Marruz hadn't planned to be here tonight. In fact, he hardly ever planned to be where he found himself these days. Yet there he stood, a shadow poking out from the rest; his fur washed ablazed in the blue fire of twilight.

There was personal irony in the vision: the maturing youth gazing down for once in his life while the stars glistened above. It was odd that something else should capture his eye, but who could ignore the vista splayed out before him? Now he knew why the stars had led him here. Surely it was to discover and learn about the world. Perhaps even to point out that it was good to take a look down every once in a while.

Whatever the reason, the young man was appreciative of the solitude; the silence that completed the beauty of the scene. He had recently grown so much externally that it was difficult to decipher whether he had changed internally, as well. And the thought scared him, though to anyone else he would appear simply detached as always. His shoulders were broader now and muscles had developed along his hind legs and chest as a result of his lengthy travels. Somehow, though, his height compensated enough to retain a lithe appearance. 

A brisk wind tussled his fur, whistling slightly as it sifted through the small valley. Marruz shifted and released a contented grunt, casting his gaze at the sky and furrowing his brow. This place... It made him feel like he was returning to... past things. He couldn't tell if he loved or hated it. 

"Meldresi..." he murmured, half to himself as indigo and black orb met the moon. "Why have you led me here?" 

Marruz spotted her first in his peripherals, moving with a grace almost unknown to even the stealthy Melonii himself. He hardly moved at all but to shift his eyes; targeting the sudden emergence with a certain curiosity marred by slight apprehension. It was a secluded area, he knew, and not one that he would much like to be cornered within.

When his sight was directly upon the fae, his initial thoughts were upon her movements. Yes, it seemed, he had indeed changed. There was never a time that such notions would have carried him from his stargazing stupor.

Clearing his throat, the tall young man erected himself to his full height; summoning a baritone measure to infiltrate the serene silence of the valley. "So, you've discovered the Altar." Only the indigo pool could be seen from his position a few breaths way — the other was barely visible against his ebony endowment. Both spoke of certain, enigmatic depths.

He had noticed the odd structure upon his first venture atop the mountain. It was the reason he kept returning, after all. It seemed to be of inifinite potential, though he knew not what for.

The more he looked at her, the more the woman morphed before him. She was not of this earth — of this he was certain. She held herself like a deity, and the surrounding world seemed to beckon to her like a force of gravity. When she met his own eye, he almost shivered.

Marruz's gaze flickered darkly at her words, revealing nothing and yet something, at least. He held contact without wavering. This stranger seemed to hold so many answers; keys to what he'd been searching for. This place was no new sight to her, but to him it was the only sight he'd ever traipsed upon. It was all evident in those indigo and black lamps if she only searched hard enough.

She? Who was she?
"Meldresi led me here this night," Marruz finally responded after a significant pause. The silence seemed to refresh his mind. He shifted, moving out of the shadows just enough to reveal his grey forepaw. "But I have no way of contacting her yet. I have only just begun my training in the ways of the Listener." His steady gaze probed her; seeking the nubile dame's voluptuous frame and yet resisting all the while — uncertain as to when he had weakened to this state.

"Do you know of the Dark Brotherhood, then?"

Marruz was rigid now, staring at the mythical creature slip closer and closer. The gap was eaten within seconds; replaced by each sway of her sultry hips. His mind was dense with apprehension for the riveting new surge of emotions flooding his body. He forced his paws hard into the ground and willed himself not to give in; not to follow in his father's footsteps.

This angelic being. This powerful, strange woman. She was controlling him, somehow. Her words seemed so far from truth and yet, somehow, he believed them. And his indigo orb slowly welcomed the waves of wonder now enchanting his consciousness. 

She was around him now: moving through the shadows and out once more, each time met by his eager and searching gaze. When she stopped, her breath stirred his ebony fur and warmed his nose. Her scent engulfed him in deep, tantalizing tones that set her cherry irises ablaze in a fire of rose and wine. His eyes slipped to the dark cream a few paces below her jaw, and then that stream of coldwood that ran ever further...

"Is that so?" He barely managed the statement, though the strength of the words was surprisingly intact. "Has she told you anything about me?" 

Marruz watched how she moved; how gracefully she projected herself, like a vision, upon the serene fell of night. A heat had gathered now just below the abdomen. It tightened the closer she drew, so that the knot was fixed and his breath cut short upon the crystalline air.

His chin lifted and the crown of his brow angled itself with an imperious demeanor; something borne of his father's masculinity. And as she retreated, his posture only grew further rigid; further entranced. He raised his paw as though to follow and promptly restrained himself, staring now with eyes of indigo and black fire. 

When she looked over her shoulder, the dragon was slain. Everything about her was divine and ever so sensual before him; something that, even to the ascetic darkling, could not be resisted. He moved easily from the shadows, pushing along the ground in calm, unhastened movements until he was directly beside her. His shoulder briefly brushed the fur along the dam's hip, and he had to lower his gaze to meet her own. He wanted more of her: more of her beauty, her scent, her heat.

"Marruz," his voice was thick and soaked up the night like the syrup of maples. "My name is Marruz." And his gaze implored that she return the favor; suggested that he didn't just dispense such information to anyone. He needed to know the name of this deity before him.

She was tempting him. And for once, Marruz wasn't ashamed to admit that he liked it.

Her eyes were so close and her breath so warm; so sweet. His lip flickered on the brink of a smile and deepened handsomely as her cheek brushed against his fur; her forehead touched below the chin. In the nook of his throat, his vocals emit a low, contented grunt and his eyes closed for the fleeting moment.

When she recoiled, his gaze awakened steadily at the rush of blood that filled his body; set his heart beating wildly. Her tail slipped smoothly from the cleft of his jaw and his orbs followed in its trail — now both curious and hungry. And when she spoke her name, he was aware that it was a precious offering. He was aware that this woman before him might very well be a goddess and might very well incite the paradoxes she claimed. So why did that make him all the more enthralled? All the more ready to trust this stranger? 

"A Goddess..." And this wasn't a question. It was surrender.

She neared him again, and this time Marruz was ready. He stiffened at first and then her scent enveloped him once more; wrapped him in a canopy of warmth and that sweet, heavenly aroma. The sensation of her cheek nuzzling sent shivers across his spine. Heat laced his stomach and chest.

When his lip loosened, he caught her as she pulled away; caught her with his own snout and brought it so that their noses touched and he could look into those sanguine pools. He pressed his nose against her forehead and then her cheek; slid against her ear and stopped there for a moment, as though debating whether to whisper something. 

It was lost as he moved back to her muzzle, planting gentle kisses across the small indention of her jaw and neck. Marruz lost himself, for the first time, amid the woman's velveteen plumage.