Fox's Glade silvertongue
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#1
All Welcome 
The dale offered him a great amount of comfort, and had been his sole reason for choosing it as a temporary dwelling. He would venture out on days when the sun was high in the sky, and return when the stars glistened overhead. There were still no signs of Tiel'c, but he had not had very much company in the glade, and the thief was grateful for this. More peculiar still, he had grown rather fond of the skittish red creatures who roamed the territory with watchful eyes and sharp smiles. Tadec had started to feel as though they had accepted him in their midst and deemed him an honorary fox of the meadow.

Long and rickety limbs carried him through the terrain. He stretched the length of his back in the new morning sun and the darkest parts of him felt its warmth. The day before, he had spotted the proof of a family of voles living beneath the twisted roots of the trees. The thief did not eat much, but was fond of the smaller catches as they kept him sylphlike and fleet on his feet. Voles were the perfect prey for such a predator.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#2
morning found the redleaf outside of bearclaw's perimeters, her lone figure loping against the brilliant and fresh-fallen snow. she had tracked the intricate and half-faded scent of a doe, but she had no hopes of felling it herself. she hoped she could trace the hind to a herd, and swing back for home and enlist the assistance of a packmate should any of them be available.

fate, it seemed, had other plans -- the snow was deep and in drifts near the brim of the forest, and the scent was lost.

frustrated, indra turned back for home. she was scarcely across the open plains when she spotted the stretching silhouette of a wolf -- though something about its posture seemed distinctly unwolf-like. she thought to take pains to avoid him, but she knew she was plainly visible against the starkness of the pallid snow.

as it was, the path she followed would have taken her past him anyway. unsure but unwilling to seem afraid, indra pressed onwards with her amber gaze holding his figure with scrutiny.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#3
Crunching snow was all that had given her away. With a quick swivel of his ear, the dark half-blood turned his head and snapped it in her direction. He was met with a sharp glint of her warm gaze and an expression that audited his every feature. The dull fire of his gaze roamed her figure for a moment before he saw the tufted fur at her rear and the stub that showed signs of a tail having been torn away. This was of particular interest to Tadec; it was an imperfection that he had not yet seen on the wolves of the wilds. The girl was coated in a burnt reddish hue that faded to softer colors on the underside of her throat and her belly. He enjoyed the resemblance to those colors and the bright rust that coated his shoulders and spine.
 
Motioning with a thrust of his muzzle, the coywolf offered a small curl of his lips and a light twitching at the tip of his tail. “You… er… tail,” his deep voice was carried like an echo of thunder as he stumbled over his words. Tadec did not want to appear rude to the girl, so he shook his head and exhaled quickly. The thief did not enjoy conversing with their kind; the sound of their tongue was so strange against his lips. “Like it,” he said with a nod, feeling as though this would suffice enough not to scare her away. The spindly creature looked at her expectantly.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#4
the thin figure had seen her; as indra drew close, his long ears apprised her progress. his tail, longer than hers had ever been, flicked before he spoke -- his voice a deep peal she had not expected. she studied the slightness of his frame and the dark ash of his complexion -- the brash raze of copper hue not unlike her own. perhaps richer still, given the cast-iron contrast of his pelt.

the girl halted then and extended her muzzle to his carefully, scenting the air for any sign of alliance or company. he seemed alone, but she could not be so sure. ithrik had been alone, and well...

she felt her stomach stir as he drew attention to her tail - a pang of anger clutched her and she pulled back abruptly, ears cupped as she awaited whatever barb he planned to deliver. she had been stupid to approach him, stupid to even entertain his company -- he would be just like mahler, and would dig deep into her tender spots with hooked claws.

and then he complimented her.

reluctantly her ears returned to their lax station, and she squinted in his direction as she digested what he had said. corinna had liked her lack of a tail too -- she had called her a bad-ass bitch -- and while indra so sorely missed her final appendage, it did her some good to hear it referenced positively rather than as some horrible stigma.

"really?" she asked, sounding much less secure than she wanted to. after all, there was the possibility he was lying.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#5
The reply was uttered in the form of a skeptical, single-worded question. The coywolf wondered if it would have been offensive to her to suggest that it was an ideal trait, this flaw. His dying firelit gaze followed her body language with a precision unmatched, seeing that she had relaxed under the light of his remark. Of course, Tadec did not wish to have her feel as though he had been facetious in his comment. The slender halfling made an encouraging bob of his head and a further wagging of his tail to suggest that he offered her only a genuine form of companionship.
 
The moonlighter extended his neck to sniff at her, noting the familiarity of the scent that clung to her blush coat. It was the same that he had gathered from the other pack wolves who had crossed him in the nearby territories. If he had thought any further on it, Tadec would have been bothered that he had shared the light with so many of their undesirable kind. In spite of this, he had not yet found a creature quite like Indra in appearance, and she had compelled him to a cordial state of mind. The spindly thing only wanted to know her deeper.
 
“You like dying sun in sky,” he then told her, motioning to her plush pelt. “Tail make you look fierce.” Then, as though to affirm this intuition, Tadec puffed his chest some and forced himself to stand a little taller; it was a mimicry, if anything. He was nothing more than a moonlighter on stilted limbs than he was a strong sort of fellow. The wild thing was more a rogue than a knight. This did not mean he was incapable of admiring the attribute in others.
 
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#6
she held still as he performed his own examination of her -- in many ways the behavior was ritualistic, and it put indra at ease to see another -- even one who was not fully wolf -- uphold wild custom. her gaze trailed to his swaying tail -- it was thin and ropey and not at all like hers, but for a moment she envied him for it.

her doubts he might have only been lying were abolished as he spoke: in a way, it was similar to what corinna had said. indra lifted her muzzle slightly as she considered that she looked fierce. perhaps losing her tail had some good in it after all.

she was still taken aback by the compliment he doled out -- and he did so without guile, it appeared. she was unused to such customs and in a way the male struck her as exotic. "thanks." she answered at length, affirming her gratitude with a slight dip of her muzzle. "i'm indra. what is your name and... why are you so nice?"

perhaps it was too direct a question, but the girl had learned one sorry thing about the world: everyone had motives. in her eyes it was better to learn his now rather than find out the hard way.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#7
The woman was appreciative, from what he could tell. She uttered a small word of thanks before providing a calling and then an inquiry that left him mildly baffled. The savage little pilferer gaped at her for a moment, fur ruffled along his neck, and regarded her with a touch of confusion. Tadec had been called many things in his young life, but nice had never found its way to the list of adjectives that embodied his form. There was a trace of pleasure in the thought that she found him genial. This pleasure manifested itself in the form of a shriveled smile on his pointed muzzle; the tips of his canines poked from beneath his lip.
 
“This one is called Tadec,” he introduced to her with a nervous bob of his head. Then, he analyzed the second half of her question. If she had meant it in a rhetorical nature, she may not have actually needed an answer. The dark halfling thought it rude, so he shrugged his shoulders and peered at her with an interested light in the embers of his gaze. “Tadec collects… imperfection.”
 
Though he had never admitted it to another, the bandit imagined that she could do very little harm with the information. The coywolf did not want her to think that she would be taken captive by him, so he made a great deal of effort to appear unassuming and earnest in what little he could say. The words were drawn out and challenging on his tongue, but he managed well enough aside from being stiff and formal in his phrasing. The tip of his tail twitched again at her.
 
“Not the same as other wolves. Indra is different. Indra is fierce; bright.”
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#8
indra was bemused by the creature -- his mannerisms, the affectation of his voice -- even the stilted lift of his tongue and the careful phrasing of his words. his answer was received evenly, but she labored to understand the meaning behind it. weren't all creatures flawed, in some measure?

"why imperfections?" she asked quietly, noting the disparity in their voices as she spoke. to her, an imperfection was a possible weakness -- surely, if one surrounded oneself in them, it would be an exercise in folly that ended in exhaustion.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#9
It seemed as though something he had said struck her as being odd. His expression fell as she looked to him with a questioning glance before inquiring about his reasons for that particular collection. The thief regarded her with a soft glow in his gaze before he glanced away and fixed his attention to the dirt and the rocks. Finding it difficult to formulate the proper way to provide her with a response, the coywolf looked back to her warm red features with a slightly gaping mouth and a slump in his nimble frame. “Imperfect creatures fight harder. Flawed ones are stronger,” he admitted to her, though he did not feel as though the response was good enough. It was a simple as he could make it in such a difficult tongue, but he hoped that she would accept it without judgment.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#10
the slim creature took his time composing an answer, though admittedly, indra did not mind. she followed his gaze as it roved from her to the ground -- and then back to her -- his mannerisms were not unlike the wary studying of a crow, she thought. when he did speak, his words were wrought with care; indra examined the sentence internally, in turn taking her own time to respond.

she had never looked at herself in such an introspective manner, but perhaps it was true -- perhaps the hardship and ordeals life had thrown at her and laurel had bettered her -- had tempered her the way a metalworker would finely stress thin steel.

"i don't feel very strong." she admitted at length, looking away from him with a small frown. "are you stronger? are you flawed?" she didn't know, truthfully, if she was the wolf to assess that -- his mixed blood was of no detraction to her, and visibly there was nothing amiss from him save the haunting bronze of his possessing gaze.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#11
The burgundy woman conceded that she did not feel strong, and she cast her gaze away from him with a dejected expression. It seemed that she was at a loss, so she turned his statement against him and fixed him with the gold of her gaze. The dull fire in his own eyes roamed across her face and he felt his limbs quiver at her direct inquiry. If she should offer him her own moment of genuine emotion, he imagined that he should return it in his own way. The crow moved forward slowly and pushed to nestle his muzzle underneath her chin in a show of comfort. The movement was soft and careful, for he was not certain how she would react to such a gesture.
 
With a soft sigh that escaped through his slender muzzle, the thief flattened his large ears to his head. “Tadec is flawed, yes,” he informed her in a soft timbre. “But… not strong.” The strength of his soul was surely weaker than her own; he could almost feel the fire in her gaze. Indra had a beauty about her – shattered, but resilient and fierce. The long-legged halfling could only long for the type of force that she carried within her very limbs. He was somewhere in the in between; Tadec belonged not to the fiery light of day, nor the creeping dark of night. The broken little coywolf was made of the late dusk, the early dawn.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#12
she had not expected following her question that he would press the gap between them and place himself directly by her chin -- at first alarm chilled her spine, and she tensed at the sudden contact.

it was not entirely unwanted; indra had felt like a frayed rope as of late, and his gesture restored some semblance of comfort in her. she canted her muzzle to his own curiously, but did not linger long in his embrace. she watched as his ears cupped back and he exhaled a weighted sigh. her brow furrowed as he spoke; she knew not of the stirrings in his heart, but if she had been cognizant of them she would have fiercely contested it -- for she was no better than him -- they were equals.

well, except she was missing her tail -- so maybe she was a little bit less than him.

"you look fine to me." she said dismissively, though it was not out of coldness -- and for the first time in a long while, warmth seemed to be restored in her amber gaze.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#13
Indra allowed his touch for a moment of time before she pulled back and he moved himself to allow her room. Personal space had been a vital portion of his raising, and he knew it to be a sweet comfort as well as a merciless pain. The crow did not want to offend her into leaving him; he was far too interested in her to risk the opportunity. Instead, he calculated her features as she mulled his word over and once she had spoken, he felt relief. She believed he appeared fine. While it was not a deep confession of her liking, he swelled with a rare giddiness that caused his paws to dance in place; lightly, as though he were floating on air. 

“Truly?” he asked her with wide eyes. His shriveled smile spread into a wide beam that stretched his features and accented the fine point of his nose, as well as the narrow bridge of his muzzle. “Indra is very kind.”
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#14
while her observation of the dark-plumed crow had been genuine, she had not expected his reaction. he seemed to morph then, executing a cute little passage with his giddy feet -- indra could not help but return the smile, though she marveled at the change that overcame him.

he called her kind -- she repeated his words mentally, treasuring the compliment the way gollum treasured his motherflipping ring. it was a rare thing, for one to compliment her -- and she stowed it deep within the recesses of her mind to cherish, to revisit.

"takes one, to know one." she offered lamely, though she still felt his radiance warm her. "i already called you nice though. no one likes that i'm missing my tail but you. that makes you different -- in a good way."
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#15
The phrase it takes one to know one was lost on the spindly crow, but he smiled at her anyway and his tail fluttered behind him. Then again, he did not understand fully why others would not like her for lacking an appendage. It furthered his belief that all wolves were predominantly cruel creatures and that they did not understand the importance of such differences. Tadec felt shamed that he would carry so much of their blood in his body. The black coyote would surely reprimand him when he found that he could no longer run.
 
“Others can be cruel,” he spoke softly, watching her with a soft expression. He had been told that the wolves were his enemies – the Elil – and would never bring him happiness, but he had found that not all of them were the same. “Tadec thinks Indra is touched by Frith,” he then added with a wider smile and a sure bob of his skull. Then, as if to explain himself, he turned his crown toward the sun and flattened his ears to his skull out of respect. It was true, after all; she wore the red coat of one who had been born to the summer. She breathed a warmth that he had never been blessed enough to witness in his short life.
 
But where she had been graced with the love and warmth of a Fritheer, Tadec had been born beneath the eyes of Inlé. They could not have been more different; she was of the sun and he was of the darkest reaches of the moon. It was in this realization that he did not wish to lose her, and so he peered on her with a small desperation and lowered his muzzle to show that he had no harmful intentions. "Where is Indra home?"
all the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand Enemies. 
and when they catch you, they will kill you. but first they must catch you; 
digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. 
be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#16
indra needn't be informed others could be cruel -- she had been indoctrinated to that harsh and indomitable decree already -- all the same she offered an understanding nod in agreement. she looked to the ground, studying the intersection of snow and dirt -- her eyes lifting only as he spoke of something: frith. the world was unknown to her, the meaning lost -- but she could tell by the careful way he spoke that it was of great importance to him.

she saw in tadec then a slimmer of something -- need? desperation? she could not name it. despite being cautioned once to never give her home to strangers (sry redshank sry) she supplied it anyway. "bearclaw valley." she hoped she would not regret such openness. "where is your home? who is frith?"
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#17
Bearclaw Valley!
 
Ah, he thought to himself with a pang of regret. The smoky creature had been hoping she would provide more direct means of where she called home. Tadec turned from her and looked through the terrain as though in search of this notch in the earth where Indra lived. When his gaze was back to her, she had inquired about Frith and Tadec’s home. At this, his expression gave way to surprise. So closely interwoven with his familial culture, the thief had never realized that she might not know of who he spoke when he mentioned the great god of the sun. It was pleasing for him to be able to tell her.
 
Pointing high in the sky with the tip of his narrow muzzle, the crow held his pose and then returned his sights to her. “Frithrah is Lord Sun,” he explained to her in what could have been a purr. The thought of the bright orb above them was one that showered him in a comfort he had known nowhere else. It was Indra’s second inquiry that cast a shadow on his features and turned his small smile into a blank slate. His gaze was cold for such warm color. “Tadec has home far away. Time for new home, perhaps here,” he explained somewhat curtly. The dark young thing had no means of providing her with details, but the subject of his home was a difficult one to approach.
all the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand Enemies. 
and when they catch you, they will kill you. but first they must catch you; 
digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. 
be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#18
tadec seemed to be searching for something -- perhaps her home? indra motioned in silence to the valley behind them, but remained wordless until tadec explained who frith was. when he turned his fine muzzle upwards indra followed his gaze, squinting as the sun beat down upon them.

he sounded pleased to share his knowledge with her, something indra registered with a sense of appreciation. often when her ignorance was exposed, people were clipped or short with her -- but tadec seemed thrilled to spend time elucidating for her. she thought it kind and for a moment a smile hung loose on her gums.

and then his expression changed; she watched as ice seemed to splinter across it, unfamiliar against the soft burnish of his molten gaze. indra's muzzle slid into a contemplative frown. "you could come to bearclaw sometime." she extended, though she had no idea on xan's stance against halfbloods.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
all the world will be your enemy
129 Posts
Ooc — Cactus
Offline
#19
There was an invitation and it took the crow by surprise when it arrived. She invited him to her pack. A rare sort of elation rose up within him and the coywolf twittered his tail about. “How kind,” he stated in a warm tone. Decidedly, the thief turned to where she had motioned and made note to wander to the borders of the valley she claimed as her home. Tadec wondered if all the wolves were like her. He realized it would have been an ideal location if that were the case. If not, those there were fortunate to have the sun-touched girl. She had a light in her that was not in most. 
all the world will be your enemy, Prince of a Thousand Enemies. 
and when they catch you, they will kill you. but first they must catch you; 
digger, listener, runner, Prince with the swift warning. 
be cunning, and full of tricks, and your people will never be destroyed.
i will pry his bony fingers free
1,207 Posts
Ooc —
Offline
#20
the male's quaint mannerisms endeared indra -- she followed his copper gaze for a moment, offering only a smile in response to his statement. in truth, it had been other things besides kind -- bearclaw needed members, and indra needed friends -- in a way, the invitation had been somewhat selfish.

she dipped her muzzle in acknowledgment of what he had said, though her expression was now solemn as she thought back on her duties at home. "well... you know where to find me." she offered at length, hesitant to leave but also knowing that it would be dark soon, and laurel's den still needed some final touches to prepare it for laurel's big day.

without any word further, indra headed for home.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.