Secret Woodlands falsify the life you're hiding

Open to all packmates!

RE -An ominous formation of undulatus asperatus seems to bode ill for the residents of Relic Lore.
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Fog
53 ° F, 12 ° C

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It was quiet here in the Woodlands, Paschal had found. Or, well, it would have been, for most wolves. Unfortunately, for the pale-furred man, his mind was anything but. The endless chatter from the millions of voices that rested behind his skull was almost overwhelming at times, and it was difficult for him to choose which ones to listen to. To be safe - mainly, to save his face and not accidentally maul a packmate to death at the request from one of his demons - he'd been sleeping away from the communal den. As a matter of fact, he'd hardly been sleeping at all.

The fog was dense that day, making the tangled underbrush even more difficult to weave his way through. But he managed, acting as a snake would and fitting carefully through miniscule openings and gaps in the obstacles before him. He was feeling quite a bit stifled and his head felt like it was about to explode, and he wanted to see the sky in order to help clear his mind - even slightly.

Finally, he did reach a small clearing in the trees where the sky was in full view and the fog dissipated. He exited the undergrowth and peered upward, expecting a blue summer sky.

His expectations were not met. The sky above him was rolling with dark clouds that appeared more like waves on an ocean. It nearly took the vessel's breath from his body; he froze, muzzle tipped up and pinkish eyes wide and slightly afraid as he attempted to read the sign that he would deem was sent to him from the voices themselves. Which, surprisingly, had all shushed at the sight of the unusual sky, making it all that more imposing to the white wolf.

"What are you trying to tell me?" he whispered, brows furrowed as he tried to make sense of it.

The dark young girl did what she thought was best for the pack. This usually consisted of doing patrols of the borders and hunting whenever the caches looked like they were running a little low. She looked after her brothers, though she wasn’t quite sure they needed looking after much anymore, especially since they were free to roam around the territory. Enia did not quite remember the age her littermates had felt comfortable leaving the territory but the Athesila yearling was sure that it had left their parents flustered, especially with their father ill and their mother left with the task to look after them. The Woodlands had gone through a rough patch but it felt like they were finally getting back on their feet. While Enia would have preferred to continue her round of the border, the weather seemed to have other plans. A thick fog hung heavy over the thickets and the young girl had no plans to get a thorn stuck in her paw, as she had learned time and time over again as a child. She moved through the thickets, being mindful of the ground below her. A voice ahead made her pause. Light brown eyes shifted up and narrowed. The young Athesila princess would have missed him had he not spoken, she was too focused on where she was stepping. Her head was turned upwards towards the sky and the girl had to pause, a frown forming on her lips as his words processed in her mind. Wide eyes did a quick sweep of the area, swiftly determining that there was no one else nearby. Is he addressing the sky? Curiosity piqued, the dark yearling stepped forward, swallowing to moisten her throat before she spoke. "Who are you talking to?" she questioned. Enia had never seen him in the communal den and had yet to see him in passing, though as she stepped forward and identified him, she was able to pinpoint that she had noticed his new scent around the territory recently. Who are you?

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

@Enia thank you for joining - I've been excited to thread with you for a long time now!

'Who are you talking to?'

His concentrated contemplation was broken - shattered like fragmented glass and tossed carelessly about the clearing. The pale wolf's head snapped around, briefly alarmed by the sudden intrusion. Rose-colored eyes fixed on the voice behind the question, and it only took him a heartbeat to assess the situation and get his brain back in order.

It was a girl, around a year or so younger than himself, with dark fur and eyes that were a stark contrast to Pax's own. And she was so tiny. It had been quite some time since he'd seen a wolf as small as her. He fixed the girl a small smile, his tail beginning to sway easily behind him. If he were to feel attraction to physical features of wolves, he might have called her pretty, in a unique way.

"Myself, mostly," he told her, taking a glance back up at the undulating clouds above. "The sky is quite odd today, it seems. I was simply trying to figure out what it is doing." A gentle chuckle slipped past his lips, betraying nothing of the fact that he had briefly been talking to psychotic voices in his mind. He looked back at the girl, brows raising a bit. "I apologize - I get into quite the habit of talking to myself. I understand that it is strange."

He cleared his throat and dipped his head, giving the girl a small bow. "Forgive me - I have yet to introduce myself. My name is Paschal, though I do prefer Pax," he explained, a smile still on his lips. He sniffed the air to catch her scent. "I expect that you're one of my new packmates? You do smell like Aideen." He wondered if, perhaps, the two were related in some way.

His eyes were an intriguing color and Enia found that her gaze was immediately drawn to them when he finally turned to look at her. His pale white fur was accompanied with light pink eyes that would draw in any onlooker. The man was larger than her, though that did not say much in retrospect. Enia was the runt of her litter and had remained so when she grew into her adult body. The yearling might have even gone as far to call the man handsome but her thoughts did not venture into that territory because his voice broke her train of thought. The Athesila peered innocently at the man in front of her as he answered her inquiry. When he turned away from her to face up towards the angry sky, she followed his gaze. The sky was doing something different that day but the young girl simply chalked it up to a bad storm that was coming and that was enough to comfort her. At an early age, Enia had found that storms were something that she liked, the rumble of thunder was something that calmed her and the lights that flashed across the sky would paint an almost eerie picture of the thickets that one couldn’t get any other time. And then the man apologized, once again snapping her out of her thoughts. Brown eyes landed back on the albino, eyebrows creasing in confusion. Before she could respond, however, he bowed, asked for her forgiveness – in the most gentlemanly way possible – and introduced himself. Enia finally ventured to step closer to him, the smile on his lips calming her nerves and offered him one of her own. It would have been rude to laugh at him, but she almost couldn’t help herself at his question. Instead, her eyes sparkled in his direction, her smile pulling up into a grin as she responded, "You could say that. I’m her daughter, Enia." She licked her lips before continuing, "It’s a pleasure to meet you, but you don’t have to apologize for anything. It gives you…character." Her tail waved neutrally behind her to show that she was at ease.

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

(This post was last modified: Aug 01, 2017, 11:56 PM by Enia.)

The girl accepted him easily enough, he noted as her tail started to sway easily behind her and she took a step closer to him. He wondered, if she had been older - more experienced, - would she have noticed that there wasn't something quite right about him? Something off, at his very core? Though he supposed that he'd tricked much more experienced and much more perceptive wolves in the past. It wasn't really something that he could hold against her character.

Besides, she seemed nice.

"Enia is a lovely name. I think it fits nicely," he complimented, his voice taking on a light tone that one might use when addressing someone in a more casual manner. Perhaps he and little Enia could be friends - or, at least, as close as he could get to a friend. The girl had a certain charm about her - that gentle, quiet behavior - that Paschal liked in wolves. For enemies, it meant that they usually were not as much of a threat. For neutrals, it meant that they were often more compliant. Both of which were good, in Pax's mind.

The younger wolf mentioned that he did not have to apologize, and that his little bouts of talking to himself gave him something she referred to as 'character.' An interesting way to put Paschal's personality, but not one that he hadn't heard before. "So I've been told," he chuckled lightheartedly, tail starting to sway behind him, as well. Mirroring her own, in a way.

He cleared his throat and sought out her brown eyes, hoping to get a bit of conversation going. "So," he began, angling his ears toward her. "I'm sure that you can tell, but I am rather new around here. You must tell me - how do you Woodlands wolves get through all of this dense forest so easily?" The albino tipped his head to the side, genuinely interested. "I've more thorns embedded in my right forepaw than I have whiskers on my muzzle."

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

Compliments were a new concept to Enia – at least when it wasn’t centered around her work ethic. Being surrounded by her family left little to the imagination and little to be said. The dark yearling knew that her family loved her and she did not need them complimenting her physical traits, or her name, for her to know that. What she did appreciate was the feeling of self-achievement received when her parents told her how well she was doing and to keep doing it. It was encouraging. When Pax’s voice greeted her ears, she flushed a deep crimson, her body growing hot. For once, Enia was grateful for her dark coat. Meekly, she uttered a soft, "Thank you", her eyes downcast before she looked back up towards his intriguing paly pinks. When he chuckled, Enia finally ventured to close the distance between them. He seemed nice enough. Kindness was always the first quality the girl looked for in, well, anyone. The youngest daughter of the Athesila’s sat a friendly enough distance away from the white lad, brown eyes locking with her own pink gaze. Dark ears twitched forward to hear what he had to say, curiosity burning untethered in her gaze. For a moment, her eyebrows creased together in confusion before they shot up in understanding. The dark yearling hadn’t really thought about it much since she had grown up in the Woodlands, but he was right. Pax’s added addition to his question caused light bubbly laughter to escape from Enia’s paw, her head bobbing up and down in confirmation to his words. A light smile pulled on her lips, jaws parting, "I know what you mean! In my first few months out of the den, I was stepping on thorns left and right." She took a deep breath, taking a moment to collect herself, eyes shining up at the pale man in front of her. She hummed quietly to herself, before continuing, "I guess you just learn from trial and error. You learn t’ watch where you’re stepping and where you’re going at the same time after a while." She had learned quickly. Enia preferred keeping her paws thorn free and being extra observant never hurt anyone. However, another thought occurred to Enia. Her eyebrows furrowed once again, "You’re not gonna leave us, right?" Just because of some stupid thorns. Cinaed had left, what was keeping anyone else from doing the same?

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

His compliments and jokes were taken quite easily enough. The compliment was taken in a shy manner, and Pax smiled slightly - more genuinely than most times that he smiled. How odd that he actually considered this girl amusing. Then she moved closer and sat nearby, showing that she was comfortable with his presence. That was rather easy, if he was going to be bluntly honest. But regardless, it was nice to know that his little façade was working, and he decided to take the opportunity to lay down sphinx-like before her, placing his paws neatly in front of him. Because there was no reason for him to fear her, either.

The joke was received with girlish giggles and a lighthearted humor that Pax no longer contained within him. Perhaps he never had it in the first place. But the sound still lit up a soft, gentle feeling within his chest that he'd be willing to attribute to the emotion that would eventually lead to something known as a crush. Any normal, fully-functioning young man would be charmed by the little wolf that sat in front of him now.

But Pax was no normal, fully-functioning young man.

She returned his joke with a little story of her puphood, and Pax's eyes softened just a bit. "Well, I'd say that a young child stepping on thorns would be much more understandable than a full-grown wolf," he lilted in response, maw canting slightly to the side. "I will keep that in mind, though. Multitasking like that has never been something I was good at." Which was absolutely true - with all of the voices screaming in his head, it was hard to pay attention to anything else. These thorns were going to end up being hell.

Then the girl surprised him with a question. 'You’re not gonna leave us, right?' Rose-colored eyes turned up to her browns and he frowned, turning the inquiry over in his mind. It honestly sounded like a lot of commitment, and that caused a bubble of anxiety to rise in the white wolf's stomach. He tried to give the voices enough time to speak to him - to give him their input on what he was supposed to say. Because, really, all of his actions and life-changing decisions were made by them. However, they didn't seem to be willing to speak to him, and so his whirring mind acted against his best judgment and allowed his mouth to run.

"That's kind of a big question to ask," he said, attempting to keep the nervousness away from his tone, a smile trying to work back onto his lips. Then he calmed down rapidly, taking a deep breath and letting it go. Where had that anxiety come from? "But, to answer, no. I have no plans to leave." Which was true, but he was mostly saying it to reassure her. It kind of seemed like she needed it.

He had a nice smile. The yearling decided then that she would make it a goal to make the older man smile as much as she could. Even at a young stage in life, Enia had yet to find any wrong with the world – aside from her brother’s departure – and was quite innocent to the workings of what happened outside of pack life. Had Pax been a danger to her, the dark Athesila would have been none the wiser. The young girl was glad that her new pack mate was getting accustomed to her though, even showing that he too was comfortable, stretching out in front of her. Light brown eyes followed his movements before settling back on his eyes. The Athesila was glad that she could offer him some insight into the best way to getting around the thickets, even if it wasn’t really even any advice at all. The pale male took a moment to consider her question and for a moment Enia believed it to be speculation as to if he would be remaining with them or not. It would be disappointing to see him go, he seemed so kind! At his first attempt at a response, Enia’s eyebrows creased in immediate concern. Was loyalty not a primary aspect of pack life? Her father sure seemed to reiterate it throughout her childhood and it was hard to think of a life without such structure in it. Paschal was quick to reassure her that he did not have any intentions of leaving. The sentiment returned the bright smile to her lips, lighting up her eyes. Her voice was light when she spoke, "I’m glad! I know my father would appreciate that too." Eyes softened onto the pale form of her companion, who she now could consider a friend. While her parents might have thought of Paschal as just another number to their ranks, Enia knew that there was another layer underneath it. He could be valued for something other than the extra paws and scent markings. After all, he was unique in his own way, just as any individual is.

Burtn @DA & Dawnthieves.de

Normally, Pax would have been a danger to the younger wolf. Normally, in this sense, being that his stupid young wolf hormones were picking up and telling him that she was adorable. It was simple biology, and he felt rather stupid for giving in so easily to such basic needs and desires. Though, of course, these needs weren't driving him to simply ravage the girl. No - his were suggesting even more idiotic things, such as being kind to her and doing things that lovesick, weak wolves would do.

How stupid. How embarrassing. He would never.

"I haven't met your father yet, I don't think," he said with a dip of his head, his ears flicking back and forth in interest as he watched the girl. "What is he like?" He wanted to know if he needed to act a certain way around the alpha male - if he would be punished otherwise for bad behavior.