Redhawk Caldera The View from Halfway Down

@Teya <3

    

 The day was mauzy, with humidity and the threat of a late afternoon thunderstorm darkening the horizon and making the air feel warm and close. He could hear the rumble faintly, and wondered if the storm might slide by and pass the caldera, or if he should move to somewhere more sheltered. 
     On the Southern edge of the lake, he had a great view from where he lay. He was close to the edge of the cliff, with one paw hanging over, and his muzzle slung over one bent elbow. He didn't look down- he looked out, toward the slowly moving clump of dark clouds. The wind picked up; it was cooler, almost suddenly. The storm would come, but he wouldn't move out of its path.

teya had heard the call go up for bronco. perhaps hyperaware after their conversation, she had chosen to go to ground. the raven swam the short ford to the island she had once shared with reyes and sorana. there in the empty, abandoned den on the lake island, she slept a dark and dreamless sleep.
when teya woke, it was with hunger and to find a storm gathering.
her fur was still damp from her second swim back to the mainland when she found bronco, looking pensive in his reclining. the storm was headed their way. she licked her chestfur. "good fishing in rain." and then she was quiet, happy to let a silence stretch.

In the advent of the storm, there was one patch of gold. Damp with lake water, Teya found him, and the winsome gleam in her azure eyes waved some of his pensive mood aside. He lifted his head, and found his eyes drawn to the way her fur crimped a bit, behind her ears and along her ruff, where the fur was softest. Her tongue smoothed the fur, momentarily, before it curled again. He huffed, a slight uptick in the corners of his lips. Then he pushed himself to his feet, and gave his pelt a shake. 
        He licked his lips. "Let's go fishing, then," He said, his voice sincere, but playful too. He searched for her gaze for just a moment, as he moved toward her and passed close by her shoulder, assuming she would follow as he led the way away from the cliffs, down toward where the bank would be easier to descend.

bronco moved decisively and teya followed with only a moment's thought, pleasantly surprised that he took the lead. it suggested to the raven that this should be an assessment of sorts, given the fact that he was going to help head their next hunt.
the ground seemed alive; the trees breathed and even the air felt as thought it was humming. everything waited for the storm.
teya took a moment to glance skyward as they descended. her eyes flicked curiously over bronco as she looked at him next; gazes meeting and hers leaping aside for the water she was meant to fish.

The shifting of pressure and temperature roused him from his somber mood. He seemed to sip energy from the gathering storm; some instinct likely designed to keep him safe and give him the strength he might need should the storm be dangerous. 
          He glanced in her direction when he thought he saw a flash of blue- but she was looking out toward the water. ”You were away for a bit,” He commented. ”How was it?” He knew only vague details- something to do with Akashingo, and that Teya and Sorana had gone for some sort of celebration.

"it was — fun. but ... wild. violent. they — very different than us. than anyone." teya looked down at her paws while she explained, not wanting to trip in front of bronco despite the fact that it was an empty fear; she knew the land now like the outside of her own gumline.
"pharaoh ramesses is married again. big wedding party, lots to eat and drink." she was rambling, and silenced her voice with a snort of air through her nostrils.
teya thought she felt the air thicken now.

Fun and wild could go together. But fun and violent? He knew very little of the pack, and already they seemed perhaps a bit more different than Bronco was comfortable with. Teya also seemed rattled by the experience. Parties weren't something Bronco really knew...Meetings, and collaborative hunts, but he'd never experienced planned festivities, not like what Teya was describing. He wondered if he could ask her more- but she was looking down. That was likely a no. 
        He tilted his head at the word 'wedding.' "Sounds like...Quite a wedding," He commented, though he sounded anything but convinced. It shouldn't have been too unfathomable to him, for a celebration of love to turn violent. These violent delights have violent ends. The concept of drinking anything other than water was also a foreign idea, so it seemed odd to him that having plenty to drink would be worth mention. The name and title she spoke were new to him, but he wasn't sure how to interpret her tone when she spoke of a man twice married.         
"You...Get to see any of your friends there?" He asked. His way of trying to figure out where Teya's link with the strange pack was, without being too direct.

teya let out a light laugh. "friends." she thought of sayf and her mouth twitched. "briefly." now her eyes hovered on bronco long enough to meet his own, just long enough. and then she could no longer; she looked away and flexed her paws against the earth.
her plume came up in an arc and teya sniffed the air, suddenly a predator beneath the barometric changes. "i really just go to represent brecheliant. but i see lilitu there, she is princess now. and — she ask to come home. and i see tierra. reyes' daughter," teya said, a bit quickly. 
"she happy to see me," the raven added, a bit wonderingly. "reyes had — he went to see her. not come back."
teya felt her voice slipping back into a monotone; she wanted to shake off the dreariness, for once, for once! "you wanna run to lake?" she inquired, mouth decorated with a bit of mischief when she turned her gaze back to his.

There was a tell in the way her lips jigged, and the flat tone of her voice. Something- a friendship or affinity- had gone sour. Her laugh painted her as a skeptic. She looked to him, and he probably just looked a bit confused. It seemed her relationship with Akashingo was complicated, to say the least. 

He jumped slightly at the change in her posture and emitted a whisper of a growl. He looked, but saw nothing. Sudden movements had that effect on him. He was quick to relax, hoping she hadn’t noticed. 

Some of what she said went over his head. The white noise that often followed a startle scrambled his thoughts for a couple minutes. He tuned in visibly at the mention of a name he recognized. ”Tierra? Huh. Yeah, I knew her when she was just an ankle-biter,” He said with a slight but brittle laugh. The topic of Reyes’ absence weighed on the conversation. He didn’t know what to say. 

But she didn’t seem keen to dwell on it. Maybe Reyes being gone freed her a bit. So when she suggested they run, he gave her a slightly oblivious half-smile. It felt like he was recovering from whiplash. But when he did, he grinned, dropped into a brief play-bow and then bounded off ahead.

something was off, but teya would not process its wrongness until later. she leant into the breeze, encouraged by the grin that flicked across his lips. 
and fully focused on herself, she embraced the haptic pleasure of running; the wind through one's hackles, the springiness of the earth beneath paw. teya flattened herself, suddenly reckless; she leapt a boulder then a fallen branch; she was going entirely too fast —
the blurring of air tore at her eyes and forced every thought from her mind.
she listened for bronco/

\whose heavy footfalls would likely fall out of range, especially with the wind singing in her ears. 

His head start didn’t give him an advantage, not when he took off at a buoyant lope and she slipped past him with the keen speed of an arrow. She was ruthless, like a starving hunter in pursuit of an invisible prey. She dodged limbs and flew over obstacles as though her path had a slipstream to guide her. 

Bronco had been prone for too long, and his body did not take kindly to the sudden demands, but he asked for speed from his muscles anyway. She slipped out of sight in the rush of gold and green, leaving behind a trail of rustling foliage for him to follow. He crashed after her, encouraged each time he caught sight of her fleeing heels and the gilded brush of her tail until he could finally keep her in his crosshairs, pursuing her with the blunt power of a bear through the woods and toward the lake.

bronco's size next to her own reminded her briefly of kynareth, how the way he had swallowed her with his frame had consumed teya in the way she desired. her mind flickered; lashed; she imagined for a long, crazed moment: what if he was chasing me.
what if their race was more than that.
teya forced the stupid, fantastic, desperate thing out of her mind — and when the surface of the lake loomed hard and blue and sudden, she dove into it, feet pushing from the bank.
it was frigid; she gasped, her head breaking the surface. and then teya laughed giddily, looking to see if bronco had followed.

He hurried to keep up to her lunging stride, bending and ducking and jumping just a moment after her so that he too managed past everything in their path. He felt branched lash at his face, and knew they left behind a warpath of spilled, yellow leaves. 

He leapt a moment behind Teya, paws outstretched and reaching before him to embrace the slap of cold water against his face and chest. He gasped and reared out of the water, to see Teya watching him. He slapped his paws against the surface, creating frantic waves before he settled into the water. 

From above them, the darkening clouds began to release slow but heavy drops of rain. It was as if evening had come early, and now the sky was darkened by storm clouds. Unfazed by the cold winter, he surged toward her, suddenly lunging to catch her now that they had reached the lake.

catch her he did; she heard the splash of his body soon to follow, and turned to face bronco into the lapping darkness of the lake.
in a moment she was pressed against the scarred guardian, their wet fur meshing silently, and she looked into the golden tones of his eyes.
teya wanted him.
she had no head for the future nor the moments directly after this; she felt only her heart galloping in the cage of its ribs and wondered too if he heard it.
her coolwater eyes were laid bare as she watched him, wondering. dreading.

Up to his breast in water, Bronco barely had to dip his head to drink noisily from the lake. Pressed against his side was Teya, and he didn't move to give her space but allowed the closeness, for the first time in what felt like an eternity. Through the cold of the water, he could feel the warmth radiating from her body and was tempted to press back against her. 

A rumble of thunder from the darkening skies overhead made him lift his chin, licking away the water that fell from his lips. He glanced to Teya, only to notice then (he could be so oblivious sometimes) that she'd been looking at him for some time now. 

Immediately, he felt a storm brewing within himself, stirred by the gaze she did not break. He knew that look. He knew Reyes was gone, and that she would be freed then, from her ties to him. Ties which had long since only been held together for the sake of their child; she'd had time to shake herself free of whatever feelings she'd had for him, surely. Now, she would be the object of Bronco's desires. 

He uttered a low, guttural note- not a croon to endear, a declaration of his desires and intentions.

it was not the first time she had been wanted. she thought of the man in the fen, of sayf, of reno. of the other silent, unnamed, unaddressed encounters she had sought during that break with reyes.
the way bronco looked at her was different. this was not teya seeking another anonymous liaison. she knew the visibility of choosing him here, like this. 
but the raven fervently, defiantly chose not to care. she chose to embrace this moment and the way his voice vibrated her skin and the water lapping around them.
her mouth was wet with the lake when she lifted it to him; her ears slipped back and eyes slid to a half-smoulder, as her own voice answered him in a slightly higher sound that embraced his intentions.
and her heart raced on.

He stepped toward her, barely causing the water to ripple as he drew closer. He tilted his muzzle down, to drip his molten gaze into hers, blinking as a smile was drawn to his features; one that finally sparked a glistening in his eyes. She was radiant even in the darkening grey that turned the lake into a pool of black. A sudden rush of wind cast a ripple across the surface of the lake, a threat of another downpour to come. 

They'd come here to fish, but had both been caught. 

As primal as his feelings were, he was a traditional man at heart. Teya was not something to be seized or claimed, and despite the desire that begged for him to sweep her out of sight and blend their moans with the thunder, he would humbly bow his head, and speak. "I would like to court you, Teya." He said softly.

teya would have eased closer then, seeking to smooth the tangles from the fur below bronco's ear. but he spoke, and his voice was hushed beneath the lick of the water. she blinked, thinking she had misheard him; her brow furrowed.
"court?" it was a strange word, old-fashioned in a way. she vaguely knew its definition but not what it had to do with them, with them now in this moment.
he did not pursue her with touch, and she stood still in a surprise that threatened it might rapidly turn to chagrin. 
teya met his eyes again, asking silently that he elaborate.

She had the look of a startled doe, in that moment. Surprised and not yet sure whether to be relieved or to dash off. He guessed perhaps she was unfamiliar with the term, or perhaps the idea in general of having a beau who would dote upon her for some time. 

”Yes,” he replied. In the silence, she seemed to search for an explanation. ”I want you. I want you to know that I want you, and that I want to spend more time with you. I want to know you more, bring you gifts…Learn to fish even though you’ll always be better at it than me. I’d get to know Sorana, too, so that she might accept the possibility that this might become something more someday.   But I want your permission,” He said, hoping that all of that made sense- and that it wasn’t too overwhelming.

hadn't she and reyes courted?
teya thought back on it, and maybe it was not the same. but what bronco offered her sparked a fear in teya that she had not expected, and suddenly all that came to her mind was the depth of feeling she had once held for ibis.
her lips trembled; her breath felt like it shook in her throat. no words came when she tried first to speak, and so teya found herself only gazing at him imploringly.
she had hurt reyes. he had hurt her. she had hurt him and she had finally driven him away. she had hurt bridget. she destroyed things. bronco was wrong to want this for her.
i want you
but how did he know? how could he know? they hardly knew one another.
and still she stayed as she was, swallowing, and finally pulling the chaotic rush of her gaze from him. 
her eyes blinked rapidly until tears pooled to her lashes, dew upon the morning grass. "i not know what to say," she said chokingly, trying to hide everything so visible with a self-deprecating laugh. "no one ask me like that before." she studied him and took a great breath. "yes. i — say yes."

She looked worried for a moment, and he thought for sure that this was too much. Perhaps she didn't want labels...Perhaps he'd not been reading her well, but every time she looked at him...He could have sworn she wasn't just looking, but then again, he could've been completely wrong. 

She swallowed, and he could see her whiskers shiver slightly. New springs of water ran with the rivers of her eyes, threatening to spill over her cheeks, but she looked away from him. He turned his ear back, apologetically, and lowered his head. He wanted to take some of the pressure off of her, and her laugh, albeit brittle, gave him a bit of hope. 

Perhaps it was the novelty of being asked that had surprised her. Perhaps she hadn't expected him to want to know her more, before simply giving in to primitive instincts. From what he recalled, she'd been looking at him that way. If he hadn't spoken to her, their bodies would have sung in the shallow waters where they stood.

Nevertheless, she agreed. He moved forward, and growled softly, pausing when they could truly see eye to eye, nosetip to nosetip, before he brushed his muzzle alongside hers and exhaled his relief into the fur behind her ear. He laughed tenderly. "Good." He murmured, voice muffled by the soft, damp fur.

teya let out her breath. the tears were threatening again, and she hated that for herself. hated it for bronco. she knew he would not care; nothing he had yet done indicated there was hurt to come. and still there was a yet. there was no point to crying in front of a man. he could turn on you sure as anyone else.
child together or not.
at least bronco had formally split from killdeer's mother. teya's status was ephemeral. reyes wouldn't come back. but he could.
it was good to be held. the emotions stirred again. she broke their contact to save herself. 
"how does it start?" teya asked quietly, looking up at him with a raw hesitance.

He could sense a whirlwind of emotions stirring within her, but he didn’t see it as a bad thing. Maybe it was good that she didn’t simply leap blindly without also feeling apprehensive. They knew so little about each other, but he wanted to change that. He saw a glimmer in her of what he pictured in his mind as the ideal partner- now, with her permission, he would get to know her more. 

This, for him, was the good part, the east part, and it was simple for him to relax into the role of being a suitor. ”We can start simple. We spend a bit of time together, and we start with just the easy questions, tell each other a bit about ourselves.” He said.

He caught a glint of silver in the corner of his eye, below the rippling surface of the lake. He paused, as though he might say something else, but thought better of it. He reached out and made a broad stroke with his left paw, hauling a wave of water up toward them both (though mostly Teya) which ended up being 90% water, 10% green lake stuff and 0% fish. 

He’d thought it might at least be funny if he’d managed to send the fish flying through the air, as he had seen her do, but it had been too fast for him. He laughed as the water settled, and the thunder rumbled overhead almost good-naturedly. He shrugged. ”As you can see, I’m mostly a dingus but I am pretty good at waterfights.”  He said, dropping into a playbow.

teya did laugh at that. dingus was a good word for him: it felt fair-natured and self-deprecating in a way she had noticed before. her coolwater eyes danced, and she let herself wonder what else bronco had behind his features. so far he had shown her things that appealed, but teya held a cold pragmatism that often tripped her.
still, she was willing to try. to be courted, as bronco had said. her stomach flipped pleasantly; she shook water away and darted deeper along the bank.
"good as me though?" teya challenged, and here she reared up, dragging a complimentary sounding of water toward bronco in retribution.
he was handsome when he was playing; she thought wildly, for a moment, of how sorana might regard him. what she might think. 
she would not move so fast. teya determined only to be in the present.
her eyes glowed. her lips were curved in delight. for an entire second, it was only she and he.

He'd thought her shy, poised, refined. Needless to say, he was delighted that she forgave him instantly for his foolishness, and challenged him with the wave that she sent hurtling toward him as she rose out of the water. He was almost too awe-struck by her beauty to wince at the water that fell toward him. He recovered well, though. 

"Better!" He blurted. 

Given the fact that she wasn't a dainty creature that would get angry with him for his foolishness, he was going to take full advantage of her high-spiritedness and began to spin in circles, like a horse doing a turn on the haunches, sending out water in every direction with each circle he made. He sent waves flying with the blunt shock of his flank against the water. He churned up lake water, and cleverly began to side-step in her direction, a tornado of splashing water that would occasionally reveal his childish grin every time he spun his face toward her.