Bramble Falls Dust to Dust

He'd spoken and she'd listened, quietly, before looking away. Granted he didn't know her, he wasn't really in any position to assume that she was a shy thing; perhaps she was just cautious about talking to strangers, which would be completely warranted. When it crossed his mind that she possibly didn't want to share, she offered her name: Rabbit. Finally─something to put with her face in his archive of memories. It wasn't what he'd expected─which had been, foolishly, something like Aeylen, Vaeta, or any other girlish name he was already familiar with─but immediately he rendered that he liked it, on her especially. He supposed there was something rabbit-ty about her, something flighty, delicate, or even in the sparser tawny shades of her coat. With a relief that they were at least acquainted now, he smiled softly. "It's nice to meet you." And it was. Maybe he would have liked any amiable company while he was on the road, so to speak, but, under the circumstances, knowing that he was going to take care of her as long as she needed made him view her as special. Leaning down to shear a bit of flesh from the carcass, he thought over what he could say next to keep their conversation afloat without crossing any boundaries."Rabbit─" he said aloud, just to say her name, to hear it coming from his voice, to feel the way I slipped from his lips. The rabbit hole is dark and cold... But her eyes, as sad as they were, weren't. For a short time he worked at the deer, filling his belly for the most part. After gulping down a last bite, he resigned to finish eating later. Sliding his large fore paws forward in the snow, arching his back, Mirren stretched his worn body, glancing sidelong at his companion. He made his way over to her, settling beside her in the snow at a gentlemanly distance, his amber gaze looking for hers. A gust of wind rustled between his ears and through the naked branches overhead. "What are...what're you doing out here─" he breathed, a whisper for only her to hear, "─by yourself?" A genuine concern was evident in his gentle tone. "It's dangerous, and..." I don't want anything to happen to you. "...freezing cold." With the wind at his back, he shifted his weight to keep it from blowing over her. 'cause all I know is we said, "hello" and your eyes look like coming home

TAIMA LYALL

While Mirren finished up eating his fill of the scavenged deer, Taima did her best to keep herself from staring at him and allowing her eyes to grace the curve of his spine, the sides of the mask on his face, and the dark, swirling patterns on his mottled coat. If anything, at this point, she was wholly glad for his acceptance of the name she had given him. No questions, no suspicion, no curiosity about it... He appreciated him for that. She had been eyeing the frozen falls when the shuffling of paws against the snow and the sound of the frost crunching under his weight brought her gaze back to him. He had angled himself towards her and was sprawled out quite comfortably at her side. She gave him another bashful smile.

Her ears twitched and she pursed her lips in thought as he asked her a whispered question. The concern in his voice was apparent and she shrugged with the slight roll of her shoulder. This, being out on her own in the middle of winter, was nothing compared to the danger she had put herself in last spring... when she had been stupid to think that Ripplefang, the strange and foreign woman from the eastern side of the mountain, was leading her to a place where she would one day inherit a position of power. She hesitated, unsure of where to begin or what to even say to the man who had shared his meal and seemed genuinely caring enough to make sure she was all right.

"I'm trying to get to the western part of Relic Lore," she revealed, her tone just as hushed as his had been. "I just... I was resting and I was thinking about things when you came along." Her nose twitched and one side of her snout wrinkled in a more prominent grimace than before. "I just miss my family," she quietly divulged. "I'm trying to make my way back to them."

Her gaze found their way back to his face, the longing in her eyes pronounced by how she looked into his, hoping that he might have one of a few 'correct' answers for her... "Is it far from here, where you live? C-Could I... Could-ah-go backwityou? I mee-an, if it's not too much to ask?" The words and syllables tumbled and blended into one another as she asked what she had wanted to ask the young Tainn since she first laid eyes on him. "I-I just need to get away from here; I... I got lost."

When her thoughtfully pursed lips parted and she began to speak, his eyes trailed the dimples on them and the way they curved to pronounce the words she offered. He took in the shadows that cast across her face, the way the lighter fur along her cheeks seemed frosted with moonlight. The stars that shone in her doe eyes, despite the fact that there were none in the sky... "I just miss my family...I'm trying to make my way back to them." Well that was something he could understand. Even though he was at a good place in his life, there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't think about his parents and sister, who he wasn't sure he'd see again; about the brother who'd disappeared because of a decision he'd made. Yes, missing was a feeling he knew all too well. The way she spoke─about getting back─made him wish he had wings to fly her to the west where everything she wanted was. He'd found her, cold and sad and hopeless, and when she spoke about finding her family he could see that there was much more to her than what had first met the eye. But, he knew that already. Meeting her wistful gaze head on, he wasn't prepared for what came next, even though it was exactly what he was wishing to hear all along. He didn't even blink, or so much as drop his eyes from hers for even a second. "Of course," he answered, searching her face as the strangest sensation spread like wildfire in his stomach─like hundreds of tiny...butterflies? "I'll take you anywhere." Home with me. To the west. To the stars. "We can leave in the morning, if you'd like, or when you're rested. It's not too far, about a day or so." He realized then that 'the morning' was just around the corner. He had spent the night travelling, looking forward to dawn and a world that wasn't cast in eerie, winter darkness, but here with her─he didn't want it to end. Behind his bright eyes was an air of caution as he scooted a little closer, to offer her the warmth of his body, and the thought of sleep made his eyelids feel heavy. "Rabbit," his voice was gentle and low, "...I wanna help you find your way." 'cause all I know is we said, "hello" and your eyes look like coming home all i know is a simple name everything has changed

(This post was last modified: Jan 13, 2014, 01:29 PM by Mirren.)

TAIMA LYALL

"Of course," he had replied. "I'll take you anywhere." For the first time in what seemed like ages, she allowed herself to bask in another's kindness, to feel it warm the hollow in her chest and fill it with the hope she had tried to discard for so long. It was decided then, they would leave in the morning and with a little bit more of the scavenged deer nearby for breakfast, the unlikely pair of second-generation scions would make their way to the west, to Taima's first stop of many: Secret Woodlands. Mindful of where the Tainn laid to her left, she sidle up beside him, stopping herself from drawing any closer before their coarse winter coats continually touched. A yawn parted her jowls and as she sealed her lips, she nestled her chin atop her spindly wrists, simpering at Mirren before closing her eyes.

"Rabbit," he called softly to her again.
"Hmm?" she hummed, shifting slightly before finally settling down with her muzzle pointed towards him. Just feeling the slight touch of his breath against her nose and whiskers comforted her in knowing that he was truly there.
"...I wanna help you find your way."
"Thank you," she sighed sleepily, the fullness of her stomach lulling her to sleep at last now that her hunger had been sated and her sadness brought to the farthest reaches of her mind. "Good night, Mirren."