Hollowheart Keep Legacy

Super short start to get this moving. Sorry for the crappiness. For @Mapplethorpe.

Where there is Love

• NAIRA •

there is life

She had been here before, although it felt like a lifetime ago. There had been a pack here once, now there were only ghosts. A lip pulled back over a tooth momentarily in a half snarl as her stomach contracted with hunger. Things should have been getting easier but still the snow blanketed the ground around her. She should have remained at the Keep to ensure the other females remembered their place, but she found that she couldn't while the heavy scent clung to her skin. She needed to get away.

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(This post was last modified: Mar 10, 2014, 12:20 AM by Naira.)

Never you mind, Death professor. Love is life, my love is better...

The scent that had clung to Naira the year before had been irresistible, as well as wholly avoidable. This year was a wholly different story. Though the skies had cleared, Spring was only borne on the sun's rays; the snow continued to remain on the ground and the frost, in its seemingly never-ending cycle of melting in the morning and forming on every piece of foliage each evening, still lingered. In preparation for the day, the aging Leader had found a decent, sun-bathed clearing just beyond the tree line of the Ghastly Woods, and only when he felt he had warmed just enough did he finally move back into his kingdom of dead, twisted vines and knotted trees.

With the yearling @Gent out of mind and @Chulyin left on his own to patrol and secure the edges of the pack grounds, Mapplethorpe diverted his attention away from their paths when he had reached the pack den. @Karpos, he barely had time for anymore, when Mercy had seemingly gone missing. Regardless of whether or not he was a bastard, a child who had been left to the crows, Mercy was Naira's ward and should have been accounted for. Frankly, he might not have even noticed that the boy had gone missing if it wasn't for Nova when she had found him in the Orchard to the north. Like Datura and Adonis, the boy had his smarts to rely on and, though, the grizzled man longed to search for him to ease @Sagacity's worries (if she had any to begin with and, Mapplethorpe was somewhat sure she might), he had other duties to attend to... like ensuring that his beloved Queen was looked after... that Gent kept to himself and that Sagacity and Evann kept their distance. Anyone who dared to act upon their innermost desires and instincts would be dealt with as soon as he, himself, had secured his own future.

A twitchy black nose, accompanied by quivering gray whiskers, eventually led him towards the Secluded Spring. There, behind a tree, he got a better whiff of the pheromones that had ushered him well away from the Keep. It stirred within him the beast that had dutifully laid low with his nose to the ground while Rhysis romped around without anyone's acknowledgement. Though, this time both the Consul and Consort were going to be put to rest. For good.

Mapplethorpe, in the face of the odds that were stacked against him since the day of his birth, was not a lowly creature as his sisters and parents had commonly predicted. In fact, he was not even some subordinate who had been adopted by a needy pack. By Naira's side, he had ascended, not just in rank, but also by reputation. Through her, he had become a verified superior, a high-ranking official whose pack could only succeed...

A sudden snort discharged itself from his nostrils while he attempted to regain his bearings, to focus upon where his equal was located if he was to find her before anyone else could. This was going to be his moment and his alone.

Slow, heavy footsteps had him striding out into the open, to face the frozen surface of the isolated Spring and hold his head high and level. If he was going to impress Naira, he was going to do it right. Surely, she had not promoted him for nothing... not even convenience... and he was going to prove to her that he could be more than just the man who claimed to lead a pack at her side.

Naira & Mapplethorpe
The Queen and her Advisor

images: dawnthieves.de | table: grey | 2013-2014

Where there is Love

• NAIRA •

There is Life

A snort left her nose as she tried to rid herself of the enveloping scent. Falling heavily to her side in a bank of snow she rolled, any attempt to rub the smell away, to try and wash away the memories that came with it. Frustration broiled close to the surface as she rose with a shake and a huff, and not for the first time, she wished the rains would hurry up and wash winter away.

She fought down the urge to run and hide her den by turning instead to gnaw at matted fur on her flank. One blessing of the lingering cold was the lack of fleas, but the prevailing damp didn’t make her coat any easier to maintain. She couldn’t sit still, it wasn’t very dignified at all. Ignoring the urge to pace she forced herself to sit, breathe and listen. This like everything else would eventually come to pass.

The sound of another snort a short distance away caused the tawny leader to start, her rear lifting from the snow as her ears shot forward and her muscles tensed - ready to flee...

Visible relief washed over her form as Mapplethorpe strode into view, his proud approach felt foreign, but she did not disapprove. Instead her ears tipped back momentarily to acknowledge his presence and position before returning to their usual position high atop her crown, slow steps drawing her closer to her equal while her heart thrummed a primal beat. It was time to put the past to bed, and ensure their pack held a future.

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There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

Never you mind, Death professor. Love is life, my love is better.

Something or someone striding into view from the corner of his eye caught his attention and what Mapplethorpe saw before him was every inch a queen and Leader. He was quick enough to take notice of the relief that had washed over her face, but was immediately and equally relieved from his initial concerns when her expression reverted back to her usual stoic stare. She drew closer to him and he angled himself to receive her, smiling as he turned to face her. As the distance between them was subdued by a gentle touch of his nose to hers, he visibly shivered. The musk that enshrouded her was tantalizing, fulsome and cloying all at once. It awoken with him the own primal beast that had been asleep, neglected and ignored, for the past six years.

It opened a glowing green eye in the face of Naira's presence and had begun to fume in an impressive manner as soon as she had come close. Naira would be his... was his... had meant to be his... The fur at his neck and chest swelled and bristled out of of pride. The covetous creature within urged him to take action, and he barely hesitated. Just one glance into her eyes told him the hints of what she was seeking from him.

"Naira," he greeted her quietly, his voice low enough for only her ears to hear. Behind him, his tail swayed genially, its lofty position above his rump an assertion of his rank and his equality to her. Though he longed to ask her if everything was all right, he brushed the curiosity away. Surely, now that she was with him, she was fine. The nerves, both hers and his, possibly spurred on by the tension of their species' most basic instincts.

As tenderly as he could, he nuzzled the side of her face, stepping over to one side when he finally withdrew from her. After one look towards the edges of the clearing surrounding the Secluded Spring, he glanced back to Naira, grazing his chin over her back and running his lips towards the base of her neck and the place between her shoulder blades. It was far from the gesture of scent-marking, but all the Hollowheart Keep Leader wished to convey was his longing to be close to her. Rhysis had had it all wrong... done it all wrong... He knew it now because of how Naira had managed to escape it all. Mapplethorpe had merely strengthened her with words, and look where it had left them all - Rhysis was missing, Naira had raised five children without them, and Mapplethorpe had been left to fulfill a sort of father-like position for Datura, Adonis, Nova, and Aponi. It had all balanced out, he found, as it had proven just how capable both Keep Leaders were in raising their pack, caring for both biological and adopted cubs.

He closed his eyes as he momentarily relished her signature scent, its notes accented and emphasized with the heat of the season. "Whatever you ask of me," he hoarsely whispered, "I will do it for you. Just say the word."

Naira & Mapplethorpe
The Queen and her Advisor

images: dawnthieves.de | table: grey | 2013-2014

Where there is Love

• NAIRA •

There is Life

Her tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth as he touched her, the stiffness of her body and the tightness of her lips betraying her nerves momentarily. As the gentle touches continued she breathed a sigh of relief and her whole body softened, leaning into his touch and returning it with gentle caresses of her own to his shoulder and chin. Uncertainty was a new emotion for the tawny leader, but it was one she would just have to take in her stride. All would be well. After all they had endured how could it not be?

His whisper caused her breath to catch in her throat, her eyes frantically seeking out his own as the words sunk in and etched their way into her very bones. Was this how it was for others? For her parents and grandparents? She could hear her own heart thudding loudly in her ears as she let the silence stretch on, a quick pass of her tongue over her lips enough to convince her own voice to co-operate as she whispered back, almost afraid to break the quiet unless this was all a dream. “Please, just don’t leave me,” she almost pleaded as she buried her muzzle into the thick fur about his throat.

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Never you mind, Death professor. Love is life, my love is better.

As she reciprocated his touch, he rested his chin lightly on her back, just below her shoulder blades, breathing her in. When she answered him, her words fluttered into his ears; and, like butterflies, they settled onto his eardrums, quiet and hushed. He took a moment to consider her words and unravel the emotions in her tone. Apparently he hadn't been doing his job - as her Advisor, Consort, and Keeper - to keep her emotionally sound and well looked after. "Of course not," his answer rumbled from his chest and off his tongue. "I'd never even think of it."

Mapplethorpe slowly withdrew himself from her and gave her the warmest, most genuine, smile he could muster. Naira was his sovereign, his monarch, and his queen... she had taken care of him and kept him within the pack, even when he adopted a number of irrational façades to keep himself at a distance from the rest of the pack. She had been the reason he had given pack life a chance; and instead of being hellbent on destroying a matriarchy, he found himself supporting it, supporting her, just as he would have if he had remained under his sister @Cezanne's reign. Maybe Naira had been the very reason why he had been through life as he had... The queen-less subject in search of his rightful ruler.

"Allow me to make you a promise then," he slowly proposed, his tail stilling itself from the wag it had adopted from the sudden appearance of his smile. "Naira... For as long as I shall live, I am yours..." He paused for a moment to read the expression on her face, to try and guess what her response would be towards his next sentence, "I have always been yours, and I wish I could have found you sooner. So much sooner... But it isn't too late..."

He inhaled deeply, his eyes glossing over only briefly as a flicker of sadness came over his face. He tried again to smile and the pained expression melted away as he finally focused fully on her face - the mask-like markings that were so much like his, the pools black rimmed with amber gold rings which were a shade warmer and darker than his own. "If I am yours, though," he smoothly pitched, his gaze going down to his paws only once while he prepared himself for his next set of words. "Then you must also be mine."

Despite the sound of her plea, the grizzled advisor braced himself for her to lash out at him, to be so appalled by such an idea that it could have provoked him to step away from her if he wasn't so dutifully bound to her as to take any beating she threw his way. His breath rattled in his chest as he quickly finished his proposition, "My favorite place to think around here is just over there." He pointed with his nose towards a place where a pair of boulders were resting on the shore of the Secluded Spring. "If I must wait for you forever, I will, but should you accept my offer, I will be there."

It was with heavy, hesitant steps that he finally angled himself away from her, but he did not yet leave her side until he had placed his customary "kiss" upon her temple with the countless, wordless "I love you's" left unsaid upon his lips. If luck was to be on his side and fate was to see him through, then he was bound to find her there, as beautiful as ever... the mountain monarch who had tamed the wildness in his nomadic soul.

Naira & Mapplethorpe
The Queen and her Advisor

images: dawnthieves.de | table: grey | 2013-2014

Where there is Love

• NAIRA •

There is Life

His response bought a tug of a smile to the corner of her lips. Of course she was being ridiculous, deciding it must just be the hormones making her feel so insecure. She choked down a scoff when he mentioned that he had found her sooner, for if it had have been much sooner she certainly wouldn’t have been the woman she had become. She was so naive... far too trusting... and now she realised that everything that had happened up until now had been leading to this point. It bought her great peace.

She was unsure whether the look that next crossed his face was one of melancholy or sadness. She held her breath, all but ignoring the brave attempt at a smile while her ears rung with the silence, waiting to see what would come next. As he looked to his paws her heart began to thrum and when his voice finally broke the silence she managed a slow inhale. Of course... she thought to herself, but her mouth simply wouldn’t cooperate. As he moved to pull himself away, indicating where he would be waiting, she finally found her voice again.

“Wait!” she called a little too loudly for the short distance that separated them, moving quickly through what banks of snow remained to walk at his side. Her nose found his cheek as she gently brushed her side along his with a smile. This was right, and she was ready.

{FADE}

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*Naira and Thorpe will be dragging the food home for @Nova.

(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2014, 11:10 PM by Naira.)