Fool's Gold Chasm a little less lonely together

It hadn't made her feel any better. Perhaps it was because she ended up not getting the solitude she'd wanted, maybe it's because relief wouldn't come until this horrid month was over. Woya couldn't help but fear it was never going to stop, now that it had finally sunk its teeth in. Not the estrous, but all of the emotion. For now, it had settled again on rage. She stormed back into the pack's territory as though on a mission, and promptly began to scuff the bark of trees with her flanks and furiously tamp down new growth with stomping paws.

Mine, her mind echoed with each action. This is mine, and this. Mine, mine. Mine. Also mine.

She ravaged a path like that, practically cutting her way through the forest, and none of it helped. It was never going to help.

In the hormonal heat of the season, Adelard, too, was growing crankier and crankier. It wasn't, per se, because he had nothing to do or no one to be 'twitterpated' about, but he simply wanted security. He wanted the women to stay put. He wanted the soon-to-be yearlings to hunker down and wait the season out in the Chasm den. He wanted the cold and stillness of snow and frost again.

Beneath his shedding winter coat, his skin burned. In sunlight, his eyes smoldered like ignited coals. The red of his ears and guard hairs further emphasized the particular mood he was in. His paws traced the borders where Woya had been just moments before him. Everywhere she had stamped her paws, he also left his mark. Every so often, at the base of a tree, he even lifted his leg to underscore his presence at the territory's edge.

He had been in his head when his eyes came to settle at Woya's pale-furred backside. A couple of forced blinks helped him refocus. For a time, he watched her stomp about. The itch in his limbs fell away for the briefest of moments. Seemed like he wasn't the only one in such a mood.

His ears softened, though they maintained their forward position. At his back, his tail lashed once from one side to the other before he cleared his throat. "S'there a problem here?" his voice was gruff, gravelly despite how smooth the words came off his tongue.

         

ADELARD

heat stroke, bring the fire black smoke, I take it higher

She didn't notice his following until he spoke. Another's voice was a shock, and she whipped around with every intention of defending herself. It wasn't that she didn't trust the man, but rather a burst of instinct that took hold. When her honeyed eyes confirmed it was Adelard, she softened, but only from being ready to tear out his throat to being ready to see him cry. The only ones currently safe from her wrath were the children, and she was thankful for once that they weren't around to temper her tongue. If she didn't get the fire out, it was going to burn her alive - that was becoming irrefutable.

Is there a problem, he had asked.

"Yeah, fuckin' hundreds but clearly I'm the only one done pretending otherwise."

Whether or not he actually deserved the accusation or her ire were not aspects of thought she currently entertained. If he wanted to know, she would tell him, no punches held.

(This post was last modified: Mar 12, 2022, 07:04 PM by Eros.)

Woya said there were hundreds of problems and that she was the only one doing anything about them. To call Adelard ignorant was one thing, but this little sting was but a mosquito bite. As Leader, he did whatever he could to keep himself from becoming his lazy, snobbish father - and, he knew it. He had no need for validation or care for criticism.

Her words went over him like water off a duck's back and he advanced on her. Given his height and subspecies, he easily towered over her. Yet, there was no aggression in his intimidation. He stared at her with a raised brow but he did not smile or smirk. Woya was not Woya unless she was ablaze with her emotions. It was comforting, to say the least.

A subtle tilt of his head almost dared her to make a move. "You calling me out?" he half-teased, his right paw raised as if ready to take another step forward into her personal space.

         

ADELARD

heat stroke, bring the fire black smoke, I take it higher

A large part of her wanted to be met with the same kind of anger, to get a rise out of another as she'd managed with @Sunder. It was something she was very familiar with, a comfort in itself that also lent a sense of control she felt she desperately needed at this time. Adelard did not give her that, and she scowled over it. The expression only deepened as he made to crowd her, his larger frame easily dwarfing her. She tilted her head back so as to keep her burning eyes fixed on his, refusing to budge an inch.

"I think you pretend," she decided, each word far from cold as she had hoped they would be. Emotion gilded every one of them.

"And you want us to do the same. It's easier, isn't it, lying to yourself?"

Just like it was easier now for her to pretend to hate his protection instead of focusing on all the ways she was genuinely thankful for it.

"I think you pretend," another nip of her tongue. "And you want us to do the same. It's easier, isn't it, lying to yourself?" Her tone had turned to poison, her every word delivered at the tail rattle and bite of a coiled snake.

Golden eyes kept her glare. Gone was the woman who had helped him chase out a thieving raccoon. The playful sprite and stalwart guardian crumbling away to reveal a soul of hells' fire. "Of course it is," he dragged the words through his teeth with a hiss. His fur began to bristle again, a tiny mountain of tufts standing on edge between his shoulder blades. It was obvious pheromones were thick in the air between them now.

A sudden growl emitted from him. His voice lowered so only the two of them would hear, "But, d'you think having to mask my feelings is any better? That I like living like this? With you constantly out of my reach?"

         

ADELARD

heat stroke, bring the fire black smoke, I take it higher

There was something she could sink her teeth into, an admission that might open the gates. 'Of course it is.' She hung on his every word, eager for things to go her way and to finally be granted an outlet for everything she'd been stifling this past year.

Underneath the embers, untouchable by her rage, was the belief that Adelard really could help her through this, that the vicious torrent of her fears and injuries could be withstood by him. When she looked at him, she saw an anchor, but perhaps that was unfair of her, of all of them. They had tethered themselves to him as though he were some immovable boulder and not just another pebble awash in the mess Hudson's absence had left them.

Then he turned the conversation on his head, the hushed declaration emptying her completely of thought and feeling. Stunned, she blinked back at him, as though she might be able to read within his gaze just how much he meant those words.

"... not you too," she finally mustered, breaking eye contact and gritting her fangs as her cheeks heated against her will. The blaze was smothered by an uncharacteristic shyness, and she loathed it, but wit and will were both failing her.

"It's just the heat. You don't mean that."

*tsundere alarm bells start*

"... not you too."

Ridges and wrinkles formed along his muzzle, his brows knit together as her eyes left his face. What had once been hellish blazes dwindled down into tiny flames. Adelard could feel the whole of his body tense, his banner of a tail rising.

"It's just the heat. You don't mean that."

Just, she had said.

Invisible figurative wafts of smoke bit at his nostrils as Woya shied away. Adelard stifled the snarl that was building his throat. He had expected and prepared for the opposite. He had wanted her to, well, do as she did... in her own feisty fashion. A bite, a swipe, a shove, a pull of his ruff... Someone other than his sister had to keep him on track.

In one fluid movement, he stepped into her line of sight. His scowl had melted away, but everything about him demanded that she look back at him. He scoffed, "Oh, so you're also callin' me a liar?" His own jaw jumped. "I didn't say that I appreciated you to hear it back." Ya know, he left out, back when Sawyer first came to visit. "I said it to make sure you knew."

*just alarm sounds*

         

ADELARD

heat stroke, bring the fire black smoke, I take it higher

Her eyes widened with surprise once again as he moved, seeking his features out of impulse. Woya remained focused on them this time, however, as Adelard spoke. Measuring every inflection granted. This had swiftly turned into quite the opposite of what she had been seeking, but her resolve began to build back up as he insisted there was something more.

Maybe she wouldn't find her catharsis today - that could be okay. Maybe it was his turn. Had he ever had that, with any of them? The chance to be the one leaning, for once?

I didn't say that I appreciated you to hear it back he claimed, eliciting a frown to form upon her pale cheeks. It grew to a scowl, eyes closing long enough for her shake her head in disagreement.

"Yeah, I fuckin' knew you appreciate me, that can mean a thousand things. Like, glad yer around, happy to have yer help,  friend, pal-," she stopped herself, fixing him with a glare once more. It wasn't the seething that had previously lit her up, attempting to antagonize. It simply demanded honesty, elaboration, something more than this... stalling. He was a smart man. He hadn't actually expected her to read into those words all those months ago. Woya was confident of that.

"You just spoke like," her tongue couldn't wrap itself around the words, 'like you want me,' and she fought to come up with something different, "like, I don't know. Just explain it. Just... give me something real, because I'm tired of pretty and careful and scared to feel."

She didn't care if it was ugly and loud or even if the truth was just that he really had not a clue what he was doing or saying, she just wanted raw over refined.

She told him that she knew and that what he had said could have meant many things. She even had to stop herself. A smug grin tugged at one side of his maw as she returned to glowering at him. "You just spoke like," she started. His mouth parted enough for his mouth to make an 'o' shape, his black-lined lips underlined the bottom half of it. His brows rose. She stated she didn't know, then told him to explain it. To give her something real.

For a time, Adelard studied her. "What is there to explain?" He eased up, leaning away from her and allowing his ears to relax. It dawned on him then that he hadn't been clear all along.

She didn't notice when he had chosen to be at her side. He might not have meant to be so harsh, but his concern for her safety was relayed with a grumble and a protective paw. He valued her drive as the both of them bounded off to drive away a trespassing bobcat. And, he had cared for her even then when he egged her on when they had first met over a raccoon chase.

But, maybe this was how it was supposed to be. He was a nerd, after all. By dictionary definition, he was foolish and contemptible and sorely lacking social skills. That meant he was capable of giving her some sort of clarification to what was happening here and now.

If it weren't for the daggers in her eyes, he would have laughed. His tone, instead, grew stoic. It was characteristic of the Adelard that had first stepped into Huddy's place. "You don't see, do you?" if it weren't for the softness of his words, the question could have been taken as a jibe, an insult. He sat down with a thud of his rump on the forest floor. Now was a test of patience. Who would snap first...

"I..." He gave his head a small shake, words of two languages spiraling together. "I can lose everything, Woya, but not you." The edges of his nose began to scald. "Gods," he breathed, already loathing the idea, "not you."

         

ADELARD

heat stroke, bring the fire black smoke, I take it higher