beauty cat and the bald ape
gone girl
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#1
Between Feller's Pond and PHX

The older she got, the better her understanding of the world, the greater Sesi's fear of it became. She awoke each day from vivid nightmares, leaping from the fire and into the frying pan as she ventured beyond the safety of her little snug. Her lizard brain demanded that she eat and move about, and it battled constantly against her conscious mind.

The fearful youth had ventured to the forest's southern border today, and was peering out at a grazing buck some one hundred meters beyond the point where the tree line started to thin. She had tasted such a creature, but could not imagine bringing one down - not even with assistance. What if it got you with its horns? Or kicked you in the face? Sesi's mouth dried up as she extrapolated, imagining what a caved-in head or a broken jaw would feel like. It was a miracle that wolf-kind had survived this long.
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#2
He was aware as he travelled south the thickening presence of wolf scent. He did not wonder if there was a pack nearby, for he did not question what his nose told him. He was curious, however, and so drew nearer, his heavy paws quick but unhurried. He saw first the same buck the other watched. Its rack was respectable but did not declare it a monarch; the antlers sprouted from its forehead and swept forward into two beams each with three sharp points to threaten any wolf that dared, to say nothing of the splayed hooves that it could wield with just as much power.

With his belly still full from the fallen doe he happened upon earlier, he did not so much as consider the buck. He regarded it only with a passing glance before moving on. On some level, deer, and indeed all prey animals, knew the difference between a hunting predator and one passing by. The buck lifted its head, its raised tail a white flag to warn others of the wolf's presence, but after a moment the returned to grazing without alarm. As Taggarik made his way, the buck now behind him, he spotted the girl among the trees.

She had the subtle stature and curves of a wolf yet growing. He lifted his nose, but the wind moved crosswise and did not relay her scent to him. He regarded her quietly, his ears turned forward and tail idle behind him.
gone girl
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#3
It took Sesi a few moments to realize that the buck had not reacted to her, but to a second, much larger wolf. The girl's breath hitched in her throat. Before she could creep away and steal away unseen, his cold gaze was upon her - Sesi's legs became noodles beneath her slim body. She wobbled uncertainly, staring at the dark shadow in the grass. It occurred to her that there was no-one else around; the pack was hunting in the plains to the north, leaving the southern border in Sesi's care completely open to intruders.

"I.." Sesi's voice cracked and faded into a hiss. She did her best to look menacing, baring teeth and flattening her ears. "I.. I will attack!" This was it. She was going to die.
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#4
She was more unsettled by him than the buck had been, his stature alone, the sight of him seeming to make her come undone. He could detect the subtle movements she made in fear, and her cracking, hissing words confirmed what he sensed in her. His posture did not change, even as she bared her teeth and flattened her ears, threatening an attack. His mouth twitched upward with humor, and he dropped his hindquarters to the ground.

"Go on, then," he invited with a sweep of his broad paw. Not for one moment did he believe she possessed the courage to follow through with her threat.
gone girl
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#5
The stranger did the exact opposite of what she had hoped for. Instead of taking her threat seriously and making tracks, the shadow settled down and invited her to follow through. Sesi's quivering lips closed over her teeth, and her tone became pleading. She imagined what the alpha pair would say if they spotted her here, utterly unable to defend the Maplewood from intruders. "Please just.. go! Saena will kill me if she sees you." She was too desperate to consider how ridiculous it sounded - asking a stranger to leave your doorstep out of the goodness of their heart.
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#6
He was not mistaken. She was too timid of him to make good on her threat, which she had no place in uttering to begin with. Still, he did not move, even as she pleaded. He was not anywhere he was not permitted to be, and her begging was nothing short of irrational. He doubted this Saena character was so bloodthirsty as to slay her own packmate, a child at that, for speaking to him. His deep, gravelly voice was calm as he replied. "I do not think so. Why would you think such a thing?"
gone girl
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#7
Sesi was rarely ever not irrational. If the world didn't kill the poor girl, her own blood pressure surely would. She exhaled sharply through her nose in response to his question, struggling to find words. She couldn't leave him here - god knows what he would do. Pee on things - or stage an invasion! Or.. or something worse. "Never mind," Sesi squeaked eventually, shifting where she stood. Saena might not flog her for failing to defend the pack, but she would not look kindly on failing to try.

The silvery youth took a shaky step in Taggarik's direction, squaring her narrow chest. She was minutes from wetting herself, but there was no other choice - if she was booted from the pack, she was dead. "Wh-who are you? Why're you skulking around here?" It sounded like the sort of thing a guardian would say, but the voice used was a far cry from appropriate for the job.
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#8
She shifted her angle, retiring her idle threat to instead inquire as to his identity and accuse him of skulking about. He lifted a brow at her. So suspicious for such a young girl. He did not fault her caution, only her judgement. In time she may learn where best to spend such energies; at someone passing by, posing no challenge to the resident pack, was certainly not it.

He swept his tail across the earth, shifting his weight from one broad paw to the other, his body casually leaning to that one side. "Tagg," he said. "I am not skulking. I am travelling. And who might you be?"