Blackfoot Forest not even into another eternity

@Kavos. set at dusk for today, 7.1

three packs! and not a bit of wanderlust abated. pleased to have a purpose once more, mona had opted to range into the deeper recesses of the surrounding areas. and, if she were being truthful, nathaniel and his absence dragged at the girl's heartstrings. welcomed by indra and tadec, aware that eilidh, constantine, and cortland were near, mona nevertheless felt the hot brush of saltwater along her cheeks.
loneliness throbbed eldritch in a young heart — the little red bird drifted through the gathering shadows, half-lost in thought. a piercing cry rang out sharply into the darkness; mona startled, gasping and sending a flurry of soft loam into the air. ears slanting in dismay, the red wolfess turned 'round in a tight circle, searching all angles before glancing heavenward toward the last glow leaving the sky.

The wood seemed to come to life with the touch of the wind and the cry of the foxes within. Kavos prowled between the looming trunks with a lean frame and a silent swagger that emanated from his predatory figure. The sound of the red-furred creatures seemed to linger on the air like a day worn spell from some woodland nymph. It was difficult for the ghost to comprehend theories of magic in a world that knew very little of it. It was all that his life had lacked, and he had instead been thrust into an existence that was comprised of only challenge. Burning but cold at the same time.
 
The leonine stalker sauntered forward at a quick step. The breath of the wood fell against the lengthy wisps of his buttercream coat. The savage regarded the passing trees with little interest, marking a mental roadmap in his mind of where he had been and where he was going. In his mapping, the ghostly creature caught sight of the stunning red woman before he had ever scented her. Immediately, he recognized her as the wolf who had stumbled upon him and his convenient catch. After another moment, her aroma drifted toward him and he drank in it with a placid expression.
 
The brute paused in his steps and waited to see if the woodland woman would sight him, or if she would pass him by without regarding his presence. The tempest tossed against his frame again, teasing the boughs of the trees overhead with a kind of tenderness before disappearing. Kavos breathed deeply the musky tone of the wood and lowered his skull toward the earth. His shoulder jutted from his back in sharp angles; the tension in his frame was palpable.

mona found her breath almost in the same instance the man from the flatlands materialized like an ivoried spectre in the darkened weald. heartbeart tripping once more, the witchborn steadied herself, digging paws against earth and turning her wary and half-green gaze upon him. in the lines of the feralman's body there was no malice; invitation of a silent sort. 
for perhaps a too-long stretch of time, the firebird — no, she was not that, she would never be that again — traced the movement of his tresses, windlicked; upon it came his scent, rock and water and loam, other things for which she did not yet have names.
on stiff legs she approached, her gait relaxing with each step; he was feline in the arch of musculature and bone; she saw in him a catlike mien that called to her despite her inexperience with such dichotomy. and when mona had found her footing before him, lasher's eyes in her own delicate head rose to meet the brilliant gilded mintage of his gaze, if only for a long second in a grander span of time.

The woman in red seemed to take notice of him, approaching as though she had been invited. The ghost watched her with a heavily furrowed brow and a slight curling of his lip. It was almost far fetched to think the predator was anything of the inviting sort. Though his posture remained neutral, the golden glint of his jaguar gaze was vivid enough to warn others of his presence. If the red-haired woman would approach him, he would have considered his shape to be admonitory enough. It should not have been surprising to her if things did not manage to go her way. It would not have been surprising to any other.

Kavos regarded her with a careful stare. His head remained low to protect the tender underside of his throat and chest. The fur at his shoulders and nape seemed to jolt to life at the woodland scent of her coat. When she did look at him, it was brazenly. The emerald green in her gaze seemed to glint, catching the light from the luminous sun. She brought her gaze to settle with his and held it there far longer than she ought to have. When the ghost issued a quiet growl, he expected her to look away.

“What is it you want?”

not a heartbeat after she had so brashly approached did mona recognize her potentially tragic series of errors, and instinct quailed hot in her belly. it was not the mistake of a yearling, but the deliberate misstep of one who should have known better. perturbed, aware the catlike beast could uncoil and strike in the small space, without possibility of missing, mona fought to keep her small paws from shifting against the earth.
his voice unfurled through a growl that brought low her ears, and with it the shrinking-away of her gaze. something done right, the girl scolded herself fiercely. her own tones, try as she might, would not arrive; tonguetip numb, mona felt the endless ebbing of the proper moment. "you caught that ... the rabbit the woman was trying to hunt," she blurted. "i guess i .. i was just surprised to see you, that's all."
and now mona did slink backward, her posture distinctly lacking in the idiocy that had brought her forth, but her gaze remained fascinated, riveted to the features not near the harsh and haloed glow of his own.

The red woman turned from him and left him with a satisfied feeling in the thrumming of his heart. The ghost did not pride himself on frightening women – no – but he did feel a sense of comfort at the confirmation that his presence was carefully regarded. The green of her gaze was pulled from the fires of his own and averted to a more acceptable target. Kavos did not stir from his position, but listened with a fleeting brush of confusion as she blurted her recollection of him.

“You thought I should die after catching her rabbit?”

It was then that his social inability seemed to take a step forward. The predator did not understand how she should have found any sense of surprise in the fact that he could be found, or how it might have correlated with the other woman's lack of hunting skill. For a moment, his brow furrowed over his wildfire gaze; Kavos did not pull his stare from her figure for even a moment. The tone in his voice was not difficult to grasp; he required an answer.

if his ignorance of social mores revealed itself, mona's horror accompanied it. spreading to blanch her features with a tremouring reach, the girl's scarlet ears folded back into a neat splay of shame along her narrow skull. "n-no! of course not!" mona gasped, unable to keep herself from the indignant quaver present at the back of her tones. well, i never! was the translation, perhaps unbeknownst even to her.
yet equal to that was the shock of being so bluntly asked by a stranger — a complete stranger! — if she thought he should die. the mayfair was fair scandalized, and all by her own misunderstanding and blunder of etiquette when it came to their kind. she gazed frantically at him, her chin at an almost imperceptible quiver. "perhaps ... perhaps i was thinking about how you looked at me, or that you did at all. and then i come here, and suddenly in the midst of my thinking, you appear. is it so odd i would be shocked, if i was already thinking about you, and the very subject of my thoughts materializes?"
horror again, at both her girlish outburst and the intimate level of pathetic detail she had given him; my, my, my, mona huffed within her own skull, you are doing so well. her murkwater eyes trained themselves exactly at the loam between his forepaws, and finally mona mayfair was completely silent.

For all of her girlish peeps, Kavos only regarded her with a quiet reserve. If he were another man, perhaps it would seem almost magical - their meeting that way. The light of his eyes shone warm with melting gold, but the way in which they sat upon his face was brumal and distant. Still, he did not dare to remove his vision from her features. Though she did not look upon his face with more than the quickest of glances, he knew the emerald of her eyes. He had seen the way that they searched and all of the knowledge behind them. It had only taken a moment, but that was more than enough. The ghost was silent, but wary. He had never had to endure the trials of a witch before. Gracious in social environments he was not, but there was no wall between them aside from her fear. 

”Mmm,” he rumbled softly once her tirade had been silenced and the whisper of the wind was all that met him. ”And why were you thinking of me?” the brute inquired after a moment of contemplation. His predatory glances were met only by the red top of her crown as she focused on the little space between his forepaws. In all the world, why was it that this woman would think of him? They had only shared a glance, after all. How was it that the fiery woodland creature had settled on the image of the haggard young ghost? 

he was silent; the wind moved and again mona was wreathed in his scent. the man's inquiry, the low voice of a hunter skulking through underbrush with the treasure of silence; she felt herself began to worry her bottom lip between anxious fangtips. there was no answer to the hellcat's question, for mona did not know why she had thought of him, or had continued to do so, until it seemed the man himself was made manifest by her thoughts.
yet it seemed unwise to thrust aside the query; therefore mona straightened beneath the heavy gold of his appraisal, lashes fluttering as she sought to compose herself. "maybe it was the way you looked at me," she murmured in tones much softer than she had meant. for a moment, mona found his gaze with her own wide green stare, but recognized the danger in that had not abated; again she found the loam with her eyes and was silent, feeling somehow interrogated by his succinct nature.

There was something to be said for her fleeting moment of boldness. It was as though it had grasped her out of nowhere. It had pulled her gaze up from his limbs and fastened them to his molten stare, lashes fluttering. He wondered for a moment if she was attempting to soften him with the sweet tone that she had taken, but he found himself gripped by a labyrinth of further questions. For only a moment, his skull pulled back in a recoil. His limbs seemed to stiffen and the burning of his gaze latched to the red of her face, and the emerald of her forestry eyes. What a peculiar thing for her to say to him, and yet he was left wondering. Perhaps it was the lack of social graces that lead him to furrow his brow thoughtfully and crease the line of his mouth.

“And how is it that I looked at you?”

his eyes continued to rove across her form, but it was not until  he spoke that mona considered she had been very, very wrong. "I —!" she exclaimed before she was aware there were no words with which to answer the feline thing. had she imagined the glance in his eyes? how his gaze had lingered? she did not know how to respond, and fell into a tremulous silence marked by nervous flutterings of her lashes.
"forgive me, monsieur," the little mayfair murmured after a small length of quiet. "i am just a stupid girl." embarassment burned beneath her fur, threatening to wet her cheeks with hot and frustrated tears; mona held them back valiantly. but her shame was deep. "i should ... i should go," the girl murmured, clearing her throat and inching backward, hoping he would be merciful enough to let her flee the scene of her deepest chagrin.

The answer was not to be expected. Though, if Kavos had truly been paying attention to what the girl was saying – how she was behaving – he would have found that it aligned well enough. The ghost knew very little about her, though, and it left him with a peculiar feeling in the pit of his stomach. The pale specter did not deal with emotion well; he did not know what she expected of him. If he didn't understand, he wished to ask... and he didn't understand how he had looked at her to entice such an alluring expression on the red woman's face. “You lack confidence,” he remarked without caution. The molten color of his eyes latched to her features and did not budge from their position. It was not intended to insult, but Kavos wished to understand why she could not gather the strength to spill what was within her.

well! the wildcat's brusque commentary left mona agape with shock; a click as she shut her mouth resolutely and rounded on the buttercream creature with all the barely-reined fury of a scorned woman. "confidence! confidence? i lack many things, sir, but confidence is not one of them!" except that it truly was and mona was merely shaken that this stranger should strike upon the core of her insecurities.
"i think you're attractive and perhaps i thought you found me the same," mona lashed, then gasped, eyes flying wide with chagrin. the equivalent of a girl smoothing her petticoats, the little witch cleared her throat. "and now i am going. goodbye."
making a smart about-face, mona trotted into the wood, away from the source of her greatest shame to date. yet she held herself proudly, ears angled forward as if she simply did not care; she would not hear him well if he followed.