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Played by Pinn who has 460 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Celandine Argyris
@Skoll Sorry this is so small, but I figured I'd get something up. Backdated to after this thread.

There was much to discuss once Celandine returned to the Scowle, and for once, it wasn't just Morganna's approval that she craved. After leaving the cub to Nellie, and stopping over to let Morganna in on their latest development, the woman wasted no time in heading back to their den. Being that darkness had already descended upon the Lore, Celandine assumed the children to be asleep. Thankfully though, their father seemed to be... less tied to the sun's schedule. Hoping that she'd catch him awake, the alpha whispered, "My love?" And then, as if he couldn't smell it all over her, "Something has happened."

Played by Grey who has 448 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Sköll Archer
When nightfall had come over Relic Lore, Skoll's eyes had fluttered open just as his son and daughter found themselves tangled up in the depths of slumber. For a time, he tenderly groomed the bases of their ears and combed his teeth over the back of both cubs' napes. He hoped it helped them sleep; these little gestures of fatherly affection were never given halfheartedly and he cherished every moment they were nestled up beside him. Anduin and Vaeda would not be this little for long.

He carefully stood up and tiptoed out, relieving himself and stretching his willowy limbs for the night to come. It was a decent night, not too cold and not too warm, but there was something in the air that the Archer could not place. He ducked his crown back into the den before curling up not too far from its entrance. In the night and under a cloak of shadows, he was not easily seen, save for the glimmer of his pale irises.

"My love?"

His ears came forward. Celandine had returned, "Something has happened." Concern was the first to hit him before giving way to curiosity and sense of possession, defending and protecting what was his. He crawled out into the open air, his nose twitching as he looked her over. It would have been easier to just acknowledge that there was a mess of wilderness that clung to his mate's coat, but he could not let the scent of youth, rogue and vermin slide past him.

At first his brow only furrowed, wordlessly demanding her to further expound on what she had to say, but then he realized there were other pressing matters he had to address first, "Are you all right? Were you followed?"
i'm a dreamer, i'm a man
i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away
Played by Pinn who has 460 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Celandine Argyris

Bright eyes flickered over his features, running across the silver of his maw, and following the scars back up to his furrowed brow. She wished that for just a moment she could enter his mind, to know what he was thinking before the words fell from his lips. Celandine had always considered herself good at reading others and gauging one's reaction before it became a reality, but it was harder with him. She could never quite place what he was going to say, or how he was going to say it. It was thrilling, and frustrating all at the same time. Maybe that's why the leader found him so.. deliciously fascinating. "I'm fine. They ran off at the sight of your daughter and Nellie, so I doubt that they've followed us." Not that it mattered. Three more of those disgusting creatures would hardly make a difference.

"I'm not sure whether I've done something reckless, or brilliant." Which of the given options would he consider her choice? The woman thought to make him wait, to make him ask for it, but his wordless demand was begging an answer, and her consciousness wanted to oblige. "I found a child. She was completely, and utterly alone." Save for the coyotes. "And I've brought her home. Not that I had much of a choice with the girls there." Macha loved her children, and Nellie had always been so soft.

 
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Played by Grey who has 448 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Sköll Archer
"I'm fine." She relieved him of his primary and secondary concerns, "They ran off at the sight of your daughter and Nellie, so I doubt that they've followed us." His lips drew into a straight black line along his marred muzzle and he found himself still staring at her, just wanting her to spit it all out. To explain everything...

"I'm not sure whether I've done something reckless, or brilliant." His teeth ground together and he had to keep himself from shaking his head at her, to keep from allowing disbelief to come over him.

Then, there came the words. Ones he had hoped would never be uttered. "I found a child. She was completely, and utterly alone." This was the past coming back to haunt him. Mapplethorpe's doing. Undeniable karma. His fur bristled as she told him that she had brought the cub home and he took a step back, as if to bar the entrance from anyone going in or coming out.

He fell silent for several moments. His head bowed and his ears fell back; he had to think and think fast. His eyes were trained on the ground but he did not dare look at her. To stare into her face, wide-eyed and so very close to causing an uproar, could have been construed as a challenge. He did not dare waste his energy on a fight. At least, not now.

"Celandine," he pronounced her name carefully, as if each syllable had to be heard in its own right. It was calculating... too wary for his own good. "The last time this happened, I was on the other end of it. My brother Deacon was taken away and I ran after him. I found the first pack I could find and I..." His tone had grown heavy, laced with a darkness that was characteristically his. It was perhaps enigmatic at best, but to the untrained ear, it was easily unsettling and alarming. He wanted her fur to stand on end too.

"I killed them. I took their Leader, and when I came back, my brother had been recovered." His eyes flicked upwards towards her face if only to get a glimpse at what emotion he might find there in those pale irises. It was taking everything he had in him to keep from flashing his teeth at her. Not in aggression but in outright fear. "Tell me. Tell me right now that you plan to return her."
i'm a dreamer, i'm a man
i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away
Played by Pinn who has 460 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Celandine Argyris

Skoll's reaction was unexpected, almost jarring, as he stepped away from her. Bright eyes flickered to his face, searching for anything that might give her some insight, but the Archer's gaze remained steadfast on the ground. He was thinking, she knew, but what was he thinking? Her answer came shortly thereafter, but it wasn't the simple 'Ok.' she had been looking for. 

The way he said her name, the way his tongue rolled over every syllable, made her feel like a child who'd been caught doing something wrong. Her jaw set with an audible clack from her teeth. Had it been anyone else, Cela might have taken it as a slight, or felt her tail arch over the small of her back, but as it stood, she would do no such thing. 

As his tone shifted to something... darker, Celandine felt her fur bristle against the moonlight. There was something about it that made her uneasy. Not that she was afraid, but rather, cautious. This was a side of Skoll that she didn't know, and yet it didn't seem wrong.  Perhaps the woman had always known of it's existence in some offhanded-afterthought kind of way. Perhaps she had always assumed that it had to exist, because his mind worked in much the same way that her's did, but to see it was thrilling. Cela was hung on his every word, clinging to each syllable as it fell so precisely from his lips, but she already knew how it would end. She could hear it in his voice.

And there it was. The answer to not one, but two of her questions. Her brows knit themselves together for just a moment, as realization struck. "Of course. Of course. I'll send someone to the Ridge in the morning to see if they've heard anything, and if anyone comes looking for her in the meantime, then they're free to have her." She hoped that that might settle some of the concerns he had. "I couldn't place the scent on her. There was a male with her at some point, but no trace of a female. No trace of a pack. She reeks of coyote, and she was starving." But now her mind was working, and the gears were turning, and the woman found that she wasn't quite so sure of her decision anymore. "Skoll.." Her voice was even, and grounded as she chanced a step forward.

(This post was last modified: Jul 20, 2018, 11:12 AM by Celandine.)
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Played by Grey who has 448 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Sköll Archer
"Of course. Of course," Celandine was quick to console him, to tell him that she would be returned on one condition: if someone came looking for her. The girl seemed to belong to no one, she had no trace of pack or family on her pelt when Celandine had come across her. There had been a male, though, but now the girl was separated from him. Skoll's black-lined lip set into a hard line as he met her eyes. He would not growl. He would not bare his teeth. Not to his mate.

"Skoll.." the sound of his name grounded him in the moment, his eyes eventually drifting to her nose and then to her shoulder. His ears kept slicked back against his skull and neck, uncertainty keeping him on his toes as Celandine stepped forward. His tail came around his side, pride alone keeping him from fully tucking it between his legs and beneath him. They had made promises to one another, to protect each other and work through it all together. He could not just surrender to fear. He had a choice: to trust his mate.

"What are you going to do with her then?" he asked, keeping his eyes averted and his tone level. As his superior, she had a say in what exactly was going to be done. He might have had an opinion about it all, but she had the final word. Whatever she chose, he had made up his mind that he was either going to support it or make the best of the little waif's stay.
i'm a dreamer, i'm a man
i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away
Played by Pinn who has 460 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Celandine Argyris

She watched as his eyes slid away from her own, dipping to her muzzle, and eventually resting upon her shoulder. This gave her the opportunity to try and run her nose through the thick fur of his neck, and she took it, attempting to not only soothe him, but herself as well. If he pulled away, she would let him. If not, then she would leave the cool leather of her nose there where it might soothe him further. "We'll care for her." To amend that though, "Morganna and I." If he didn't want anything to do with the girl, then Celandine would respect that decision. Alpha or not, she had no intention of forcing the girl on him. "If nobody comes for her, then she'll grow up beside our children, your sister's. She'll be treated just the same as they are, and when the time comes for her to decide whether she wants to go, or stay, she'll be given that freedom." SeeJay wouldn't be a prisoner with them.

(This post was last modified: Oct 16, 2018, 06:54 PM by Celandine.)
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Played by Grey who has 448 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Sköll Archer
Give and take... Give and take... What Celandine had given him, he made an effort to mentally take in stride. He gave her this rare facet of his personality, the vulnerability. The uneasiness that threatened to become nervousness and terror. She offered him comfort, closing the space between them with her touch and her proximity. He leaned into her, allowing her to bury her muzzle and face in that crook between his neck and shoulder.

The answer she gave him did little to settle his nerves but he knew better than most that Morganna would help, if Celandine so chose to ask for it in rearing the orphan if no one came to collect her. His mind tried to paint the picture of three cubs, of Anduin and Vaeda with a new sister; he couldn't do it. His brow ultimately furrowed. Frankly, he didn't want the cub if he couldn't convince it if it had been his... that he was her father... At a month-and-a-half old, cubs were practically already integrated into their packs and knew exactly who their parents and caretakers were. Angier would have been disappointed, but Skoll didn't care. He was an Archer and, by tradition, blood was everything. Additionally, he saw the girl as competition for his daughter and he couldn't stomach that right now.

Skoll kept still, soaking up his mate's energy in waves. She was so sure, as if her plan was the right one and that no other possibility, not even ones that Skoll thought up, was fathomable. Karma would not find him here.

"If you're sure that's what you want to do," he murmured. "Then, that's fine by me." His heart was starting to settle down at last. For a moment, he was quiet, gathering his thoughts and processing the situation piece by piece. "At least you found her first," he said after a while. "I don't think any other soul would have been so kind as to take her in." ...Particularly, me.
i'm a dreamer, i'm a man
i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away
Played by Pinn who has 460 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Celandine Argyris

Celandine smiled into Skoll's neck as he sung his praises for her soul. Now those were words she never thought she'd hear. "It's these kids. I swear they've got me going soft." Although it hadn't exactly been her kindness that saved the girl's life. Sheer luck and circumstance played a better hand than she had.

It was luck that brought Celandine within earshot of the orphan, and curiosity that drew her nearer. The fact that the fae happened to have been weaning her own children, and that she was at all broody enough to protect the kid rather than leave her to the coyotes was pure circumstance. The girls showing up when they did has to have been fate, because in the end the alpha would have chosen her own safety over the child's. Regardless of how SeeJay came to stay at Pookastone, what mattered now was what they were going to do about it. 

Just in case he still had reservations, she preened her way towards his ear, planting kisses as she went. "And even kindness has a cost, my love. If nobody comes for her, then she will be loyal to us. If someone does, then I wonder, what kind of favor could we ask in exchange for saving their child's life?

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Played by Grey who has 448 posts.
Inactive No Rank
Sköll Archer
Thank you for being so patient with this. I feel like this thread presented a challenge because it sorta shifted Skoll's personality, but it's been soooo good for him. Feel free to archive or toss in a reply before finishing it up!

He mused over her thoughts, quiet for the time being. She wasn't the only one who had gone soft though; and, as much as Skoll had a hard time processing it, he couldn't help but feel like he had finally come into his own. Frankly, he thought he would have been more snippy about it. Instead, he had been more afraid and all Celandine had to do was utter a few words and cast out his fears. He focused on her muzzle as it snaked its way to the base of his ear, her touch continuing to ground him and remind him to remain present. His other ear relaxed and he gave a sigh. A sign of ultimate surrender.

His mate had a point. Loyalty, when instilled correctly, ran deep. Their care would bond the girl to them and, if someone ever came to return her home, it was a win-win situation either way. She could either go home or find a home with them. Skoll returned her affection as he leaned into her. Then, he slowly stood up. His eyes went to the den, before returning to his superior's face. A low wag of his tail and a gentle nip of her chin was given before taking a half-step away from her. "Come do a round about the southern borders with me," he persuaded, his voice no longer gravelly with sleep. "Fill my head with all the places you've been and all the things you've seen before you introduce me to the girl..."

(Fade.)
i'm a dreamer, i'm a man
i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away