just for bts/developmental stuff
"been wonderin'. do y'think i'm old enough d' be on my own? like you?" phaedra pondered, writhing in the rainslick grass as she scratched an itch that niggled between her shoulders. her cape would be a beautiful tapestry of mud and blades of grass once she was done, but that was generally her natural state, though the mud was usually just dirt. all this rain had made a mudslide of the slopes, great fun to sled down, but not so much when you ended up in a pool of water.
since the rain had ceased for the time being, the sun was out from behind the day's granite clouds to countenance the evenings journey into night-time. the sky flushed rosé and maiden-cheeked, swinging her periwinkle gowns. phaedra tilted her head at the white wisps of cloud and their bilious, thunderhead siblings sculling westerly with more rolling in from the east. sighing wishfully, she resumed her impressions of a snake in its death-throes, grunting out "well? ya think so?"
"do you mean to ask in a 'let's ditch caintigern' kinda way, or more like 'i'm feeling like an independent woman, wahey!' kinda way?" the marten responded only half-seriously, and thus only half-satisfactorily to her, hopping about as he chased and tripped after mourning cloak butterfly in a mindless ambit.
"the firs' one," she humored him with a bailiffs flinty aspect.
"well then like yeah. obviously, who wouldn't," he bat at the butterfly, a near miss for the painted nymph which flew away shortly after near getting its wing torn off.
"unsay it! righd now!" phaedra rolled over and scowled, slapping a paw on the water-quenched soil to splash him. instead, she just ended up splashing herself in the face, flecks of mud landing where she flinched.
the marten hacked a laugh and jounced over, making himself a beautiful tippet curling about her ruff. "nope." he groomed the flecks of mud from her muttonchops, but she shoved him away and huffed. "take it back!" phaedra demanded.
the marten squeaked when her paw waved him off. he slunk from her neck and pulled at an ear instead, insisting on entertainment since clearly she just wanted to loll about during their break from the second coming of moses. "oho, your tees are getting real good. unfortunately, can't. the words belong to the universe now, but as recompense if you get up i'll relieve that itch on your back."
phaedra didn't know what he meant by his words "belonging to the universe" (freak) or what recompense meant, but she groaned and rolled to her feet anyway, shaking out her coat, sending a little rainshower courtesy of her fur. "then say you didn' mean it and the univerdse can have that,"
"you know i didn't mean it. also, next time, a warning would be nice," he muttered, wringing her dirty water from his own coat.
"oh, you know i didn' mean id," she snarked with a grin as cain clambered up her shoulder and used his sharp claws to fossick through the fur in the ravine of her shoulders. he knew he hit the sweet spot when her body curved into a parenthesis and her hindleg started pumping against the ground reflexively.
the water pooling under phaedra's foot suddenly pelted him in the eye and he sprung off her, chittering with affront and propping up rub his eye and groom through his chest fur. "what were you talking about, this going it alone nonsense? you're right where you belong."
phaedra offered him a guilty look for the splash and scored her claws through the mud with a shrug while he preened. "i'unno. is like, inside me, and when i dream, i see somethin more, more ... nevermine. dumb." the (splenda) sweetling brushed it off with a dismissive twist of her lips, then looked at her friend with a frown. "you an't gonna leave me. you'd be bored withoud me," she said.
"or extremely relaxed," he parried.
without caintigern, she would be one among the many ostensibly lost.
a warm breath of wind visited her nostrils and ferried report of the incoming storm; it seemed like its force would never relent. the treetops rustled at their backs, a genteel lumber of thunder warning all of what was to come and steal through the night.
like all recent nights, the sky would spall its terrible jaws apart and show its teeth, swordlong fangs that lunged and bared whites at anything in its way—minutes, sometimes seconds, before a great roar erupted from its chest.
phaedra imagined it was giant skybears, which did shit all for her sense of comfort.
the ambiance around them had darkened within four blinks of an eye, or so it seemed; creeping in, a baleful and eldritch billow. "nah nah nah don't like any of that. right-o, time to beat cheeks! forest! go!" cain said abruptly, urging phaedra into the forest where they could find a roof under some rockbound port.
another crack of thunder; phaedra startled and crouched in place. "i want mama and papa," a whine whistled from her throat. caintigern nudged her rump into stirring, urging her into the forest with his small might. "i know, i know that, but ... what your mum said. it's only for now. if your pa— when, phaedra, when your pa gets better, only until then, remember? hurry,"
tears brimmed over her eyes, catching in her lashes like crystals and sinking through fur to the skin of her cheek. "i'm nod ready," she breathed into the wet tussocks of fur against her breast.
"not ready what? jump to it! ah, this one is coming in fast ... WE'RE GOING, NOW!" he said, biting her sharply on the haunch before quickening into the forest with or without her loping at his heels.
pain seared. she yelped and bolted after him. "augh!" she shook her head, in floods of tears, heart reaching for her parents in a moment of such cravenness. "can you do something for me? something ... like when you found those plandts for my belly?" she asked, panting, staring thoughtfully towards the trees before her gaze shifted pleadingly to the marten.
cain quivered his whiskers and was silent for several heartbeats as they ran, but agreed to her request on the condition that they find shelter before discussing what she was asking, and they both hastened into the forested umbrage as the sky gave vent to another loud crack of thunder.
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