Wild Cherry Orchard Lay Me Down

<blockquote><i>His old place.</i> His own words echoed in his head, thrumming hauntingly throughout his skull so that it was nearly impossible to keep his focus on the female in front of him. Even if he had left of his own accord, been the butt of all the rumors in the disappearances, partaken in sins that no wolf would find acceptable, he was still a wolf. He had still been a part of a pack, and he couldn’t help but think of the faces of those he had loved. It was as these faces slide through his mind that his thoughts became further tainted by the faces of the others, the ones who had not made it away from his talented charm… it was their faces in the moments before their lives were taken that he remembered them… soft, happy. And as he came to the world suddenly around him, the face of Sibyl was lit starkly in front of him. Her own features echoed the ones in his mind and it threatened to derail him completely. His eyes widened, and his weight shifted ever so slightly, claws clenching the dirt beneath the grass as his paws gripped the earth. He steadied himself, and he was suddenly hearing her words once more.

It was Sibyl standing there, and not one of the haunted many. Sibyl. He liked Sibyl. Liked her too much to want to see her as he had seen the others. But this was dangerous ground. She was too much like the others.

<i>—must have forgotten my manners. My name is Sibyl Balik, third in Grizzly Hollow."</i> He gripped her words, holding tightly to them. They were his anchor and he used them fully to bring himself away from the dark place in his mind. His smile had flattened momentarily, a flutter, but it returned now as he took in her words, shaking away the past as he had done the night before.

<b>"Och, manners. We were caught up in other affairs, they’ve hardly been forgotten Sibyl."</b> His smile warmed once more. <b>"But third, that’s quite a title. I’m afraid I have none of the sort for now. I am merely Artuo Valde. You have more than I."</b> And it was quite true. Giving her his full name, he intended to be free with it. It was all a part of this new start. He wanted no chances to make himself the same secretive creature he had been before. Ironically, his own mind continued to work in its old ways, and he was already more possessive of his secrets getting out than he had ever been. With a new start, he somehow had more to lose.

<b>"Prairies? I haven’t spent much time in them myself. I was always surrounded by trees. I lived in a forest, mostly. But I imagine in doing so, one becomes numbed to just how many there are. Open spaces fascinate me more, though the shade of trees offers comfort."</b> His words held more meaning then they let on, referencing both the tangible areas that were forest and prairies as well as his own nature. Secretive, as opposed to open. It was, in a way, his release. How he could tell his story without actually saying it. He glanced up at the branches, a quiet smile lifting on his lips.
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(This post was last modified: Aug 14, 2012, 06:44 AM by Artuo.)

http://i1081.photobucket.com/albums/j347/holdbacktherain/tables/sibyltab.png) bottom center no-repeat; background-color: #33353b;"> Sibyl didn't have the heart to tell him that she was the last of three, and in no way had she fought for that position. She didn't like to lie, but perhaps an omission of truth wasn't really a lie, was it? She didn't want him to think less of her for either lying or being dead last, so she kept quiet. She felt she had some reason to impress him, born from her desire to cling tightly on to any wolf who showed her just a thread of kindness. Above all else, she just felt so lonely. <b style="color:#8a90a1">"Nice to meet you then, Mister Valde." <b style="color:#8a90a1">"Really?" She tilted her head, considering the idea. Comfort, perhaps she could see that in the trees. She found that slowly, bit by bit, the trees of the Cedarwood Forest had grown on her. It wasn't necessarily the wood and foliage of them that gave her reassurance, but what they represented. Within those trees Sibyl was held in the protection of the pack, and while it wasn't a warm, close knit family, it was more a family than the one she left behind in the plains. <b style="color:#8a90a1">"They scare me. You never know what is going to jump out from behind one of them." A flash of fear, a dusty memory fallen off its shelf, crossed her face for a fleeting moment. Her ears folded down, and she nearly whined but swallowed the sound back. She was such a chicken! It was safe here, she reminded herself, and having a fit of whimpering would only be off putting to Artuo and then she'd have no friends. Some day she would just die alone in a ditch somewhere and no one would even notice she disappeared. Needing to keep her mouth moving before her mind spiraled into an impossible scenario of angry bears devouring her forgotten corpse, she spoke again, <b style="color:#8a90a1">"I like how you can see all the way around you, I'm more comfortable where I can see everything. But there aren't a lot of open places up north. The summer here isn't hot enough, either. Or, maybe that's just because of the trees?" She paused for a thoughtful moment, her brows scrunched as she wondered just why summer was cooler here than there. It wasn't something her canine brain could wrap around.She returned her attention to Artuo with a sheepish look. <b style="color:#8a90a1">"Sorry if I babble too much, sir."

table by bryony