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+---- Thread: Pookastone Scowle what a wicked thing to do (/showthread.php?tid=18581)
what a wicked thing to do - Skoll - Oct 16, 2018
October 15th; Late evening; Light Rain; 44.6 ° F, 7 ° C.
Truth be told, Skoll had not planned on bringing that third coyote home. For days and for miles, he dragged it across the earth and through the streams. It might have been just a tangle of ragged fur with only a skull and two forearm bones attached, but it was still a gift. A trophy. An offering. A reason for his absence. On quivering legs and a pant in his chest, he stumbled towards one of Morganna and Celandine's most recent scent trail, their markers warning him to stay on the appropriate side of the border they just establish some odd hours ago.
A muffled thud on the mossy ground told others than Skoll had dropped his prize. At least, if only for a moment. In his dreams, leading up to this very moment, he had imagined his beloved striding up to him. Sometimes she worried beyond measure, other times she was furious, laying her own brand into him and reclaiming the places where the coyotes had thought to scar him. But, it had always been her... Never Piety, never Hecate, never Eremiel or Anahera or Vesna... not even Catori, who had only flit across his wildest dreams but twice since he had left the eastern reaches of Relic Lore. Since Celandine had come back into his life, he had only ever been able to see her - and only her.
When his hunt had been concluded on the breath of that third coyote's death, a trace of Celandine's voice came to him in a whisper.
Now, come home...
Skoll's tired eyes stared at the rain-soaked corpse at his feet. In such trying times, the body could have been one of his children's, but his drive to protect them made certain that it wasn't. He glared at it for some time before addressing the dark, twisted trees before him. In the dark, his full midnight black pelt clung to him, every angle of his body made up by lean muscle and bone - perhaps unrecognizable at a distance. His tail fell limp until the thrill of being back lifted it into its familiar curve at his heels.
He lifted his crown and tipped his nose skyward into the rain to tell his family that he had returned.
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Caelia - Oct 16, 2018
[dohtml]
i'm skin and bone
just a king on a rusty throne
There was a lot of attention around the lagoon lately and it rubbed her the wrong way even if the adults didn't seem to mind it. So it should have been no surprise that she came crashing onto the scene at the sound of something unfamiliar (to her). Her nose crinkled at the smell of something dead and her eyes instinctively went to the corpse instead of the willowy man. Her facial features crinkled at every corner before smoothing out.
It was dead. It would not hurt her. She hoped.
"Ya do that?" She asked much softer than she had greeted all the other wolves around the lagoon as of late. All the other ones had been flawed or bossy and downright gross. This one had brought back a dead coyote though. The creature (not the exact one but the girl didn't know the difference between all of them) that haunted her dreams laid lifeless on the ground. Crumpled. Defeated. It filled her with a certain joy but she kept it shoved away for now.
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Skoll - Oct 16, 2018
His ears seemed to cling on every creak of a sodden branch, every shift of a grass blade, and every breath of wind. And, yet, when he finally saw something move in the distance after he had leveled his head, he froze. He didn't remember Celandine being that small. Her voice, however, threw him a new sort of curveball. It was not one he recognized.
"Ya do that?"
As dark as she was, he wondered now if she was someone he had missed. This year's brood bore no Archer female as dark as their grandmother, Elettra. He stood still in his tracks, look down at her as she seemed to grimace in the dark. She had no eyes for him but for the feat he had accomplished. "Yes," he murmured after he had cleared his throat. "I did it for you." While this was only a half-truth (for Skoll did hunt down those trio of coyotes with every intention of making sure they did not trespass into the Scowle again), he couldn't help himself in telling the girl so. She might not have been his, but the dead coyote meant that all of the pack's cubs were safe. He had done this for her sake as much as his son's and daughter's and niece's and nephew's.
"Where is your mother?" the question was soft on his tongue, curious if it was one way to get a tab on his beloved or his sister. "You shouldn't be out here all by yourself."
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Morganna - Oct 16, 2018
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Of course, her brother would decide to return in the middle of a rainy night. She might have rolled her eyes if it wasn't for the waves of relief that crashed over her as the familiar notes of his call washed over them, and for a moment, she thought to leave the task to Celandine. A quick headcount told her that SeeJay was probably going to beat her there, and if a child could drag herself out in the rain, then Morganna supposed, she would only look bad if she didn't do the same.
It made her smile.
The Archer made short work of the distance between the dens and the borders, familiar dark shapes emerging before her, she didn't need to be close enough to make out his gift to guess at what it probably was. "Y' too huh?" The coyotes had given Renier the run around too. "An' this one? She's tough, might as well make 'er a guardian an' be done with it already." She delivered an affectionate nip to the crown of the orphan's head before moving in to bump shoulders with her brother. "Let's get outta this rain."
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RE: what a wicked thing to do - Celandine - Oct 16, 2018
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The alpha tucked herself beneath a rocky overhang moments before the rain moved in. She'd planned on waiting out the storm there, curled up, listening to the droplets as they splattered against the terrain outside, but fate seemed to have another idea. Skoll's voice touched Celandine's ears just as the sharp edges of her consciousness began to fade. Had it not been for the accompanied familiarity of his whispered scent on the breeze she might have mistaken it for a dream entirely, but real or imagined, her body was already in motion. The beads of water that fell through her coat went unnoticed, as did the caking of mud against her stomach. There'd be time to preen through the dirt later. Later...
Morganna and SeeJay beat her to it, though she wouldn't have expected any less. In fact, the inky woman was already closing in to bump her shoulder against Skoll's when Celandine's eyes finally fell over his form. He was standing, so that was good. He had also brought back a coyote carcass, which meant that at the very least he was strong enough to pull it. So he was safe. Okay. Okay. The alpha inhaled a breath, slow and steady, exhaling as the adrenaline seeped out of her veins. What would she be left with then? When that build-up waned, and her heart stopped hammering would it be anger, or joy? Fear? She wasn't sure, so she stood there waiting, wondering.
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Caelia - Oct 16, 2018
[dohtml]
i'm skin and bone
just a king on a rusty throne
For her?
Now she felt real bad, waltzing up with a sour attitude only to find out someone had been out hunting coyotes for her. Had Celandine sent them? What about Morganna?
Then he asked a question she had never liked hearing. "Where is your mother?" It left a bitter taste in her mouth because SeeJay had known from the start she did not belong even if she had been doted on. Celandine saved her and Morganna helped raise her. Maybe she was supposed to start saying they were mothers but she had never done what she was supposed to do. She had dwelt too long on how to reply to a man who was surely only trying to be nice (had had brought a coyote after all...) and soon enough the peach-eyed Archer was by her side.
SeeJay tipped her crown at the nip she received, a soft look reserved only for Morganna was quickly exchanged before she watched the event keep unfolding.
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Skoll - Oct 16, 2018
In the time given for the girl to answer, their conversation had been interrupted. His tail had lifted some, if only to relay his sense of vigilance. Having been away from home for so long and in the presence of a monthling, he couldn't help but to be wary. "Y' too huh?" he would have damned himself if he ever forgot the sound of his sister's voice, her characteristic drawl and snap, and the way her words clipped like Angier's did. To this, he scoffed, unsure what she meant... whether or not he was one of a handful that had gone out of bounds hunting for coyotes was not a fact he was keenly interested in at the moment.
"An' this one?" Morganna went on and Skoll's attention went back to the girl before him. Sure, she did seem tough, but there wasn't much he could glean from his first impression of her alone apart from an appreciation that she was out near-dark and gallivanting about in the gloomy weather. "Let's get outta this rain." He gave his sister and Leader a respectful dip of his head, not caring if she saw it or not. To her, he was loyal, and he was always certain that she knew it.
Then, something changed. As his eyes were taken with Morganna's inviting figure in the darkening twilight, her ghostly form appeared at the edges of his peripheral vision. If he hadn't given the two ladies another nod and moved to pick up the spoils he had carried along, he might not have seen her there. He straightened his neck and head with the coyote torso's scruff between his teeth, unintentionally showing it off for his mate to see from her place in the trees. While he had figuratively killed the vermin for the sake of the cubs' survival, he had attacked with intent and every means within him to prove to his mate that he was capable of conquering fear and upholding his end of the promises that had bound them together.
His tail gave a small wag as he inched forward before looking to Morganna for a cue of how far to go and what to do. She might have given him a trace of her scent, the pack's scent, but he was not about to go waltzing about as if he simply owned the place. Etiquette and conventions were at play, more so now when he had to remember that Celandine was also his sister's co-Leader. He would not consider himself a Pookastone Scowle wolf once more until she said so.
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Morganna - Oct 16, 2018
Morganna had grown used to her brother coming and going, and it had taken some time, but she finally accepted that it was just what he did. After all, she wasn't particularly good at keeping in one place herself, was she? Perhaps they got that from their father.
While she would have been fine to allow her brother to slip back in as if his absence had been no great deal, Celandine had made her presence known, and whether it was out of curiosity, or a worry that Morganna would go too easy on her wayward sibling, she couldn't quite be certain. She turned to nudge SeeJay's shoulder once more, "Whadaya say we let 'em catch up?" She suggested with what she hoped was a reassuring smile for her brother. Morganna wasn't going to meddle with their relationship, they could sort whatever this was out themselves, but at least it was clear that she had no problem with her brother returning.
Crossing the distance to Celandine, she gave her co-lead a smirk and whispered, "Do try ter go easy on 'im, at least fer now." She trusted they would be ok, after all, he'd clearly been delayed for a reason, and at least he didn't seem to have any former mates nipping at his heels... yet.
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RE: what a wicked thing to do - Celandine - Oct 17, 2018
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Bright eyes flickered from Skoll and his prize, to Morganna as she drew nearer. The inky woman had been here before with Craw, and again with Renier. At least the Archer hadn't seen fit to bring any of his previous lovers home. Gods, she really might have killed him then. "We'll see." There was a joking lilt to her tone, but that didn't negate the swelling emotion in the pit of her stomach.
Her gaze fell back on Skoll as Morg moved away, to his nose, down his shoulders, to the gift he had brought home. She had went over this moment a multitude of times, envisioning every scenario from a minor injury, to his return home including a trio of insane women for which he expected a welcoming committee, and not a single one involved a coyote carcass. It left her.. unsure.
"Come." The alpha would not give her lover the satisfaction of helping to close the distance between them. Instead she would stand there, her tail raised ever so slightly, her tongue skimming the tips of her canines. He'd come this far, so really, what was another couple of steps?
RE: what a wicked thing to do - Caelia - Oct 18, 2018
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[/dohtml]Her head cocked at Morganna's words and she offered a half hearted shrug. "Sure." As she followed after Morganna, SeeJay made sure to give Celandine a crooked grin before catching up to the Archer. Her tail swished behind her as she examined the peach-eyed female through a bright orange gaze. "Really think I can be a guardian?" She tried to hide the smirk on her face but failed at it. Miserably so too.
It was not everyday she got such nice compliments, even from her caregivers. So she would take them when she could and hoard them for her ego.