Willow Ridge Out Of Place

For @Sven but @Skoll can join if he wishes
A week after Piety's disappearance || Around dawn, Patchy rain nearby 67 ° F, 20 ° C

Coral tongue lolled between parted jaws as nimble ebony limbs traversed through the low hanging branches of the willow forest, each individual branch given a seconds time to greet her patchwork pelt with a friendly caress. Another sun had began to rise steadily into the morning air, its warmth sending the night's welcomed relief of colder temperatures back into the darker recesses of the shadows until the blazing ball of light descended once more. All around the piebald woman the world was alight with the glorious shades of morning twilight. Pastel yellows and purples casting the smooth barked willows in a heavenly glow completely ethereal in their own right. But, there was little time to dwell on the landscape longer than she already had as her primary mission resurfaced. Finding Piety.

A weeks worth of suns had come to pass and each one offered the Ashrelle woman another day of failed results. Not even her scent lingered about the edge of the territory where Enoki had last searched and now picked back up to continue her work. A low grumble resonated within her chest in annoyance as her maw lowered to press her coal tinted nose to the dampened earth, a result of the early morning dew yet to be burned off. How could Enoki attempt to challenge Piety for her rank if the woman was nowhere to be found? Technically she already held the position she wished to demote the pearly woman from, but something about being handed the title by mere coincidence didn't feel right. She had looked forward to domineering over Piety and putting her in her rightful place at the bottom of the totem pole. 

Snorting at the faint perfume of the ivory woman, the skin along her snout wrinkled in defeat. The woman was nowhere to be found. Again. "Damn you." Enoki muttered incoherently under her breath with a quick lashing of her ivory dipped tail. Adjusting her path of travel slightly she refused to entirely give up on finding her, heading unknowingly closer to where the lowest pair had hid away with their 'mistake' of a child, a name equally known to her. Pausing her steps, swarthy haunches lowered to the ground into a seated position, smoldering amber optics taking a moment to survey the territory around her for a sign she must have missed. She had to be here somewhere. Piety couldn't have been foolish enough to just abandon the lost prince Skoll and child.

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

Sven Archer was, once again, utterly alone. It burned him up in so many ways, his emotions raw and unyielding, yet it was something he would have to get used to. After all, his father had other matters he had to attend to, and couldn't be there every waking moment just to keep the boy company. Only @Piety could have done that, and now he was having to face a world where it would never be again.

Still he could not wrap his brain around it, even though he desperately tried to. His father's words had, for once, not made sense to him. Most likely, it was because the boy was refusing to see the truth, as it wasn't enough for him. But what would be enough? What was worth losing his mother? What was worth her leaving him? There was nothing he could put a paw on, and yet this was what he spent his time alone pondering now.

As he walked across the shaded ground, kicking absently at clods and stones that crossed his path, he mulled over this sum and product puzzle, oblivious to the world around him. Nothing yet had come to hurt him, despite the lack of supervision, and so by now the boy thought either his mother's stories to be silly fiction, or for himself to be quite invincible given the Archer name. As the days passed him by, both seemed equally plausible. Yet occasionally, even if they did not bring him harm, creatures passed into his world.

Being not so vigilante, it wasn't her scent that caught his attention first but rather the sight of her. If it hadn't already been enough that she was a new face altogether, and so far out in his domain, the odd hashing of her pelt completely tore the boy from his thoughts to focus solely on this novel fascination.

"What are you doing out here?" he asked bluntly as he drew closer, eased posture making it clear that he did not in any way fear her.

(This post was last modified: Oct 23, 2015, 01:47 AM by Sven.)

Had the patchwork woman not been so consumed, so hell-bound on searching for the saint she would have noticed the delicate aroma of innocence and the fading scent of her mingled with him approaching from behind. Yet, it was the sudden boom of a bluntly uttered question that tore Enoki's attention away from the dangling whip-like branches of the weeping willows whom swayed partially under the gentle dawn drizzle. Burning amber optics casting their inferno like gaze upon the snowy form that strode without fear, instantly melting into a more smoldering flicker. So this had to be the product of the lowest pair's accidental rendezvous. A boy that held the purest color of his mother and who's ghostly eyes the elder woman could only assume was gifted from his sire albeit having never properly met the prince. 

ising to her paws while twisting her embodiment to face this confident child, swarthy audits pricked forward in bemusement after giving her pelt a shake of what little droplets of rain had already collected thus far in the morning. Lids squinted partially while watching the boy for a moment as she mulled over her response, opting to return the bluntness he had used earlier. "Searching for your mother." The words drawled out without a sliver of tommyrot behind each syllable spoken while brows furrowed curiously. "What's your name boy? I'm Enoki Ashrelle." The piebald she-wolf informed while lowering her skull to better reach the level of his gaze, ivory dipped tail swaying at a slow pace near her ankles. 

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

Her words were utterly shocking to him, and evidence of this passed briefly through his pale eyes before he stole his emotions. It occurred to him to mistrust this woman, yet he couldn't help but hope. Was she really searching for her, as his father was? Or was she, like the others, oblivious even to the fact that Piety was missing at all? His heart began to beat faster as the confused uncertainty ate away at him, yet he couldn't find it in himself to open his jaws just yet and pursue clarification. She asked his name then, the term boy grating against his ears abrasively. He didn't much like her cold tone, nor the way she picked her words, but at the least she had lowered her head to be level with his, a gesture he knew to be respectful (even though she had not intended it this way). Mildly sated by this, his tongue was at last loosened enough to speak.

"Sven Archer," he announced, pride laced within the words just as @Skoll had taught him. He played her named over a few times in his head, briefly wondering if he'd ever heard the moniker uttered before, before concluding that he had not. Was she new to the Willows then, or just yet another neighboring stranger? Why now was she looking for Piety?

"What do you want with my mother?" he asked, a faint shadow of a glower passing over his face as his defensive nature began to creep into the light. If she did not know of her disappearance, he could not by now be surprised. It would be painful all the same; how could these wolves not love his mother as he had? But as it became common, he found that it was something he would need to simply dismiss. However, if she had ventured to the fringe out of ill will, she would have him to contend with.

Shock was purely evident within the ghostly grey irises of this ivory pelted child by the slight expansion of his pupils upon hearing the piebald woman was searching for the missing saint; a fact Enoki had suspicions of, but never adhered to clarifying until now. Eventually this knowledge about Piety would come to light for the pack, but for now the mystery remained such. Unsolved, case untouched by those other than Skoll.

A small flicker of acknowledgement passed over the woman's face as dark furred audits absorbed the prideful pronunciation, tying the name Sven Archer mentally to the growing boy for future references should it prove useful. The question that followed suit, though, rubbed the woman in a similar manor her questioning of his name had to him. For such a little pipsqueak he already proved to be quite a cheeky little fellow, a trait no doubt passed down from sire to son. "I'd like a conversation with her." Vague and blunt all in one. Enoki's business with Piety was of little to no concern of her child. The line of conversation, or confrontation really, she was hoping to have with Piety was strictly of adult content.

Lifting her head back to a neutral position, smoldering amber orbs kept their gaze situated on the pup. "I've been tracking her scent since day break and the trail has gone too cold around the territory. To attempt beyond the borders I would need to speak with your grandmother." In truth the patchwork female had thought of seeking permission to patrol beyond the willow barricades, but the task of keeping the caches filled for the oncoming winter left paws tied with little wiggle room for extracurricular activities.

SVEN ARCHER

& the night is closing in

The boy was not too young to know when he was being brushed off, and his ghostly eyes narrowed further as she refused to give him a clearer answer than what was left to evaporate off her tongue. He'd been suspicious from the start, but her uncooperative nature only ushered him closer to suspecting that she was not a friend, perhaps not even worth acknowledging as a comrade, regardless of whether this was a fair assessment or not. When she spoke further, only further clarifying what he already knew, that like everyone else she had not been bothered to even learn of Piety's disappearance until now when she wanted something from his mother, he felt that he'd had enough of her presence and the rising of his crystal fur upon his spine indicated such.

His crown was held even higher but his chin tucked downward, instinctively shielding his throat from view as he braced himself for the confrontation he was about to initiate.

"Are you new 'round here, or just as self absorbed as the rest of them?" he hissed like a viper, tail whipping with irritation behind his hocks. He didn't care what this woman was looking for; he wanted answers for his questions, and the most pressing of all was why the hell she didn't already know that Piety would not be found anywhere near, much less within, Willow Ridge.

Oooh, Enoki is pissssed

Her vague answers were no longer acceptable by the ivory furred boy and he had no qualms with showing such. A snowy skull lifted while angling downward just enough to protect the flesh of his neck; as if Enoki would stoop so low as to attack a mere pup, the fur lining coating his spine rising into splayed spikes. "Are you new 'round here, or just as self absorbed as the rest of them?" the words were hissed as the plushness of his tail whipped like a viper at his hocks. Oh how Sven made her blood boil in that moment. This appalling amount of disrespect did not sit well with the piebald woman one bit.

Leathery lips slowly began to pull back as her muzzle twisted to reveal a threatening snarl, informing the boy he had crossed a dangerous line with the woman. Bad mouthing was one thing Enoki could shrug off, but to be blatantly disrespected in such a manor was going too far. "You insulate whelp! Your old man sure did a number on teaching you to respect your elders." Her own words dipped heavily in a hissed tone. Tensed muscles rippled beneath her plush pelt as front left paw stepped forward deliberately slow to give this child one last chance to correct his mistake before a rightfully deserved punishment was unleashed. Regardless of having Archer blood coursing through his veins and being the grandson of Elettra Archer this entire situation was uncalled for and he would pay just as any other wolf ranked under her whom disrespected her would.