Nocturne Summit submerged in limbo

His focus wavered as her cool nose touched to his cheek—gods be damned, she was playing a temptress already. It was a struggle then and there not to let the tail end of the herd slip from his sight, to come to a halt and regard her as he had many times. The most he dared then and there was to side-eye her, a faint amusement to come creeping to his features and leave on a gusty exhale. Perhaps she would never abandon her own personal quest to have him return, much in the way he had yet to abandon his post of trying to lure her away into the wilds to keep.

Instead it was a brief patch of silence that filled the space, or rather lack thereof, between them. For all that had gone out of his favor in recent days he found the return of necessity budding and blooming in the wastrel hope. Her temptation did not disturb this nor smother it whole, but rather tempered a distinct stubbornness. It would have been easy for a more weak-willed individual to cave then and there and admit that yes, things were not as they seemed and all was not well, but Dirge was not that sort. At least not entirely, however his silence may have betrayed his heart.

A low tone rested in his throat, considering.

”A clever ploy no doubt, but I'm afraid my goals are far more loftier than your mountain's peak,” he said on next breath, ”and I would suspect there are those that would not be warmed to receive me.” Her father first and foremost and of course, he was sure that one sister had not been so fond of him either. Impervious to his charm as it were and unknowingly to him, a strong player in a part that had kept them at arm's length even now.

”I do have my sister to think of as well,” he continued, not letting on that she had been gone for a time. Never mind that Hydra could have called him on it—the mingling scent of forest and ilk alike had been lost on him. He was swift to gesture to the herd ahead of them then, in time with the distant call of a leading bull elk.

”Now which is better to guide them—downward with the slope, or along it?”

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