Sun Mote Copse time's the revelator
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#26
"That is not a healthy fear to live with," Wraen pointed out, thinking that by "all this" Arcturus meant his current life. Not too long ago he had lost everything that had been close and dear to him and yet now he was fine. At least she hoped he was, though she knew that even if he spoke to her more than with the rest of the pack, he still kept a lot to himself. Honestly - throughout their acquaintance, she had learned quite a lot about him by doing guesswork and making assumptions, but it was not as if Arcturus had told her much himself. 

"Life's always a bit on the downhill, when you leave something behind and start something new, or make a big decision of any kind, but then it goes up again," Wraen said. "That answers your question. I just quoted my mom," she explained. "Favourite thing to do besides pack duties?" 
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#27
maybe it wasn't a healthy fear. wraen was usually right. arcturus' gums thinned as he pursed his lips, trying to be realistic about her (and his) response. his expression lifted as wraen divulged that life was sometimes like peaks and valleys -- and sometimes, the descent was rough going especially when you left the familiar behind.

he liked that insight. "i think i would have liked your mother." arcturus admitted softly. not just because osprey had treated charon like a son, and not just because she had reared wraen - but because, despite him never having met the woman, she was a very real figure in his mind - someone wise, and kind, and not so far from wraen maybe.

arthur had to still the impulse he had to say guarding was his favorite hobby -- after all, it was a pack duty.. and.. it didn't exactly paint the picture of him being more interesting than a stuffy guard. for a moment arcturus waffled on if he should tell the truth (would she think less of him?) and then finally, figured that if he was to ever win wraen's heart, he had better be honest. "i like looking at the stars." he knew very little of them, but sometimes if he looked up in that sheer expanse of navy and twinkling stars, it helped ground him.

next, a question he had held close to his tongue, though he knew the answer in part. "where do you see yourself, this time next year?"
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#28
"Runs in the family, I guess," Wraen remarked, wondering, if Arcturus just watched them or he knew constellations, could read the patterns and all of the other minute things. Jarilo - if she recalled correctly - had been good at those things. Or Charon. She chuckled, never having thought that she would come to a point in her life, where her memory would begin to fail her. It seemed that the capacity of it was not limitless after all.

"A year is a lifetime. Many things could happen and I would have no say in it at all," Wraen replied cryptically and shrugged. "I mean, if I had asked you this question... in fact, I do recall telling you at some point that you need to leave Moonspear and see the world. In a not too distant past. And a certain someone told that it would never happen. At that point life a year away would seem the same. And yet here you are," she said. "With this in mind... perhaps, next year... Nah... that's too far off," she stopped her musings. 

"But I can tell you that this time tomorrow I will have a lunch date with Maia. Sisters only event," she said. "Name one mythical creature that you would want to have a sparring session with?" from serious to playful, Wraen figured that by mentioning Moonspear she might have been a little tactless and hurt Arcturus's feelings.
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#29
a year was an impossible span of time to measure. arcturus silently accepted that, enduring wraen's comment that even he could not predict the future.

after all, she was right. it was not so long ago he had scoffed at her suggestion he needed to leave the spear.

in the end, as always, she was right. arcturus was looking at the ground in troubled silence as she veered away from the tender topic, perhaps realizing that time had healed some wounds, but not all.

perhaps next year -- nah, that's too far off. perhaps what? arcturus' gaze lifted hopefully, falling as wraen trailed off.

sparring was a much easier subject, but arcturus knew little of mythology. when he looked up to provide his answer, a light grin dogged his features. "drake sounds like a worthy adversary." ice queen might be too much to handle, but drake -- arcturus could maybe hold his own.

"'perhaps next year', what?" arcturus pressed, thinking this was a perfectly reasonable 'many questions' question.
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#30
There hadn't been any big secret behind "perhaps, next year" remark. One of many trails of thought that had begun and been lost among the buzz of other ones. But Arcturus's curiousity, piqued her own. She watched him closely for a moment as if trying to decipher, why was the answer so important to him, but then let it go. He was a mystery still to her and she was not sure that she wished to sniff out all of the deepest, darkest and dustiest corners of her friend's mind yet.

"Let's keep that thought open-ended. I think we agreed that there is no way of knowing, what will happen next year," she replied. "I may finally find that fated frog and kiss him into a prince. Except the bog over there is huge and I am not very sure I want to marry that said prince with one thousand kids in tow. You do know that frogs have tons of offspring?" Wraen laughed happily.
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#31
it was hard for him to hide the interest that burned behind his question, so when wraen looked fully upon him arcturus felt compelled to look away. as if, if she saw his eyes she might see through him, and see his thoughts transparently as day.

he couldn't say he cared for shelving the thought (he was so ardently curious!), but arcturus obliged with a soft grumble. frogs were not as compelling or interesting a subject to him, but he stuck with it. "i can't say that sounds pleasant." maybe a little stiff-lipped, arcturus tried to imagine life as a frog for one moment.

ew, no. it was totally a life he viewed as beneath him.

he wanted so badly to quip lamely maybe you don't need to look in the swamp for your frog because your prince is right here! smartly, arcturus kept his mouth shut.
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#32
"Which part of it - the frog-kissing or the thousand kids?" Wraen asked him, looking at him with a playful glint in her eyes. On impulse she had put her golden crown and sceptre aside and changed the dusty mantle of old and wise wolf, to the one, who was much younger and reckless. 

"Tell me, noble guardian," she drawled out the words, as she circled around Arcturus, her tail waving merrily behind her. "Have you ever dared to kiss a frog, hm?" she asked and looked him in the eyes, as if challenging him.
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#33
both. arcturus replied immediately, his eyes widening as Wraen shifted and circled around him.

the movement caught him off guard, as did that new playfulness in her tone. they had always bantered back and forth, but now Arcturus was captivated by how easily Wraen seemed to discard her sovereign deportment, and float around him like some alluring dryad.

his throat was painfully dry. a pounding coursed in his ears and heart. he grappled for something smooth or suave to say. something that fit this sudden move shift that had him almost near euphoric with adrenaline. why would i kiss a frog? oh arthur, you stupid literal man. its not princes or babies I’m after.

smoooooove.
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#34
"Yeah," Wraen stopped, and lifted her gaze up, thinking about, what Arcturus had just said. "Yeah... I haven't heard that story, therefore we would have to find a Sleeping Beauty for you. Have you heard the tale of the cursed girl, who slept for hundreds of years, until kiss of her true love awakened her?" she asked, now looking at her friend. 

"We could find that princess for you. Or the one that needs to be rescued from the claws of the dragon, which keeps her as a captive inside a well-hidden cave in the mountains. Or the girl with the super-long tail," Wraen went on, princess after princess coming to her mind. If Arcturus had been interested in, there would be plenty to choose from Fairy-tale princess Tinder. 

"So - no princes and kids. What are you after then?" she asked him directly. "What do you want out of life?"
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#35
arcturus hadn't heard the tail of the sleeping beauty, or the wolf with the long tail -- he supposed if he lived alongside wraen for long enough, he would hear it eventually. it bemused him to learn that in most of these tales, the princesses needed saving.

he had not met many feeble women in his life -- if anything, his life had been dictated by women of the opposite disposition. amakaze, lyra, hydra, towhee, niamh.. even wraen, while no warrior, did not need saving.

he balked at her last question. now would be the time to lay bare the frameworks of his tender heart -- to expose all of his hidden desires (some not so subtle, some very covert), to let her know he had been chasing her all this time..

that it had only ever been her that he wanted.

he looked away, reining in those galloping emotions with a hard check. it was not the right time (when would be?) - it was not the right place (where would be?).

"i would like a long life." arcturus commented vaguely at first, playing it safe. "i'd like a mate. i'd like children eventually -- maybe even to start my own dynasty, like my parents did.." he looked down at the ground, recognizing the parallels. "only this time, it'd be different.

i'd be different."
by now the mountaineer's voice had trailed off softly, and he was gazing at the tree line in deep thought.

he could ask her the same, but he had asked a similar question before and had listened to her words, only to be dismayed there seemed very little place in wraen's future for him. "are you afraid of the future?" he suddenly asked, recognizing like him, several of her answers had been vague.
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away
Ghost
3,526 Posts
Ooc — Me
Birdcatcher
Trapper
Master Storyteller
Offline
#36
There had been moments, when Wraen had toyed with the idea of allowing Arthur to be more than a friend to her. All spinsters her age do along with becoming less picky on whom they threw themselves at, except my heroine had lived a rather sheltered life either among siblings or close relatives or with couples, who were already happily mated. Sometimes she wondered of all the "what if"s, painted pictures of familial bliss in her mind, imagined children she would have (daughters preferrably, but she would have been glad to have either), but they always remained dreams. Beautiful, but not real. Not for her, not in this life.

Arthur's honest answer did not surprise her, she had known it even before asking, she had just wanted to hear him say it. The truth did not stung or disappoint her, it made her realize there and then that even if there had been the slightest idea of her ever being with him as a wife, she had to put it away now. She could give him all of the world, except that one thing he truly wanted - a family. And she knew that in the beginning he would be ready to give up that dream, hope even that she was not right about her inability to have children, but over time that understanding and sacrifice would grow into resentment. The last thing Wraen wanted was to see coldness and hate in the eyes that had once been lit by warmth and adoration. 

She chewed her lip and bought time before answering: "No. I am not. It has not yet happened." With this she was done playing the game for the day. "Let's see, what's Towhee been up to," she suggested, catching a whiff of Regent's scent nearby and using it as an excuse to do something else. 

Last one from me. Thanks! :)
Ghost
send my soul away
1,066 Posts
Ooc —
Master Guardian
Tracker
Offline
#37

a subtle shift came over wraen; arcturus hid his alarm, but watched her well. he had not seen her bite her lip before, for one. for two, while he had tentatively opened the door to what was the path to a very open discussion, wraen's lack of a direct response was the metaphorical equivalent of that door being firmly shut.

he was not hurt by that, for he recognized that wraen often played her cards close to her chest -- but the ever so slight change in her demeanor perplexed him for long after. rounding his shoulders as wraen admitted she was not afraid of the future (oh, he was terrified of it), arcturus nodded at her suggestion and rose. "sure - we could play thousand questions with her -- but i get dibs on the first question." arcturus' brow rose with a slight arch, an easy grin coming to his features as he happily bounded after wraen.
when you come down to take me home
send my soul away