Hollowheart Keep hollowed hearts

vaguely sometime after her nori encounter

She couldn't breathe.

The pain had settled in her chest and it wouldn't leave. A squeezed feeling within that felt like it pulsated with her heart. The realization that she had utterly messed up in a way that she was not certain how to rectify. Had that even been her in that moment? The last thing she had tasted had been blood and she was not sure that it had left her mouth since.

When it felt like she had seen the world again, she did not recognize it. Someone had once made a home here but now it was devoid of life, nestled silently against the mountainside and waiting to see life again. Maybe it didn't want to see life.

Regardless she crawled into an old and long abandoned rocky shelter, finding solace for the moment.

This place was creepy.

It was like there should be wolves here, but there weren't. Like once, a long time ago, this had been someone's home - now an empty forest. He was quiet as he padded through the gnarled trees, cautious and uneasy, until he found what looked to be an old den.

He was pretty good at finding these! Unfortunately for Morven, he wasn't the only one.

There was a new scent here - one he didn't recognize, but wolfish in nature. Hesitantly, he crawled to the entrance, tipping his head to the side. "Hello?" he called into the den, wondering if maybe he was intruding.

Her heart stopped and the pale of her eyes showed like rimmed moons. They might have even recommended her very name in that moment. She was scared that it was someone from the Cove. Then even more horrified to think that it might not be. Somehow she could not make up her mind on what she wanted.

Yet the voice did not hold the pointed weight of a disappointed adult. It sounded like herself. Younger and caught between the complicated worlds of childhood and adulthood.

Is this...yours?

It didn't matter if it was only him, if he was her age or not. If he said it was his then she hardly had the want to strike another fight up so soon after the last.

It was a girl, round his age. Black fur, pale eyes... scared. Morven's own eyes widened a little and he shook his head adamantly, setting his tail to wag. "Nope, not mine," he assured, concern for the girl outweighing his own caution for the moment.

He crawled a tiny bit closer, his head tipping and a crooked smile on his face. "You don't gotta look so scared," the boy said. If he was told to leave, he would have no problem doing so. Like this girl, he had absolutely no interest in a fight. "'M not gonna hurt you. Promise."

Tentatively, Morven rolled onto his back to show his belly, attempting to physically show he was no threat.

He was...soft.

So soft, so soft, so soft.

As if it was nothing he rolled over and exposed a delicate underside. If she had that same venom in her before, it would have been easy to strike. Yet an ugliness welled up within herself at the thought of it. How cruel had she been to even have a blip of a thought like that? Shame ran heavy enough that her eyes softly rimmed with tears now too.

Don't do that. Don't - Her voice was constricted by tightened vocal chords. She didn't want to see him like that, she didn't want to think of anyone so poorly again. Get up. C'mere. Now why had she gone and said that last part?

Maybe she wanted to see him for something more than just a punching bag. Be reminded of tendrils of humanity.

Morven startled at the sight of tears in the girl's eyes. His own widened in surprise and he rolled back onto his belly, concern driving him to listen to her. And this was probably such a bad idea, but she seemed so upset, and Morven hated when other wolves cried.

C'mere.

Brows knitted together further, a little nervous at the prospect of entering a relatively enclosed space with a stranger. But nothing bad had happened to him yet here, and she didn't seem sick or angry - just... real tired, and real sad.

Tentatively, the boy crawled into the den, tail giving a few low and slow wags. Still low to the ground and moving at a snail's pace, hoping he didn't seem like a threat himself, Morv carefully made his way to the distraught girl.

"What's the matter?" he asked, voice hushed. He just wanted to help, if he could, but something told him he might be out of his element here.

She focused on the little details, distractions in each one. The tip of his right ear seemed to come down in a peculiar manner. Distinct. Was it genetic like her own looks? It was easier to think about that instead of her own more perilous things.

His eyes had color, not bright but deep and rich. She focused on that. Their color of amber and how it was as if she had unearthed a gemstone in his dark face.

She found each good thing in him and took it out. For herself. Something good from others to replace all of the good it felt she lost.

Eclypse only realized too late that he had said something. Only she had not heard what and she had been staring for some time now. At him. Even if her gaze seemed glassy in a manner that suggested she was only partly there.

What?

Hardly a smooth recovery.

Morven wasn't sure how he felt about being studied like this. He took comfort in knowing the girl didn't seem to be fully... aware of what was going on. She had such pale eyes, peering out from a dark face. Morv suddenly remembered @Khalon asking after his cousin - Archer, if Morven remembered correctly - but this couldn't be Archer. Even if she had black fur and gray eyes and looked like she might cry.

His face felt warm by the time she spoke again, and he offered her a little smile, letting his tail thump on the ground a few times. The boy had little else to go off of except for he was currently being stared down by a pretty, sad-looking girl, and that was equal parts embarrassing and awkward. But Morven wasn't so easily deterred.

"Do you need some company?" he asked instead, and instead of waiting for a response, wormed his way into the den to lay beside her. Not touching, but close by enough to hopefully provide some solidarity. "I'm Morven, by the way."

(This post was last modified: Jun 16, 2024, 03:56 PM by Morven.)

Morven.

The young man with a kindness that Eclypse felt ugly in the face of. She would never forget him, no matter if his company was only for a minute or for months.

Months, now wasn't that a funny thought.

Yeah, She finally answered softly with a nod of her head. She scooched herself back some more, looking like a disheveled feral animal even if she had settled down some now. I'm Eclypse. The voice she spoke with felt far removed from herself but the introduction was out there all the same. Lacking her last names or her home.

Do you, um, need to be somewhere soon?

Was anyone out there waiting for him?

There was more silence. Morv wondered if this was what he was like after his parents passed, all listless and morose. Had something really bad happened to this girl? It must have, right? Maybe she had lost someone, too.

It made him want to be gentler. To handle the situation with care.

"Eclypse is a really pretty name," he complimented, tail sweeping behind him. She was pretty, too, he thought - even if now really wasn't the time for that kind of thing.

Do you, um, need to be somewhere soon?

Morven shook his head with a half-smile. "Nah," he denied. Then, cautiously, "Do you?"