Redtail Rise oh it's not true, i don't wish harm upon you

apparently dream posts are my thing rn :P anyone welcome!

He stirred in his sleep. His dreams were filled with a frenzy of things. Stress induced, perhaps. Emotional pressure that he had not released the valve on.

---

There, like a council.

Stones that loomed high above him and perched upon each was every wolf he had given a part of himself to, in one way or another. At the forefront was two, most visible in his thoughts at all times.

One dark and swarthy. Large and athletic. Not a bear, but the energy of her was. In this dream her sides were swollen, she did not speak, but her stare into him was enough.

The second was the most obvious. A churning forest fire brought to life. Indigo eyes unlike anything he had ever seen, gemstones cursed. Children under her like she was a Capitoline Wolf. She spoke, two words slurred word dragging across her tongue.

"'hhow me,"

---

@Avicus.

A piercing image in his heart and brain. When he woke a heart that pounded furiously, he knew he needed to move. To pump the blood elsewhere.

At a strong jog, he moved towards the creek that slid through the territory. Wading into it the moment he came near it. The heat of the summer night taunted him and his fevered mind.

with the children older and sleeping in the rendezvous, she'd had much more time to herself as of late—and boy, is she thankful for it. she loves her pups, but they'd undoubtedly tied her down for weeks, and their independence was a loosening of the shackles that bound her to a den.

no more did her nipples chafe, or her head pound. just a little bit of belly fat remained, and that wasn't entirely bad considering winter's impending arrival.

she comes to swim, and finds Prophet there already, his multi-colored pelt bathed in moonlight. 

with a greeting chuff in his direction, she wades in ankle deep just upstream, and drinks, pressing her muzzle to the surface. then deeper. eventually, she surfaces, flinging her head back with a sparkling scatter of droplets, breathing heavily, the cool water sluicing down into her ruff.

He's sick, he thought first.

Here she was, a slithering siren into the river. Droplets of water cooling the wildfire that she was. They traveled down her ruff and all he can think is —

Nothing. He wasn't thinking.

He pulled closer to her with a warm rumble deep in his chest. Something stirring within him and he thought it might only be soothed by seeing the one who put it there.

even within a hot night and cool water, he burns.

mmm? she murmurs against his cheek, the sound rumbling close to his ear. she slips sinuously away, moving belly deep into the stream, feeling the rocks roll and shift beneath her paws.

she looks at him. something's not right. this isn't the Prophet she knows: strong, steady and stoic.

or, perhaps, she doesn't know him at all.

He could feel the vibration of her sound.

Then she slipped away. He stood and watched as she submerged herself in a manner that might suggest she'd drift away. Far from here. Far from him.

Yet it never happened and he found himself following her once more.

Avicus... He hummed lowly as he moved through the ripples in her wake.

Avicus.

she blinks the water from her eyes and turns her head, staring at him. yes? her gaze reads, glinting in the moonlight. she's never been one for words, obviously; if he needed a counselor, Ashlar is nearby.

all she can offer is her body, and the brute dominance of it. and presence, she supposes.

she thinks of her conversation with the singer,

realizes she could be lacking.

for the very first time, a spark of frustration in her heart, that she is no more than a savage, intent on blood and bone, unable to connect with others beyond a quite visceral level.

(insert your image from earlier)

He wondered if it was betrayal.

To Ashlar, mainly. To speak to the man of matters of the heart and go to one of the roots. Tend to it himself like some sort of beast.

But he longed in an envious way. An ugly marring upon his heart in the wake of the spring and early summer. Only picked at more by Augur's bride and his wayward thoughts of Marina. The dark bear woman too.

Why should he think of anyone else when the most powerful one is here?

Bathed before him in river water and moonlight.

Make me more. He rumbled with depth and hunger.

He did not seek to take from her, to be above her in any regard. He merely sought her with the knowledge that if she turned on him for these words, he would bury the feeling. Deep below.

more, she repeats, her voice shivering across the water at her chest. 

she doesn't know what he means.

he is more. he is most. he has sired her pups and ruled this land. she doesn't know what else she can grace upon his shoulders.

her eyes narrow, indigo slits regarding him warily.

More.

His gut churns and clenched at her single worded response. The mimic of the word he had so boldly picked.

Yours.

He roughly speaks, submerged now nearly up to his chin. How easy it would be to drown, how easy she could make that happen if he made a misstep.

she moves deeper into the water, just as deep. she touches her nose to his, feeling the stream lap at her outstretched throat. it's an uncomfortably intimate feeling, a killer's loving touch along the jugular before pulling the knife and—

you are mine, Avicus responds. her breath is warm on his muzzle.

doesn't he know this already?

she wonders how much more he needs to understand.

Had it been a foolish pursuit?

Had he been driven by some tangled desire based upon his own envy of others?

He didn't know, and it was hard to care.

He figured if she struck him here for his grand selfish desires, it would be worth it. Redtail Rise could have his blood. Over and over.

Anything she saw fit.

But if the words did not leave him they would fester.

A warrior husband? He rasped now, sinking with grand respect against her hot breath.

husband isn't a word she knows. never had her mother and father made their union known to her.

but warrior. and yours—mine. she knows.

you. are. MINE. Avicus insists, and presses her muzzle against his shoulder, their wet bodies coming together with a quiet sloshing of water. it ripples, shining in the moon;

mine, Avicus repeats, and comes perpendicular to him, cheek to his. she sighs, hoping he'll understand.

only he's stayed.

he should know.

fade? ;u; <3

Marriage was not a word of warriors and hunters.

Of a rugged woman he fawned after. And how had he been so blind as to not see it?

She was there, with her loud declarations. The closest thing he may ever get to some sloppy idea of a proposal.

Yours,

He agreed once more, a hush voice against the warmth of her lingering breath and touch.