The mind, like the mist; obscured.

Troyen Erdem, Seluki/Jackal hybrid.

The mist was still today... a soft, shifting thing that lazily flowed through the woodlands. It was lackadaisical from the weak breeze, an airborne veil thin enough to follow trails, but thick enough for the world to seem a little smaller.

A strange, almost melancholic tune from a wind instrument rose into the air, varying in pitch, sometimes becoming one with the background sounds of nature, sometimes forming again at random.

A small figure sat cross-legged and alone, clad in simple but carefully made garments of loose trousers and shirt of sorts, lost to the world as he held a small metal tube to his muzzle, improvising a melody of the woods that had no drawn-out chorus. A long muzzle twitched while the Luperci slowly shifted and twisted to and fro as though dancing, occasionally his limbs brushing the neatly arranged thick paper and charcoal-sticks at his feet.

Erdem hummed to himself, the metal tube he gummed at making noises that pleased him, flowing forth as he daydreamed while nonchantly played music for his own flickering ears. Bold eyes were half-lidded, seeing things far beyond the cool mist.

The boy, sinewy of form and absent from reality, wanted some peace among the confusion of this place and the gnawing sensation that crept about the very back of his mind, trying to make sense and move on from what happened mere weeks if not months ago.

Today he was supposed to be doing something, but the memory of which was just leisurely floating... out of reach, interrupted by something flitting in the distance; the focus switched from that to this - to being alone and playing with his flute, maybe even doodle, or just stare at the trees again.

It didn't matter, really.

A drone flowed from his lips as the young male ceased and scrunched his face up, as if tasting something sour, the soundless reminder of what bothered him today causing the boy to glance to and fro before huffing as well as peeking his tongue out, snuffling the air.

Long ears shifted as he heard the little birds sing to one another, their voices so much more pleasing... so much more...

Why was he here again?

Erdem closed his eyes, reeled his tongue back in and looked about himself again, unfocused but placid, his mind working again on things of concern; what was he supposed to be doing again? What bothered him today? He didn't care for the former, and it wasn't the voice of the birds that annoyed him, no, he lazily recalled the aggravating sounds belonging to Luperci; raised, emotional sounds that merely hastened the boy to leave a tower in favor of the woods somewhere nearby, maybe on the way to something important.

His tail wriggled, maw clicked and clacked as the boy rolled his shoulders and twisted his neck, murmuring wordless noises that tickled his whiskers for moments, ceasing this and slowly... flopping onto his back, becoming a majestic heap from the leathery pouch now trapped between him and the grass. Again the flute came to his lips, one hand shifting so much more better than the other which clicked and clenched near-uselessly, the boy's eyes felt damp as he played.

He played a tune for all the world to hear, and yet he knew it was only himself and the birds here today that sung together.

000 ooc

To find them a fortune, chests filled with gold

The day started with a calmness that convinced her calamity was to come. Swirling mist obscured the view of the Loch from her tower, she watched it undulate with a small frown. Memories drifted just like the tendrils of the misty fog. The stone confines of the tower were an empty harmony that broke only with the woman's footsteps and the whispering of a green-eyed servant.

A fire crackled merrily in the hearth, stealing away the chillness. Her fingers drifted across the expanse of his cheek, sinking into fur. A Lady and her servant; And a simple boy that wore away hours in his own world.

Promised calamity descended upon them with the arrival of another, and disagreements were made, voices raised. The young boy slipped away, discomforted by the loudness and soon thereafter Helena sent away the causer of discord. They muttered angrily as they left, thoroughly unhappy with the turn of events. Helena held power within this realm and she demanded order.

She loathed to leave behind the servant, the solitude was a reason she had chosen such a remote abode.

She followed the sound of musical strained through the mist until she came upon the disturbed boy. He did not notice her, not at first and she watched him play. He was a precocious, strange child. His coming to be in her care was a series of curious events, she had been touched by something when looking upon his small, starving frame. A drop of empathy for a child that reminded her of her young self running wild about the streets.

She stepped closer, and kneeled besides him, not interrupting his music, listening quietly.

I can't help this awful energy

Time passed, on such a lovely day Erdem found himself capable of belatedly realising he had spent hours simply wandering the familiar landscape, talking to the trees and curious animals, playing his flute for all and nobody to hear, or drawing things that he would often scrunch up long before Helena expressed interest in them.

He knew pg of Salsola, of their territory, their people, their ideals, Helena and the man she had with her taught him this and that, the boy listened well and was starting to read with interest. Alas, perhaps for the better, there were certain things neither of the adults taught him. He knew the woman and the man who took him in had a expectation to be fulfilled; He was smart enough to know they did not keep him at the tower entirely for his own sake, after all nobody would notice another dead orphan in Amherst, especially one with a mind that deviated from the functional norm.

He just couldn't remember what he was supposed to be doing.

All that seemed to matter to the young male was being left alone right now to play with his flute, soon enough he would be doing something useful... but until then, he couldn't help but think and feel on recent times. He couldn't fully understand the emotions that threatened to bubble up, a sense of loss and confusion that came back over and over, only to fade.

The Seluki-Jackal hybrid didn't notice a familiar, somewhat comforting presence nearby at first, no, for he was simply too busy staring into space with eyes that grew damper, ears twitching. The varied tunes of his worn flute floated skyward, slow and easy, vanishing into the flowing mist.

It was only minutes later when, still laying on his back with the leather pouch trapped beneath him, that the cursed child noticed his caretaker. The music tapered as he simply stared at her face with mildly perked ears, her yellow and red eyes, gazing far more boldly than any man would otherwise in this thorny kingdom. He lacked any subtly, curiously looking at her, almost through her to the trees behind and above.

Helena was... is... pretty. She was very pretty, very... clean, well-groomed, immaculate, her scent becoming more comforting for a tall, noble looking lady, and always so graceful in her behavior and attire, and yet he was uncertain what to think of her; one moment he felt compelled to snuggle up to her, to feel comforted, to comfort her. Another moment had emotions of resentment and anger irrationally rise from being separated from his mother, to the point that she had nearly caught him looking at something sharp. He was certain she hadn't noticed, he thought.

To the world he was a ghostly looking child of silver and blue fur, his seluki blood giving him a near gangly body, clad in simple but comfortable shirt and leggings - he'd look like a servant boy compared to her, with large, soulful green eyes that often seemed far away, surely giving the impression of being simple. Yet his mind was so much more than that; a well of potential that would have otherwise pointlessly ended in some disgusting shell of a building in Amherst, clinging to an anonymous looking mother in a tattered cloak.

Erdem hardly blinked as he scanned the borzoi woman, apparently thinking of something, inspecting her for something, or something past her, before he broke eye-contact, ceased playing and lazily pulled the flute away from his lips, squinting and letting his tongue peek out gently. 'Hnm... herllo.' The boy quietly hummed, looking back up to her with a softer expression, damp eyes reddened from previous thoughts. 'Did... did I wohrry you? Shouting', he added, assumed guilt not showing through his words, but expressed through the light shift of his face as he explained why in one word at the end.

He was also certain he had forgotten something, another reason to feel guilty.

With that he looked away, rolling his head languidly to and fro, tongue lashing at his pointed nose, both hands clutching his flute, one of his bared feet wiggling, toes stretching in a bid to expel anxious energy. 'You are pretty. I think.' He helpfully added while emitting a little, drawling hum, the words simply spilling from his maw without thinking, likely echoing what Helena's other company said in perhaps different phrasing. As honest as ever, though to his credit, he was usually very discreet at times, unhelpfully so from how easy he found it to blend in, another reminder of the manner of Helena discovering such a child.

310 ooc

To find them a fortune, chests filled with gold

She was made separately, in this differing dimension. Not drawn as tight, though no less terrible. This way that she was had been smoothed with a sharper stone. A different cast of predator, one that contented to stalk and lay in wait. There were reasons she had picked this child out of the many, and they were her own.

The diffident child existed in his own world, scarcely noticing the woman who cared for him. This was okay, this was fine. She would humor his strange, restless ways.

Sadness had a specific scent to it, this colored the air now. Helena's lips pressed together, quietly peering about. Their solitude was not as infinite as it seemed, but here, wrapped away from Salsola's 'eat or be eaten' world, weaknesses were not such a dangerous thing.

His head turned to her, she allowed the silence to stretch on and on. Helena blinked only once or twice during the stretching stillness. She sensed something more to him, and perhaps that was why she had peeled him away from his dead mother's body rather than leaving him to suffer the same fate.

The peculiarities of her own actions and thoughts gave rise to odd scenarios.

"'Allo." Sound purred gently, oddly deep and comforting. She did not address the redness of his eyes, or the sparkling of unshed tears. Black lips twisted to smile, as the tip of pink revealed itself to the world.

Oui, it ess alright. Zhey are gone now." Her fingers stroked across the material of her cloak, smoothing out the non-existent wrinkling.

He was predisposed to occasionally blurt out his thoughts without prior censorship. Fortune shined, that this had yet to happen in front of the higher echelons of Salsola.

Her head canted to the side, Oui, and you are getting dirty on zhe floor." The turn of her ears, the set of her face spoke that she jested.

I can't help this awful energy