Phoenix Maplewood Cowboys and Angels
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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Ooc — Danni
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#1
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Lovely you always are making the posts. So I thought i'd make one for you this time. When you have time, here it is <3

Amalia roamed far and wide, her heart in her stomach. Was this somehow her fault. She felt like it was, even though she knew logically it wasn't. Her families bad luck had rubbed off on Natigvik, that was one explanation right? Though, when she thought of it, truth be told Akumma had always seemed alittle heart sick and weary. Even as a child.
She remembered their first meeting, it had not been pleasant.

Then her thoughts galloped to those misplaced. Sadey would be alone again, Amalia doubted very much that Sadey would stay within the confines of Moonglow, and what would happen to her? Lestan would stay, but would he be as happy on the mountain as he was in the cold? And what of @Reno and Kivaluk, hadn't he had enough upheaval, enough of pain for one so young.

It was with these thoughts in mind that she turned towards other things. A hunt perhaps, or a herbal excursion. So with practiced ease of a woman who knew how to run, she loped from the valleys of her pack home, unease as she crossed the borders, and on ino the Maplewood.

She traced her black lithe body through the dappled trees of maple, the light dancing along her fur. The pretty leaves filling her heart with peace. Suddenly, she had a thought. She studied all the leaves on the ground, marveling at the crinkling sound they made. So with practice, she began to push with nose, paws. Making larger and larger piles until there was a pile big enough that she could leap upon.

Then with laughter in her voice and a running start, she leaped through the air and landed among the leaves with a loud whumpf, the leaves scattering and her laughter growing louder with each leap.
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Ooc — Teo
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#2
It felt like they carried a curse around with them. When the gang had showed up to Amalia’s home, it had started as a promise of new numbers. The place was gone in short time after that. The wild western wanderers had been disbanded again. They weren’t to be worried about, the cowboy knew well enough. It had been Amalia who had occupied his thoughts. She had spoken so highly of the home she’d found. She had seemed to love it and the families that were growing within it.

Everything disappeared eventually, Reno thought as he prowled the maple forest.

Colt had shared some of the man’s thoughts. It seemed he was flourishing as a leader, if that’s what he could be called. Briggs was unpredictable at his very best. He could bring them a good deal of trouble in no time at all. The dusty figure had his concerns, but he knew he had always been quick to judge the rough-edged man. Perhaps it was better to let it ride out.

A rustling of leaves. Reno’s ears perked tall on his head.

Miss Amalia, he spoke with his rough voice, shocked that she had appeared.
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#3
Amalia was enjoying this game. Back and forth she piled the leaves and leapt and piled again. She had just finished piling and jumping. Pulling the leaves to her center as she did say. When something caught her attention.

She lay flat on her back in the pile of leaves when.

A voice calling her name. Black head, was up from the leaves and she smiled, green gaze warm.

Hello Reno. Want to play?

She smacked at the leaves again. She leapt from the center of the brown, and red mass of leaves, sticks and leaves sticking to her pelt.

She lurched forward and smiled closer and nudged him hard with her head and nose, and then turned back around and with a sweet play growl, her body bent forwards.

She bounded forward in a leap and the leaves flew around her head, as her laughter rang out clear and trilling. Nose to the sky, eyes closed in ecstasy.
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#4
Something about it felt like a dream. Reno couldn’t remember ever playing in the leaves. He remembered plenty of them turning yellow, falling. He remembered barren branches and heavy snow on the ground. He could remember buds shaping and filling out, flourishing in new sun. Seasons were a constant. Had he ever taken the time to stop and admire them in a playful way? No.

Don’t know the rules, miss. Never was one fer playin round in leaves’n all that.

The disbanding of her home had not appeared to shift her. She was happy and full of light. She seemed to be enjoying every moment. The cowboy couldn’t understand how. Such positivity was foreign to him. He admired it and cursed it, unable to wrap his head around the idea that everything was fine for Amalia.

Yer doin alright, hm? the man grunted softly.
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#5
Perhaps it was strange to him. Her life was shattered around her, and though it hurt and she was unhappy and her peace broken. She also knew that she had to do something, rather than nothing. Or it would fester like an open wound, and leave her bleeding and dying from the inside out. Little did she know it would get worse as they entered moonglow. And that last thread of control and peace she held onto would break and shatter at her feet.

What rules?

She jumped up and stood near him, tail swaying in the gentle wind. You pile em up and jump in em. That's all. It's just. she shrugged a shoulder. Fun.


Amalia's ears drooped at his next question and her eyes grew glassy, but she shook her head to push it away.

She spoke her voice barely above a whisper, soft and sad. Of course i'm not okay. But you have to laugh or you'll cry right? And today I choose to laugh.

She tilted her head and stared him down. The swagger ot his hips and the way his eyes were soft and sad, but hard and even.

So play with me. Take away all my unhappiness for this brief moment in time.

She didn't know what she was offering, or if she was offering anything, didn't care to know. They could play in the leaves or some other game. But she was not going to dwell today, on things she couldn't change and that would make her cry.
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#6
The man nodded his head, understanding that there were no real rules. It was only something she had done to create joy in her life.

When she moved on to say that she was not okay, that she was making a choice to laugh instead of cry, Reno regretted that he had said anything. It wasn’t his place to make comments on the lost homes of others. He didn’t have the tact to speak kindly or the knowledge to understand the importance of those places. A life on the road had meant that his home could change from one day to the next.

Yer a good gal, miss Amalia. Yer gonna have a fine home. Anyone’d be lucky to have ya, and I know it ain’t right that ya lost yer first home, but sometimes those things just happen. Part of how it is.

Reno wasn’t sure if his words were all that valuable. He wasn’t trying to spark emotion in her. The rugged cowboy merely wanted to make sure that she would be alright. There were few certainties in the world. He only wanted to know that Amalia would have the home she deserved.
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#7
He nodded, but said nothing. She wasn't sure if she appreciated it or hated it. She wished he would talk more that he would crack open his veneer even just a little. So she could see what the man in front of her was made of.

Amalia looked at him surprised and not sure what to say. She wondered how to word anything, when she didn't know her own thoughts really on teh matter.

I'm tired of being good. She groused, her thought to Tulukiri, the fight they had at the borders, and then the verbal spar after.

I am not upset that I lost my home. Homes can be rebuilt. I am upset that a child can be rude and disrespectful and treat others beneath them and get no reprimand for it. I am upset that in his short life Kivaluk has had more changes than a fair few and it isn't fair. I am upset that a mother and a child must go away from their pack, because they cannot handle the sadness of a melancholy child. But I am most upset that the man who promised to take care of all of us, fell apart the minute his wife left. I understand I do. I don't even bedgrude him this sadness, or the move. I just wish he had done better that is all. I wish all of us had done better.


Then with a growl filled with sadness and laughter, she turned and jumped into the leaves again, and she rolled. Then with a leap she stared at him and spoke.

Run with me?
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#8
The cowboy was not prepared for the flurry of words that found him. He stood and listened to all of what she had to say, understanding that she was angry. From what he could tell, she had every right to be upset with the cards that had been dealt. Things hadn’t gone the way they should have. The family she had grown to know seemed to have suffered something awful in the happenings.

Amalia carried a lot around with her. She carried it without letting on that it was breaking her back. Reno didn’t like to see it. A living thing could only go on so long with those kinds of burdens. He did not want to see her lose her faith in the world. The worst of it was that he didn’t have any words of assurance to offer her.

The dark girl asked him to run.

Reno nodded once, trotting toward her.

Life ain’t fair, not for no one.

Words of advice from Reno Sagebrush.
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#9
Amalia opened her mouth and what she wanted to say and what she did say were vastly different. She sighed, it was what it was. If nothing else could be said of her, she was honest to a fault at times. That could both be a blessing and a curse. Though usually she had more tact.

Amalia had always carried a lot, preferred to take the burden from others, so that they did not have ot carry such things around with them. There was a self-sacrificing wolf deep inside and it was always bleeding heart. She would never lose her faith that good things would happen, at least she hoped not, but she did often wonder. If the burden of others, with the constant hope to keep them happy would be her undoing.


Amalia met his eyes with her expressive green ones. I don't want it to be fair. I want it to balance.

Then she brushed her tail along his flank, and across his nose and leapt forward. Large paws tearing up the ground as she ran, egging him on to run faster. To catch. To chase. To play.
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#10
The girl said that she didn’t want fair, she wanted balance.

Reno thought they were the same thing, at the end of the day. Life didn’t offer much of anything in the way of being fair. It was unexpected and messy, cruel in the worst ways. The cowboy had seen horrible things in his time. He had seen good folk, too. There could not be one without the other. Maybe that’s what she meant, in a way. Things felt like they had gone askew – it needed to straighten out. Some good for all the bad that was going around.

The brush of her tail was the only warning he received. Amalia raced away. Reno followed with his eyes for a moment. A breathy sigh sounded. The dusty figure trotted after her, quickening his pace only when he began to lose sight of the dark of her fur.
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#11
Were he to ask, she would be the first to point out they were different. Similar. Of course, but at the end of the day. Fair was fair, both sides had equality and the like. Where balance, maybe both sides had equal shares, but they weren't both good and both bad. No there had to be a middle room, a wiggle. There was a need for things to have gray areas, between the black and white. Otherwise the world would fail. She would fail.

Amalia pressed her head start. Her legs were longer, leaner. She was a runner, it was what she had done, and truth be told. She wasn't certain he was going to follow anyway. Who would want to follow in a game of cat and mouse? Most would find it careless, juvenile, naive, and perhaps it was. Perhaps it was, but it was the only way she knew how to press the hurt that lay deep inside. To push upon it and hope it didn't bleed further. Like a bruise you knew it would hurt to touch, but you couldn't help but do so, as the pain slowly receded.

But she soon heard his breathing, his own thrumming legs. She curved between the trees and the rivers, leaving him in the dirt, and then slowing up so that he could try and attempt to catch. Her green eyes burned and tears flew, but it was okay, because it would be over. The tears would dry. They always did. She moved the curve of her spine, and the muscles of her legs. It was up to him if he could catch her.
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#12
They ran through the wild. Reno was content to follow the girl. She had some feelings that needed to feel the speed of her legs, the outlet that racing provided. While the cowboy wasn’t much for talking about emotions, he understood that they were powerful things. The man would not deny the importance of what she did, finding a way to address how she felt. Sometimes he forgot to give himself what he needed and other times he just let his feelings go – no sense in wallowing, he figured.

Huffing breathily, Reno had finally caught up to the dark girl.

He would pretend that he did not see her crying. The cowboy didn’t know that he would have anything good to say to her. She wanted balance in the world. If he could promise her that, he would. It didn’t do any good to tell her that things would get better. No, the dusty man had no promise of that. He’d give her the company she needed, though. That was a job fitting for Reno Sagebrush.
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#13
The cowboy kept up with her run well. She couldn't complain. Amalia tried to self-care, but the simple fact was. Sometimes she forgot and took care of everyone else first. It had caused issues one too many times. She realized as she ran that, that was part of her issue. She needed to be needed, needed to be liked and when she wasn't. Well, it didn't sit well, and that was something she'd have to get over.

. Finally, she slowed and then stopped. Heart beating against ivory and ebony. Gentle pants leaving her breath frosty in the air. She closed her eyes and lifted her head towards the sky, letting the sunlight filter across her face and nose, drying the tears that ran like rivulets down her dusky cheeks. Green eyes closed for the time being. A small smile on her face.

As she settled and her breathing grew even, she turned. And met the dark gaze of the male beside her. She licked along his cheek and nibbled at his ruff in silent thanks. Perhaps it bold, but she didn't care.

Thank you Reno. I needed that. She smiled and looked back up to the sky.
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#14
Once they had arrived at a stop, the girl took a moment to compose herself. Reno offered her the privacy of an averted gaze. His eyes traced the terrain, charted courses in his mind. There was a lot to be learned from the land. When she turned an affectionate touch on him, the cowboy worried. He did not move from the gentleness of it. The gesture had only lasted for a moment. Perhaps, he had misunderstood. The girl’s emotions were high…

Amalia thanked him for the run, saying that she needed it.

’Course, miss. Whatever helps, Reno offered in as gentle of a grunt as he could manage. Talk of emotion had never been his strong suit. He’d only ever muddled his way through most exchanges like that. Try as he might, the man’s exterior was as prickly as a cactus. There was a chance that Amalia could see what lingered underneath his roughness.

Where’ll ya go?
Brecheliant
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-Not all who wander, are lost.-
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#15
He had looked away from her torment, and it hadn't sat well. Her mother had taught her to never look away. This was not how you learned to feel empathy by looking away. Her heart felt crushed against it's prison of fur and flesh and she allowed her air to woosh out of her for a moment.

Different these two were. Far too different for most anything and that was what hurt the most. Could they even truly be friends? Oh she could, would try her hardest, but he never let his guard down. Never offered the same openness that she did. Was he just here to be kind, did he really even care about her in any capacity. She clamped down upon her thoughts and stopped them immediately. It was almost an act of god, but she could not afford to spiral where she needn't at the moment.

I apologize if I made you uncomfortable.

A sigh leaved her maw as she stared around her. They want to go to Moonglow on the mountain. But I may go somewhere else. I have conflicting relations with some new members that would be going with us.