Emberflame Ridge At night he becomes a bartender

@Haizel

A quick trip across the marsh was what Lilia had wanted- but following a thunderstorm that swept in over the mountain, the footing became loose and tiresome, and each step the mud became a struggle. Lightning arced across the sky, forking down and crackling as it lashed toward the ground like a whip. Alone, in the middle of a marsh, Lilia had felt quite vulnerable- but it seemed the lightning was drawn more to the forests along the mountains. 

Curious to see if it had actually touched down anywhere, Lilia began to explore the foothills in the soft rain that followed. The thunder had moved toward the coast where it rumbled in the distance, but threatened her no longer. She could smell the faint scent of smoke, and could see a faint line of it rising up from the forest. Occasionally she could see it through the forest canopy, noting with some sense of comfort that the smoke had begun to turn pale and wispy- indicative that whatever fire had been put out by the rain. Still- she wanted to see what it looked like, when lightning hit the ground, and continued moving toward the effected area.

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The ground and the sky seemed to be playing tag, and then hide-and-seek. Lightning cracked down and struck the earth, and in the earth's fiery passion for play, it reached its flame-tipped paws towards its twig-thin playmate and struck back. Only to be fizzled out by the sky's joyful tears. Haizel, though he knew that fire was the ending of his beloved flowers, the ending of their sweet scents, found the game nature played inexplicably fascinating. The sky and the ground were friends, only able to connect with flaming passion on rare occasions when the wind grew perfect for it. How sad it must be on the days it did not get to play.

Yellow eyes on a doe-pelted wolf were transfixed upon this fiery session, until he saw a stranger. A friend? Here to watch the sky play with the soil? Excting!

Hi! he called, trotting over with a grin on his muzzle. Are watching the sky play, too?

The forest itself seemed healthy, for the most part. Unclaimed and wild, home to rabbits, deer, squirrels- and a fair few mice, she noted. She tread past the skin a snake had shed and left behind, and commented silently on the way life worked; if there were many mice in the area, there would also be snakes. Here and there, trees stood without leaves- tall, bare, and split with dark markings that might've been left by a strike a long time ago. Interesting enough- but Lilia wanted to see what a fresh strike looked like. 

She paused when she caught sight of honeyed fur moving through the forest. If she'd not been paying enough attention, she might've mistook him for a young buck, due to the sheer height he reached at his withers. His features were pleasant, sunny- though she found her gaze drawn to the paler side of his face, where his yellow eye was smiling and kind. 

She wasn't quick to warm, though she decided immediately that in spite of his size, he wouldn't likely be a threat. "Play?" She asked, skeptically. The nearer he came, the more she found herself wondering if she could outpace him, if she had to. Her ears flicked back, lightly defensive. "Nah. I wanna find where the lightning th-truck." She stated bluntly.

Haizel thought about this for a moment, slipped into a thoughtful silence before coming up with a brilliant idea. I'd love to get closer to where they're playing! So... you wanna race and find out where that is? he questioned, head tilted slightly and tail not staying still. There was not much to happen that he could not find some sort of game to play, and he loved playing games. It was his absolute favorite thing.

Life was, after all, but an endless array of "play" and "not play", and the honey-furred one liked to have fun while he still was able to enjoy it. 

He started to pad forward, towards the playground of the enormous beings in their brilliant display of friendship. Come on! If we wait for much longer, they'll be done playing and you won't get to see it up close!

Playing? Lilia didn't understand who exactly he was talking about- but his enthusiasm was so genuine, the idea of asking him slipped her mind. He moved ahead, inviting her along with him and his sense of urgency pulled into a war against her own intuition. She still didn't know what he was talking about when he said they were playing. Plus, he was so long-legged, there was no way he'd lose a race. Plus, he'd already taken a few steps ahead, and was therefore a cheater, but-

"FINE!" She barked angrily, and pounced toward him- with the intention of either knocking him sideways, or startling him enough to make him give up his head start- before she cackled, and sped off in the direction of the rising smoke.

Haizel felt himself falling to the ground his side, his long legs tumbling after him. Hey- by no means was it accusatory, more so playful. The giant scrambled to his paws, purposely not going as fast as he could in order to keep pace with her. Fast enough to hopefully, his intention, let her win the race but not so much to let her think he was doing it on purpose. 

Paws struck the ground after her. Left, right, hind, right. A quick trot that looked authentic. He'd spent much time perfecting such a movement, and he nearly had it down. Haizel felt proud of himself for it. 

Her laugh made his day, nay, his month - pride and joy filling his heart at the sound, though the male did feel slightly as if she had been pressured to it. The smoke lay rising ahead, another thrilling bump of lightning cracking down to tag the earth once more. 

His eyes sparkled as he wondered if he could ever be that fast.

Lilia bolted, and for a moment she couldn't hear his footfalls and assumed she'd given herself enough of a head start that she could simply dash off out of sight, and shake the man from her tracks. But when she looked over her shoulder again, he was there- floating along at an airy pace that made her wildly uncomfortable with her own capabilities. 

She grimaced and gritted her teeth together. It simply wasn't fair that this airhead got such long legs, meanwhile she had to work much harder to get herself going this fast. Her heart hammered, and she found her frustration rising. She panted for a few moments, before she gave in to a reckless urge- and swerved suddenly in his direction with a snap of her teeth before she bounded ahead again. 

She wanted to win- but she didn't care if she did so fairly or not.

At her jaws snapping the air in front of his chest, Haizel gave a quiet chuckle and quickened his pace. His heart wanted to let her win, knowing that if he lengthened his stride, he'd overtake or even lose the little wolf growing angry at him. 

After all, her legs were shorter than his, and it wouldn't be fair to her if he raced with the same fury. He'd win easily. What to do, what to do?

Well, if she... wanted to race that hard - he was losing her at this pace - should he... run? Just for a moment?

Hey, Little Wolf, where are you going? he chuckled, decided to drop the easier pace and pushed off with his own paws to a faster gait, slowing down just enough to bump her head with his snout. Tag, you're it! and bolted to quite a fast trot. 

Just... barely under a full run. 

Maybe that would make her happy?

"LITTLE WOLF?!" She bellowed, and veered toward him again with a snarl. He came close so suddenly she wasn't prepared and recoiled, not quickly enough to avoid the light nudge. With a simple change of gait he was able to pull away and out of her reach though the fury he'd evoked was enough to make her hone in on him, rather than some dwindling fire off in the woods. She'd grab him, and snap him into bits until he was a little wolf too. 

But she'd have to catch him first.

It was quite hard to keep his focus both on the now-enraged wolf following him and where he was going. Haizel was so focused on the young one behind him, trying to keep a pace that allowed his pelt to go unscathed by her anger, that one of the stilts connecting his paws to his body fell into a pile of loose dirt. His body crashed hard into the ground, and he yelped in surprise at the occurrence. The upturned soil, the doe-pelted wolf discovered, was hiding the entrance to a rabbit's warren. The pitter-patter of scattering hops told him from below as the paw lay lodged within its home.

He tried to free his paw on his own, his body shifting and legs pushing up, but he was stuck, finding his paw lodged in it. Poor rabbit - he didn't mean to intrude...

Pride often came before a fall. 

In the wake of the flash, the man sped ahead, but in keeping his chin turned over his shoulder he made a fatal error and found himself tumbling head over heels, fastened to the spot by the leg that had disappeared down a rabbit hole. Seeing her chance, Lilia steamed toward him, and lowered her head so that if he couldn't free himself in time, she'd slam into him like a battering ram.

Haizel whimpered as he struggled to free himself from his confinement within the consequence of his actions. He found his form on the receiving end of the young wolfess, still angry. She did not like to play as much as he did. Loneliness crept into his heart for a moment, before he realized what she was doing. Her head had lowered as she ran forth... to him. Was she trying to hurt him?

No, impossible. Haizel had never before been at the receiving end of harm. But he supposed he could take whatever it was she threw at him. After all... he had made her upset, and it was the least he could do to let her. 

So he did, bracing himself for impact.

She slowed her pace just for the last few strides- if he managed to free his foot, he might lunge to one side or another, and if she rushed him too fast she could shoot right past him. She delighted in seeing him cower in her growing shadow, looking as surprised and shocked as a newborn fawn seeing a wolf rush in moments before its untimely end. Such a pathetic look helped curb her ire- but only a bit. 

She collided with him, but did not immediately strike to injure him, only to knock him to the ground and pin him, to make him pay for his insolence. She had the feeling he might not put up much of a fight- and would only punish him as much as she felt was necessary.

Indeed the giant cowered, as despite his stature, he was a gentle soul. A flower-sniffer, a being so unused to those seeking harm to him - even if justified - that he simply did not know what stance he should take. A wolf of his stature would be labeled a brute, a warlord even, but not Haizel - like his namesake, he had grown tall and strong, but gentle and calm. A mighty presence that desired to be friends and play in the shadow of mountains than to wage war.

Her ire struck against his nose as if she had rammed her head into his muzzle. So fresh and hot that he blinked several times before realizing the young wolf had merely pinned him. It wasn't hard, his paw was stuck in the ground.

Hi? I... guess you don't like being called that? I'm truly sorry, I didn't think it was offensive... in truth, most wolves were 'little' to him, smaller. Most did not mind the nickname, he supposed it had become habit. Though he supposed it would do no good to say such.

She pressed her weight down into him, while she had him pinned, though he didn't fight her or struggle to free himself. She gritted her teeth and growled, staring down at him as though to drive the rest of the audacity out of him. Modestly, he apologized, and with such sincerity that Lilia couldn't bring herself to tear into him as she'd wanted to, moments ago. Any creature that didn't put up a fight lost her interest quickly. 

"Uh, yeah, it was offenthive, jerk," She hissed, before she stepped off him. He was leggy, and a very good runner- but a coward. She gave him one more sidelong look before she huffed, and began to walk away, still heading toward the dwindling column of smoke rising into the sky.