Firefly Glen there's a wall around your body

@Sunny <3 (set for 8/24 - 8/25)

The lands were unknown - a cause for caution, for the hunch of her frame and skitter of her movements. 

Despite this, the wild woman - a newly earned title - found reason to pinion upon feathered paw, limp hitching as she extended upon tiptoe not unlike a dove about to take wing, to straighten as periwinkle lifted in wonder. Dusk had brought shadows to the thicket, damp to bead upon ivory pelt, cricket and frogsong to grace tattered auds, and it had brought the fireflies. 

The girl'd taken up a hermit's existence within the glen - daring to drift as a ghostly hind upon the very edges of the gathering east of her precarious existence. They'd yet to come for her, allowing the cur a smidgen of hope that she might be permitted to live beyond the fringes of their territory; a lowly life but one that might allow her to scavenge the pack's scraps on occasion, if they happened to be so benevolent. 

As often as she'd seen this display of luminescent insects, the constant evolution and collapse of jade galaxies, upon duskfall over the past several sunrises, it was still a sight to behold and marvel at. At least to the ivory gypsy. 

There were few signs of her spartan occupation: a pelt of deerhide peeking from beneath the thicket's brambles, a creekstone of green hues she'd admired, familiarity in the glint of her cornflower gaze. 

It was much as the weave of her paws, stuttering vaguely with the mar of her gait, as Siki spun and twirled - a strange dance, a ballet of spirit and lights set to the symphony of a summer wind and a band of sighing willows.

The nights were beginning to cool, just slight enough to hint at the upcoming autumn season and he had begun to prepare for it by taking pelts from larger prey and stripping them the best he could to dry out. He would provide them to whoever needed it in their dens this winter. He had set out that night to take a brisk run while his children slept soundly only going far enough to know he wouldn't be followed but close enough to run back if he was needed. It was the fireflies that brought him this way and he entered the glen staring in awe at the spectacle before noticing the she wolf. He blinked a few times admittedly a bit taken aback by her dancing, she almost looked unreal in the lighting with the fireflies rotating around her. He didn't want to appear like a stalker and so he gently cleared his throat "do you mind company miss?" he asked wanting to be sure that if he hung around he wouldn't be attacked or chased off. 

Siki was not dumb - though this was a common misconception.

She was not deaf, nor lacking in mental capabilities - in fact, quite the opposite could be said - though it was true that she could not, would not, speak. 

Moreover, her voice surged forth as the albino whirled as if conjured by the very sight of the stranger, drunken in by wide wintry azures. Yet, she had not the words; it slammed to a halt in the blanchard's gullet leaving only a small squeak to escape her sealed lips. 

She'd had few encounters with the opposite gender and as she blinked, gaze not quite meeting the caramalized amber of his own, in surprise she realized the size of him. He was quite literally the largest wolf she'd ever seen: towering, bulking, wrapped in ashen silver; a contradicting hue coarse as dillipated barnwood and soft as stormcloud. 

The hart bowed instinctively, limbs curving with the grace of practiced movements as shredded, half-peaked ears fluttered to rest at her nape. 

His scent was that of leader - of the one who controlled the territory whom's borders she'd sniffed at. It was their complex overlay, somehow less foreboding than the civilizations the peri had encountered in times past, that had drawn her investigations - though she knew better than to cross. They'd not noticed her and Siki'd made the foolish assumption that she would be left in peace within the vale. 

The half-breed could not make sense of his words though she knew it was an inquiry of sorts about her presence in the wood. She tucked lower in her perch upon the carpet of pine needles, a curious, acquiescing chirrup slipping from her maw as pale crown cocked. (Despite the tuning fork of fear trailing down her spine, releasing palpating chords of anxiety.)

I'm no threat to you or yours, her body language read, but how may I help you, leader? 

"oh Im sorry I didn't mean to scare you" 

He stammered at her reaction, backing away slowly to show he wasn't there to hurt her. She didn't speak but instead bowed down low, submitting to him and in the silent way of their kind stating she wasn't a threat and was at his mercy. He hated it when people did that, his thoughts wandering back to Desdemona at their first meeting and the ones since then "Please don't...it makes me uncomfortable" he said gently though a friendly smile formed on his maw. He took a few steps closer, extending his neck and sniffing at her scent to try and gather information. She smelled only like herself, no other wolves to state she belonged anywhere. He wasn't sure what her skills were or if she needed anywhere to go so he didn't quite feel keen on offering to take her back to Elysium but the least he could do was offer assistance "I am Sunny. I run Elysium. Do you need help? Are you hungry?" he asked her, ears perked as his tail swayed at ease by his hocks.

There was no outward expression of fear; cold lapis shimmering with curiosity - fixtures twining with agility that rumored of repetition. 

The ways of beasts she'd learned as a child but the ways of verbal communication were not so easily implanted. With no foundation with which to build upon, her capabilities were restricted. The wyvern's head merely tilted in the opposite direction as he spoke, her tenacious grasp on his meaning lost - as belayed by the wrinkle of frustration forming betwixt her icy optics, the soft hum of confusion that rumbled in her throat. 

The nisse allowed her muzzle to stretch towards him slowly as the wyn drew close, daring not to touch (though the plush of his silvershot ruff inspired a strange urge to burrow her face within and see if it truly was so soft), and gulped the heady scent of him. Fresh and near, it evolved into facets: lavender, cinnamon, pine, vanilla, something earthy and male. 

His words, continuing to flow, were lost on the girl. Siki's head began to shake - I'm sorry, I don't understand - when two stood out in sharp relief. 

The half-breed brightened visibly, bouncing lightly on the balls of her paws as her curled tail whipped excitedly. A yip bobbed her snow-capped head - Oh! I know those! 

The mute was uninjured and not in need of help at the moment, thus she could only assume that his questions meant he needed her help. Her head dipped once, in agreement, before she pressed forward to nose at him seekingly: looking for injuries and sniffing him over for ailments. 

It didn't occur to her that she was entirely too close, that it might anger or displease him that she'd invaded his boundaries so. The ghost was devoted to her task of "helping" and was too divested in examining him to notice. 

He probably would have continued babbling if not for the confusion displayed on her expression. She did not speak a single word either and he suddenly realised she didn't understand a word he was saying. His face heated up with embarrassment and he froze, wary as she strode forward to sniff him but his tail gave a few slow sways behind him. She seemed to recognise at least part of what he was saying since she yipped at the word help and promptly began to examine him. She poked and prodded and sniffed at him, getting close in a way that nobody really had except for Aliac or Pema when she was healing him and he stiffened not due to anger but at the shock of a female, a kinda cute female at that, being all over him. "Gah...um...no ma'am I'm okay" he stammered awkwardly, swallowing thickly and turning around, backing away enough to not be sniffed. He motioned to her slowly "Do you have a home?" he asked sounding hesitant, he didn't know just how much language she could grasp at.

She's made him uncomfortable, that much is certain, left wide-eyed and teetering as he recoils. 

He did not seem offended though, thankfully. A detail which gives her a moment of pause - considering the wag of his tail moments prior and the stumbling shyness. A wisping trill of contrition purls from the pale column of her throat, chin bobbing in remorse, as if to apologise in her own strange language - hesitant reproach pooling in her glacial gaze. 

The word - home - halts her stirring motions similarily as if she were approaching or reaching to reassure him, ears fluttering to life as if sparked into action by the vaguely familiar notion. It was one Urä'd used occasionally but that place, that home, was no more. Surely her new acquaintance didn't mean that distant hollow. 

With the same slow, tentative actions of the male, Siki turned and limped to the brambles that were her walls, the groves her roof, the rushes of needle-strewn ground her bed. Bending, the mute gingerly took a corner of the worn deer pelt in her jaws and gave a gentle tug - pulling into sight a sliver before dropping it to face the leader once more. 

This is "home", her impish grin seemed to say as a slow wag swished her curly tail to and fro.