Drooping Willows I needed something of yours

Rook caught Quil's apologetic expression and he shook his head; however, the other brute was no longer looking at him and he hoped she had not gotten into any sort of trouble. He forced himself to take a step back, to stand down and at least be of the sort of mind that would not outright attack another. After all, he had only just met these two souls and, judging by his direction and her reaction to the both of them, he could have accidentally tried to engage her in the sort of frivolity that was only meant for her mate. Had Rook been apart of Grizzly Hollow, just a stretch of forest away, he might have had enough leverage to even the field... to state that Quil had just as much freedom to socialize as she pleased and that her darker pack mate shouldn't have be as strict or controlling as he was.

The prince was whispering now and Rook could only stare, unsure of whether he should go or not. From his point of view, it looked as though she was being victimized but, as patiently as he could, he waited with bated breath. It could go either way, she could take her chance to speak up now and he could help drive off her swarthy superior or he could obey her order to make himself scarce and never return. If it had not been for the look she had given him, he might have already left, but something about Sköll had Rook standing on pins and needles and suddenly concerned for her living situation in the Willows.

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

What came next was something she never saw coming, something she never thought to expect and certainly didn't. Skoll edged closer to her, and before he even opened his mouth she cold feel his stare on her face. Suddenly, she was in the spotlight, but it was not one she wanted. And she saw the way the lighter boy shook his head to her, and she knew that he had at least enough heart not to blame her for what had transpired. The dark prince's breath on her cheek felt like desert heat, but the words that left his lips were unmistakably cold. Underneath her skin she was as tense as could be, the feeling of discongruence she was beginning to feel creeping up on her like a looming storm.

It was the prince's mention of Yuka that first lit the fire. If what he meant was that there was something wrong with knowing Yuka, being related to him, or being his friend, then she was the last person he should have said that to. She knew the Thorben boy, and she liked him a lot, actually, in a friendly way. She remembered the morning she spent with he and her sister and Asriel, and he'd made her smile and laugh and was kind to her on a day when she needed it. He was the kind of boy she imagined she could be good friends with, and actually she'd had it in her mind to pay him a visit since she'd returned. Yuka was good, and if Skoll had a problem with him, she didn't want to wonder why that was.

But it wasn't until his breath clouded softly in her ear, until he was so close, until he spoke the words, that she knew..."Tell him he isn't allowed this close to the Ridge...Go on..." There was something dark about Skoll.

Her heart began to race as she really processed what was happening now, and her eyes lifted to the stranger who, all of the sudden, wasn't such a stranger. The expression on her face hardened, the warmth in her eyes remaining for a split second as she looked into his mismatched ones before fading to something colder. But she didn't tear them away from his yet, not even as Skoll's whispers filled her ear with something poisonous.

A breath of a laugh of disbelief was the first thing to come out of her mouth. Who exactly did he think he was? To her, he was as much a stranger as the other one, and perhaps it was he who was the dull one here, if he thought that she was the kind of girl who was going to be manipulated or put up with his attempt to manipulate her. If nothing else and above all, Quil was a smart, smart girl, but she didn't really have to be so smart to see right through Skoll now, did she? Neither one of them knew a thing about her, but she knew herself more than most her age probably did. Skoll might be the prince of Willow Ridge, but she was the princess of Darkwater Rapids and even more than that, she was her father's daughter. She was Attaya. And that meant that she wasn't going to take shit from anyone, especially not some misguided manipulator, prince and pack mate or not. In the heat of the moment, she found that she felt a tinge of contempt even if she didn't want to. She might have the utmost respect for Elettra, but that certainly didn't mean that she had to have any for her son, not like this, and she had an itch that that wasn't going to change.

Delicately, she took a single step away from Skoll, shifting her weight and finally removing her gaze from the other boy to narrow it innocently enough upon him. Challenge shone as bright in her eyes as the north star shone against the black of a night sky. Lifting her head high, she could only stare into him for several moments, the look upon her face there to tell him all he needed to really know. She was not his toy. She was not weak. She was better than he was, if this was who he really was. And, he'd made his first mistake. The words that left her lips were silky sweet, and she held her composure with pristine skill. "If that's true, you won't have much trouble telling him yourself, will you?" She leaned a hair closer to his dark form, a grin playing dangerously at a corner of her lips as she proceeded to not give him the chance to. "...Skoll says you aren't allowed this close to the Ridge," she addressed the lighter boy, her bright eyes casting over Skoll's face, "but that doesn't mean we can't go somewhere else." She didn't think twice before moving to Rook's side.

She could play into Skoll. She could be like him and make a scene, tell him what she thought about what he just did, or give him a piece of her mind, even. But she wasn't going to, because, as she knew well, she was much better than that. Quil was trying her best not to jump to conclusions about the Archer boy, and she wanted to believe that he didn't mean anything by it all, but he wasn't making it hard for her to. Though she was addressing her tawny counterpart, she looked to Skoll defiantly.

"I wouldn't want to break the rules."

(This post was last modified: Oct 07, 2014, 02:50 AM by Quil.)

It was like being a puppet master, standing there next to Quil, and plucking and tugging at the strings to make her move, make her speak what he wanted her to say... but she was not like Deacon who readily did as he was told or like Skana who easily countered him with the ease and grace of a ballroom dancer whose figure was framed within his. In fact, she mirrored him. Even her tone met him in a challenge. He stared daggers at her then, watching her every move as she leaned closer to him at first. She grinned, but he did not yet appreciate her smirk; actually, he utterly despised it. It was as if he were swallowing his own make of medicine. She leaned away from him and smoothly removed herself from his side with a singular step. So much for being a loyal subject...

"...Sköll says you aren't allowed this close to the Ridge," it seemed his request was fulfilled, but he expected a punch. There always had to be a punch. She told the masked yearling, in so many words, that they could converse someplace else. The prince's hackles rose as he met the rebellious expression on Quil's face. Morganna had often given him such a look, but that was from her... his sister. For Quil to cast him such a look, only poured gasoline on the fire within him; and, all at once, he envied Rook for having enchanted her away from him. Just like that.

He scoffed at the two of them, staring back at him as they stood beside one another. The ball was in his court, it seemed, but Sköll Archer had nothing to say. If she wanted to go dilly-dally around with the likes of Titan and Yuka, so be it. He had not cared for or about Quil until now, and all of a sudden, the tables had turned. She had openly issued a challenge to him and he was going to follow through with it, but timing, he supposed, would be key. Instead of depleting what nerve and wit he had, he took one good look at her then turned away, slinking through the branches and back towards his favorite haunt deep within Willow Ridge. Rook, that other yearling, might have won, but Sköll was already preparing for what would come if and when Quil returned.

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

Quil handled the situation much better than he and Taima had when they had met one another. She was wily enough to withdraw from him, using what could have been the prince's very own words. It had left both of them speechless. Yet, as Quil joined him, Sköll moved away. The breath he had been holding did not escape his lungs until he thought the other yearling had actually gone. He looked at her now in a different light, her gumption rounding her out to be a rather spirited young lady. Like his sister Taima, like his twin Bishop... like his mother Jaysyek. Frankly, he admired that.

He hesitantly moved to one side, favoring his left with a lifted forepaw as to signal to Quil that he was ready to leave the edges of Willow Ridge. "I don't want to take you somewhere too far from home," he said with a trace of a smile, "My favorite place is well within the borders of Whisper Caverns." His brows angled in such a way as to show that his timidity was very close to getting the best of him. His tail lilted from one side to the other as his charm and gregariousness was recovered; he had done nothing wrong and had not done much as to embarrass himself or do anything of the sort. He averted his gaze toward the ground with a boyish smile before looking back to her, his voice quieting in case Sköll was still nearby. "I'm Rook, by the way."

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

It seemed as though she'd gotten her point across, judging from the incredulous way Skoll was looking at her. Quil held his gaze, toe-to-toe with him in a way, for as long as he cared to stare. It was obvious that he wasn't happy with how she'd chosen to go against him but she didn't really care, and her heart was still pounding from the way he'd made her felt. Angry. Surprised. Disappointed. Granted she didn't really know the prince, perhaps she shouldn't have been taken back by the move he'd made. But he was Elettra's son, and for whatever reason ─ maybe the fact that she knew from her father's stories and war tales that the Archer woman was just and respectable ─ she thought he would be more than someone who would try something that that. She simply held his silvered gaze as he gave her a long, hard look before saying not a single word and retreating into the grove of willows, her eyes trailing his dark form until it disappeared.

Quil knew this wouldn't be the end of it. Even if he'd ─ surprisingly ─ had nothing to say at the moment, she was sure he would have words for her when she returned, whenever that might be. Where she, perhaps, should have been fearful of the repercussions in store for her, she just wasn't. Quil wasn't scared of Skoll, and there wasn't going to ever come a day that she would put up with behavior like that, not from him. She didn't have to be anywhere, and if being in the Willows meant that she'd be subjected to manipulation or bullying or the like, well...she didn't have to stay there. All the same, she wouldn't be run out by the boy, either.

Exhaling a quiet breath and pushing all of that from her mind with a flick of her tail, Quil's gaze cast upon her chosen companion's masked face. Just one look at him was all it took for her to shake it all off, and when he smiled, her eyes lingered on his lips.

"I don't want to take you somewhere too far from home." He mentioned Whisper Caverns, which she deduced was his home. He'd gotten into it just by passing near her borders, and she couldn't help but to wonder what kind of trouble the two of them would stir up if she went anywhere near his. But if his favorite place was there, that's where she wanted to go. Rook was his name, and that smile of his in what appeared to be a bashful moment brought one to her face. "Rook..." she spoke his name as though she had a hundred times before, "...take me anywhere but here."

(This post was last modified: Oct 07, 2014, 09:58 PM by Quil.)

The prince had gone; the few seconds of silence that followed both Skoll's retreat and Quil's sigh seemed to confirm it. Rook did not let his gaze leave his companion's face as her own eyes trailed after him into the willows. Though, as she spoke his name, the single-syllable word that belonged to only him, he let his smile fully touch his eyes.

"...take me anywhere but here."

His heart leapt in his rib cage, and where he should have thought of where to take Quil and how to get there without too much fuss or attention from any pack members who might spot the two of them, Rook thought about Namid... about Bishop... about Titan and Nios and even of Beren, all of whom could have been looking for him at this very moment. "Hmm," he mused. "Where to go..." In a particularly silly, playful sort of manner, he spun around as he looked for which way they ought to go. Maybe he wouldn't bring her to his hiding place atop the Caverns or towards the place where he and Namid had discovered the Weir. No, he wanted a new memory, a different sort of encounter. Of course, it would be new, but his craving for adventure and someplace unfamiliar won him out. She had said "anywhere" and anywhere, other than the places he already knew, was where he was going to take her.

"Let's go... Let's go this way," he suggested, taking a few steps away from the willow trees in the direction of where he knew the edges of Hush Meadow laid in wait. Surely... Hopefully... They would find someplace, out-of-earshot and far away from both of their home territories, to continue this conversation; and, Rook was already determined to make sure that Quil would never have to face or weather the Willow prince's twisted words or grasp again.

(Fade.)

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.