Acquiring Resources

@Chulyin

Her head hung low as she approached her home (still, right?) by force of the marmot that hung from her clasped jaws. It was a male, bulky and fat, and more than likely the father of plenty little squirrelly babies that would never ever see him again, thanks to her. But it didn't feel enough. Quick had noticed her absence spreading over way too long of a time to be easily excused. Not that she had disappeared just to find one stupid marmot anyway. Her intentions were good to start. She was going to find more food as the tail end of winter hadn't been relenting. When she'd caught wind of the pups' grand escape she decided she would keep her eyes open for that, too. But then the snow and the ice and the not finding things and the far from home... somehow she had ended up gone for much longer than she'd wanted.

Now the arctic-blooded female had found her way back, marmot in tow but no apology in mouth. She wasn't quite sure what to say, or what consequences she would face. The uncertainty of her mind dulled her silver stare as she gazed among the skeletal tree trunks of the Woods. Dirty paws beat against the ground almost relentlessly, harder as her thoughts grew more and more turbulent. She swallowed, as if the physical action would suck the clouds from her mind as well. A grimace weighed upon her lips and brows that it didn't work. Whatever. She was still some ways from the Keep yet. Perhaps in that time she could get her shit together.

speech

In my heart I just know that there's no way

the Guardian Chulyin

to light up the dark in his eyes.

The Knight was silent once more. Prowling about the Ghastly Woods with no purpose in life but to ensure that the trees stayed upright around his home and kept everyone safe and breathing and alive. Screw those within, save for his sister and her consort, perhaps the few that they trusted, like Sagacity. Those that had not abandoned him and those he loved. But even then, he did not dedicate much thought to living breathing entities. They were all foolish and so was he. This was his punishment. He took away the one thing that he had managed to acquire when he arrived here: camaraderie. Now he was little more than the stoic guardian he had been when he arrived nearly a year ago. But he was fine with this, after realizing that letting your emotions control you only made a mess of everything.

His scouting radius was extended further with the pregnancy of Naira. He would not quietly prowl the borders alone, but the whole forest was his to scour in search of those who even bothered wandering in. As long as young life hung in some balance and that life shared his blood, the forest in its entirety belonged to the wolves of Hollowheart Keep. His hackles rose along his spine, making him seem infinitely larger than he already was, his tail curled over his back in clear aggression. He was not a hunter, but a threat to anyone that saw him. I dare you to get near me. I will loose the blood from your body. Nostrils flared as he doubled up, in case his nose could find something that his eyes failed to see...And they did. But the man would not believe it.

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Beat by beat she pressed forth, pale ears twitching to the absence of sound in the forest. Spring was arriving, but slowly still. The noise of winter was nothing more than hollow air and it made her uneasy - well, uneasier. Quick clenched her jaw with worry, biting further into the coarse hair of the marmot and startling herself. She'd forgotten that was there. The smallest taste of meat hit her tongue. Her stomach gurgled its discontent in pursuit. She was much better fed in a pack than on her own, that was certain - she really needed to get back.

Imprisoned in her guilty mind she didn't see him until she saw him. The scent hit her like a brick wall, shattering her self-made isolation and startling her into a world for which she was not prepared. Her steps slowed, awkward and nervous until she came to a full stop. With choppy strokes she scanned the Ghastly Wood, inhaling him with each short breath, until she found the Guardian through the wicked branches.

Quick felt a twitch in her heart and could not understand it. Electricity was in the air, poking at her skin and making her hair stand on edge. Perhaps it was the storm that was brewing beneath the surface of the dark wolf that made it so. Something felt off, but pretending like she hadn't noticed him and letting him find her 'first' was off the table today. Without courtesy she dropped the marmot at her feet. Her jaws hung open for a moment before she mustered it up to call out, "Chulyin?"

In my heart I just know that there's no way

the Guardian Chulyin

to light up the dark in his eyes.

Of course he had smelled her. But he could scarcely believe that she would dare come back. He scowled to himself, turning away from the strongest of the scent to move away from it, no matter how dearly he wanted to run towards it. He. Had. Changed. Yet he had to remind himself of this. This woman, not unlike the cursed woman, had hurt him. They had worked together and she had been part of his family, and then she had disappeared. He did not let himself linger on these things, instead focusing on moving back to his patrol path, trying to find scents away from her own, and yet it continued to crop up, even more so when he heard his name come through the trees.

A feral snarl attempted to cut the word off, and he turned about, seeing her stark white fur through the trees, something resting at her paws. It smelled of marmot, an offering. As though a scrap of food might right the wrongs that she had done in his eyes. And yet it was not up to him. Her fate among the Keep wolves would rest with Mapplethorpe and Naira. But her fate amongst the living might rest with him. Lips drew back as he wound his way through the gnarled and telling trees, pausing a few feet away, just so she might see his displeasure. "Why did you come back?" He asked, not bothering to address her, not bothering to care why she might have left in the first place. Pain was evident in his voice, and it startled him that this woman, this stranger to him, might have left such an impact upon him. An impact that would override his vocal cords, might overcome the anger to leave him somewhat exposed.

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Pale white jaws hadn't even clicked closed before the snarl ripped through her call, overtaking the word from her dark lips and hitting her ears with enough force to cause her to shrink. He came nearer with his hackles raised, stopping almost too close with an expression as twisted as the trees. Quick averted her silver eyes, finding the ground much closer to her than she remembered, having continued to pull backwards without her own knowing. She forced herself to straighten her back. Not so much that she might threaten him too, but so she didn't look like a cowardly piece of shit would suffice.

But then the demand came, sharper than his teeth, strained with anger and something else. Now she knew it had been fury in the air she smelled before, and even worse she knew it was meant for her. This was what she had been expecting. This was her superior, this was discipline, this was pack. Why, then, did she have to bite back the instinct to snap right back at him? For some completely uncharacteristic reason she wanted to fight on his level, but it was not her place.

Quick raised her head. A moment of breath meant to calm her passed, but only did half the job she needed. "Why wouldn't I?" she challenged softly, trying desperately to keep from picking a fight. It was not her place to challenge Chulyin. It was not her place to feel offended that he seemed to not want her back. But the arctic female could not help it.

Her gaze narrowed in spite of herself, flickering between the grey trunks of trees just behind him. She meant to explain herself, but the tension had caught the words in her throat. On one hand she was terrified the Guardian might turn her away. On the other hand, she practically dared him to.

There is an elk carcass nearby. It looks like it froze to death. +12 Health

In my heart I just know that there's no way

the Guardian Chulyin

to light up the dark in his eyes.

Yes, cower. He watched with abject satisfaction as she lowered herself in his presence. He had the power, but there was no smile on his face and even his rage was beginning to subside, being replaced by nothing. Chulyin was devoid of emotion as he stared down at her, trying so hard to detach himself from her, from this situation. Lips fell around his teeth again, empty and dark copper eyes regarding her as though she were a stranger. His nostrils flared, expelling the air from his lungs in heavy bursts as he "calmed" himself.

His ears twitched at her answer, and the scowl returned. Because he was unable to answer her own question. Because the answer to that question had nothing to do with Hollowheart Keep. Because they always leave. He needed to respond, though, because he had the power. "Deserters don't tend to come crawling back." Was his answer, spoken in venomous tones, though his body language had calmed down considerably. Chulyin had no intention of hurting her, no. Not as long as she stayed as she was.

As much as he desired to hurt her like he had been hurt, he would not. The man was a Knight, born to protect those...below him. Regardless of his feelings, that was what she was. Another wolf that had done nothing wrong but hurt him. He had not yet heard her excuse for disappearing, however. Maybe his outlook would change.

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Quick saw the air come out of his nostrils like smoke from the fire within, but his eyes were not burning; they were hard gold. She was confused. Not because he was angry with her. The right was his. But it felt so personal on both ends. Her tail twitched nervously at her heels. Her legs trembled, uncomfortable holding herself so low with his dead stare boring in to her face and she unable to return it.

Deserters don't tend to come crawling back. The poison seeped into her veins. Like she had defected on a whim and come back on her belly when she found out the grass wasn't greener. She wrinkled her nose, dark lips pulling up against her teeth as she wanted to show them, but didn't. "I did not desert you," she snapped before she could pick a better choice of words, then clamped her trap shut again. Air expelled from between her teeth with a cold-sounding hiss while her words reeled in her head. How stupid of her to get mouthy with him.

The rest of her piece she somehow had to force. It was an admission of guilt and an embarassment - much harder to speak than her true feelings. "I wanted to hunt but there was nothing to hunt. I went too far. I couldn't get back." The words came out clipped and hushed. Her ears slicked back against her head, feeling much smaller before Chulyin than she had only seconds prior.

She shook her head and steadied herself on her feet once more. Tilting her muzzle back toward him she continued in a hard voice, "I'm here now. I came back. Even if I had to crawl."

In my heart I just know that there's no way

the Guardian Chulyin

to light up the dark in his eyes.

Oh, how Chulyin wanted nothing more than for her to look him right in the eyes, give him an excuse to lay into her. He remained stock still, though, not even a fur on his high-held tail shifting from place, even as a zephyr lingered past. With the events that had come to pass as of late, he was on edge, angry. Was he rightfully angry at her? Of course. Without a word, she'd left him, left them. But it had been in the dead of winter, and he found himself looking inward. Suddenly the spotlight was dropped onto his head, blinding him for a moment: a hindpaw sliding back.

This followed her words, poorly chosen, but he found them stinging. Had he become so self-absorbed that he had failed to worry about a fellow packmate? One possibly lost amidst the snow, one that he had taken back to the Hollow with him, and then left to linger in the drifts. The hard scowl on his face thawed and his tongue passed over his jowls anxiously, revealing an expression of sadness, sudden shame. He stared down at her, ears flat against his skull as she explained her part. Hunt. Couldn't get back. As she concluded, he could only stand there, letting the sound of his own breathing deafen him. "I-" Chulyin began, unsure of what to say. Though guilt now grasped at him, he still felt a lingering anger at himself...At her as well, for getting lost. And though he could not truly rationalize that, it was still there.

"You're safe, and that's what matters." He uttered, finally, legs sliding back underneath him, his expression clearing. That was all that mattered, in the end. Another packmate safe, not lost to the winter. With a lingering frown, he let whatever he felt slid into the earth and away from him. Turning away from her, he gave a slight nod of his head, ushering her towards the gnarled trees. Another packmate safe, was all he could repeat in his head.

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Quick stood in the aftershock of her outburst, feeling the ground beneath her in metaphorical pieces. For a moment she couldn't look away from his stoic mask, feeling discontent like an arrhythmia in her chest. Something inside her longed to crack it, to break the facade, to see if it was the same underneath. Was he really snarling at her because the snowstorm had slowed her travels home? Or was there something else, something she subconciously suspected might have been brewing beneath the surface of her own thick skin.

Then, just as she had been thinking it, his expression changed with an anxious slip of tongue across his lips. Sorrow was lurking in his vibrant eyes, dragging his triangular ears down toward his skull. It stole the words from his mouth, letting just one syllable pass through his teeth: I. What, Chulyin? she wanted to know. But his words threw her for a loop and put her in her own place of self-reflection. Why had she been so bitter about this confrontation? Why had she cared so much about his reaction to her disappearance? Ordinarily she was so... complacent. And yet this statuesque Guardian had managed to rile her entirely.

It would seem he had foregone his original thought entirely, giving one final remark and turning away from her. With dreadful relief it was to walk her home rather than turn her away. All that matters... Her thoughts churned in her mind as wicked and powerful as storm waves of the sea, trying to separate feelings and reason and figure out the underlying current of it all. The tension had not left her aura, lingering like a bee sting even as she began to follow. Though she skirted around the conundrum, she kept falling into this little pit in her mind that suggested something incredibly new to her. Chulyin mattered.

But she refused to investigate the idea, brooding instead over their heated conversation. "That's what matters," she echoed, and trailed after him.