Swiftcurrent Creek and you thought one day you'd be happy

heat thread 1/?
what comes from these threads will be entirely dependent on who joins!

Her skin crawled.

It had become overly apparent to her what this was. The smart thing to do may have been to hold up in a den for a while, let it all blow over.

Instead she crawled out into the dawn's light. Investigating the scents that cluttered the creek, prepared to follow them and undoubtedly adding her own scent along as she went.

Perhaps this was the tool she needed most of all — or perhaps it might throw a wrench into things.

akavir and arric had given lestan a higher rank than he thought he might receive! and so for a time he did not go to see reverie. he kept himself busy with marking and stropping, with shaving bark from trees, with hunting small game and digging new caches.
and still the dancing-girl did not leave his mind, not even when a tendril of scent hooked lestan by both nostrils and his male body, and he veered at once blindly in that direction.
one of their new ones, a dark woman; the perfume was hers lestan felt quite helpless but kept sense enough not to crowd her, only clearing his throat and halting some feet away. "settling in?"
the words came out strangled.

Settling in?

Her head turned to peer with wide pale eyes. Warmer toned than Akavir or Arric.

Jakoul stay. She nodded softly. Then dared to snake and weave her way closer. To him and his form. Investigating from a within reach distance. The soft sound of her sniffing.

A slightly raised brow as she sought to look into his face now.

"jakoul! that is very p-pretty," the poor mayfair stammered as she approached. he was polite but still a man, still hopelessly and poignantly aware of her hips, the length of her limbs, the look in her eye. and above all, her scent, circling them in a transparent aura of want.
"i-i am lestan! mayfair! akavir is my — well, we're cousins, i think." his mouth felt parched, which in turn seemed ironic given the fact their home was dominated by a creek.

Pretty!

No, she could never be. Not in this haunted frame with her uneven gait. Pretty was the way of other women, with their wiles and graced forms.

Lestan. Related to Akavir.

Lestan. She croaked out warmly. Her tail dared to offer a few friendly waves behind her. Then she pattered off a few steps!

Yet her look remained warm, welcoming.

the whip of her tail sent lestan into a veritable and internal tailspin which surely showed on his face. jakoul did not enchant him in the same way as reverie, but her scent bewitched the back of his brain and his traitorous body was responsive.
lestan fought for composure and followed a couple of steps, not right at her heels but at a small distance and an angle, keeping away from her haunches even as his lusty flesh cried out to pull her closer to him. "have you met everyone yet, jakoul? i haven't. but the new man, kigipigak. i know him." mumbling. chunnering. anything to keep his head from being sapped.

Bobbed and weaved.

A dagger wielded by a force beyond both of them. The hand of Sobek perhaps, the only tendril of Akashingo left on her in those moments.

Arric. Akavir.

Her teeth exposed in a momentary, rare smile. It had not been a smile made to charm or delight.

You.

She moved to snip teeth delicately at his front toes. Taunting and teasing, but never with malice! She had no intention of letting him as near as @Akavir had been. Yet that did not mean she would drive him away entirely either.

he was horrified! stymied! transfixed! her teeth flashed and he danced backward, backward. 
"oh!" he laughed, weakly, tripping on a sixth step and sitting down hard in the snow. his honeycomb eyes were wide, focused on her.
"s-should i go?" lestan wanted to run.
he wanted to stay.

He wished to go!

She had not expected him to crumple so easy. Had she been too mean? Too bold? All at once she eased her approach.

Now sunken some, as her tail dared to give a few very brief wags behind her. Yet she offered his personal space back to him at once. A soft warm rumble in her throat.

Want go? Want stay?

"want stay,"' he repeated in a mumble before he could catch himself; he smiled shakily at her and then stood, swiping snow from his coat. "i mean, i'd like to stay."
was this why akavir had been calling him?
"i should stay, too," the mayfair said thoughtfully. "just in case, i suppose!"

Stay.

She prompted him in an agreeable tone.

Then dared to dive forward again. A nip at his shoulder this time. Then she bounded back off a few steps.

A wild look about her.

she was feral and rapt and in a moment lestan bounded after her. it was only play, he told himself, simple enough for packmates.
but his heart raced wild; he tried to keep a consistent space between them both, lest he fall into temptation and the scent that enveloped him so warmly.

She was positive to let him know when he was too close.

Never malicious, but the click of teeth would become a bit sharper. Direct. Still she wished to lead him far away, down towards the edge of the creek.

A soft bark escaped her, as she danced along stone now. Moon eyes looked for his form.

lestan followed and little by little jakoul set a boundary-line behind which he felt quite a bit more safe. he was absolutely following temptation, but the little glints of her teeth said she would not allow him to succumb to it.
and so he followed and pulled away in a lope, trying to distract himself with little mice-tracks or where a woodpecker had drilled into an oak trunk, and so on and so forth, leaping back to their play when it felt she wanted his attention again.