[B] Sweetest Thing - Hunts & Longstride

[Lirilei]

Golden Oasis had been charming. Not too charming to seem insincere, just perfectly so. So much so, it had been a welcomed distraction from her usual activities, which amounted to hunting.

Learning she was pregnant had been another unexpected thing but it was something she found herself glad for, she felt a little less rough around the edges, a little softer personality wise, and she found herself hoping she wouldn't be too brash a mother, but that if she was a little more curt than she planned, that the life within her, would be strong enough to handle her sometimes sharp tongue. To know that though she would do anything to protect them, even if it didn't seem like her thing.

Her thoughts swirled as she walked, not paying attention to her quarry like she normally would be, too lost in thought.  

[phoenix kiss]

Something was following her: or many somethings, really, more than just two. Two wolves and an eaglehound, their steps rustling through the underbrush, noses wet and ears perked up. If they're stalking her, they're doing a damned poor job of it, and wolves don't really stalk, anyway -- and they don't usually keep company with eaglehounds, for that matter.

The two wolves look markedly different -- one blue and grey, with a sharp face and sharp, perked ears, and the other one is tan and white and presumably somewhat younger. Definitely clumsier, given the splash of blood on its foreleg, proof of a recent mistake. The eaglehound, however, ranging ahead of them with a clattering of feathers, has brilliantly-blue eyes that display keen intelligence. The way it moves is purposeful.

When they sighted the kimeti doe, they all stopped -- with the exception of the young wolf, whose foot came down on a thin branch and snapped it with an audible CRACK!

 

[Lirilei]

She was ashamed of herself, for allowing her thoughts to overwhelm her usual keen attention to her surroundings. It was the snap of the stick that caught her attention first, made her turn to see what had caused it.

Though even as she turned, she could smell the wolf smell, and she was turning quickly, cautiously, prepared to defend herself against the threat. Except she found herself more than a little baffled by the fact there was an eaglehound with two wolves. She was pretty sure the two didn't usually keep the same company!

Still, the swamp could be an odd place, and Hunts From The Depths wasn't about to take any chances on suddenly being attacked, and she pawed at the earth lightly, ready to charge if it looked like she needed to defend herself physically.  

[phoenix kiss]

The eaglehound turns around to give the young wolf a look best described as disgusted -- but eaglehounds do not normally display such an intelligent expression. Nor would they really know disgust.

It then fades out of existence --melting into its surroundings, fading into the undergrowth until it cannot be seen. The two wolves, the gray and the tan, look unperturbed at this juncture, as strange as it is. They merely remain where they are, ears pricked and with the tan's tongue beginning to loll out of its mouth.

"I didn't mean to startle you," says a voice; it is a slightly gravelly tenor, with an accent that gives it a rolling sort of sound. "Even if it was Trickfoot."

The owner of the voice appears: a tall, athletic kimeti stag, with a mane of loose, sand-coarsened and sun-bleached hair running down its neck, and eyes that glow a brilliant, gleaming blue. The legendary (now with a ghostly eaglehound at its heels) tips its head at the doe in a sort of apology. But he is smiling, so it might also be a tease.  

[Lirilei]

Hunts hadn't ever seen an eagle hound give such a look to anything. Though she realized she didn't think eaglehounds could do suh a thing, and was already staring at it with a more than curious look on her face.

Though it was slightly unnerving how one moment it was there, and the next not though she'd been watching it closer than the wolves, who didn't seem intent on moving closer to her from what she could tell, and were simply...waiting? She'd never seen a wolf with it's tongue lolling like that, at ease. She was too used to watching them hunt!


She can hear the voice, but doesn't see the source, looking around, still keeping a cautious half eye on the wolves, though they don't seem to be a threat to her at this point, which was unnerving in and of it's self!

The stag coming into view though, was almost as startling as the arrival of the eaglehound and wolves had been. She'd heard the stories of course, but never seen a stag or mare for herself. "I...it's okay. It's not every day you see an eaglehound traveling with two wolves." well it was true, and so just for that new sort of experience she could over look the whole being startled thing.

The ghostly eaglehound behind him, looked a lot like the one that had first appeared, just not as solid. Still she didn't question it, instead looking back to the stag, and focusing her attention on him, put at ease by him. He seemed friendly, anyhow so that was a plus to her.  

[phoenix kiss]

Longstride was friendly -- it was almost a canine sort of friendliness. Some were put off by his familiar attitude, but to the stag, he'd never really met a stranger. He shrugged and then tipped his head at her, a wing of salt-coarsened hair [bleached nearly white by sun and salt and tide] falling into his face. He tossed it back, "That isn't why you're out here searching for something, is it?"

She'd had that look.  

[Lirilei]

She was watching him in silent fascination never having met a stag, or really anyone who behaved like he did, and traveled with wolves. It was an interesting thing, food for thought, really. She hadn't known a kin could work cooperatively with a wolf!

His question pulled her out of her thoughts, and she gave a warm smile to him. "You're right I am. Well in a way. I'm worried about the sort of mother I'll be. I tend to be brash and sharp tongued most of the time. I don't want to be either, but I'm hoping the life I'm carrying will be able to handle it, and know I'd do anything to protect them and keep them safe. Regardless of how I may come across." she gave a wry laugh.

"So I guess in a way, I'm looking for inner peace, so I don't worry myself through this pregnancy since I don't know what else I can do." which was why she was out here walking and thinking.