[html] http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/ ... table1.png); background-position: bottom center; background-repeat: no-repeat;"> Xeris; Mirror Lakes.
Times were a-changin'. Jefferson had begun to notice a recurring cycle as he lived his life: a period of peace followed by a terrible onslaught of tragedy, only again to be trailed by peace. Iskata's death had been the example of one tragedy, while the appearance of Miriette and her siblings had been another at a different time. Luckily, he was always given some time to rest and heal back up before the next thing could come around and stir up trouble, undoubtedly an opportunity he was grateful for. This span of "peace", however, was lasting longer than he might have expected. Addison was healthy, happy, and growing. His kids seemed to have vanished from the face of the earth (though he couldn't determine if it was good or not). His pack was no longer harassed by Inferni. All the while, he grew closer and closer to Geneva and it was slowly becoming apparent to him that things between he and the olive-eyed wolfess were never going to be what they had been in the past... and oddly, he was happy about that.
After a few weeks of rain, the one-eyed idiot thirsted for the sunlight that finally arrived with the dawn. Optimistic and eager to breathe the clean air, Jefferson emerged from the ranch particularly early that morning and in good spirits. The rain had been heavy as of late, therefor it seemed somewhat necessary (though the knowledge was useless) to check on the water levels of the twin lakes, which were placed ever so conveniently nearby to the ranch. The water ran high on the shore but was nonetheless clean and reflective of the endless blue sky, complete with contented ducks and a few fish jumping for the bugs above the water's crest. Enticed by the ease of the lakes, Jefferson fashioned some sort of makeshift fishing pole from a long stick and loose twine in the ranch, whistling as he went. He scrounged about the dirt to find a worm briefly before sitting comfortably under a tree at the lake's edge and putting the bait to the water. It had been quite some time since he'd fished, but the singing birds must have agreed that it was the perfect day to.
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It seemed that the deluge of rain had finally stopped. The sunlight was a welcome sight for Xeris, though her paws were stained brown from traipsing through the mud that remained. It was enjoyable for her just to feel the warm rays of the sun beat down on her body. Her wounds were healing and she hadn't heard any more news of Inferni. Things were, perhaps, looking up. The white wolfess had spent the last few days resting and recovering from what she insisted on referring to as simply "the incident." Then again, she didn't speak of it much. She had happier things to talk about.
On this day Xeris happened to be out for a leisurely walk, taking in the sunlight and good weather while it lasted in case the deluge returned. She'd spent the last few days in her optime form, as it prevented her from having to walk on her injured foreleg. It was still wrapped in a sling but was feeling noticeably better. Perhaps soon it would be healed enough for her to go out and do something with her friends. She remembered the day she had spent with Pendzez, Ty, and Rendall, fishing. It was thoughts of that day that had inspired her to walk out to the lakes. However, she did not expect to see anyone else there, and certainly not the pack's leader. As she approached, Xeris averted her golden eyes, the color of the sun, away from Jefferson in a gesture of respect. "Hello there, Jefferson, sir," she said, adding the "sir" nervously as an afterthought. "It certainly is a lovely day, isn't it?"
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It was times like these that Jefferson wondered how he'd endured the consecutive weeks of torment and misery that had buffeted him a few separate times in recent months. The idiot survived on levels of peace, choosing a boring tranquility over an active chaos any day. He was an introvert at heart, of course, and required that time to himself each day to forward a "balanced" mood (though many might argue he never achieved such a thing consistently, but he made an attempt either way). Fishing wasn't one of his top priorities when it came to spending time alone, but it passed the time -- and like any grumpy old gimp, a few minutes' wait and a back tilt of the head and the idiot was nearly out cold, fingers still grasping the fishing pole effortlessly and in position to flick a fish out of the water at any given second.
Unfortunately, nothing was biting at the bait at the second he pulled the line from the water in reflex to be startled awake. He jumped in surprise and gaped up at the golden-eyed female as she approached, looking elsewhere and thus not seeing he'd been passed out. Jefferson cleared his throat and straightened up, brushing it off easily as he flicked the line back to the water and assumed the waiting position. "You're up early," Jefferson observed, green eye impatiently analyzing the water's crest. "It's a lovely day as long as you don't call me 'sir'." A slight smirk eased his scarred and worn face.
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Xeris watched as the Patriarch cast his line and his gaze to the water. He remarked that he'd prefer not to be called "sir," and Xeris smiled, though she was a bit perplexed. She'd been taught by her mother, way back when, to respect higher-ups and pack leaders. But she supposed that it was good to have a laid-back leader; it made her feel a bit more comfortable around him. "Sorry, Jefferson," she said with a bit of a grin. The white wolfess recalled the first time she'd seen Jefferson, at the pack meeting; she hadn't spoken to him much. He probably didn't know her name.
But she set that aside for a moment and decided to make small talk. "So, what brings you here so early?" Of course, the answer to that, she figured, was probably "fishing." So maybe she'd be making a bit of a fool of herself, but that was all right.
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Jefferson vaguely knew who she was. She was not exactly 'new' to the pack; in fact, she'd been a member for a few months at least, or so he recalled. Generally speaking, the Patriarch held a rather loose grip on time, instead sticking to a close, attentive perspective on reality versus how quickly it passed. Of course, that was ironic. He still barely knew anything about her, other than that she was part of the four or five members that had banded together and grown close. Tyrone was one of them, he believed, and so was Rendall and a few others. Naturally, he didn't know much about it, but they were behaving themselves, and that was all he really cared about.
"What brings you here so early?" "No idea," he shrugged, eye focused on the loops of water that slowly spun from the line at the water's crest. "I'm not a morning person. Once in a while I just get up early. I guess I ran out of things to do." I'm not complaining. He wasn't much of a role model, was he? "I haven't fished in months. Were you thinking the same?"
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ooc: short post, sorry x_x
Xeris' golden eyes lingered over the lake for a moment. It was a beautiful place, and she wondered to herself why she hadn't been here very often. "I'm not usually a morning person myself," the white wolfess replied to her leader. "To be honest I'm not particularly sure what made me get up so early. Maybe somewhere in my mind I just knew it would be a nice day for a walk or something." Well, that sounded pretty stupid, Xeris thought to herself. She was very concerned about not looking like too much of an idiot in front of the Patriarch.
It was then that she decided to change the subject. Jefferson, she realized, would be very knowledgeable as the leader of a pack; Xeris decided that it might be wise to speak with him about her recent coyote troubles. "Um, Jefferson?" she began. "What do you know about Inferni?"
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I swear I replied to this. o__o; Sorry!
The brute knew he was intimidating. Xeris held him in an obvious high regard, but Jefferson had difficulty pulling the respect she had for her leaders apart from the level of intimidation that constantly, unconsciously, crossed her face. He smiled comfortably at her words, trying to ease the poor girl into relaxation, but his smile quickly stilled and waned when Inferni passed her lips. The cyclops furrowed his brows and turned his gaze back to the lake, clearly disrupted by the mere thought of the ruthless clan.
"Scum of the earth," he grumbled beneath his breath, single eye focused on the gentle ripples that weaved from the line at the water's crest. "Wolf-hating coyotes and hybrids, all of them. One of them kidnapped and tried to kill my daughter. They are not to be trusted." His teeth clenched terribly in remembrance; never would he trust an Inferni creature since that day. The cyclops flashed his green eye to her suddenly, its color glowing with suspicion. "What have you been doing with Inferni?"
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It's not a problem XD
There was a stark change in the Patriarch's face when Xeris mentioned the coyote clan's name. She feared for a moment that she'd struck a nerve and that Jefferson would be upset with her--but he seemed more curious. He mentioned that Inferni had kidnapped his daughter--Xeris didn't even know that he had a daughter.
He abruptly turned his gaze to her. His single green eye, glaring at her, was intimidating. Frighteningly enough, the scarred, one-eyed wolf's appearance drew startling parallels to the Inferni woman that Xeris had met. She gestured to her injured body. "I didn't mean to go into their territory," she said softly. "There was a coyote woman there. Covered in scars and with one golden eye." Xeris hoped that Jefferson could assume the rest; the white wolfess was not feeling up to explaining the entire story. But more importantly, she hoped that he would not reprimand her too harshly for trespassing, even if it was by accident.
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The fishing pole left his hand, completely abandoned without a second thought as the cyclops hastily rose to his feet at the sight of his underling's scars. Green eye glowed, the beast scanning her injuries in a still, gruff silence; he knew not of the creature she spoke of, a woman with scars and a single golden eye. This fellow cyclops she spoke of could have been his mirror image, or so he imagined; she could have been his mirror or the demon within his shadow, appropriately scarred and lurking in all the right places to haunt him.
His eye lifted to her once more. "What were you doing in Inferni?" Of course the Patriarch had pity for her scars, but youth would never learn its boundaries without a few scars to learn. Inferni, of course, didn't have the right to teach her. Xeris had been present when the pack had been at odds with Inferni, hadn't she? The white wolfess should have known the clan was dangerous; Jefferson had snarled it into his underlings' heads enough while the situation was tense. Now that said tension had eased, it seemed his members were becoming foolish and forgetful. His fisted hand opened to motion to her to sit down. "You're injured. Sit. Start talking."
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didn't mean for this to be so short x_x
Xeris could feel her heart pounding faster inside her chest as Jefferson became more serious. He was obviously upset with her--not that she'd expected any different, but experiencing the Patriarch's chastising in real life was frightening to say the least. He told her to sit down. Xeris thought that surely he was just caring for his pack member and wishing her to sit and relax, but she heard it as a strict command. Obediently, she sat down, her golden eyes locked on her pack's leader.
"It was raining," she began, trying her best to keep a serious composure. "All the scents mixed together...in the Dampwoods. I-I tend to get lost often, it's sort of a curse I have..." Her voice trailed off, revealing the anxiety she felt. "I'm sorry. I wasn't being careful enough. A-and, I honestly don't know that much about Inferni," she admitted. With this statement, Xeris' gaze fell to the ground before her as she lowered her head shamefully, hoping that her leader wouldn't be too harsh on her.
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Jefferson relaxed somewhat. He was practiced at analytics; Xeris had never struck him as the type to look for trouble, but she was somewhat naive and, as he could clearly see in her eyes at present, easily intimidated. He liked her, however, and putting her in such a position was unnecessary. The Patriarch's rage quickly subsided; he breathed out a long sigh, closed his eye a moment, then looked up at her earnestly.
"Well, at least you're safe," he exhaled, offering a look of slight compassion. It wasn't often that he put aside his anger so easily, but no doubt Jefferson had been making more of an effort to do so. Ever since he'd gotten closer to the easygoing, unnerved Geneva, the cyclops couldn't help but strive to mimic her earthy and content composure that he, among others, respected her for. "Inferni has a bad reputation for hating wolves," he resigned, leaning back against the tree and resting his spine. Jefferson might have been conked pretty hard to lose all his memory, but in the few remnants of Clouded Tears that still rested in the back of his mind, a distinct fear of Inferni had once been in the gentle, young Maluki. Of course, Jefferson recognized it only when he and Gabriel had fought. "I don't know what pisses them off so much, but they're pretty unpredictable. Their morals are a little... misguided, so to say. It's best just to avoid the territory, now that you know where it is." The idiot rubbed at his eye wearily. "Xeris, you have to be careful. Phoenix Valley is the most laid back territory I've seen so far... you have to keep that in mind."
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ooc: one or two more posts each for this thread?
Xeris couldn't help but release a tiny sigh of relief when the Patriarch relaxed and seemed calmer than before. She was thankful that he was not too angry. Perhaps he could tell how she was feeling; she'd always been a bit see-through as far as emotions went. Xeris looked over the one-eyed male's face, pleased to see it relaxing.
She couldn't help but feel touched when Jefferson displayed his thankfulness for her safety. She'd always heard talk of how short-tempered and moody the pack leader was, but she was now seeing a completely different side of him. The white wolfess was suddenly reminded of Geneva, the pack's sub-leader. Perhaps Jefferson was adopting Geneva's calmer and kinder policy of leadership. He spoke about Inferni and their wolf-hating reputation. "I wonder what happened to make them that way," Xeris mused aloud, though she wasn't particularly expecting an answer. "Yes," she said quietly. "I will be careful. I promise."
And she had been careful since then. Xeris had refrained from straying anywhere near the Dampwoods or the other territories close to Inferni. And she would keep her promise in the future, too.
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Sounds good. You want to add one more post and I'll close it up? 
As his breathing slowed to normal and his muscles relaxed, Jefferson exhaled a long, deep sigh and tilted his head back against the bark of the tree. Inferni was like a pulsating headache, silent and unnoticeable at times while surging freakishly at others. They required his constant attention, which one eye or not, was a difficult feat with the multitude of other responsibilities he was charged with as Phoenix Valley's leader. Xeris agreed to be careful, at which the Patriarch straightened his neck and smiled a weaned, though relieved, smile.
"I promise I'm not that bad," he said, reading her mind. The cyclops had noticed her tense up at his shouting; most of his underlings took his moodiness in stride, while Xeris had all-out withdrawn beneath his rage. As rare as it was, some sort of apology was necessary. "I don't want to see you hurt, that's all. Don't take it personally."
There was a tug at the line. He'd forgotten about the pole in his one-handed grasp completely, eye turning to the water where the line flicked and drew rings on the surface. He pulled at the line some, but the brute seemed unconcerned with the fish attacking the bait. "I don't know what caused Inferni to be the way they are," the cyclops said slowly, "but all I know is that we don't do it here. If the peace can start here, it can spread. That's all I ask for."
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ooc: apologies for the wait...
Xeris watched her pack's leader carefully. It was as if he knew what she was thinking, and he assured her that he "wasn't that bad." She smiled, a bit sheepishly. "I understand." It pleased her to find that Jefferson wasn't always the sour-tempered man she had heard about--in fact, acting like this he almost reminded her of Geneva. "Thank you." She was truly a bit flattered by his kindness and protection, but supposed it was necessary for a pack leader to watch over his pack members.
Her white ears perked forward upon hearing a splashing sound, and she noticed Jefferson's fishing rod twitching and wriggling. Perhaps it was time for her to move along and leave the Patriach to his fishing, though he didn't seem overly concerned about it. Xeris was distracted for a moment, thinking once again of that wonderful day she spent fishing with her friends.
"Yes," she said simply in response to his mention of Phoenix Valley's peacefulness. "You're right. Inferni will never be able to break the peace in our territory." She paused for a moment, casting her gaze toward the lake again and the moving rod. "Well, I suppose I'll leave you to your fishing," she told him. "It was good to talk with you, Jefferson. I'll see you around."
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