Blackberry Fields ataraxia

@Niles I have absolutely no idea if the table will work. It worked in Table Testing, but it's not working in this preview. Also, yes, I totally used the Word of the Day for the title. It reminded me of Cas and Niles <3

Blackberry Fields was... well, it was okay. Certainly not as good as the Lowlands, because not only was this place more enclosed, but there were all these freaking blackberry bushes that got thorns in her paws and dammit that hurt! The little wolf snorted as she plucked one more thorn from her paw, wincing slightly as a dot of blood appeared and seeped out from the tiny puncture. Then, another... and another. Too many drops from such a tiny wound. She recalled her father telling her that her mother always bled so easily, from the smallest of injuries - especially in the year before her death. It was why she'd died from childbirth; she'd just kept on bleeding and bleeding until there wasn't enough lifeblood left to fuel her.

It was a terrifying prospect, actually. Too terrifying.

Forcefully, Cas licked her pad and placed it in the snow. The drop in temperature would hopefully help the blood to thicken up and clot more easily, and thereby stop the bleeding. A moment later, she lifted her foot back up to check the injury. Surely enough, the blood had clotted afterward, with only a little splash of red on the snow to indicate that there had ever been an injury at all. Cas was eager to get away from that scarlet stain, so she stood and headed through the field with her head and tail lifted high. She'd been feeling a lot better since joining the Rye wolves. The strength of the wolf is the pack, and all that.

But Cas wanted more, damn it all. She wanted to see things; experience things. Her packmates were all wonderful wolves, but she could already feel herself growing stagnant from even the short time she'd spent up confined to the Lowlands. She was almost regretting her promises to Drestig, even though he was such a great leader. In her opinion, anyway. The old man was so nice to let her in, even after she'd spilled her heart out to him. Though Cas herself had to admit that that was an unwise decision - who in their right mind would allow a sick wolf into their pack in the dead of winter? She could hardly contribute much; she and Ass-kan had found a carcass and scavenged food from it the other day, but apart from that? A rabbit or two, tops. It sucked, and she wanted to do more, but she wasn't strong or fast enough to.

A sigh of frustration escaped her, and she shook off her negative feelings to allow herself a moment of ataraxia. She'd been too overwhelmed with self-loathing recently; she was better than that! Life itself was better than that. She'd lost sight of why she'd come to the Lore in the first place - to adventure; to make new friends. She had so quickly let her disease get the better of her and confine her to one location for too long. She was so glad that Drestig let them wander - she wouldn't be able to stay in Wild Rye Fields otherwise.

The silver-dusted girl had almost gone back down to the Wild Cherry Orchard, where she'd met that douche.... whatever-his-name-is. He hadn't told her, and even if he had, Cas would've forgotten it by now, anyway. He was that bad. She had wanted to explore the blackberries, though, because she hadn't gotten a chance to yet. The little wolf was already regretting her life's decisions, though, because she took a small step and her paw came down on yet another freaking thorn dammit why had she been so stupid? A yelp escaped her maw, and she turned her face to the sun to cry out in mock anguish,

"Why are there so many damn thorns in this godforsaken place?!"

(This post was last modified: Feb 01, 2017, 11:26 PM by Castel.)

It had been days since he had last seen his parents... the wolves of Willow Ridge, Kiki, his nephew and niece, his cousin. Niles had already lost count, but the need to keep as much space as he could between him and them still burned in his chest. He had watched them as they died, witnessed as the judgmental gazes fell upon him, and heard as that song of mourning called out into the air. It was all still with him as he walked, wandering as it were, northward. For the most part, he kept his head down and his eyes trained on the ground. That was, until a yelp yanked his attention from the tangled dry underbrush followed by a:

"Why are there so many damn thorns in this godforsaken place?!"

His colorless eyes darted about until he spotted her there, practically stuck amidst a sea of snow-covered brambles. The Lyall had never been here before apart from the venture in which he had brought his father back, but only briefly, and they had avoided this clearing due to Niles' suspicion that the open air was unsafe compared to the shelter of the surrounding trees. If anything, at least the skies were clear and the sun was out. Perhaps the spring thaw would be underway soon.

He had been staring for some time when it had occurred to him that he had just been, well, standing there. His nose wrinkled; she didn't seem too bad, but then again, he only had his sisters to compare her to. His father had always told him never to judge and, yet, his lips pursed. As much as he wanted to tell her that she might as well get as far away from the field as was physically possible, he simply winced, unsure of how he could help her. He, himself, though tall, was just as rail-thin on his legs and a stomach  that was close to empty.

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

I've got other stuff to reply to but I've been so hyped to thread with you e.e I can't help it.

Cas was too preoccupied with the pesky thorn embedded in her paw to notice the dark stranger watching her. Carefully, she gave it a firm tug and out it popped, followed by the drops of blood like the first ones. She licked it a few times before pressing it into the snow; it cooled and numbed the pain a bit, and helped the blood to stop oozing. She shook out her fur, took a deep breath and rolled her eyes to herself. "Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to traipse your way into a thorn patch, if you didn't want thorns in your paws," she muttered, and gave a glance around her surroundings to find an easier way to get through the maze.

Her gaze stopped when she saw the other young wolf - a boy with fur as dark as the umbra underneath his paws. His markings were unique - a pattern she'd never seen before on any wolf - and his eyes were a very dark gray shade. He was almost twice her size, but that had never deterred Cas before. "Oh, hi! I guess you heard that, hunh?" she asked, a bright smile on her lips and a friendly wag of her raised tail.

She picked her way in a less-than-graceful manner toward him, making about as much noise as a bear crashing through the undergrowth. Miraculously, she made it out without stomping down on any of the loose brambles that might have been littered on the ground, and she thanked whatever higher power there might be that he or she had shown Cas some mercy there.

"Sorry about that!" she chirped, a bit breathless from the short expensing of her energy. She perked her ears at him and offered him a smile. It briefly occurred to her that he had just been standing there like a creeper, but she chased away the thought in favor of the idea that he was shy, or maybe he couldn't speak at all. "I'm Cas. Castel Noor, actually, but that's too long and hoity-toity for me," she went on, her blue eyes bright. "Can I know the name of the boy who was spying on me?"

Her voice was teasing as she added the last part, hoping to be able to put him at ease a bit.

She continued to talk and Niles continued to ogle. Then, before he could even anticipate it, their eyes locked. "Oh, hi!" she trilled, "I guess you heard that, hunh?" The boy completely froze; he glanced from side to side, just to make sure that she wasn't, say, talking to someone else. A quick glance about confirmed that he was it.

The lofty position of her tail made the slight curl in his fall slack at his heels. Perhaps she owned this part of the woods. He took a half-step back, but what was this? The yearling's jaw dropped. Oh no! She was coming! All four of his paws felt like boulders. Inside, he was screaming. Then, finally, his right paw lifted, but, ahhhh, too late. Here she was, huffing and puffing with a faint trace of blood wafting his way in her wake. His paw came back down and his tail rose up stiffly. All up and down his neck, heat prickled beneath his fur.

She apologized and the Lyall stared across his snout at her, even as she beamed at him. She offered her name - Castel Noor - and flippantly added that it seemed hoity-toity. Here was where he gave a crooked half-smile. He and his family were all about full names and, well, being all hoity-toity. He exhaled through his nose, a poor attempt at not (playfully) scoffing at her.

"Can I know the name of the boy who was spying on me?" she then asked. The heat crept around both sides of his face and burned up his cheeks, from beneath his eyes and all the way to the tip of his muzzle. His nose wriggled as he subtly sniffed at the air between them, unsure of what information he might decipher. At the back of his throat, his name was backlogged along with a whole bunch of other words he wanted to say. The only thing preventing him from spitting them all out for her ears to hear was the fact that he didn't know her and she didn't know him, and that he was very highly uncomfortable now that the space between them was less than one whole wolf-length.

Instead, he shook his head. Not in a "I don't know" sort of way, but the sort of shake that told the other that it definitely wasn't him who stole that last bit of rabbit leg (when he had promised to save it). It wasn't so much of a guilty sort of reaction, but rather nervousness, shyness, timidity...

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Cas hesitated when she saw that her approach was bothering him, and her ears went flat - less out of aggression and more out of worry and confusion. His tail stiffened, his fur bristled, and Cas was wondering if she was about to be on the receiving end of his jaws in a moment. But she wasn't, and she glanced about to find what had set him off so suddenly. Then she realized - her bannerlike tail was still raised, even though she'd meant it in no sort of dominant or aggressive way. In her case, her tail was used almost like a human raising their hand to wave at another human. She'd had no ill intentions with it.

She dropped the offending tail instantly, and lowered her posture in response to his slight show of dominance. "Sorry about that!" she apologized again, having not meant to scare the boy. "I forget that not all wolves were raised up like I was sometimes." Most wolves weren't raised that way, actually. "I didn't mean to scare you!"

And, to back up her statement, she tentatively stepped forward and touched her nose to the bottom of his muzzle, if he'd allow it.

"I don't know why you'd be scared of me, though! I'm pretty much the least-scary thing you'll come across. Not to mention you're twice my size," she emphasized, wagging her tail again, though this time it was held carefully low. Not in a submissive way, but in a friendly, approachable way. She really didn't want to scare him off.

She gave him a sunny grin when she elicited a noise of amusement from the boy, her tail wagging a bit harder at the sound. "Yeah, I know. It's probably one of the worst names in all of history," she told him. Castel was just so... proper-sounding. Cas was so much more her style; so much more fitting for her.

But then he was uncomfortable again, and Cas' eyebrows knit in confusion and concern. She took a step back, understanding that she could be a bit overwhelming for some wolves, and almost ducked her head in an apology before deciding to change the mood back into a lighter one. "Fine, then. You don't have to talk if you don't wanna," she replied when he shook his head to her question. Her tone took on teasing notes as she continued, "I can probably do enough talking for the both of us." She raised her head in a show of mock superiority. "I'll just have to call you 'creepy stalker dude' though."

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

Another apology came, but with the lowering of her tail, he loosened up some (mostly in his gut and in his shoulders). Though, he jumped as she continued to warble and twitter at him. "I didn't mean to scare you!" Behind sealed lips, his molars ground together and, twice, his jaw jumped as he continued to look at her, listen to hear, read her. His brow furrowed for the briefest of moments. He had never known anyone to talk so much, let alone keep on talking as if they were having an actual conversation and he hadn't even said a word. Still frozen, he watched as she drew forward. His eyes widened; but, though, he shirked away from her, she actually touched his jaw briefly with her nose.

"I don't know why you'd be scared of me, though!" she went on and on and on. Eventually it came to "Fine, then. You don't have to talk if you don't wanna." His lips parted just enough to let out a wisp of warm breath into the air. "I can probably do enough talking for the both of us." That would be fine, even if she initially thought he had been scared. Well, if he was going to be honest with himself, he was a teensy bit scared, but only because he had never let anyone apart from his own pack come close to him. That, and the fact that she was a girl who wasn't one of his sisters.

But then: "I'll just have to call you 'creepy stalker dude' though."

That did it.

"I-I'm," his voice cracked and squeaked from disuse and impending maturity. "I'm not-- I'm not creepy!" He grimaced, stepping back as if to regain his sense of (personal) space. "I just..." Oh, Niles, here we go... "I've never seen a-a girl before." He cringed to himself, his tail starting to curl at his ankles as his ears drew back. "I'll... I-I'll let you know my mother raised me to be a... a good gentleman." Angier would've been cringing at him if he were alive at this very moment; the thought made his lungs feel tightly caged within his chest. As much as he wanted to shut up, for talking waaaay too much, it was already too late to go back. She had gotten him to speak... Might as well get comfortable. "Yer parents just let you dawdle around like that? It's dangerous... out here."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Her entire being lit up when he finally spoke, and her tail whipped back and forth happily; proud of her accomplishment. She smiled as she listened to him speak, patiently holding her own tongue still as he stumbled over his words. She had to keep from laughing at how... awkward he was being. Not to make fun of him, of course, as Cas just wasn't the type to judge someone like that. She had to keep from laughing because he was just too adorable. His words didn't make complete sense - not to her, anyway - and she was enjoying listening to the jittery mess he was giving her.

She waited for him to finish each individual statement completely before she replied, not wanting to interrupt him. She quirked a smile. "I know you're not a creep, you goofball. I was just messing with you," she clarified, tail still swinging lazily at her hocks. Her eyebrows shot up at his next claim - that he'd never seen a girl before. She laughed a little bit, replying with a, "Oh, geez. I'm the first girl you've ever met? I'm so sorry!" Her tone was light, breezy, and completely comfortable. She even tacked on a bit of a laugh at the end. "I've been told that I'm pretty terrible."

Cas snorted softly when he mentioned his mother raising him, and she offered him a soft smile. "I'm sure she did. You seem fine to me," she claimed, lifting her head and nodding in confirmation. As far as wolves went, he wasn't nearly the worst she'd met. In fact, for all his stuttering and awkwardness, she kind of liked the boy. He was entertaining, for sure.

She tipped her head to the side at his question, and frowned slightly. "My parents really don't have any say-so in what I do," the little wolf informed him, grinning proudly and lifting her head and tail loftily. "I'm the master of my own life; holder of my own fate!" she proclaimed, blue eyes alight with excitement and freedom. "I'm pretty much grown anyway." Her brows came together again, and she tilted her head the other direction. "If it's so dangerous, then why are you out here on your own?"

To see the whole of her face light up was startling in itself. For as soon as he had told her that this Relic Lore wilderness was dangerous, he shut his mouth with a click of his teeth. She interjected in all the right moments, countering him with assurances he had only ever heard from his own family. That little bottle brush of a tail came up again as she declared herself to be the master of her own life, the holder of her own fate; and, again, Niles was bewildered by it all. Just where was this little sprite of a girl getting all this confidence?! And it wasn't an Elettra or Enoki or Ravenna sort of confidence either. With Cas' it was almost too easy to get swept up in her charm, as if it were okay to share the mood and get caught up in the essence of what was truly carefree spirit.

He wished he could have sunk right into his sister Ravenna's snow white fur and hide from Cas' forever - okay, maybe not for forever but for the time being. This whole thing of 'being social' on his own was definitely an endless ocean of deep water to tread alone without something like a buoyant tree branch. Angier, really, might have thought that it was about time the boy learned to swim in that aspect. There was only so much that Niles could have been sheltered from.

Cas' head tilted to one side; he sat, the movement affirming that he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Even if he wanted to run home and hide every couple of seconds. He supposed she was right though; they were nearly grown now, and neither needed their parents supervising their every move. "If it's so dangerous, then why are you out here on your own?" she had asked.

Niles had to take a moment. "My parents died," he shared on impulse, unsure why the statement made him feel like he needed to hold his breath after uttering such a thing. "Just don't feel like going home... yet."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

And, just like that, the carefree and excited spirit was gone. He'd said his parents were dead, and judging by the way he said it, Cas could guess that it was still painful; an open wound. It might have even happened recently, and her heart suddenly ached for him. She sat down in front of the boy, not too close because she had learned quickly that he wasn't comfortable with the proximity, but not too far as to seem distant. For several long moments, she stayed quiet, her bright eyes staring into his colorless ones, before she spoke, choosing her words with painstaking care.

"I'm sorry that you had to go through that," she told him solemnly, her head lowering in respect for a heartbeat or two before she met eyes with him once more. "You don't have to go home yet. I know you're not much for talking, and you really don't know me, but I-" She cut herself off, nose wrinkling in deep concentration as she picked through what she wanted to express in her mind. "I know it doesn't seem like it, but I'm a good listener. If you wanted to talk, that is." She smiled softly, her ears lowering a bit. "If you don't want to talk, then I can just... you know... be around. I can go find some food for you, or if you want me to leave, I'll leave." She truly meant it, too. If he told her to beat it - to leave a grieving wolf alone and be on her merry way - then she certainly would.

She took a deep breath through her nose and made the decision to speak about her own mother's passing. "My mother died giving birth to my siblings and me. She was really weak and sick beforehand, and it was too hard on her. My littermates passed away not long after; we were all pretty weak." I still am, echoed around her mind, but she didn't vocalize it. "It was just me and my dad after that, but we... parted ways several months ago. He's not even in the Lore," she continued, sighing softly through her nose before looking at him again, sympathy written on her features like an open book. "If the wolf who raised me died, I don't know what I'd do. But I know I wouldn't want to be alone, so I will definitely be here, if you need me to be, or you could tell me to go away. Whatever you need."

It was a genuine, unconditional offer that Cas would wholeheartedly back up with actions. She understood well that she was a stranger, but she certainly could show a hurting boy some kindness. It was the absolute least she could do, and she lay down, signifying that she, too, wasn't going to move. At least, not until he explicitly told her to.

(This post was last modified: Feb 03, 2017, 02:58 AM by Castel.)