Duck Lake Reflektion

The spell was broken just like that the moment Violante's eyes met Aventus'. They were twin black pits that swallowed all light, nothing like the fathomless indigo of Astara's gaze. He watched her shake out her fur and pricked his ears when she called out to him, but did not deign to answer. He would have taken his leave right then and there if not for the sudden introduction of a tantalizing scent in their vicinity.

Aventus had been through the season before, but he was still just a boy then. The scent of a bitch in heat had elicited some confusing feelings in him then, but they couldn't hold a candle to the sucker punch of immediate arousal he experienced when Slate appeared. It twisted his stomach into such a tight knot that Aventus grappled for a time with whether he was feeling hungry, sick, or something else, during which Slate scooted closer to Violante.

The melanistic wolf no longer held any of Aventus' attention. It was all on Slate and the pheromones she was giving off. Aventus tipped his nose into the air and drank it in hungrily, but when he dropped his eyes back to her, it was not Slate he wanted. It was not Slate's face that swam drunkenly through his mind.

It was Arielle. Sweet, fierce Arielle with her slender muscles and her sunny yellow eyes, always so full of warmth and acceptance. Arielle with her easy smiles and inviting demeanor. Arielle, the scent of crushed herbs in her pelt, the gentle fragrance of alpine slopes, and that certain spice that was all her own.

Aventus did not realize that he had drifted closer to Slate and Violante while daydreaming about Ursus' Bruin-heart, but when he returned to himself, he recognized the shorter distance and pulled his lips up in a warning snarl. His body wanted nothing more than to hover close to this woman with her scrumptious scent, but his heart wanted to return to the valley and seek out the medic. He had never truly shown how he felt about her, and now—

Aventus took one last look at the pair, turned tail, and ran for the valley.

Exit Aventus unless one of them stops him for some reason!