Luneshale Pass leave the gun, take the cannoli

@Soto

By the time Disa was alone again, the hordes of dull grey clouds were at war with a line of screaming orange. The sun had awoken to find intruders blocking her great blue stage, and she had opted to go full diva. It was beautiful.

Disa had picked a platform of rock from which to watch the spectacle, front paws dangling as she imagined the fight between an ancient celestial body and ephemeral, queen-less hives of suspended water. The language wasn't pretty. The sun was winning, of course – it was her season.

She thought the passing wolf was Kemal at first - dark brown, muscular, a little delicious. "Do you ever sleep?" she called down to him, head still resting casually on her forelegs and with a teasing edge to her voice. What a big manly goodie-goodie, patrolling at all hours.

he finds her posed against a backdrop of brilliant sun fire; a regent laid splendidly upon a throne of shale. 

kemal’s scent lingers. standing near her dangling paws, soto realizes her coat is a lighter shade than he’d suspected last night. 

does he ever sleep? his expression gives away little. no. to sleep would be decidedly unmanly. name is?

It was not the wolf she knew, but Verapaz seemed to attract a very specific type – and not just in appearance. Like Kemal, he did not snarl, reprimand her, bend her over the figurative knee to pay for the impertinence of lounging above him. He wanted her name, and asked for it in a way that was vaguely familiar. 

Disa oozed forward until her legs hung straight down with her head between them. She examined the scarred face, the hazy eye, angles that were not quite wolf. "Disa," she replied after a beat, her wide, cat-like eyes fixed on his left. "You sound..." Careful. "... southern, Man Who Does Not Sleep"

disa. in cadence it sounds like the names of his homeland, but the accent and the beholder’s face are entirely alien. soto’s gaze travels the length of her, cutting abruptly to her face when he finds her staring. 

the intensity in that stare flips a metaphorical switch in soto. were she kemal or arslan he’d likely move to violence; machismo had literal tolerance for more than one top gun. 

but she’s a woman, and besides, soto finds the subtle defiance thrilling. verapaz was tame as of late, nothing like the cabal of his homeland. juarez would call it boring. soto calls it safe. 

he leans forward, latern-eye unflinching and curious to see how long she’d hold his gaze, soto decides not to extend his. name — at least not yet. disa is from?

He leaned closer. She could feel his warm breath in her nostrils. His scent was many things, layered over a base note of musk. There was something floral, but bitter – grassy, maybe. Salt. Heat. Disa wrinkled her nose when she realized that she had unpacked a woman's intimate smell, veined through his like surprise mold in a perfectly good bale of hay.

She shrank back – just a little, and felt that she had grown very tense. He was clearly interrogating her; testing, prodding, waiting for her to roll over like the good dog any sensible newcomer would have played in the present situation. But Disa was feeling stupid.

"South," was therefore all she said, punctuating with belligerent upward tilt of her chin.

i appreciated the mold-in-hay reference <3

her face crinkles and she retreats. suddenly the game isn't very palatable for the princess upon the stone. 

juarez would keep prodding, but soto's humor is a little different these days. he relents just enough to show her he's given her space by his own magnanimity; it's a far cry from true grace, but in the savage land of the desert where it's dog-eat-dog, it'll have to do. 

south es big place. soto comments, studying her face. she wouldn't pass as a local in his homeland, so he concludes she's either even more southern, or a different region entirely. 

an impish gleam ovetakes the aztec-gold of his eye. how was kemal?

I figured you'd relate hahaha

His stare was unsettling. Disa could not read it. He made a map of her face – his pupil moved as if despatched on a grand quest with portal magic and a broken compass, looping and leaping from her eyes to the damp sheen on her nose and back again.

"south es big place," he said, and then, just as the tip of the aforementioned nose began to creep towards him again, something lewd.

How was Kemal?

Kemal had been a perfect gentleman. But Disa grinned wickedly and said, "Oh. Like the south."

unexpectedly, soto meets his match.

his tongue darts across dark gums as he dissects the way she'd broke into a grin, the words she'd employed.

like the south, she says. was her south like his? he doesn't hide the absent trailing of his eyes towards her engine compartment, the finishing move a quick jut of his chin a la disa two seconds before. 

not a bad view.

he decides not to beat around the bush. he put baby in you?

He put baby in you?

Disa headed off a grimace before it could leap from the rising bile in her throat and lay claim to her face. Crude. Nevertheless, her heart beat a little faster when he looked her over like a prize cut of meat.

"No," Disa replied tartly, and in a flash she was sitting tall on her rock again, half turned away and looking down at him one her shoulder. "We didn’t get that far. Now – let a lady nap. Unless putting baby in me is what it costs to be Verapaz?"

a strange satisfaction settles in soto’s bones, like a content and fat cat curling around a pylon of golden sunlight. he’d inspired a change in disa’s demeanor; if only he could tap into that thorny essence and distill it at will!

his mind wanders. he wouldn’t mind putting a baby in her either; she’s pleasing enough, though the sharpness of her features speaks to a danger that attracts a more sadistic side of soto. but thinking of such things reminds him of towhee; a bolt of something cold moves through his stomach. 

is good cost to pay. soto alludes, not answering disa directly. he finds he enjoys playing with her, but such game is not without risk. something asplike stirs beneath the surface of her countenance, and it exhilarates soto any time he catches a glimpse of it. enjoy nap. no further questions. soto leaves at a causal walk.