@Hush

Sired by a Guardian, though he lacked any interest in the position himself. It was boring, he’d decided, consisting of nothing more than long walks and pissing on trees; there was some real action only on rare occasions, which made it a necessary task that Alexander just didn’t want to partake in. Thoughts revolving around his dislike of patrols surfaced shortly after he’d attempted to complete one along the southernmost borders, which put a sour taste in his mouth. It made him question his own actions, too, as he wondered about what had driven him to give such a lame thing a shot. Kendra, perhaps, for her safety was important to him. After pondering it for a short while, the boy shook his head and continued on his way, determined to complete the patrol—

—which never happened. Approximately five minutes after forcing himself to keep moving, Xan stopped and sat down, telling himself that it was nothing more than a break—bullshit! In the back of his head, he was well aware of the fact that he had zero intentions of going back to his patrol after his supposed “break” was over. In fact, the longer he sat there, the more he considered all of the stuff that he could be doing instead.

Before the boy could stand and continue his patrol, his attention was grabbed by the sound of incoming footfalls. Uncertain of the stranger’s origins and intentions, he stood just as the fur along his back was raised. Perhaps having sensed the other male’s own unease, the yearling lifted his lips and flashed his teeth in warning, only to slowly settle back down after noticing his swinging tail. Inhaling, he took in the scents around him, realizing right then that the stranger lived within the territory, too. Unabashed by his actions, Xan went on to act as if nothing had happened, his posture having relaxed slightly; his muscles remained tensed and his features expressionless, but that had since become his default mien.

After several moments of doing nothing more than look the male over, he finally asked, “What do you want?” Alexander was used to hearing another being speak as soon as they approached him, but Hush hadn’t done so. It was unusual to him.

The silence continued, though the reason for it followed eventually. Realizing that the male could not speak, he stared at him for a moment longer before looking elsewhere as he contemplated his next move. Whilst he could be understood, he would not receive any verbal responses to anything that he might say—but, perhaps, that would be better for him. More often than not, he avoided unnecessary conversations but was usually dragged into them. With the hybrid, there was no risk of that happening. Getting answers out of him, should Xan have any questions, would be difficult, but he was pretty sure that he already liked the mute more than many others whose paths had crossed with his in the past.

As he stood there, he started to wonder. “What can you do around here, if you can’t talk?” he asked, then realized that he might not even understand the answer, should one be given. Still, he waited, hoping for something that he could understand.

A snort.

Quirking an eyebrow, the yearling watched, careful to pay close attention to whatever it was that he’d started to do. The ground was sniffed at, and then he took off. Xan, uncertain, took a step in the male’s direction but stopped himself from taking another as the hybrid returned. Cocking his head, he asked, “Patrols? Hunting?” He had made it a point to sniff at the ground, and so the albino figured that it must be one of those two things. A snide remark started to creep up the back of his throat, but he swallowed it back down before it could escape; there was no point in lashing out with his tongue at someone that couldn’t say anything back.