Word Count → 507

He's in Optime, right? :o Here, have my longest post in a while! xD

She'd spent the morning practicing her sewing and tanning skills, working dutifully on some leather clothing. Sage had gotten quite good at sewing together simple, thin, plain leather clothes, but now she was working on more complicated things. Her hands practiced her own pattern for a sort of breast strap, with neat embroidered decorations where the breasts might go.

Once she had made a model she was most satisfied with, Sage sat back and admired her work with a gleeful smirk. Finally, something that looks wearable! she thought with a happy sigh, setting down her thick needle and thread. Stealing a glance outside of the cave, she noticed the sun coming in through the entrance, much brighter now than when she'd last looked.

And so, deciding it was late enough in the morning, Sage rose and gathered her things, loading her satchel with drawing tools and plenty of marijuana. Striking a quick match, she rose one joint to her lips and let it rest there, taking hungry draws from it as she headed out the door.

The tanned hippie girl found Lennon quickly, calling him over and mounting him, her bag still about her shoulder. She wore a mid-length, feminine skirt(her own soft leather creation); one whose frayed, feminine ends nearly flew away as she walked. The lack of covering on her legs made the contrast between Lennon's thick, warm hide and the much colder air outside much more noticeable. It was with a slight shiver that the Earth child glanced around before heading out into the Forest of Nod, grasping Lennon's strong mane with one hand; it was her legs that controlled the gentle beast.

Perhaps a half hour and a lovely trot through the sunlit forest later, she neared Inferni's borders. Sage was heading out of Inferni, truth be told, on one of her many small vacations. Her nomadic nature made it difficult to stay in any one place for so long. She'd lately attempted to train herself to stay for longer bouts in Inferni, but her feet still pulled her to wander greatly, even inside of the borders.

Now, though, she rode across the skull-spiked borders only a few feet before she spotted something odd. Something that other Inferni members might take offense to, or even attack for. Sage saw no problem with it, but the wolf was quite close to Inferni land.

She approached slowly on Lennon, though he was sure to be quickly noticed. Yellow eyes narrowed as she tried to see what he was looking at, in such a strangely transfixed state. Her head tilted curiously, and she cleared her throat softly.

"Hello there, just what might you be doing?" she asked, with a bit of a laugh.

The dark stranger looked very odd indeed, and though she did not sense anything rightly violent or dangerous about him, Sage still had to be somewhat cautious. She took another pleasant drag from the joint between her fingers, eyes sliding down to gaze at the handsome young wolf from horseback.

Word Count → 350

Haha. Sage is being all weird in this thread! xD

The dark boy's reply came quickly after a slight groan. "Ah, sorry," he started, "I was just checking out the area. This is Inferni's border, right?" he asked, as if he didn't know where he was.

He hadn't looked lost before, only interested, and Sage's eyes narrowed briefly in wonder. Sometimes, Sage forgot that she wasn't like the rest of Inferni. Sometimes, they influenced her, made her feel more wary of strangers at their borders. Their new Anatheman neighbors weren't the most friendly lot, either, and so Sage had become more alert, recently.

"It is indeed," she responded with a nod.

The tan girl climbed down from Lennon carefully, patting him softly on the side as her feet hit the ground and she strode towards the boy. His head had tilted to one side as hers had, and she allowed her face to melt into another smile as he continued.

"I hope I'm not in any trouble, più bella donna," he said, his charm managing to capture her there for a moment.

Sage scrutinized him gently as he spoke, feeling as though he recognized his face, his body, from somewhere. She'd recently met a woman as shaded as he while visiting Crimson Dreams. The thought lingered that he might have been related to that Italian woman, Savina, but she didn't ask.

She gave a small smile, shaking her head to let him know that he wasn't. After all, she would not punish him for curiosity. Anything beyond that, though, and she would not keep from defending this land that she now belonged to. Sage's fighting skills were lame at best, so she hoped that this would not turn into something of that sort. She'd be better off fleeing and calling for someone more battle-ready, in that case. But for now, the hippie girl shook away those thoughts and put on a friendly face.

"My name's Phoenix." he introduced, "Maybe you can tell me your name?"

"Maybe I can..." she said coyly, smirking as she took another hit. After a several second pause, she added: "It's Sage."

After exhaling a rather large cloud of smoke, and having seen his wayward glance towards the thing in her hand, she held it out to offer it to him. "Would you care for a bit of smoke?"

Word Count → 479

Sorry for the wait, derp!

The boy seemed tense, most likely intimidated by the large horse she'd ridden in on. Sage knew that she herself did not project such a strong force, but Lennon was a muscular beast. The dark stranger's next question wasn't about that, though, but the smoke.

"I'm guessing this is green smoke, not brown smoke." he questioned with a grin.

Sage's own smile reflected his, and she nodded. "Of course. Green is a better color, after all," she said wistfully, sun-colored eyes watching, bemused, as he took the hit. The boy didn't cough, and she was impressed, gently accepting the joint back from him and taking another happy puff from it.

"That's a fast looking horse you're riding. He doesn't bite or nothing, does he? he asked, finally mentioned the beast she knew he was so concerned with.

Sage couldn't help but laugh; it was mirthful and light, though, and not made to make fun of the boy. "No, no... Even if encouraged, I doubt Lennon would bite someone. He's not one for liking meat, much. Even attached to a handsome body," she said with a vague wink and a grin.

"Beautiful animals, horses, but you won't catch me riding one any time soon... Something about riding on the back of another beast is unsettling." he added, bravely allowing his fingers to run so gently across Lennon's back.

The horse leaned into his hand, accustomed to touch; he enjoyed the attention, and always welcomed more. Large head turned 'round to look at the boy, and he leaned harder, head bobbing towards him.

"Lennon!" she exclaimed jovially in Low Speech, "You're quite the little attention hog, hmm?!" Quietly, the horse whinnied a low, gentle reply: Would you not do the same, given the chance? Sage laughed, replying with a firmly decided, "Of course, you're right, I would."

"He likes you," she said with a grin. Sage knew that this boy was a stranger, but she also knew that her own ability to judge character was perhaps surpassed by Lennon's, and if he liked the boy than no further judgment was needed. Not yet, at least. "Riding them is not so hard, really," she started, letting her own small hand roam the horse's soft pelt as she meandered around him, and the boy named Phoenix. "If you can come to friendly terms with the creature, it's really no more than a relationship. We are each other's company; Lennon is strong enough to carry me easily, and for that, I feed him, provide him friendship." Sage's voice trailed off as she mused to herself; she was really so thankful to have the horse with her on her journeys. They'd been getting quite lonely, after all.

"So," she asked, turning to Phoenix. "What brings you out here? You don't seem any part coyote," she said, smiling. After a pause, she added: "I won't hurt you, you know, though you're lucky it was me greeting you, and not someone else." Sage inhaled another cloud of smoke from the joint, eyebrows raised but lids half-closed, dreamily watching as Lennon continued to try to extract more attention from dark, blue-eyed boy.