Haunted Wood A New Beginning

Setting: Clear sky - full moon, 45 degrees, 10:30 pm.

Maybe slight power play of saying she was asleep prior to him arriving if that’s okay. If not no prob and I’ll change it! ;)

After just getting back from a patrol of the borders, he eyes the alcove he calls his home and hops his way up there. While in the nest, his thoughts begins to race and automatically he becomes restless and unable to sleep. After a weak forty five minutes of chasing the temptation of sleep, his hopes have failed. Standing to his great height, pawing his way down from his resting spot he knows exactly where he’s going to go.

Padding through the grotto the male b lines it right to @Serem’s den, careful not to wake any of the little devils that sleep with her he dares to walk closer. The black mount finally takes shape in the harsh shadows of the grotto. Leveling his head with the rest of his body he steals towards her. Never has he tried being so silent in his life. 

Snail-like he toes over to her sleeping body and lowers his head down to her ear. Gently, as to wake her up as easily as possible, he runs a tongue along her forehead onto her ear. Nosing the fur of her neck with his snout his lips rest just outside her ear.

“Despierta, cariña.” He rolls out smoothly, accent like honey.

She had been sleeping, the little ones nestled together as they kept warm when she heard a soft voice call to her in her sleep drawing her out of it and she groggily looks up and sees her prince looking at her. She gives off a small yawn as well as a stretch. "What's up." She says with a loving nudge.

A mischievous smile spreads his lips and he folds his legs to rest haunches upon the ground. For a moment he looks down at her, the grogginess in her voice and the haze of waking up in her eyes make him want to just admire her.

“Don’t hate me, Serem,” he starts softly, more as a joke; saying it just in case she were to get mad at him for waking her up in the middle of the night to go romp around in the dim, misty woods. “but I wasn’t able to sleep so I thought I’d invite you to a nighttime stroll with me.”

She was fully standing now and when he asked for her not to be mad she simply chuckled softly and licked his muzzle. "You'd have to do a lot more to piss me off." She clarified. The dark woman let him finished and agreed. "Lead the way."

“Glad to know. Not like I’ll start testing the boundaries.” He mumbles jokingly, voice still quiet, for they’re still close to the pups. 

They begin walking, side by side, brushing shoulders occasionally. The moon round in the sky shoots beams of light through the gangly leaves and winding of the tree limbs above them. The splotches of blue-white light shower them both ethereally in an other worldly glow. The night is rare for the fog has lifted, Santi plans on taking full advantage of it.

It’s a few minutes of comfortable silence, before Santi is blatantly staring at her. Admiring her thick, onyx fur that frames her face so well. After a minute the adoration fades to be replaced with something more feral. It hears him up and causes a smile to appear across his maw. He might want to get her riled up.

He was silent when around the pups and she was curious as to why the man was up right now but she was the same way so she didn't question it as they walked under the stars and she looked at him. "Couldn't sleep?" She asked simply

She speaks when they’re far enough from the pups and he nods to her sentence with an exhale through his nose that could be considered a laugh. “Yeah. Never can for some reason.” He shrugs.

Yet as he looks upon her in the pale moonlight he grins. “Wanted to come rile you up.” He challenges, weaving into her path to bump shoulders with her. Craning his neck over enough to nibble the fur along her neck and jaw, ending it with a lick to her muzzle. “I had a dream about you anyway. So I thought I’d come see ya.”