Blackfoot Forest it's gonna be a long night

@Midar <3

It was black as pitch when the girl prowled into the forest - unafraid of the darkness. 

Sharp claws pricked at the sensitive flesh between her shoulder blades, the weight of the bird shifted with her steps but the witch displayed no outward sign of discomfort. Detached, mismatched eyes scanned the tangled undergrowth for despite the silence of her steps - she's not so foolish as to truly believe she's alone in this forest. It seemed to breathe with a dark aura, and a shiver traveled down her spine though not from fear. 

With a harsh noise, the midnight girl dislodged the rider from her back. Iere took to wing with a disgruntled quork. A few soft flaps of dark wings and the witch found herself in silence with her thoughts. 

Her wandering path led her to what appeared to be the heart of the forest, at the center of the snaking black branches lay a bleeding heart of red and pink roses. The moon's light washed them out, turned them muted hues of greys and whites and blacks - all the colors of truth. 

Mati trailed through the blooms, deftly avoiding the thorns that snaked over the worn path, and came to stop amongst a cluster of roses. She curled her small frame within the flowers' embrace, feeling - childishly - that she might be sheltered from the world there. 

It was fitting that the first place Midar found himself after entering this new land would be this forest. It was dark and ominous here; a place where the beast should be. He had long ago started avoiding anything that might crumble under the darkness of his presence. It was for the best, really. He was a killer for hire, and his price was justice, but to him, what qualified as justice wasn't usually the same as with a well-adjusted wolf. He had risen from the ashes of his violent past with a severely misshapen idea of right and wrong. So for a long time, he pushed away any chance for a relationship of any kind. It was easier that way, and he didn't have to worry about explaining his decisions--not that he would anyway. The hermit lifestyle got old, though, and so he arrived here with the hope for something more than the lonely existence he had known for so long, even with the high possibility that he would crash and burn.

The strange blotch of color in the otherwise dark forest drew him. The beast padded silently across the shadowy floor, ears twitching slightly as the occasional eerie cry sounded in the distance. It wasn't until he was a few feet from the gathering of flowers that he noticed the scent of the stranger mixed in with the fragrant aroma of the roses. Upon further inspection, he noticed that she appeared to be...sleeping? In the middle of the forest? Eyebrows drawn together, he squinted his purple orbs, studying her for a minute before saying, That does not seem like the safest place to sleep. He watched her, ears slightly turned back, as he waited for her reason to be resting in such an open area.

A spider crawled along one of the stems, it seemed reluctant to climb onto any blooms, its tiny legs scuttling as it moved. Mati allowed a small smile for the creature, stretching out her muzzle so it could climb onto her inky nose. 

She dropped the arachnid into her folded legs, watching it crawl nimbly across one berry-stained paw. 

This was how he found her. 

The witch couldn't say for sure when she became aware of his presence - perhaps a twig had snapped or a rock had been accidentally kicked, perhaps she just sensed him. Mati lifted her head as he entered the garden, locking onto him with mismatched eyes. The spider scuttled away into the darkness. 

As he neared, questioning her, the Melonii let her gaze wander over him. She cocked a brow, finding it humorous that his first thought had been about where she was sleeping rather than the uncanny similarity between them. 

"It's a good t'ing I'm not sleeping t'en," she murmured in her strange lilt, raising to her feet and padding closer. 

On closer inspection, he reminded her of some of the family members she'd left behind, and she nearly cringed away from him. Mati remained still, studying him in silence, before finally turning away. 

"W'at's yer name?" she turned her head slightly, her cobalt eye turned on him. Her ears pricked curiously, waiting for his answer.

He watched her rise and move towards him, his face expressionless. It had been a while since Midar had seen any of his family, but she looked oddly like what he remembered them to look like. She had claimed she wasn't sleeping, and he didn't quite believe her, but honestly didn't really care enough to speak anymore about it. He had no real interest in what she did and didn't do and had merely been making an observation.

The strange female asked for his name, and he studied her form with his trained gaze. Deciding she was no threat to him, he answered, I am Midar Melonii.He was unaware that some of his distant relatives were scattered across these lands, and so did not think anyone would recognize the surname. There was once a time, shortly after his escape, that he would have refrained from ever uttering his last name for fear of recapture, but that fear no longer plagued him. he dared those bastards to come after him now; the beast welcomed the chance to bathe in their blood.

He didn't ask for her name in return. She could offer it if she wanted to; the beast didn't care either way.

As he spoke, Mati turned to look at him again. There was something off about the dark one before her, something lackluster to the emptiness in his eyes and voice. He seemed a mere puppet; pull the strings and make it talk. There was no emotion to the husk he called a body. 

"Mobi ui thric ixen persvek dout kornari," she murmured softly, sadly as she examined him.

She quirked a brow curiously at his surname, considering she shared the very same one. How odd. Perhaps there was no branch of the Brotherhood where he came from, for she could not imagine he was initiated and did not recognize the mark on her shoulder - did not recognize her as the Sister she was.

"I am Mati Melonii," she introduced in her hushed tones, her incongruous eyes fixing on him with care to see how he reacted.

translation: There is no fire in your heart.

The beast's confusion at her words was well hidden behind his expressionless mask. It was a language he had never heard, but he, of course, did not seek a translation. Instead, he was more interested in the fact that she shared his last name. A brief look of surprise flashed across his dark face before it was concealed behind the mask again. We share the same last name? he asked, although it was somewhat a rhetorical question; the beast thinking out loud. He searched his damaged memory but found he did not remember her at all. Some things from his past were lost to a head injury, but the memories of his family seemed to be intact, so it was more likely that she was a relative he didn't know than that she was one he didn't remember; if the latter were the case, then she would have surely said something by this point. It would seem we are related...but how? he added. If she was related to him in anyway, he wanted to know. He would use the info to decide if she was worthy of his respect. Being a member of his family was a good place to start, as the prospect of her being related to him sparked a sense of protectiveness. 

He hadn't noticed the red paw mark on her shoulder upon his first inspection, but when it did catch his attention, his militant gaze lingered there in interest. He too had an abnormal mark on his shoulder, although his was the same shade of purple as his eyes and shaped like a spider. But Midar didn't remember were his mark came from, at least he assumed he didn't remember because he had no recollection of receiving it, and he did not remember it being there as a child.

The words, spoken in the tongue of her own blood, did not invoke a response - whether understood or not. Mati only watched him, the same vaguely curious expression on her features.

Her name, however, was a different story. Shock flitted across his violet gaze once, like a falling star, and was gone - lost to the dark night sky of his features. Mati quirked a brow curiously, wondering what it was about a girl half his size that made him feel so threatened that he had to conceal every flicker of emotion. 

"It would seem so," she drawled softly, her whispery tones laced with curiosity. 

"I do not know how. I was born far from t'is place, a bastard to two cousins," she had turned from him then, unashamed but examining a pale rose that faintly shimmered under the moon's rays. Her spider had found a perch here and was climbing nimbly along the petals. 

The girl saw no reason to abhor her parents' coupling, the grandmother who raised her had not. They were Meloniis and that was what was important, their children had been pure Melonii - their union had been all but sanctioned by the elders.

"I knew I had family in ta south, we all knew t'at. I just didn't expect to find any of t'em so soon," Mati admitted, her gaze roving over him with something akin to fascination. 

Between the uncanny similarity and the surname they share, it's clear to Mati that he's at least some form of cousin, though she can't be sure exactly how they're related. Her incongruous gaze drinks him in, falling to his shoulder.

She gasps softly when she spots the spiderling mark on his skin, something offered only to males in her branch of the family. The she-wolf dares to take a step closer, allowing the moonlight to fall on her own pawprint mark. "We are family," she confirms, her contrasting gaze lifting to his face.

So it seemed she wasn't from this place either. She was a stranger here just like he was. How strange that the first wolf he met in a very long time just happened to be one of his distant relatives. If he believed in such things, he'd think it was meant to be or something. I had no idea I had family here, nor did I expect to run into a relative, the beast said, careful to hide his surprise. Midar wasn't sure what exactly he expected to find when he came to this new place. He guessed he had just kind of wandered until he was tired of it, making sure to avoid others at all costs. He had decided recently, though, that he might like to know what it was like to not be alone, although it turned out to be an almost impossible task for him. He clearly did not play well with others. 

He was meticulously aware of his surroundings at all times, so he did not miss her gaze when it found the mark on his shoulder. His eyebrows furrowed infinitesimally at her small gasp upon noticing the strange shape that was like a constant reminder of what he couldn't remember. She then showed him her own strange mark; a berry-red paw print in the same spot on her shoulder. It seemed to spark some kind of familial recognition in her once more. When she reiterated that they were family, he remained silent. He was faced with a dilemma, now; he could either tell her the truth and admit that he had no recollection of how the mark came to rest on his shoulder, or he could lie and go along with what she was saying. The latter would surely be very difficult, as she would probably expect him to know things that had been gone from his mind for an uncertain amount of time. Telling her the truth meant he would have to reveal a part of himself and his past to someone who he still basically considered a stranger. The beast wasn't used to being in this kind of situation, so for a few minutes, he was frozen with indecision. Finally, he spoke, I...had head injury a while ago that caused me to forget a lot of things about my past, so I have no idea what this mark means or how I obtained it. His piercing gaze watched her as he spoke, searching her face and trying to read her reaction to his admission.

Her head cocked, wondering if that meant she had surprised him. Mati couldn't be sure, he was so expressionless that it could have simply been a statement about his family.

She felt something like irritation burning in her chest. Whatever had happened to him, whatever sob stories they could share, Mati was exasperated with him. She'd accepted long ago the darkness that lingered in her mind, not her own doing but her fault. The dragon shook her head lightly, refusing to sink into the abyss of her self-loathing.

"Spiderlin'," she said softly, "a mark given when childrens come of age." Her eyes shifted, looking over him in curiosity. 

"Ta Brotherhood," she whispered, producing again her own mark for him to see. 

The beast furrowed his brow in confusion, a rare expression for him. He had no idea what she was talking about, and it made the familiar feeling of frustration fill his chest like it did every time he knew there was something important he should remember. I don't know of any brotherhood, he stated shortly. He knew his amnesia wasn't her fault, but dammit he was really tired off this shit. Usually he was alone when he got a flash of memory that just seemed to make everything more confusing and didn't need to hide exasperation. He had never had another wolf tell him something he was supposed to know, and so he had to try really hard to keep his anger from radiating out from within himself.

She slunk back a step at his irritation, the edge to the words dragging along her skin like the point of a knife. Her lips peeled back to reveal gleaming incisors, her tongue flicking between her fangs like the tongue of a snake. 

"S'not my fault," she hissed, tail flicking in irritation. "Take t'at on up  wit' someone else," she rasped sassily in her lilt, fed up with his strange behavior.

"We're blood. I'm on yer side," she stated stubbornly, her brows lifting in an obvious ultimatum: friends or foes? The choice was his.

His hackles raised, an instinctual reaction to her show of aggression, and her terse reply just added fuel to the fire. His lips lifted in a similar way, and he tensed, ready for a fight should it come to that. Her second statement pierced his momentary anger and he froze. The beast turned from her and walked a few steps away. His ribs expanded as he drew in a large, steadying breath. He held the the air in his lungs for a few second before letting it out slowly. He pushed the frustration back down deep inside where he knew it would fester along with the other intense emotions he'd rather not deal with. Midar knew he would need a release soon, but that was a problem for tomorrow. 

He finally turned back to his apparent family member, his face a blank mask again. He gave her only a nod, silently stating they would not be enemies. The beast did not kill those who did not deserve it, and , from what he could tell, she had done nothing to incur his brand of punishment. He did not offer any words yet, he just stared at her while he tried to make sense of everything. One day he hoped he would stop going through life so damn confused about everything.

She faced him, unrelenting even if she had to glare up at him. Her tail swished and determination gathered in her mismatched gaze to belie the fear coiling in her gut like a viper. Mati had been a victim of her family members for long enough, no longer would she accept it. 

She watched him turn away, her ears flattening protectively. Only then did she realize she was trembling, taking a deep breath to steady herself. 

"I'm tired of bein' alone," she murmured softly after he turned back and nodded, her incongruous gaze confused. "I don' want ta fight ya but I'll not be a punching bag," she informed, a steely glint in her eyes. 

"Ya want ta come wit' me?" She asked softly, gaze flickering upwards as Iere settled silently on a branch in the nearby trees.

If he was being completely honest with himself, he was also tired of being alone. He had been on his own for a long time, but the idea of forming any kind of bond with someone else scared him. The beast hadn't had anyone that depended on him in a long time, and he wasn't sure he was ready for all the emotions that went with that. Plus, he wasn't always the most stable, especially when he went too long without purging his pent up darkness. He also wasn't ready to let anyone into his fucked up head, and spending time with another meant that was bound to happen. Still, he had to admit it would be nice to have the distraction, not to mention an extra set of eyes and ears as they traveled through this new place. 

He finally nodded his head at his family member. I'll go with you, he replied tonelessly. Where exactly are you going? he asked a second later, realizing that in the midst of his crazy, he had never really asked her any of the normal questions, although he was never very good at such things, crazy or not.

For a time Mati merely stared at him, black plume waving slightly at her hocks, wondering if he would agree. 

She blinked in surprise when Midar agreed to travel with her at last, sure that his silence could only mean a negative answer. Her tail began to wag - a small, almost unnoticeable beat - and a glimmer seemed to shine in her poorly matched eyes. 

"I don' know yet. Where were ya goin'? 'Fore ya saw me?" She asked, wondering if he had any destination in mind either.

His apparent family member seemed happy that he had agreed to travel with her, and it confused him. She would change her mind soon, he was sure of it. I had no real plans. I guess I was going to see what the mountains were like, he offered after a minute of silent contemplation. We could head that way if you want. His last statement was offered with a small shrug as he moved his purple gaze around the trees surrounding them. He rested his eyes back on the dark female in front of him as he silently waited for her response, his face a safe, expressionless mask once more.

The shine in her ill-matched gaze seemed to dim as she was met with his expressionless mask. She stared at him, something akin to curiosity or determination on her features. 

I'll figure you out eventually.

Finally she turned away, glancing to Iere and chirping softly to beckon the raven. Something about the soothing noise seemed to draw the beast to her. Dark wings aflutter, the bird swooped silently to settle between Mati's shoulder blades like a hunched gargoyle. 

"Sure," she murmured softly, offering him half a smile though it didn't quite reach her eyes. She lowered her gaze, moving to take a place by his side. Nothing about her would have betrayed it but she trembled nervously as she approached him.

Yet, she did not fear Midar.

She feared the Melonii he reminded her of. 

He was still a little perplexed by her agreement to travel with him, especially considering his outburst, but maybe, like him, she wasn't completely sane. Whatever the reason, he found himself secretly glad for the company, though he doubted he'd ever admit that out loud.

He offered a curt nod to the woman. Let's go then, he said abruptly. The beast turned his large form and headed towards the range in the distance, not glancing back to make sure she was following.

He was quick to depart, leaving Mati to hasten her steps in order to trail after him. She did not bother moving to his side, for she felt uncomfortable with his empty eyes on her. She preferred to remain a few paces behind him, where she could keep an eye on him as they traveled. Midar was simply too new to trust yet. 

Iere settled, her sharp claws curling into the sparse, loose flesh on her. Mati slunk into the gloom on the heels of her newfound relative, wondering if she'd made a mistake.