Dead Empress Backwater Don't Forsake Me

SAGE HERVOK

Sage had never felt a contradiction of emotions this powerful before. So much bad news had been revealed to her and yet anger lingered. Her chest hurt as if the emotional pain was taking on a physical ailment.  And still, the bitterness of her rage remained. The wolf forced herself to smile at @Eros to show her gratitude. She turned to her mother with a gentle voice, "I'll catch up with you tonight, the pack den is easy to find. Go rest." Giving commands to her mother seemed odd, and she could see a reaction form and fade on the elder's face. Regardless doing such had come almost naturally to the girl. She was only doing what was best for her packmate, family ties aside, and within her superiority.

Once she was sure everything was handled, the Hervok woman walked towards the brooding male. He stood amongst the trees in a foreign manner that made her skin crawl. This was not the soft and sweet wolf she knew. Her ears flattened, eyes looking over him, and whined.

 Sage approached him, not as his higher-up, but his...girlfriend? "Ollie?" Her voice was a frail whisper. Her creamy paws took tentative steps to close the distance.  She wanted to reach out and touch him. Her belly was in knots, "A-are you mad at me?" She looked up at him with beady eyes full of hurt.

Oleander was not far as the mother and daughter duo met with Eros and settled in. He listened to them murmur to one another at a distance. While he wanted to skulk away and wait in his den, he decided against it. Sage would come looking for him soon enough and it was better to not stray too far. She promised to tell him about her meeting outside the borders and he was all too eager to hear every bit of it.

He had been standing beside a fallen log when he heard her approach. Every bit of him was still tense and though his tail had lowered, his ears remained forward. She was first to break the silence between them, offering a whine at first before uttering his name, "Ollie?"

His tail gave a slow swish to one side and back.

"A-are you mad at me?" She looked hurt and small. A little songbird in the snow.

"No," he woofed, looking her over before averting his gaze. He surveyed the territory around them. Eavesdroppers were the least of his concerns, but he preferred this meeting to be private. It wasn't like he thought she would leave with her mother if given the chance, so why was he like this? He exhaled through his nose, looking anywhere but at her. He wasn't sure where to start. Everything in and around him felt prickly. It was uncomfortable and irritating. "What did she want?"

For being the only cub in the family who still had both parents in the pack, he was starting to seem out of touch. If anything, he should have been glad that Sage had been reunited with her mother. Whether Mama Vanadis' recent return had influenced him or not, he could not say.

they say pray it away, i swear,
OLEANDER VALLE
that I'll never be a saint, no way

SAGE HERVOK

"No" She should've been relieved. He was looking everywhere but at her. Sage's heart pounded on her ribcage, how much more emotional turmoil could she withstand today? It'd gotten to be so bad earlier that it felt like for a moment there everything within her shut off. Her eyes began to water. The glade was gone, her father left, and her siblings died. Why was the world so big and cruel?

She didn't know where to start, it was all bad news. She would just have to dive right in. The woman took a deep shakey breath, "She wants grandchildren...she wants me to leave." The Hervok shook her head, "She didn't even consider how I felt about that. I tried to tell her how much the Backwater matters to me, but she treated me like a pup!" Her voice held a sharpness.

Frustration ebbed away to sadness," She said my dad left her and the Glade fell apart." Her voice was now somber and grew lower the more she talked until tapering off into a whisper. " She was pregnant when he left and lost the litter." There was a long pause and the she-wolf lowered her gaze to her paws in defeat." She..." Sage was crying now, "She might as well have said that love is a myth."

(This post was last modified: Mar 15, 2024, 03:55 AM by Sage.)

Dead Empress Backwater

He was oblivious to the glossiness of her eyes. The idea that he had sent them and their relationship tiptoeing on thin ice. Her breath quivered in the air, wavering in his ears. "She wants grandchildren...she wants me to leave." Sage shook her head, but Oleander grimaced, glowering at the tree opposite him. She took him on a rollercoaster as she revealed all. The incredulity, the indignation, the frustration, and the sadness...

"She said my dad left her and the Glade fell apart."

Oleander had nothing to say. In his experience, wolves, both family and stranger alike, left packs all the time. Whether he liked it or not. It was never the choice of those who were left behind. He let her process it all before finally crumbling into a mess of sobs.

"She might as well have said that love is a myth."

His golden eyes shut to keep from rolling them. From rounding on her and shouting that she needn't believe what others tried to imprint onto her. He lifted his head to the skies and took a deep breath, only exhaling when he felt collected in his head.

"Sage," he rumbled, looking at her pale face and the sadness her eyes held. "Sage..." The second utterance of her name was meant to soothe, but he couldn't wait to see if it would. He merely held her gaze with a small shake of her head, "I want to have cubs with you, but not now. One day... and she can wait until then..." His brows touched as he blinked, concerned for the thoughts that swirled in her mind, "That's just... life... Things, well, things just happen." As simple as that.

He turned about to fully face her, "All I can do is offer condolences for what was. What matters to me is what's here and now. You... Me.... Sure, love can be a myth. Maybe to the nonbeliever." If he could have wiped her tears away, he would have. "I think what we have is pretty real. I wouldn't worry about that." A small but serious smile emerged on the corner of his lip, "Let her think what she wants, say what she wants. As I said, she'll have to go through me before she takes you away from here."

they say pray it away, i swear,
OLEANDER VALLE
that I'll never be a saint, no way