Grizzly Hollow just keep diving down the hole

All welcome! Nineva is being pretty loud, and I would say could easily be heard anywhere within the heart of the territory.
Dated 12/04 - clear skies, noon.
Random Event: Grizzly Hollow, an eagle is spying on your den.

It had only been a nap. She'd only meant to be down for an hour or so, catching some much needed rest as the day before had been spent quite adventurously. Yet the universe must have been very unhappy for her with committing the sin of sloth, for it had delivered a punishment upon her door step.

Nothing in particular had woken her, and her eyes fluttered open to take in the darkness of the den. She stretched her limbs and curled her tongue as a yawn forced her jaws apart, allowing herself an easy transition from slumber to wakefulness. The snowfall had ceased, and sunlight filtered brightly into the hollow, warming her back. All seemed incredibly tranquil, and now that she was thoroughly rested, she looked forward to what the day might bring. Yet as she brought herself onto her paws and moved to exit the communal respite, her miscolored eyes fell upon the hulking frame of a golden eagle, perched within the trees and eyeing the den below, waiting for her to come out.

Her blood froze solid within her veins, eyes widening as the rest of her muscles felt paralyzed with immense fear. Vividly she recalled that day, the terror that had consumed her, the feel of the eagle's claws within her skin, being lifted from the ground, being dropped to the ground, her mother's blood flooding the air, soaking her fur, her own frantic screams within her head... It wasn't until her throat began to burn that she realized not all of it was occurring within her own imagination. Without realising, she had begun to shriek without any sign of stopping, a horrified sound that begged the help of anyone around.

It had come to finish the job, to avenge its comrade which her mother had slain. She was certain of it, and in the mire of her terror she could not think logically enough to acknowledge that by now she was far too large to become prey. No, within her head she was three months old again, utterly vulnerable and this time, her mother was not here to save her.

(This post was last modified: Dec 04, 2015, 06:08 AM by Nineva.)

Don't know for sure which name he'd know her by - if not 'Nineva' then let me know and I can change it :D

Well, it had started as a peaceful day, and had even managed to progress as much for most of the morning, with the air still and the ground softly white. The young Attila-Lyall was growing into himself, and these days it was quite easy to see the kind of mature wolf that he would become, with the gangliness of youth slowly changing into more dignified proportions. His regular runs with @Katariina were testament to the fact that he was stronger and faster than the day she had almost barrelled straight into him, and that he might one day be able to keep pace with her at full speed was a prized personal goal.

Since it was such a calm morning, he had deemed it a perfect opportunity to practice, and had been deep in the runner's zone when that peace was shattered by screaming. He almost tripped over himself in surprise, coming to an ungraceful halt as his brain tried to make sense of what his ears were telling him, his heart already beating hard from exertion but now it pumped with growing panic. That kind of shrieking was never a good thing. Automatically he turned towards it, but now his running was with purpose - and it was within moments that he arrived at the den.

Wide-eyed and alert for danger, he saw only Nineva, stood outside the den and fraught with terror. There was nothing - but then he followed her gaze, and saw the eagle in the tree, all cool and collected in comparison to the grey girl. Remembering her reaction to the harmless Prudence, he was not entirely surprised by this.

In truth, eagles made Tomen uneasy as well, though not because he feared for his own life - whenever he saw one overhead, his mind went to his small, feathered compatriot, and if he was not with the owl at the time he usually went to check that she was safe.

He didn't know where Prudence was right then, but for the first time someone else needed his protection more. Moving swiftly towards Nineva, Tomen positioned himself between her and the loftily perched raptor, trying to block the golden bird from her view. Maybe that would help? Honestly he had no idea what to do, she wasn't in any danger but it was hardly sympathetic to just bluntly point out that she was overreacting. "Hey, hey," he urged, trying to get her to make eye contact with him, to focus on something safe and not-scary, "it's okay, you'll be okay - let's go back in the den, c'mon. It can't get us there."

PP approved by Siki.

The fear did not just bombinate within her ears, but rather overtook her completely, dulling each of her senses. She could barely hear her own petrified hollering, much less be aware of it, or feel the strain she was placing upon her muscles as they were locked so rigidly into place. Truly, the girl couldn't even think to run, only stare and wait for the raptor to descend upon her and take her life. Then suddenly she could see nothing but twin rings of soft sunshine surrounded by a sea of darkness, and something soothing attempted to break through the barricade of her terror. She felt as though she were swimming against the current in attempts to regain her grip on the present, as though she were being left behind by time, and was slow to realize that it was Tomen who stood before her. Outside of the den in the open.

Still unable to register what he had said she could only feel another wave of horror drown her as she realized that she could no longer see the enemy, that he could be taking wing now to attack Tomen. She saw the boy vividly before her eyes trying to pull the eagle's thick talons from his neck as her mother had, his blood drenching the ground. With another loud cry she reared up on her hind legs and stretched her forelimbs out, wrapping them about the boy's neck to drag him backwards with her, into the safety of the den. In her rush, with adrenaline shaking her to the core, her brash action caused them both to tumble backward, out of the light and into the dirt of the den's depths. Landing on her side beside him, Nineva knocked the wind from herself, but the solid collision also brought her closer to reality once more.

"T-... Tomen?" she whimpered after she had righted herself, crawling on her belly to him. Fearfully her eyes cast toward the den's entrance, however she could see nothing but the glare of sunlight. With the threat out of sight, it was easier for her to regain control of herself, though the process was still slow going and she did not yet feel safe.

... it didn't seem to help much. Staring into her eyes, he saw little recognition or relief there, but then suddenly her expression changed and, somehow, her alarm increased. Tomen was about to glance back at the eagle to see if it had done anything to warrant her heightened panic when the grey girl suddenly rose up, arms outstretched. "Nin-!" he cried out in confusion and growing distress (it was hard not to, her panic was contagious) but then she had wrapped her limbs around him and together they fell, Nineva backwards and Tomen forwards, tumbling through the open mouth of the den and into the musky calm inside.

And somehow it was calm, for the shrieking which still rang in his ears had gone, and those wild, terrified eyes were gone. The wind was knocked out of him but Tomen tried to compose himself quickly just in case she was hurt too, because while he had suggested they come into the den, he hadn't quite planned like that... but when his golden eyes found her mismatched own, she was changed. "Nineva," he whispered back, quickly closing the space between them, coming to lay beside her, his flank pressed against hers. He opened his mouth to speak but closed it again, having no idea what to say - how to question what had happened, what on earth was going through her mind, was she okay now? Tentatively he glanced to the den's entrance, at the sunlight which lay beyond it, knowing that this was a fairly temporary solution. She couldn't hide in here all day.

It couldn't be healthy to react to a bird like that... but he had no idea how to ask her why, so instead he just stayed quiet, hoping that he'd done enough to help. Maybe once she calmed down she'd want to talk about it. Or not, he guessed that was okay too.

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

Her breathing was heavy and noisy within her own head, and her heart beat so hard it felt as though it wasn't even a part of her. A piece of her wanted to cry, while something deeper begged that she calm down, and torn between the two she could only shiver. It wasn't until she reached Tomen's warmth and heard him speak her name that she felt capable of grounding herself again. He pressed himself against her side, but it wasn't enough. Without thought she nosed at his elbow, forcing his limb up so that she might be even closer as she placed her shoulders beneath his chest and hid her snout beneath his farthest forearm.

They were both safe now, it could not get in here, and even if it did, there was not the space to allow it the advantages that almost took her life so many months ago. Most of all, she trusted that Tomen could defend her, that he would.

Her eyes were closed tightly as she focused again on her breathing, attempting to calm both it and her racing pulse. Her paws massaged the ground in hopes of releasing the tension and adrenaline from her veins as she repeated the sentiment like a mantra. We're safe, we're safe, we're safe.

"I'm sorry," she finally whispered; sorry that she had frozen and unable to defend herself, sorry that she had drawn the eagle here, sorry that he had to deal with protecting her at all, that he had needed to put himself in harm's way. She had never meant to be such trouble.

With nothing more than a small oof as she pushed her way underneath him, the sound a monosyllabic oh, this is how you want it, okay then, he let himself be maneuvered for her maximum security. He was practically laid over her front half, and carefully and awkwardly shifted his weight to try and minimise squishing her. Not that she seemed to care about that, so he settled down, heart beating with secondhand adrenaline, feeling a small thrill at the fact that she found safety in him and simultaneously incredibly guilty that he was deriving any pleasure from her terror. Bad Tomen.

Silence came over them as she calmed herself, because there was probably nothing he could say to help and he certainly wouldn't be able to think of it even if there was. Instead, he just waited for her to soothe, feeling her pulse slow and breathing become steady under him. He tried to strain his neck to peer out of the den's mouth to see if the eagle was still there but it was impossible to tell, and he wasn't about to move away to find out. It wasn't going to come into the den and right then, that's all that mattered.

Her meek apology drew his attention instantly back to the quietly trembling mess underneath him, and his ears pulled back in sadness for her. "Don't be," he said softly, mustering the courage to plant a gentle lick behind her ear, the rest of her head mostly hidden from view. But what was he supposed to say? It's not your fault? What was 'it'? He could remember the look on her face when first seeing Prudence, could connect the dots, but there was so much context missing. He couldn't begin to understand what she was experiencing. "Did, um," he started, then stopped, "I mean, are-", then stopped again, and he was super glad she couldn't see his face as he cringed and struggled. "Um. You don't - you don't have to talk about it if, if you don't want to. We can just stay in here."

(This post was last modified: Mar 20, 2016, 08:37 PM by Tomen.)

Everything about his presence, from the surety of his weight against her even to the way he did not seem to understand the threat, comforted her greatly. Still, she could not help but think of father, how safe she had always felt when he was near, and wish that @Ash was here. But he wasn't, and that was her own fault.

Don't be sorry? Oh, but she had so much to apologize for; if only he knew. Suddenly uncomfortable again, she shuffled further, forelimbs reaching out to hug his. That he didn't think the eagle a threat made it possible that the raptor wasn't anything to be afraid of, and that was a good thing which attempted to pull her courage out from under the crushing weight of her phobia. Yet as the fog of fear cleared and she was able to follow patterned thoughts once more, shame began to burn her cheeks.

"W-whuh-why aren't you scared?" she asked him. Her eyes raised to show their confusion but lowered as their position together would not allow her to find his gaze. "A-are... birds different here?"

Maybe that was it. Maybe the killer ones were only indigenous to the Caverns' neck of the woods. Yet that thing out there had looked damn near identical, and all over again she felt a thrill down her spine at the thought that it had traveled all this way simply to hunt her down. Was that crazy? She needed @Tomen to tell her.

He would have been content to sit in silence from then, acting as nothing more than a comforting force, a barrier between Nineva and the bird which perched somewhere outside, if it was even still there. Rationally, he could understand her fear; he knew that eagles could be dangerous, even to wolves, but only when young - and the both of them were too big now for even such a large bird to seriously consider, surely? Maybe if desperate, but Tomen had never seen it. His apprehension of them was more related to his need to protect Prudence, who did have every reason in the world to be wary of her fellow avian predator.

But he wasn't insensitive enough to tell Nineva she was being dumb. Whatever she was feeling, and whatever the reason for it, it looked very much real, so what could be gained from invalidating it? All he could do was try to reassure her that she was safe... and, from a selfish point of view, he didn't entirely mind laying down here all close and tangled with her for the indefinite future.

Her stuttering question told him a little, but it was only a hint of a larger story. "I don't think so," he said softly, touching his nose to the back of her ear, nudging it down to nuzzle gently at the back of her skull. It might have been better to lie and say, sure, birds are just balls of harmless fluff in this part of the forest, but he didn't want to patronise her - nor misrepresent the truth. Lying would just shelter her from whatever was causing her fear, and as an armchair psychologist, Tomen thought that wasn't in her best interests. Speaking slowly, carefully, he tried to mix reassuring with honest and as little patronisation or judgement as possible. "I've never been threatened by one... I guess I just, uh, haven't learned to be afraid of them. They're just... there. Maybe it's 'cause of Pru, I dunno. I have a different view of them. They don't bother me, I don't bother them." He'd already told her that she could talk about it if she wanted to, and didn't want to pressure her, no matter how curious he was about her intense reaction. If she just wanted to ask questions, that was fine. If she wanted to sit in silence, that was fine. They were fine.

Feel free to fade & archive with your post. <3

The way he spoke, from the timber of his voice to the pace he set with his words, continued to gently push her down this path of new consideration. With a soft sigh she began to relax her still-tensed muscles one by one until she was fully resting against him, muzzle draped just above the knot of her forelimbs and his at the crook of his leg and shoulder. Her own, starkly contrasting experience still held a strong presence within her head, but the feeling of being immediately threatened was now all but vanished. What Tomen had to say was giving her a lot to think about and consider.

Was it really possible that the horror she and her mother had gone through together had been just a fluke? It was a bittersweet thought, comforting in that it meant she was safe from this horrible thing that nagged at the back of her mind every time she heard the flapping of bird wings, but also somehow uneasing. She wanted to think it out, to reach some kind of answer, to know rather than wonder and worry, but just this event itself now had her so drained that she at last admitted defeat.

She would fret her way through it another time. Her eyes drifted close, and she didn't say a word more on the matter, instead listening as their breathing synced. Right now she was safe and warm and watched over, and that was enough.