Big Salmon Lake to release this serendiptious design

For @Harlyn!

They had set off from the Plateau without ceremony. Mordecai had asked Harlyn to join him as he set off to with the message that he was to deliver to a certain someone of the Caldera, and she had. The company made the travel go smoothly and quick and by the time dusk had settled the pair of wolves found themselves beginning to crest the muddy banks of the lake. It had been a long while since Mordecai had found himself there, but memory served him well as familiar landscapes rolled back into view. They had avoided the fringes of even the furthest reach the Spine could have had and in turn, had also avoided the dark woods that had housed his former attackers.

"Looks like it's going to be a clear night," he murmured to his darker-marked companion. He set his gaze to find her for a moment, a thin smile crossing his face. He didn't imagine they would go too much further for breaking to rest, and behind it came the former promise of a little story telling. He didn't feel he was much good when it came to tales, but all the same, he hoped to make good on it once the sun had fully set and they found themselves at ease for the night.

the dear hunter — his hands matched his tongue

There hadn't been an ounce of reluctance in her when she'd accepted the invitation to join Mordecai on his trip to the Caldera.  She rarely turned down any chance to spend time with the man of her dreams, and the idea of traveling together brought a peaceful sense of nostalgia to the druid.  Perhaps this would be the opportunity she had hoped for - to confess her feelings for him and of her hopes and dreams for their future together.  The idea made her insides stir with nerves, but also with excitement for all that might come of their conversation.  It could all go terribly wrong, but it could all just as easily go so wonderfully, blissfully perfect.


Harlyn's eyes were upon the skies when Mordecai commented on the starlit night it appeared was impending.  She smiled gently at his words and slowly moved her head until she met his golden eyes with hers of glowing embers.  She had to remind herself to breathe for just a moment when she saw him, so much like that first night they'd spent together.  Gods, could he be any more beautiful?  "Perhaps tonight I can hold you to that offer you made to me?" she suggested, leaning into her next words with a humored grin, "..once upon a time?"  She chuckled gently at her own joke.

It came as no surprise to him that Harlyn was swift in bringing up his offer about the stars. She had seemed genuinely intrigued about what he knew, though he was also aware that she was simply intrigued about him in general. That sort of thing sparked a certain interest in him as well, though he couldn't have said it was so much of an interest as an uncertainty. After all, she had travelled with him in spite of his own original plan of going alone and now... she had sought him out simply because she didn't want to be away from him. There was much about the world that he was evidently clueless of, but her interest in him was not one of those things. Simply how he felt about it, that was the real mystery.

"I suppose I'd let you," he answered slyly, "but we should find somewhere to rest our heads for the night first. Give the sky a little more time to show us what's there... and give me a little more time to acquaint myself with what is there." His ending remark was humorous even to him, because he had not once lied about what he did know. There were parts of it gone, pieces of those stories that he didn't think he could remember. He hoped it would come back to him, but there were plenty of things that hadn't come back to him over the years.

"What spot looks good to you? Don't pick somewhere that will give us bugs," he teased then.

The bugs probably weren't even out yet, anyway.

Without a smidgen of begging required on her part, Harlyn got her companion to agree to sharing his tales with her that evening.  Her tail betrayed her normally calm demeanor by wagging eagerly at her haunches, giving away her excitement at the prospect.  She looked back up towards the sky when he suggested they wait for the night to darken further, simply wanting to gauge how long it would take.  It seemed they still had a good amount of twilight on their hands before the main event of the night, which Harlyn didn't mind at all.


She chuckled at his comment and agreed with his suggestion with a nod.  It was a good idea for them to find somewhere to rest.  It had been a long day of travel thus far and her paws were quite excited for the break.  Harlyn's gaze slipped across the terrain and she bit her lip thoughtfully, mulling over where to settle in for the evening.  "Hmmm..." she mused for a moment before giving him a little grin, "You want to tempt fate and spend the night out in the open?  There's a little ridge further down right against the shore that we could settle down on."  She gestured with her muzzle along the edge of the lake towards the area she'd referenced.  It was covered in grass and looked like it would offer them both comfort and a gorgeous view of the sky over the lake.

He followed her gaze to find what she was referencing — a nice little neat ridge tucked away. He didn't recall seeing it before, but he hadn't been paying much attention to the scenery at all. Something else had caught his eye then and now, well, it was beginning to get dark enough that he didn't think anything about the surrounding terrain other than his company would worry what he saw or didn't see.

"Well, if we get bugs I guess it's just a short roll into the water," he went on to say, starting to make his way towards it. He peered back to catch Harlyn in his sights with a cheeky thin smile. "But I trust your judgment. I don't think you'd have us going and catching a plague that we'd have to deal with." Mordecai found it fun to use a little lesser used banter; everything had been business for so long that it felt good to unwind once again. And truthfully, he found that he held his reservations for sharp banter in most company.

Harlyn smirked at his comment as they began to steer their path towards the ridge.  She couldn't help but roll her eyes as he continued, though there was fondness evident in the shake of her head and the look she gave him when her eyes once again found his handsome face.  "I certainly don't intend for that to happen," she assured him, "But if it does, I promise on my honor as a healer that I shall promptly push you into the lake to help you wash them away."  She chortled as she said it.

"Fair enough," he couldn't help but answer, amused with the thought of Harlyn pushing him into the waters. Perhaps a side note to that was his inclination to almost say that he'd rather not be pushed into the waters, but the memory of being shoved beneath those waters was nothing more than a passing concern. As they reached the narrow strip that she had chosen, he sank low towards the earth in a long stretch. It was only then that he felt the comfort that the soft grass held in spite of its unruliness already.

They had a good little hike, though it was really more than that. The mileage already covered was more than he had expected. For as long as his own injures had lingered around, they had not been as bad as he had felt them to be; his overall ability to trek lengthy distances was not as diminished as he would have thought, but why would they have been? Mordecai had long been at this traveling business. Breathing out noisily, he let contentness settle. "Yeah, this spot will do. Guess you have a knack for finding nice places to bed down for the night after all. You must have been tired of all those rocky ditches I'd find." He jested, though it was certainly nice to have her along for a small adventure all the same.

"Awh, don't sell yourself short," Harlyn replied with a grin as she settled down upon the grassy little knoll, "That last place at least had some specks of lichen on the rocks."  That hadn't made it much more comfortable in truth, but that was the whole point of the joke.  She really hadn't minded anywhere they'd chosen to rest during this adventure or the last.  Oddly, any terrain felt comfortable when she had such a good cuddle buddy at her side.

Speaking of which.. Harlyn let her gaze roam the Ostrega's frame while her nose went to work breathing in his scent, both working together to seek out any evidence that one of his injuries had decided to split back open.  It had been a while since he'd gotten into the altercation that caused the wounds, but their existence remained burned in Harlyn's mind.  "Are you holding up alright?" she asked, "Nothing hurting or anything, right?"

Another smile spread itself evenly across his features for a moment as he brought his head down to rest on his tired legs. He turned an ear to Harlyn's question as he took in the sights, not at all surprised by the concern that echoed in her tone. "No, not today. I think I've healed up finally." That whole mess could have been a lot worse, but he had skill and perhaps even luck on his side. Now all he could think of when it came to those wolves was that they had simply been looking for a while to get off and that was simply their way.

"What about you? Anything I should be worried about?"

Harlyn felt better when he assured her that he was fine and healed.  A smile slipped across her muzzle, but it was short-lived as he turned the question to her.  There was much on the Cinderloch's mind as of late - first her own desires to run away with Mordecai and start their beautiful, puppy-filled future together.  Secondly was something more... delicate...  Something she really wasn't sure how to broach with this particular individual.


"No, nothing to worry about - I'm fine," she insisted with a smile, "There is something I wanted to talk to you about though..."  Harlyn paused then, eyeing her companion to see his reaction.  She didn't want to continue if he felt the discussion was better saved for a different time.

There was truly no telling how Mordecai would react to such a topic. There was little inkling in his mind that Harlyn was planning anything, though it may have been a fair assumption on his part that he would not have been surprised. Yet nary a concern of this came to his mind as she trailed off, testing those waters like a timid kitten at a fish bowl edge. His turned ear became a gradual shift of his whole gaze, curiously interested in what it was that she had to say. His only prompt was a wordless gesture with his muzzle for her to go on — what did she need to discuss with him?

Mordecai made no sound to encourage her, and yet she heard him quite clearly.  She sucked in a breath before beginning, if only to give herself another few seconds to decided where to start.  "I came across Dante the other day, injured... badly," she said slowly, "I took care of him, of course.  I ran to Blue Willow's den and took some of her medicines and brought them back in order to treat his wounds.  He'll be fine, he is fine."  She added some emphasis to her words, wanting to reassure Mordecai first and foremost that there was nothing to worry about further for Dante.  Their alpha would recover... though perhaps his physical healing would be much easier and quicker than any emotional or mental recuperation...


"The thing is... I smelled the scent of a wolf on him..." Harlyn continued after a moment, "One of the pack, not a stranger.  I'm not sure who it was that attacked Dante; I don't know the pack well enough.  But I'm sure that it was one of them, though whoever it was is no longer amongst them."  She paused then to let him speak his mind, whatever words might be held there.

There was a certain note of tension that rose up in his body language subtly. It bothered him to hear what she had to say and it came most unexpected. Mordecai was removed enough from the day to day of the pack that he didn't have a firm grasp of what went on, and that was on purpose. With little desire to find himself caught up in the politics of it all, he didn't know what to think of this revelation. It was what Harlyn concluded with that brought his thoughts out into the open, however minute they were.

"Are you sure they're gone?" He wanted to believe that it had been a minor spat between wolves — it happened, anyway — but if it had been, he considered why Dante had not had the upper hand. And that troubled him, not because he didn't believe his friend could hold his own, but rather that there was something far more menacing lurking underneath the quaint facade of the Plateau.

Mordecai's question was an understandable one, and fortunately one that Harlyn could answer with the utmost certainty.  She gave a firm nod of her head before responding.  "After I made certain that Dante was stable, I tracked the scent beyond the borders," she told him, "I have not caught wind of any evidence to suggest that whoever it was has returned.  I believe whoever defeated Dante took his victory and fled the Plateau, perhaps to start on his own somewhere.. But apparently not to claim the pack for his own, as would... as would have been his right."  There was guilt in her tone as she concluded her statement.  She hated to think the thoughts that she did of Dante, but... 

"Perhaps Dante gave him a run for his money as well," Mordecai said with a hum, entertaining the thought that he had made a good play to chase out whoever it was that attacked him. The thought of their alpha losing did not appeal to him as a likely thing, though in reality it had most certainly happened. When it came down to the members of the Plateau, Mordecai did not know all of them. Some of those that he had known had already left, venturing off for whatever they deemed as greener pastures. As for himself, he hadn't made that ploy, not entirely.

Instead he drew in the assorted expressions that came to Harlyn's face as she spoke. "But this whole thing troubles you," he said, certain that he was right in his guess.

Harlyn canted her head slightly, showing her consideration for Mordecai's suggestion.  Perhaps Dante had given him quite the fight.  After all, the whoever-it-was had run off in the end.  Maybe Dante had actually driven him off.  The scene in which she'd found the alpha had not suggested it, but that didn't mean it wasn't the case.  Harlyn was a faithful believer in the spirits that guided her, but she did not profess to know as much as they.  But still.. there was one fact that she could not deny (though she was not likely to bring it up) - there had been far more of Dante's blood on the scene than any that belonged to the other wolf.


"It does," Harlyn admitted after a moment, fixing Mordecai with a truly apologetic look, "It's just... I feel so out of place, and truly uneasy being under the protection of a wolf who fell to one of his subordinates.  Even if he had been the one to drive his attacker off in the end... Simply the fact that one of his own felt the need to rise up against him is just... It's deeply trouble to me, Mordecai."

He understood what it was that she felt and imagined in his own shoes, he would have felt the same. Or should have felt the same. But instead he found a certain indifference to the whole thing. An indifference which overrode his instinct to be concerned, that reasoned it was far better in being something of an outlier than perhaps truly apart of the Plateau. And that hadn't come about suddenly, it was far more organic than that. He had tried to integrate with them on more than one occasion. While the strong core of the leadership had welcomed him in openly, he found more friction in the subordinates that were there. Perhaps the idyllic sensation he gathered from the Plateau was not because it was simply quiet and quaint — they were all outliers of their own.

But all of this did not come to him gradually, instead he almost ran with it in a different direction altogether. He stayed silent, as though there were more Harlyn was going to say even if she weren't. His own thoughts muddied, attributing to his silence. He didn't like that she was uncomfortable, that this event made her feel troubled. In some ways, he supposed that was himself clinging to threads better left to fray; in that wake came confusion and concern easily to his thoughts. He took his gaze off of her then, casting it over the dark landscape that stretched beyond the shore of the lake. And he thought, for a moment.

Mordecai was silent at her words, which caused her to falter in sharing more of them.  She knew that he felt a bond towards Dante, which she didn't fault him for in the least.  She adored Dante as a friend.  He was quiet and friendly, and there was a strength of character in him that she didn't find often in others.  But.. it wasn't enough to make him an alpha she felt comfortable following.  A trusted adviser perhaps; a beta, but not an alpha.  An alpha needed inarguable strength and power - a trait she saw perfectly in Mordecai, but had to admit she saw only glimpses of in Dante.


The druid was silent as she watched her companion's face.  She knew there were thoughts roaming through his mind and was loathe to interrupt them.  Like all things, they needed to run their course, and she would not be the dam that stood in the way.  But.. perhaps just a small rock in the middle of the river, parting the water for just a moment before it flowed past on its way...

Harlyn leaned silently towards him and pressed her nose first at the base of his ear, trailing her muzzle along his cheek where her tongue flicked gently against the tawny fur beneath his eye.  She continued her ministrations along his muzzle before stopping at his chin, which she bumped the tip of her nose lightly against before leaning slightly away to look at him.  There was an apology in her eyes that she didn't voice.  She didn't want to cause him to doubt his friend, but nor did she want to keep her feelings hidden from him.

Her touch was a grounding sort, though not in the comforting way. It could have easily become that, yet for as stubborn as he was he didn't let it be that. Instead he allowed it to be more of a grounding factor from the reality he wanted to separate himself from. It was enough to draw his attentions back to her and take note of that silent apology, though he hardly thought it was something that needed to be an apology. He had told him these things because she cared, because it needed to be told.

And all in all, it brought him back full circle to a similar feeling he had encountered with the Spine. Mordecai sighed. "I don't know," he said as something to simply fill the silent void that had spawned between them. "Maybe it's time to move on." That option was one that he found he didn't like the concept of either, but he wanted no part of any politics coming into play. Much like this venture to the Caldera on the horizon, he wasn't sure what to would come of it. What to expect of this wolf he was supposed to deliver a message to or how it would be received. And with all that had happened with Osprey as well, and Saena leaving them, he didn't know what to make of it. The Plateau would hardly falter in his eyes, but he didn't quite feel like it was fair to abandon them on pretext alone.

"What do you think should be done?"

The last thing Harlyn had expected was for Mordecai to so easily come to the suggestion she'd been hoping to put forth herself - that they move on from the Plateau.  And yet, there those words were, slipping quietly from his lips.  To her, it was proof once again that the great spirits had heard her prayers.  It was vindication for her also that her faith and trust in Mordecai had not been ill-placed.  There was greatness in him.  She had seen it in the Spine, she'd seen it that night in the moonlight, and she saw it every day since returning to his side.  He would too, eventually.  She knew he would.

Selfishly, Harlyn thought little of what would happen to the Plateau without them.  In truth, she would not have been too worried even if she had.  Were they all to act on her judgment, Lasher and Blue Willow would rise to alphaship over the Plateau and Dante would assume beta.  Or perhaps, he'd even come with her and Mordecai wherever they chose to settle down.  She did very much adore the platinum male, she just felt he had not yet found the right place in the world.  Lasher and Blue would have their children soon old enough to support them and to help the Plateau grow at any rate, so her words came with little regard for the pack they would leave behind.

"I think that you know what it is that I desire, what I've always wanted..." Harlyn replied softly, watching him.  She had never kept it a secret from him that her dream was to lead and to raise a family with a good, strong alpha.  There was one part of it that he likely did not yet know... "It's a future that I want to share with you.. if it's something that you want as well." 

She felt her heart pounding in her chest as she said the words and in the moments of quiet that lingered after she'd set them free.  What would he say?  What would he think?  It had been too much too soon, hadn't it?  Urgently she silenced the doubt in her heart to give him her full attention.  She was not a woman to beat around the bush about things, nor was she one to hide what was in her heart.  She could only be true to her self, step back and let fate do what it would.

look another shit post! way to be off my mordecai game here, haha... ;_; *has been channeling too many other things*

If anything, his indecision was not out of fear of commitment. Mordecai had little qualms about committing to things; his tenure in any pack could have easily spoke of that. But he had always been forward in his intentions, that he was transient and would not be tied down. Once that term had been met, he had relatively no issue in being productive. It was perhaps just as selfish as Harlyn absent concern for what would become of the Plateau, as he had no spared many thoughts for those he had left behind either.

So it was no secret that Harlyn was making a play for what she wanted here either, nor did it come as surprise when she spoke to him. His eyes stayed trained out on that horizon and he found himself surprisingly distant to the situation. The nagging sensation that he needed to be careful in his word choice was heard well, and it wasn't the first time he had come across that urgency to be choosy.

"I've never really put much stock into what the future will be," he said after a prolonged silence. "I like things to be simple, let them be what they'll be." He breathed out a sigh. He turned his attention to Harlyn, peering at her curiously. Searching for something he couldn't quite put his paw on, so to speak. "Why me?" Though he could see what she and others may have been able to see, he had never asked the question of what it was about him that made them think that way.

The silence stretched between them, yet Harlyn found her nerves were no more distressed from his silence than they had been during her confession.  There was no point in anxiety.  Her words had been shared already; there was no turning back.  All she could do was wait to see what fate would decide would happen next.


His response came slow and calculated.  It was not a no, but nor was it a yes.  It wasn't even anything promising.  It just... was... And Harlyn found herself uncertain as to how she should respond.  Simplicity was not something one often found in the life of a leader.  To be an alpha was difficult, stressful... But so rewarding at the same time, which made all of that struggle worth it.  She bit her lip, wondering if she should explain those facts, when he suddenly distracted her with a very simple question.

Why me?

"Because you are a wolf who would ask that question instead of assuming the answer," she replied almost immediately, a smile stretching steadily across her muzzle, "And because... You are strong and kind and loyal.  You are patient and wise, modest, and you have such a heart...  There is strength in you that is rare in this world - It is unassuming, but it is undeniable.  There is not a wolf that wouldn't follow you, and you wouldn't even need to ask them to - they follow you because they choose to, not because you ever would demand it of them."  That was a distinct difference she had noticed immediately between Mordecai and Cara.  The pack followed Cara because she tried so desperately hard to mold herself as their queen.  The pack followed Mordecai because he was a king.

GEE STEVIE, STROKE EGOS HERE

Her answer for as truthful as it was, did not come as a total surprise to him. Perhaps there were traits of himself that she put words to, but there was a summary there that made him wonder in their correctness. He was not unaware of how easily he had ascended in ranks, how there had been times when packs were wont to let him go when he decided to go. But they had; not once had Mordecai simply slipped away into the night without so much of a word to those that needed to know. He had earned the respect to do as he pleased, one way or another, through some instinctual effort.

And to say that it wasn't empowering to hear such details was a lie itself; he felt pride bubbling to hear that. A certain affirmation that had been absent throughout the short reign he had held with the Spine that he had a bit of a grip on things. Dante certainly trusted him as well, and he had felt he had earned approval out of Lasher and Blue Willow as well. Even Jinx had been approving of him, at least until sickness had riddled her head with the likes of slipping sanity. Yet in light of that surge of pride through him, he also was willing to smother it. It was enough to endear him to Harlyn all the same, and just a bit more.

All in all, it was enough to begin to put some pieces together for him. His silence had come back as she had finished and he found himself wanting to cut the quiet that filled it. "I guess I'll have to think about it. But not now, I think I owe you a story or two about the stars don't I?" A smile crossed his face then, his suggestion of a topic change not so easily hidden. But he had meant what he said, all the same, and presumed she would realize it as well.

I STROKE WHAT I MUST TO MAKE DREAMS COME TRUE wow what a great excuse to become a whore O:

Harlyn had expected the length of quiet that came after she'd spoken.  He would take what she had said and internalize it, bring it up again after a day or two and really give it some thought.  That was fine with her so long as he didn't just brush it off entirely, and she knew Mordecai well enough to know that he would not do that with the words of one he cared about.;

A smile slipped across Harlyn's lips when he responded finally.  She shut her eyes, taking a moment to thank the gods for bringing such a soul to her life.  He would think about it; they were another step closer to that perfect little home and those perfect little children.  Harlyn quickly pushed the thoughts away to focus on the moment at hand, which was a return to their initial reason for nestling in the open together on that particular patch of grass.

"Thank the gods, I'd thought you'd forgotten!" the druid replied with a light laugh, shuffling her weight a little to get comfortable (and maybe, ever so slightly and subtly leaning against him.. just a little... winky winky).

Lmao! I think it depends on what you're wanting that determines what needs stroking... >___>

Drawing his attention to the stars as she laughed, Mordecai spied out one of them peering over the terrain in the low light that remained. Burning brightly, he couldn't have been sure if it was truly a star or something else, but served as a fair point of starting. "Do you see that reddish one, peeking over what I think are those mountains?" He gestured, but it was a vague point based on perception alone.

"That little red star is called Antares. It's apart of a larger group of stars that look like a scorpion, or sort of. It's kind of hard to see it right now, but that little star is supposed to be the heart of the scorpion." As far as he was concerned, this wasn't much of a story as it was him recalling what he knew about the star itself. Constellations weren't entirely lost to Mordecai, but he was finding that any stories he may have had about the actual creature eluded him presently.