Riddle Heights the longevity initiative

For @Datura

His mother had told him of this place, of the wolves she had met here, the life she had almost started within these wild woods. When he left the clan of Servilius, he had one destination in mind: here. To find out what had swayed his steadfast mother, what wolf had nearly spirited her away into a life before him. Hadrian couldn't imagine his mother falling in love with anyone. She wasn't outwardly affectionate toward her mate, his father Cassius, so it was strange to imagine her loving someone else.

Hadrian Servilius found himself in a mountainous region within the wild woods, a pass that others had come through before him. He skirted through the trees, nose catching the scents of others all around him, copper colored gaze flickering from tree to shrub to rock, searching for signs of others. Their scents were there, but the physical creatures were oddly missing. Perhaps it was still too early for others to be out and about, but Hadrian was always an early riser, precise in his movements. Traveling had been grueling, but he had set himself that hard pace, and made it to these woods sooner than anticipated. So, he told himself, he could explore a little.

(This post was last modified: Oct 18, 2015, 12:50 AM by Hadrian.)

Datura had always been a particularly early riser. He had always made a point to be up before the sun, feeling that otherwise there was no other way a wolf could lead a productive life. Already he had been up for several hours, and thus he should have been feeling quite awake. Maybe it was the cold getting into his bones or the rock he had switched to sleeping on a few days ago, but Datura could hardly close his mouth before another yawn suddenly overtook him. His body felt heavy. He sighed, reaching up to tear at the bark of the feeble mountain trees with his blunt nails, hoping the grating sensation would wake him up.

It did not.

Where was Gilligan when he needed him? Surely the boy would bring his blood pressure enough to wake him up. Or give him an aneurysm. But the boy was lazy — by datura's standards— and thus absent from his father's morning jaunt through the heights. Perhaps he would track some goats if there were any out in this hour. By the time he found any, surely Gilligan would be up.

It took him a few minutes to catch the furtive movement of a dark shape between the trees. He blinked slowly, his tail rising. "Someone there?" he drawled, "It isn't very polite to lurk."

(This post was last modified: Oct 18, 2015, 01:37 AM by Datura.)

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A voice rose in the murky morning. "Someone there?" Hadrian froze, copper gaze roaming the immediate vicinity. Then, in the light of a clearing to his right, he saw a lighter colored wolf peering into the shadows. "It isn't very polite to lurk." Hadrian turned toward the wolf, gaze locked on the other, and stepped from the shadows into the light. Early morning sunlight streamed through branches overhead, dappling his multi-colored coat. Copper eyes flashed in the light, but he softened the look with a grin.

Body relaxed, he paused yards from the other. "Wasn't meaning to lurk. Just exploring, is all." He took the other in, a large wolf like himself, but as light as he was dark. Only their eyes might have been the same shade, if not for subtle differences in shape and depth. "What's this place called?" He shifted from one side to the other, glancing around in the moment after he spoke. Where was he? He didn't know much about the area, at least not as his mother remembered it. Hadrian wasn't a trusting sort of fellow, but he did need to know about the area if he was going to stay. That decision remained to be seen.

(This post was last modified: Oct 18, 2015, 02:23 AM by Hadrian.)

Like magic the shape parted itself from its shadows. Though, really, the wolf was still dark. Not a complete darkness, Datura noted, as he surveyed a pelt that was more than just inky night: there was a richness to it like soil. Much less... sinister than some of the wolves he had known. If the stranger was younger than Datura he could not tell, for he was equally massive with just a little less weight on him. But that was to be expected. The man smiled and stepped easily towards him, apologizing gracefully. Datura's pale brows rose. Maybe he had been spending too much time with Gilligan, if such simple pleasantries could seem so alarming now. He rolled his shoulders, trying to relax, feeling more at ease with the unassuming posture of the other male. 

"This place?" Datura cast his head about, shrugging, "Why these are the Riddle Heights.... Though I don't know why they're called that. That's probably what the riddle is. And I'm not good with riddles." The information about himself was free, it appeared. He gave it away with another shrug. "Born here and I still don't know why most of these places are called what they are." The thought did not strike Datura often, but it seemed strange that all these places of his childhood had names and some sort of history in the way that he had a name and a history... but it had all been forgotten now.

He tossed his head back over his shoulder. "And behind me some ways is Silent Moon Plateau. But that's pack territory and you shouldn't be venturing there unless you want trouble. Or a home." It wasn't necessarily an offer. He was unlikely to welcome just anyone back to the place he rested his head every night.

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Riddle Heights. The name didn't ring a bell for him, but that was to be expected: his mother hadn't spent more than a few months here, and she probably hadn't explored every nook and cranny. And even if she had, there was no reason for her to remember this place. It wasn't exactly eye-catching. His dark ears flicked at the sound of the male's voice, prattling on about why he didn't know this place was called Riddle Heights or why most of these places were called whatever they were called. Hadrian wasn't amused, but he tried not to let it show.

Then the wolf tossed his head and explained that a pack lived nearby, one called Silent Moon Plateau. An ear flicked forward, but in truth the name meant nothing to him. He'd never heard of it before and therefore decided to be cautious. "I wasn't planning on trespassing. I may have been alone for a while, but my mother taught me better than that." Hadrian's copper eyes moved from the landscape behind him back to the wolf himself. It was past time to introduce himself. He didn't want to be seen as rude. "I'm Hadrian, by the way. What may I call you?"

@Hadrian oh my god I am SO sorry it's taken me so long to reply to you e____e /offers up meager post

Friendly, conversational wolves were hard to come by in these parts. Perhaps it was something about the mountain, the way the air filtered through the cracks of every stone. And the wolves, they were harsh like the mountain. His mother had been this way along with most of his pack mates: uncompromising, cold, and as distant as the peak of the mountain. Cautiously his eyes wandered through the face of this stranger, figuring it was just a flip of a coin that determined what sort of wolf he was.

"Mmmm," he grumbled in ascension, "Just meet a lot of wolves in this general area that like to do whatever they please." In this sense, he was thinking back to his run in with the Fallen Tree Cove wolves whose son had bumbled through their borders. The audacity of the Cove leaders still astonished Datura even weeks later. How they could just bristle and act so entitled while they were unwelcome guests at the boundaries of Silent Moon Plateau.

"Datura Aquila," the golden man drawled with a proud look smeared across his face. "What brings you out here to these lands?" Usually the man was not so interested in the life stories of others, but it felt rude not to ask. Certainly there was little else to say, nothing holding them here. If the man wanted to ask for directions then he could just get on with it.

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Hadrian wrinkled his nose at the thought of wolves traipsing wherever they pleased. It was rude but also very non-wolf-like. His mother would have skinned his hide if she ever thought he'd trespass, let alone do it with nonchalance. "Sad excuses for wolves, I suppose." Hadrian's copper eyes roamed over the woods around them, searching for nothing in particular. Perhaps he just didn't want to stare at Datura when he said his name. His gaze snapped back to the male when he said "Aquila," his gut wrenching within him. He coughed softly, trying to hide his surprise, and then shrugged his shoulders to stretch the muscles there.

"Aquila, eh? My mother was an Aquila." Hadrian wondered if he should have said that, but let it go into the air between them. What harm could it do to reveal who he was, who his mother was, to this wolf? They were related somehow, he was certain. "Who is the Aquila in your family?" he asked softly, not trying to sidestep the other question, but truly curious. Then he finally decided to answer the last question, and though he wondered if it was wise, proceeded anyway. "I'm here searching for a place my mother loved, and perhaps to find the wolves she once knew. I doubt many are still around, though, so I guess I'm just searching for a home to call mine."

e_e i'll be better i promise

The small cough roused Datura's attention, but the cover up was far too subtle for Datura to make anything of it. For all intents and purposes this man seemed to divulge, cool as a cucumber, their relation to one another. The golden man was much less capable of disguising his emotions. His eyebrows rose. He thought he knew all the Aquilas, but perhaps the land held more wolves than he had assumed. Though he was aware of his lineage in a general sense — mostly because of the Shaman— he had never turned his mind to the possibility that there were surviving kin outside of Relic Lore. His initial good impressions of Hadrian only deepened with this knowledge, though. Images of Adonis flashed behind his eyes. This man did not seem unlike his long lost brother... Datura's heart was beating very fast.

How awkward this encounter was to the man. It was not how he had ever imagined discovering family could go. He thought he would smile wide, that he would embrace them. But he did not know this man at all. His brows came together, forming a dark shadow over his copper eyes. "My father," he said, feeling the conversation shift to an uncomfortable place. Datura knew next to nothing about his father. He was a black wolf, that much was clear. And he had the same sort of disordered mind as himself, but was he about to admit that to a stranger? Certainly not. Though... this stranger was family. "His name was Rhysis." Would this mean anything to Hadrian?

"I don't know where the rest of my family went, really. We used to own the lake up north, and then the pass beyond that. But they've all disappeared." Though, really, it was unclear if this man's mother would have known any of the Poison Path or Nomad's Pass wolves. "Where'd your mother stay when she was here?"

(This post was last modified: Dec 02, 2015, 02:33 AM by Datura.)

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