The Tangle i always thought i was homolingual, turns out i'm bi

@Ingram

As everything comes to a halt with the disruption in Drageda, Furi loses her time to focus on something else. It does give her a better advantage to avoid everyone. Especially Blixen. She doesn’t train for a few days, skirts along the borders opposite times she knows the fiery girl will be there, and keeps to herself. Slipping from the borders is easy enough, the ground has started to thaw out and the snow has begun to melt. Her tracks won’t be obvious anymore as she picks up the pace and runs, footprints evening back out after a few moments as the wet ground readjusts.

She finds herself in the tangle shortly after and works to find a familiar path through the southern forest which involves a series of jumps and ducks and crawling under one particularly uncomfortable fallen tree.

Eventually, she finds a small, dark stream canopied by thick-branched trees and sniffs around for anything interesting.

ok to be set when ingram first leaves grim?

already he had set back on his tracks - once, twice, thrice -- each time as unsuccessful as the last. wylla's scent weaved in and out and then departed again, and he had already gone along the southern beaches where she had presumably traveled before a change of mind. he didn't understand it, but his nose didn't lie -- and frustrated, he delved into familiar territory with a huff.

as he came across furi he was clearly agitated, though he tried to crease his rumpled features so she did not detect his state -- she was nosing along a gurgling stream when he cleared his throat, his ears plastered to his skull and his expression subtly distraught.

The bubbling stream is distracting enough not to hear from coming, starling when he clears his throat. She jumps and starts at him, but stops herself a beat later and firmly plants against the ground. The swirl of emotion makes her head spin but with a release of a shaky breath, she feels back to normal.
 
“Hey,” she says, wondering if it had been difficult for him to get to this spot or if he has an easier way she hasn’t found. But she notes the drop in his expression and frowns, stepping forward to close the distance and press her nose gently against his. Normally he has some quip ready for rapid fire despite her obvious own distraught times but she can’t find it in her to do the same, not when her own heart hurts too. “What’s wrong?”

he hadn't meant to startle her, and as she jolted like a deer he flattened himself somewhat to appear less frightening -- my bad, oops, ingram thought to himself as he carefully forded the stones towards her. she had already made her way over, and as she tentatively reached out with a muzzle ingram knew there was no concealing his worry from her, for she had already detected it.

he swallowed and gave a wave of his tail -- it was the most dejected thing he had ever done --  and he spilled the beans promptly with a rush of anxiety in his voice: "hey. wylla's gone and i can't find her and every time i go back to where her scent was last i just lose it again, and i just.. i'm worried? she didn't even say goodbye, and now i can't find her." admittedly, ingram was so wrapped up in his own tragic story he hadn't caught the subtle heaviness of her own heart -- not yet.

Furi has a thread with Wylla but I... don't know how much she knows. >_>

She frowns when he speaks of his distress, a twist of her lips feeling some sting of something familiar. He opens up about his missing sister and his worry that he can’t find her. She opens her mouth to say something but clicks her teeth together, anxiety rushing in as her own grief is shadowed. Her brows knit together with concern and she takes a deep breath, once more setting aside her problems to make room for his. “Where do you think she would go?” she asks, ears cupped forward. There hasn't been any other news with the wolves in the sound and Drageda at least can be crossed off as culprits, certain she wouldn't be okay with any sort of captivity.

ingram only scarcely caught the weight of the sigh that expelled from her chest; surprised, he turned to face her, noting the worry that fretted her muzzle. he doubted she harbored any love at all for his sibling, and for a moment seemed suspended in tentative afterthought.

"i don't know." he answered unhelpfully, in part because he was stung by the abandonment. "if you haven't seen her... your pack wouldn't have taken her, would they..?" he asked, ears splayed to his side in worry. "what's going on?"

Ingram seems slightly distracted as he answers the question, and then asks if Drageda would have taken her given the chance. “We don’t keep captives,” she tells him quickly, hardening her look—hey, she doesn’t know it’s a lie—and she almost misses the concern in his voice for her own worried expression.
 
“I don’t know if I…” she pauses, realizing she doesn’t know what she wants to say. She stares at him for a long moment, searching his face. He’s always have genuine expressions, wearing his emotions on his sleeve, never having to question what he’s feeling. “I don’t know how much more I can handle,” she finally says in honesty, “I feel like I’m just… going to explode. And sometimes I get so… I don’t know. Worried? I get dizzy and everything spins and just, I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
 
Word vomit. Her stomach churns.

the hardness in which she answered his question was enough to firmly put that matter to bed. ingram's mouth shut with a clack, and he looked away for a moment, as if a silent apology for his insensitivity in asking. she was right -- they weren't like grimnismal wolves -- and it had been rude to even ask.

his gaze turned back to furi as she spoke, unraveling with detail feelings ingram never had the articulation to name. he nodded, mostly in sympathy -- but also because in a way, he knew that feeling. maybe not as well as her, and maybe not to the same extent -- but that feeling of being ragged, a timebomb -- he was at least reluctantly familiar with it.

knowing all things had a root, he asked: "why? like -- what's causing it?"

Furi struggles to find words to what she want to say, to how she feels. Seri tried to calm her down one day and it worked a little but she hasn’t seen the girl around in a while. Can she be honest with her? It seems too risky; there’re too many chances for her to possibly tell someone else and that’ll be the end. But Ingram? “I can trust you, right?” she asks, hesitantly. It’s already started. It’s a Big Deal. “Like if you run into any of my pack mates, you won’t say anything?” she follows through, looking at him with hope in her owlish eyes.

ingram might have expected a couple of things - but not the question of whether she could trust him or not. he shifted, an ear pulled back in worry; trust him why? how?

not that he wasn't trustworthy -- ingram thought himself extremely reliable -- but what demon was skulking around in furi's head that she asked in that kind of way?

his tail stirred limply and he offered a concerned but genuine smile. "your pack, if it ran into me, would sooner bite me than hear me talk." he quipped, an exhale given in afterthought. "but you can trust me. what's going on?"

Furi stares at him for a few seconds before she bobs her head as if he has a point. Okay, fine. Right.
 
“When a wolf from Drageda found me, and brought me back… I didn’t think I would ever see my family again. I don’t know where they are or how to get there. I’d been so lost and almost dead when they found me, and I couldn’t… it felt weird to tell them about them, so I told them I didn’t remember my family and I gave them a different name,” she starts, rambling off the first thing that comes to mind but she doesn’t slow down to give him a chance to ask questions if she doesn’t make any sense. “But when I told you last time about my mom? I’d—” she hesitates, closing her eyes, heavy from tears threatening to spill over and she struggles to keep from losing whatever composure she has left.
 
She takes a deep breath and ungracefully plops herself down onto the ground. Her mom is the last thing she wants to think about but she’s already opened the floodgates. After releasing her lungs, she tries again. “I found my sister, and she told me everything that happened after I’d gotten lost. That our mom died and our dad wasn’t our dad anymore, and I-I-I…” she stammers, shaking her head. She’d buried it so far down, not having a single wolf she can share in her grief. “I can’t tell any of them because they’ll know I’ve been lying and Blixen is mad at me because she doesn’t understand and, fuck,” she stops abruptly when she struggles for a breath, blinking several times as her head leans back, trying to keep the panic at bay long enough to finish speaking and now look like an idiot in front of Ingram.

oh boy.

ingram knew he was in for floodworks the second furi's position wavered -- but he could not prepare himself for the stirring of pain in his stomach, for seeing her so upset. he wanted desperately to patch it up, to chase whatever demons existed out from her life completely.

he hung suspended for a moment, ears askance as she explained. even so, it didn't make much more sense to him. a thousand questions pressed to his tongue.

he suppressed every one.

instead, he took a tentative step forward -- and then, providing his approach was not fought, he awkwardly pressed his nose into her forehead in an embrace that was meant to be reassuring but somehow, felt incredibly futile. "maybe.. maybe blixen will come around." he spluttered, not even sure how to handle this situation -- jesus christ, it was a mess.

"it doesn't matter what you said. she's mad at you because she doesn't get it -- not because she doesn't like you." damn, he hated to play mediator, especially to two potentially very cute, very frisky ladies -- but it still gave him grief to see either upset.. even though both had touched his ass.

especially cause both had touched his ass.

"you should.. you should tell her everything. if she's still mad then, then she's not worth your time."

She closes her eyes when he steps forward, canting her head forward as he presses against her, trying to find comfort in his words. He states the obvious answer and somewhere deep down she probably already knew this but hearing it from someone else already brings it out. Of course she should talk to her, explain what happen, what’s the worst that could happen? Blixen’s so mad at her now that surely she’ll tell the others, and if her mother finds out, well—she shudders.
 
Maybe, if she tells her somewhere with an escape route—like, say, the borders—she can finally tell her everything. If it goes poorly, she can take the easy route and run out.
 
“I want to,” she says softly, taking a deep breath and pulling away by a few inches to look at him. She needs to tell Blixen, at some point. “I don’t know if she’ll forgive me, knowing it’s been a lie.”

ingram felt lame for stating the obvious -- really, he did -- but furi's acceptance of it made him feel a little more confident. he puffed up a little, concern vexing his stark features. he didn't like seeing furi this way - distraught, upset -- yet it seemed, invariably, this was how he always encountered her.

he wanted to change that -- to make her life better -- to have some small part of a joy he believed she deserved. "what if i come with you..? for support?" he offered, tail held tentatively behind him and his ears cupped apprehensively forward.

Ingram offers his support but she knows that’s not possible. It would involve taking Blixen out of Drageda and putting her with the enemy. She doesn’t know what about her and that’s a whole other can of worms she’d have to sift through. Would the girl even trust her at that point?
 
Furi shakes her head after and looks to the ground, sighing heavily in defeat. For a while longer they talk but, ultimately, Furi leaves her friend behind for the last time and returns to Drageda.