Red Fern Forest Take your whole life then you put a line through it

@Lyanna
So whenever askan throws one of his little tantrums I'm always reminded of this scene from being human

There was blood on his tongue, fresh, coppery and dripping from his snout. His sides heaved and his eyes were wide, frantic as adrenaline charged through his veins. To say that he'd thrown a temper tantrum would be....entirely correct. There was no other way to put it, his mood had been pretty shitty as of late but yet again all it amounted to was a loud outburst in the middle of nowhere. He'd never shied away from being himself at Shallows Edge, but even he knew that this was too much, that his behaviour wasn't befitting of a leader. It hadn't taken much to drive him over the edge, he'd been stomping along with yet another proverbial stick up his ass when he'd spotted a fox. A smarmy, clever son of a bitch who just thought it was so much better than him because it had a nice fluffy tail. Fuck floof.

His gaze flicked down to the mangled body that laid at his paws, still warm and more red than orange. Picking it up by its tail he whipped his neck back and watched with squinty eyes as it splatted against the trunk of a nearby tree. He wanted to feel better, to get some grim sense of satisfaction from tossing it around but he felt nothing. Not even a little better. Time to throw it harder, he guessed.

♥︎♥︎♥︎

She'd done a fine job of keeping to herself.

It wasn't because she wanted to, necessarily, but the coldest season had brought with it more changes than just leaves fallen from the trees and a scenic wonderland blanketed in snow and ice to replace the vibrant autumn. Reyes' departure had hit the Edge like a sledgehammer and effects of it didn't seem to be lost on anyone; in contrast, the residual damage of his absence rippled through the hours of the day like the sort of wave a raindrop caused on the surface of a pond. The damage was strongest in the morning, as if it were forgotten in her dreams at night but stung as deep as it ever had when she opened her eyes and woke to find another day without him there. Woke to remember the pain it had caused. Throughout the day, the damage was tempered by whatever task was at hand at the time - patrol, hunting, scouting, in her case - and by nightfall she was tired enough that it seemed acceptable to be resigned to accept the fact that he hadn't returned, again. At least, until another raindrop fell.

Lyanna had never been exceptionally close to the man, but there was one he'd left behind who she cared for unequivocally, consequently the one of them who had been devastated by all of this...@Askan. She had spent weeks avoiding him. Avoiding the possibility of being the brunt of the outlashes caused certainly by the pain she could only begin to imagine he was feeling. Avoiding the conversation, or lack thereof. Avoiding dealing with the whole shitty thing, she reckoned. But the avoidance weighed so heavy on her heart it felt like she was shouldering a thousand pounds of weight - crushing, smothering, soul-crushing weight - knowing that she could be there to support her greatest friend (perhaps unbeknownst to him) and she wasn't. She wasn't proud of this, and as a matter of fact, she hated it.

So perhaps it was the universe sending her to tally up the score she'd stacked against herself - or perhaps her time of denial had just dwindled to an inevitable end - when she'd crossed a fresh path left by him somewhere among the frozen ferns.

The steady pace she'd kept throughout the day as she'd sought out something to hunt down dwindled to a halt. Her russet ears angled forward at the sound of the Selwyn's awful ruckus, the beating of her heart slowed to next-to-nothing as it ached with a fever in her chest. She gulped, hard, and her brows furrowed together for just a moment as she considered that she and Askan's first encounter since he'd lost Reyes could be the most terrible thing she'd experienced in a long time...Breathing in a long breath and sighing it out with a little here goes nothing, she proceeded to draw near to him with utmost caution.

The sound of a body thumping against a tree trunk welcomed her to the scene where she laid her golden eyes upon his dark form. Seeing him caused her stomach to twist up tightly, her own adrenaline beginning to course in a pulsatile flow through every inch of her. Gods, he looked like shit - not in a physical way, of course, but his suffering registered as clear as day to her, written all over him like a story she knew wasn't to be told. Yet, being covered in blood was always a look that suited him. There wasn't a need to announce herself - it probably would have annoyed him anyway - so, instead, she ambled her way over to the mangled remains of the fox who'd seen its unlucky day, gathered it up by the gnarled scruff of its neck, and proceeded to toss that thing with a mighty whip of her own neck into the trunk of another tree a bit closer to her dark counterpart.

It struck with a thud before hitting the ground with one good bounce before all the noise that was left was the deafening silence of the enormous elephant in the room. With her face cloaked in a stoical mask, her amber eyes finally found Askan's and she felt exactly like it had been far too long since she'd looked into their smoldering, fiery depth. The look about her was humbled, quiet, yet as strong as perhaps she'd ever been seen. She would be strong for him, even if it meant taking whatever beating he might be inclined to dish out.

"Fuck 'em," she breathed, inclining her snout to notion to the body crumpled sidelong to them.

(This post was last modified: Jan 29, 2019, 05:14 PM by Lyanna.)

Askan blinked slowly, his eyelids heavy as he stared at the fox half hoping it would shakily clamber to its feet and dart off into the forest. Not because he regretted killing it, it was only a fox after all, but there was always a sense of thrill and anticipation that came with the chase. He wanted to look forward to something, anything. Being jaded and bitter wasn't fun, like patches of a blanket they'd always be a part of him but there had always been more to him than this. He'd never been overly complex but to say that he'd been reduced to two simple components made him feel as though whole chunks of his story were missing, like pages torn from a diary.

And then he wasn't alone. Soft footfalls approached from his left and he shot a cursory glance to his side to confirm what he already knew. Lyanna. For a brief, stupid moment he had foolishly hoped but.... His ear flicked as some scathing comment coiled on the tip of his tongue, ready to shoot down any nonsense she had in store. But she said nothing and instead retrieved the fox only to hurl it against another tree. The Selwyn pursed his lips into a thin line. His ire was obvious, it wouldn't take a genius to figure out what his problem was but the same couldn't be said of her. Was his foul mood rubbing off on the others, making Shallows Edge a cold and inhospitable place? Probably.

Askan grunted in agreement. He didn't know who they were cursing but it felt fitting, cathartic almost.

There were things that needed to be said, lines that needed to be drawn and yet Askan felt little desire to break the silence. What would he even say? He'd noticed her absence but as mean as it sounded he hadn't even thought about seeking her out. It wasn't personal, nothing ever was these days so if she'd chosen to leave then she'd just be another name on his growing list. And yet she'd stayed. As to what that meant Askan hadn't taken the time to dismantle it, but a little hopeful part of him wondered whether it was because he was worth it, that he wasn't a lost cause just yet. Maybe.

"Come spring there will be more of those fuckers scrounging around." He huffed, like that was his only issue with the coming season.

(This post was last modified: Jan 29, 2019, 05:59 PM by Askan.)

You smell the remains of an elk nearby. Enjoy your feast! +10 Health

It was some sort of small relief that Askan hadn't immediately jumped down her throat or lunged right for her, but she was sharp enough not to throw the caution she'd taken to the wind completely. Lyanna relaxed some with a roll of her shoulders, a meager grin tugging at a single corder of her lips at his comment; she couldn't help but to envision this fox-tossing activity picking up to become a regular thing when the winter weather let up. The image of the two of them splattering a massacre's worth of fluffy-tailed foxes against the trunks of every tree between here and the Edge was darkly humorous, in a twisted, if not strangely fond sort of way. At this point, whatever it took to lift Askan up was nothing short of what she was willing to do.

"True," she noted. "-Guess that means we'll have our work cut out for us, what with all the mangling we'll have to look forward to." Lyanna glanced over at him to see if they were on the same page, or at the very least if the thought made him think about wanting to grin or something vaguely similar. A year ago she wouldn't have imagined making light of something like that, but...she'd taken to the Edge. Taken to him. And that change had left her with no complaints and rather fulfilled.

She wanted to ask how he was holding up, if there was anything she could do for him or if he wanted to talk through some of the bullshit. Who knew if he'd opened up to anyone about what happened with Reyes and keeping it in would surely only fuel the fire. And yet, ultimately she held back for now. After all, words wouldn't heal his pain, and in fact, she couldn't be sure that anything could or would. That didn't mean that she couldn't distract him from it all. "I don't know about you, but I'll be welcoming spring with open arms," she went on casually, hoping to open him up or at least give him an outlet to say whatever was on his mind if he wanted to. "...had enough of the cold."

In every sense of the word, really.

Fox hunting? That sounded familiar, his lips tugged down onto frown as the memories came rushing back. Happier days, in a sense. Hindsight wasn't always a bitch; sometimes it was sweet, like honey upon his tongue. Puffing a sigh, he watched as his breath wafted from his lips up to the heavens. He'd follow it if he could, if he wasn't cowardly in his stubborn way. Lyanna then went onto say she was more than ready to send winter on it's way. Askan didn't share that sentiment. Sure, the warmer weather would be a nice change, but the rest of the baggage that came with it? No thanks. 

"If you say so." He rumbled, dismissing her words with a curt flick of his tail. He'd spotted her olive branch and had swatted it out of the way without a second thought. "Don't bitch at me if you get mauled by a bear." Then a pause. "And other stuff."

His point was that he didn't want to be vented at, period. Or at least that was the point he was trying to make, as a leader he'd always have to listen and consider but he wasn't gonna admit that was he? Caring had always been a weird look on him, like his skin was a little too tight for him form, an ill fitting suit. But yeah, surprise surprise, despite all of the hurt and the heartache he was still here, wasn't he? That itself proved that he hadn't thrown the towel in quite yet. He walked forward till his paws met bloodied snow, it reminded him of clouds smeared across a red evening sky. Pretty in a sort of gruesome way.