Thicket of Secrets tears of ice

Even in the lush of her coating, her rounded thick hips, her curvy chest, did a shiver creep up her spine. But even as she had traveled as far south as she could think to go, even as the sun had long fallen to reveal the night sky, and the winter brought bitter cold winds which made the air howl and the trees moan, it was not this which sent the shiver.
The death of two of Grizzly Hollow's children had been in the passed, though their memory did not bury with their corpses. It would have been far too easy that way. She had been left paranoid of the remaining children, watching their ever moves and in this, questioning, threatening and weary of those newcomers, including those few members who had left and returned. Borden's return was yet another, who did little to bring her mind at ease but more to fill her rage. She had lashed out at him in both word, tooth and claw, sending the man into a fit of his own submissive paranoia. Her anger towards him was clear, her trust in him shattered, but the sorrow in which she felt for his betrayal remained locked away with what fleeting good memories she held of him.
Now, she was uncertain of her life within the pack. Not by her placement- for certainly her position was secure. No one dared to challenge her, no one dared to even look her eye to eye! But only did they slither backwards, as though she were a criminal, as though she were to harm those few who had gained her trust and thus, her undying loyalty.
But alas, all stressed out and no one to choke in a land, so much more peaceful and simple then she had birthed in, grown upon, she was left this lump of a mess as she were now. She lay upon the grasses, with the thick forest behind her and the breaking of it's boarders around her. Before her, lay the fields, the trees dead in bare branches, the grass covered in a smooth, shimmering glow of snow over the night's full moon, partially blocked at the clouding sky. Would it storm yet again so soon?
Her head lifted, turning to the skies, thick in cloud- smothering the moon. It grew darker, darker, and colder yet. A sigh passed her bitter lips, her body tense and ready for the release-for the fight! So easy it once was to let out her anger and pain, to tear into someone else without the fear of how much blood may be stilt and whom may die in the aftermath! She was breaking, without the glue to hold her together. And, despite her struggles to keep herself together, did her head fall, nose burying into her outstretched forelegs-and she cried.

Snow. Ruiko lowered his muzzle to the pale substance, noting the tracks that lay before him in the Thicket. The scent that clung to them was vaguely familiar, and the tawny wolf soon recalled the dark stranger who had remained a shrouded mystery to him. Her eyes had been the most intriguing aspect, spare her careful words and the need to hide her emotions from all others – something he could relate to. He had never learned her name, for he had not lingered very long after the pack had arrived. A stranger among those mourning, Ruiko had slipped quietly away and back to the Wildwood where they had first found the boy, trying to link anything to what had happened to him. He had found nothing.

The darkness coiled through the trees viciously, though the gleam of white snow was like a beacon of light. The regal River wolf trailed after the female’s tracks, soft flurries floating through the air and clinging to his pelt causing a small but welcome chill to settle upon the male. While winter endangered all of them, there was still something to be enjoyed about the quiet midnight snowfall.

He knew a good part of the Thicket, for he had spent most of his time in the land with Ranger when he had courted her back in the day. Following the path set before him, it was not long before he found the dark she-wolf, but the sight that came before him was not one he expected. Slumped to the ground in defeat it seemed, tears escaped the female’s eyes, her muzzle buried to her legs. Ruiko paused now, uncertain what to say during such an interruption.

lol. sorry if i did get the seasons mixed up. im on multiple sites. :3 we can just say it was cause there more north, and its a light snow sure to melt when the sun rises.

As stormy was the skies, as stormy as her heart. The clouds spun, as did her head, lost in thoughts of those lost (the children), of those found (Borden). Through the delicate sound of her cry, muffled as she tried to smother it away (for such a weak display was most unbecoming of a woman of strength- a woman of royalty! She needed to be strong for her pack, if not for herself.) she might not have heard the sound of Ruiko's approach had it not been for the aid of the snow. In the thick parts of the Forest, one might reclaim their silence, where little snow may have the chance to hit rocky bottom- but here, where it was much less dense, did his feet crunch over the thin layer of snowfall.
The dark woman was no less then startled, hoping that by any means it was prey-or even a predator!-then someone whom might see her suffering, see her weakness. Her silky black ears shot up as did her skull, her black cheeks in streaks where icy tears had tried to wash away pain, but left sin in their wake.
She would twitch, jerking back to the very sight of him, her body further tense from the former amount. What had he expected of her, following her so far from home, if only for a moment to herself now that their 'king' had returned? Their first and only meeting had been nothing of delicate, leaving her stern, pained, protective and thus, hateful. They both were far from home, but in all the while he had trailed her now. Why?
She would question it, as a moment of shock passed over her, and another moment. There would be no hiding herself. There would be no pretending. There would be no walls to shield her now. "Leave me, wolf..." The words whispered, her body hunching up as she struggled to lift herself from her lay, defensive over the still-stranger. And in a furious moment (for he had caught her so defenseless- so naked) did her jaws snap into his direction with a jerk (though he was still much too far for her to reach) before parting for a loud roar- yet another cry! "LEAVE!" No one bare lay witness to this, less they know her walls had been breached.

His muzzle swung over his shoulder briefly, debating whether or not to simply vanish once more in the foliage of the thicket. About to do so, the dark she-wolf stirred, her wariness of his presence becoming announced through body language alone. She shifted back sharply, tensing as her gaze raked over him in surprise to his presence.

Ruiko spoke nothing – uncertain how to console a grieving woman, especially one who did not welcome his presence in the first place. Her words stirred his ears to slide back to his skull, and as he was about to bow his muzzle in acceptance to her request, the sudden lift of her body stopped him momentarily.

The snap of her jaws was what caused his fur to bristle; the sudden shout of her demand stirring his lips to pull back and reveal a silent snarl. He had respected her heartache, but he was certainly not going to roll over and expose his belly to her in submission.

A low snarl erupted from his throat just then as his large figure raised to his impressive full height. His tail lifted dominantly, while his muzzle swung down slightly lower to protect his throat should she launch herself at him. “Careful, girl,” he warned dangerously. “I might be a friend to Jaysyek but that doesn’t mean I will allow her subordinate to use me as her punching bag.”

i don't think there doing so well. XD

Dominant? No. She stood not in this way, but hunched back into herself, defensive as she was by her weakness revealed. And he dare mock her still? He dare follow her without permission, only to sit here and refuse to keep from stalking her? Did he get off on this? "Your arrogance is astonishing. Why must you continuously think the world revolves around you?" Her words snapped with her jaws, her limbs splayed, bent in order to remain her hunched position as she leaned away from him, ready to spring if necessary. As he raised his tail, would she raise her own, mockingly, as her head would level with her spine, hunched back between her shoulder blades. "You are no leader- you are no second; you are nothing!" She hissed, her words made to knock his off the high horse which he raised himself upon. He was not anything more then wolf, and a common one at that. His desperate need to believe everyone was out to get him, that he was the 'biggest and baddest' thing out there was sickening, if not pathetic at the least. "FUCK. OFF." Was the world not big enough for him? Or did he relish on preying on women in there sorrow, perhaps by the inability to gain one's attention any other way due to his pig-headed attitude?

Nope, I would say not. xD Oh well.. We tried?

Her anger was spat out in words – accusations that he did not quite know where they came from, as until this very moment Ruiko had been nothing but kind to her. Or, as kind as Ruiko could be with a stranger. She lifted herself in a challenge to him, and his jaws loosened slightly, preparing himself for the battle that was inevitably about to come. Yet still she continued, raging about how insignificant his rank was. Still, he said nothing, not countering her words with an argument – as far as he was concerned, Second was no better than a subordinate position. He had been Indru’s Second for the majority of his time at Swift River and had left to better his life. To gain what Rihael, his father, had prepared him for as a yearling.

Her final bellow of expletives ended the hypocritical rant from the lady in his mind, and as the large Tainn wolf was not one to fight with words but tooth and claw, he chose then to lead the attack. She had challenged him outright – she had insulted him when he had done very little to her.

Swiftly he dove forward, his ears slick back against his skull to protect them while his nape remained scrunched. Dirt flew from the ground as his paws hit, and Ruiko chose to simply barrel in to his challenger rather than swerve and psyche her out. His shoulder rolled forward to try to connect with hers; his immense size used to attempt to push in to her and knock her to the ground in submission while an echoing snarl finally erupted from his jaws. A snap of his teeth was sent to the direction of her cheek --- not to main, but to deliver a final warning to the arrogant she-wolf who had tried to do nothing but play him a puppet since he had first met her. All he had come here for was to learn her name and see if she was okay.. After this, Ruiko Tainn would scorn himself for bothering with such an emotional female and be done with it.

(This post was last modified: Nov 24, 2011, 03:42 PM by Ruiko.)

i suppose. :3 if its alright, im going to use el's one full dodge here, as it made the most sense by her way of countering him.

Whilst she held emotion- anger, protectiveness, will and passion, it would seem he held none. A hollow shell; cold, cruel and uncaring of what no one wished but himself. He had followed her trail here, to know of her name and question her, without the very thought that perhaps she did not wish to be followed; did not wish to be known and did not want company. In her state, she wished only to grieve for her pack's losses and grieve on her own, something she had rightfully demanded, granted the fact that this land belonged to no one. But in his haughty need to think he could step all over everyone, with an imaginary power, he refused to leave her be and thus, she refused to back down.
His disillusions to her stance of dominance was nothing more then comical- that perhaps he was mentally insane of some sort? For throughout this entire time, had only she been hunched back away from him, in protection, as she might face him, her rump backed up (as far away as she could from him) into a nearby tree trunk within the less dense outskirts of the thicket. Only to the very end, when he had refused to leave her be (for whatever sick reasons just to fuck with her in her 'delicate' state) did she raise her tail, only by mimicking the raised tail he had forced in the first place. It was he which had followed her, he which had refused to leave her be and he which had acted aggressively and dominantly first. If anything, he would deserve his fate and she would not hold back.
The moment he came forth, is the very moment she prepared for action. Swifter then he, faster then he, at the last moments (and in this, with hopes of better success to her attack) her back-end would swing in an arc to the right and she would take a single step back, just narrowly avoiding him from barreling into her. She would hope by her counter-attack, that in his full rush and less swiftness as perhaps a slighter animal, he may slam face first directly into the tree which had been position behind Elettra. Now, with what would be the left-side of his face directly in front of her, she had only but to reach out, her jaws aiming to wrap around the width of his, where she might use the all the pressure of her jaws (1,000 to 1,500 pounds of pressure per square inch) to clamp his mouth shut.
All the while, her defenses would remain strong- her head scrunched between her shoulders to protect the sides of her neck, her skull level with her spine in doing so. Her eyes would be in slits as her ears back, harder to attack this way. Long, sturdy limbs would remained splayed and bent for balance and her hackles would remain high, though her tail lowered, tucked for protection. There would be no final warning, as he might offer with a warning snap. In only which she had grown, there would only be vengeance- there would only be war!

She was quick on her paws; his attempt to overthrow the she-wolf with a rough shoulder-to-shoulder force was not lost upon her and so the daring stranger moved back a pace to avoid him. It was an unexpected maneuver, but not one he had not encountered before. The large male stopped short of brutish barrel, his paws digging harshly to the dirt as clumps of mud and snow flew around them in a light shower. His own hefty figure curled now, twisting away from her so he face her.

Her grab to his muzzle was swift – but the twist of his figure had caused her to grasp at his cheek, though her attack was not entirely useless. Her fangs bared to his flesh, pushing past the protective fur and drawing blood. A snarl of outrage escaped the beast, and as his paws shifted to remove himself from the danger of her teeth, his pelt bristling dangerously and his teeth bared furiously to the girl. Yet as his bright eyes studied her, trailing across the streaks where tears had kissed only moments earlier, his snarl faded.

Keeping his defenses, Ruiko dipped his muzzle slightly, a silent sigh just barely escaping his tainted lips. “You are upset. You were upset the day I met you, and it seems I have stumbled upon something you wish no one to bare witness to, and for that reason alone I should not have attacked you. You’re tongue is far sharper than your teeth – trust me, I have now witnessed both to know.” There was a small pause in his words, his eyes flickering over her briefly. “You’re an enigma. And it seems you need an outlet to release your anger for your grief. I will be that outlet.. because for the strangest reasons I find I do care, and not because you are Jaysyek’s.”

The larger they were, the slower they were, and the harder they would fall. Elettra Archer would try her best to be there when he fell, if not by being the one who had felled him. She could taste the blood on her tongue, the slippery teeth of the liquid over her tongue as her jaws would (still closed) pull back to tug at whatever bits of flesh she had obtained. She would savor what little success she had gained, the fighting like a drug, the blood her fuel- she had yet to be relinquished of such bitter pain! She needed more, MORE!
And so her posture would remain solid, just as his own, watching- waiting, her slender form ready to counter, her curvy strength of the heavy woman ready to give it her all. Fight me- FIGHT ME, her mind might scream as the tears which had shrieked down her cheeks but moments ago, her cries to be left be to suffer her own misery!
He snarled, and her creamy white lips would remained bared in response, but as did his own snarl simmer, did her own, slowly, her pale silver gaze remaining narrowed upon his. Time before had others tricked her in such a way, and she would remain on guard, even as his head would lower slightly, a sigh embracing his lips to touch the curve of her folded ears. When he speaks, it is most something she did not expect. He would explain himself, for the wrong in his actions now known. A trick? Fear? True understanding? She could not yet decide.
From the very moment she met, she had been angered, a defense hidden by the pain in the heart some might question if she even held. Borden feared her. Aisling feared her. Kade, perhaps? And who else? Had she been so cruel to warrant the thought of harming her own members? She had found Prosper, dead. She had been made the one to bring him home, to break the news to her leadess. She found Theo, bitten and thus she tried to help- failed. Two boys, dead. And then there father returns after all this, expecting forgiveness. Members had come and gone, but mostly gone. She was accustom to such abandonment, such death now- all of Grizzly Hollow was.
For but a second, she finds her limbs quivering, fed by the shiver down her spine. She wishes to spat out for him not to judge her, to not assume he knew her- but was not everything he said correct? Was he not the same, to no such things? She would snap her head to and fro sharply, as though to regain herself, just as his eyes might lift to view her. ....He, cared? Why? WHY?! When had any man ever cared? But though she longs to know, she does not ask. She remains cold- solid, as her shell. ”Nothing, is sharper then my tongue, babe.” Her words are a darkened purr as the rough of her voice. They are but a bastard and bitch, stubborn then nature should allow. And in that very instant she would acknowledge his use as an outlet, her body charging forth (head on the larger man without a care!), her jaws open and she would seek the flesh at his upper left portion of his chest (by obvious, avoiding for vitals even in her rage). Her aim was to snag onto this and with all the strength of her being, heave upwards onto her hind limbs in an attempt to lift the larger man with all the might she had to offer, and toss him back first onto the snowy forest grounds, where in the aftermath, she might be felled atop him.

She took his offering without hesitation – the anger seeping from her was something Ruiko himself had felt only twice in his life; the death of the Hidden Tree pack, and the presence of Weldering… especially when it concerned his three little sisters and Weldering. The rogue had corrupted Ioni completely, while luring Junai and Borlla into thinking he was worthy to befriend. It had sickened him at the time, and when he recollected all that had happened, it still made his blood boil.

Elettra moved then, her words lost upon the male as his paws slid further apart to brace himself. Her jowls aimed toward his chest, the she-wolf’s teeth ripped to flesh just near the joint of his left shoulder. The pain was almost welcome, despite the sadistic reasons behind it. Her heave was great, but he was still larger than her and stronger. Not willing to be pushed over to his back by what could be a female out to seek his offer and turn the tables to his death, Ruiko pulled back from her, her weight and strength still causing him to lower to the ground, though he kept his underbelly protected beneath his own weight. She was partly atop him now, and the tawny male kept true to his word, unwilling to think of how he had just literally become the punching bag of a she-wolf.