Dragonfly Fen pick a star on the dark horizon

three or four days after {t_4073}.
Evening, Partly Cloudy — Current Temperature: 36° F/2° C
also. updated map!
keepin it vague like a pro~
also fireflies will appear...idunno EVENTUALLY.

He moved on from the lake only begrudgingly, feeling as if he were saying goodbye to the sunlight forever. The shadows swallowed him up again and they moved on. They were quieter now because of their little spat, speaking less frequently. Datura suffered from it. He was still bitterly frustrated with her, angry with the way she had chosen to hurt him, ashamed of the way he had behaved. The silence was both a punishment directed outwardly at her and inwardly at himself. That was not to say, however, that he liked her any less. He certainly wanted to, at first, after having cracked himself open to let her poke her nose into all of the pain that was inside of him. A great part of him resented her for getting to see it, for knowing how he really felt about things. An even greater part of him though found that he liked her more, found himself attached to this girl who hadn't yet deserted him. He trusted her, despite anything, despite everything. Maybe she didn't like him the way she had claimed to before, before their fight... but he was kind of hoping that she did. Although there was always a chance that the side of him that needed her only needed her because, now that she had seen him at his worst, she had to be kept close so as to make certain she didn't go telling everyone else about it. Honestly it was hard to be sure. And these were the thoughts he entertained as they wandered about in the darkness. Whether it was night or day it mattered not, the amount of light seemed to be the same. As they moved farther south however, the little heiress remarked that the trees seemed to be getting closer together. And it was true. They grew nearly on top of each other. If Datura had thought he hated the trees back in the woods they had left for their unwelcoming darkness, he hated these for the claustrophobia they incited in his heart. And the ground, the ground at his feet was mushy in all the wrong ways. "@Taima," he whispered wearily, "I don't want to be stuck out here forever."

table by mimi

(This post was last modified: Apr 04, 2013, 01:34 AM by Datura.)

The tension in the air since their little shouting match followed them like their own personal rainclouds. It was only fitting, with the girl's name translating to something like "a peal of thunder" in her grandmother's native tongue, for every time she and Datura spoke, a low growl, like the distant rumbling of a storm, laced her words. She was not the helpless girl the heir thought her to be, and she was going out of her way to make certain that he understood just as much. She still liked the boy but he, above all others, would not treat her like her father and brothers had. No, he was going to treat her in only the ways she saw fit; and if he was going to continue wielding his anger against her, she was ready to give him a taste of his own medicine.

In the lengthy bouts of silence, she kept mainly to herself, only speaking clipped words when Datura spoke to the back or side of her lofty skull. As the ground became more pulpy underfoot, she kept true to her path, only revising it when she thought it would be best to navigate around a cluster of saplings or the roots of a large, gnarly tree. A part of her fought hard to keep a knowing grin off her mug, if the boy had not yet figured out what a marsh was, with 'reeds' and all sorts of sunken things, now was his chance...

Sure-footed steps brought her closer along the brink of the murky water swelling up all around them now, but before she could even bolding stride further into the marsh, the golden boy's enervated voice pulled at her skyward ears. She stopped and rounded on him, sighing quietly as he told her that he did not want to be lost forever. They had been traveling for ages and stopped on various occasions without fully resting, and it was apparent on her face now that her anger had dissipated, even the cold shoulder she had been brandishing had melted away. Her tail lowered into the marsh and she looked at him quite sadly, all traces of her devious smile absent beneath her masked eyes, "I don't either, Datura." She pushed her breath through her nose, relaxing her ears so that they stood at their usual positions atop her crown. She wasn't quite yet ready to apologize for bursting his bubble or yelling childishly in his face but she hope he realized that she was not mad at him anymore. "I think you're better at navigating; wanna lead for a while?"

omfg this is so bad
i just want to get it over with

"I don't either, Datura." He hadn't realized how taunt his muscles were, how rigid his posture was, until suddenly he was made aware of the fact that it was alright, she wasn't angry anymore. Datura withheld a sigh of relief. Sometimes she seemed as predictable as a rainstorm, one minute she was kissing him and then three months later she was yelling at him. But he was getting so tired, tired of this adventure and tired of missing his brother and tried of not knowing here he was. He didn't want to have to tire himself out arguing on top of that. "I just don't get why we're here. Or what they wanted us for. Or where they are now." All these uncertainties frightened him, but he didn't dare say that. Taima could see him angry if she liked, but she would never see him afraid — he would make sure of it. "And what the hell is this place?" This remark was punctuated by a demonstrative slap of his paw against the oozing, slushy ground. When his companion claimed that he was better at navigating, the boy allowed himself to smile, taking the compliment to heart without considering it's possible untruth. Datura had never been in a place like this, he didn't know what the hell he was doing. If this was a cruel prank, then surely they would both end up in quicksand or something. But Datura, guiless, raised his tail happily and moved pass Taima to take the lead.

table by mimi

She waited for him to make his move, and when he stepped past her she took up her previous position, walking with her shoulder alongside his flank. "I dont' either," she repeated with an airy sigh. "And, I'd rather not know or find out, buuuuut," she emphasized the last word as a signal that she was intending to change the subject from their captors to the subject of their exploration. "This place is whatcha call a marsh." She purposefully spread her toes on all of her paws so that the mud noisily squished beneath and between her paw pads for a few steps, smiling cheerfully instead of loudly giggling at the memory of that fateful day in the marsh near her home.

Her footfalls quieted again, reduced to the muffled squelching of their strides. "It's not like my marsh," she noted quietly, her grin just a little less noticeable now. "But it's quite close." Her tail wagged, "And you said you don't have one where you're from. Here it is, and you've never been here before, hmm?" She wasn't sure if he'd blow up in her face with her lightly teasing him, but she meant no harm behind her words. Now that they were talking, she realized how much she had missed it, the way his voice lilted about to form words and place meaning behind them. She let the silence overcome her again before she started again.

"Datura?" she sweetly called to him in a hushed tone, his name seemingly honeyed on her tongue. "Do you think they're out there looking for us? Them... and your family?" She had to swallow the whimper that was building in her throat, to blink back and smooth out the longing that was starting to form on her face. "I came a long way from where I'm from; it took us days to come to this side of Relic Lore. My dad... He's not as young as he used to be; and my mom... she has my brothers and sister to take care of. Datura, I... I don't... I don't know if anyone will be out looking for me."

(This post was last modified: Apr 06, 2013, 09:36 PM by Taima.)

The significance of her declaration was not lost on him, and his head jerked up so that he could toss a surprised look back over his shoulder in her direction. So this was a marsh. His lupine eyes flashed about in the darkness, catching vague shadows of tall stalks of grass with bulbous tops and other curious things he couldn't quite make out. And the smell, the smell was tremendously offensive. "Smells like you did," he commented with a snort. It was the only retort he had for her mocking tone, besides shouting at her until he was blue in the face. "There definitely isn't anything like this in the Pass. Ground is too rocky for any of this...htis..," he raised a paw from the ground and it watched with evident disdain as something gross sloughed off and fell to the ground with a plunk!, "This yuuuck!" Would he ever be clean again? "Datura?" There was something odd in the way she said his name, something meaningful that he didn't understand, but it was enough to make him place his paw back on the ground and look back at her with sudden concern. "Do you think they're out there looking for us? Them... and your family?" And then she didn't stop there. Her own family... she thought her own family wouldn't even be trying to find her. Like they would just shrug their shoulders and count their blessings and take their loses as their due. What? Datura had never heard anything so stupid in his whole life. "Taima, they're your family they have to look for you. That's... that's just the rules." Datura had never believed in anything so strongly before, and his voice shook with furious passion. The harshness in his tone, the growl that rumbled in his throat, none of it was directed at Taima. No, it was directed at this stupid fear of hers. He would rip it to shreds. "You don't let your family down. You don't let them go. And when they leave you go looking for them because otherwise there's nothing left to live for." "Do you understand me?"

table by mimi

The way she had called to him worked. He stopped and fully looked at her, the look on his face even looked genuinely concerned. Her bat-like ears fell back, gaping at him as he let her know straight up what he thought about what she had just told him. "Taima, they're your family they have to look for you. That's... that's just the rules," he said. "B-bu--" she tried to interject with a . "You don't let your family down. You don't let them go. And when they leave you go looking for them because otherwise there's nothing left to live for."

Though the growl was not directed at her, it made her draw a half-step back. What did he know about her family? About how she felt? How she believed that Borden would have had enough of her by now... with her defiant, renegade ways... With how she continually acted in front of her father and how he often succumbed to his frustration and exasperation with her, she was convinced that her family was better off forgetting about her, thinking that they would have felt relieved with her out of their fur.

"Do you understand me?" he asked. The Lyall heiress fought hard to cast away her pride, to consider that he might have been right. If Borden had always gone out of his way to make sure she did not disobey him again, he could have been looking for her as they spoke. "Y-yeah," she nodded, though her tone of voice was not as sure sounding as she hoped it would be. She sniffed quietly, the sound bridging the gap between her words. "It's just... Never mind," she shook her head, shifting slightly as to suggest that she was ready to start walking again.

Taima stared at the damp fur on his chest, her brows still touching one another as she scowled. Of course, her family was probably out looking for her... she managed to convince herself. Borden Lyall, as much as she knew, was a force to reckoned with; and there was no doubt that as much as there would be relief if she was successfully retrieved, she was prone to be the subject of the most harshest of lectures regarding her delinquent decision in playing in the thicket so many months ago. "I don't want to be found," she blurted, gazing up to Datura. "Sure, I miss them, but... I'd rather be with you.... wherever we're going."

OMG WHAT DID I DO

Taima was right to think that the Aquilan Heir had no idea what her life — her family life especially— was like. But he knew what his own family was like, and though he had not truly known them for long, he knew if it were Adonis who was lost, stranded out here, he would have done anything to find him. Even if it meant that he might never come home, that he might die, then he would be determined to die trying to save his family. His family was everything to him. He had already lost them once, already lost Belladonna forever, and he would never lose them again. But Taima didn't know that about him. She never asked about his family and he never really inquired after hers, though he had heard a bit about her brothers. Did she not like then? Was that why her response to him was some weak stammer, a dismissal of the subject? There was really so much he didn't know about her yet that it kind of frightened him. But they had time. One had all the time in the world when one was lost in a swamp. Before he could ask why she seemed so reluctant to believe him, why she wasn't looking him in the eye like she usually did, when suddenly she said that she didn't want to be found. His eyelids drew back, revealing all of the liquid gold in his irises as he stared at her with gaping incredulity. It was if she had just sworm or called him ugly or something like that. Didn't want to go home? What kind of nonsense was that? The auric boy's lips parted, and he tried to speak again but she cut across him. "Sure, I miss them, but... I'd rather be with you.... wherever we're going." "Marry me," he breathed. It was the only galant thing left to do, to say. If she didn't want to be with her family, then she would be with him. He needed more time with her. He needed... he needed time to explore and time to get to know her, to fight with her, even. But he couldn't ignore that he was obsessed with her attachment to him. He didn't quite feel the same way in return, but it drove him mad the way she looked at him sometimes... He wanted to be looked at like that forever...

table by mimi

(This post was last modified: Apr 06, 2013, 11:43 PM by Datura.)

ARMFLAILING!!

A gasp sought refuge in her lungs and she stared at him incredulously. "What?" she wanted to question him, just to be sure he had said what she had heard. Her eyes widened in surprise, unsure for a second what had brought him so such an ultimatum until it came to her. If she didn't want to go with them (if and when her family found her), it only made sense for her to hope against hope that he wanted her to go with him.

Her heart fluttered about in her chest like a restless bird in its cage and her tail lifted in a partial wag. "Are you serious?" she questioned, her tone still soft but wrought with shock. It was clear by how she looked at him now that she was rather taken with the idea, that she did not want to ridicule him or cause any more wounds to his equally proud ego. But, there was a gleam across her abyssal pupils that suggested she was looking him over for any sign of mockery. @Renier and @Ryvet, she was sure, would have had quite a laugh if they were with them now, egging Datura on to lead her on, let her down, and break her heart.

"I..." Taima had to keep herself from stumbling over her words and making herself look like a bumbling idiot. "Really?" She peered into his face, that handsome mug that she had grown to memorize in a matter of days after not seeing him for months since they had first met. "You'd... You want to be with me?"

Her mind went back to that winter filled day when he had rescued her from a skunk, and she found that the wish she had made that very evening had finally come to fruition. Again, her mind had to take into consideration what they had survived together. Perhaps this was how it was meant to be... The opportunity, once granted, was to be seized without question; Taima Lyall was not going to lose this prince to the wilds again.

(This post was last modified: Apr 07, 2013, 06:36 AM by Taima.)

eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Of course, he had know idea what he was doing, no idea what the consequences of his actions would be. He was young, he thought this is what you did with girls. If they didn't want to be with their families then you were supposed to invite them into yours. Of course, he knew there was something he was forgetting, something about love or whatever. But he didn't know a thing about love because no one had ever explained it to him. If someone were to try however at this very moment, he probably would have claimed that he loved her anyway. She was brave and she had dreams, and Datura wasn't sure what else anyone could possibly ask for in a wife. He didn't know about harmony, or hard work, or communication. All he knew was that he had to protect this lost little girl, whatever the cost. And if the cost was his manly freedom —another thing that had never been explained to him— then so be it. Til death do them part. He liked the way she gasped in disbelief, and it showed on his face as he looked back at her evenly. The excitement seemed to build in her like a thundercloud as her shock swelled with every question. Deep down inside he felt something stir, something pleasurable. He liked having this affect on her, he liked the way he could thrill and awaken her. For all the world, though, his smile looked as if it was because of her, meant for her. "Taima," he said, his voice broken with laughter, "How can I give you any more lakes if you go home to be an heiress of cedar trees?" And suddenly Datura was caught up in all the bells and whistles and the smoke and mirrors of his gallantry. He was running away with this brilliant dream, whether or not he truly believed in it "I mean. After all this time I've spent with you here. How could I lose you to some cedar trees? I'd be more lost back home than I am now." Suddenly there was a burst of light just behind her ear, and he gasped suddenly to see an ember of light eddying about in the air. What was this? Distracted and curious, the golden boy reached out a paw to bat at it, but it flew away as if it had a mind of own and he missed. But there was another! And another! His head whirled about, and suddenly he saw a thousand flickering candles swirling about in the air. Eyes wide with wonder, he turned back to his new wife. Oh! There was one right on her nose! This one he would eat! Giggling mischievously, he leaned in, his tongue ready to go for the kill...

table by mimi

(This post was last modified: Apr 07, 2013, 01:58 AM by Datura.)

This boy, a young man beneath what she thought of as a mighty title, had never uttered anything close to "I love you" or even returned the sentiment of "liking" her back but she had already sunken back, much further than anticipated, into her childhood dream... into all the promises her mother and father had once filled her head with. The term "delusional" might have been appropriate for describing what was going on through Taima's mind but what Datura said next helped ground her in the reality that was presented before her.

That's right, she remembered, he had given her a lake... And now he was reinforcing that he was still going to give her Relic Lore for as long as she stayed with him. Yes, she was an heiress of Grizzly Hollow but it dawned on her that maybe she did not have to be a ruler of cedar trees, evergreens, and bears. She could be Datura's heiress, as well as her family's, regardless of whether or not they were with her.

She smiled widely at him then, swept away by his words. "Right," she bashfully said, knowing very well that what he said was true. If she was to receive his gifts, then she would stay with him. That was that...

Suddenly, his face lit up and a pinprick of light dimly shone over him for a brief moment. His surprised expression made her cant her head to one side, wondering what he had seen until a little spark caught her attention just over the dome of skull. His large paw lifted and she closed her eyes tight, expecting him to 'boop' her on the nose but he didn't.

When she opened her eyes again, her vision went cross-eyed and one of those curious, blinking balls of light had landed on her nose! A soft note sounded from her vocal chords, more musing than worried as her newfound mate snickered. She noted how his tongue poked out and braced herself for a Ryvet-like, slobber-encrusted lick, and as he drew closer and she held still, the little "light-ball" floated away...

What happened next made her reel again: Datura leaned in until his tongue met her lips and their noses touched! "Oh!" she exclaimed under her breath, shrinking back shyly as her ears flicked back. She had to stifle a giggle of her own, her girlish knowledge about what a "kiss" was in essence setting her soul ablaze, "You... You missed."

(This post was last modified: Apr 07, 2013, 06:01 AM by Taima.)