[M] - Segments in time

WARNING: This thread contains material exceeding the general board rating of PG-13. It may contain very strong language, drug usage, graphic violence, or graphic sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

OOC: Alright. Moving countries is a giant pain. Moving houses on top of that, and reorganizing the plethora of stuff the movers delivered?...yeesh. But I'm here and still alive. Throwing this out there for Veri's activity. Prompt: It's midnight, and it's muggy. Your character is being chased by a mysterious stranger.

The resounding thrum of her pounding heart drowned out anything else she could hear. Twigs and shrubs seemed to reach out and snag at her fur, tearing clumps of it from her body to wave to and fro in their triumphant grasp. Sometimes she tripped over tree roots, tumbling forward with a yelp and rolling to a stop. But she didn't stay motionless for long, as soon as the world stopped spinning she would be up on her feet again, stumbling a little from disorientation.

She could not allow the figure chasing her to catch up. Looking over her shoulder, all she could see of their presence were the intimidating glow of their eyes, orange and glowing as hot magma. They sent chills down her spine and she ran faster, keenly desperate to get away, to get to a safe place or find some sort of help. All the territory she ran through was achingly familiar, she caught glimpses of various places strewn throughout the Casa di Cavalieri pack lands, but not a single friendly face had been found, it was deserted.

Another glance behind her, and she saw the creeping black mass almost close enough to touch her tail. Fear spiked through her, and she churned all four of her Lupus legs as fast as she possibly could, straining to put even just a few spare inches between her and....it.

Unknown to her, it'd been herding her all this time, and she only discovered this as she burst out of the foliage onto open ground, recognizing the area as the base path toward Knight's Peak. Every time she tried to swerve, or change direction, he was there to herd her back up the path. She could see the cliff rapidly approaching ahead of her, but there were no other routes to take. He'd effectively driven her right where he wanted her.

A glimpse back one more time revealed the shadowy black mass almost directly above her, it's tendrils closing on her body like slick, oily vines. The eyes had turned a bright, savage silver, glowing with all the power of the moon. Panicked, she sprinted on and, when she reached the cliff's edge, she jumped without hesitation.

And fell, and fell, and fell.....

Veri jerked awake, eyes wide and staring at the wall as she breathed through the panic. Her hands clenched into the fabric of the blanket, trembling and white-knuckled until she slowly managed to peel them open, flexing them carefully. Heart still hammering in her chest, she noted that the bedroom was empty except for herself. She was relieved about that, just this once, as she huddled her knees to her chest and ran stilling tremoring fingers through her creamy gold locks.

She slid out of bed and mechanically rifled through the stash of pot she knew her mate kept in the house, grabbing enough buds and papers to sustain at least two joints when she got around to rolling them. She quietly stashed it all in a small pouch and grabbed her Cougar fur Council rank cloak to clasp across her shoulders before easing out the front door and making her way passed the entrance of the Fort, out into the forest beyond. She didn't need the cloak, but it made it easy to hide the pouch slung around her hips.

Now a significant way from any curious canine noses, she got the two items back out and swiftly rolled a decent joint using only her canid night vision under the light of the moon. Holding the slender rolled to her lips, she scuffed a flint to light and ember to its tip, lighting the buds to a soft cherry ember.

She inhaled the smoke and held it for as long as she could, breathing out the calming substance when it felt as though her lungs burned for air. Veri took a second drag, and then a third, before she slowed down and let the hits she'd already taken start seeping into her bloodstream. All the while her eyes were closed, lightly jigging one leg up and down as she tried not to think about those moon glowing eyes and studiously ignoring the actual moon above her in the night's sky.

The mugginess of the night made it difficult to relax, clogging her nostrils and weighing heavy on her fur, but soon she wouldn't care about these things, and she desperately egged the drug to do its work and take her mind away from the darkness of her nightmare.

A dream about rivers and waterfalls is one of the cruelest that one can experience, while still being mostly harmless. He was swimming pleasantly through a calmly flowing river, surrounded on three sides by majestic waterfalls that cast rainbows through the warm noontime sun light. The water was pleasant and filled with funny little fish that would come up to him as if they were sniffing at him before darting away. He felt relaxed, more relaxed than he had in a long while.

Maybe a little too relaxed.

He woke with a jolt just before his lower half let go and he answered natures call all over Veri and their bed. While it wouldn't have been the first time that he'd done that to her, he doubted that she would be happy about waking up wet after receiving the unsolicited shower.

He crept from the bed slowly, so as to not disturb his still sleeping mate, but still moved with a rapidly approaching purpose. He stopped at the doorway to the bed room to look back at her sleeping form. A small smile touched his face as he watched her sleeping, her features relaxed and peaceful. A sharp pang of urgency got him moving again and he made his way as quietly as he could outside and around the edge of the house to relieve himself.

No sooner had he finished his task than he had caught a sharp scent cut through the muggy air of the night: the smell of a primal fear. Panic. The need to run and escape. It was a smell that was familiar to him. He looked around him without making it obvious that he was scanning as the next scent came to him, followed quickly by a third: Veri, and the slightly-sweet-skunky smell of his herb. Now he was concerned. He had just seen her sleeping peacefully, what could have happened in the span of, at most, 5 minuets? He looked around the edge of the house just in time to see her silhouette leaving toward the fort gate. He let her get a fair distance before following her scent.

When she stopped, so did he. He watched and waited, wanting to make sure she was alright, and was actually awake, before inevitably startling her. He heard the flint and spark light the end of a roll, the pungent scent quickly wafting throughout the immediate area. He assumed, by this point, that she had had a nightmare again. Which one is was this time was still a mystery to him, but given that she'd been sleeping, had roused suddenly and rifled through his herb before leaving to come and smoke it, coupled with the potent smell of fear and panic that was still radiating off of her almost as strongly as the herb was, told him that a nightmare was like 99% the cause.

He stepped toward her and whistled a long note at her, breaking a dry twig at the same time. "Nightmare again, huh?" He knew she didn't like to be touched after some of her nightmares, so he chose a nearby tree to lean against instead, close but still giving her some space if she was shaken. "Wanna talk about it while I roll that second one for you?" He asked, holding out a hand and grinning slightly at her in what, he hoped, was a reassuring way.

OOC here/WC - 803

Solitude did not last for as long as she might have preferred to get all her wits in order. A split second before he whistled, spoke, or stepped on the twig, the eerie silence of the night allowed her hearing to catch the ever so subtle sound of his pawsteps pressing down on the dewy grass. Not that it was enough time for her to register the lack of a threat. Her muscles were already tensing, her hackles bristling beneath the mantle of the Council cloak, and then his familiar whistle softly invaded the space around her, followed by his purposeful snap of the twig to let her know what direction he'd come from.

It was a habit he'd slowly picked up once she'd lost sight in her right eye, he'd make noise when he didn't think she knew where he was so he didn't end up startling her. In the beginning, it'd been annoying, but after just a few times of catching her unawares and nearly getting her claws swiped across his face, she started to appreciate his efforts to cater to her new handicap.

Veri turned her head to the right far enough to move him into her field of vision, watching his approach with the wariness of a predator recently woken from the realm of nightmares and horrors. In her right mind of course she knew that Rurik would never lay a claw on her, but the black, shadowy veil of the night terror still clung to the edge of her subconscious. It made shapes and silhouettes jump out at her from the dark, glints of light turned into gleaming silver eyes leering down at her, or jagged, pearly teeth coming together to snap at her throat.

Her eyes had gone unfocused, staring into the night past her mate and sinking into the realm of darkness she'd tried so hard to claw her way out of. His voice shook her back to the present, darting to his face with a wide-eyed, shaken expression. He'd given her space, another gesture she greatly appreciated. Some nightmares left her desperately craving touch and comfort, but others like tonight had her flinching at the smallest motion in her general direction. Her gaze dropped down to the hand he'd extended, palm up, with the offer of rolling her a second joint and gently prodding her to talk about it.

The Cleric licked her lips briefly before untying the pouch from around her waist and holding it out to him to take. Both her hands still shook, but the small tremors were only noticeable if one were to watch how the pouch bobbed and swayed in the air, or how the cherry of the lit joint wavered slightly as she held it in front of her muzzle before taking another long hit.

Once the pouch was received by her mate, she retracted her free arm and lightly palmed it across the scarred, blind side of her face. "He...it...was Solomon," she began disjointedly. Just breathing his name left silent, involuntary ripples of fear, shame, and disgust coarsing up and down her spine, spiking up all the fur in its wake. Her lips pulled back in an uneasy grimace.

"It wasn't a flashback, thank Fenris, but he was...it was chasing me. Here, in the Casa packlands, and no matter which way I ran he was always there, a few feet behind me or right on my tail. He had no mass, no body of any kind that I could see, when I dared to look....he was just...a big, black....shadow." she paused to take another nerve steadying draw from the joint, holding the smoke as her leg continued its attempted self-soothing jig. Her gaze darted to his briefly before falling back to the ground. "Except for his eyes. I'd never mistake those anywhere."

"No one I knew was around. None of our packmates were here. It was like the entire territory had been abruptly abandoned. And he just kept chasing me. He herded me all the way to the base of Knight's Peak. I tried to take a different direction, but he wouldn't let me. He kept harrying me back and forth until I gave up and followed the path up the cliff." another, pause, another steadying hit of the soothing herb. The hand she had been using to half hide her face dropped to her side.

"I saw the cliff coming. I could tell where the path ended. But, one last glance behind me, and...I didn't hesitate. I jumped. I jumped, and I fell, and fell, and fell...and then I woke up." she glanced up again, morbidly anxious and curious of his thoughts.

She was pretty shaken, but no more than she usually was after a night terror, and no more than he had been after some of his. He was just thankful that this hadn't been a violent episode. He took the pouch from her and dug around, grimacing a bit at how little herb he had left, he would need to go get more soon, but that was a problem for future-him. For now, he focused on rolling another smoke for his mate and listening to her story.

By the time Veri had finished her story, he had rolled her another joint and used what was left to roll a small one for himself. He'd taken to spinning hers slowly between his fingers while he listened, and when she finished he stopped but stayed looking down. It hadn't sounded like one of her worst ones, which was good. He remembered one night terror she'd had where he woke to her screaming at him and trying to claw him to ribbons. That had been a pretty bad one, and had taken most of the rest of the day to calm her down and reassure her that she had only just scratched him. This one seemed almost tame by comparison. But of course he wasn't going to say that. Instead, he opted for something potentially less helpful.

"Well, I'm not exactly an expert, but it sounds like his ghost might have come by to say hello..." He looked up and held out the fresh roll for her to take. He was mostly kidding. He'd heard of dead wolves becoming ghosts, but he doubted Solomon was hanging around like that. He hoped his 'joke' didn't make things worse.

OOC here/WC - 000

He didn't interrupt, or interject to ask questions. He simply listened as he took the pouch and retrieved the remaining paper slip and flower buds. Her single eye found the hand that held her new finished joint, rolling it between his fingers as she watched. She'd seen his grimace upon looking inside the pouch, and she felt a twinge of guilt for raiding his stash for, admittedly, not so bad of a nightmare this time around.

She didn't get the chance to vocalize her apology though, because as she took one of the final hits for her current joint he made a comment about Solomon's ghost coming by for a visit. Visions of her Brotherhood Vigil flashed through her inner eye, causing her to choke on the lungful she'd taken. The Cleric lurched forward to brace herself on her knees as she coughed and hacked to clear the inhaled smoke from her airway, blinking away painful tears.

When Veri finally gasped enough breath back into her body, she looked up from her hunched over position to look at Rurik with a wide-eyed, horrified expression.

"I never told anyone about that, how the fuck did you find out about it?" not realizing he'd meant it in an attempt to bring some lightness to the conversation.

When his mate started into a coughing fit, he leaned forward a bit out of reflex. There wasn't anything he could do to help, he knew that. She would just have to cough the smoke out herself, and then she'd be fine. Either his roll had been stronger than her's or her nerves were so shot that his shitty joke had made her laugh on the inhale. He started to smile, until she turned on him.

Looks like it was secret option 3: none of the above.

Her reaction and the look she was giving him confused him. Like, really confused him. To the point that his ears went up and his head tilted to the side. He didn't know what to say. His mind was grasping at straws, trying to figure out what she meant, or what he had said. All he had said was that Solomon's ghost came by to-. That was it. It had something to do with Solomon's ghost. Now the question was: was it another dream or something that had actually happened?

With his head still tilted slightly in confusion, he spoke quietly. "I...I don't know? Find out about what? I was just trying to make a very poor joke..." He straightened up a little and shifted slightly closer to her. "Is there something you need to tell me, Veri?" He kept his voice gentle. He didn't want her to feel like she had to tell him, but if she needed to, he would listen.

OOC here/WC - 547

The Cleric might have found her mate's reaction to her spluttering just a little comical if only the subject at hand were not so morbid. He almost had the expression of an extremely confused puppy, except his ears weren't as floppy as a pup's would be. His suddenly unerring gaze, one silver and one red iris watching her felt as though he were trying to read her soul.

Fenris, a poor joke? She probably would have reacted in a similar, less severe way; not half choking to death on the smoke being one difference at least. Her throat ached and burned as much as her lungs, while the corners of her eyes stung with tears. He shifted closer now that she'd recovered, his tone filled with a genuine confusion as he murmured his soft queries.

He wasn't angry, or upset, or flipping out in any kind of obvious or grandiose way. Not yet, at least. Which is one of the reasons she'd kept this to herself; she didn't want his progress to backtrack again. Not to mention that she'd thought that night would be a once in a lifetime event. But perhaps Solomon hadn't dissolved completely, as she'd thought, but had come back to torment her nights in her dreams? Damn him....

Veri sighed quietly, her expression resigned and wary as she leaned back against the tree and lifted the new joint to her lips to take a hit from it. She held it for a moment, needing the extra boost of courage the drug would yield to her, as she held out the same joint to him. "Trust me. You'll need it as much as I for what I've got to say," was all she told him, smoke puffing through her teeth with every word.

He took it, and she let him take a couple hits before crossing her arms in front of her tightly in a subconsciously defensive posture. "It's only happened once with him. The night of my Brotherhood Vigil, out by the mines, he was there. Outside the shaft, waiting for me when I came out after collecting my stones," she glanced down to look at the leather wrapped purple fluorite just peeking over the edge of the cougar fur above her breast. "And it was like in my dream tonight, his appearance...dark, undistinctive mass of...shadows, or mist or...something. Black fog? I don't know." her fur rippled and shivered and gooseflesh ran up her arms and shoulder.

"He didn't say anything to me at all, and his...'mass' had no eyes, yet it felt as though he stared at me. I told him he didn't belong here, or in my life, any longer, and to begone." her brows drew together as she looked down at the ground, only lifted her half blind orbs to his face when the silence stretched for a few seconds. "I didn't mention it because I wanted to leave it in the past just as much as I didn't want you to dwell on his continued existence. He didn't matter anymore, wasn't a threat...or so I thought, if your 'joke' is correct," she grimaced uncomfortably.

He took the offered joint and looked at it for a moment, wondering what could be so bad that she thinks he would need this to deal with it. A few outlandish thoughts flashed through his mind. The thought that her father was still alive and not a ghost at all was primary, but was impossible. Rurik had watched the light leave the creatures eyes himself. He knew he was gone, or at the very least dead.

He took a draw and held the smoke in, closing his eyes and counting to himself. 1...2...3...4...On the fifth count he exhaled and let the smoke curl around him in the air before opening his eyes again and looking at his mate. His eyes slowly drifted to the ground as he listened to her explain about how she'd seen some specter that she seemed to know was Solomon. The fact that she'd seen this thing on two separate occasions, unprovoked, made him think that it very well could be the ghost of her dead father. Something didn't seem right to the Russian though. The way she talked about the ghost, it didn't seem hostile or hateful. More like a twisted guardian. A father who's concern for his daughter won't let him rest, maybe.

He didn't respond right away, rolling random ideas and responses around his head first, picking his words more carefully than he had done before. He lifted his gaze back to her and sighed quietly. "From the sound of it, it may be that the idea of Solomon may remain. Not a ghost, exactly, but, and I'm no expert you know, but...it doesn't sound like it's malicious." He winced a bit, knowing she wanted to rebuke him on account of the night terror she'd suffered. "Just hear me out...in the caves, he only watched. He didn't approach, or otherwise do anything. Like a father would his daughter. And the dream, he only chased you. Do you know for certain that it would have harmed you if it had caught you? Maybe it was chasing something else you couldn't see. Night terrors are not always as clear as they seem, and they usually seem about as clear as konskoye der'mo.." He waited a moment and held his arms up and apart to her, asking if she was steady enough to hold. She looked like she needed it.

OOC here/WC - 000

Silently her mate took the joint, gazing at it, and she could see the gears turning; how bad was her information going to be for her to think he needed a hit of the steadying drug? Based off of their pasts, it had to be monumental, right? Eventually, he did as she'd suggested, taking a large hit and holding it for longer than she'd ever dare. After releasing the smoke, he looked back over in her direction to indicate he was listening, and she began explaining.

During her tale, his gaze gradually fell from her face to the ground between their feet, but she knew he was still listening due to the occasional twitches of his ears. Finally, after she'd gone silent for a few moments, he heaved a quiet sigh and lifted his eyes to meet hers.

Rather than be unsettled by the idea of one of their past tormentors being alive (arguably) and well, he passively launched into an explanation of what he'd been thinking for the past few minutes once she'd fallen quiet. As he suspected, her eyes widened in shocked indignation that he could believe such nonsense. He didn't give her a chance to retort, placating her softly and pleading that she hear him out.

Mildly chagrined for jumping to conclusions, her ears splayed backward and she sheepishly nodded for him to continue. The Chief gazed at the ground as he spoke, he brows furrowing and unfurrowing as multiple battling emotions went back and forth within her mind. She wanted to throw his theory out the window, vehemently against her father being anything but a monster.

Her tail flicked absently after some time. A motion from the corner of her good eye prompted the woman to look up, seeing his arms spread apart in silent inquiry. Gulping softly to dispel the fetid taste of bile on her tongue, she stepped forward and bridged the gap between them, slotting her arms around his waist and nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck. He smelled warm, familiar, and safe, despite how their fur and her cloak clung to each other in the uncomfortably muggy night.

"I...suppose it's possible," she murmured reluctantly, her hands absently rubbing small circles into the fur on the small of his back. The idea of her father running around her packlands, around her home, was disconcerting. Casa had always been her sanctuary, and even if this ghost, or spirit, wasn't there for any malicious intent, it felt like a vile trespass.

When his mate stepped into his arm he immediately wrapped her in a close embrace. His theory sounded like a long shot, even to him. He knew spirits could exist, but he had never come across one that he could remember. He smiled just a little and gently rubbed the small of her back, letting his chin rest on top of her head. He nuzzled her a bit before sighing again.

"On the other hand...the dream and the cave sighting might not be related at all. Maybe the dream was because you've been stressed lately, and the cave was something completely normal, like a shadow or a reflection in the gems." He shrugged a little, thinking that explanation sounded more feasible. Stress did weird things to the body, more so to anyone with trauma, he knew that personally. And Fenris knows being Chief Cleric was a stressful job. As proud as he would always be of her for earning it, part of him regretted the responsibility it placed on her shoulders. He hugged her tighter without meaning to.

Leaning down slightly he nuzzled against her neck, then around to her face where he licked her nose gently. "We should get back. It's late and you need your sleep." Before she could retort, be bend and scooped her up into his arms and cradled her to his chest and began to carry her back towards their house.