Whisper Marsh 'til the love runs out

Haven't had a follow-up thread in foreverrr. If I can change anything, @Namid, let me know! <3

Rook Lyall

I got my mind made up and I can't let go.
I'm killing every second 'til it sees my soul.
I'll be running, I'll be running,
'Til the love runs out, 'til the love runs out.
And we'll start a fire, and we'll shut it down,
'Til the love runs out, 'til the love runs out.
- OneRepublic - Love Runs Out

---

July 3rd; Evening, moments before sunset; Partly Cloudy; 64° F/18° C

Convincing his sister to come along with them had been one thing, but spending the hours traveling with Namid was something else entirely. Even from the get-go, when he had first met her, it was apparent she was different and, most importantly, nothing like Bishop when it came to discussing ordinary things - favorite colors, what their opinions were on fish and rabbits, and other silly, light-hearted things like deciding where to go and why. When they had come to the edges of the Whisper Marsh, Rook slowed to a halt, his muddied toes submerged in the shallows. He looked back to find his sister resting on her own and it was then that Rook turned to the woman whose optimism and willingness to help had brought them here.

He lowered his head briefly to gaze down at his reflection on the glass-like surface of the Marsh. The sun was setting and, soon, there would be no valid reason to continue, no matter how much Rook wanted to venture on. Shaking the droplets from his chin he eyed the tree line made up of tall and impressive firs and cedars. They probably should have made a turn somewhere within the forest but both thirst and hunger had gotten the best of him.

Rook advanced forward to dip his hind feet into the water, relishing the cool mud beneath his pads and in-between his toes. He glanced over his shoulder to check and see if his sibling was close enough to eavesdrop on their conversation, not that he wanted to share a few secrets but he just wanted to make sure his curiosity and other questions could be voiced without ridicule or mockery. "So..." It had been hours since he had last said anything to either of the two ladies, and voicing that single word made him sound and seem a tad more awkward than he would have liked. The crickets' songs did little to buffer his sudden conversation opener. "How did you learn how to fish? If it's... okay to ask?"

Created by Earl Grey of RPG-D

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Namid 'Star Dancer' Namid loved every bit of the journey. It was refreshing to be able to talk to someone or be in the companionship of another wolf. While she didn’t want to join a pack just yet, she still found it lonely to be by herself for long periods of time. She had also found that conversing with Rook was rather easy. He was a curious fellow, that was for sure, but none of the questions bothered her in the slightest. She was happy to answer, and even put in a few questions of her own. During their journey so far she’d learned a decent amount about the boy and she found nothing to complain about. It seemed like the conversations flowed easily, though from his sister not so much it seemed. As they stilled upon the marsh she looked around, a gentle wind stirring her pelt and easing some of the mucky humidity off of her skin. The sun filtered through partly cloudy skies which seemed to magnify the heat it radiated down upon them, but it was something she was used to anyhow. Out on open land everything seemed so free and vulnerable even with the near yet so far cedars and firs. Turning her mismatched gaze on the male she watched as he waded into the waters of the marsh until his paws were submerged, and even then he had the look of bliss on his face. Cocking her cranium she looked over at the water, wondering if it really felt all that good. Moving to wade in like he did, she found the feeling that he was experiencing. She swore that, if you listened close enough, you could possibly hear the water sizzling beneath her hot paws. Her tail began to wag ecstatically at the feeling and before she knew it she was too far gone. With a yip she lunged into the water, submerging her whole pelt with a sigh as she splashed around, a grin curling on her maw as she felt the cool water sinking into her layers. How did you learn to fish, that was a question that caught her off guard. The water was shallow enough that her feet could touch the bottom, but deep enough that only her head was above the surface. Turning to face Rook a thoughtful look accented her facial features as she thought. “My tribe, they would go fishing to gather food for our people. I would sometimes help, or I would sometimes just catch fish for myself. I learned from my father, during those times.” She answered, recalling the memories that surfaced in her mind from her past. Find a place where there's joy, and the joy will block out the pain.

(This post was last modified: Jul 06, 2014, 03:33 PM by Namid.)

Rook Lyall

Her sudden movement to go deeper into the Marsh had somewhat startled him, but seeing her head float easily above the water as she submerged the whole of her body had him at ease. Surely if something - a swamp monster perhaps? - had grabbed a hold of her from beneath the surface, she would have yelped (right?). Rook lowered himself so that he laid down and immersed his underside, elbows, and ankles in the coolness of the shallows. Namid answered him, telling him that her pack, her tribe, often fished for food. She would often help or catch fish for herself, and she had learned such an art from her father. To Rook it was all bittersweet. Back at Renegades Reach, they had all sorts of opportunities to try a variety of prey, but the most abundant of them all were deer (which the pack usually took down as a group) and rabbits (which his father had taught him to skillfully hunt).

He pictured a younger Namid with her father, the two of them scanning the water just like Borden and Rook would do while watching a warren of rabbits. Another glance was cast towards Bishop and he stared at her for a time before bringing his mismatched gaze back to his friend, "My father and I used to hunt rabbits, my mother used to laugh and say we weren't made for the water when we tried to fish. We were never fast enough for catfish." He playfully stuck out his tongue, "Too slippery. I'd always lose them and get a tail to the face."

"Is your home far from here?" he asked, wondering why he had never asked her that before. During their trip he had asked and exchanged various tidbits of information, like why his eyes were mismatched (he had inherited them from his mother), how he and Bishop had found Relic Lore (by following a stag), and why he sometimes stopped for a moment to collect himself (to pray, ask forgiveness, guidance, and repentance to a higher being that he called "The Holy Spirit") among other trivial things. "What was like?"

Created by Earl Grey of RPG-D

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Namid 'Star Dancer' Star Dancer listened to Rook talk, ears pricked and head cocked as it usually was when she listened. His stories did fascinate her, the ways of life he described were far different from what she had grown up in. In his pack, things were so orderly and everyone held a certain place. While in her tribe there were the hunters, the weavers, and the chief, everyone did not think of themselves as higher than another. They were all on the same level in their terms. Amusement tugged at her emotions as she listened to his tale, nearly laughing outloud at his description of taking a fin to the face. She herself had done the same thing multiple times when she was still learning, and she was surprised she wasn’t blind from the experience. His question forced her to picture everything, the feelings of her old life and how everything had been and knowing that it would never be again. The thing was, at least Rook knew where his family was. He even had his sister with him. Namid had nothing except her name and the memories. She didn’t know where her parents were, or her siblings, or her beloved chief. For all she knew they could be dead, though that was a point she preferred to leave unthought-of of on most occasions because the realization was too much to bear. However, she would explain anyways. “The reservation is…a long way away. It was peaceful on most days, and the sun shone making all the colors stand out. We were surrounded by maple trees. In the summer, they provided cool shade on hot days and sometimes you could lick the sap from the bark. It would be sticky everywhere because the sap would rain from the trees and you would get leaves stuck to your pelt that you thought might never come out. In the autumn, their leaves would turn all sorts of colors. Reds, oranges, browns, and yellows. It was like being surrounded by a sunset, when the sun lit up everything around you and the wind made everything sway. We were all a family, not by blood but by who we were,” She replied wistfully, voice soft with remembrance. The familiar ache settled in her bones and she decided that it was better to move onto something else. Swimming over to the shore she clambered out, moving a ways away from the others before giving herself a good shake. Crystal droplets sprayed all around her, like little diamonds in the light. Beads of the liquid clung to the ends of her whiskers and her medium length silvery pelt still hung slightly dripping, but there was no longer water streaming off of her like a waterfall. “How about I show you how to fish my way?” She said, grinning ear to ear. Find a place where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

[/quote]

Rook Lyall

He watched her think; his tail swayed about in the water, lifting once before falling back in with a small splash. He liked watching her whenever she was sent into a thought-provoking conversation. She was intuitive, insightful, and genuine in a sense that widened his perspective and made him appreciate who she was as an individual, a creature who shared his charisma and easygoing nature. She began to explain to him what her homeland was like and in his mind's eye he saw it all. The vibrant colors of the wildflowers in the fields, the clarity of the skies above, the warmth and brightness of the sun as it shone down on her and her family... He could almost taste the sweetness of the sap on his tongue; he could imagine himself snaking around the trees in attempt to rid his coat of pesky leaves that had attached themselves to his fur. He heard the crisp sound of leaves crunching underfoot as he followed her through the territory, which really was, in his imagination, like running through a never-ending sunset.

The heartbreak in her voice did not go unnoticed, and Rook was quick to offer a bit of solace, "Renegades Reach was like that before I left. I miss my home too." His eyes went down to his paws, watching as they rippled and distorted beneath the water. He thought for a while of what to say, having a feeling that, maybe, she could not go back just as easily as he could. She stepped back on the shore and he looked after her. "Maybe it was meant to be," he murmured. "All this. If I hadn't left and you hadn't come here, we wouldn't be, well... here."

Namid shook out her coat and he followed suit, standing up and wobbling about as to shake the excess water from his belly and neck. She grinned at him then when he next caught her eye. “How about I show you how to fish my way?” she asked. Rook's dark, spiky tail waved about and he nodded, but not without taking yet another glance at his sister in the distance. Perhaps it would be best not to bother her after all; regardless of it all, he figured it was about time that he fully explore having a relationship, a sort of truly intellectual and platonic friendship with someone who wasn't related to him by blood. "Yeah," he smiled back, looking up to the pink- and orange-streaked skies. They had just enough light and time to catch the fish who were just beginning to feed during the twilight hours. "I'd love that."

Created by Earl Grey of RPG-D

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Namid 'Star Dancer' A nod bobbed her cranium at his reply, a good answer in her book. She loved to fish, they were her favorite food if it wasn’t too obvious. She also loved to swim, A. because her pelt was rather dense and B. She loved the feeling of the water around her. It made her feel swift and relaxed, she could almost swear she was a fish in her past life. With heterochromatic eyes scanning the water she tried to find the best spot that would allow them to stay on the bank but still have a good chance at catching one of the aquatic animals. Nearby was a region where there was a slightly more clumped area of reeds and long grass, a perfect area for bass to live in as well as other forms of animal. Nodding for Rook to follow her, tail wagging, she moved over to that area. She waded into the shadows a bit, only enough that her paws were wet and motioned for him to come and join her. “Alright, the first thing we must do is be very still. The fish will know you are there if you move around too much. We do not want them to be scared away, huh?” She laughed, a sort of laugh that showed she obviously felt herself amusing. Turning her attention back to the task at hand, she continued. “Secondly, we must be very patient. Just because a fish does not come in your sights for a few moments does not mean to give up. You will want to look for bubbles on the water, or movement below the surface. When you see it lunge forward and bit into its back. Once you do that, pull it back to the shore and bite into spine. That will keep you from getting whacked too much,” Namid instructed. The way she phrased it showed her experience, though in her mind she was quoting her father. She could picture his large, dark tawny build in her mind as he described it to her with his bright amber eyes so knowledgeable she never could doubt anything he had said to her. In a way, she wanted to be like that herself one day. So knowledgeable that other wolves looked to her for what to do. Narrowing her eyes onto the water she watched carefully, eyeing it for any of the signs she had mentioned. It took only a few minutes for her to see a flash of fin and a splash before she was lunging head long into the marsh, teeth flashing and tail wagging as she pulled out a bass. It wiggled and flopped, gills gasping for the water that gave it its oxygen. Pinning it beneath her paws she struggled for a moment to hold it still, wincing as a bit of the spine cut into one of her pads. Swooping down she bit into the back, twisting as she severed it. Lifting her cranium she swiped her tongue across her maw, “Want to try?” She asked, cocking her head to the side. Find a place where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

(This post was last modified: Jul 05, 2014, 03:47 AM by Namid.)

Rook Lyall

She gestured at him to follow and it was with a wagging tail that he heartily trailed after her, step for step. When she stepped into a reed-covered area and back into the water, he stopped, opting to watch her first. Artfully she navigated to a spot where the shadows gathered at the marsh-soaked roots of the reeds before beckoning to him with a simple dip of her muzzle. He lowered a forepaw into the shallows again, looked at her feet, then proceeded to bring his other three paws into the water.

Namid instructed him to be very still and immediately his tail stopped wiggling about. In all seriousness, he actually lowered it, the gentle curve of it hinting at his eagerness to learn. In response to her comment about not wanting to scare the fish he shook his head. She laughed then, and he his ears came up with a small twitch of his tail. “Secondly," she continued, "we must be very patient." Rook's head tilted momentarily to one side. Patient. He could do that. Or so he hoped... Usually when he lost his patience, it was because Bishop had been trampling on and fraying his nerves; and, often, in that sort of circumstance, once his ability to tolerate her had been worn thin and broken, there was no way to console or soothe him. This typically led him to seek out a place where he could truly isolated, alone, and left to his own thoughts to cool down and recover.

His muzzle bunched up on one side and he raised a brow in thought. He had gone fishing before. He had told Namid before that he and his father used to try and fish. The difference between then and now, he hoped, was that he would actually catch something. The Star Dancer instructed him further, telling him to look for bubbles or movements just below surface. If and when he was able to locate his prey, he was to aim and bite its back - clasp his jowls around the spine of the fish to avoid getting slapped and losing the prospects of a meal.

"Erf," he sounded in a soft bark, his gaze and attention wholly focused on her and every word that she had relayed to him. Her eyes narrowed and for a time he watched the side of her face before following her gaze to where he saw a splash erupt from the glass-like pool of the marsh. Then, just like that, she was surging forward, sending droplets of water up in the air and on either side of her as she pulled a strange-looking creature from its element. If this truly was her field of expertise, it undoubtedly showed now - especially as she claimed it as her own, rendering it motionless with a few swift movements of her head and paws.

Lord have mercy.

Again the world became still and quiet, aside from the distant sound of gentle splashes and the occasional hubbub of feeding fish. Rook's eyes went to the sightless eyes of the now-dead bass and his jaw visibly clenched. He knew it would be no different compared to when he snatched a rabbit from its burrow or helped his mother, Aniu, and his siblings take down an aging doe. What he wasn't sure about was the fact that this particular form of hunting was not on land, in a pond or running stream. The Marsh was spacious watering hole, and deep, too. He swallowed hard. "All right."

His two eye teeth poked out from beneath his upper lip as his muzzle wrinkled up again as he looked over the still water. As was characteristic of him, he lifted his left forepaw and then the other, wading about as quietly as he could until the water reached his elbows, looking hard for a glint of silver and feeling about for a disturbance in the water.

Created by Earl Grey of RPG-D

(This post was last modified: Jul 05, 2014, 08:58 PM by Rook.)

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

Namid 'Star Dancer' The fae settled down, auds perked in the direction of her companion as he set himself to hunt. She had faith that he could do it, despite his insistence that his attempts in the past went haywire. Where there was a will, there was a way she supposed. It came to mind that, during her instruction, it may have seemed like she was completely off putting any teaching that his father may have given him on the subject. Her internal anxiety opened up as she suddenly desperately hoped that he didn’t think her rude for doing what she did. In all honesty, she had just tried to make things interesting and they had needed the food anyways. She was often hungry, due to the small meals they acquired as lone wolves. They weren’t nearly enough to satisfy the large appetite of a full grown wolf, but until she decided to settle down in a pack it would have to make do. That was a question that had been plaguing her recently. When they reached their destination and if they found what they were looking for, what would she do? Would she stay, or would they have to split ways? As she looked at Rook, and even across at his sibling, she found an already developing sense of affection. Though Namid was already a very affectionate canine, she found a particular care for them. Rook had been her first companion since being forced out of her home and being in his presence had made her come to realize how much she’d missed the interactions. She’d miss the easy, friendly conversations they had and the badgering the siblings had between them. Even though they fought, she could tell they were closer than most because of the journey and past the pair shared. Whatever she decided would have to be decided when they got there. Sinking her canines into the fish she tasted the salty meat, which was slightly tough but overall good. Gulping it down, she went for another bite, chewing thoughtfully as she continued to watch the yearling with intrigued glances between chomps. Find a place where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

Rook Lyall

As he prowled forward, one might have thought Rook possibly looked like a wading stork (that is, if one knew what a stork was and looked like and behaved). When one slender limb came out of the water, one hind leg emerged, and once that hind leg went back underwater, his other forepaw emerged. Only until he was some ways away from where he started from did the sound of splashing water fill the air. An excited bark emitted from his chest and out from behind a dense patch of reeds a small catfish flew into the air. It landed back into the shallows with a moderate splash, but the ruckus had been enough to startle some birds from the nearby tree tops.

As soon as the water droplets had been shaken from his face and out of his eyes he pounced towards the place where his target had landed. He plunged his head down into the water, his tail waving about in the air above his rump as he scrambled through the shallow water. When he came back up for air, he snorted a bit of water from his nose, coughing a number of times before he shook his head to drain his ears. He stood still enough to watch the water in front of him grow still. The catfish was probably long gone by now.

His ears lowered and flattened briefly against his head as he looked over to where Namid rested on the shore. He gave her a sheepish smile, all teeth with a sort of boyish charm that he had not yet outgrown. "Namid?" he called quietly over to her, wordlessly asking for more pointers with a simple tilt of his head. "It... It flew... into the air." He partially grimaced, memories of his parents coming to mind, "Should I... should I move to a different spot?"

Created by Earl Grey of RPG-D

Chances are I have a BEN WHISHAW gif for that.

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity