Riddle Heights Sad Lark

This was getting tedious. His mother had left earlier this morning, busing herself with things to do whilst she left the little black pup to hide away in the shadows. To entertain himself by what exactly? Sleeping? Chewing on twigs? Seriously. He could feel his brain slowly falling to pieces. He was sure any day now chunks of it would dribble out of his ear for lack of use. He was a good boy. He always did as he was told, but today something mad him be naughty.

As the figure of his mother had left the lands around him, Adonis had crept ever so quietly from the cranny his mother had told him to hide in. His wet nose wriggles as he tested the air, checking for the scent he had known all his life, the only one that had stuck around, to make sure she was long gone before he starting to lope down the path they had come here. He had spotted some great views on the way up the heights and he was dying to take a look at them again. Maybe he would step really close to the edge... he knew he'd never be allowed to do that if she had been around... and he so wanted a good look.

His run was awkward, his legs had grown before the rest of him, shooting outwards whilst the rest of his body remained behind, growing slowly. He was almost half the height of his mother now, which was far too tall. Not that he knew of any wolves his age to compare himself against, he just knew he was too tall. He felt wrong, not just outside but inside as well. He didn't feel his four months of age, more like four years with the ordeals he had already faced. Right now he should be tumbling around his den, playing with his siblings, learning from his pack mates. Sure, he'd wished to explore the world but the hadn't expected to do it so soon. So early that his childhood which had just begun, already felt like it had ended.
As his leather pad slapped the earth he picked up speed. He was surprisingly fast, but he supposed he lacked the muscle to be heavy, though his footfalls were still very heavy footed and clumsy. He didn't get to run often, so the feeling was strange to him, but enjoyable all the same. If this is what fun felt like, he thought he might enjoy it. He'd experienced it so little, he just had no idea.

The wind whooshed in his large ears, forcing them back against his handsome face, whilst the world whizzed past him in a blur. Alright sure, most things were a blur to him, well... half of them at least, but going this fast the world zoomed by and he didn't have time to take it all in. He felt like he was flying. He felt like he was free!

All too soon the rocky path beneath him started to thin, and the end of the world approached rapidly. He slammed on the breaks, skidding to a halt but with a good distance between himself and the edge. His pink tongue hung from his mouth, bobbing up and down as he caught his breath. Geez, he felt so unfit! He needed more exercise, more than just walking around like someones shadow... but, that is what he was. All he was. A shadow. His life up to this point had been the same, day in and day out, following the heels of his mother, watching her slip further and further both in body and mind. Nothing ever changed, except her. The places they visited were ... dull, for he took no pleasure in them. He met no other wolves. His mother was too scared to expose him and hid him away. She said it was to protect him, but he had come to the conclusion she was ashamed of him. Why else would she go to the trouble of making sure he was hidden so well, that even she walked past him on occasions if she didn't want the world to see him? He knew it was because of his... problem. His blurred vision in the one eye made him not perfect, and she had deserved perfect. He never questioned her. In fact, he had never even told her of his eye sight issues, but he thought she knew. He thought she was ashamed, that he was a burden she just didn't have the heart to leave behind.
She barely spoke to him now, other then to tell him to hide. She used to sing lullaby's, songs that would scare away the visions of blonde that haunted his dreams. Of teeth and darkness. Her voice would sooth his aches from the long days walk. Of the turmoil in his mind that he was broken. Now... she said nothing.

Before him the morning sun was still climbing in the sky. Kissing the land of lore before it with warm finger tips and rays thick as waves. The sight was glorious, but with his trail of thought he didn't see the beauty in it. He saw little else but the edge of the cliff and slowly but surely, he edged his way closer. One paw after the other until his toes almost touched the edge. A scuffle of pebbles shifted under his weight and tumbled to their death, but he stood still and strong. His strange coloured eyes looked out upon the land, half taking in the beauty and half only guessing what the shadows and colours were that he could just about make out. He took in a deep breath. Allowing the clean air to fill his lungs before he exhaled slowly, enjoying the sweet morning dew upon the breeze. A bird chirped from behind, and he craned his head to get a better look at a lark skipping a few feet down upon a rock. He looked so happy. Chirping away, ruffling his feathers to stand up to the wind which tried to knock him down. He looked so free.

Adonis looked down at his toes as they hovered over the edge, before he took a last look at the land before him. Around his neck he could almost imagine a tie, something choking him, telling him to return to where he was left. He didn't want to embarrass his mother if someone saw him. Before he turned to leave, he took one last look at the bird who continued to chip such a happy song, and a sadness which often lingered beneath his bones, surfaced for a moment.

Oh to be free.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 07:21 PM by Adonis.)

The sky was falling. And damn, it hurt.

"Owww-wuhhhh," Datura whined suddenly as a shower of dirt and pebbles descended upon him. One struck him in the eye, and another right across his nose. The cloud of dust fell about him and dimmed the radiance of his gold coat and stung his golden eyes. Wildly he flailed his head and shuffled backwards amongst the rocks on the narrow path that wound up the mountain. Tears stung his eyes, and he thought he could feel a lump rising on the bridge of his muzzle. His beautiful nose! To think that his beautiful nose would be marred by some unseemly bump, made him want to cry.

With vengeance known only to the bitter and wronged, he threw a glare skywards as if to accuse the mountain. Instead, he saw some disheveled silhouette standing directly above him, not even ten yards away, leaning carelessly into the sky. Outrage boiled in the pit of his stomach. They appeared to be staring at some stupid bird. But just as Datura opened his mouth to shout something nasty at this lanky shadow, it suddenly turned away and vanished.

"HEY," he bellowed after the stranger, "Come back, coward!"

Mind racing, Datura looked around him, looking for some way to get up to that stupid-face who had broken his beautiful nose. Well adapted eyes easily found a path through the nearly vertical cliff-face. Not wishing for this stranger to get away before he gave him a piece of his mind, Datura wasted no time scaling the rough, wind-cut stone. "Don't you dare move! Or I'll, I'll," he paused to take in a gulp of air, admittedly he was a bit winded, "I'll hurt you! I can hurt you real bad." And with one final heave he pulled himself up to the small plateau on which the stranger stood. The Aquila boy's normally handsome, golden face was stretched in an ugly snarl. Meanness, it is true, is often ugly and unbecoming — but with Datura it was even more true. His face was utterly changed by this expression of hostility. His eyes of gold were more like hot coals that scorched the earth, finding the black wolf in one swift pan.

But what he saw softened his snarl into a sneer — and his face became uglier still. The black wolf appeared to be about his age... but it was so hard to tell, it was just so skinny. It was rail thin travel worn. Just pitiful. Datura snorted, as if suddenly he found this whole thing very funny. "Actually nevermind," he drawled, taking several steps towards this lanky, malnourished youngster, "I don't think I'll hurt you." Decisively, he plopped his rump down and flashed the boy an inviting, yet imperceptibly insulting smile. He waited for the conversation to begin.

(This post was last modified: Jan 02, 2013, 07:05 PM by Datura.)

Someone was calling him, but he didn't know who. He wasn't even sure he knew anyone apart from his mother. Strangers he never spoke to, maybe it was Ryvet? Nah, he wouldn't be up here on the mountain. Would he? He stopped his paws, planting them firmly on the rocky terrain beneath him and listened. The sound of movement, shuffling of leather pads against the hard floor came from behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder to see a golden crown pulling himself from the edge.
It wasn't Ryvet and Adonis felt a little sad about that. He had such fun with that other pup in the forest, rolling around, playing chase before he had to go home. Well, back to the spot his mother had left him, not really a home but that was neither here nor there. The wolf who appeared was thankfully not a grown up, so he didn't think he was going to get in trouble. Sure, the boy was a bit on the chubby side but he didn't feel afraid. Instead, he was curious and tilted his head in kind as he watched the other boldly make himself known.

His words weren't very nice however. He would hurt him if he moved? He felt his blue eyes narrow for a moment and he took a defiant step forward, just to prove he wasn't going to be bossed around by a bully. The thing that struck him the most however, was his wording; there was something familiar in the way he drawled his words, he felt like he did that too. Weird. Anyway, it didn't matter how he said it, what he was saying really wasn't nice. He felt like the other pup was being super mean, he even seemed to be laughing at him. He'd never really met anyone who said nasty things- what a douche.

He realised the other was sitting there without saying anything but expecting him to say something in return. He was trying to get a rise out of him and well, Adonis would have given him one... if he was any good at trash talk. Instead, he took perhaps too long to think of something to say. "I-... Erm." he stuttered, unsure of exactly what to say. "Who are you?" he said, unable to find any sort of retort to the empty threats and general meanie-ness, instead he tried to change the subject. He mimicked the others action, supposing that he had been taught the proper way to behave, so it seemed to make sense to copy him, thus he lowered his rear to the floor as gracefully as he could muster.

But the conversation didn't begin right away. In fact, the stranger seemed to just... zone out entirely. He just sat there warily while the scawny shadow scrutinized him, his discomfort growing with every passing second. Well, this was awkward. Unsure of what to do or how to make up for this violently disruptive faux pas, the golden boy shuffled his paws. Datura was, in every sense of the word, a very social wolf, he was a pack wolf, a family wolf. He liked to be surrounded by the presence of others, to laugh with them and learn from them, to be a part of things. But this creature before him... he was too quiet and his eyes were too critical. From Datura's perspective, he appeared to be lacking in something, deficient in some way that he just couldn't seem to name. To be deficient, to Datura, was to be evil in some sense. Nonconformity, difference, anything that threw a wrench in the golden boy's tightly wound, glimmering brass machine had to be rehabilitated or stopped— destroyed if necessary.

His anxiety was reaching towards a dangerous climax just as the black wallflower spat out a few syllables. Datura cringed visibly to hear him stutter. But then the unthinkable happened. "Who are you?" The young Aquila's body straightened as if he had been struck by lightening. "That's not how you start a conversation, kid." Nevermind that they were the same age. "You can't just demand someone reveal their identity. What if I was undercover and you just spoiled everything?" To be honest, he wasn't actually sure that this was the reason that conversations didn't begin this way and why it was rude to asks someone's name without volunteering one's own... He had simply internalized the norms of his own society as they had appeared to him. He had been civilized. There had never been a reason to think of why, but it felt necessary to supply one — and so he made his reasons up.

"But obviously you're not from around here," he said with a lazy sigh, leaning back as he relented, "So I'll let it slide." Carelessly he tossed his head to the side as if he found the horizon so very intriguing like he had seen the others do before he lightly flicked his attention back to this stranger. "Anyway, my name is Datura. But next time, give your name first. It's not so rude that way."

(This post was last modified: Jan 03, 2013, 05:49 AM by Datura.)

The silence that stretched between them was a little uncomfortable. He didn't feel right sitting with the other, but he supposed that was to expected when you met someone new. No one was ever going to get along right away. He didn't like how the boy spoke down to him, like he was an idiot. He certainly was not an idiot, he just wasn't rude. He felt his eyes narrow ever so slightly as the golden boy forgave him for his mistakes, the agitation building up beneath his surface as he sat there in silence, trying his best to keep his manners and not be rude... or run over there and pull his ears. "Are you undercover?" he asked, not believing it for a moment. "I thought spies were meant to be good at you know... spying?" he said, thinking back to stories his mother told him of great adventurers, of golden deer, sneaky foxes and smelly dogs. There had been a spy in one of the stories, a fox, who spied on the hero from time to time but he didn't get caught until the end. He had been a good spy, not like this bonehead."You're a very noisy spy." he added with a roll of his shoulders in a shrug before he followed the quick and somewhat pointless glance to the horizon- what was he looking at exactly?

He didn't appreciate the lesson on etticete, his mother did a good job with his manners and he had been polite. The golden boy was just being a mean smelly head. "I'm Adonis." he added quickly, to try and cover his snarky comment about the golden pup being a terrible spy and ensuring that he took his name for future reference because it might come in handy and he could also tell his mother who he met today. Datura didn't seem much of a threat so he was sure she wouldn't have minded that he spoke to him. "I'm new here. We're looking for our pack." he added, thinking there was no harm in the statement. "You're a spy, right? Maybe you know where we can find them?" he added, a smirk crossing his lips as he challenged the other.

The sigh that billowed from his lips was so heavy it sounded as if Datura was so much older than four month. "No I'm not spy," he grumbled impatiently, eyes rolling as he tossed his head again, "That was just an example." The irony in the other boy's voice flew well over his head. "You wouldn't know if I was a spy. I wouldn't have just told you so easily." Honestly, the idea that this boy believed he could be a spy was hilariously pathetic. The golden child threw his head back in a sudden and hearty laugh, then tilted his head back down at the strange boy and drew his lips back to reveal something between a smile of camaraderie or a sneer of disdain. Datura looked very ugly indeed, wearing a haughty expression as he listened to the other introduce himself.

"I'm new here. We're looking for our pack.You're a spy, right? — "

"I said I'm not a spy! I — " Suddenly, though, Datura caught the smile and realized this boy — Adonis— was toying with him. He would not yield the upper hand to this rude stranger, this runt. Quickly he swallowed his frustration and was once more the picture of silky golden composure. A pack? "I don't know, it depends on what you're looking for. And what you have to offer in return for my information." His smile hardened and turned mean again. After all, he couldn't just go around telling people where Poison Path was — if that was even what Adonis was looking for. He had heard that a few years ago there had been another pack in the mountains by the plateau, Adonis could be very well looking for that one. Too bad it was gone.

Slowly he leaned in, his voice an intimate, dangerous purr, "You can pay me with a secret."

(This post was last modified: Jan 04, 2013, 05:31 AM by Datura.)

Wow. The chubby pup was really easy to wind up. He thought this could have been more fun if it wasn't so tragic. Not fun like fun fun but amusing to see him getting work up over so very little. Maybe he should feel bad that he wasn't being very nice, but the other pup didn't seem to be very nice either. So tit for tat. "You know... a real spy would always deny he was a spy. Is it a cover story?" he asked, trying to hide the smirk from his lips as he tried his best to keep up his innocent and dumbfounded expression. "I won't tell anybody if you are." he purred, offering him a charming smile as he elevated his head, mimicking him and his proud posture again, though he didn't look quite as well groomed and well fed. He was all skin and bones, fur that stuck out at all angles and dust here and there, compared to the golden boy, he was a real mess.

His ears flicked as he listened. He didn't think he would be very helpful. He was a meanie after all and he had to try his best not to scowl as the other tried to taunt him. Yeah, well two could play that game. "A secret? Hmm." he said, looking to the sky as if he was trying to think really hard. After a moment, he had the perfect secret to tell... "I do have one... but I don't think you could handle it." he added with a shrug and averted his gaze, implying the other pup wasn't smart enough to listen to his dirty little secret.

"It's a good one though." he added with his pearly white teeth showing in an excited grin. Adonis wasn't one to lie, but he could tell him a real secret... it just had nothing to do with him, but he didn't have to tell him all the details, just enough to peak his interest and with a calm, collected exterior he sat there.

• i'm a butt. datura's a butt. we're all butts here. feel free to smack :C

  psst also is adonis going to be like YO MAH BRUTHA HOMEY? becu said that you would take over in that department

Now that Datura had regained his composure, he was not going to let it out of his sight again. This runt wasn't going to phase him. Datura, after all, was a very willful pup, and he would bend words, thoughts, mountains in order to make reality conform to his understanding of what was right and good. Easily he warped the clever teasing of this stranger into the pathetic attempt to continue a joke that was so five minutes ago. Disinterested now, the amusement fell from Datura's golden features. Hoping that Adonis was wathcing, the young pup shrugged his shoulders made an exaggerated attempt to turn away so that the other boy wouldn't see him yawn with boredom. Turning back, the corners of his lips flickered as if he were appreciating the humor of the black stranger while simultaneously saying, Lame. "Alright then, Adonis. You do that."

With secret glee he watched the black wolf straighten and mimic Datura's posturings. Good. Although these prideful gestures were laughably pathetic —cute even— on this scrawny little nobody, it was a good sign. Even as uncivilized as he was, learning was not, apparently, beyond him. That was promising... though, Datura had to ask himself why he cared. This lost whelp was not his responsibility. Adonis was welcomed to continue on in his savagery for all that the golden boy cared, for this wretched pup's manners could not reflect poorly on his own.

Or could they?

Datura had no idea what terrible game he was playing.

As the conversation returned to secrets, Datura allowed his ears to lift in mild interest. Inside he writhed with curiousity, but he would not allow himself to rise to Adonis' goadings. Tell it, tell it, tell it! he longed to yip. But that would be uncouth. "It's a good one, though." Oh just tell it already! But he held himself together. He did not let a hair move out of place. His face was a mask. "Well, then, why don't we see? You tell it to me, and we'll see if I can handle it." A dangerous grin played on his face. One step in the wrong direction, and you're toast.

Oh what a dangerous game they played.

(This post was last modified: Jan 20, 2013, 04:43 AM by Datura.)

That's that plan I think? I don't even know what is happening anymore. xD

He had him. He had caught him like a fish on a hook and he could sense how much the golden lad wanted to know the secret, it was like an inner gut, telling him he would want to know, so surely the other boy would too. Of course, at this point he had no idea that the wolf sitting in front of him was actually his brother, the oldest of his litter, the true heir to the lands; no, all the young prince knew was that the golden boy was a jerk who needed a good shove off the cliff. It was a good job Adonis was a good boy really, else that thought could have become an reality..."Oh... I don't know. I don't think you could handle it, you know?" he said, another shrug of his shoulder as he continued to play it cool. Funny really, how very similar they were on the inside. He glanced back to the other, icy eyes meeting the honey coloured, warm and friendly eyes of the other. They were so different, in every possible way. Though neither knew who their father was, it was possible that Datura was more like the dark wolf who fathered them then the black son who was to be his double, but they were still young and there was still plenty of chances to corrupt them later down the line.

He took his time, on purpose of course, just to drag out the want of a secret from the other. It was like dangling a piece of string in front of a cat, you knew sooner or later if you wriggled it in front of them they would snap at it.. the question was, how long would he enjoy making the other work for it. "If I tell you, you have to keep it a secret. YOu couldn't tell anybody.. not even your own brothers and sisters. " the young pup replied, really playing on the significance of the secret that he personally was quite detatched from. The secret he would spill of course, was not just a little secret. No, it was a life changing secret, one that would alter their destinies and potentially change their lives forever- for the young Adonis did not know that the secret he would share was in fact intended for the ears of the golden boy. He had no inkling that they were in fact brothers, all he knew was that the golden boy was a bonehead and it would be fun to shock him to the core.

"You have to tell me about the pack first and then I will tell you the secret." he said after another silence and continued to lock gazes with the other, he meant business and it didn't matter if the secret he had was something he had sort of made up, but sort of hadn't, either way it wasn't about the golden pup but he could make it apply, just for giggles and all that. He didn't leave room for the other to protect before he added "They like by a lake and my mother, Naira, was the leader there. Know it?" he asked with a quirk of his brow and a look on his face that challenged the other, a look to say yeah, I bet you don't know, you don't know much.

Datura & Adonis

(This post was last modified: Jan 22, 2013, 01:04 PM by Adonis.)

• yeah. idunno. i mean at this point i've just gone about assuming he's learned in this thread. you're free to go about it... however? (alsoyaybrothertables)

"Oh... I don't know. I don't think you could handle it, you know?" He said again.

Datura's only response to this was an eyebrow raised incredulity, although inwardly he seethed. Who was this rogue to tell him what he could and couldn't handle? He had no idea the emotional torment he had undergone day in and day out as he tried and failed and tried and failed to reform his sister. Every night he went to bed burdened with the fear that his sister was beyond help, that she was doomed. He bore it from sunset to sunrise and he had never — never— allowed himself to cry or reveal his weakness to anyone else. It's made me stronger, the golden boy told himself every night before he closed his eyes, and he told this to himself again now.

Although months might have passed in his imagination, the oldest Aquila did not miss a beat in responding to the black knave. "I think you'd be surprised," he drawled. His face was expressionless, and yet his tone appeared to be laced with acid.

He waited. Adonis bought more time.

"If I tell you, you have to keep it a secret. You couldn't tell anybody.. not even your own brothers and sisters."

At this, Datura merely shrugged. "I know what a secret is, Adonis." Without meaning to, somehow some other things slipped out of his mouth. "I mean, I almost never tell my sister anything. She's very fragile. And I don't have any brothers." Suddenly he clammed up again. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why was he discussing Belladonna with this wretch? Family matters were private business, and here he was just airing out his dirty laundry in public. Adonis probably didn't even care. "So anyway," he said, hoping that his attempt to make himself look more trustworthy hadn't been counter productive, "I know how to keep secrets."

And still Adonis stalled.

"You have to tell me about the pack first and then I will tell you the secret."

Datura's eyes narrowed. This wasn't what he had agreed to. Originally, the deal had been that Datura would tell him some stuff about this pack he was looking for if Adonis told him a secret.... and here Adonis was, attempting to turn things around. His ears twisted backwards on his head. But Adonis seemed to realize that perhaps he would be reluctant to give anything away right off the bat, because he prompted him with just a tiny snippet of this covetous secret.

"Well. I live by a lake," Dautra offered lamely, "But I've never heard of any Naira. Athena and Tlarx are the leaders of Poison Path."

Datura & Adonis