Word Count » 1,015
Each day was like a new start for him, but each morning was like waking up, hoping that his ship hadn’t left its tether in the middle of the storm. He shifted as he woke up, normal as any other day, immediately looking around for his cherub. He didn’t see him but that didn’t mean anything. He could be out going to the bathroom or any number of things. But he couldn’t wait around for his cherub. He had to go and start getting his place in the pack even more secured. Oh sure he was one of the arbiters and so held a high rank in the pack but his position wasn’t the firmest around. Someone could come along today and be ten times more ruthless and cunning and he would be out of a job. He had to keep affirming his place or else risk being sent to the side of the road, discarded like some common-day trash. He couldn’t let his master down like that and so he had to go and do what he had to do. Janos had told Bastion before that his journey to stability might take him a little bit of time away from him as much as he hated to do so. Not knowing a firm time on when he was going to be home was killing him internally but they both knew that this was just something that they had to do. And it wouldn’t be forever with any luck.
Scarred male rose to his hind legs, once again undoing his jacket from the pillow-type mount that he had been lying on, inhaling the scent of the cherub one more time. A hand raised to the back of his neck to finger over the ruined flesh there, the blackened and charred flesh a permanent reminder that he was only as free as his master allowed him to be but he was okay with this. In fact he had wanted it and while it had hurt it was a constant reminder that he had someone to look out for him and take care of him. Giving a light sigh, he threw one last glance to the room that had his and Bastion’s scent all over it, he grabbed a little bundle of cotton and a moldy ace bandage found in an old and half-buried building in an old first aid kit. It was fairly primitive but he had to have something to help him hide his Salsola mark emblazoned on his ribs, the scar hidden most of the time by his jacket but when he was out he didn’t want to chance a breeze. But first he wanted to go and clean off the ace bandage. He had to first go and meet someone before he was allowed to leave so he had to get going. It was his job to first hunt out the Sapienza hopeful first and get some information and figure out how, in the future, they were going to get a hold of one another.
Paws carried him silently away from his little room and down and out of the building that they lived in. It was a quiet sort of day but with the silent stillness that promised that something could happen at a moment’s notice but oddly enough he wished for it. He wanted something to prove himself. He had heard through the vines that there were two hopefuls in the clan that wanted to be a Sapienza, one of them a female by the name of Magnolia. It was a pretty name, the name of the large white flower and it brought to mind a thought of peace, something never given to the scarred male. Tattered ear twitched as his other ear perked forward, catching some sounds not too far up ahead from where he was. He truly was a rough and shady-looking character which was why it was best that he worked from the shadows, the best that he only gathered information and then was gone whenever someone was looking for him. It was like that but it was the way that he had survived up until this point. Being a slave you didn’t have many choices other than staying out of the way whenever someone approached you or dealing with the consequences of meeting that person face to face.
He drew close to the water, the ace bandage out so that he could wash it in the water to remove the mold from it when he saw a female who was dangerously walking through the frigid waters. A small sigh escaped him and he toyed with the idea of not saying anything but she was doing something dangerous and who knew? Maybe she could be the one that he wanted to talk to. ”If you’re not careful you’re going to be the one in the water,” he warned her in his gruff voice before he walked down to the water too, crouching near to the edge to dip the dip the bandage into the water, doing his best to wash out the signs of aging from it. He didn’t really want to put it on his body if it was so gross and besides, this was a good way to get rid of the smell. When he got outside the borders, he would rub it against some trees or something to finish getting the scents out of Salsola territory but for now this would work until he could do it better. Looking up at the female to see if she was approaching him, both his ears were out, trying to make sure that she didn’t come up on him too fast but he supposed that he would be able to hear her no problem. Attention was diverted between both of his tasks, taking his time to do it correctly. He was almost waiting for her to fall into the water with how slick the waters were and how difficult it was for optime paws to keep their grip but who knew, maybe she was more skilled than that.
