Thicket of Secrets hidden sap

(Set after <a href='http://relic-lore.net/index.php?showtopic=424' target='_blank'>this</a>, on the border of Cedarwood Forest.)

She did not know she had been dying, because to die in a dream felt like falling into a rug of flowers, a carpet of cotton-like clouds. She knew this because this was what she had been experiencing ever since she had left the reality that was her old home. In the months away from family members who once had defined her very being, she had spun for herself a new identity, one more paired to her fickle tastes. It had been a mistake. Though it had been a grievous mistake for her to speak aloud, to disturb the otherwise tranquil tension of the bear and his two unseen wolf onlookers, it was not a mistake to her in the sense that it was something she could have controlled. She could not have known the bear was there, lost in herself and in her own world, and so she felt almost freed herself from the responsibility of the disaster that soon ensued. This was an excuse. What she did believe was a mistake, however, was that she had left. She had chosen to flee from what should have been her battle. The battle she had caused. She had left others to suffer, to die.

Stumbling out of the forest, her body was not hers. It continually shook as if a great tornado racketed through her lungs. She could not breathe, and the gulps of air she managed to inhale were quickly vomited with a silent cry of anguish. Her eyes were closed. She hit a log and cried out again, turned and then began to violently claw it in her fury. She clawed and clawed until even the wood cried out and bled out a sticky sap. There the sap would pool onto the ground, and though the dripping was visible for anyone to see, it dripped into a pile of leaves and became hidden. Only a fool would believe because of this the tree had not bled.

This land was an indisputable paradise, a continent untraveled, at least by his wayward soul. The young lorekeeper, still inexperienced yet cocksure of himself, found solace in this thicket. He was by no means a small creature, but a large, intimidating predator, covered in a coat of cream, gold and brown and a peppered saddle. His pale gold eyes were a mockery of the vibrancy of most of his kins variations, as if an aeon moon blinked him as he howled out to the full moon.

Yet Cepheus still retained his freewill and with that gift he wandered and learned. His large frame—broad chest, tall stature and large paws—brought the timber descendant a hard time amongst the close knit trees and fauna, having to squeeze his way through upturned roots at on point then crawl upon his vulnerable belly the next to maneuver beneath thick vines. By the time Cepheus had made his way to the borders of the thicket he had worked up a light pant and a grin was plastered onto his youthful yet bestial face. It was here that he witnessed her. A petite thing, fox-like with her pointed ears, short snout and bushy tail, yet by scent a wolf in her prime.

Her fur appeared to be soft, touchable and patterned in a variation of grays, creams and ochre with a sprinkling of black along her rigid spine. His ears and faded eyes were intent on her as she butchered a fallen piece of the surrounding sentinel trees. Quirking his head curiously he sat and watched in silence, curling a tail absently around thick haunches.

(This post was last modified: Sep 26, 2010, 07:24 AM by Cepheus.)

Had she known she was performing for an audience, she might have behaved differently altogether, but she was completely unaware of the male's presence--at least for the time being. Exhausted by her outburst, she gently crumpled to the ground, the last clump of summer's leaves falling into a haphazard heap. She did not belong in this land, had never fooled herself into believing she would, and yet the lonely part of her desperately wished that she could call this place, any place home. Though her relations with her family, namely her sisters, were strained, they were still more comfortable than this place, where she was utterly disconnected. Inhaling a deep breath as another wave of tears crashed through her heart, she realized with growing horror the presence of the other wolf. Her heart sunk, and her head began to swirl with embarrassment, soon to be overwhelmed by rage. Infuriated that her privacy, rather her one moment of weakness--for she was a strong female, and she never ever cried, and she was always modest with her emotions--had been intruded upon. Displayed for the wandering eyes of a peeping Tom. She would murder him.

Leaping to her feet, she looked right and left and finally spotted the male sitting as if he did not in the least care about his disrespect. This was too much for her to bear, and so despite the fact that the male was far larger than her (surely bigger than the bear she had just fled), she began her rampage towards him, shattering weak branch, scattering old leaves, stomping on mossy logs. Her dominance was clear, and her warning signals clearer: <i>leave, unless you wish to add to the number of your scars.</i>

His ears flicked back and brow creased in concern as she crumpled amidst the leaves on the ground, small form trembling as she cried. It was then he realized he had stumbled upon something very private but it was certainly to late just to turn and leave as the tiny femme noticed him. Her message was clear, <i>leave now</i>, but her rampage toward him caused his male ego to stir. Raising to his formidable height on all fours, lips raised to bare his teeth in warning causing the skin about the scar above his eye to tug irritably and his golden, pale eye to twitch. <i>Watch yourself,</i> he clearly displayed, for though she might be able to get a few good strikes in his noble size would be a match for her. Of course Cepheus had no intentions of hurting her, in her emotional state she was aloud her moment of acerbity.

Ceph raised his tail dominantly and lashed it about, moving to the side and out of her path so that she would have to alter her course to pursue him or would be able to storm on past if she so wished. His large paws snapped the brittle twigs upon the ground and left depressions amongst the moist earth and leaves, before he placed one paw upon a cool, mossy rock and paused, shaking out his beige, gold and brown tinged fur in agitation.

(This post was last modified: Sep 27, 2010, 02:06 AM by Cepheus.)

Mirroring him with a snarl of her own, the female halted in her step. Though anger always made a fool of her, it never overcame her instinct for survival. Her eyes fluttered over the formidable mass before her, and knowing she was physically outmatched, she relented but her tail remained curled. He had stepped aside for her to move, and move she would with a hiss still on her lips. The pain of her earlier shame escaping like steam. Knowing he was of no use to her, only a potential threat, she pushed past him without another word. Her eyes remained fixated on an uncertain point before her. She did not know where she was heading.