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 Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:02 am
Absently, Bakari sat at the entrance to the den - watching the sun begin to drop over the trees. The air was just warm enough for his liking, and somewhere ahead of him a group of birds fluttered, taking advantage of the warm swells of air to perform their acrobatics.
He sighed deeply, his thoughts wandering. The pale wolf made no attempts to stop them, letting his mind dwell on Erin. From the moment he'd met her, he'd thought she was a beautiful wolf. And, getting to know her, he'd realised she was strong, caring and thoughtful underneath the meek facade she was struggling to break from everyday. He'd always had a crush on her, he'd just not realised it. And now he saw that it had grown from a crush into something a little more deliberate.
He stood, suddenly wanting the dappled female's company. This sunset was going to be too good not to share. Absently he left the den's entrance, off on an Erin-hunt.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:17 am
Erin, as it happened, was not far off. Her belly rumbling she had decided to go rustle something up. She was used to being self sufficient and she didn't think there were many that were ready for a big hunt quite yet. She had never really taken part in a large hunt - always pushed out of the way by those bigger and wishing to show their 'prowess' more but she had always managed to bring a great deal of food back to her old pack with her judicious knowledge of the land and the treats it could provide.
She needed to learn how this land lay now, though, or she'd not be able to be useful like she so desperately wanted. She wanted a proper place in this pack but she felt she had to earn it.
Despite the slight worry, the concentration on foraging, Erin was still managing to enjoy the early-autumn sun on her back. After being sodden for what seemed like weeks it was a welcome relief - the river had gone back down, the forest was returning to something more recognisable as a forest and not a swamp and her coat had finally dried out! She'd thought she would never be dry again.
Eventually her mind wandered to other matters - a large white wolf who she thought had a soul to match. He had been so kind, if he hadn't she wouldn't be here now...
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:25 am
It didn't take Bakari long to come into Erin's general area as he lazily wandered along. There had been tension in the pack almost since the moment he had joined it. It was time to unwind a bit. Tipping his nose to the air, Bakari could smell her. It was a scent he'd become accustomed to over the time they'd known each other. Quietly, his gaze searched her out. She was much more able at blending in to the colours around them. He did, and always had, stood out like a sore thumb.
"Erin?" he called, his tone quiet. "You here?"
Had he realised she was trying to hunt, he might not have said anything. But he always was the one to make inaccurate judgements...
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:30 am
Her mind had wandered too far off her task - had she been truly concentrating she'd have heard his steps. Thinking about him and then having him appear to close made her jump slightly - it was as though he had read her thoughts and appeared close by - making her feel slightly guilty.
Her tail gave a little shuffle back and forth as she greeted him, ears perked and looking, when she was with Bakari at least, a lot less like the quivering omega she had always been. "Yes, I'm here" she smiled, though she knew she was stating the obvious. She padded over to him, feet crunching on the first of the meany leaves to come which would fall to the ground and cover it in shades of orange, yellow and red. "What are you doing out here?" she wondered aloud.
"There isn't anything wrong, is there?" she added, wondering anxiously. It was silly to worry but she couldn't quite leave her past behind her yet.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:39 am
He shook his head gently. "No, nothing's wrong." He paused, wondering what sort of excuse he should make up. I wanted to see you didn't seem appropriate outside of a relationship. "I... got kinda bored. Thought I could smell you, so I came over to bother you."
Well, it was almost close to the truth.
He joined her in waving his tail back and forth. "So what're you doing out here?" He sat abruptly, crunching a pile of autumn leaves under his rump as he did so. Never one for being delicate. "You're missing a wonderful sunset, y'know," he added, not quite sure what she'd make of the statement.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:47 am
She stopped what she was doing and instinctively looked up. She couldn't really see much for the trees except the deep yellow-orange tinged to blue right above. She had never really taken the time to sit and watch a sunset, now she came to think on it - she had always been too busy, too tired. It had never really occured to her to take the time to watch one. Suddenly it seemed very silly that she had not, important that she should. New life, new oppertunities. "I.. didn't realise." she said, her speech more shy now than timid. "And you're not bothering me at all!" she added, quickly.
"I was just trying to hunt, you know.. do my part." She smiled, self deprecatingly "Not that I'm having much luck." Th small, brown dappled female scooted over to where Bakari sat "Where did you see it from?" she asked, wondering if he'd show her. Perhaps it'd be over or have changed by the time they got there but even just to use it as an excuse to wander with him didn't seem such a bad idea.
She'd grown rather attatched to his company and his sometimes goofy clumsiness. The contrast to the manipulative ever-so-careful Helios was marked though she tried not to think of that particular wolf.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:54 am
Bakari turned his head slightly, to indicate the entrance to the den. It seemed to be a little more elevated, and the trees not quite so dense. "Over there," he said. "By the den. It's not a perfect view, but it's better than down here. C'mon, I'll show you," he announced, standing to meander towards the den, leading the way. He glanced back, to see if she'd follow, before lazily going back the way he'd just come.
He was enjoying his period of calm. His only concern at this precise moment was how he was being recieved by Erin. And it didn't seem to be going disasterously badly right now.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 3:00 am
The she-wolf toddles along quite happily after Bakari, surprised at how even a slight thinning of the trees here and just the tiniest of inclines could give such a much better view. She supposed that was rather good when you considered it was where the pups would be, the old, the ifnorm. In fact the den was rather a nice spot. She dallied for a moment as she pondered this and then had to skip-run a few steps to keep up with the longer-limbed Bakari.
Erin had to admit to herself that she felt rather young. She was not an old wolf by any means but her entrance to adult life had been unremarked and she had spent most of it in near-servitude. She hadn't thought she had minded but now, here, she imagined she had missed much by virtue of not having this kind of life sooner. She caught up to Bakari, eventually, a little smile on her maw. "You like looking at sunsets?" she asked, wondering what had prompted him to sit and look or if it had merely been by chance.
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Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2007 2:30 pm
Bakari nodded, coming up to the spot he had previously occupied, and planted his rump firmly onto the same spot. "Yeah, sometimes. You've gotta be in the right mood though," he reasoned. It was true too - you had to feel loose, otherwise you would feel like you should be doing a thousand other things.
Absently, he watched the sky, which was now starting to streak red along the horizon. Those birds were still playing on the uplifts of air, and a few pink clouds floated by. This was conentment. Bakari then glanced alongside towards Erin. He wondered what she thought when she looked at a sunset. It had been a hectic period for both of them, they'd never really had a chance to step back and watch the world go by. And, even if just for the next hour or so, Bakari was going to convince her that some downtime might be in order.
"Relaxing, isn't it?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2007 12:19 pm
As she sat beside him, looking into the vast expanse of sky, the puffy clouds which skirted the horizon and the few black outlines of birds as they flew like so many fishes, she did begin to relax. She really did wonder why it had taken this long for her to sit down and actually look at the sky. Surely she'd had even a moment to look up, into the sky rather than down at the ground. No? Well, that was then, this was now.
She would make a point of looking up more, and to the side and and.. she smiled warmly at Bakari. It seemed he was the one who had opened her to so many new things. As her sore muscles loosened she leaned lightly against him - he was warm, comfortable and smelled like summer grass.
"Yes, yes it is relaxing" she said eventually, her eyes half-closing.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:06 am
A small, private smile graced his maw as she leaned against him. Her scent was something he had gotten used to over the time they'd spent together, and it comforted him. Gently, he rested his head atop hers, having the slight height advantage, and drew in a long, deep breath, before exhaling again. "See, now I could stay like this all night," he said quietly.
He let his mind wander. He loved Erin, he thought. Unless he was mistaking it for love, he'd never felt quite this way before. But he was pretty sure it was love. Unless it was a crush. There was also that possibility. It was always the matter of how to say things like that. He usually messed up anything that required even the slightest amount of tact, and this was something he didn't want to mess up.
Or maybe it should stay like this? This way, he could be close to her, and she wouldn't run away screaming because he wouldn't ever have to tell her what was going through his head right this second. Brilliant!
Now, if only his heart could be convinced it was a good plan.
Thoughtfully, he moved his head, brushing along Erin's ears as he did so. This was good, he decided. He never wanted to lose this.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:43 am
Erin's sigh was soft, gentle. She wondered what the big, white male was thinking. Her eyes finally came down as the sky became darker, following the tracing of vine-like black around his foreleg as she wondered whether she should say anything. No, it'd break the mood and, well... she didn't know what she wanted to say.
Was this it? - what others went so crazy over - this feeling? Maybe, it didn't seem to her the males of her old pack had often been like Bakari - certainly they were more interested in something else... Well, some had been different - Zag, Oura. But she certainly didn't think of either of them this way...
Ahh when had her mind ever been this fuzzy? When had she ever had time to thik these kinda of thoughts? Her ears shivered as he felt his muzzle brush them, a tingling feeling creeping down her spine. A good feeling.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 11:50 am
They stayed like, in silence, for another half an hour - watching the sun drop in the sky. Bakari's only movements were to occasionally move his tail. During that time, he barely thought (not that he often did much of it), but only contented himself in the feeling, the view, and the company he had right there with him.
Then, eventually, he spoke. "Erin," he asked quietly. "Do you think you'll stay with m-" he hesitated. "With us, the pack, for a long time?" He moved his head away and gently nuzzled her - not sure if such an advance was welcome, but taking the leap anyway.
He let the impromtu question hang, trying to indirectly get around to saying what he was feeling. It was certainly no easy task.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:02 pm
Erin thought about it, her head tilting ever so slightly more to the side, against Bakari. She didn't have anywhere else to go, liked it here, was amongst friends and, well, had a rather promising 'friend' in Bakari. She was rather less naieve than she might appear in her quiet manner and she thought she could see what Bakari was hinting at.
She had rather hoped he felt about her as she did about him and certainly he had never given her any reason to think he didn't at least like her. He was a rather friendly, kind soul though and until tonight she couldn't be sure his manner hadn't just been his good nature.
As they sat in the last dying rays of the sun she realised that 'friendly' was definately an understatement. Nuzzled up against him she felt happier than... than she could ever remember! No, she would not be leaving any time soon!
"I don't think I could go. Not with so many here I care about.." she looked up at him now, her violet eyes trying to make it clear that she definately considered him a rather particular part of that statement.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2007 12:36 pm
Bakari's felt his ears p***k forward as she spoke of those she cared about. A small thrill went through him as he figured out that, yes, they were maybe thinking the same thing. He tilted his head gently as he gazed at the brown female.
He shook his head and murmured good-naturedly, "You're really something, you know that? I've fallen flat for you, and it's taken me this long to say it." He grinned as he happily nuzzled at her again.
"I'm so happy right now," he murmured contently, suddenly feeling very different. He'd said it, that he'd fallen for her. No more dancing around, no more wondering.
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