Dragoncrest Cliffs [m] i need a palate cleanser of a trip to floridise.

cayetano returns
with the corpse of a fat mallard.
it's succulent meat,
but he has it saved for @Kheviel

he finds her near the silver-reeds
with glintwater sparkling behind her
got you some sop. he announces,
flinging the rotund bird in her direction.
gotta fatten you up
if you're gonna have my babies.

a total joke,
his face conveys --
...unless?

Mature Content Warning

This thread has been marked as mature. By reading and/or participating in this thread, you acknowledge that you are of age or have permission from your parents to do so.

The participants have indicated the following reason(s) for this warning: IDK what amount of innuendo and flirting constitutes as needing a mature tag so I’m just slapping one on here

Kheviel opened one eye and studied the young buck who had brought her more food. Relentless, aren’t you? She groaned as she sat up, muscles and bones screaming in protest. I wouldn’t be a good lay, yearling. I’d complain the whole time. She bent down to feed, then glanced up at the male who had fed her now twice. Sighing, she said, Share this with me. Realizing that it had come out as a command, she softened it with a questioning tilt of her head.

relentless is just
another man’s consistent;
cayetano grins at the command,
the softened tilt of her head

he doesn’t need an invitation to eat. 
his life has been
feast or famine
for so long that
he’d never turn up a chance at a meal. 

who said i’m not already used to that?
he jokes as he reaches for meat
chews thoughtfully 
and adds: have you had kids before?

Kheviel snorted through her bite of food. If all your lays are complaining the whole time, I think you're doing it wrong. She watched him reach for the bird, watched him chew. Her ear flicked at his question. Yes. I don't know where they are now. I don't think I was a very good mother. Wasn't... soft enough. Maybe this pain now is punishment. I wasn't soft, so why would my body be? She snorted again, this time at herself, and bent her head for more meat.

cayetano's eyes light with victory.
he can't hide the grin:
you may be onto something,
i must have been doing it aaaaaall wrong
so maybe -- here he looks imploring
puppyish
while he snacks on tender meat
you'll have to show me.

he titters into his food
placing one bone aside
as kheviel spoke of motherhood
and being soft.

he'd known his share of mothers
but why was it women
thought their ball and chain
that hung their neck
was the inimitable
infuriating
description 'soft'?

he supposes society is to thank for that.
you think soft is good?
he muses to himself.
in his world, and his body
soft was organ failure.
well, it's not too late to try again.
he's expecting a smack
or the bird thrown back at him.

grinning, he stacks one bone atop the other.
what are their names?

Kheviel ignored his flirting this time, though it made her wonder...

My children are scattered to the wind, she said shortly. I haven't spoken their names in years, and will not speak them now for you.

Perhaps if she did have one last litter, she could do it right this time.

But that was a fleeting fantasy. Childbirth would probably kill her, given the state of her body. Or she'd resent the child for causing her so much pain, and no woman should have children who might feel hatred toward her own spawn.

She'd had her fill of meat and sighed heavily, feeling a bit better with a full belly. I am not in my heat, regardless, she told him. I haven't had it yet this year. Perhaps I am too old. But... what the hell, right? She hadn't been looked at with eyes like Cayetano's in years. She stood up, wincing, and made to walk away, then turned back to look at him over her shoulder. But if you want me anyways, you'd best follow.

live by the sword,
die by the sword.
cayetano's hopes were hardly extinguished.
no, she was a delightful puzzle
to turn over and examine
to twist this way and that
gradually unpacking the years
that had taken so much of her life.

he didn't mind not knowing
their names.
they were ghosts of another life
another time
it might be best to let those dogs lie
in the distant memories of an old crone's mind.

she sighs and stands
and cayetano prepares for umpteenth rejection
instead,
kheviel pauses
long gaze slid over hard shoulders
his ears perk --
ayo?!

cayetano needs no second bidding,
the bones forgotten at his feet
as something much larger grows in him
see? i knew you'd come to your senses,
he quips with a playful nip at one dusty hip
quick to spring back out of snapping teeth range
his heartbeat quickens
as an old hunger stirs beneath his belly.
after you, m'lady kheviel.

She snorted at his m'lady. I am not, and have never been, a lady. She turned to lead them off somewhere private and chided her heartbeat for quickening. She was no young woman to be so excited at the prospect of a roll. But she was, even knowing that it would probably make her aches and pains worse. They would disappear for a short time as she lost herself, and that, in itself, was a prize.

[Fade]

he's in disbelief as he follows
any second now
she'll come to her true senses
scold him away.

what if this is a trick?
a prank, a horrible joke
cayetano's breath is in his throat
as he follows the swaying of her thin
and deliciously dark hips

she leads him through a column of trees
and it is there between the dirt and the leaf litter
that the pair frisk and frolic
while overhead candy clouds whirl on by