Vigils Keep Burden to bare

Short and sweet thread for @Nineva just before heading out to SE.

i'll be watching

from the center of the hollow moon

He didn't like any of it. To him, it was humiliating. Dragging one of their hard earned kills to a pack that seemed more likely to kill them then to work together again. That is, if Lyanna was anything of a true exams how the Shallows wolves acted. They would take and give nothing back.

He grumbled as he positioned himself by the doe, ready to begin his trek. His head was low but his dark eyes cut upwards to Nineva. "I'm sure it's obvious but I just want you to know I don't like any of this. An ally of our enemy can't be trusted." That much so was obvious unless there was something in Nineva that believed they could be swayed or at least come to some kind of neutral agreement. Judas didn't believe that anything the Shallows wolves agreed upon would be backed up. But maybe he had grown to just be a cautious wolf.

"But I trust you." He spoke, his voice and his expression softening. "Your leadership, your strength, your decisions..." Of course his brother had asked him to join along his side, ultimately if Judas thought the silvered woman not worth following he would have spoken up. "I do this for you."

(This post was last modified: Aug 07, 2018, 06:10 PM by Judas.)

Nineva was quiet, had been for the most part since the conclusion of the sudden pack meeting she had called. Her mismatched gaze stared ahead along the rocky shore, to the East where they would have to trek around the lake's perimeter before being able to head south. They were waiting for @Ramiel to join them, and she was thinking of how this would be the first time she'd left @Ellery for more than a few hours. When Judas broke the silence, he attracted only the attention of her swiveling ears at first.

Then his tone changed, taking on an unusual lack of edge, and finally she looked at him. Her ears leaned back as he finished, a thoughtful expression crossing her own features. It was the first time someone other than her brother or her consort had said something like that to her, so genuine and meaningful to the woman. Despite the circumstances, and the trouble that still likely lay ahead, she was touched; felt like maybe she was doing something right after all, even if everything outside of the Keep seemed to insist she was only blundering through this leadership thing. Her confidence had yet to be shaken, but still it was nice to hear, to know others felt this way.

"The Surge pack is not our enemy," she amended, voice somewhat subdued against the dark of the night. "They're on our shit list, but we will not be the ones to make more of things than it needs to be. Let them be dramatic and tantrum-prone, while we keep our dignity."

She was far from oblivious, however, to the fact that the Surge, and by extension the packs allied with them, likely considered them to be enemies, but this would not cause her to ignore her own internal compass. The Keep would always defend, and never transgress. That was why this journey was so important.

"I know it's a fine line. Thank you for walking it with me."

She wouldn't shower him with praise for doing what, in her view, was his responsibility to do after his misconduct, but still she knew, even without him saying anything, that the Archer was acting against his own instinct and desires, and that was deeply appreciated by the greyscale luminary.

i'll be watching

from the center of the hollow moon

Judas was still but a youth, still had a lot of mental growing up to do in order to match up with his physical growing up. He was far from a diplomat, for from the leadership type. He was too bullheaded, too hot tempered. He wondered why they needed to leave so quickly, wondered why they didn't wait for Elias to return. But he was not the leader anyhow. Only Nineva was so it was up to her and Neha, Yuka, and the other wolves in the pack were fully capable of making sure their single pup in the ranks was well taken care of. Perhaps this meeting was needed all along and Judas actions just made it obvious it could no longer be procrastinated.

When she finally allowed him the situation of her looking at him again, her expression was softer, not hardened with worry and judgement. When she spoke she corrected the young wolf, stating that the Surge wolf was not an enemy of them, not yet at least. She didn't want to make things worse, wouldn't be the first to jump the gun but would give it to them if they started anything. It was very much unlike Judas who was likely to pick up a fight at the drop of a hat. He realized, now, this was why she was the leader and he was the fighter.

He nodded ever lightly in agreement to this. And as she thanks him, couldn't help the smile which touched over his expression as his dark grey eyes lifted up to meet the mismatched attention of her own. He was lost a moment on what to say back... Content it seemed to simply watch her a moment as the silence ticked on. He remembered that night in the pack den, with the moon full in the sky and her rays washing down on his Queen. He gulped and found himself shifting a bit in his placement. "Hey uh...Eve?" He spoke, speaking the nickname he had been thinking of for her outloud, pausing with an uncertainty of how she would take it. "You said Elias was leaving for Willow Ridge to visit family. My older brother and aunt lead there. I got alot of family down south. I was just curious who he was visiting? Was it someone he knew? Would he bring back any news of the pack's well-being?

Nineva wasn't one to shy away from eye contact, even when it was only accompanied by silence. Empty could, at times, be comforting. There was something... there, however, within Judas' grey eyes. Something different from @Elias' moon-eyes he sometimes batted at her, something she hadn't seen since...

The memory clicked, and her eyes snapped away, off to the side as though something else had taken her attention. Maybe Judas would be gracious enough to believe that she'd heard movement in the underbrush, or had some other, unrelated, reason to look elsewhere. It wasn't until he spoke again, an unfamiliar nickname rolling off his tongue, that she would face him again.

Ah, right. Sometimes she forgot that these were Archers she'd brought into the fold, even if they carried their name well. While she wasn't one to go spreading another's business about, Nineva also was far from avoidant. It involved family for Judas, after all.

"Ravenna," she informed him, "he helped sire her litter."

A small smirk then took place along her muzzle as she added, "depending on how things go down there, he might be something like an uncle to you."

(This post was last modified: Oct 08, 2018, 11:33 PM by Nineva.)

i'll be watching

from the center of the hollow moon

For a moment he could capture her there, staring at her with a dark smokey attention, one like ash to her gaze of blue and pale grey. It was like the early mornings when the day only just begun, the sky bright and yet the moon could still be seen, a pale glow in the background, a reminded that even if in day she was hard to see, Moon Mother was always there...

Then she snapped her attention away from him, jerking him from his silent daze. His own eyes follow, his ears perked. Had she heard something? He had not, but perhaps it was only because he had been trapped by the features of her face.

When he brought up a new conversation, Nineva finally turned to him again. 'Ravenna', she said. His aunt...? The question lingered only a second. Nineva didn't try to beat around the bush or lid about anything. It made Judas like her even more. Then she smirked, adding in that last toying comment. "Heh...Ahh..." He half chuckles, brow pinching and he tilts his head to the side as an odd expression takes his features. "Man, that's not awkward at all..." Well now... Elias had made it with not only Nineva but his aunt too!? So maybe Judas wasn't the only one into grayscale, largely built women. And now Elias was there with his aunt to visit pups that just may be his own while Judas was here, swooning over Elias' 'main squeeze' and she likely would never give him the light of day Mother Moon.., at least not in that manner.

"I have to say, the Archer bloodline has grown so much it's hard telling who I may or may not be related to." And he could blame a good portion of that on his father whom seemed to have had a different woman every spring and even more then one on most cases. His own "litter mates" and Judas having "mothers" was enough proof of that. "I guess I'm kind of use to it though. After all, I did have 'three' mothers..." Well, mortal wolf mothers that was because of course there was Moon Mother. Yet Nineva knew about all that.

(This post was last modified: Nov 13, 2018, 02:59 AM by Judas.)