Redhawk Caldera She's a habit and I can't let go

After circling around the edge of the territory and performing a much longer patrol than usual, Elwood was ready for an afternoon nap. He typically only meandered along the outskirts for a half an hour at a time -- using a technique he had learned from the Alpha and master warden himself -- but the weather was so beautiful that he had allowed himself to get lost in his thoughts. Luckily, there hadn't been anything amiss; no sign of trespassers or any disturbances near the edge of their territory. Spring seemed to be getting off to a peaceful start.

With a wide yawn, the silver Beta ambled towards the den that he shared with Finley, hoping to find her but feeling a bit doubtful. He knew that she had been gone from the caldera for the last little while, satisfying her urges as an outrider and also tracking a nearby herd. He was willing to let her roam to her heart's desire, as long as she came back to him -- and he was starting to miss her.

As their little bungalow came into view, he called out quietly, his tail waving behind him as his paws pressed into the warm earth. "Hey @Finley -- you in there?"

omg what song is this thread title from?? It's driving me crazy!  And I can't just.. like.. GOOGLE it or something.  That'd be silly!

Fin had done her best to stay away from the Caldera for a little while now.  Her last encounter with Elwood had left her feeling hollow and out of sorts, and thus she'd made up some excuse so that she could take an extended vacation from him and everything else.  It seemed fate was not cool with her flight show, though, and thus she'd been struck down with a bout of stomach flu that just would NOT quit.  She'd had several episodes since meeting the blue-nosed bunny chaser that had left her feeling weak and exhausted.  So, it was back home she went to the comfort of her cozy little den.


Unfortunately, being back home meant the whole... boyfriend avoiding thing had come to a close...

Fin felt lethargic and feverish as she laid in her den.  She'd spent the day slipping in and out of sleep, unaware of the passing of time.  She'd spent most of her morning vomiting again, even though there was nothing left in her stomach to expel besides bile.  All she wanted to do was pass out again, but she felt so sick and terrible that it seemed as though rest would never again be an option.  Such was the state her lover was soon to find her in - barely even able to twitch her ears to listen as he called to her.  She did manage to groan however, so that was something.

It's from "Smoke" by A Thousand Horses!

There was no sign of life from outside the den as Elwood neared, so a frown knitted his brows together. As he took the final steps to its entrance, however, his nostrils were suddenly filled with Finley's scent -- and his pricked ears detected the sound of a moan from within. Simultaneously curious and worried, the Beta male crept into the mouth of the burrow, lowering himself to his belly and blinking as his eyes adjusted to the shadows.

His concern deepened as his gaze landed on Finley, who was sprawled on the ground and looking most uncomfortable. In addition to her appearance, he could now smell her sickness; he refrained from wrinkling his nose and instead whined plaintively, crawling towards his girlfriend and delivering a gentle nudge to her shoulder.

"What's wrong?" he asked, looking her over as he wondered what could have caused her to become ill. It had to be something she had come across during her time outside of the caldera; perhaps some bad meat or some kind of bug she had ingested from water.

I totally don't know that song!  Huh..

Finley's stomach rolled as she laid there and she shut her eyes tightly as thought to will it away.  It actually seemed to work (a little bit at least) so that when he asked her what was wrong, she actually heard and understood him.  She didn't want to respond.  She didn't want to even look at him.  Their last encounter had been so heated and passionate, but then she'd left feeling completely empty and horrible.  Fin still hadn't muddled her way through those feelings, which had been her intention the entire time actually, more or less.


Unwilling as she was to do so, Fin slid her muzzle across the ground to point her nose towards Elwood's crouched form.  Slowly, her eyes slipped up towards his face.  And then...  It was over.  The moment her eyes connected with his, her resolve faded, and all of that twisting guilt and confused emotions just collapsed into themselves and vanished.  She loved him.  She loved him, she loved him, she loved him.

"Twig..." she moaned, "I don't feel good."  With that, Fin burst into tears.  Finley Blackthorn, who could stare down angry carnivores five times her size with a devilish grin and nerves of steel, turned into a complete wimp when she had even the mildest belly ache.

There was a brief hesitation from Finley before her gaze met Elwood's -- and in that moment, he watched her veritably crumble in front of him. The strong facade that she usually hid behind vanished in an instant, leaving her vulnerable, upset, and sick. There was really only one other time that Elwood had seen Finley lay herself so bare -- when she first confessed her feelings for him -- and it was a bit disconcerting, but he brushed aside his own discomfort and inched towards her.

Carefully, he maneuvered until he had turned around and was laying next to her, curving his spine to tuck her into his embrace. His first thought was that whatever bug she had was likely contagious -- but that was of little consequence to him at the moment. He would put up with the symptoms, as long as he could try to make her feel better in the meantime.

"You're sick?" he asked softly, his muzzle hovering near her ear. He gently and briefly pressed his snout against her temple in an attempt to see if she felt feverish (if that's even the way a wolf would determine that? IDK!), but he wasn't able to tell. "What hurts?" he queried, though he was fairly sure it was her stomach; she wouldn't be able to deny the tell-tale stench that hung in the air, especially in such close quarters.

Finley snuggled closer to Elwood's side as he laid down beside her, whimpering all the while.  Her initial flood of tears had quickly subsided down from full-out sobbing to a steady drip of tears and some sniffling, and while she would rather have done none of it at all, she couldn't seem to reel her emotions back under control.  Suddenly, all of the random, crazy as hell emotions she'd been plagued with for the past couple of weeks came flooding over her, drowning her.  She let it go ahead and get on with it.  After all, there was no holding it back forever.  So what better time to let it all fall apart than when she had someone right there to keep track of all the pieces and then put them back together again?

"Everywhere," she cried, turning to smash her face into his shoulder, "My stomach, my joints, my head, my heart, my whole self.  I hate it.  I just keep puking and running and feeling weird and it's the worst and I wanna stop."  She snorted loud as she sniffed back some of the snot that had begun to drip from her nose.

Gradually, Finley quieted until her sobs were reduced to soft hiccups and sniffles. She seemed to relax into him, and Elwood, too, calmed a bit, hoping that the rarely seen rational and level-headed Finley would show her face.

He wasn't that lucky, though.

In the next instant, she whirled and pressed herself into the crook of his shoulder, explaining that her whole self was infected by this illness. This caused the frown lines in Elwood's forehead to deepen, but he refrained from replying just yet, turning over her words in his mind. As he did so, his tongue emerged slowly to pull gently at the dark fur between her ears. He continued his ministrations for a few long moments, hoping simply to ease her strife even if he couldn't cure her physical symptoms.

Finally, he asked in a quiet voice, "What do you mean, running and feeling weird?" Somehow, he was convinced that these conditions weren't part of the sickness itself.

The feeling of her lover's tongue against her ear was quite soothing, but the tears still slipped down her cheeks like a rainstorm.  She sniffled pathetically as he finally broke the silence that had fallen between them, turning her head so that she could peek up at his face even though her own remained smooshed against his shoulder.  Fin stared at him sadly, uncertain of how to respond.  Would blunt honesty work well here?  Should she tell him that for the past week, her heart had been almost completely absent of any love for him?  That she'd run away because she felt so desperately guilty for wanting to leave him and the entire Caldera behind?  That she'd wanted to run away and start a new life somewhere else?


Uhh.. Nah.

"I've just felt so.. messed up for the past couple of weeks," she responded, slipping her head further to lay in along his arm, "Like I've been so weirdly angry and energetic and just... I don't know.  I feel like I just woke up from a seriously long crazy-as-fuck spell.  Which, thank god I did 'cause I would've missed puke-all-over-the-world time."  Sarcasm ran rampant upon her tongue at the final statement.  With a groan, she rolled onto her side so that her spine was against his stomach and it was towards the wall of her den that she pouted quite intensely.  At least the tears had stopped finally.

Elwood's frown only darkened as Finley spoke, but he listened patiently to her words, doing his best to digest and understand them. No matter how hard he tried, though, he couldn't make sense of them. There was no logical reason as to why she would have felt so "weird" over the last couple of weeks -- as much as he racked his brain, he couldn't come up with a single action of his own that could have caused it. He felt irritation bloom in his chest, but he quickly swallowed it; despite the fact that Finley had felt a need to be away from him -- and from the Caldera, he reminded himself -- she was with him now. That was what was important.

Slowly and quietly, he exhaled through his nostrils as she shifted her weight, presumably into a more comfortable position. He found that he didn't have any words to explain away her "spring fever," so he chose not to speak, instead craning his neck so that his muzzle rested gently against her side. He was careful not to apply too much pressure; he didn't want to cause her to throw up again.

"Well, I'm sorry you're sick after all of that," he finally replied, his tone sincere. He lifted his chin and looked down at her. "I'm sure you'll be feeling better soon. Do you need me to get you anything?"

Fin was very thankful that he didn't ask her to delve any further into the subject.  She really didn't want to accidentally say anything that she would regret.  She didn't particularly like having secrets from him, but they'd worked out pretty well for her so far, so what was a few more?  Especially when they would only hurt him, and who wanted that?  She was certain Elwood would agree with her, if she'd given him the opportunity, which she had no intention of doing.


The beta's eyes rolled backwards to peek towards him when he asked if she needed anything.  In truth, she was hungry and thirsty and sleepy, but she didn't trust her stomach to handle anything in it and she knew sleep was not likely until her hunger had been sated.  So, she rolled over onto her back and gave Elwood the most pathetic of her sad puppy-dog faces.  "Can has bewwy wubs?" she implored with round eyes and a pouty bottom lip.

Elwood was fully prepared to take to his feet and exit the den in order to bring Finley some food, medicine, or water. The latter two items -- medicine and water -- would have been more difficult to procure, but he would have made his best attempt. It turned out that she wanted something else entirely, however -- belly rubs.

The request was simple enough, accompanied by a batting of her eyelashes and a turn in order to fully expose her stomach to him. He couldn't help but smile, especially at the babyish voice she used to make her appeal. "Of course," he murmured softly in response, and then shifted into a sitting position.

He placed one of his forepaws on her tummy and began to move it in slow circles, his eyes focused on her face and watching her reaction for any sign of discomfort. When there wasn't any immediately, he moved his gaze to the nearly-white fur that his toes were kneading. Absently, he noted that her hair seemed to be a bit thinner; he quickly attributed it to spring shedding and moved on with his ministrations, leaning his head down to blow a raspberry on her stomach. "Better?" he asked after a few moments of silence, his tail patting the ground behind him.

Fin had no doubt in her mind that her pouty face would work on her lover - it always did.  Just the tiniest twitch of her bottom lip and Elwood tended to melt like butter.  There was little that he ever denied her, and she had no problem whatsoever with taking advantage of it.  After what she'd been through, part of her felt that she deserved to finally be treated like the princess she was.  Ask that darker, more self-loathing part of her and... Well, don't talk to her, she says terrible things and makes everyone sad.


Fin wriggled happily as Elwood moved his paw across her belly.  It was oddly more sensitive than usual and thus she kicked her paws a little more than she typically did when enjoying her belly rubs.  The moment she felt his mouth against her stomach, her entire body tensed to fight against the impending flail she knew was coming the moment he began to blow against her skin.  Laughing she batted at Elwood's ears with her front paws, her back paws kicking wildly at the air.  She rolled onto her side, this time facing him with her tongue happily rolling out of her mouth.

"I love you," she replied with a happy sigh, "You know that?  You're kinda just.. the best thing ever."  Her tail was practically pounding against the floor as she spoke.

Her reaction to the vibrations of his lips against her stomach made him sit back and laugh heartily, while also dodging the flailing of her paws. When he released her, she turned to face him, her tail sounding like a drumbeat against the floor of the den. Elwood met her gaze and was filled with warmth, from her loving expression as well as her words. Despite her sickness -- which would hopefully be temporary -- all was right in his world at that moment.

"I love you too," he replied, then reached out to poke her gently in the chest with a paw. "You're lucky to have me," he teased. He wasn't one to let compliments go to his head, but he would never tire of hearing Finley say such things.

Wanna fade and has new? :D

Fin licked her lips happily as he responded, her ears shifting back upon her head.  His words caused her a twinge of guilt for all the things she kept from him and all the horrible things she thought sometimes.  She truly was lucky to have him.  He was so patient and understanding, so kind to her.  And so sweet, and so.. naive to the darkness she harbored securely in her heart.  She was very lucky to have him, for she knew that she didn't deserve him at all.

Quite suddenly, the beta felt another roll of her stomach which prevented her from responding with much more than a smile.  She rolled over onto her stomach with a groan and clench her eyes shut, fighting back the bile that rumbled in her belly.  The moment passed after a few seconds and Finley was able to hold herself together, which was fortunate because she had no real desire to throw up all over her lover after they'd had such a nice moment together.  With a whimper, she tucked her muzzle between her forelegs and curled her tail around her rump.  She wanted to complain to Elwood, but kept her mouth closed for fear of what might come out, instead just peeking up at him with a pathetic whine.

Yeah! Fade out with your post?

She didn't respond, and Elwood frowned slightly when it appeared that she was experiencing another bout of nausea. Finley's discomfort was evident, and he waited patiently until she glanced up at him after curling into herself and laying her head down between her forepaws. "Poor baby," he crooned, leaning down to lick methodically between her ears for a few moments.

He only paused when a yawn caused him to withdraw, and as soon as his jaws snapped shut, he looked down at her and made a suggestion. "Let's rest for a while. Maybe the nausea will pass after a nap?" He wasn't really sure if that would be the case; he desperately wished that he knew enough about medicine to bring her something that would calm her stomach. However, he worried that he would do more harm than good so all he had to offer was sleep.

Rushed at the end because everyone in the world suddenly decided they wanted everything in the world all at once ;_;

Finley's inner turmoil was forgotten as her stomach churned uncomfortably.  Her pathetic glance up to Elwood got her exactly what she was looking for as he began to stroke his tongue against the fur between her ears.  She snuggled closer to his side and heaved a heavy sigh before shutting her eyes.  After a moment, he made a suggestion that she was all for - attempting a nap.  She gave a gentle nod of her head, hoping and praying that she might actually manage to sleep this time she tried.  Fortunately, with Elwood providing his comforting embrace at her side, she drifted off in minutes.