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+--- Thread: Firefly Glen count your blessings not your flaws (/showthread.php?tid=22197)
count your blessings not your flaws - Rian - June 15, 2017
Rian departed the Heartwood and continued west as the sun began to set on the horizon. The lands once more became familiar as he crossed beneath the scorched boughs of the ancient wood and onto the verdant fields of Firefly Glen. A few little firebugs were already creating quite a scene as they danced low over the waves of amber—the brilliant greens and yellow of their light blooming to life and fading in the same instant, like tiny stars strewn carelessly across the landscape.
He was not mezmirized by their sight—in fact, he paid them little mind as he followed the well-trodden game trails down from the woodland and onto the great expanse of grassland. The Vale wolves had spent enough time here for Rian to be intrinsically familiar with the latticework of rain-fed streams and trails that crisscrossed the territory like veins. The larger trails tended to lead north-south, while the others, smaller, directed the curious to various points of interest.
The Valeian Beta chose the western trail and followed it until it wound up and over a hillock. He stopped at the apex and turned his jade-cast eyes towards the spire of rock that Charon and Amekaze reigned over. A slight breeze from the chilly heights of the western range carried the scents of the mountain kingdom, and his throat swelled. Now he felt the anxiety of months away, and the unknown that awaited him. But he didn't dare approach the mountain, not in the dark—perhaps not at all. Charon's chilly reception of him didn't bode well and he didn't want to cast Vale in a bad light, especially with an Alliance in the works.
So he curled his hindquarters beneath him as he worked out his next course of action.
RE: count your blessings not your flaws - Hydra - June 15, 2017
Where Rian paid them no mind, Hydra paid them all the mind in the world. She had not yet seen these critters upon her mountain, and Hydra had been hunting when one illuminated the corner of her eye. Though she was known for her ability to remained focus, this new thing was bright enough to distract her completely as its bulb lit for the second time. Hydra paused in her step and whipped her snout in its direction, but when its light came on again it was in a new spot. And then another light, in another spot. Hydra squinted, and when the next light came she dashed toward it with snapping jowls.
Too late! The light went out, it winged out of her fangs reach. Hydra huffed, and when yet again this occurred Hydra rushed in that direction. So intent was her focus on taking one of these critters and getting herself a light was she that she did not note Rian's presence as she normally, certainly, would have. She was engrossed in her task.
RE: count your blessings not your flaws - Rian - June 15, 2017
Rian was just about to gather his courage and proceed to the borders of Moonspear like any self-respecting Beta male would when faced with a social speedbump when a distinct rustling of grass drew his attention from his task.
He tore his gaze away from the peak to the source of the ruckus, assuming it was a deer spooked by his looming presence on the hill, or a foraging grouse. Instead he was greeted with a near-perfect image of the wolf he'd met in the Heartwood to the point that he now wondered if he was being followed by a stream of Hydra's odd look-alikes, or that his anxieties were so keen to ruin his life that he was now hallucinating images of his friend. But no. That was not a leap of logic he wished to follow through on because he couldn't possibly admit to being certifiably insane on top of all the other problems he struggled with.
Rian swallowed and licked his lips, dry despite more than adequate intake of water. He wasn't prepared for this.
The Beta rose from his seat, cursing his trembling limbs, and called out to the wolf chasing the firebugs below. "Who's there?" He wanted, desperately, to call her name and be answered in kind, but he was also too frightened of being wrong to try.
RE: count your blessings not your flaws - Hydra - June 15, 2017
She scowled as a light faded and her teeth clacked, coming up empty again. A low growl rolled from her, like the slow arrival of an impending thunderstorm, rumbling—until there was a voice. Hydra was alert at once, her ears twisting toward the source of the sound even as her body turned to do the same. His voice had changed, and so had he—but the male before her was distinctly the male she had longed for, and all the threats and the resentment and the aggravation left her as she saw him. It was one of those inexplicable things. She did not understand it—she was one to hold grudges. And she was not one to forget.
She remembered that much. She remembered her hurt, and she acted upon that, first. She answered his question without doing so at all,
You made me a promise,Hydra reminded him,
you—you left. You didn't say goodbye,There was no anger in her tone, though once she had been that. Seeing him here and now only brought her confusion, and that very, very interesting thread of longing, an unnameable thing to her....
why?she asked at last, unwilling to look away from him lest he disappear as he had the last time. Hydra recognized she did not want this to happen, but could not for the life of her register why.
RE: count your blessings not your flaws - Rian - June 16, 2017
The whiskers circling his nose quivered as every muscle in his body systematically tensed at the sudden attention his voice had drawn, and he inhaled a measured breath of the chilly evening air as he readied himself. He was always ready for the turnabout; ready to deal with his mistakes. But instead of a stranger, he was met with the very shadow who'd haunted his mind since their chance meeting upon the frozen shoals of Big Salmon Lake. Hydra, in all her magnificent confidence, rose to meet his words with ones that cut straight through to the heart of him.
All measure of courage evacuated his body and he wilted beneath the weight of her accusation. He did not so much cower—Rian Frostfur was not a coward, and he would not subjugate himself as a fool might before the she-wolf on words alone. But he did splay his ears as his head lowered to hang heavy, but level, with his spine. His jade-cast eyes sought her own out of some queer sense of affirmation—as if he feared she was just an illusion beneath the moonlit skies. That she might just vanish again the moment he closed his eyes.
Her hurt was plain, if not misguided, and he wasn't about to judge her for it. Instead he slowly descended the hill until he stood on level ground with his friend. "I had to protect the group." He stated plainly, though there was no curtness or irritation tempering the baritenor notes of his voice. If anything, he was sparing her the details. "My brothers and I left Neverwinter, and I spent all spring looking after the following Rannoch managed to gather as we looked for a place to settle down. We couldn't say no to any of them—they're just like we were..." realizing the details weren't all that important, Rian stopped himself and slowly extended his muzzle her direction. He was quiet for a moment before speaking again: "I'm so sorry for hurting you."
RE: count your blessings not your flaws - Hydra - June 19, 2017
He explained, and Hydra listened to him, working through her own selfish and volatile thoughts all the while. She was a girl who had gotten anything and everything she wanted, and somehow his lack of keeping to his word caused him to be on her mind even more. The way he spoke of it, though, it sounded as though he really could not have come to see her—that he had been too busy with responsibility. Though she did not know his role, she imagined it must have been one important enough to make this true... but then, how could she be certain? He had not kept his promise... did that make him a liar, or a victim to circumstance? His proximity to her only discombobulated her train of thought. She felt out of her own head, dizzied, but she wanted to understand him perfectly—she wanted to know... well... oh, she could not figure out then, and decided to speak to see if she could work it out that way.
I tried to see you,Hydra said, her voice light,
I met Rannoch. And then I just thought that maybe you didn't want to see me, so maybe I shouldn't try and find you,Ah, yes, there it was—what she wanted to know was that this was not the case—that it had nothing to do with her, at all, and everything to do with the difficulties, and responsibilities, put upon and bestowed upon him by the Brat Pack. As for his apology, Hydra did not want him to worry for her:
well, as long as you didn't mean to, I guess you can be forgiven,there was a small twinkle in her eye as she spoke the words. She was one to hold grudges... but not today, it seemed.