Phantom Hollow They said it changes when the sun goes down

@West

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For days he'd scouted the land, believing that he'd found the perfect place to settle down on for as long as it took him to get what he wanted from the Teekon Wilds. Surrounded by razor-sharp ranges, the vale was a lush paradise, a fortress of sorts, but Bane often felt the need to breach out from it's enclosure and see the open fields to which he was accustomed.

This time the journey was too long for the child to come with, and although @Eros had become a protegee of sorts for Bane he was no babysitter and the child needed to learn how to take care of himself. The wraith had made sure to let Eros know that he wouldn't be gone for too long, and after explaining to the rest of the gang that he was going out on a scout mission he set out to map the area around Blackfeather Woods for the third time that week.

Across the golden plains there was a forest. Worn by their age, the trees were but memories of the life that perhaps there once existed. Now, only skeletons remained, and the silence was deafening. Bane trekked through the fog measuring the land's potential as strategic post to keep an eye on the Brotherhood. He moved with silent steps, but it felt as though his very fur moving in the wind was an insult to the forest's tomb.

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A tingle creeps up her spine, pinching just below the back of her neck. It crawls outward, through the nerve endings and back up through her veins. The haze in the back of her mind keeps her from truly leaving the slanted forest but every step she takes feels wrong. She knows she shouldn’t be here and realizes she doesn’t recognize the time of day in the canopy of moss that hangs above her head. Occasionally she parts her way through a curtain of low hanging, coarse moss that tickles her all the way down to her tail.
 
The scent of someone else grips her and she begins a natural path toward the origin before she realizes where she’s going. The impressive sight of a white beast she isn’t sure is even wolf. Fog billows around him like a parent’s story to frighten their children. West’s fur bristles when the distance between them is short but her expression remains neutral and she sways another step forward. A rumble—a purr—vibrates from her chest to draw upon his attention.

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His sway is measured, every inch of his body in tune with his command. There was no step in which his paws breached the silence of the land and in return, the forest backed him up with coverage. He trails through the mist in tandem with his heartbeat, slow, steady steps across the dead valley. And somewhere half way across his trek Bane came across her. She was not phased by his presence, and with a purr she caught his cold eyes' attention, like sharp daggers they turned her emerald own, piercing through as his lips curve up in half a sly smile. Bane wasn't expecting to come across anyone at all, but this he wouldn't complain about.

Something tells me you're not from around here... he says while slowly closing the distance between them. He speaks with a deep voice, but a ring to it betrays his intentions. Bane was a charismatic creature whenever it was of use to him.

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It is the attention she wants that she receives and a curve of her lips form on her muzzle. Emerald eyes darken in the faint light through the fog and the white brute makes his way toward her to close the distance. The chill that has made home in her spine remains but when he speaks, it soothes the demon enough though she’s reminded of the claws embedded there as her mind sways in another direction. She casts her eyes away from him as he speaks, rolling in the deep ocean waves of his voice.

“This certainly isn’t Kansas, is it?” she says, smoke seeping with each word that passes between them. She slowly blinks, turning her head back toward the other with a catlike whip of her tail. Her mind, slowed down already, comes to a halt to move at the same pace as the fog that engulfs them. One paw lifts from the ground and she takes several steps off to the left, breaking the line between them but not without a playful smirk and her head tossed over her shoulder.

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She speaks, and her voice rings at a frequency that sends a tingle down Bane's loins. He follows her movements with eager eyes, and his hackles raise, not out of fear or in an aggressive way, but as a reflect to easiness with which the female catches him with little more than a few words. Bane is intrigued, blank of mind as he observes every single swing that make her moves. She's already playing with him, and she's a better player than Bane could ever hope to become.

Nah babe, you're ways up north, he speaks, and his deep baritones rumble his chest like a long purr. People come up here looking for trouble... They usually find it, he teases, and his body shifts it's weight in the same direction in which the female moves.

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When she sees him move in her direction, she turns her head back around. She hears the soft crunch beneath the beast’s large paws, listening closely as she keeps her swagger at the same speed so he can’t quite close the short distance between them. She swerves into a clearing and circles around to face him. Her tail hangs loosely behind her, swaying slow behind her, and her muscles are all relaxed which allows her to slink a step forward. The quirk of her brow is all she can give him without getting any closer.

“Mmm,” she hums softly, “and look what trouble I've found”

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No matter how far she walks, Bane follows her steps closely. His pearly teeth never cease to flash through a sly smile, an his chest, pointed right at her puffs out as though he were a peacock flaunting it's assets. Mmm... he echoes, dropping a few octaves as he follows. Looks like you wanna get some of it, he adds, thinking to himself how hot and irresistible that last line had been (it wasn't) while he breaks his line to break the female's personal space.

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The smirk and huff of air escapes her mouth before she has a chance to try and stifle it but she widens her smile to brush it off. She feels the commandeering weight of his presence as he steps closer and a burn lights within she doesn’t bother hiding. The low rumble in her chest increases the moment she can feel his breath upon her fur. Her head turns away and she takes a step back, counteracting his approach with a flick of her tail beating the back of her hocks. “Is that what you think?” she returns with a quirk of her brow, glancing back certain he’s already closed the distance a second time but she does not let the closeness remain, drawing him along through the woods like the opposites of a magnet. And she only entertains him for a moment before she eventually snakes her way away from him.