Atreus still hadn’t said a word beyond his choked, “What?”

She should go, she said. But she’d only just come! Atreus opened his mouth, prepared to argue, then clapped it shut. He could spare the time, that wasn’t a concern. And he didn’t really want her to go. But he knew he couldn’t do a single thing to address these traumas. He was just too ill-equipped.

I’m sorry, Ink, he managed to croak.

He frowned and she hated to see it. She hadn't meant to make him feel as if this was his fault or if he were inadequate in helping her in someway. Or whatever bad feeling he was going through. That had not been her intention. This was her own fault, she knew her limitations and had tried to push them. For a good intention yes, but hell was paved with these.

She tilted ink and paper head, with a smile. :Why are you sorry? Sorry. It's not your fault. You didn't do it. You have done nothing to be sorry for.

She wagged her tail sweetly. And then moved to depart. She stretched and eyed him gently.

Inkeri told him not to apologize. He hadn’t caused her trauma, naturally, but he hadn’t done a damn thing to properly acknowledge it, either. Wouldn’t a good friend do something with this information, like hold her hand at the very least and tell her she would be okay? Atreus couldn’t even do that!

She began to move away and he made an abortive move to reach out and stop her. But his paw dropped. He breathed harshly. If she left, would he ever see her again? Inkeri didn’t live far away but her past stretched like an enormous chasm between them that Atreus could not possibly cross.

I’m just—sorry, he repeated lamely, then let her go.

She saw the movement, but he stopped it on his own and his own breathing harsh against the day. She moved away from him now with a smile, and turned quickly away. The tears threatening to choke her. She could do this for him. She could disappear back to Kvarsheim and no one would be the wiser that she had come here. She briefly wondered where Merry was. She wanted to talk to someone that understood. But he had left as well.

Perhaps Atreus would return and see her again. Maybe he would come to terms with what she had shared, perhaps not. Regardless she held no ill will for him.