Firefly Ravine this is a gift, it comes with a price

Whether Blixen and heda agreed to this little excursion or not, Tux was emboldened by his building hormones enough to defy them if they had not.  It was for his own success, he told himself, shoving down how the smell of the poultices on his healing wounds called the pale sylph to mind.  He was posessive over her, sure, but it was because he had recruited her, and she was his brana to train.  Not because of anything foolish like why all of a sudden, he was fixated upon this trip and the hours of inevitable silence where they'd travel together.  At least that's how it went down in his mind.

They went through the Tangle, following the ravine south back into the mainland.  In the distance was the silhouette of a mountain range.  Though their trip would be longer than this, he roughly touches her shoulder with his nose and points towards the mountain's shadow.  We'll be there soon, he says, trying to be interesting enough to hold @Aure's gaze for more than five seconds (because let's be real, even if she had been staring at him, he wouldn't notice unless he was specifically paying attention for it).  How are you holding up?

tux : tries 2 avoid her shoulder smoulders at all costs
also tux : cannot avoid them 2 save his life
smdh

Fortunately for Tux, the she-wolf’s attention hadn’t been on him in the slightest—that is, until there was a rough nudge at her shoulder, shaking her out of her tender reverie of the cliffside. Lashes fluttering, she did a hazy double-take at the rauna, making sure her mind took in what he said. He said they’d be there soon, but from the look of it, it would still be a while before they crested the shadow of that great spire.

To protect Heda’s child, I must be aware, she thought, a bit bittersweet. Even now, dragâ still divides me. Aure only wanted just one more heartstopping glimpse; and then she would expel him from her thoughts—as best as she could:

’Tux isn’t small...but he’s young. He doesn’t know half the shit the world’s capable of. You gotta take care of each other.’

His voice had been low, edged with what she thought had been worry. But she hadn’t been sure, then, just as she was uncertain now. The she-wolf’s gaze drifted from the range and back into the ashen, shadowy ravine they currently traipsed. Then, Tux asked her how she felt; and not the slightest inkling came to her. However...

”Tux?” Carefully, she looked back up at him, halting in his pawprints while the once-comely features of her face shifted into something somber, earnest. Either she could be straightforward, and tell him that cheka had practically promised her to care of him—but, no, she realized, blinking. She had been the one to swear such fealty of it. For the last time, she was relieved she remained such a singular person to herself, even as open and full of whimsy she was; wondered if Verx had ever noted that about her for himself.  

”I need you to know that you aren’t... a mere obstacle in ze way of my acceptance into Drakru. This is my choice—my want.” Loathing to banish the guardian from her mind, but making do; she was a woman of the Far North, as frigid as frost and just as pale—and her oaths were her own. Not a mere obeisance to the men she adored.

Aure went on, gaze softening only a tad, ”We must watch over another. Although I may be quite... ahm.. little... I want you to know that you will have ze protection of my body, against whatever is out there that comes our way.” For Tux, for anyone, this may have been just some trip, done over and time again and now taken lightly. But she came closer, lowering her head in some sort of swear-fealty manner, her brow drawn.

For all the world, for him, she scrunched her brows and her nose up at him in promised determination. 

She says his name and his chest squeezes.  He turns to look at her, and he feels like he is suffocating beneath her gentle gaze.  Yes, he rumbles, before she explains to him something ... he hadn't thought at all.  

Drakru is for anyone who earns it, he explains. I am ... glad for your loyalty, Aure. He freezes, toes curling against the ground. To her second statement, It's my job to protect you, he contests quietly.

And then she moves closer, raises her face to his.  He takes in a shaky breath and presses his nose to her crown.  He pulls away quickly, as if it burns, and clears his throat.  This is the first thing other than anger and hurt he has felt since mama left, he realizes.

Come on, then.

She wasn’t expecting that. At all. And she froze in place, body frozen over.

The way the gesture had had been dealt out reminded her of the male she’d just expelled from her mind—but it couldn’t hold the same meaning. It didn’t make sense to her; Tux was as aloof as she was, and more bite than her bark could ever hope to aspire to.

Her lips pressed together, contemplative, but told herself it had just been a formal response to her swearing. Ears flickering uncertainly, she trailed after him, just as quiet as she’d been when they first left the redwoods.

If she failed to keep him from most of the world’s harm... did she truly deserve Drageda? If she failed, should she even return? Quietly, her voice insistent and humming, ”We protect each other.”