M - you're just a line in a song

Vesper · 11-20-2011, 06:13 PM

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Hooray for long-ass dream-flashback sequence! / +1,384!

Vesper dozed off eventually, pale lids falling over blue eyes as her slender muzzle dipped down onto her forelegs. She had traveled far to come here, and it did not take long to enter a deep state of sleep—one accompanied by the dream of a memory that hadn’t raced through her mind since she’d joined the clan.

The smell of crushed grass came to her, the feel of fur, the odd lightness in her chest that had gone away since those months. She tumbled over the other girl and landed in the grass chuckling, able to feel a pointy coyote muzzle press into her ribs then settle on her chest. She glanced into those juniper-blue eyes and grinned crookedly, rewarded by a giggle as the other teen snuggled up on top of her, tail swishing against her own.

“Look at the stars,” Vesper breathed suddenly, and Juniper rolled off her onto her back, their sides still curved against each other. She found it difficult to stare at the constellations like that, and quickly she forgot what else she was going to say, so instead she turned to look at the girl.

Her best friend noticed her staring and grinned. “There are stars?” she teased, and Vesper laughed.

“Your eyes are the stars,” she replied, adopting an over theatric tone, though the same strong feeling fluttered in her chest. She was rewarded by the slightest of snickers before Juniper went solemn suddenly, her eyes turning back to the star-stained sky. With all the gentleness she could muster, Vesper awkwardly reached to touch her paw, a luperci gesture between bodies that were not. But it had its intended effect as the girl looked back at her.

“Oliver and I never do stuff like this.”

The dreaded name caused the hybrid to turn cold, but she quickly closed her eyes and counted before speaking softly. “He doesn’t deserve you.”

The lean body shifted beside her; space was suddenly created between them as the grey coyote sat up, glancing down her long muzzle at the tawny yearling. A brow quirked and her mouth set in a frown. “So what does that mean?” Her voice cracked, pitched with confusion and challenge; she misunderstood, Ves could tell. She had to remedy the situation fast.

“No, Juniper—” Vesper rolled onto her stomach as well then stood, ears lowering awkwardly. “You don’t… Oliver is a rat.” The words welled out of her like a tide, dark and vehement. “You know he’s a rat, June. He cares only about himself. He’s stringing you along.”

The girl sprang back. “Oliver is strong and good, Ves, and—” She faltered. Something dawned in her eyes, though it was more like twilight, a transition into quiet and starlight like the world surrounding them. “Vesper…” Her tone changed, only after the tawny coywolf realized her own had. Too much emotion had slipped out. Her face was suddenly vulnerable.

But her voice deepened, roughened, exposed but tender, a counterpart to her softly smiling but scarred face. Vesper said, “You deserve someone who’d look out for you.” Juniper was stepping toward her. “Someone to pick you up when you’ve fallen.” She was close, and their breath mingled briefly in the cool night air. “Someone to run alongside you when you can run.” Her tone fell into a croon when the girl leaned against her chest, nuzzling and whimpering as she concluded, “You deserve no less than me.”

Vesper remembered little more of that—or little more than snatches of sensations and emotions. They sank into the long fur of the grass, and her heart soared now that she knew her place, now that she had won her battle. She rasped her tongue again and again over her friend’s ears, then her nose, and Juniper giggled, rolling over on her back. Her mouth fell to that dark grey splotch on her otherwise white chest, a teasing kiss. The next time blue eyes met something had shifted, and Ves explored lower—and the rest was a sweet blur, a cherished memory that she held tight inside her, even though every memory after that had fallen to ruins.

She woke unceremoniously; water from the incoming tide slapped her in the face and made her sputter. She recoiled and leaped onto all fours, looking around her, the warm tightness in her abdomen and heart banished into the cold surveillance of her wariness. Smirking derisively at herself, Vesper shook her head once then turned to walk back along the beach, allowing the memory of the dream to float away like cobwebs stolen by the wind.

To further dissociate herself from her past, she found the place within her that spurred on the change into her optime form. Her stomach twisted briefly as her spine crunched to a greater length, her pelvis aching as it shifted, legs growing and rising into arms in the case of her front half. She looked at her hands reflexively, curled them into loose fists, then continued her walk.

It wasn’t long before she saw another pale figure ahead of her, a luperci. She was female by the smell of it, and soon by the sight of it—though the sight of her also caused Vesper to freeze. Her throat tightened as her eyes wandered over the pink and silver scars, scars telling of a long age of fights or abuse. And while the coywolf wore her own scars like proud badges of defiance to whoever tried to fight her, this woman carried herself in a darker, sadder way. She was facing the ocean, fingers interlocked awkwardly, seemingly unaware of the other woman’s presence.

Vesper swallowed and came closer, her expression softening. She wasn’t really one to go out of her way to help every canine she saw, and definitely cared more for herself than a random stranger, but there was no way she could walk away from this poor girl and keep her conscience. “Hey there. Are you okay, sweetheart? Can I help with anything?”

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