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 Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 9:39 am
And maybe he had talked her into changing his patrol duty to a day earlier.
Maybe it had been about building relations with their new visitors and making them comfortable in their new home.
Or maybe not.
Kevarian felt as nervous as an adolescent on his first hunt. This was silly. She was a good female, and she had an appeal to her, but he really didn’t think of her as anything more than an acquaintance. More than a mate—which he probably couldn’t have anyway, spirit companion be cursed—he wanted another friend. Someone who didn’t frown on him in some way. Shalise, though, wasn’t an outsider brought in. She was from the root of Aves, his mother’s home-pack of Clemens, and if she ever found out…
But so far she hadn’t. There was no reason to think anyone was going to tell her. If the time came, and they had built a strong friendship, Var could tell her. Could, but probably wouldn’t.
The pair he was switching with was approaching him, and his face went into a calm kind of mask. He nodded at them, and addressed the pair by name, and in return received easy greetings from both of them. One wolf smiled and he returned it. Although the uneasiness wouldn’t go away, distance, at least, was adjusting the way the rest of the pack behaved towards him. The shame wasn’t so close to the surface now.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 10:01 am
Shalise nodded to the two guards heading back towards the dens as they passed her by. Kevarian must have arrived already.
She smiled at the sight of him. "Good afternoon!"
He turned back to her, and she slowed to a walk as she came up alongside him, the two falling into step for their circuit. They had pulled the afternoon shift, which meant an evening nap for Shalise, but maybe Kevarian would show her a bit more of the Aves lands that night. He had said there was more to see.
"I didn’t know you were my partner today! Will we still be on for tonight?" At his look of curiosity, she reminded him, "You said I hadn't seen all of Aves. Aren't you going to finish showing me around? I've been here weeks already, and I'd like to know the general layout of my new packlands."
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 11:50 am
Kevarian turned when Shalise called out to him, and waited to move until they were on par. She was smaller than he was, but their steps stayed pretty much in time with the other’s.
“Hey,” he greeted, and then met her question with a small amount of surprise. His ears perked forward at her explanation and he grinned at her, although he tried to force back the majority of his cheerfulness. There was no reason to get so excited just because she wanted to spend time with him. He thought about his answer for a moment, trying to instill his old sense of propriety.
“If no one else has offered, I can do that. You’ve probably already been acquainted with the important parts, but the back of the packlands borders the mountains, and I doubt you’ve been there yet. It’s nothing special.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:07 pm
“Special or not, I’d still like to see it.” She smiled back at him, her tail wagging at his clear pleasure in her company. Truth be told, she was rather enjoying her time with him as well.
The section of border they were walking was the same she had passed through. Judging from what she had been told and seen of the packlands, this was most likely the only section that had a border that needed patrolling. Aves was three-quarters encircled by mountains. You couldn’t get much safer than a bottleneck. Any patrols out that way, Shalise figured, were to make sure no animals were injured or rotting on the lands, and that there was no danger to be had from their more aggressive prey or the mountain walls. In the winter, she could imagine the thought of an avalanche might be a concern.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:08 pm
The woods were quiet, except for the usual movement of plants and animals. The two wolves felt no need to break that silence, each drifting in their own thoughts and just enjoying an easy camaraderie. For his part, Var fully meant to speak with her, but why ruin silence when it was so comfortable? He glanced sidelong at her, but didn’t let his eyes linger. He didn’t want to be caught staring.
He sighed lightly, and saw her look at him in his peripheral, but he just continued walking. He thought she may have smiled when she looked away.
His eyes scanned the trees ahead, sure that no visitors would be coming by today, but looking anyway. The breeze ruffled his fur, and seemed to blow his mind into abstraction at the same time. With a life of their own, his eyes scanned and then caught on a tree and remained glued to it. He had no urge to fight with them, although he could feel his focus zeroing in on it. The rest of the world became vague echoes in the back of his mind. There was something about that tree… something about the way it pulsed…
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:09 pm
Var’s distraction went unnoticed for a while, but eventually Shalise realized that he wasn’t just being quiet because that was his way, but because he was distracted. She inspected his face for a moment, only speaking after she had taken a good look at his expression to make sure she wasn’t wrong.
“Are you all right?” She asked. “You look like your thoughts are miles away.”
Not that Shalise was one to interrupt another wolf’s thoughts, but his expression was odd. Almost awed, but… not. She couldn’t really explain it to herself. “Kevarian?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:11 pm
Her words almost didn’t reach him, but his name automatically drew his attention to her. “Sorry.”
The word was out immediately, but his understanding of the moment took a bit longer. He looked at the ground and swallowed to clear his throat. What was he supposed to say? “Just got distracted.”
That didn’t happen all that often anymore, and for it to happen now was embarrassing and, well, in general uncomfortable. He was glad that his silence and far-away look could always be written off as distraction. Heavens, he was just glad he hadn’t stopped walking entirely.
They passed by the tree that had been its focus, and Var shied slightly away from it, moving closer to Shalise rather than be near it. … Just in case.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:12 pm
Maybe there was something else, something wrong. Shalise didn’t know that much about the pack, or Kevarian for that matter. Perhaps something she had said? Quickly, she went back over their conversation, but she could find nothing in it that seemed even remotely possible as a potential upset. His sudden closeness surprised her as well, but she held her tongue.
Determined to move past it, she shook her head. “We’re on patrol. If you’re bored, you could just talk to me. It’ll keep both of us on our toes.”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:14 pm
Var smiled at her and nodded, pinning his ears back sheepishly. “Right.”
He stepped out of her space again between one step and the next, making his motions fluid so she would think that both his in and out were natural drifting. At least she could think the drifting out was natural, anyway. He couldn’t imagine what his movement away from the tree had looked like. Instincts sucked sometimes. Well, then again so did having to be careful of what you did and said. And that was something he was going to have to worry about for a lot longer.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:16 pm
She watched him in quick glances for a minute more before she perked her ears forward again. “Well?”
His silence was less contemplative and more embarrassed, and she didn’t want to spend the next several hours like this. Their friendship was too tentative to pussyfoot around the bush. She shifted closer to him, ruining their personal space boundary again.
“Are you going to talk to me, or do I have to talk to myself?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:17 pm
Kevarian looked startled for a moment, but a smile from her put him at ease.
“I’m not sure what you want to talk about.”
When she turned a chastising look on him he’d never seen before, he pinned his ears back and immediately did some verbal backpedaling. He resorted to politeness. In his experience, females liked to talk about family. That would be a good place to start. “You said you have siblings. Were you close to them? Your parents?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:23 pm
He was cute when he was panicked. That sounded so odd. She wasn’t going to think that again.
“I had three siblings, but one, my little brother, passed away last winter during a hunt. My parents are well, and I’m close enough to all of them. I moved out of my parents den only shortly before I offered to make the trip to Aves. I miss them sometimes, but not enough to make the trek back to Clemens.”
Before he could question her about her reasons for coming to Aves, she redirected the questioning with, “You’re still with your family, and you don’t seem to be close with many of your siblings, though. Do you not get along with them?”
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:36 pm
Shalise’s comment suddenly reminded him that he had wanted to steer clear of the topic of family. Too late now.
“I’m close enough to them.” The joke, although an obvious redirect, brought a smile to both of their muzzles.
He was suddenly and momentarily fascinated by her paws and the way the gray fur faded out. When he glanced up at her and saw her ears perked forward, waiting for the rest of his sentence, his body relaxed again and he lifted his muzzle back up to an adequate level. She was curious, not prying. He would have to say something after all. “I get along with them, we just have different lives. I see my brothers more than my sisters, since we, the males, hunt, and the girls took after my father and his spiritual bent. ”
It was a lot for him to say at once, and was a fairly unusual amount of speech. It seemed to have worn him out, however, as he fell silent again.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:47 pm
Shalise glanced at him, but was one of those wolves who didn’t mind silences. She would start conversation again later, if he didn’t, but for now she was content to let Kevarian be, and allow herself just a little relaxation time as well. This time, at least, the silence wouldn’t be strange or uncomfortable. Still, Shalise would keep an eye on him anyway. If he was prone to letting his mind wander, she didn’t want him to fall or something.
Their path turned slightly, warning them they were nearing the edge of the boundary. When they turned back the other way, one of them could break the silence.
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Posted: Sat Oct 23, 2010 1:54 pm
They fell into companionable silence again, but this time, Kevarian was smiling and no strange pull overcame him. Things were looking up, very up, for his friendship with her. He would pray to all of the deities that it continued going so well if that meant he could have someone to actually be at peace with. He needed a way to return to his pre-ceremony self. Even his uncertain adolescence was preferable to what he had now.
Shalise was not only that chance, but he liked her. She seemed trustworthy, and although he still liked giving the right answers, for some reason they rarely strayed to topics where finding a right answer was easy. It made him think and reconsider.
The wind caught his fur again, but this time Kevarian's mind was fixed on his silent companion.
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