OOC:Breeding might occur! Be warned
Inevitably, her steps would lead her into the Vale once more, but it was without an air of pomp or enthusiasm. As if taking the steps toward her end, she had marched fairly slowly beyond its borders, welcoming the scent as if it were an old and bitter friend. She had loved the Vale and those that dwelt within it… but how easily she made to resent them by one. It was not their fault, yet she was accompanied with a manner of distance for the whole.
Of all the lands within the territory, she avoided the sacred tree, fearing that should she look upon its bark she would find the blood of her elder upon it. The blood drawn from vengeful fangs in his loss of another. She did not know whether the fragile female had been found. The warden had been gone since the following morning of the avalanche. Her duties to her brethren shamefully forfeit in lieu of pursuit to clear her mind. And yet, rather than the enlightenment and peace she sought, she was met with anger, hurt, and an overwhelming disdain for those that dared to call themselves wolves. She had been a victim of the senseless lust of another. Unmarred still, yet his scent was not easily masked by the pines, nor the mountain air for that matter. It clung to her as a mark of shame and as a reminder of the dangers that lurked beyond their borders.
Her encounters with the Creek had all but fallen from memory…
Days were passed in solitude for the female. When once she had looked forward to the warmth found alongside her companion and mate, she now dreaded crossing his path for fear of the stain that might mar his face. She had returned, yes. But she had left without a word to her own devices, wrought with an anger she did not understand and felt the weight of it still, pressing painfully upon her heart. She could not go to him in this manner… or at all, she feared. How was she to look into the eye of one she loved when the threat of her anger revealing remained at the forefront? How could she speak to him now after such time had passed?
Just before the setting of dusk, she returned to her earthen den fashioned from the roots of a dying tree. Her claws scraped against the earth, pulling away a little more to accommodate her bulk. Four days and nights she had spent hollowing this den, making a home for herself as she had intended to do the first day within the Vale. |
Restless. The beast could not find comfort in anything as of late. Every moment he cast his gaze towards the avalanche, he felt a deep bitterness roil within him. A bitterness for all the trauma it has caused, for uprooting the simply way of life he had lived before. His Lham had been in good health, protected, and his light had been by his side. His only concern had been to monitor the borders and ward off those who thought ill of his watchfulness, enough to trespass. Then the mountains fell, and he was left with a collection of injured wolves and few, if any healers; Lham suffered the detachment of feeling from her hind limbs, now unable to travel. Larch, Leatherface and Velox were still recovering from being buried as well, and the monk was nursing the near fatal wounds Raheerah had unleashed upon him. It would seem that only he, Xi'nuata and Acacia were in proper health, and just as he needed her, she had vanished, too.
The dragon did not know what to call the feeling residing in his gut. It was fashioned of anger, surely, displeased by the fact that his light had left the confines of the Vale, abandoned her packmates when they were most in need of the comfort only she could provide. There was desperation, not the way he felt in searching for Lham, but for her to come back. An unspoken, largely unrecognized hope that she would return to aid him further. And something a little like sadness at the fact alone that she was gone. If he'd ever realized this feeling, he would never admit it - it was frustration for the fact that he needed her, and she was not here.
Raheerah could not spend the time outside of the borders searching for her. He was restrained to the collection of injured wolves whom he tended to as best he could, following the instruction of Lham and Velox to find and administer herbs. It was a petty job - he hated it. He was unfit to care for others. Doing so filled him with mild disdain for their inability. He knew it couldn't be their fault, but he hated them for it anyways. It was for this reason he had traveled away from them again, searching for a herb that would match the description Lham had given him, when instead of the bittersweet stench of the plant he found the aroma of his light.
At long last, he realized a trail of her fragrance was freshly entering into the Vale. Raheerah abandoned his mission, turning around himself and immediately tracking the path she had taken. He found her scent against trees and bushes, in the pawprints she'd left impressed on the soil. Eventually, it led him to an old den, crafted seemingly months ago, where her scent lingered the strongest. Why had she come here? Why not to Raheerah, to the rest of her packmates? Why not come to the ones that needed her? The beast lingered a dozen or so feet outside of the den, uttering a guttural bark and summoning her from her chamber.
Fatigue had settled into her mind before it overtook her body, yet when it had it was relentless, dragging her paws and belly to the earth near instantaneously. She hadn’t eaten since her return as her mind had been preoccupied with what to make of the Vale now that she had returned. Too fixed on avoiding the others and her mate, she had allowed herself to dwindle however subtly… shamefully.
As the brunt of exhaustion pulled her to the earth, she crawled into her den for seclusion, yet her eyes had not yet close before a call most familiar drew her ears to its entrance. She had yet not slipped far into the darkness of the den. A glimmer of fading light would have caught the dulling sheen of beige folds as she turned, enlightening the seeking eye that indeed she as present and had heard his voice. Yet her body was tired and her mind distant. She returned his summon with a permitting beckon of her own; soft in its tone yet played on tired chords. The wolf but turned her muzzle from the darkness to the entrance of the den. Her eyes downcast as she stared blankly at the dark paws of her mate. Her tail pat the ground in subdued greeting, but no word was uttered on her behalf. |
He waited somewhere between tolerance and impatience for her disappearance, but above most of it, he was simply relieved to know she had come back. Her scent was fresh enough, but he had begun to doubt the truth of the trail before he saw movement within the shadow of the den. It was followed by a bark, soft and fatigued. The dragon's brows knitted together, and he slowly drew towards the den. His skin quaked with a slight chill, despite the warmth of the spring day. There were many questions he would ask of her - where had she gone and why, what had she done to exhaust herself enough to seek the shelter of this den, and not her own, let alone even reporting to the remainder of the pack on her return?
Raheerah hovered at the entrance, gazing down at the female curled up within the shadows of her nest. A desire to touch, to smell, to experience her again overwhelmed the beast. He dropped into a crouch and edged towards her, inching closer to her body, enough to try and press his nose into the loam of her ear. But in doing so, he caught not only her scent, but another. As his nose lingered near the side of her face, it twitched, filled with the aroma of his light and the unfamiliar musk of a male.
Confusion led him to freeze, trying to analyze what he was experiencing. It wasn't strange to smell other wolves on his packmates. Even Xi'nuata carried the perfume of their packmates from time to time. But the scent was different from all of those. It belonged to a wolf he did not recognize and, even more bewildering, it carried with it the hot sting of hormones within his nostrils. It was a combination he found all too discomforting and quickly enough he realized what it meant. A rumbling emerged in his throat. It was slow at first, quiet, but multiplied in its strength as his jaws slowly opened with the drawing back of his lips. Lips that twitched, fangs that had damn nearly wrapped around her neck before he wrenched himself away from her. It was all he could do to keep himself from tearing into her.
Raheerah stepped back from the den, a low thunder persisting in his chest as he stared at his wife, teeth bared, as if caught in the process of lunging. But he kept himself at bay, trying to organize his mind amid a cloud of furious and confused thoughts. He didn't want to hurt her, but every instinct begged for him to act in his fury; instead, he steeled himself, lost in his own internal frenzy.
She waited for his approached but with an unexplainable apprehension for his presence. Her heart had missed him. The sight, the smell of him, the feel of his warmth even in the midst of spring. Yet in the same manner she desired him, she was detoured from him by the savagery, the passion exhibited on behalf of another. Days had gone, an agreeable time to perhaps forget what had transpired, yet she was unnerved by it still. There were questions of her own unasked resting on her lips as they shook with uncertainty. Yet silence became her as she felt the air shift with the movement of his powerful form. The great distance closing between them as she felt the soft grace of his muzzle against her nape.
…then came his retreat. Swift and sudden that even her calmed mind reeled, pulling her head from its lying spot to rise and witness his alarm. Her eyes were wide as shock became them. Her muzzle shook with a soundless whine as she watched his posture stiffen and teeth bared at the sight of her. His nostrils were flared, indicative of all she need know. And to him she only lowered her head, turning her eyes to the earth as she braced her paws against the soil.
Soundlessly, she uncurled from her seclusion to stretch out with a single step to emerge from the darkness. Ignorantly, she had hoped the scent of the Ridge wolf could have faded with time, but even she had come to know that the charged scent of another was not easily extinguished. It remained as a mark, a brand, until otherwise overwritten. Yet she was not so unfortunate to have the brand embedded so deeply and permanently. Lethargic, she bore her flank to her mate, looking neither to him nor the earth as she stood still. Her tail flagged to the side as it curled high against her thigh. Her head dipped low and shoulders slackened in open posture, as she left herself open to his inspection of her fidelity. |
She avoided his gaze, glancing away even as she rose and emerged from the den to stand before him. His skin crawled and his muscles ached to launch at her and throw her to the ground right there. What did it mean? Why did she let another grow so close to her, only to return here? Did she intend to use it against him? Had she been meaning to make a fool of him all this time? To take the satisfaction she had given him? She had become a weapon, all of her, every point of her existence now stood as an affront to him, because he had trusted her and held her above the others. He'd made an exception for her. Did that mean anything to her?
Without words, she exposed herself to him. The stench of the other male came in full, nearly choking him in its strength. It made his own hormones flare. His blood grew to boiling and saliva pooled in between his gums. Her bared flank beckoned to his hungry jaws, wishing to sink his teeth into her. And do what? "Dooo yoou intend to make a foool of me, Xi'nuata?" Raheerah suddenly roared, spitting each syllable in the haste of his anger. "Do you thiink I aam a creature to be tessted, Xi'nuata?" That very same fire of rage blazed within the single orange eye set into his skull, the eye that transfixed on her, searching for some kind of answer.
He hated it. He wanted the stench of the stranger to go away, for now as it lingered in the air, it taunted him. Maliciously he wished to abolish the smell, anyway he could. He wanted to destroy the other male, every and any part of him he had left behind. In the storm of animal urges that had risen within him, he was compelled to wipe away the stench with his own, if only to spite him, to spite Xi'nuata for her perceived unfaithfulness, to prove that he could not be undermined by the one he called his mate. She had left the Vale, left him, without saying anything - only to give herself to some other male and the beast could feel only anger. It infuriated him. It hurt him.
She anticipated the fires of the beast to consume her. Be them be stirred by the accusations of what had transpired, or his rage for her return with the smell of another still deeply inlaid in her coat. She had seen his worst, she had seen the flash of his fangs against their leader. And had she learned anything from it, it was that none were spared the wrath of the beast when unleashed. She simply surrendered to the fact her turn was drawing nigh.
However she did not stand in her silence for long. An ear turned as he lashed, though her body would not flinch. Simply, she turned her muzzle toward him breathing in as she worn chords found the strength to utter a whisper of sound. “Do you believe my feelings for you are fleeting, my shadow?” Though she grasped for strength in her own convictions, it did nothing to mask the hurt in her voice. “…so easily swayed that I would another come near?” Slowly, she turned her tail to a relaxed posture between her thighs. Her muzzle turned toward his yet her eyes remained respectfully cast to the ground.
“It was not my choice…” she continued in broken verse. “…and I fought against it. My loyalty… all that I am, is only for you, my shadow. I would not have shared my desire for your pups if I did not intend to remain by your side. Do you think me disloyal? Untruthful?” |
She seemed capable of withstanding the poison that he spewed at her. Had he not been confronted with a whole array of different feelings, Raheerah probably would have felt guilt at his accusations. But that feeling was lost among all the others, aroused briefly before it was quelled by all of his anger. If there was anything behind the words that she spoke, it was sincerity. He recognized it, but her gentle voice, the soothing chords that so usually caused his heart to ease itself, only served to infuriate him further. If she'd wanted to remain by his side, she wouldn't have left. She had gone for a reason and now she was blatantly lying to him.
Her claims would not matter. Nothing would matter; he had a solution. Born not of tact, but instinct; he parted his jaws and uttered a resentful "Wee will seee." followed by the choleric thunder of a snarl. The beast no longer functioned on rationality. He should have stepped back and considered her words, considered her condition; he could have examined her as she offered, and trusted in her. But he didn't. He didn't trust her, he hated the male that he smelled, he wanted back what he felt had been taken from him.
The dragon wasted no time lunging for her, reaching her side and arching his neck to grab a hold of her spine between his teeth. He was heedless for her, uncaring of whether his teeth would puncture her skin. His intention was only to hold her in place, not to injure her - but if it happened, so be it. Let it serve as a reminder. At the time his jaws aimed to meet her spine, his front leg hooked over her back, so that he would hold her between his forelimbs while still standing perpendicular to her body, to ensure that he would have her in his grasp, to warn her not to escape from him.
OOC: Mature things mind happen! Shield your eyes!
In his voice was no belief for her words, only the fire of his rage and the decision he had made for himself. They were finite, frightening, curling the claws of the female as they dug deep to anchor herself within the soil. Her body braced itself on instinct against the staggering rise of his impending fury. But she was not afraid- for fear meant she was guilty of what she had been accused. She was innocent, whether his crazed eye in that moment refused to believe it or not. Rather she be lashed for her honesty in loving and remaining loyal to the behemoth, than cower and further whatever dark assumptions he possessed. She would not fight against him should his fangs turn toward her.
And inevitably, it came to thus, though her convictions remained strong even as her body succumbed to the lacking nourishment and fatigue. Shamefully vulnerable, had her frame been more fragile than the thick bone beneath her flesh, she would have collapsed then from his sudden lunge and forceful clasp of his teeth upon her spine. The pain was unfamiliar and unkind as vengeful teeth slipped seamlessly through the russet ridge to puncture flesh. And though she cried in alarm and let her anchors release the earth, she did not make to flee from his grasp and endured his pain. Even as his front leg draped possessively over her back and bore a portion of his weight into her, she did not attempt to find the refuge of her den but a few feet away. She remained as still as she was able, head low and ears laid back in submissive fashion. Even her tail tucked from its relaxed posture to press within the crème folds of her belly. Her silence was her compliance that she would not act against him, but succumb to his will. |