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+--- Thread: Neverwinter Forest i'm just a cowpoke (/showthread.php?tid=66620)
i'm just a cowpoke - Takota - December 02, 2025
he grumbled.
through thick foliage he went, moving with a limping gait; paws sore from days of travel, weeks on end. from the tallest reaches of wind-broken peaks to where he tread now, the tartok wolf had been relentless in his travels.
leading both he and his wife towards the lands he knew his brother inhabited.
he was wind whipped and marked by the journey. worse for wear, surely, but no less a scrapper. the lumbering man blows a snort from his wet-ringed nostrils and brushes up against a tree, inhaling a deep gust from the gnarled roots at the base.
a pack had been here. but not anymore; the scents had faded with the seasons, patrol routes trodden over and caches picked apart by scavengers.
kota's eyes glean when his large head turns and he surveys the surrounding area, earning an impatient croak from the raven shadowing him. to qalu, kota lifts his top lip and flashes his teeth.
nuisance.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Shani - December 02, 2025
wait!
her voice cut through the brush, soft but urgent, the fox fur sliding from her shoulder as she quickened her pace. shani slipped between the foliage after him, breath catching when she saw the hitch in his stride.
'kota…
she came to his side, eyes drifting to the swollen, travel-beaten paw he tried so hard to hide behind stubborn pride. her brow knit, the worry plain.
we need to rest. you’re hurting.
she reached for him with the gentlest touch, brushing her muzzle along his shoulder— a quiet plea.
please. just… stop for a moment.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Takota - December 02, 2025
qalu mocks him, croaking in vibrating staccato whenever shani hastens to him. and takota scoffs, instinctively shrugging away from her.
though he winces again when he presses the paw down, drawing both agitation and wounded ego into the kettle pot of emotions rising in his chest. to her, his head inclines and he huffs, cold breath fogging.
i'm fine,kota does not speak roughly with her, no matter how annoyed he would get with her persistence.
she did not understand. he did not stop, never. he kept going, fore the weak wolf was left behind. eaten. killed. culled. it could not be tolerated; something engrained into his mind. again, again, and again.
the tartok wolf reaches with pearled teeth to nip at her ear, ushering her forwards.
we keep movin'.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Shani - December 02, 2025
no, you’re not fine.
shani stepped in front of him this time, planting herself in his path, the fox fur slipping forward as she faced him headon. qalu’s mocking croak vibrated somewhere above, but she ignored it— that damn bird meddled too much!
you’re going to collapse, takota. and that’ll slow us down more than stopping now.
her voice was soft, but there was hurt in it, a quiet stubbornness he knew too well. she watched the way he winced, the way he tried to hide it, the way pride strained every part of him.
how do you even know he’s here?she pressed, breath trembling.
what if we left our farm for nothing?
his teeth brushed her ear, a tartok-command to move, but she didn’t. she held her ground, chest tight, heart thudding with fear and love and frustration.
kota,she whispered, half a yell,
please. you can’t keep going like this. just one night.
her paw lifted, gently touching his sore one, eyes reddening at the blisters.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Takota - December 02, 2025
the more she talks, the more visibly irritated he grows.
god dammit i said i’m—she cuts him off and his ears pilot backwards, bronze eyes narrowing into slits.
no matter if she was right, he wouldn’t admit it. not out of some toxic idea of manhood or desire to be right, but his own pride. time and time again, it got in the way of reason. and tákota allows her to push him down into a seat.
though he is inflamed when she brings up his brother, and his teeth snap. not towards her; he wouldn’t ever lay a damaging touch upon her, but out of vexation.
don’t! shani.he strains.
he deflates with a gust of air, a violent exhale and against his will, he begins to slope downwards. onto his belly, splaying out his thick forelegs in front of him; that wounded, cracked paw beginning to throb now that he hadn’t driven it numb from movement.
fuck,his teeth grind, and his eyes cut towards qalu who perches upon a limb not too far away, singing a long and taunting croak.
tákota smacks at the earth of the forest and sends a spray of dirt towards the tree qalu settled in. bristling.
shut that damn bird up.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Shani - December 02, 2025
don’t— don’t fuckin’ raise your voice at me.
shani snapped it out before she could swallow it, only to groan when he buckled and hit the ground. she moved fast, dropping beside him, muzzle tracing down to his swollen paw.
i told you. i told you this would happen.
qalu’s sharp croak rattled overhead, and shani huffed.
you don’t deserve chicken for dinner.her voice only made kota stiffen, irritation rising like heat beneath his skin.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Takota - December 02, 2025
the raven fluffs up in perfectly bitchy manner at shani’s comment.
and her mate rolls over onto his side, lips pursed and top one curled so that a single snaggle tooth peeks out. cutting the most pathetic of angry baby faces, the wolf growls out his frustrations.
ow!the wounded paw is drawn closer and he shoves his muzzle down towards it, rasping his tongue over it with a complaining lap.
you—
damn woman.
you told me not shit!exasperated, the man lets his head fall against the soft, plush wintery earth of the forest. totally not purposefully pushing a back paw into flank of his mate when he stretches out.
he stares off into the thickets. grumbling half assorted curses beneath his breath.
always naggin’… kota do this… kota do that… kota we can’t go there…
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Shani - December 02, 2025
shani smacked him again, harder this time, ears pinning flat.
i said don’t fuckin’ raise your voice at me.
she ignored qalu’s dramatic puffing and stared down at her mate sprawled in the dirt like the world owed him something. his pathetic little curl around his paw earned only a cold exhale.
you’re impossible,she muttered, stepping around his useless kicking. another shove of his leg got that limb smacked too.
quit whining. lie still. let me see it.
she leaned close, voice low with warning.
and if you try to shove me again, you'll be sleepin' alone tonight.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Takota - December 02, 2025
the swat earned her a pointed glare from the man, with tattered ears somehow pulling even tighter against his cranium. but—
he doesn't raise his voice again. he goes so far as to clamp his jaws shut to keep from doing so. and perhaps... he dramatized just mildly, ever so fond of the attention she gave him.
her demand rolls over him like high tide and the tartok warrior grimaces, brows huffing low above those twin bronze eyes. still, he slowly pulls his tucked foreleg out from beneath his broad chest and offers it to her.
kota is resigned to hissing, wincing and moving uncomfortably whenever his mate applied any sort of attention to his cracked, bleeding paw. when he speaks again, it is to do the opposite of complain, tongue rolling between clicking pearl teeth.
shani,there comes his voice, a low rumble,
you ain't gotta take care of me.his chin grazes his chest as he inclines his head downwards, peering up at her with softened eyes.
but i—he stops, lips pulling together in a grim line. i love you for it, he wants to say, but can't. incapable of putting the words love and you together, nothing new, nothing old. but he hopes that she knows.
RE: i'm just a cowpoke - Shani - December 02, 2025
shani’s breath left her in a long, weary sigh as she settled beside him, her touch softening now that he’d finally stopped snapping like a cornered calf.
i’ll always take care of you, takota,she murmured, brushing her muzzle along the line of his jaw as he offered her that wounded paw.
that’s what we do, remember?
he winced, hissed, twisted— and she only steadied him with a firmer hold, wrapping her warmth around all that stubborn pride he couldn’t seem to put down. her gaze softened when he ducked his chin, when those bronze eyes lifted to her with something fragile hiding beneath all the grit.
i know,she whispered, as if she heard the words he couldn’t speak. her paw pressed lightly to his chest, grounding him.