Firefly Glen because you feel like a heartbeat

His words shock himself as much as they apparently shocked her. 
Her exclamation makes him pin his good ear, eyes saddened. "Except they really aren't my People. That life isn't for me- when I was younger, and a whole lot dumber, yeah, but that isn't me anymore. And as much as I might try to force myself, I don't belong there.  Besides- they're just at the bottom of the valley- I can visit once a month or so." How odd he was already making plans. But in reality his heart had never returned to the Nightwalkers, only his body. Black Hat had even seen it in him. No, Memory needed to leave behind Nix, his past, the blood. Her lilt pulls him out of his thoughts and he looks up at her, muzzle almost brushing hers they're so close. "I have no place there anymore. And besides, you...enchantress, little sylph, have somehow Bewitched me." He smirked, his tone flirtatious. She wanted him, too then. His heart lurched and his tail thumped of its own accord, sending a few moths previously hidden in the grass fluttering away. "What could you possibly like about a scar covered boy with half a face?" He questioned, half serious.

As the guardian's visage fell with the downcast of misplacement, she felt her own pale moonface soften with empathy and longing. 

"I must a'mit..zey are nae quite my pe-ople yet ei-zer," the healer uttered, argent gaze dipping to the alignment of paws below - tiny, dainty, ivory; broad, heavy, smooty. "I am but a new-comer vithin ze Vale." 

"But, I do 'ope ye can fin' ze new start ye seek zere," the midwife soothed softly, hoping this might somehow ease his sorrow and the painful process of rebirth, of rebuilding. 

Flirting is unfamiliar to the fae, her spring orbs widening a tic in sheepish astonishment. The tone is suggestive, lighting tiny sparks to life in her veins - and setting her heart to frantically pounding, the only comparison something twisted and triggering. 

Visibly, the ghostly waif falters, words failing as her lips work silently - distant gaze drifting, uncertain. The sighthound shifts her insubstantial weight between limbs as she gathers herself, paws dancing in a nervous tell. 

"I supp-ose zat comes vith ze teach-ings.." She quipped quietly at last, lips quirking in a grin of her own as she tentatively teases. 

The expression faded at his half-hearted query, lips parted as intense moonstones scanned the damage he alluded to, feared. 

"I coul' very vell ask ye ze same," Fen lilted, gentle as a summer morn's sunbeams, something tender brewing in her stormcloud gaze. 

"Vhat coul' ye poss-ibly vant vith a scarred ruin of a 'alfling?" 

The abandoned child. The outcasted half-breed. The fuck-up tresspasser. The slave. The liar, the bandit, the murder accessory. The nameless. The battered woman. The fallen mother. The escapee. The vagabond. The girl with the broken smile. 

Althea, Hui, Wördronna. 

Awenfen.

She was so much more than her bruised, crushing titles. As was Memory, if he could find the iron in his soul to forge a new name for himself. 

A smile of spring - of sweet breezes perfumed with rebirth, buds blossoming, of undying hope - unfurled over her lips as sweet as his honeyed eyes; her answer hidden in the dovewing's grey of her gaze and the secret language of a damaged heart.

She admits her newness to the area and he smiles. "I've only been to the south end of Great Bear and I've been here months. I want to explore Though...I'm sure there's so much beauty around. Would... would you be willing to travel with me someday?"  he asked, somewhat eagerly. It wouldn't be any time soon, of course, perhaps next year, but the thought made him smile. 
His flirting makes her nervous and a new surge of protectiveness rises. Had the Fae really never been treated kindly? Courted properly? He wanted to charm her, to show her how good it could be. 
Finally she gives a tentative reply and he grins. "That's ok, gorgeous. You can use your wiles on me whenever you like. It's certainly a welcome-and unexpected- change of pace. Ive only ever been with one other female and I wouldn't call it a relationship. I thought I would only favor males. I'm kinda confused now." 

And there her question, spoken softly and sadly. It seemed she came with her own pain, and he wanted to consume it, to banish it, to make her never hurt or cry again. 
"Because your race doesn't matter. Any wolf who says it does is an idiot and superstitious. Stories be damned. Hell of the stories are true we are both Wolfbane's kin, so...fuck it." He shrugged. "Because scars mean you have a story. Scars mean you survived. Scars mean you won every battle and are stronger than who tried to kill you. And your past...I want to know it." 

He wanted to share his with her too.

"I vould like zat," she agrees wistfully, a glint of excitement lighting the young woman's face. There was so much she had yet to see, so much she had missed in her wasted youth as a slave. 

"..someday," she tacks on as the glimmer fades, leaving the same forlorn spirit before him. 

"Ze vhelping season is almost 'ere; Lady Reiko vill re-quire me services," Awenfen explained regretfully as her head sank between the fragile slump of heavy shoulders. 

It was true, of course, though not entirely - the threat of her former mate still loomed on the horizons, like the long shadows cast by sunfall. 

The thought brought to mind the fact that she should be getting back soon, fearful of being beyond the borders too long..

Yet, Memory's next words snapped her attention back to him - curious and confused gaze searching his face openly, child-like in her failure to understand. 

"Doesnae every-body?" the fawn murmured innocently, unsure, as her head cocked to the side like a pup's. Certainly Grinestone and Dredguild had had strict scruples about that sort of thing but it was her understanding, from her time with the druids, that sexuality was fluid. 

Most wolves within the falls had been polygamous - of course, there were exceptions as citizens possessed the right of free will - and had elaborate relationships because of it, both romantically and in a familial sense. 

"Volfbane..?" The girl wisped, just as perplexed as before - if not more so. She failed to realize the differences in the abuse they faced were based on superstition - rather than the prejudice and cruelty she'd endured. 

Seelie eyes found their paws once more, feeling undeserving of the praise he laid at her paws. Awenfen didn't see herself as strong - fast maybe, or just lucky. 

"Someday," the midwife promised him again. "Zis is nae ze day fer such sad stories," the botanist quipped as she attempted to lighten the mood, gathering her supplies, shooting him a small grin. "An' I must get back soon, anyhow."

"Merry part, Mem-ory," the druid murmured as she faced him again - spring gaze peeking up at him as her auds fluttered shyly. "An' merry meet again," with a respectful dip of her head, and a brush of her muzzle against his cheek, the waif slipped past him. 

The girl looked back but once as she slipped away into the shadows, flashing him a broken smile - should he care to look.

Gonna close this out then we can start a new thread. 

His heart squeezed again as she seemed excited and eager to see the world with him, and he let a bark of a laugh slip out. But just as the joy was there it faded again. He gave her a reassuring nuzzle, taking in her scent, hoping he hadn't been too forward. 
"Both of those are very dark stories. You're right- we'll save it for another time. I'll see you around...meet me at the border.....Two weeks from now." 

He watched her slip away, a smile on his features, before turning and padding for home. He had a lot to do and not much time to do it.