Spectral Woods you seem... anxious.

Halloween Event: Tannis discovers an unguarded cache and feasts to his heart's content!

October 17th; Late afternoon; Mist; 24° F/-5° C

"When th'crip doors creak an' the tombstones quake,
Spooks come out for a swingin' wake.
Happy haunts ma-ter-ial-ize,
And begin ta vo-ca-lize...
Grim Grinning Ghosts come out to socialize..."

In all actuality, contact with humans should have left quite a horrifying impression on Tannis Andreas. What with their shiny nets, plasticky hands, bulbous white snouts, and confining containers. They had thought him to be rabid and dangerous; and, he had thought them to be firm and controlling. But, in the end, after he had been freed from that long forgotten monastery last autumn, he believed them to be kind - really, this opinion was only truly applied to the kind souls and experts who worked at a local animal control service - and they had given him the very few songs he knew. This one, sung on the outskirts of a neighborhood by a group of mini humans (specifically: children, dressed almost like bipedal bobcats and wolves) was his favorite.

It was catchy and actually had a tune, very much unlike the ones he made up on a whim or the ones he commonly used to soothe himself with. He knew better than to really indulge in it (every time he came to the part about "ghosts" he made certain to sing it in a whisper); goodness knows how much he hated ghost stories when he had been a cub. Perhaps it was better if he just hummed the song without words.

Since he had had come into contact with the Leader of the nearest pack he could find, he had been in a rather good mood; despite this, he still ambled about much like a cub who was afraid of heights - or using his own legs. Crawling about seemed to have worked in his favor though and what he nearly missed was something that made his stomach gurgle and churn.

Well, now what was this?

His ears temporarily perked and he took a few steps backward without even a missed beat in his humming. A dip of his nose and a bit of scratching and leaf scattering with both of his paws and what he dug up was a freshly caught hare. Its winter coat had just begun to grow in and, with the way it had been laid to rest in the cache, made it look like it had merely been sleeping there until he had found it. Laying right on top of the carpet of leaves that had once covered the hare's storage place, he quickly looked around - over his right shoulder, then his left, up the sky, behind him on his right, behind him on his left, then down to the rodent nestled between his paws. All clear through the mist... No Leader. No pack mates. This catch was meant for him. Since he had given Phineas the turkey he had caught, Tannis immediately figured this was what he deserved in return. It wasn't really that it was only fair, but rather: if he was going to be of use to the Argyris patriarch, then he needed sustenance to function as a full-fledged member of his pack.

What remained of the rabbit was not much. Tannis had reduced it to a stretched piece of bloodied hide and a skull. The pelt, he pinned down with his paw, but the skull... it would be something he very much wanted to hold on to. With the rough surface of his tongue, he began to clean it, oblivious in the meantime to anyone who might have watched him relish his Hallow's Eve treat.

You and your dad

Muerda Lospire

What a tragic mishap

She was back. Except for the fact she really didn't know it. The fallen Queen wasn't familiar with this part of the Relic Lore. In fact she thought she just stumbled into another adventure. This time lost somewhere in a dark foggy woodlands. While the common wolf would find themselves trying to get out of here she found herself trying to stay here. Surely it would be easy to make a home in here. She already found herself sleeping in the roots of an old tree for the past few days. It was an easy shelter. Or at least it would be before the heart of winter set in.

The Queen was on the hunt. For what she didn't know nor did she know where. Though when the scent of a wolf and what was left of a hare. Someone was eating food that should have been hers. Prowling almost like a feline up from behind the wolf eating the hare she let out a low growl. It seemed that the stranger had already cleaned the hare and was no licking something (she couldn't tell what it was from behind him). Flicking her tail behind her she was growing a bit jealous. He shouldn't have done that. He shouldn't have been in her woods at this particular moment. Muerda decided it was time for some fun. It had been a while since she enjoyed messing with someone.

"You there. Boy..." Her words where a rather sour hiss to him. She was only beginning. "Was it you who dug up my lovely hare?" She eyed him over quickly. A scrawny excuse for a wolf. If she was back in Dnakinna she would have attacked him. But this wasn't Dnakinna. These lands weren't hers at all. She would have to learn sooner or later that she couldn't hold and rule everyone with an iron grip. Yet even if she learned there was the possibility she wouldn't follow through with it. She almost never did follow through with things. Maybe that was the fallen Queen's downfall.

"You there. Boy..." she might have hissed, but by the way Tannis had reacted suggested that she might have yelled, snarled, and nipped him all in one go. A pained yelp sounded out from him and he immediately scrambled about to face her. "Ayyyie-yee-ee," he griped, plainly at a loss for words. Where a simple remark should have been shot back - a question asking who she was or what she wanted - the Andreas brute had nothing really to say.

Her eyes addressed him with what he considered a nasty glare and as soon as she had asked him about the hare he had just consumed, he fell over onto his right side with a muffled thud on the assorted forest debris that covered the forest floor. He whined at first through his submissive grin. It was anything but handsome - all teeth and barely any gold of his irises showed through his squinted eyes. His ears remained as they were when she had first stumbled upon him, flat and folded back against the nape of his neck. As for his tail, it might as well have been nonexistent as it blended perfectly with what excess wiry fur he had curling off the backside of his thighs and rump.

He could have told her that the rabbit had not belonged to anyone or that the rabbit had merely curled up to sleep and, in the days where the wind had made a blanket of leaves to blow over it and 'tuck it in,' it had never woken up. As was very Tannis-like of him, he merely cried, whimpering like a cub who had nowhere to hide from the blame of taking someone else's snack or toy. He brought his forelimbs up to his chest then covered his soiled face with his paws, tucking his hind limbs close to his abdomen as he hid his nose between his bony wrists.

"Huh-hungry," he wheezed, forgetting for a moment all about the rabbit skull he had backed away from. "St-starving." At the moment, what he said barely made sense; to him, it didn't matter, so long as the woman didn't dare to subject him to pain. If she did, he had already mustered up a plan that he hoped would work. What the man had become in the short duration of three months, though, begged for attention and the acknowledgement. His face and neck looked a bit too thin and his coat, which should have been starting to bulk up in the face of winter, should have been fluffy instead of than coarse. Even his nose was a bit lacking when it came to the shine that typically adorned the average wolf. Tannis had needed that morsel of a meal; he owed the Leader of Magnolia Glen his energy, health, and willingness to help out the pack... and maybe help her.

Let me know if you want anything changed!

You and your dad

Muerda Lospire

What a tragic mishap

"Ayyyie-yee-ee,"

It was a horrible screech from the younger boy. So bad that the ginger woman pulled her ears back in shock. Though his shrill screech wasn't the only shocking thing. He dropped so suddenly. Exposing himself, making himself vulnerable to her, it was unexpected but she would work with it.

Looking at him lay on the ground she looked him over much closer. A thin twig. The boy's fur a mess, spider like legs, his chest narrow, and from what she could manage to catch in his squinted eyes was a gold like color. Deciding to perhaps not go so harsh on him she slowly moved closer and closer until she could practically breathe onto him. Lowering her nose slowly she let it find a resting spot right above his stomach. Closing her eyes she took in his scent. Pack. He obviously had a home of sorts to return to. Which meant if things turned sour the odds may not be in her favor.

Continuing to let her nose do a bit of wandering she lightly set her nose on his stomach (that was if he so allowed her to do such). From there her nose trailed a bit until it reached an uncovered part of his chest. Holding her nose there for just a few moments she listened to him cry out softly. "Huh-hungry," Before she could say anything he spoke again. "St-starving." Lifting up her nose she let her eyes stare at his hidden face. "I don't blame you." Her voice was a very soft hushed whisper like that of a caring friend. "You needed it more than me boy."

Backing up a bit from him she planted her rear on the forest ground. Letting a rather large leak of air escape past her dark lips she cooed out to him again. "I won't hurt you." It was a truth and a lie. She wouldn't hurt him for the moment but later she might. It just depended on how things would play out between the two creatures.

He thought he might have had a reason to call for his new superior, to test the ties that had been recently forged between Leader and subordinate; but, in the way that the woman had regarded him, it seemed that Tannis was still reaping and relishing what was left of the sliver of luck he had been given since arriving back into Relic Lore. As he remained there on the ground, his tail twitched but not much else of him moved. When her breath came to brush up against his fur, his lips came down over his teeth in apprehension and, as a result of his anxiety, his lungs began to protest. He did his best to muffle his coughs, to keep them captive within his chest. He felt her nose trail along the ivory of his stomach and he gave a little jerk, something not so subtle as to make his leg twitch and his teeth slightly chatter.

Having just become a subordinate beneath Phineas, Tannis only hoped that the foreign musk that lingered in his pelt would come through to wordlessly proclaim that he was taken... that he belonged to someone, that he could quite possibly be missed if he were to go missing. She moved over to his chest, but he held still, even as she withdrew her muzzle from him.

What came to answer his cries was something he had hoped for. Sympathy. Understanding. Insight. She said that she didn't blame him and that she had possibly realized that he had needed the hare more than she had. His paws lowered from his face as he heard her settle down not too far from him. Even if it seemed like she was well away from him, he whimpered until she continued to speak softly to him. As gullible as Tannis was, he believed her, but he didn't get up just yet.

First, his tail uncurled and gave a small wag, then his paws were fully removed from his face. Then, at last, his head came up and he glimpsed up at her, but the whites of his eyes showed in unmistakable fear. If she had been anything close to Phineas or the Lady Morganna, he might have reacted differently. Maybe with a bit more dignity or a trace of pride; he had once been his family's historian and story keeper after all. What commenced not long after was a strange mixture of both a whine and a cry as if he were wordlessly asking her what she wanted from him. Clearly, the hare was all that he had until he consumed it all.

You and your dad

Muerda Lospire

What a tragic mishap

He seemed to take her kindness wonderfully. The male exposed his face by removing his paws but it seemed she wasn't that lucky. His whining started again. It was a strain of whines and she was left to glare at him for a moment. "Does this boy always have to whine?" Shrugging her shoulders lightly her emerald eyes closed briefly.

"Please, please, please stop whining. My ears are much to sensitive to handle the high pitches." Opening back up her emerald eyes the Lospire woman could only hope that he would follow her gentle command. "I've already told you I'm not gonna hurt you, and I don't want anything from you," She paused for a moment to ponder something. "Unless you have something to share that is." Letting a wicked smile curl onto her face she stared at the male on the ground. Truly she was disgusted by him but she was also intrigued in him. She thought of herself as a deiform woman and anyone less than her she would admit to be disgusted by. Although perhaps that was the queen in her speaking. Then again wasn't she truly the queen? Whether anyone wanted to acknowledge it or not Muerda was truly a queen and she always would be.

Letting her tail rest around her paws she would once again call out to him. "What's your name?" She was growing bored of calling him "boy". Muerda wanted his name not only to have something to call him but also for simple future reference.

"Please, please, please stop whining," she told him. The spindly male, upon ceasing his horrid whistling and whimpered, quieted, but began coughing instead. His breath rasped in his throat and he immediately attempted to stop it by inhaling sharply and holding his breath so that he could hear what else she had to say. She assured him again that she was not going to hurt him and that she did not want anything that he possessed unless he had something to actually share. He cringed and he exhaled slowly.

"Tah," he hacked, hastily trying to clear his throat. "Taaannis." Even as he sealed his lips, his lungs continued to protest. Pushing himself up into a sitting position and turning away from her, he inhaled noisily before exhaling a smooth puff of air. That seemed to do it. When he looked at her fully he was taken aback. She was a fearsome looking creature with her sharp green eyes and the tinges of russet on her face, ears, and chest. The whimper that emitted from him sounded like a low hum that trailed off on a note of dread and unease. It seemed he had been discovered by the likes of Princess Morganna herself. Tannis was not stupid enough to think that this woman had been the royal he had accidentally 'lost' though. On the flip side, something about the hues and markings on her coat that made something in the darkest reaches of his mind light up with a renewed sense of fear.

"You're Corvinus," he breathed with a shake of his head as he stumbled and failed to move backwards and further away from her. Right now, it didn't matter, if she seemed familiar or not, all he wanted now that she seemed so calm. "I don't know anything," he pleaded to the dame of far from deiform characteristics. Another cough interrupted him and he cowered now with the nervous bristling of his neck fur, "You can't have me. I'm with someone."