Heartleaf Creek big dusty world

For @Nineva!

He took a little trip in hopes of having some time to clear his brain. He had a lot going on and so did Maera. The last thing he wanted to do was overwhelm her with his looming presence. Besides, he had a jumble of feeling towards her and he wanted to fix them before he said or did anything dumb. It all was because of that Sakari girl coming into his life. She used that one word that happened to throw him off focus. Girlfriend. His heart and brain had been in an argument since then. Some nights he didn't sleep and perhaps it showed.

With the thoughts of Mae buzzing around his head, he approached the creek at a decent pace. It was frozen and he'd have to break the ice if he wanted to reach the water. With a growl he laid down and put his forehead on the ice. "What have you gotten yourself into, Kerb? Always biting off more than you can chew." But something told him he bit off just the right amount. Maera was someone he admired and enjoyed. She wasn't a chore, a task, a hassle. She was herself. An embodiment of everything he liked, wished to be, and then some.

With a grunt, he raised his head and looked around. He need something new, something to distract his mind from the feelings that were churning inside of him.

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In all honesty, she had no business being out here. She tried convincing herself that she didn't know what she was looking for, that she was simply out on another one of her little adventures. But that wasn't the whole truth, and she knew it. Had it been something spoken aloud, she would've considered it a lie. That was why she had specifically ensured she would not run into @Tomen on her way out of the pack's bounds; so she wouldn't have to tell him the truth, since deceit was absolutely not an option.

She was hoping to run into Belladonna's killer. And if not him? @Zerxes was equally wanted on her list.

She knew she wasn't ready, the tug of the scars upon her thigh reminding her of the fact with every step. But her anger had not yet fully burned away, and it was still clouding her judgment. It was just lucky for the overly ambitious girl that she ran into Kerberos and not either of the monsters she sought.

Her ears perked as she heard the music of a voice, and she approached cautiously until she saw the man himself. A single brow quirked upward as she wondered if he was trying to treat a fever or something, before he lifted his head to look around. He was tawny, but he didn't seem to have enough red in his coat to quite match, and he certainly didn't look like a killer...

"Hello," she decided to throw out, standing a few paces down the creek's bank. Until she got a better sense for who he was, she would keep her distance.

His eyes saw the large female approach him. Almost out of shock he simply stayed in place, laying and holding his breath.

"Hello."

So simple and formal. He raised himself before shaking off any excess snow. "Hey there. I'm not intruding am I?" A soft smile painted his lips as his tail swayed behind him in a friendly fashion. Kerberos happily pushed away his own problems. It was a pleasure to have someone come disrupt him from his thoughts. Being so social he was never one who enjoyed being alone. He was also afraid of what might come from his thoughts.

He looked a little closer at the details about her. While her towering figure was obvious she also had a nice pelt of silvers. It was like someone had taken his own colors and turned down the saturation on them. Then he noticed her eyes. The way one matched her silvers and the other was a shocking blue. "Whoa.." His mouth hung open for a moment. "I've never seen someone with eyes like yours!" His smile grew to let her know he didn't mean it in a rude way. He had to tell Mae about this. Like "oh my god Mae, I ran into this wicked tall girl and she had mismatched eyes".

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Open and amiable, he immediately impressed upon her, but what made her feel the safest was that his eyes were a soft yellow and not the vivid orange that had been described to her. She breathed a staccato sigh of relief, a smile coming far more easily to her lips now. Her tail even picked up to wag a few times before she remembered that Bella's killer had started out all sugar and smiles too. If he'd been obvious about his intentions, his prey would've known to run.

Her smile remained, but it was more polite than anything as she shook her head no; he wasn't intruding, rather she was the one that had stepped into his solitude. Questions swum into her mind, but before she could voice any of them, his jaw had dropped and her ears swept back. He'd been looking her over, but that wasn't anything weird for it being the first time he'd seen her. Except, that meant it was something about her that caused that expression and--

Oh. Her eyes. She reinforced her smile, though it was a bit more sheepish now as her ears slowly crawled forward again. It faltered only briefly as a voice she might never shake from her memory passed through her mind.

Gravewalker.

"Uh, yeah. It runs in my family I guess. It's actually kind of normal in the pack I live with, too."

She really didn't think it so special anymore, but she supposed to someone that had never seen it before... At least he didn't have some spooky myth to share about it.

"I'm Nineva. May I ask what you're doin' out here, alone?"

(This post was last modified: Jan 20, 2017, 09:30 PM by Nineva.)

Even as she confirmed that it was normal in her pack he was still shocked. "So there's like groups of wolves who all have cool eyes like that? Is it some kind of club? Is there one for wolves with my kind of eyes?" His tone was buzzing with excitement. Something he had never seen before apparently had some kind of pack dedicated to it. How crazy was that?!

Kerberos quickly realized he had been bombarding her with questions. "Oh, um, sorry. I get really excited a lot." The tawny male offered a submissive grin and wag of his tail to her. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off some huge wolf who had a pack of colorful eyed wolves. He waved off the thought as she introduced herself and asked a question.

"Pleasure to meet you @Nineva! I'm Kerberos but Kerb is way easier to say. I was just kind of adventuring out here. I've never really explored this creek too much and honestly, I needed a break from someone so I figured now was as good of a time as any." He shrugged his shoulders and looked at her. It was nothing new for Kerb to dump some personal information on a stranger. He had done it the first time he met Maera and it had done him pretty well. "Am I allowed to ask what you're doing out here?" His head tilted to the side with curiosity.

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His response had her hiking up a single brow, and her paranoia diminished almost completely. This guy... well, if he was dangerous, it was because he was an absolute loon. He didn't seem to think before speaking, and was so easily excited. It wasn't obnoxious or abrasive, however; this man was utterly polite and she find that she rather liked him. If anything, he was a change of pace from the calm Hollow wolves, and she might as well appreciate that.

"That's okay."

As nice and bumbling as he was, however, the smile still felt just a fraction force. Could he see it? She hoped not, cheeks growing hard with the effort.

"I'm scoutin'. I've never actually been out this way before, so I'm trying to get a feel for the land too, and see who is out here."

See if who included two pieces of filth that had no business sucking in air.

"And it's not on purpose, us having... different eyes. Just a coincidence."

Unless there actually was something to Zerxes' story, and like attracted like.

"You wanna explore together?"

She was pretty nice for putting up with his fumbling of words. Even told him it was okay. He wondered if it really was or she was just saying that to make him feel good. Kerberos liked to think she was genuine though. Well, really, he liked to think that about everyone.

"Well I've met a few wolves out here. I could give you some names if you wanted." He shyly smiled trying to show that he wasn't a total ball of electric energy. He shrugged and briefly looked down at his paws before his gaze returned to look at the large wolf.

His tail did wag behind him at her next set of words. "I mean, that's a pretty nifty coincidence." He paused and moved his ears into a more submissive position. "Do you, uh, think I could maybe, um, meet some of them sometime? If not that's okay and I understand I just find it really cool. The whole eye thing. I mean you already know that but, uh yeah." His eyes fluttered downwards again. The tawny male was trying his best to relax his energy because she didn't seem as hyper as him. He found it hard to maintain the calm and perhaps that was why he was tripping over his words.

Her question caused his ears to perk again eager with interest. "Oh! Yeah, I'd love to." His teeth showed in a friendly grin as he carefully moved closer to her in a respectful manner. "Any direction you wanna start in first?" Kerberos cocked his head to the side and gaze her a questioning glance.

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