Magnolia Glen 'Tis a pity she was a...

Clueless as to what it was that kept dragging her back to these lands, even Eek was not oblivious to the signal of the lengthening days and warming nights. She had set up camp in what had once been the main pack den of Magnolia Glen, the only home she had ever managed to worm her way into. Her dreams had almost been realised then, the alpha dependent on her remedies, oblivious to the poison the wretched slip was feeding her. But then? then...

She ripped herself from that train of thought with a shake of her head and a snort, letting silver eyes once again roam over the commodious abode she had reclaimed from an errant coyote. Small though she was she still managed to intimidate the scavenger with a few well placed snaps of her jaws.

But the day was wasting away and so the dark wolf rose onto her paws, slinking towards the dens entrance. Her home should be safe until she returned, the audible rumble of her stomach reminding her it would do her no good to enter her heat in less than peak physical condition. It would happen this year, it had to. She had waited long enough.

(This post was last modified: Mar 07, 2016, 03:20 AM by Eek.)

tosses in the big bad Eirian ;)

He was going insane, he just knew it and he needed out. The naturally aggressive male had begun to feel the familiar changes within his body from the gradual surge in his testosterone levels warranting the dark agouti brute to increase his already frequent sprays of urine along the borders to finding the female population of the pack slightly more appealing than usual, the tantalizing perfume and signals they were beginning to broadcast and stain the territory with not helping his case. Eirian normally found none of the women attractive in the least considering none of them were of pure eastern timber descent, yet he couldn't suppress the feral urge to assert his dominance over the other males to deter them from daring to try anything foolish and provide his company to the heat riddled vixens. Often this only led to him receiving snaps of disapproval. Their scents portrayed one story, but their actions told another. The entire ordeal was maddening!

Thus today powerful cream limbs sought a place untainted by the smell of estrus enraged females all too eager to bite his face off and offered relief to the heat that pooled in the pit of his stomach among other places. His spontaneous journey eventually leading the young male in his prime to a portion along Relic Lore's Red Fern Forest's borders unexplored by the temporary Pines patriarch. Before him laid a small serene valley with an assortment of trees that varied from the familiar cedar and redwood that created a vast majority of his home, the first pink blemishes beginning to grace the once barren canopies. Curious, Eirian descended along one of the oddly worn paths leading down through the border of trees while russet hued audits listened attentively to his unknown surroundings.

At first the leisure drop into the valley provided nothing of interest for the man. Ebony nose snuffling at various root systems, holes and crevices that could have once housed wolves, but any indicating scents that could have revealed the history of this place long since erased with time only to be covered by the stench of coyotes and other minor predators that claimed the old dens for themselves. Various scat piles scattered about proof enough of their presence. Only when the most peculiar of scents filled his nostrils, though, did his interest pique exponentially. Inhaling deeply there was no mistaking it was wolf by nature, but what fascinated the Asurn the most was the delicate hint of heat beginning to make its appearance. Casually a coral tongue glided across the expanse of his lips, paws following the fading scent trail towards its source. Hadn't he been trying to avoid females today hence the reason for this escape? And just when he thought he was in the clear.. Damn these women!

@Eirian

A leisurely stretch, stump tilting up in a way that would have curled Eek's tail up over her back to flap about foolishly had she one left. Childish eyes darted about wildly as she considered the possibilities. Her inability to find a child had left her with an even more primal desire to find a pack but what were her chances truly? Magnolia Glen was gone, Silent Moon Plateau had vanished, even that pack in the creepy woods had evaporated. Her detachment had its advantages, she was all but a stranger here again, she just had to search for the silver lining so the loneliness didn't consume her.

Eek had seen these Magnolia's in all their glory and she had to remind herself that just like them, she would flower yet. The feeling of nails raking down her spine let her know it wouldn't be long now, she just had to be patient, and then they would come to her. They always did. Mercurial eyes lowered to look over the woods around her trying to pick a direction to go today when finally a distant movement caught her eye. Had the scavenger returned to claim back the den that had been stolen from it? No. It was a wolf!

What was left of her tail didn't offer much of a flag so her hips took up an excited wiggle in its absence, back end tip-toeing as she unleashed an excited yip. Over here! Here I am! she broadcasted excitedly, eyes darting to and fro while a salmon tongue dragged across her ebony nose. Company! It had been too long.

Head lodged within the confines of yet another abandoned den littered with nothing but the remnants of shed fur long ago and the stench of coyotes from more recent days, the excited yip that registered came as quite the surprise to Eirian. Receding from the empty burrow, tangerine optics scoured the surrounding landscape for signs of the yips creator with little luck until a pitch black smudge caught his attention on the neighboring horizon, the angle of the gentle breeze and his current location in correlation to the figure preventing him from discovering the other wolf sooner. Was this whom he smelt so sweetly on the air?

Curiosity pumped through his veins as muscled creamy limbs surged forth to interject this stranger's path, a bark of his own bouncing off the magnolia trees and their blossoming foliage to reassure the excited woman that she had been heard. Gradually the distance between them melted with each powerful stride the dark agouti male took, a pale brow quirking upward in further curiosity once enough of the figure became clear to notice the stub where a plush tail should have been situated. Now, what could have warranted that to happen? Eirian's curiosity was piqued at an all time high. "Hello there." A soft, masculine voice uttered from between his slightly parted lips, the charcoal dusted appendage at his rump lifting to flag above his rear in a neutral display of greeting.

Eek flashed her most brilliant smile, her slight form folding down as she danced towards the stranger like a starving child looking for a scrap of meat. "Hello!" she cooed back, nose reaching out to sniff at his fur, while her obvious nerves kept her highly strung enough to dart away should he choose to lash out. Gathering the mingled scents of others she pulled back a step, had someone else claimed the magnolias as their own? She would have to be on her best behaviour.

There it was again, the raking of nails down her spine, like some low hanging branch. It made her whole body shudder, but with the way her paws refused to keep their place on the earth (like a cat dancing on a hot plate), it would be difficult to discern whether the motion came from excitement, desire or fear. Her nose stretched forward again, stopping just short of allowing the fine furs to brush over her snout. "You have a pack nearby?" she finally questioned, her hips still swaying to compensate for her stump of a tail. With her ears folded against her skull and her head tipped up to stare at the underside of his chin she looked harmless enough, perhaps he might even think her a displaced omega. If only he knew.

A rounded ear twitched idly at the cooed back greeting, chiseled frame remaining motionless in its place as the smaller built woman rapidly approached with an eagerness to dive her coal black nose into the rusty strands of fur that adorned his body. Eirian's own snout allowing only a minor brush to her side in passing to acquire what knowledge he hadn't already deciphered from a visual standpoint. The now strengthened aroma that lingered heavily upon her pelt due to their close proximity warranting a seeping warmth into the pit of his stomach and an unwelcome twist of his gut that reminded him he had to tread carefully for anything could happen when one allowed the lust of the season to guide their every whim. It was much too soon to foolishly spread the Asurn bloodline into these parts.

Only when the shadow at his side suddenly reigned her energy in a fraction to take a step back; no doubt a reaction to the concoction of other scents mingling with his personal cologne, did Eirian cast a blazing citrus gaze upon her swarthy countenance to gauge the reaction present. It seemed there was no shortage of energy for the older Timber female as her paws appeared incapable of holding their place upon the ground for any amount of time that exceeded a few seconds at most, her dark snout once more finding its way into the outer layer of his winter pelt. Finally a question fell from her mouth in regards to the scents that intertwined upon his pelt, rounded russet ears pricking forward while the female's own adopted a position toward the back of her skull. Body still writhing before him in whatever emotion possessed her in that moment. Did she ever stay still?

A hushed laugh left the dark agouti male shortly after her curious question, the faintest hint of a smile even daring to break the neutral expression his cream and russet countenance once held. "Indeed. I'm the lead male of a pack just a little ways North West from here, actually." Eirian informed, a tone of pride thickly coating his words at having the ability to utter such a glorious statement even if he was only a temporary patriarch. What the woman before him now didn't know couldn't hurt her. He was still a king in his own opinion. Having noticed no stench of others upon her own frame it left a question of his own to burn at the tip of his tongue until it was released, a brow quirking upward in curiosity. "Now what is a pretty little thing like yourself doing out here all by your lonesome?" The level of flirtatiousness was a bit much, but a woman loved to hear such sweet nothings did she not and in all honesty she was the first pretty thing he had seen in awhile. Her unmistakable, pure genetics inescapable to a wolf such as himself with an eye so well trained for spotting perfection. A true masterpiece she was.

The lead male... Oh! She had been so stupid, of course he was the leader. Were all leaders in these lands so young though? Her thoughts flicked briefly to Lucero. Either leaders were very young because wolves didn't live to be very old in these parts or their elders didn't know how to keep their younger members in line. Either of which she didn't mind. Perhaps if that were the case back home she would still have a tail. But a leader. It was enough to make her weak at the knees but he had more to say so she held her ground for just a little longer.

It had to be that question. A pained expression crossed her face as she all but fell to the ground, her pitiful expression matched with an equally pitiful tone as she tried to wriggle closer to his toes, the whites of her eyes showing as she looked up at her saviour. "I-I... got lost." she sobbed. "I went over the mountain to gather herbs at the start of winter, my leader, she was injured..." it was a woeful tale to be sure. "There was a storm and I couldn't get home. I tried and I tried but I couldn't get back and when I did..." She looked over her shoulder to the trees that surrounded them, the movement of her head enough to roll her whole body onto her back. Usually she would be against such obvious displays of submission, but she was desperate.

"I just want to be part of a family again." she sobbed. While loner life suited her just fine, the cushy life of a pack wolf was what she was sorely craving right now.

A pained expression manifested itself onto the smaller wolf's facial features not long after his question was asked, russet ears momentarily finding themselves pressed backwards having brought on such pain to such a beautiful creature. Soon enough, though, she began her woeful tail of how she came to find this place and a rounded ear listened intently to each word uttered while brightly lit gaze studied her every action. Every syllable that dropped off her sweet salmon tongue was followed by a further display of submission until Eirian could feel the course strands of her stark black fur brush against the creamy counterparts of his toes. Oh what a beautiful sight it was to see her in all her submissive glory, bowing down to him the regal king. A shiver almost coursed its way along his spine as he had thoughts of asserting his dominance over her during her moment of vulnerability, but self control kept his body in place while he continued to watch her, jaws clamped shut in silence until her last statement caught his attention.

So she wanted family, hm? A wry smirk tugged subtly at the corner of his ivory furred lips. In his power, Eirian could easily provide such a gift to the woman at his feet. A broken, dysfunctional family in his opinion of the Pines wolves, but regardless of their flaws they could still serve a purpose. Even if they merely allowed him a temporary location to gather his flock of followers, it was a start. His quest here had only just begun after all and it would appear that Eek could possibly be his first recruitment. The wry smirk soon twisted into a feigned frown, coaxing as much pity as he could muster into his voice, adopting a honeyed tone. "Oh you poor thing. How unfair of mother nature to tear you apart from them." Pausing his words, his skull lowered to nuzzle the top of his snout against the fur of her chest as if the motion could sooth her pain. Like he really cared. "Why don't you come home with me, hm? I can give you a better life than living out here all alone. I can give you a new family." Bait laid on the table Eirian peeled his head away and took a couple steps back to give the woman room to stand should she wish to. Anticipation of her hopefully yes answer he would receive internally making the patriarch feel like a kid waiting for a glorious surprise.

(This post was last modified: Apr 20, 2016, 12:18 AM by Eirian.)

we stopped checking for monsters under our beds
when we realised they were inside us

The only unfairness was in the loss of Borlla's children. They were supposed to be hers, everything had been going so well until that fucking mountain froze over, protecting the pale woman like some noble guardian. She would never make that mistake again... but this time? Everything was going according to plan. Pity earned, a warmth flooded the pit of her stomach, ears though folded straining to hear his next statement roll off cream tinted lips as though it had been his own idea all along. That was how she liked it after all. Heaven forbid anyone ever catch on to her true nature. She wriggled into his touch like an excited child. Maybe if he knew her better, he would be more likely to recognise it as the movement of a snake.

Almost.

There was something in the way he said new that caught her attention, rolling to rest on her forepaws, chin lifting to rest her silver eyes somewhere by his jaw. "I know herbs," she offered, not going so far as to profess herself a healer as she had when she was dealing with Lucero. "and I've managed to survive this long..." Obviously she could feed herself and nobody had killed her yet. Still, there was something about the way other scents danced across his coat, none stood out more than the next. Could it be? Eyes wide and rump wriggling against the ground she mustered her best clueless idiot voice. "Will your mate be having children this year?"

Almost done <3

And indeed it seemed that a yes was to be her answer as Eirian stepped back to give the elder woman room to adjust herself, rounded ears pricking forward when she began spewing her acclaimed knowledge of herbs. A fact the dark agouti man would have snorted at had the dark coated woman not been deemed a valuable asset to his brewing plans. Back home there was no need for such practices the old, injured and weak granted one of three choices; be chased out from the pack, be executed, or leave of their own free will which was the more honorable choice, but each inevitably spelling out their own doom. Here, Eirian would hold his future pack to the same standards. Nothing less would be acceptable.

But for now he had to keep the woman on his side, nodding appropriately when she praised herself for having survived this long; having already taken note of her age upon their first few seconds of greeting. Eek would only serve as a valuable pawn for him for a year or two at most, but that was still long enough to be her saving grace.

Then a question of her own flitted off inky lips and at first the Asurn wanted to laugh in her face at such an idea. He be mates with Iopah let alone have children with her?! It took quite the dose of self control to keep his face stoic following her inquiry. Subtly he shook his head, dragging his tongue over his partially dried lips before answering upon her question. "No, I'm afraid there will be no children this season that I am aware of considering I do not have a mate and as for the lead female her mate is nowhere to be found, but there are children from last year present."  In all honesty Eirian was quite glad there was to be no cubs this year. No cubs meant no abominations he would be forced to care for. "But how about you follow me back and see them for yourself? I'm Eirian, by the way." He tagged on last second, body shifting to prepare to turn and head back only after he was satisfied that she would be following. It would be a slow, agonizing trip back with her smelling so sweet and all. A true test of his abilities to avoid temptation.