Ghastly Woods Innocence Taken

@Mapplethorpe for whenever this happens? IDK what is going on with it anymore.

This natural selection picked me out to be

Karpos Slayer

A dark horse running in a fantasy

Confusion had been the main thing to fill him. How could Aponi have honestly believed anything he said when he was so angry? How could he believe that he hated her and how could she leave? The pup had completely calmed down as he rested just beyond the border, like a wolf to join a pack as when he told Thorpe about what had happened, he did not want to be on pack lands and he wanted to be able to head off into a different direction in case he was kicked out of Hollowheart Keep like he expected to be. He was the reason the young princess' life was once against at risk and he deserved the punishment. Karpos was taking what was coming to him with a little remorse and without an excessive amount of fear.

He let out a call for Sir Mapplethorpe as he gulped and proceeded to take a deep breathe. He closed his eyes for a brief second and thought about his aunts and uncles. He thought about his sister and how they would all encourage him to do the right thing and tell the truth. He tried to figure out what he could possibly say to the father who was missing a child and he came up with the words in his mind. Sir Mapplethorpe. I screwed up and am not worthy of being called a Keep wolf any longer. I got into an argument with Aponi and I made a mistake. I was so confused... so angry. I told her that she wasn't wanted and she has left the pack lands... I-I wanna set things right though." Karpos gave a nervous look at his paws. This is what a guardian does, he protects the pack even if it means leaving to protect them from himself.

Treating this time-wise, Karpos posted at 6:45pm PST and Naira posted at 7:31pm. Hopefully I won't hold you both up. :x

Unable to patrol much longer, the Leader of Hollowheart Keep settled down at the base of one of his kingdom's tall trees with his back against the rough bark and his neck held as straight as he could manage. He knew he probably shouldn't have wandered so far but something about the day had him itching in his bones, the restlessness being so severe that it even beat out the arthritic pain that was slowly claiming his joints and back. He was enjoying the silence and stillness of the air with his muzzle pointed skyward and his ears folded back that it outright startled him when a call from Karpos - and a strange-sounding one at that, was something wrong? And where was Karpos anyhow? Why out towards the east? - jolted him from his meditation. The sound had the Leader practically jump out of his skin and, as a result, he winced as he tried to work out the shock that had come from his abrupt reaction to the young guardian's beckoning.

He slowly brought himself onto all four paws, bending and unbending his slender limbs at the elbows and knees as though to get the feeling back in his wrists and toes. He then scowled in the direction from where the summons had come from and snorted in annoyance. Cavete, his other-tongued conscience warned at the back of his skull. The Slayer boy knows well not to waste your time...

Without another moment's hesitance, he moved forward, intent on meeting the near-yearling before the situation or scenario - if there was indeed one to be had once he got there - got any worse than it already was. Once the lad had come into view, Mapplethorpe could not help but to growl as a means to announce his presence. As was customary, he lifted his tail and lowered his head as his ears bent forward. In addition to looking over Karpos, he also scanned the area with a turn of his head to the left, then to the right, with a couple of deep breaths.

Ultimately, it seemed as though no one else had been there, but the faintest scents that had been borne on Karpos' night-colored pelt did raise a few questions, but he would get to that later. First, he wanted an explanation, a reason as to why he had been called for.

"What is it Slayer?" he asked through his gritted his teeth. Through his tone alone, hopefully, it was obvious that the patriarch had been sorely disturbed, regardless of whether or not Karpos had actually intended to rile his superior. "Make it quick!"

(This post was last modified: Apr 26, 2014, 06:37 AM by Mapplethorpe.)

This natural selection picked me out to be

Karpos Slayer

A dark horse running in a fantasy

Karpos had waited, but not long before the superior male arrived and instinct took in as he lowered his tail and submitted himself to him as he spoke. It was clear he had to make it quick. "Sir Mapplethorpe. I screwed up and am not worthy of being called a Keep wolf any longer. I got into an argument with Aponi and I made a mistake. I was so confused... so angry. I told her that she wasn't wanted and she has left the pack lands..." He gulped without looking at the man at all. He hated this, he hated screwing up and he had screwed up bad. It was going to haunt him until the day that he died, he only hoped that he would reach his yearling year.

Karp was nervous but he was not afraid. What did he have to fear? Well, probably a lot of things because Karpos tended to think that anything he did wrong, any slightest thing, would force him to die or kill him or kill himself even. He took a small breathe and held his submitted position as he waited for a, what Karpos is expecting, bad reaction to the news that the Keep princess had run away. There was a panicked look in his eyes but wasn't looking at the male at all, but instead at the dirt. He had spoken loud enough to project his voice out. The growl, though customary, made Karpos slightly suspicious that he (Thorpe) already knew why he (Karpos) had called him there.

Karpos reacted accordingly, and though it had initially pleased and soothed Mapplethorpe to some degree, what he heard next pushed the Leader over the edge. "You.... WHAT?" If he had been capable of rubbing his temples with his digits or running his padded palm over the length of his face and snout is disbelief, he might have... if he had been human. As it was, the grizzled man stared incredulously at the youth before him, another growl coming from his chest. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, SLAYER?!" he roared, abruptly advancing forth in such a way that he hoped he might make the boy flinch after having his jowls come so close to the side of his swarthy face.

A click of his teeth and he tensed his frame, making himself seem a little larger than he really was. The fur along his shoulders and neck came up and his golden-ringed pupils bore into the side of Karpos' face. "You are a Guardian of Hollowheart Keep," he enunciated with a heavy tone, a warning hanging on each of his words. "It is NOT your business to tell the princesses and heiresses if they are wanted or not!" His tail curled dangerously over his back as his ears trembled from the multitude of his wrath. "You had ONE task, Slayer... ONE."

"And what task was that?" The question could have been rhetorical but even if the young Guardian-to-be utter under his breath what he was supposed to be doing, Mapplethorpe continued, answering for the lad, "MIND THE BORDERS!" He withdrew from Karpos, the anger on his face emphasizing the dark lines under his eyes and the usual folds along the bridge of his muzzle. "Have I taught you nothing?! What is wrong with you?! I trusted you more than any one else! How dare you treat my daughter with such insolence and cheek!" Disgust and loathing was added into his whirlwind of emotion, stoking the fire in his throat and setting his words ablaze.

"FIND APONI AND BRING HER HOME!" he bellowed. "Bring her to me and once she's back here, don't ever come back. You hear me, boy?! Mark my words, if I ever see you back here again thereafter, I will have your pelt for my son's first plaything. NOW GET OUT!!"

(This post was last modified: Apr 26, 2014, 08:53 PM by Mapplethorpe.)

This natural selection picked me out to be

Karpos Slayer

A dark horse running in a fantasy

The reaction was just as he expected as the insults rolled off his tongue. As soon as he was ordered away he ran. He bolted away from the borders and to the south. There was one place he could still go. He was going to go to his family. He wasn't going to look for Aponi, he wasn't going to waste his time on her because she had been the cause of it all. If she had just ignored him like she normally did than he never would have had the cause to insult in her in such ways. But now he could be reunited with his family. Surely his uncle and aunt could get him into Cut Rock River right? Would they shun him away because of what he did?

No, he had defended them leaving him. They would love him as the always had. A deep hatred stirred inside him for the Keep wolves. It was something he would never forget. When he was the king he would find Mapplethorpe and Naira and Aponi in combat and he would kill them so he could line his den with their pelts. His anger bubbled when he was far from the Keep borders. He hissed at himself, but he felt a relief for being free. He no longer had anything to worry about and his heart had turned to stone. He would be a guardian in a pack who respected his opinion. That was all he had done, expressed his opinion. When he was far away he howled off into the distance. Your borders don't contain me and I follow your orders no more. The words were clear. He wasn't going to bring Aponi home.

-Exit or Fade-

Watching the young Slayer vanish through the trees should have lifted some of the weight that had come to settle on his already sore and smarting shoulders; instead, it merely burdened it further when he came to realize that maybe he shouldn't have trusted the boy to bring his misplaced daughter back. After being told off, he, himself, wouldn't come back to the Keep, not even if there was a considerable prize to be had.

Mapplethorpe snorted in further disgust, ready to head back to where he had been resting before Karpos had called for him, when a rather rebellious howl reached his ears. "Your borders don't contain me," the youth retorted, "and I follow your orders no more." The Leader's eyes narrowed and his fur continually bristled as he countered, "Filius canis! Futue te!"

Futue te...

One more snarl and the patriarch of Hollowheart Keep was off, shaking his head and replaying in his mind what he had just heard. After all he had done for Karpos Slayer, after all the he had sacrificed for the punk - his time, his wisdom, his... love - everything had been in vain. He had raised Karpos to become Aponi's protector and keeper only to find that his little girl was lost yet again. No true Guardian would have done what the young Slayer had... belittle her, depreciate her.... abandon her.

So be it...

He stomped across the thawed ground, trampling through the newly sprouted grasses and flowers wherever he went. He needed to speak to Naira but, truthfully, he was not yet ready for her. Half of him itched to hunt the boy down, to quell the sting of betrayal that he had left in his wake. Curse Karpos Slayer... Curse everything that he was and would become... From now until the day his bloodline ended, his sons and daughters and their children after them would frown down upon those with the surname of Slayer.

(EXIGO.)