I know your insides are feeling so hollow...

November 8th; Morning; Light snow; 28° F/-2° C

Arlette Lyall was here. Really, how could he have missed that? Fenru was in a whirlwind of emotions - revelation, shock, relief, and excitement all in one. Had he been too blind to see? Too ignorant to question the faintest hint of her scent around the territory? Too proud to even stop his patrolling and attend to his other duties concerning the pack's members? Maybe even too withdrawn from it all to reorient himself? Either way, the young Tainn had been, as per usual, following in his Uncle Triell's footsteps through the trees, mulling it all over in his head while hoping that he would have the chance to see her again.

How long had it been since they had last seen each other under the cherry-laden branches of the orchard trees? Had the cloud that had been over her head passed? He hoped so; his still lingered but the shadow it cast on him barely made him sullen anymore.

Neutral. Everything was just in a neutral state until he was provoked... and, he would have liked it all to stay that way... if it were not for the subtle scent that now filtered through his olfactory senses.

Breathing in through his nose and out through his mouth, the masked man strolled slowly beneath the gnarled trees, his amber eyes alight with an anxious energy. While he dared to even think about calling to her in the middle of the morning, he held his tongue. The light snowfall was sure to muffle out the loudest bark he could manage. It also wasn't as if he wanted to demand her to come to him; he wasn't a Leader after all, and he merely sought out her companionship after having been away from her for so long. He might not have felt like he had changed, but something within him was certain that even the slightest shift was enough to spark something new... if only he could talk to the girl from Grizzly Hollow at long last.

...and it's a hard pill for you to swallow

But if I fall for you...

The crunching of freshly-formed frost nearby caught the young Tainn's interest immediately. His ears perked up and instinctively he drew in a deep breath in hopes of picking up the scent of who or what was nearby. He stepped through the trees, his plume-like tail held aloft in utter curiosity when the metallic scent of blood stung at his nose. He came around a large tree to find a kill site flocked by feline tracks. A rather intimidating growl left his throat and chest as he surveyed the cramped clearing, only partially certain that the hunter, a lynx or bobcat if his memory was serving him right, was no longer around. The bloody trail in the snow that led away from the small deer and its telltale signs of struggle proved it, but just staring at it all made his tail and the fur about his neck warily stand up.

As if to make sure that the clawed-being had gone (by the looks of it, it had done well in consuming what it could before making itself scarce with a full stomach), Fenru let out a singular thunderous bark. He waited until the world fell quiet before approaching the now frozen deer carcass. His stomach reeled as his senses started to kick into gear - the sight of blood had his heart hammering in anticipation, the smell of the fresh kill made his stomach grumble and cramp with hunger pangs, the taste and sensation of cold flesh on his tongue made a shiver run from the back of his skull to the base of his tail. Regardless of whether or not anyone else might have been watching, the Oak Tree Bend Guardian was going to savor the moment. The sinew practically melted in his mouth, and it was with a rather noisy and ravenous fashion that he seized the deer's exposed stomach and attempted to empty it for the sake of enjoying the texture of the lining within.

...I'll never recover

If I fall for you...

Here and there the deer's last meal, along with what little stomach acid remained, went scattered into the pristine white snow, and it was with relish that Fenru swallowed the slimy organ in three long, uneven pieces. He just about ready to help himself to the rest of the deer's innards when a voice stopped him in his tracks. The sight he was faced with was nothing short of startling. Her size might not have been intimidating if he really, really had the chance to look at her, but her display of clenched teeth and how she had quickly drawn close as if to ward him away from the kill site had him sold to her tactic. He stepped away only to spin around and throw out his own bluff.

While he was merely a few inches taller than her, she nearly matched him with her fur upright; when he, too, lifted his shoulders and allowed his fur along his spine to bristle, he felt as though he could have towered over her once more. Her growl was not forgotten on his rust-colored ears but he merely thundered back at her. "I have every right to be here," he growled, daring to stare squarely into her face. He showed off his own teeth, fighting the urge to snarl at her, when his ability to recognize those pale yellow eyes kicked in.

Lucero? Arlette.

As if smacked in the face and stung several times in the limbs by an invisible bee, he awkwardly stumbled backwards, tripping over both the deer carcass and his own large paws. He fell onto his side and before he could right himself, he cautiously peered over the deer's untouched spine and shredded shoulder, his auburn ears tentatively level with the top of his head. Would she recognize him as he had her? He could only hope. To think of what he could have possibly done to her if he had thought her to be some sort of stranger had him wanting to bite his tongue while gnawing at his inner cheek in reproach. He might have - could have - easily injured her by instinct alone.

"Wait," he breathed, the taste of blood still on his tongue. "Wait."

...I'll never be the same

I know we're only half way there...

She laughed and it made Fenru wince and inquisitively tilt his head. Did she realize who he was? Was she laughing at him for tripping? The dark triangles under his face stretched and wrinkled on both sides of his muzzle; her chuckle wasn't as hearty as he had initially expected. He stayed on the ground, staring up at her as she continued to peer down at him with worried yellow eyes.

"I'm an idiot...are you okay?"

That voice definitely belonged to Arlette. Slowly, he nodded. "Fenru?" she questioned him. He took it as a sign to make a move, sitting up at first before trying his hind legs. They folded beneath him from the surge of adrenaline and shock that had been presented to him in the form of a terrifying snow-like guardian. "I..I didn't know it was you." she clarified her reason for her behavior.

"Thaaat's okay," he consoled her, his tail wagging slowly behind him as his words momentarily got caught up in his throat. "I... I don't usually go this far out away from the borders." He attempted to give her a sheepish smile, what manifested on his ivory maw was something more along the lines of an embarrassed grin, something that wholly made up for his decision to be away from home. "Is everything okay?" he questioned her in return. The deer in front of him had already been forgotten, his interests instead turning to why Arlette had reacted in such a way if or when she had heard him filling up his stomach nearby. "I didn't startle you, did I?" For a second he averted his eyes, everything about his facial expression apologetic before he returned his gaze back to Arlette. "Sorry if I did..."

...but you can take me all the way

He found comfort in the way she told him that she had reacted in regards to keeping Sceral and Serach safe from a ravenous rogue. It made his smile morph into something more than just a simper and his tail thumped against the ground twice when she said that this encounter had reminded her of when they had first met. Then, all too soon, he watched as she began to scuffle away, shuffling back in the snow, and looking as if she had said something... wrong? He remained seated, treating this delicate situation between them as though he were trying to coax a startled cub to keep close to him for safety.

"I dunno if you know this," Fenru started, hoping against all hope to keep her from running off, "but, you really are brave, Arlette. More than you believe you are." He beamed at her, hoping that she, too, would recover from the initial shock of countering one another. "That was a really good defensive stance you had. Heh," he kept his tickled chuckles contained in his windpipe, allowing a smirk to make up for its absence. "I mean, you had me good..." The expression on his face reduced into a silly, puppy-like smile with his eyeteeth poking out on either side of his chin.

"Stay," he then offered, remembering that he had noticed her start to draw away. "You're welcome to have some... some..." Fenru had to stop a moment to glance down at the frozen corpse on the ground, to discern what it was he had exactly stumbled upon and made a feast of. "Deer," he declared, still all smiles. "It's nice to be able to eat most of it myself... but I couldn't possibly think of being that selfish." Before he could even think of trying to strip the frigid hide from a part of the deer, it occurred to him that Arlette could have been in the middle of something, namely, a patrol. "Or, er, maybe I can save some for you for later... when you're done making your rounds. I... I didn't mean to distract you."