Word Count » 915
Necessity and duty weighed heavily on him as if it were a mountain that was constantly being built up. He wanted to be there with his little love but he had had to leave. About two weeks ago he had told his master that he had to go and that he would be back as soon as he possibly could. With that he had told the cherub where he had hidden some food in a cool, dark place so as to hold the food for as long as possible before he left with a final regretful sigh. But as much as it was regretful this was something that he absolutely needed to do. He needed to prove to the pack, himself, and Bastion that he could do something right and that he could be of great use to the pack if only he was applied correctly. And so with that he had set out, pausing briefly to talk with a Sapienza hopeful before he continued on, being sure to take their modes of contacting him to heart. He would be contacted by them if he was to get a rank but first he had other things to do, things that he could not avoid doing any longer. He had been stalling because he didn’t want to be away from his master for too long but the sooner that he went out the sooner that he would be able to get back to him. That he would have to cling to.
Eyes blinked open against the dappled sun from the land that he had called home for the past two weeks, being sure to bathe every day and clean his clothing every day as well, not for hygienic purposes but rather for the lack of a scent. He needed to get rid of all the scents from Salsola and had done that, now having only the scent of his new home, the land of the Oasis on his body. Standing up slowly, he started on his daily ritual, slowly unbinding his side before he quickly slipped into the water, drawing his clothing in with him so that he could wash it with him. Within a few minutes he was done and he looked around, being sure that no one was there before he got up, clutching at his side where his Salsola mark was, just in case someone was around. He stood up on the bank before he quickly dried himself off with a dry batch of leaves before he sat down and immediately bound his rib cage. On the opposite side of his ribs was a long scratch that he had made the other day. He did that in order to have an excuse to bind his side and so far it looked as though it was healing perhaps a bit too quickly. Idly he toyed with the idea of making a new one on his skin, and he reached for his knife, folding it over in his hands. It was something that would have to be done if he wasn’t able to find someone from Ichika no Hoen. Today was the last day that he would try to find one here. If he couldn’t find a member around here, he would slice himself and walk into the pack lands themselves but that was a dangerous gesture.
The arbiter hung up his clothing after he finished binding himself, and then turned around and started to get to work on what he had to do to get himself comfortable. Reaching for some sticks, he started to start himself a fire, putting in some wet wood in order to increase the smoke in the air. It choked him but not only did it bring attention to his location but it also helped to wrap him up in a scent that clung to him and blocked out most other scents so it was a two for one deal. He went to go and get some more sticks to increase the warmth so that he could dry himself and his clothing off before he came back and sat down in front of the fire, taking a seat on a fallen tree. The oasis was a pretty place and he had come to rather like it here. But this place was not his own and he rather wanted to go back to his home and go back to the one man in his life that he actually wanted to see. But this kind of suited him, having been so long a loner. Fingers touched the brand on the back of his neck as he sat there naked for a long time, watching the fire as it crackled. Suddenly though he thought that he heard something and he frowned, looking up suddenly, feeling as if something wasn’t quite right. ”Hello? Who’s there?” He called out into the open, his hearing straining to catch even the slightest motion that there really was someone else out there and that he wasn’t going crazy. One good eye looked out over the land that he was in, closing his bad eye so as to not let it get in the way, his remaining eye taking over as he swiveled his head, his ears flicking, both his good ear and his bad at the same time. Clothing was the furthest thing from his mind at the moment as instinctively he clutched at his blade, waiting to see who answered his call. If anyone did that is.
