lasher was not a commonplace wolf. simple enough in coloration, even unto the glint of his eyes, but his mind was not the breeding ground for the driven, harried pursuit of sustenance and sex that seemed to beset so many of his fellows. no; lasher served his witch — he was given over to her in body, word, and soul. had she ordered him to kill suckling pups for her, taltos would have obliged; had she ordered him into the wilderness, to die, he would have gladly laid down his life for her wild whim.
they had not settled here formally, but to lasher, this was his land. his memories of the mountain crags siku had claimed as her own were hazy; here was hearth and home, filled with the shadows of potential and overlaid with the sweet perfume of the witch's daughter.
but there was one another, and 'twas she lasher went in search of this day. the sun had not yet reached its zenith in the sky, and a soft bloom of clouds in the pale blue of the heavens promised rain at a later time. he trekked onward, alternately dashing with all the reckless abandon of a child, and falling into carefully modulated step, until he had reached his destination.
it was a veritable oasis set within these chosen lands; a thick carpet of wildflowers danced and dreamed in the stream of eldritch light from the verdant canopy. lasher turned his face toward the sun, and the beams plucked out the green of his own gaze, and drew it up, up, up though the usual navy murkwater of his eyes. overwhelmed with the loveliness of it all, taltos lay down, stretching himself prone in the soft spring grasses, and breathing a delicate sigh of wonderment and content.
flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed
you will revive your master
blood of the enemy, forcibly taken
[size=3]you will resurrect your foe[/size]
Since the exchange between her and her cousin, both words spoken and things unspoken, the scarred woman had returned to doing what she’d done before her cousin had went missing in action; patrolling the mountain and marking the borders. When her cousin had vanished, Aguta had stopped bothering with the borders because, honestly, she had assumed that she’d been ditched, left to try to figure things out entirely on her own. Needless to say, she was very glad that her cousin had come back, and had apologized to Aguta for having not told her that she was going. If the girl wouldn’t have returned, or if she wouldn’t have apologized to Aguta for having left without a word, Aguta had made up her mind that she was going to stay here. But she was staying because of how things had gone with her cousin.
Eventually she grew tired of patrolling and marking the borders. Turning away, she headed away from the borders, moving up the side of the mountain. Not caring where she was heading, she traveled upward. That was when a scent reached her, and it smelled like the scent was alone. Moving forward, she followed his scent until he came into view. Her tail wagged, slightly, and she issued a soft woof to alert him of her being there. She was hesitant, though, and found herself looking around to see if her cousin was there somewhere. Aguta didn’t want to end up being ignored again in the presence of her clearly prettier cousin. That thought led her to think about the male she’d met when she was trying to run away from herself; Goldry. It had been to her and only her that he’d paid attention to, and it had felt good.
“Taltos,” she finally acknowledged, taking a step forward with her tail swaying slightly behind her. She didn’t go too much further, though, just in case he didn’t want her company or whatever. Aguta would wait for invitation to go any further.
at length, a new scent overlaid that of the foliage and flowers, and brought a smile dancing into fruition on his lips. smile, he called to her, raising his head from his green bed. aguta. she was a shadow, stippled with scars and grace, and he invited her into his presence with a lazy thump of his plume against the loam. comfortable as he was near her, he did not rise, but kept his murky gaze trained on the woman, awaiting any and all she had to say with the forward thrust of attentive ears.
taltos recalled that he had put her aside in favor of tonravik when the trio had spoken last — he knew distinctly that not all would worship the witch and her kith as he did. and yet this moment was for them, for himself and for aguta, and he skimmed his lips back from his teeth in a wolf's-grin, letting tongue loll momentarily before he laid his head back upon the velveteen grasses.
if she did not wish to stay with him, lasher would not be affronted, but he very much hoped that she would remain with him here for a time. she was an aloof and guarded creature, and it was the dark mystery cloaking her that drew him as a bee to honey. she was not the witch, but only time would tell whether or not siku's daughter would be worthy of the title.
flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed
you will revive your master
blood of the enemy, forcibly taken
[size=3]you will resurrect your foe[/size]
His greeting, and his tail thumping against the foliage, told her that he was accepting of her company. A faint smile graced her scarred face as she moved forward, closing the distance between the two dark beasts. Upon reaching where he was lying, she flopped down onto the grass beside him, allowing herself to bump against him as she settled beside him. She was still a little put out about having been ignored the moment she’d introduced him to her cousin but whatever. It was something Aguta really should be used to by now since it was the same with her aunt, too. That didn’t mean it stung any less, though.
Lying next to him, she turned her head to study him for a couple moments before flopping her head down onto the soft grass, emitting a sigh as she did. She wanted to ask him why, but was unsure of how to ask it without possibly offending him or making him upset with her. Slicking her ears against her crown, she decided that the only way to ask was to just come right out and ask what she wanted to know, hoping for the best in the process. “Why?” tumbled forth from her, but nothing more.
as she reclined alongside the male, their pelts meshed similarly to the way they had on the first day. lasher inclined himself toward her, but made no overt moves. the weight of a question lingered in the air after a time, and he turned himself to face her, a solemn light dancing in the murkwater of his softened gaze. her ears had slid back against her skull; a low whine emitted from him, for he was apologetic, aghast with himself for causing such a reaction in her usually stalwart demeanour.
i have been taught to serve my witch, since beyond my birth, it seems, taltos intoned gently, knowing full well what aguta questioned. siku was the first to grant me a home, and her dark fury pulled the title of witch from me. i served her from then on.
typically, he was not circumlocutive, but it seemed there needed to be more said than a few simple sentences, and so he went on: and when we came here from our homeland, i grieved its passing, and we lost our witch. her daughter, for now, is a mere substitute, but she is all i have. i loved siku, and i love the issue of her womb. i am theirs to command, and i am bound to them.
and that is why i look to siku, and to tonravik; why they fill my eyes and i become unaware of all else roundabout me. it is a chain, the links of which i do not understand and cannot explain, that binds me forever to them. the green swam up momentarily from the depths of his eyes, and taltos paused. but there are times i wish it was not so.
flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed
you will revive your master
blood of the enemy, forcibly taken
[size=3]you will resurrect your foe[/size]
Although she hadn’t gone out of her way to really get to know Taltos during their time under Siku’s rule, she still thought of him as a sort of friend. Perhaps that was why she really did feel so at ease beside him like this. He had never come across as threatening to her, and because of that, she didn’t feel like she had to be wary in any way. So when he inclined himself toward her, feeling their fur brushing against each other, she kind of leaned slightly against him. Friends was something Aguta lacked and it showed sometimes, though she tried hard to keep herself more on the serious side, as well as the more aggressive side, so that no one could see just how much things were truly affecting her.
At the sound of his apologetic whine, the scarred woman leaned against him a little more. She remained silent while she listened to him speak, answering her single worded question. This was the most she had ever heard him speak and knew that it was well worth listening to every single word that came from him. Honestly, she could understand what he was explaining because she was basically the same way, minus the part of everything and everyone else around her becoming entirely invisible in the presence of those she followed with every ounce of loyalty within her. It had been hard for her to leave Siku’s side, but she had done so under Siku’s direct orders.
Soft sigh escaped from her as she laid her head against his side. “I did not wish to leave our home,” she began, thinking about how she wanted to word what she wanted to say. “I am only here because Siku commanded it of me. I went with her to seek out her daughter, and upon finding her, Siku commanded that I remain with Tonravik. So I am here… away from everything and everyone I have known for the last two years.” Her scarred muzzle formed a frown and she found herself staring at the grass that they were lying upon. This was one of her very rare moment of weakness showing times, opening herself up, knowing full well that it could come back and bite her in the ass at any given moment in time. But it was a risk she was willing to take because she trusted him to not use her weakness against her.
For a moment, she wasn’t entirely sure what further to say, but then more words came pouring forth without hesitation. “I do not have friends, Taltos,” she blurted. “I have never been good at making, or keeping, them. But when my aunt sent me with my cousin, it meant I had even less than what I already had. I am a stranger in a strange land following someone that, for the last year, has been a stranger to me.” She was not trying to get him to be romantically interested in her, quite far from it, really. Aguta simply wanted a friend, someone that she could turn to, someone that she could randomly hang out with… like right now.
their bodies moved into unconscious intimacy, and lasher relished it as he listened to her in silence. likewise, he had not heard so much from aguta — her lack of verbosity caused each word she chose to speak that much more treasured. and so he allowed the dark velvet of her voice to form words that carried him into a deeper understanding of her.
despite her hidden fear, taltos was not a creature who would seek to use that which she deemed weakness against the shadow-woman; he did not even see it as such, merely the sacred outpouring of her innermost soul, which he quickly placed upon a pedestal. it was a means by which he could attune himself further to aguta.
he allowed the silence after her words to lengthen comfortably, tracing the fine proud arches of her face with gentle eyes as she lay alongside him. the greenery of the place reminded him painfully of donnelaith — the glen! the glen! — but aguta's dark and lovely presence there dampened the blow to his heart somewhat. he himself had no companions in this place; eismitte had gone, rati had gone, and he was bereft of his beloved jet witch. only aguta remained, and tonravik, who lasher followed only by virtue of her relation to siku.
we are not so different, then, the earthfurred male murmured after a moment, casting a quiet smile at his companion. he trusted she would know what he meant, and he reached over to nudge her shoulder with the point of his muzzle before returning to his spot alongside her.
lasher embraced the noiseless moments that crept forth on tiny cat feet then, letting his gaze drift heavenward. tonight he would dream of the glen, and perhaps tonight he would also find the answers to his unasked inquiries.
flesh of the servant, willingly sacrificed
you will revive your master
blood of the enemy, forcibly taken
[size=3]you will resurrect your foe[/size]
She poured herself out to him, allowing him to see what she hid from the rest of the world, trusting him probably more than she’s ever trusted anyone else that had come and gone from her life. With him, she felt at ease, like she wasn’t alone in the world after all. Even when she was around others, more often than not she felt alone. But not right now. Not at this moment in time. And it felt nice. It felt really nice to not feel ignored, to not feel like she was invisible, to not feel alone and lonely. It was also nice to be able to open up to someone who was not going to judge her harshly, nor use her words against her, proving to others just how weak she was.
She leaned into his nudge, enjoying the touch of another, brief as it may be. When he settled beside her again, she shifted to further lean against him. “Not so different at all,” she agreed, giving her scarred head a slight nod before resting it against his shoulder. She really wasn’t the cold hearted bitch that she portrayed herself as being. The scarred woman had feelings, had emotions, and spent a lot of time trying to run from them, trying to hide them from everyone else. Did it make her less Tartok because of it? Aguta could only hope that was not the case. “Be my friend, Taltos,” she said without lifting her head from against his shoulder. She asked for nothing but friendship. It was something she really needed, craved, desired, more than anything else.