the blind stagehand

The task of retrieving fish from the creek and the Marsh had finally met the end of its run over the course of a couple days. As a result, he - and even Sköll, who had constantly hounded him for discarded morsels and inedible fish parts - had started to harbor a "fishy" - catfish-like, to be particular - sort of smell that, no doubt, had sent @Elettra shuffling in the other direction or closer to him depending on her mood. Having slept outside the den for a number of nights, Angier figured it was about time that he find something else other than fish to bring back to cache away. Perhaps, something with a bit more pleasing aroma instead of the piscine stench. Through the willows he strolled aimlessly along, his head held low with his tail up in the air, patrolling on the other side of his Queen's territory and wholly oblivious of the confrontation that was to unfold, if at all, on the eastern end of his kingdom.

Once or twice he came upon something that he thought would do the trick to lead him to something of interest - a coyote trail, a place where a number of black feathers told of a raven's recent visit, a patch of dew-covered grass that had plainly been nibbled on by a hare or a doe or two - but there was something in the air and at the back of his head that he could not shake. It was as if something had yet to go wrong, like a sort of second-sense that told him he ought to seek out Elettra and forbid himself to leave her side. He had to stop and shake his head at such nonsensical ideas. If there was something he would not be prone to, it would be the irrational fear he had constantly seen on his older brother's face. Fear had made his brother relocate his family, stress had made his stocky limbs itch and wander off in search of his missing children, worry had made him age much faster than he should have, the dark mask on his face lightening as though he were already near the end of his days... The Willow Ridge patriarch sniffed; he would be nothing like Borden. Not even close.

He gave his head, shoulders, and neck a shake that traveled down his tawny back to the end of his black-tipped tail, sending his fur flying into the air. There, that ought to do it. Lifting his head and tail again and recovering his sense of self, he march onward, determined to find something to bring to his significant other.

Are you watching closely?
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)

She was close, so very close to giving birth that moving itself became a struggle for her. As she was but six days away from giving birth, everything seemed to make her uncomfortable. She could feel the stretching in her stomach, as though she might be torn apart at her middle, spilling blood, gut and puppy to the drooping willow forest floor. Her limbs ached in a manner that left them often quivering, her paws sore. Even a normal trek that she might have otherwise glided through, left her panting as her footing came down heavily and awkwardly with a sway of not the flow she once had, but that of a very fat man, teetering back and forth as he moved to the doughnut aisle. She was tired, so very tired, but stubborn to the point where she refused to be cooped up whilst she still held the chance to move about her territory - however clumsy it was.

The scent of @Angier certainly did draw her attention. She could smell him from miles away, if not by the heaviness of his rising authority, but the stench of fish which he held and unfortunately, allowed Skoll to trot around with as well. Though it was an off put, it did not draw her away as it had time and time before. She was all and all simply curious of what the man, who she now called her mate, was up to. Be it as it may, his protective manner of her had grown now that she held his children, but equally her possessiveness and protectiveness of him heightened. She was not about to allow him to go running off on her.

She lets out a wolfish huff when she sees him, keeping to the shade of the dotted willow trees in the area just outside her territory. He seemed intent upon something, possibly out for a hunt, possibly tracking down her youngest son once more... However, her demand of him was obvious. She wanted to spend a moment with him, and after a moment of standing there so he could redirect himself, she padded out into his direction to meet him.

For a while Angier figured out that he was being followed; he didn't even need to analyze the scent through his nostrils or turn around to look or call out to let them know that he knew they were there. These days it wasn't uncommon for Sköll to eat up a majority of his time, to stick to the shadows and follow him for hours on end. Perhaps it was the mere notion of curiosity, distrust, or pure selfishness (as proved by the near-yearling's constant quests in acquiring a bit of Angier's findings be it food, plant, or trinket) that kept the young Archer close, but when he heard that all too familiar 'woof', Angier stopped and smiled to himself. He could have known her voice, her vocalizations, anywhere now and it practically tickled him within to know that she sought him out for his company... well... unless...

Unless it was time... The Lyall turned fully around to see Elettra draw closer to him and immediately his nose was sampling the air for any peculiar change in her scent. Well, nothing yet... and she seemed to be okay... as per usual. His head canted in a winsome manner to one side as he wagged his tail in salutation to her. Initially, he smiled and lowered his head just briefly to 'kiss' her ivory chin, which was his typical and most favorite way to address her. A soft sigh, a "happy" and "most relaxed" one if that much could be discernible from any other exhale, filtered through his nostrils as he gazed at her once he had straightened his posture again.

"You okay?" he whispered, his voice soft enough so that only his beloved could hear.

Are you watching closely?
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)

She was panting once more when she reached him, her limps quivering to the point where she had to sit down. Often did she have to, taking a break much more frequently as though she was an elder, having such a hard time keeping up with the rest of the group in her old age. The thought caused her time to drift to Skana once more, a whine slipping from her lips as Angier questioned if she was okay. Did she look as though she was? Angier had the please of barely knowing Skana, Narcissa, Semananti, Tempest... but those wolves had been a great part of what made Willow Ridge just that, great. Though @Adelaide and @Coquina had been well within the pack, they had not been accepted within it on well terms. She had been upset both times, thinking that they would ether leave or they would die, in which case the rest of the pack would likely be forced to eat them in order to survive themselves. She had to admit, she rarely saw them even if she scented them. She had to admit most of it was her fault, having avoided much of everyone after each and every death hit the lands and now, during her pregnancy and soon not after, during her children's first few vulnerable weeks of life.

For Elettra, her core was Guiness. Her core was Angier and her children, and the children that not wriggled within her. @Senka, even, had wiggled somewhat into her trust fold but even she was distanced by now. It was mostly family, it was mostly Archers and perhaps, that is the way a true pack should be. "Everything hurts." She admits grimy, moving so that she could rest her chin at Angier's shoulder for a moment with a huff. "There moving so much - I sometimes think they are trying to eat their way out." She huffs, a half laugh as she pulls away from Angier who, in all seriousness, might not think it was too funny of a joke for his newly mate and first litter of pups. It was his first litter.....right? O_O

Elettra's answer raised many a concern, but he supposed it made sense. It also made him think of Skana, then of Adelaide, and his Uncle Cutter... how they of all the wolves he had known could help her by means of medicinal herbs. She rested her chin on his shoulder and he angled his head slightly towards her, a twitch of his ear signaling that he was wholly focused on what she had to say. What she said soon after she declared that everything in her body hurt made Angier's eyes widen and his smile melt away while his body froze...

If it hadn't been for her huff and partial laugh, he might have thought she was serious about such a thing, summoning in his head the image of her wriggling side and whatever else might have occurred for their children to gnaw and bite and claw their way out of her in the most unconventional way. His ears lowered with a nervous laugh. Of course, it was a joke, he grinned at her. Surely, the cubs wouldn't do such a thing, let alone actually be capable of such a thing...

His black-tipped tail curled towards his ankles for a moment before righting itself as he continued to look at her. Having only been around long enough to witness Corinna Donata's pregnancy with her second litter, Angier actually knew very little about what it was to become a father who was involved in the protection and safety of his mate and offspring. He grazed his tongue over his upper lip before smiling at her in a more collected, reassured manner. "How many do you think are there?" he then asked, his eyes briefly flitting to her now well-rounded sides.

Are you watching closely?
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)

His ears lowered with such a nervous laugh and Elettra's head lifted, pulling back to see the sheepish grin over his expression. He was not the tall, dark and mysterious male she had fallen for, nor was he the type of lightly colored, militant type she found in Phineas, or Loathe. No, if anything, in manners he reminded her of Alexander, if only by the way he looked at her, if only by the way he listened to her every word. He was not just some powerful warlord, someone with a dominance and demand of leadership. He knew how to use his words, he knew herbs, an all around survivalist man that she knew she could count on in many different manners then simply just power.

She nudged into his lick, huffing as she did so. "Four maybe. If there is any less then they are big." She speaks, her head turning and falling in an attempt to look at her swollen sides with the slightest of smiles. Though the pack might have gotten smaller and smaller turning the winter, if anything she would have her children to count on, and Angier. Certainly they would go off on their own at some point, but even then she knew she could count on her to be there for her if need be. Now, all the mother is left to wonder is just how many children there were inside her and what they might turn out to be. Likely, mostly males and she did so hope one to possibly look like Angier himself, a make of the Lyall line other then all Archer.

(This post was last modified: May 06, 2014, 03:02 AM by Elettra.)

"Four maybe," she had said. "If there is any less then they are big."

It shouldn't have caught him by surprise, but it had and a pleased smile appeared on his ivory maw. Maybe four. He could work with that, considering that perhaps his children would be more likely to be patient and obedient (with only a streak of rebelliousness as only a true Lyall might wield). He slowly folded his hind legs to sit down, hoping to also prompt Elettra to sit. If she had said everything in her body hurt, then he was not going to subject her to stand.

His smile endured, a soft, eager whine encouraging her to rest for a while with him. As of late, he knew better than to let his mouth ramble on should there be a dark pair of ears listening in on his conversation with the Queen, but there was something that he had to ask, something that had been tugging at his attention for quite a while. "Do they know?" His voice lowered into more of a whisper, hoping to make it less likely that the three young Archers could pick up on the rest of his query, "Are they aware they're gonna 'ave younger siblings?" His ears briefly swiveled back at such a musing, fairly certain that if the princes and princess had received such news that they might hate him forever... just because he had come so close to their mother as to become something like a step-father and actual family member instead of a "subject" and "follower" of their mother.

"I've ne'er had the chance to ask 'em how they were doin'," he divulged, his voice still hushed. "The last time I suggested to Sköll that a 'mother' is sometimes paired with a 'father,' he accused me of making up the word. He thought I was jus' asking for 'is acceptance in regards to courting you." A partial scoff left his lips followed by a very short chuckle upon remembering the 5-6 month old Sköll, whose vocabulary had finally blossomed during the autumn of last year. "He stormed off after I asked 'im though," again his smile fell, "I don't think he's come to terms 'bout it, let alone understood what's to 'appen soon... with the cubs an' all."

Are you watching closely?
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)

She sits as he does, her stance a bit more lazy, less erect and straight as her normal position. It was hard to get it together with such middle in the way of everything. Angier's question perks her ears, her pale silver eyes lifting to meet Angier's pale gold. After a second, her head tilts. "I...suppose?" Quite frankly, she did not even think to tell them. That with Spring, it was the very obvious that new pups would be born, though she had not considered that in their youth, her current pups perhaps did not know about these things just yet. She assumed they would learn on their own, after a time. Elettra had never been one to coddle her children anyhow, and worked with them in lessons by experience instead of story-tales. If anything, she could guess that Skana had mentioned something before her parting, or Guiness, or Adelaide or one of the other females as to why Angier and Elettra had been 'odd with one another', as the pups had likely thought.

"I've never really been that great with words, Angier..." She finds herself mumbling, paws shifting over the earth. She was one of action, of force. She did not have that 'special touch' she felt as though counterpart did. "Maybe, when the new pups are born, we can talk to them together, give them a little 'birds and the bees' lesson. Maybe I should tell them of Kiche, too..." She hated the idea of telling her children, though hearing that Skoll had thought Angier 'made up' the word father, perhaps it was finally due to tell her children where they came from. She did not know how much they really cared, having never asked her before. Most of all, she hated the idea of one of her children having an interest enough to go looking for Kiche. There home was here. With their soon to be new brothers and possible sisters. With their mother. With a man they could consider a true father, Angier.

When she admitted to not having a way with words and that they, as a couple and the Archer cubs' parents and Leaders (and therefore teachers), might want to talk to the trio, Angier nodded. As much as he wanted to look at her some more, to try and gauge the emotions that might lie behind her silvery irises, he resisted, keeping his gaze fixated on some point in the distance. "Maybe it's the right thing t' do," he voiced after turning the thought over in his head a few times. He might not have known Kiche, but Elettra did, and even Borden and Jaysyek did, and nothing about the red "priest" struck him as pleasant or appealing. A part of him also detested the idea of the trio seeking him out, but at least in telling Asriel, Sköll, and Morganna who their father was, the concept of what was a typical family could be finally defined - maybe even accepted if only given the chance.

"I worry though," he added after a while. "They're... They're not... cubs anymore." His eyes narrowed and his lips pressed together until the black outline could no longer be seen. His nephews and nieces came to mind in all their rebellious and headstrong ways, spitting images of their mother and father. "They'll think what they like. They... might not listen. I mean, lookit Sköll... fer example..." He angled his muzzle downward, his gaze lowering to the ground at his feet. "I'm sure y'know how Trisden an'... an' Hocus were. Even Taima..." The name of the younger Lyall fell from his lips as though its consonants had physical weight to it. He slowly brought his eyes back to Elettra's face, "I promised t' look after 'em. If I can't keep 'em from leaving, then who will? Guiness is well-needed here, Skana is gone, the other women might not have as much influence on them as the rest of us." He probably shouldn't have brought it up and, already, he was scolding himself in his head. Elettra didn't need this kind of stress, but the bestowal of the information about Kiche, the biological father of the Archer cubs, had been a long time coming.

Are you watching closely?
Taekwondo (M, W, F) | Rapid-Response Day (Tu) | WoW Nights (F, Sat, Sun)

He nodded in agreement though there was an obvious worry which stirred within him, one Elettra could only assume matched her own worries in some way or another. His attention did not befall hers and, she would not know, for her own gaze was fleeting elsewhere, away from Angier as he spoke up. It was true that they were hardly children anymore. They had grown into their adult proportions and had been taught of hunting, of fighting, and the basics of the most simple healing remedies in order to get by should anything happen to them. Elettra Archer had insured that in her children's youth they learned about surviving before they learned of anything else - of the gods, of stories of their home. Tales which were nice to know, of course, but did not pertain to them living or dying in any manner. Now they had to choice to take what they had learned and do what they willed of it, be it still living within the pack they were born or moving out to venture off on their own now that they were fully capable of themselves and one another.

Her teeth gritted when once more Angier mentioned Skoll and him not listening to him. Elettra's ears fell, pinning against her head and her jaw tensing. It was true that getting Skoll to do something he was already not willing to do on his own was slim to none, at least not without a bit of ruffing him up first. Though Skoll had been a bit of a trouble-maker, he had done nothing wrong in Elettra's eyes that made him not worthy of being loved any less then his sister and brother were. "Sköll's fine." She mumbled under her lips, a bit snappy, for it seemed he was always the center of their conversations. What about Morganna and that snake and her venturing out of the lands? What of Asriel's demands or bullying of his smaller brother? She takes a deep breath, keeping her attention from Angier though she could not feel his eyes upon her. She did not know Taima... barely saw Hocus. But Trisden. Ah, she remembered smacking that pup around into shape (or to try) more times then she could count.

"No one can keep them from leaving." She says then, shifting so that she is at a stand once more, her eyes once more fully finding her mate's features. "Like you said, they're not pups anymore. They should know and once they do, they can decide what they will do from there. They have the choice, they always have." She had no intention of caging her children within this pack, even if she was not ready to yet the Yearlings go just yet. Still, she had her new litter to think of which would take up much of her time and concern. She would not force anything upon her children if she did not have to. Taking another deep huff, she moves, pausing only to allow Angier to understand the decision was made and she was ready to get back to the den.