The hum of summer insects burned into her ears, distant in the trees high above her head. Nearby, the blow and stomp of an elk. The gentle drone of a dragonfly humming past her head.
Cethleann was enamored with the world around her from a young age. As a girl, she had tried her hardest to befriend everything around her, from the smallest of insects to the largest of mammals, but she was never quite as successful as she would have liked to be. From the rabbits she would end up killing from pure fear, to the grasshoppers she accidentally crushed beneath her, her want to make friends was not enough to keep her from the heartbreak of finding not everyone actually wanted to become such.
@Simone was, perhaps, the only friend she had ever had outside of her family, but she was different. Cethleann had known she was different since the moment she’d seen her. They’d hit it off in so many ways, and Ceth had never been more grateful than to have her by her side.
Sunlight burnished her coat to mint silver beneath the leaves, where she half sat upon a rock, watching a trail of ants maneuver around her feet with military precision. After a time, she decided to get out of the way of the insects, stepping over them with incredible gentleness. Perhaps that had been what characterized Cethleann more than her coat ever did. The gentle nature with which she handled even the undesirable, to some.
The silver spun girl leapt down from the rock, looking back only for a moment, before she continued her walk deeper into the forest.
The long-limbed ranger had gone off in search of food, to find herself fortunate in her endeavors. Grouse was not a favorite of hers- so many feathers and not much meat for the effort- but she knew that every meal while travelling would buy them more energy and time. Every now and again she would catch Cethleann admiring a creature that Simone would've instinctively tried to hunt and eat, but regardless of this, they survived, and she'd forgive her gentle, hippy girlfriend for wanting to study everything so long as they didn't go hungry for too long.
They went from meal to meal, valley to forest, mountain to gorge- and her partner's wide-eyed appreciation for it all made it all worthwhile.
She saw Ceth in the distance and chose to stalk forward, lowered into a crouch, hoping to surprise her. She kept to the shadows, in the lee of brambles and trees, noting that Ceth almost looked as though she might be falling asleep on her boulder. She couldn't see the ants that had caught her partner's attention- but she flinched and crouched flat against the earth when Ceth jumped down, and began to wander off.
She rolled her eyes and shook her head. She knew if she stayed where she was and let Cethleann wander, she would keep going until she eventually realized that she'd strayed too far, lost in a daydream. Fortunately for her, Simone was hard to shake. Cethleann looked over her shoulder, and Simone froze. When Cethleann continued on, she waited for a moment, before she began to stalk her partner again, silently trying to close the gap between them while carrying the dead grouse along with her.
Cethleann was many things. A dutiful daughter, a happy go lucky storyteller, and someone who deeply admired her surroundings.
Unfortunately, she was entirely horrible at paying attention to her surroundings.
She always had been. She couldn’t say how many times someone had come to save her tail from something she shouldn’t have been doing. Her smile wobbled. But, there was no time to agonize over past decisions.
She had ground to cover. Ceth had never worried about Simone in these moments, at least with her being able to find her. She always thought her girlfriend had some homing ability on her, but she could admit she was rather predictable.
So, on she trotted, humming a little melody to herself as she moved.
Her humming provided even more cover. She'd begun to cover ground and close the gap between them, but when she began to hear Cethleann's voice floating to her, she was temporarily lulled into a slower pace. She listened, wondering if she'd heard the melody before. And for several moments, Cethleann had a captive audience, like a siren sending her song out to sailors at sea- until Simone gave her head a shake, and resumed her stalking.
She could use this to her advantage. If Ceth was distracted, she wouldn't have to be quite as careful about her pawsteps. She listened to the pattern of the melody, trying to time her movements with the phrases so she wouldn't be in motion during a moment of silence or a natural lull. She crept closer and closer, and began to wonder truly how close she might get before Cethleann even realized she was being followed.
The answer to that question? Very.
The back of her neck prickled for a moment when Simone got close, and that’s when Ceth slowed, the humming petering out with her speed. Cethleann, abruptly, realized she was quite far from home, where she knew only one person, and there was no siblings to save her now.
She blinked wide green eyes a few times, one leg poised to take another step.
Hello?
A few seconds pause, then, a low sigh.
Probably just the wind…
Cethleann's discomfort sparked remorse in Simone, who had come close enough that she could have perhaps tackled the freckled Frostfur in three strides or less. Having ducked low to avoid being seen again, she observed the concern spread across Ceth's features as she looked around, and realized that while she'd intended to be playful, her joke wasn't entirely harmless.
She moved away, and circled around still in a hunter's crouch, creeping amid dancing ferns until she could pop up, now plainly in Cethleann's path, and tilt her head to the side. "Who're roo talking too?" She asked, voice muffled by the grouse's feathers.
Cethleann put her poised paw back to the earth at the attempt to self sooth, one of her ears tipping to the side as she waited for a single moment.
Then, Simone! Her face broke into a smile at the appearance of her girlfriend. It was always easy to smile around Simone.
Thought I heard something, was probably just the wind!
She chirped happily, practically floating forward to curl around Simone’s other side like a cat.
What’d you catch out there?
She could see the grouse in her mouth, but Cethleann wanted to hear about every animal she’d seen, if the wind smelled nice somewhere, anything and everything.
Simone blinked owlishly, knowing that it had not in fact been just the wind. But she'd keep that a secret to herself- Cethleann might not be so cheery if she found out that Simone had been stalking her for fun. Regardless, she received a warm welcome, and she rumbled appreciatively at Ceth's touch. The fur along her spine raised in a row of dark guard hairs, and the tension in her spine made her tail raise, though it waved softly. She dropped the grouse, and made to grab gently at Cethleann's ruff; temptation was not something she resisted easily.
"You," She breathed through grinning teeth.
Her answer was a breathy laugh, winding her head up around Simone’s in an embrace.
Oh nooooo..
She false swooned, raising one paw to her head in her dramatics, leaning against Simone’s side. She bemoaned aloud for a moment, merely huffing whines, before she focused one eye on what she could see of Simone’s face in her peripheral.
Whatever will I doooooooo!
She didn't have to cling to Cethleann, who leaned into her embrace in spite of making agonized noises. She grinned, feeding on her girlfriend's willingness, and the fact that she couldn't protest in earnest. She knew she was wanted, and it felt incredibly validating and freeing to be teased so gently. She tightened her grasp on Cethleann, inhaling a breath of air noisily through the fur of her ruff. When she exhaled, she chuckled through clenched teeth.
"Nothing you can do now," She said, hovering her muzzle close to Ceth's ear. She flexed her paw, so that her claws pressed gently into the muscle of Ceth's shoulder as she pulled her close. "I've got you, and I'm gonna devour you," She said, before she buried her muzzle in Ceth's fur and continued to murmur sultry promises to her.