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 Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:37 pm
For the first time in months, Telyn was walking her old rounds once more, near the fringes of the herd, approaching Outrider territory. For the first time in months, she didn’t have her two children with her. Islwyn, as she understood, was off enjoying one of his first few days as a corps member, and Tempest… well, Telyn wasn’t entirely sure what her daughter was doing, but she had a feeling she was flirting with bucks. Anlach was affecting them all, it seemed. The air was nice and crisp as it whispered through the red and orange leaves. Fall was such a beautiful time in the forest. It was hard to remember that winter---the cruelest season---would be arriving soon afterwards. The birdsong had dwindled, as most of the fluttery lera had flown off for warmer climes.
Still, Telyn wasn’t here to enjoy the scenery. She was here for a very, very specific reason. Everyone knew by now that the Outrider circuits had been tightened, so a hind wandering around this far out here would attract attention. A gray hind wandering all the way out here would attract very particular attention. Brychan’s. Telyn smiled unconsciously at the thought of her stag, not even for a second thinking that he might be upset with her for taking time away from his normal outriding duties. If she had thought of that for even a moment, she dismissed it easily with the logic that Brychan would have to take a break eventually. And what better way to take a break than to enjoy her company?
… That came out more arrogantly than she meant it too… with all of this in mind, she made no attempt to hide. The idea that a wolf might come after her worried her far more than anything… but, she was, as always, confident in her skills to run far, far away. Not the most… noble of things, she admitted, but far better than dying.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 10:53 pm
It indeed did attract attention, for Brychan surely noticed that one of his hinds was straying near the ranks, and lately... that was not usual of her. Curious, and moving away from the grouping of other hinds that all the stags had been migrating towards in recent days, Brychan was now approaching Telyn.
"Looking for something?" he called out, a bit of a grin on his face. She was probably looking for him, although as to why.. he could only come up with a few guesses... most of which he doubted. But who knows, she might surprise him. The stag tossed his antlers, a clear sign of his increasingly uppity nature and desire to show off. He was usually a bit more modest, but in Anlach.. it paid to flaunt.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:08 pm
It did indeed pay to flaunt. Brychan wouldn’t have gotten Telyn if he hadn’t flaunted a little, as their original relationship had been more along the lines of, ‘you’re pretty, I’m hot, let’s go have sexy babies’. It had evolved into much more since then, much to Telyn’s delight. And Brychan’s as well, she was sure. Her grin grew wider as Brychan came into view, his starry pelt standing out nicely against the current rainbow of leaves. For a moment, she was simply happy to see him, her devious little plan of information gathering completely forgotten. Just seeing him was a source of delight for her.
“Actually, I came out here to meet a reindeer, touch the moon, and possibly fight off a ghost wolf with only my hooves, but finding you certainly is a nice alternative,” she said with her usual smirk as she made her way towards him. Now, how did those other hinds normally walk when trying to get a stag’s attention? She searched her mind, trying to figure out just what they did. She had always kinda ignored them before… now she wished she had paid closer attention. There was some sort of special movement with the knees, she was certain. Ah well.
When she got over to Brychan---and, remarkably, she managed this without falling over as she struggled to figure out a seductive walk---she nuzzled his neck affectionately. Now that, at least, she knew how to do. “How are you? I felt like we should just talk away from Islwyn and Tempest for once.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:23 pm
Brychan laughed at her reply, and he was certainly glad to see her as well. His walk became a little quicker as he moved to meet her. He noticed her attempt at a sexy walk, which sort of ended in failure, but he said nothing of it. Instead, he just nuzzled her back, certainly glad for her favored hind's company. It could get a little lonely out there on patrol sometimes, after all. Plus, Islwyn was proving to be quite a handful.
"I can agree with that" he said with another light chuckle, "And I'm fine, what about you?" Whatever ulterior motived Telyn might have, Brychan didn't suspect them in the least. It was Anlach after all.. or near it, it was normal for the hinds and stags to be mingling now and to be in each other's company. He could easily remember how the two of them had met, and the sort of agreement they'd made. Well... that had all changed and now he cared for her a great deal indeed.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:34 pm
“I’m doing well. I’m a little worried about Tempest. It’s normal for any hind or doe to focus on stags around Anlach, but… she’s a bit too focused, I think. It can’t be good for her to focus so completely on one and only one thing without considering the consequences.” In the manner of hypocrites everywhere, Telyn’s own hypocrisy made a slight whistling noise as it went right past her ear. “But, she’s much better now. She and I spoke to Aithne the other day about various things. She would make a nice addition, by the way.” Some hinds might have been a bit… well… bashful about bringing such things up. More than a few would have quailed at the idea of suggesting any particular hind. But not Telyn.
It was true, anyway. Aithne was young and healthy. And she did like Brychan. Besides, Telyn rather liked the idea of having similar-minded hinds around her. While she often thought of herself as antisocial, that wasn’t truly the case. The truth was that she simply didn’t meet other hinds who thought like her and putting them all in one place would make them much easier to find. Especially since they all tended to spend so much time on the edges of things. Not a very good social habit.
“Has there been any news of the ghost wolf recently?” she asked casually, nipping lightly at Brychan’s fur to dislodge a particularly annoying leaf, which was promptly eaten.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:41 pm
Ears perked, worried about Tempest? Brychan seemed to consider this a few moments before making his reply. "I don't think there's any need worry... its pretty normal. Its her first Anlach and she's excited like most young does and bucks. Besides, she's unlikely to breed this year, even if she is claimed."
When Aithne was brought up, his smile was renewed, "I'm glad you approve, you two seem to get along really well." That was good, for a set of hinds to get along is impotant. It wouldn't do to have them squabbling all the time, even if they are planning some grand escape. Aithne had reminded him a lot of Telyn, and with good reason.
Her next question didn't seem so unusual, but he did lift a brow at the nipping to remove a leaf. Huh... where had that come from? Oh well. He just rolled his shoulders and shook his head, "No, not really.. nobody had seen him in some time. Perhaps he had moved on, atleast I would like to think he has."
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:48 pm
Telyn frowned a little. She hadn’t been that excited when she had been a doe. While she would never admit it, the flurry of action within the herd had intimidated her a little, urging her to keep even more distance from the herd. Course, it had caught up with her eventually. And thank Herne it had, or else she wouldn’t have met Brychan. “Aithne is one of my closer friends,” she said, easily admitting to this. “She and Rhomae.”
The news that the wolf hadn’t been seen in a while heartened Telyn. This was very important. Logically, she knew the wolf was probably waiting until the hinds were fat with children and an easier meal, but… well, logic kinda went out the proverbial window sometimes.
“Have you assigned new patrols?” she asked, apparently very interested in Brychan’s new duties as a captain. At least, she hoped it seemed like that.
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Posted: Mon Oct 22, 2007 11:57 pm
He smiled again, glad to know that Telyn had friends. Brychan was rather famous throughout the herd by now, but he had few stags to actually have good conversation with. None he could really call friends, with the exception of Fell Lore. Or atleast he would like to think that... they were probably more like comrades. They didn't get as many chances to speak as he might like. Both were rather busy after all.
Telyn's question did draw a blink from him this time, wondering why the interest in patrols. "Well... with the recent batch of Corps memers, yes... I've had to assign them. And with growing Corps comes new Outriders, so yes, I have. They all need to keep themselves busy to protect the herd, especially with the tightened security."
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 12:06 am
Hm… that meant that any knowledge Aithne had about the movement of the Outriders was pretty much worthless. Everything had changed. Ah well. They could work around it. Not easily, of course, but life was supposed to be challenging. Telyn liked her life with a little excitement, a type of excitement that was slightly different than ‘Oh, by Herne! Have you seen what Random Hind has done to herself?’ and similar drivel.
Noticing Brychan’s slight frown, she came up with an explanation quickly. “Islwyn. I wonder about his corps training and the like,” she explained, although corps were unlikely to go out as Outriders. She noticed her mistake a little too late, but figured Brychan wouldn’t notice it. Or, if he did, then he would just expect a hind to make that sort of mistake.
“How is Islwyn doing, by the way? Still being distracted by anything that happens to wander by?” Yeah. She knew her son well. While she firmly believed curiosity was essential to life, there was such a thing as being too curious and too hyper…
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:11 am
Brychan did catch the mistake and while it roused suspicion, he didn't say anything about it.. yet. He waited to see if Telyn would ask anything else. When she queried about Iswyn, he smirked lightly, "He's fine, but yes... the boy is hopelessly distracted. I've had to be rather hard on him I'm afraid, but it'll be good for him. Hopefully I can break him of those habits and make a real stag out of him. I'm sure he has it in him, if he can just focus." Brychan was determined to train his son properly, but at the same time... not to go unnessecarily too far. Being strict was one thing, being cruel was another... and Brychan did not want to seem cruel to his son.
"So... how are you and Tempest? Have you been doing much of interest lately?" He lightly wondered if Telyn was still planning to escape, but surely not now with Anlach settling upon them.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 11:52 am
The news that her son wasn’t doing very well in his first few days didn’t bother Telyn much. She was certain that any child of hers---and Brychan’s, of course--- would succeed. He was still young, after all. Eventually he would learn to focus. Hopefully, he would learn to focus before he caused any serious damage. Telyn doubted that Brychan would put their son into any position of real authority unless he was certain that the young buck could handle it. While the black stag was kind, he wasn’t the sort to turn a blind eye to his offspring’s drawbacks and put the herd in danger.
“Nothing of any real interest,” Telyn said quickly. “Like I said, she’s been pretty distracted by the stags. Very… quiet, lately.” That, at least, was good news. After meeting Scruff for the first time, Telyn had more than half expected some sort of dramatic tragedy to erupt. Or something, at least. But, everything seemed… normal. Normal for Anlach, anyway.
So far, Brychan seemed delightfully oblivious to Telyn’s information gathering. Good. Now just one more little bit of information and she could be done for the day. She leaned against her favorite stag in the whole world affectionately and asked, “About what hour do the Outriders come in from watch?” Hopefully, Brychan’s brain was addled enough by Anlach that he would think she was asking just to find out when they could get some private time together… which she kinda was. Hey, even a grand escape had to come second in comparison to Anlach.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 3:44 pm
Brychan would like some time alone with his favorite hind too... but this was just too out of character for Telyn. Brychan wasn't stupid, and his brows furrowed at the question. He was silent for a few moments, until he finally decided to speak.
"Is this why you stand with me? So you can use me to get information on the outriders, and plan your escape?" There was a bit of accusation in his voice, but also hurt and anger... even if only slight. However, he turned his gaze on Telyn, seeking the answer that he should have to give in responce to that. Would she deny it? Even if she did... would he really believe it? Or would she confess it to be the truth?
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 5:31 pm
It was the first time Brychan had raised his voice---even slightly---towards Telyn. It shocked the hind far more than it should have, considering how many times she had rankled other herla. Her ears pinned back slightly, and for a moment she looked ashamed of herself. But she rallied magnificiently, biting back at the accusations. “I stood with you long before you became a Captain, Brychan, and I would stand with you if you hadn’t been promoted.” The fact that he had recently been promoted was merely… convenient.
Promptly, Telyn dropped the vaguely seductive act and turned back to her normal self, standing up tall rather than leaning against her stag. The anger in his voice hurt her far more than the accusations did, probably because the accusations were true and somewhat expected. The anger, however, was not. If found out, she had expected the black stag to react with amusement, perhaps chuckling in that wonderfully deep way of his before telling her whatever she wanted to know.
Anger? What was that? Seeing Brychan annoyed was like… like… watching the sky turn bright green or something. It simply didn’t happen.
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:05 pm
Brychan was a very patient fellow, but Telyn was trying that patience. The stag felt he was being used, and had good reason to feel that way. His favored hind was exploiting his talents and successes for her own benefit. The anger was there to cover up the hurt, although it was plainy there as seen in his eyes when he looked at her.
"But you still asked" he pointed out, despite the fact what she had said, that remained true. She had been caught in the act. "All this time I've been nothing but good to you, and this is how you repay me?! I told you I wouldn't stop you, but you know how I feel about your desires to go out beyond the herd! Yet you still persist by taking advantage of my kindness! How could you Telyn?!" Did she not realize or care how this made him feel?
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Posted: Tue Oct 23, 2007 7:13 pm
Telyn took several steps back from her stag, her ears pinned back even more than before. She had never seen him act this way before and had to wonder if it was Anlach affecting his mind… surely, he couldn’t actually be upset with her? Could he? No! Of course not! He was Brychan, loving and all-forgiving! And she hadn’t actually done anything wrong… not at all! She was just asking questions! Was that a bad thing?
“Of course I asked!” she shot back, plainly confused by his rage. “Who else am I supposed to ask? I’m not ‘taking advantage’ of you. You’re the one who’s answering! If you don’t want to answer the questions, then fine. Don’t answer them!” Just what did HE have to be angry about anyway?!
Even more shocking than the anger was the genuine sadness in those blue eyes. Telyn had just caught a glimpse of it, but she could see that Brychan was honestly saddened by her attempts. This sent an unfamiliar pang through her heart and, for a moment, she wanted to just apologize and promise to not do it again, perhaps with a few nuzzles. But that wasn’t a very Telyn-thing to do, now was it?
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