Kingsfall turn your back on mother nature

For @Isla.

Lucian had never seen trees so tall. He found himself walking often with his head tilted back, staring up at the impossibly-far canopy, even though it caused it him to trip several times. He just, kept falling back into it without even realizing, thoroughly taken in by the experience of witnessing something living that was so much larger than himself. How long must they have stood, to achieve growing to such heights?

Lu's paw caught a root and down he went again, not even taken by surprise this time. His body relaxed into it, allowing him to tumble and roll without injury, much less insult. In fact, a sunny chuckle could be heard as he landed in a ball amongst verdant brush. Careless, he'd been called before. What was there to be bothered by, though? Sure, his stomach ached with hunger and he couldn't quite remember the last time he'd truly felt rested, but look where a little sacrifice had gotten him!

The yearling unfurled onto his back, still staring up at those towering redwoods with no shortage of reverence. It was a good place to be. He could feel it in his bones. Lu was getting closer and closer to where he wanted to be.

(This post was last modified: Aug 04, 2024, 02:37 AM by Lucian.)

Soon the boys would wish to walk further, she imagined. Only walking through the woods proved to her how solitary their so called Paradise was. No alliances forged in the neighboring territories and no discussion of children visiting one another. Granted she would be oh so very hesitant to partake in any kind of pup exchange after her own sister’s demise.

How odd to still trace all her own roots there.

Did all of these trees roots connect in one place too?

Here she found a yearling sprawled on the ground and she wondered if he had been lost in thought among the trees too. It was a rather kind thought of her to have, but perhaps he was spared her cruelest by the confidence she had begun to feel in her place.

”Are you a traveler?”

Maybe she could send him on an errand and wonder if it would ever be completed. Whimsical.

An unexpected voice entered the air, gripping him away from his observational musings. Lu's dark head lifted, but it was far more difficult to peer upward at this angle than to look downward, putting him at a blurry disadvantage. The matter didn't cause him any worry, though. He considered her question, smile lifting at a crooked cant. Lucian rather liked the sound of that, much better than the 'rogue' and 'loner' he'd been referred to as thus far.

He squirmed off his back and onto his side, propping himself up on elbow to better face the young adult as he answered.

"I am. Are you a stayer?"

Her scent told him that she lived amongst others.

A stayer.

Once the thought or concept of it would have disgusted her in such a sharp fashion. Instead it only invited her to look inward at herself and think of all the time she had spent within the Falls now. Long enough that she now bore Valles to their claim.

Unexpectedly so, She had no shame is saying such. It had happened, it had benefitted her greatly. Fierce Valles would grow thanks to her and she had only just begun to establish herself in ways beyond that too. Would her father be proud? Had her mother once wished for the same?

The boy had made her melancholic in a way she had not expected. One simple word.

Where are you off to?

Her answer wasn't as simple as two words usually were. Lucian's ears lifted with interest, for he was the kind of wolf that would happily listen to any and every stranger's life story when given the chance. This woman was reading as cool and mysterious so far, though; not likely to show all her cards. That was okay too.

She asked about him again, and once more that toothy little grin made an appearance. It was the natural, consistent back and forth of his features, from unfiltered and rapt attention to reflexively beaming back at the spotlight as it turned to blind him once more. Like he'd forget that he was an active part of the conversation himself.

"Oh, I don't know," he answered, his voice taking on an almost teasing-lilt. It was excitement, and it sparkled across his eyes as he turned fully onto his stomach and stretched his forelimbs far. His hindlegs pushed, and he puttered closer to her positioned just like that, smiling wide as though he was about to share a thrilling secret.

"It could be anywhere."

And wasn't that the best part? That word hung in the air for a heartbeat, to be fully appreciated.

"But, between you and me, when I do get there?" another little pause, wherein his tail began to wag, "I'll become a stayer too."

She admired his carefree behavior. How he teased and stretched like a feline in the sun. Would she have ever turned out like that if things had not gone sour so young? Somehow she doubted it. No Valles seemed to be made up of sunshine and awe.

"Be careful," She practically purred the words and her eyes dazzled with something warmer than the warning. "It'll happen before you know it. A little winter shelter turns into a place to stay forever, or seeing someone familiar turns into a home."

She hunched over and stretched her neck out, as if she might meet him half way.