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watching, waiting, commiserating — Whisper Marsh 
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Played by Grey who has 177 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Taima Lyall Avelin
Say it ain't so, I will not go! Turn the lights off,
TAIMA LYALL
carry me home! Na na na na na na na na na na!!

"What's a marsh?" he asked. "Is a marsh wet?" Her mouth opened in disbelief at first, but then the corners lifted and she gave him a rather tickled grin. She wanted to laugh, to let him know that his senselessness was actually quite... charming... now that she could partially, but actually see him. Instead, she giggled; the notes sounding from her chords in a nearly tinkling fashion, like the bubbling sound of a small creek or a series of small plops made by a frog hopping through the shallows of a pond.

She took in his puzzled expression, equally taken with it, just as she had found his more confident, pompous side charming in its own way. Her tail swayed from one side to the other; and, she fought the urge to titter and snicker even more, wanting to spare him any embarrassment and keep him from becoming angry with her. "Yeahhhhh," she answered. Silly boy. Taima seized the opportunity to prove that she, too, was sharp. "A marsh is like... water on land. Like... a big puddle."

Her golden eyes met his, and even in their half-recovered state it was apparent she wasn't criticizing him but, rather, enlightening him. Knights, in all their stories she had memorized by heart, after all, were not stupid. Dumbstruck at times maybe, but never flat out dumb. Perhaps her hero had come from an exotic land so different from Cedarwood. She proceeded to admire him, her mind running away with the idea that, maybe, if they had been a little older, he would have swept her away to where they could be a king and queen of their own realm. "The snow might've frozen it though," she mused, looking in the direction opposite of the tree line. "Let's... go... this way," she strode forward, hoping the boy wouldn't mind that she didn't need him to guide her anymore. "Until we find some ice."


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(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2013, 03:49 AM by Taima.)
Played by Sarah who has 159 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Datura Aquila
(jaime lannister quote is necessary.)


there are no men like me
• DATURA AQUILA •
there's only me.
He was half expecting her to frown at him again, in which case he decided he would just have to up and leave. He wasn't here to do favors for damsels that had no appreciation for his valiant efforts and valuable time. If she had nothing with which to repay him, he at least deserved a pretty face and some smiles. Steeling himself for some sassy remark — perhaps he had been spending too much time with Adonis lately, if this was the response he was expecting — he began to wonder why he bothered anymore when suddenly he heard a giggle.

The gilt child jumped as if he had been struck, his attention leaping towards the the lightly peeling bells of amusement. His stare was hard, hard like rock, harder certainly than the malleable gold of his eyes. His mood was growing more dangerous and his eyes narrowed as he considered her. Is she mocking me? Honestly, Datura didn't have too much experience with girls. Women, sure, but not girls. But this wasn't like when Adonis laughed at him. Searching her face, though, he could find only pleasant brightness and an encouraging smile. Oh. His features dropped their coarseness suddenly, as if he were ashamed and no longer wanted anything to do with a rough affectation.

Then she began her explanation, and he found himself tense once more. What was she going to do? Call him stupid? Make some sort of a joke about him not knowing? The boy had never been comfortable in situations where his meager intelligence was pitted against another's. Mostly cause he always seemed to come out on the losing side. Datura didn't like being a loser, it made him feel weak. The thought that he might be deficient in some way scared him... and this fear was a fear he could not fight, and that made him frustrated. And frustration had never been well handled by this golden, spoiled child.

"A marsh is like... water on land. Like... a big puddle."

This wasn't anything like when Adonis explained things to him, because Adonis always explained things in a way that made it sound like he shouldn't need to be telling him at all. Datura decided maybe it was okay for someone to teach him stuff it wasn't phrased like that... Out of relief, the boy flashed a smile at her, as if to tell her it was okay now, the danger had passed. What danger that was though, it was hard to say.

Well, if a marsh was water, then she was right, it was probably all ice now. That sucks, he thought. There wasn't really any way to clean her without water... He couldn't very well just rub her down with ice, though the thought of it made him snort. So consumed with this amusing picture in his mind, Datura didn't even think twice about following the girl when she offered to take the lead. Vaguely, he ambled on after her. "Where I come from... we don't have marshes. At least, I don't think we do."

"I'm Datura, by the way."

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Played by Grey who has 177 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Taima Lyall Avelin
Say it ain't so, I will not go! Turn the lights off,
TAIMA LYALL
carry me home! Na na na na na na na na na na!!

Through the open field she led him, testing the are every so often to check if she could detect the scent of water nearby. He justified her assumptions that he had, indeed, come from somewhere far away... somewhere where they didn't have marshes. "Oh," she sounded, intrigued by the idea. In the summer, on the most warmest of days, the marsh emitted a most unbearable stink. It was enough to keep Taima well away from the southern part of her home.

He extended his name as she began to pick her way through a grassier part of the clearing. "I'm Taima," she kept her gaze trained on the ground in front of her, testing the ground with one paw at first before setting the other down and moving forward. She glanced over her shoulder with a warm smile, "The heiress of Grizzly Hollow. My family lives in the Cedarwood... Nothing but trees there, so I sometimes come here to get away."

She tore her eyes away from him, shaking her head once to whisk a few snowflakes from the tip of her nose. "What's it like where you're from then if you don't have marshes?" Her tail wriggled about, but for the sake of not wafting the skunk stench in his direction she let it drop to a more casual position at her heels. "Do you have bears there?"

The smile on her face it seemed would never go away, her cheeks were starting to hurt from wearing it for so long. Eventually her strides became longer and less cautious. It wasn't until she felt something cool underfoot that she stopped and returned her eyes to him. "And, streams and creeks and ponds, you have those, right?" Her head tilted curiously, surely this boy's family was tactical enough to at least settle somewhere where they had a fresh source of water?


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Played by Sarah who has 159 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Datura Aquila

I wanna wake you from your dream
• DATURA AQUILA •
I wanna know just who you're talking to
when you're singing in your sleep

"I'm Taima,"

At this he beamed politely. He was contemplating on whether or not he should say it was a pleasure to meet her since she smelled pretty bad, but he should have held his applause because she wasn't finished it seemed. Oh. One of his eyebrows rose slightly as he regarded her. An heiress. His interest was piqued. She could have been just any random girl, a nobody... but she was somebody. She was the daughter of someone important, of royalty. Nevermind that he had never heard of Grizzly Hollow and she could have very well been making it all up. He would have been gullible enough to believe her if she had said she was the queen of Dire Mountain. Although, it appeared she was from the forest. His enthusiasm waned slightly: he didn't like trees very much.

And suddenly there was a slew of questions being thrown at him. For someone with more intellect, the conversational pace would have been fine, but Datura didn't know how to keep up with all these questions. The answers just got all tangled in his mind and he had to set about unraveling his thoughts and untangling everything before he could answer her. "Uhm... Rocky?" he said at first, uncertainly, "I live up there" Vaguely he tossed his snout towards the megalithic spires that rose from the ground. "And. We don't have bears." Whatever bears were. "We have... goats?" Suddenly he felt very plain indeed walking behind this heiress of the forest who knew about things like bears ad walked under the undulating canopies of trees with a world of green yawning at her feet. "No...uh... we have. We have waterfalls?" The embarrassment was faint, but it was enough to make one of his ears fall uncomfortably back against his head.

Suddenly he stopped in his tracks. "But I'm an heir too! An heir to all the peaks and valleys and crags!" His chest was puffed out very seriously, although he looked rather awkward in the pose being so young. His voice was hard, like he was daring her to tell him he wasn't worthy, that he was less than her.

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Played by Grey who has 177 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Taima Lyall Avelin
Say it ain't so, I will not go! Turn the lights off,
TAIMA LYALL
carry me home! Na na na na na na na na na na!!

Rocky terrain. No bears, but goats... Goats? A brow quirked upward and the other slid down to complete the most bewildered look she could manage. What was a goat? And waterfalls... She knew the small cascades of Heartleaf Creek froze in the midst of winter during the most harshest of blizzards but any other waterfalls of the Lore, did those freeze? She had asked him that because she was wondering how useful he could be in breaking the ice. If anything, she realized that after looking him over once more with her good eye, the both of them could easily manage the feat.

"But I'm an heir too! An heir to all the peaks and valleys and crags!" he divulged, further ensnaring her already established preference for this auburn-pelted boy. "Are you the oldest?" she then queried, assuming that he at least had one sibling to squabble and spar with. "I'm actually second in line, but I'm determined that my future mate and I will win my brother and older sister over." She boasted the fact as though she was already sure of it, that her relaying the aspiration would further guarantee its future arrival.

"I've never been over there," she commented, idly swiveling an ear to where his nose had pointed to. "Always wondered what it's like to live there, above it all." She had to admit that she enjoyed his brand of assertiveness. Compared to Renier and Ryvet, whose dares and "boys only" rules often singled her out and made her feel like she was nothing but a pathetic tomboy, Datura was more like someone who was "her equal." He might have brandished a dark cloud or two during the course of their conversation but, according to Borden, Taima had always been ready to weather a storm and she took it in stride.

She grinned, "Well, mister high-and-mighty, c'mere then and help me. With all those rocks and steep slopes, this task should be easy-peasy." Carefully, she slid over where the marsh should have been. Wherever she dragged her paws through the light cover of snow, slivers of a glassy surface could be seen. The ice creaked under weight but with the support of the shore just inches away, it did not crack. "Help me break this."


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Played by Sarah who has 159 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Datura Aquila

I wanna wake you from your dream
• DATURA AQUILA •
I wanna know just who you're talking to
when you're singing in your sleep

"Of course I'm the oldest!" he quipped back, almost resenting the idea that he could have been anything less than first born. He was larger and smarter than both Belladonna and Adonis combined. It was a little disappointing, however, to discover that she actually wasn't the first of her siblings. Huh/ Had she just been lying to him? How could she be the heir if she isn't the oldest? His stare was incredulous.

But then he heard a word that changed everything. Determined. She had ambitions, this little girl who knew about bears and marshes. "Wow," he breathed, Despite previous conclusions on the quality of her character, all the weeping and girlish helplessness, she was not weak. Taima spoke with a conviction that Datura found delicious, alluring. It mirrored his own dreams of a kingdom, in a way, and perhaps that was why he decided he liked her best of all. (Or, well, best of all outside of his family.) He probably would have offered to be this mate of hers right then and there if she smelled a little more becoming. Her dream could be his dream. It could be their dream. But he kept these thoughts to himself as she rambled on.

"Always wondered what it's like to live there, above it all."

He shrugged, not really knowing how to respond to this. It wasn't really like anything. To Datura, it was what it was. He lived on a mountain and that was all there was to it. But perhaps what Taima was getting at was that topic no one else could seem to stop themselves from bringing up. Beauty. Once more Datura felt himself constructing a wall between himself and the girl. "Everything just looks really small," he said, confined to plain, literal statements by his inability to speak grace, "Like this forest. This forest was so small that I wandered out here thinking it was grass... " Idly, he was reminded that he was still pretty lost... Perhaps after he helped her she would return the favor, but he was loath to admit his grievous error—

"Well, mister high-and-mighty"

Dubious, the boy followed her out onto the ice. He wasn't particularly sure if he liked this nickname she had given him since he didn't really get it. He could not see the artful way she had manipulated language in order to create a double entendre. But he followed her nonetheless, willing to take direction from this one-day-queen.

"Help me break this."

Taking a deep breath, he turned to look at her quite seriously. "You should probably stand back." What if she fell into the freezing water and then he had to save her again? That certainly wouldn't be much fun.

Here was where Datura's weight, his borderline chubbiness, would come in handy. He knew he hadn't taken a big breakfast two days ago for nothing. There was no need for tact in order to complete this task, and that was just the way Datura liked it. Just straight forward, brute force. He could do this. Rising high onto his hind legs, Datura paused before shifting all his weight forward and slamming his forepaws down against the frozen ice. The frozen water creaked uncertainly, and a hairline fracture appeared. Thrice more, Datura rose up and slammed down, the crack growing ever bigger until finally something finally gave way and one of his paws slipped straight through a hole in the ice into half-frozen water.

"YARGG!" the golden boy exclaimed, leaping back from the hole he had made.

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(This post was last modified: Mar 28, 2013, 05:03 PM by Datura.)
Played by Grey who has 177 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Taima Lyall Avelin
Keep your head still, I'll be your thrill,
TAIMA LYALL
The night will go on, my little windmill...

"You should probably stand back," he suggested. "Pssshhhhh," she sounded. "It's not even deep, but okay..." Bearing a cheeky smile, she allowed him room, taking up a place behind him and anchoring her hind feet into the shoreline. To say that her knight did an impressive job would have been diminishing. She watched as he expertly rose up, utilizing his weight to fracture the ice beneath him.

Bit by bit the crack he had created in the ice snaked out from underneath where his paws were coming into contact with the frozen surface. Then, eventually, he cried out and a few droplets of water kissed the leathery surface of her nose. Her eyes lit up, gazing to him as he leapt back to her side. She carefully frolicked to the edge of the hole he punched through the ice, placing her forepaws fearlessly into it until she could touch the bottom of the shallows. The water reached her elbows and she lifted a paw from the water to press the edges of the fissure down and make the hole just wide enough for her to fully stand in it and slowly dip her throat, muzzle, head and ears underwater.

Once the whole of her coat had been drenched she stood back up and looked over at Datura, gratitude written and scrawled all over her face. It seemed the water had done the trick; after blinking several times while submerged, the vision in both of her eyes seemed to have made a full recovery. Taima lifted one forepaw out of the water, then the other, and heaved herself out of the small pool. She could just barely feel the iciness of the water against her skin but had the mind to step a good distance away from him to at least shake the water from her ears and shoulders before approaching him again.

"Thank you again, Datura," she smiled. "You're very brave." She fully took in the striking angles of his face now, her eyes tracing the contours of his nose and the brilliance of his goldenrod irises. "Do I smell okay now?" she sniffed, unable to determine through the stinging cold in her nostrils whether or not the stench was fully gone from her fur. She doubted a simple dip in the marsh was enough to wash away evidence of the skunk's attack but, well, it was worth a shot; and, she still wanted to express her gratefulness towards him for helping her. "Can I give you a token of my thanks?"


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(This post was last modified: Mar 30, 2013, 07:59 AM by Taima.)
Played by Sarah who has 159 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Datura Aquila
umg this is my favorite thread of all time. i love taima.

what you call love
• DATURA AQUILA •
is just urgency
Damn! The water was cold. If he hadn't been in the company of a lady, an heiress, he probably would have shouted a few choice, rather unwholesome words. Instead all he could do was stand there, flinging water droplets from his paws but somehow unable to shake the cold. All at once he had several misgivings: was she really going to bathe in this ice water? How stupid had they honestly been to come all this way if she was going to get hypothermia and die. "Oh my go— " he exclaimed.

But it was too late.

She had already gone in.

He bit his tongue. If she was already in the water, he didn't want to startle her again and make her afraid. No, he had only just finally calmed her down after that whole stink-monster fiasco, and he didn't really want her to start crying again when he told her she was going to die. So he just watched, his face tight with anxiety as he watched her literally submerge herself. He gulped. I am so dead. I am so dead. Oh my god how could I be so stupid... Adonis is going to laugh at me. The Heiress of the Hollow climbed out a moment later to shake herself off... and he noticed something that made his heart plummet.

She still reeked.

But here she was, sidling up to him and calling him brave. For a moment, he forgot all of his worries... The idea of being brave very much appealed to him. It was all he truly wanted, perhaps, to be someone's hero. But for some reason he found himself heating up. He was blushing. What on earth was this? "Uhhm," he stammered, rather dumbfounded, not even able to thank her.. And then she was asking if she smelled okay. And she didn't. But part of him realized this wasn't really the big problem anymore. He was going to need to her her warm fast. He didn't want to offend her, and he most certainly didn't want her jumping back in the water. So he lied. "Uhm. Yeah! It's... It's all gone!" Perhaps not the most convincing lie, but he hoped it would do.

"Can I give you a token of my thanks?"

Taima might have been cold, but Datura was red hot. Her question suddenly had him distracted. "Uhm...." her stammered again, not really quite sure what she meant by this. "Sure?"

Where were his manners?

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(This post was last modified: Mar 30, 2013, 03:22 AM by Datura.)
Played by Grey who has 177 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Taima Lyall Avelin

<333

Again her head tilted as he stuttered. One side of her mouth drooped downward, partly ready to be overcome by embarrassment. She probably should have tried rolling around in the snow and pine needles, but as soon as she was starting to steel herself against the words that were ready to leave his tongue and snap back at him, he told her (in a somewhat peculiar speech pattern) that the smell was gone. All gone...

The corners of her mouth drew upward and she giggled in his face. "You're a terrible liar," she smirked, her tongue poking out from between her teeth in a silly expression. "But I appreciate you trying." Her tail waved about, flicking droplets of water everywhere behind her. She righted the angle of her skull, awaiting his answer to her last question.

Datura stumbled over his words again and Taima patiently waited for him to mentally work through his answer. "Sure?" She nodded, still grinning, "Hold still then, and hold your breath." The girl waited to see if he would obey her words but not for too long in case he changed his mind or chickened out. She inched closer and, with holding in yet another snicker, pressed her nose ever-so-briefly to his cheek then touched the tip of her tongue to the underside of his chin. A kiss, a sign of growing affection, or a mark of respect - either way, Taima Lyall, the self-proclaimed heiress of Grizzly Hollow, was one-hundred percent thankful for the golden boy from the kingdom far, far away.

Played by Sarah who has 159 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Datura Aquila
ermahgerdthatrable.
lolling so hard right now
sorry this one sucks, i didn't want to wander out onto dangerous ground what with them having future threads and stuff. idunno.

I’ll stand up for you if it’s what you need
• DATURA AQUILA •
and I can take a punch, I don’t mind to bleed
As long as afterwards you feel bad for me
Shit.

She saw right through him.

She wasn't buying it. Shit.

"No really!" he cried, his strained, desperate tone even less convincing. "No really you smell fi—" "— But I appreciate you trying." Suddenly he stopped, his body went rigid. She was laughing? She wasn't offended? He didn't understand her at all, and all at once he felt as if he was losing control of himself, of the situation. He had prided himself on always maintaining all the proper social delicacies and the utmost propriety, but here he was, lying and mumbling, and... God he didn't really even know what he was doing. Datura stared back at the little heiress, his golden eyes widening and flashing with fear. Why on earth was he behaving so barbarically?

The token!

He didn't deserve any token of gratitude... he had been so rude and uncivilized. He opened his mouth to speak—

"Hold still then, and hold your breath."

Shit. It was too late.

Somehow he swallowed the lump in his throat, regarding her apprehensively. He didn't know what she intended to do, but he didn't want it, he wasn't good enough for it. Shame and fear were beginning to creep up on him as she leaned in. Oh god, she was going to touch him, wasn't she? He had honestly had enough of touching today. But he couldn't offend her now, not now that he had said yes and she was so hell bent on relaying her thanks. He had asked for this, hadn't he? He had railed in his head about her frowns and ungratefulness, and now here she was, tormenting him by giving him everything he had ever wanted. Shit.

Her nose brushed against him and he flinched.

Out of nowhere darted a slimy tongue, that snaked under his chin and smeared him with saliva. Somehow, somehow he was able to hold himself together when all he wanted to was scream and cry and curl up in a little ball. Chivalry wasn't dead, it wasn't dead and this is what it looked like: a little boy who didn't want cooties but received them valiantly anyway.

A quickly as it happened it was finished. She had drawn away from him. He twisted his head to look at her. "You kissed me," he said lamely, matter-of-factly. Shock was all he allowed himself to feel openly, to show on his face. For a long time he stood there, just looking at her. He tried to think of something to say but could come up with nothing good.

"Should... should I escort you home?"

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