Riddle Heights wolf at your door

give this song a listen ♫ The Wolf - Phidel
private for @Phineas

In a swale of the foothills she sat, waiting for him. He had come through this way to reach the plateau, and it followed that he would return this way. Casually, she glanced around. The landscape was sparse, rocky soil and swathes of grass. It was as good a place as any to reunite. Desdemona had no intentions or time to catch Phineas in some romantic lake surrounded by fireflies. There was her pretense, whatever lies she had to weave, whatever truths were necessary to divulge. Whatever it took. She readied herself, letting her posture droop slightly. Her rattlesnake heart was hidden, shoved deep down inside her. She had such a magical control over her appearance that with such a simple, subtle movement of her body it seemed as though her fur lost its luster the foreboding air she carried with her had dissipated. But her head she held high, Phineas would have to see that there was some pride left in her. That would be necessary.

Her plan was simple. There was no point going through it anymore. It was merely a waiting game. If Phineas refused her, there was a plan for that too. Desdemona always had a plan for everything.

She passed the time by drinking in the strengthening moonlight and observing the bustling ants in the soil between her paws. One carried a leaf ten times its own size, and she reveled in its power. No wolf she knew could accomplish a feat as this. But she imagined herself to be like this ant, carrying the oppressive weight of her whirring, tireless mind and all the plans it held. Somehow she kept herself going without dropping the leaf or stopping to rest. This ant was truly an adversary in its own way.

She lifted up her paw and crushed it quietly.

Eeeee

There was swiftness in his steps as he descended the mountain. He had never risen very high, and yet as his muzzle canted back over his shoulder to catch one more glimpse of what he believed to be his new beginning, he never could have dreamt the possibility of the nightmare that waited for him just below.

He had not caught the scent of her as her eyes had spied upon him previously – instead, his own fiery gaze had been drawn to the moon, and when not upon it, to the tantalizing forest and slopes he would soon call home – a flattop nestled in the nook of the mountain, and one he was certainly going to stake as his.

Even the wind was in her favor as he continued, oblivious to her presence until he was practically right before her. His paws scuffled small rocks, but it did not slow him – he had three children he was far too anxious to reach, and a small group of final last standing loyal companions in which to move. This was not just his fresh beginning, but all of theirs, and he intended for it to happen within a day or two of his return. The cubs were old enough now that travel would not hinder them.. and once in their new home, the pack could even coax them on their first hunt.

With his eyes trained ahead, he did not see her – did not suspect her. No, for the first time in his life, Desdemona had not turned his head.

sorry <3 hopefully this thing can get off the ground

Rocks shifted subtly off to her left. Her ears lifted and turned: they saw before her eyes that it was him.

With some surprise, she watched her prize walk right past her. Twenty tail-lengths at most between them. She blinked with some surprise. Now she got a real good look at him, certainly better than the glimpses from behind the tree she had been hiding behind up on the plateau. The white male looked no less than she had ever known him. There was meat on his bones and his fur glistened healthy. But she knew the truth about what was going on back in Magnolia Glen. Things were not so well-off as he would present himself to the world. Every part of him seemed to be somewhere else, focusing on anything else besides the subtly lit foothills and the scent of his rattlesnake ex-mate. Phineas had always been such an idealist, hadn't he? She allowed herself to smile, but there was a bitterness in her smile that inexplicably soured her expression.

"Phineas," her voice was as light and fresh as it always had been as she got to her paws and took up fleet-footed pace he had set. She trotted right beside him. Her tone and movements were natural, like she was merely picking up in the middle of a conversation they could have ended five minutes ago. So familiar, so sweet, she seemed almost benign. "It's been awhile."

She didn't expect Phineas to welcome her with open arms and she certainly didn't expect him to trust her, but it was still best to start out like this, pleasantly, evenly. Maybe he would have forgiven her by now or forgotten what she had done. Maybe he didn't even care.

Desdemona cared, though. She had not forgotten. And she never forgave.

The voice slipped out to the cold air – slippery, deceitful. The familiarity of it coiled around his heart and it felt for a moment as if it would plummet to his stomach. His eyes strayed over to her, as if disbelieving his ears until they landed upon her svelte form. She moved to him like a siren, beckoning his attention, and while in his more youthful days he would have stumbled to her side like a puppy dog waiting for its bone.. now, his pace did not slow, nor did he cast her much more than a grunt at first.

’It’s been awhile,’ she crooned at him, stirring a sardonic snort from the stoical beast, though he did not slow his pace. “With good reason,” he returned swiftly, leaving it at that. He could hope she would take a hint.. but somehow, knowing the she-wolf full well and what she was capable of (or did he? She had certainly thrown him quite a few surprises in life), he did not doubt she would simply leave it at that and turn tail. No, she would make her point, and so he fell to silence, waiting for the storm to break – for the Desdemona he knew did not tolerate being ignored.

His paws met the more lush grass now, though soon it would turn brown and die come winter. His eyes set before him once more, he continued to trek home.. to his children. To his life. To everything that definitely did not include his vapid, snakelike ex-mate.

(This post was last modified: Nov 10, 2014, 04:38 PM by Phineas.)

Phineas seemed to be trying very hard to withhold any and every scrap of his attention from her. But he did not attempt to run her off, and that was as much of an opportunity as Desdemona required. He even tossed her a bone in the form of a cute little response. The white viper fought to keep her cool. Phineas could be so blind, so selfish. He only saw the damage she had done to him, and forgot entirely all the transgression he had made against herself and her family. She took a breath and walked silently stewing beside her ex-mate for some time before she made her next move.

Once more she breathed his name softly and said, "I want to make amends." Her posture was stooped, remorseful, subordinate. Not that she truly felt sorry. As far as she was concerned they should have already been even. "I want to help you." For a moment, she wondered if she should reveal her eavesdropping or her intelligence-collecting but thought the better of it. Her ex-mate would smell the black-mail from a mile away.

But she did make a simple, powerful amendment, "And your family."

Though her heart pounded in her chest, she managed to restrain her desire to catch his reaction. Her eyes were trained at the ground humbly, misleadingly. Every inch of her body awaited the reaction his baritone rumble would carry. She tried not to second guess herself, but so much time had passed since she had last interacted with Phineas that she was no longer sure what the right moves were. She could not calculate the consequences anymore.

It was a brazen statement – not to seek amends, but for the she-wolf to even utter the knowledge of his family. It was certainly enough to gain his attention, and the regal stiffened, his pace halting as his muzzle swung in her direction to regard her. His bright eyes roved her slender physique – once upon a time, he had witnessed no one as beautiful. No one as broken. And the only way he had thought to mend her in his younger years was to take her beneath his wing – he had done everything for her. She had him wrapped at one point.. until one day it was revealed of her taste for vengeance – could he blame her? A younger Phineas would have insisted he could.. but one that was now the father of three very beautiful daughters.. no.

He knew of the viper that stood before him now. He did not trust her – and the very reason he could not was for his own doings. “You’re thirst for revenge is with me, Desdemona.. Not my children,” he spoke then, his tone clipped. The absolute thought of the she-wolf in the same vicinity as them sickened him to his stomach. “I will give it to you. I owe you that – but first, let me return to my family. Let me take them to their new home..” There was a small pause as he returned a brazen nature of his own, his figure lifting as he stared at the female he had once loved. “I have done many wrongdoings in my past. But I had never harmed your children – I ask the same.”

gotta admit your post threw me for a loop and i had to take a few days to figure out how desdemona would take this. they're certainly an interesting pair! hope this is as fun for you as it is for me xD

The game was up, she had tipped her hands too far and her intentions had spilled out. Desdemona sensed it in the way his ex-mate's eyes suddenly gripped her as they had not in many moons. He seemed to be searching for something in her, but she didn't know what. Were there memories of her playing behind his eyes? What Desdemona did he think of, she wondered. Part of her hoped that he could see the real Desdemona, the knotted viper, the ugly, shattered soul longing to glue herself together with revenge. Part of her hoped that he still only saw the sad, sweet girl he had fallen in love with, the sad, sweet girl that she had been before the bitterness set in. She wanted to be known, but could not pick which part of her fractured self to be in this moment.

She grunted softly at his statement. He would really give it to her? Did he know what she asked for, how much she asked for? These words were worthless. "You killed my whole family, Phineas. Maybe not you alone, but you did not speak up and you contributed and they all died." This was the first time her bitterness had been given a voice. "I need more than empty apologies and I will not wait any longer." Despite the fact that the threats were all laid out on the table, she looked harmless, this viper. They could have been talking about dinner plans. "You can return to your family if you like, but you will not leave me. Not now." She was his shadow now, his dogged fate that would come for him when the moment was right. He could refuse her, but he would not escape. "I won't harm your precious babes," she hissed.

"I don't want you dead," she said plainly. Maybe someday, but not yet.

(This post was last modified: Nov 15, 2014, 08:21 PM by Desdemona.)

These two are royally messed up.. so of course it's fun! :D

The cards were played right before them -- or, at least, Phineas' was. But his eyes regarded the she-wolf as she made her next move, and like a master of chess, she played a piece that did not reveal her entire plan to him -- he might not have known her anymore, but the Desdemona he had come to know was capable of anything.

"Then what is it you do want, Demi?" His words were like a hiss, raw from his throat as it remained parched from his travels. He did not have time for this, and so, he could only assume it's why she chose to seek him out now. She now seemed to live to make his life as difficult as possible. "My pack killed your family in a feud years ago -- I didn't single-handedly hunt your loved ones down to slaughter them. I was protecting my family. I would have done anything for you — out of guilt, or love.. I don't know anymore." There was a pause as he stood there, his pelt bristling. It would have been so easy to kill her then -- to lunge forward, and snap his jaws around the delicate little throat he had once cradled himself in to. But he knew her to be anything but delicate.. and the murder would haunt him for his life.

"You already destroyed me emotionally once. You bore my best friend two healthy pups — and by the way, he had partaken in that fight too — and pushed me out of my lands. You chased my brothers away one by one.. I can only imagine the ruins the pack fell to. You took everything from me once." Distaste flashed in his eyes as he stared at the viper before him, he wanted her poker face to crumble.. but perhaps she was so far gone that she no longer had any emotions to reveal to the world. "So if you don't want me dead then what is it you want?"

(This post was last modified: Nov 16, 2014, 10:01 PM by Phineas.)