Horizon Ridge Achy Breaky Heart

ooc: snickers at title

Kisu moved swiftly until he reached a tangled knot of tree roots with a small entrance burrowing down into the ground. He then, once again, turned to give a sorrowful look to Pied. He rotated and slunk down into the fortress, flopping down and letting his depression surround him. He didn't care if he pitied himself and had burrowed into an unknown place; he had just run into his long-lost son and been disowned in the same instant.

Sighing, he curled into a ball and shut his eyelids tightly, wishing that this wasn't real and just a terrible dream.

Kisu led her up an unfamiliar towpath and took refuge inside a burrow situated upon a small plateau at its end. He slunk into the small entrance and slumped to the ground. Pied looked at him a moment, then stepped into the space beside him and slowly lowered herself to lay next to him, her chin propped atop his head.

"I'm sorry, Kisu," she said after a while, her chin vibrating against his skull. "Do you want to talk about it?"

A groan rose from his throat. He shook his head but spoke anyway, not directly to Pied but out to the open. "He hates me. My son hates me."

He thought back to when his son was a puppy, and he had been the same as Kisu personality-wise. The look that was in the eyes of his son was that of a wolf who had seen and been through a lot, and that make Kisu's heart ache.

He shook his head, so Pied decided not to press it. He spoke anyway after a moment, bemoaning the fact that his son seemed to hate him. Pied frowned lightly, slipping her head from its perch atop his and snuggling her pale cheek against his. She then withdrew slightly to look into his face, her tongue darting out to catch the tip of his nose.

She didn't particularly feel like jumping to Rob's defense, though she also didn't want to badmouth him to Kisu, either. She weighed her thoughts a moment, then said, "Kisu, before you arrived, I met him and he spoke to me incredibly disrespectfully, like I was some piece of meat. It's pretty obvious the lack of a father figure has affected him. Of course, that's not your fault; if you could've been there, you would've, and you would've been a brilliant dad to him."

Pied paused, wondering if she was making Kisu feel worse. At length, she offered, "I guess my point is that he said some awful things to both of us today and maybe... he didn't really mean them. Maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. Let's give it some time, then maybe take another swing at introductions all around."

He lifted his head in hope. The only thing he had focused on was the fact that she mentioned that maybe he truly did not mean what he had said. Did she really mean the words she had spoken?

He licked her nose in gratitude before opening his mouth in response. "Yes, my little Pied, maybe he did not mean those things. He must be angry with me; what he claimed was not true. I did not abandon my family... I would never do that." The rusted grey wolf shifted and looked into Pied's eyes now, directing his last words at her. He wanted her to know that he meant them.

Fortunately, her words seemed to cheer him. Kisu latched onto her logic, then looked her in the eye as he mentioned he would never abandon his family. Pied smiled as their eyes locked. Her tongue flicked out to swipe the tip of her mate's muzzle.

"I know, Kisu," she said. "Speaking of family..." she added in the next beat, glancing around herself. "Check out this den you found." Pied rose to her feet and began to sniff around the walls and floor. It was spacious but cozy. "What do you think?"

ooc: I nearly giggled from a cute attack when Pied sniffed around

He watched his mate as she stuck her nose into every nook and cranny in the open yet cozy area. Nodding, he said, "This would make an excellent birthing area and home for our pups. It will fit several litters, if necessary." He nodded, this time to himself, as if assuring that they would have large litters, and many of them as well.

:D

Her mate's comment coaxed a dubious laugh from Pied. "I think I'll stick to one at a time, if that's okay with you," she quipped, her tail waving as much as it could in such a confined space. She continued to circle the lair, touching her nose to the roots near the ceiling and then dropping it to skim along the hard-packed earth that made up the den's floor.

"Suits me just fine. But, well," she said, pivoting to face the entrance. She began to squeeze out between the roots. "What about that?" she questioned, waiting for Kisu to climb out behind her. Although the area immediately in front of the lair was a sprawl of dry grass and soil, it led to a ledge a few dozen yards away. She pointed at it with her slender muzzle, then looked skeptically at her companion.

Kisu watched his mottled mate curiously as she checked every nook and cranny of the den, from the top of the den to the bottom of the roots and to the ground. It made Kisu's eyes squint with happiness; she was already protective and their litter hadn't even been conceived yet.

When wriggled herself out the entrance, he followed to see what she was referencing. He walked over to the ledge, peered over, and shrugged. "We will just have to teach them better and herd them away. We could build some sort of small barrier, but it would be a lot of work." His three children had been rambunctious but well-behaved, and he expected the same of this litter.

He didn't seem overly concerned about the hazard. Trusting in her mate's confidence and experience, Pied felt herself relax slightly. "I think this is it then," she declared, spinning back around to face the den's mouth. She admired the redwood tree growing over it and tried to imagine what it would look like in summer, with its boughs teeming with leafy green foliage.

"This is our home," she said to Kisu, stepping up beside him and sliding her muzzle beneath his throat. "Our home, where we'll raise our family," she enunciated, her lips curling into a happy grin. "Good find, honey," she added a bit jestingly, reaching up to plant a kiss on his cheek.

He turned when she began to kiss him, and licked her tongue. He laughed at the child-like thing he just did, and then said, "You are a beautiful wolf, Pied. I don't think I've ever laid eyes on anyone prettier." And then, after fake-pondering for a moment, he added: "...besides myself." with a wink.

"How about you and I go 'break in' the den." He winked once more and then waited for Pied's response.

Pied felt certain that if a passerby strolled past them right now, they would certainly vomit at the copious amounts of disgustingly sweet words passing between the two of them—even if half of them were in jest. She chortled at Kisu's mock narcissism, the sound cutting off sharply at his next proposal.

"I... okay but... isn't it going to be... difficult?" she said, laughing as the sound of her own halted speech twitched in her ears. "I mean, I'm totally up for it. I just think we'll probably be bumping into the walls a lot." Pied paused, her two-toned eyes widening slightly as she asked, "What if the den collapses on top of us?"

Kisu looked between the new-found shelter and Pied and sighed. Of course he wouldn't have thought of convenience in that situation. "I suppose you are right, little Pied."

Then, emotions consumed him once more. Now would be a time to ask what he had been sitting on. "Pied, I need to ask a favor of you. I... I understand you are not too fond of my son, but is it possible for you to go speak to him? I do not want to end up in a fight with my offspring." His eyes pleaded with her. This was his only hope.

Pied felt a jolt of disappointment when Kisu agreed with her and the matter abruptly died. She hadn't meant to discourage it. Before she could reassure him that she was game and that they'd just have to find someplace else to do it, he unleashed his puppy eyes on her and begged her to speak to his son.

"Now...?" she said. "I don't think now's the right time. Like I said, let's give him and ourselves some space. I'm not in the right frame of mind to do it right now. Soon, though, I promise," Pied assured him, soothingly passing her tongue over his face.

"No, not today, or even tomorrow. I feel as if you could be the only one to mend things. You are the bridge between us. Unless I can speak to Hawkeye... but I don't want her to bear down on Robur and demand he speak to me. That isn't right." He sighed, but then left it at that.

Pretending to settle to his haunches, Kisu launched himself at Pied, attempting to tackle her to the ground playfully. His male instincts were taking over, and claiming Pied was consuming him now.

Wanna fade to black? :)

"We'll figure it out, Kisu, and make things right between you... and him and myself," she added with a touch of reluctance she didn't exhibit outwardly. She had no desire to interact with Rob, yet she would do anything for her mate.

Kisu recovered himself a moment later, the troubled look disappearing from his face as he pounced her. Pied made an undignified and high-pitched squeaking sound as her mate tackled her, then laughed as she rolled in the cold grass. "You don't have to attack me... I'm willing!" she chided him playfully, stretching out her forelegs and softly boxing him about the ears.

Rolling onto her side, Pied bounced to her feet, flirted the tip of her tail beneath Kisu's nose and then rocketed down the towpath, leading him somewhere private to practice their love before returning to their new lair for a long nap.