Stone Circle einn

If you have time <33

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This morning through the opened denmouth of Tréheim the sun filters in a crystal cast on the sleeping figure at her side. She watches the duet of light and shadow across his chestnut curls, listens to the oscillation of steady breaths amid the early croon of a mourning dove pair. Peaceful. She settles her jaw across his shoulders and forces closed her eyes, aligning her inhales with his. Maybe in willing it, they can stay like this forever.

Only…

“@Skáld,” she stirs him softly with a whisper then kiss across the bridge of his nose.

He uttered a soft, surprised trill when the warm, gentle pressure lifted from his shoulders, and his name was spoken. He blinked, surprised and groggy, and licked his lips as they pulled into a smile when she kissed the bridge of his muzzle. He stretched, making a faint squeaking sound as he did, and leaned against her, uttering a small, purring rumble as he wiggled against her side until he'd rolled over onto his back, still glued to the side of her. Licking and smacking his lips together, he settled the flat of his head onto the ground, closed his eyes, and being very much the pre-teen he was, he drew in a breath and exhaled a long, low moan. Mouth still slightly open, he allowed his tongue to hang out- and began to pretend that he was snoring.

Her mouth twists with amusement at his little play and she rises to a sit so she may loom her nose over the sleepy wolfling boy.

“Hmm what do we have here? Looks to be a dead bug.”

She snatches ahold of one dangling forepaw and gives it a good slobbery tug with her mouth, spouting faux chomping noises over his toes.

“Twastes wike won two,” she garbles.

”Dead bug!” He repeated with a laugh, clearly offended. She tugged at one of his feet, which he tried to yank free with a giggle. ”Not yours!” he protested, coming to life soon after his precious leg was endangered.

“Blehh!” She squawks and drops his foot, making a show of rubbing her mouth out with the back of a wrist before pulling back to pin him with a silly grin.

“Hey, someone’s got a birthday coming up!” Her tail switches excitedly, “Have you given any thought to what trades you want to pursue?” She asks before attempting a crude translation.

“Err, Skáld afmæli einn. Starf?” She tilts her head at him, ears tipping forward expectantly. She was getting the hang of this icelandic thing!

His smile dropped suddenly when she spoke words he did not understand. The very tip of his tongue didn't get pulled back into his mouth, so he looked at her with a cocked head, floppy ears wide open, and a dopey blep of his tongue sticking out. She asked him a question and he continued to oggle her with a wide-eyed, curious stare. Apparently, all she had to do in order to wake him up completely was say something he didn't understand. 

But she was quick to translate, and he pulled the tip of his tongue into his mouth with a soft slurp. "Oh, birthday?" He asked. He'd not considered that it was something to celebrate. Nor that it would mean that he had to choose a job; the boy had thought that youth was eternal, and that he might always be the baby of the pack. "Job? Ehm....No, ehm....No job?" He answered with a light shrug, and attempted to give her his best I'm just a baby grin.

just gonna say italics= cruddy icelandic haha

Those giant green eyes take to staring and with that he commands every breath of her’s.

She smiles endearingly and ruffles his curled locks with a wet nose. Luckily for him, she was utterly convinced he could do no wrong, and if he didn’t want to lift a paw a day in his life, Tauris would see that the pack provide for all his years of repose. But she’d also noticed how sharp he was, even if their lack of common language often hindered a mutual understanding- and she wanted to show him how fun pursuing a trade could be. Nothing like the menial labor he may have feared it to be.

“You’re bright, Skáld. There are a lot of ways you can contribute to the pack, in a way that’s meaningful for you. Um, not scary! Promise.” She grins. “And we’re gonna throw you a big celebration to mark your one year! Would you like that? Party?”

Then… she can't put it off.

She dreads this. She knows Skáld’s trauma from losing his loved ones, and the prospect of resurfacing painful memories is upsetting. But… how else to explain that she must leave Kvarsheim?

“I need to talk to you about something. Need talk.” Her voice is strewn tighter as she carefully decides which words to choose. It’s not just a talk, it’s the talk. “I also had a birthday.  I’m two now. Do you know what happens when wolves turn two?” She asks, though she knows he won't entirely comprehend. It is also for her to make sense of. They were figuring this out together.

“They’re capable of becoming parents. Umm…Tauris two years wolves are parents. Have Babies.” She phrases as well as she’s able, checking  his face for signs of comprehension- or lack of it.

“But, I’m not ready for that. So I’m gonna go away- only for a little bit, so that wont happen. And then I’ll come back. Tauris leave, back come. Small time.”

She looks him over with apprehensive eyes. “What do you think?”

He felt he was receiving some manner of praise, and assurance, from her tone. And he was glad to know that he would be forgiven for his lack of ambition, and allowed to resume his ways, contributing to the pack mostly by being friendly. He wasn’t pushed terribly hard, and whenever light pressure was applied he cracked. Fortunately, Tauris was benevolent, and indulged his fairly dependent nature.

A party might draw attention to him, though. It might make others realize he wasn’t just a puppy anymore, so he frowned softly- but did not want to disappoint her. ”Small party. Skáld and Tauris.” He suggested, and leaned closer into her side- only to draw back when he sensed a tension building in her.

He knew something was going to drop, and it would likely be his heart. His teeth caught on his lip as he regarded her with concern and uttered a faint, soft whine. He tilted his head when she began to explain. He knew some numbers. He looked at the ground. Birthday. Two. His ears perked and his expression lifted. 

”You two! Party?” He asked with a hopeful tilt of his head. 

Of course he had no idea what happened when wolves turned two. He’d not had parents, or older siblings. No aunts or uncles. As bright as he was, there was something about relationships and development that he did not comprehend as he’d neither had it explained nor had he witnessed anything. 

When she explained in his language, he blushed deeply and felt something in the pit of his stomach drop. Tauris was going to have children? For some reason…He felt unhappy. He felt frightened and he tasted the first sour tang of jealousy. He looked at the ground. He did not want things to change; he did not want Tauris to have others…

And even less so when she said it meant she had to leave. 

He didn’t understand when she said that she didn’t intend to have children, and that she meant to leave in order to avoid having that happen. He thought she meant to leave now, to have them. His cheeks flushed hot when she asked him how he felt and his breathing picked up. 

”No. No leave. No children. Stay, only Skáld.” He uttered bitterly. His eyes burned with tears, and he felt himself beating the point of hyperventilating though he fought to keep his breathing calm.

A panic of her own set in as his breaths shortened and a wildly thumping chest shook even her own with it’s pounding.

“Hey! hey, hey, hey,” She cries and draws him against her, enclosing his body between her arms and cradling him with the sweep of her tail. She didn’t know the words to soothe; how to chase away his fears. Or her’s. She was barely an adult herself, she was making it all up as she went and she didn’t know that she was doing a particularly good job of it.

So she holds him tightly and rocks, pressing him close, lowering her lips to his curly temple and focuses on his breaths. He felt too small, too fragile, too beset with grief.

And now she’s adding to it.

“Skáld, you know I like having you here, right?” She murmurs as they sway, refusing to let him go. “Nothing’s going to change. It’s always going to be me and you. You’re stuck with me, kid.”

“Us. Always.”

He felt the pulse behind his eyes grow, threatening to turn his vision black. He fought it off, though he feared that the worst would come. He confused the sensation with the faint warning he received before succumbing to a seizure, and lowered himself to the ground in case one should take him and shake him- but it never came. What hit instead was anxiety and panic- and it didn't feel much better. 

Tauris was there, in an instant, and while at first he wanted to push her away and resist, before realizing that the instinct came from the need to have her insist, and hold him all the same. He relaxed, eventually, and while he still harboured a great deal of dread at the thought of her ever leaving (even if only for a short period of time) he felt reassured that she wouldn't replace him with more children. The rocking soothed him, and he buried his muzzle in the dark fur of her ruff, breathing hot air against her skin. 

He did not like that she'd even considered doing such a thing, not when he felt he needed her...But he felt reassured that she'd keep her promise. So he rocked gently alongside her. "Just us." He vowed.

When at last his heart settles she pulls back only to groom the curls on his fragile little head. She will coddle him, even if she knows a day will come when independence is needed, she will hold him tight and rebuff his advances into adulthood. He was too old to be her child, but he was her’s in her heart; in the way that matters more than shared blood. He needed her, and so she would always come back to him.

“I love you, little man,” she noses his cheek.

I can fade this and start us a new one :)

He feared that a day would come when she would not hold him like this anymore. He wished to stay forever a child, small enough to be tucked away alongside her, where he could hide in her shadow and cling to her for security. He could tell even then that he was growing too big for this sort of treatment, and he hated himself for it. He did not want to be big, or adult, like the others in the pack. He wanted to stay small and puppyish forever. 

"Love you too, little Tauris," He said, though his voice was quiet, distant. 

He felt the dying days of his youth were near; and whether or not he liked it, adulthood would reach him one way or another.