the sweetest eyes i've ever seen

Naniko D'Angelo · 01-03-2012, 05:42 PM

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WC: 1,156

There was something about leaving that had hurt him on the inside, but the feeling had began to fade as he'd walked farther and farther away from Ichika. Gideon felt remorse for leaving canines behind that he did care deeply about...but many of those relationships were confusing to him to begin with and he wasn't entirely certain that he wasn't doing them a favor by taking off the way that he had. Nayru? What was she to him now? Just friends, it would seem. He had thought that a mateship was the right thing, that he'd been in love with her...but it hadn't felt right, at times. They were destined to be together, he still believed...but not as mates or anything romantic. The times that they had become physical with one another had been a disaster; awkward, even painful at times for her, it had seemed. He liked the idea of having a mate, having pups of his own someday..but maybe he had idealized their mateship too much. Made it more than what it really had been.

He had tried to break through the friendship to find those feelings, the way that he had felt about her when they'd been pups. Something had been different after they had actually become mates, though. The spark had fizzled out and disappeared, leaving behind two very confused friends. That was how Gideon saw things. He cared about Nayru and her happiness more than his own, and wanted to take the confusion out of her life. For her to find someone who could treat her how she deserved to be treated, to love her the way that she deserved to be loved. He could have tried to give her all of those things...but the male didn't think that he could give her the one thing that she needed the most - someone who felt passionate, romantic love for her. He was stuck with platonic feelings. And she deserved better. She was a queen, a pack leader...and one of his best friends.

The male had gone West from Ichika when he'd taken off, toward lands that he had never been in before. His muscles were still damaged from the experiments that had been done on him in Anathema by the terrible mad scientist Demi, but he could walk easily enough. His limp would make him stand out among other canines and be more easily recognized...but if one got closer to him and could see the arsenal of weapons that he carried around on him, strapped to his arms, calves, and around his waist, they would probably think twice about attacking him. Just because he had a limp didn't mean that he was entirely weak...just that he'd experienced pain in the past. So far, he seemed to have had some pretty good luck with strangers. Most had been in need of food or someone to help them build a shelter, and he would often combine forces with some of the local loners to get a task done and share in the bounty before going along his way.

He wasn't sure what it was that he was looking for out in this snowy patch of wasteland that he'd found himself in. He'd managed to down a deer a week prior and still carried some pieces of roasted meat with him, though they were beginning to get stale around the edges. It was cold enough outside that the entire environment acted as a sort of refrigerator, and he kept his pack out in the cold whenever he could so that it would help keep the stuff fresher. He was learning survival skills, all right, ones that would be useful to him in the years following...whether he ever rejoined Ichika or joined another pack again. He’d chosen the warrior path in Ichika because he had wanted to learn how to defend himself, and now those skills were coming in use as well and becoming more and more honed with each day. There were times when the male would stop for a few days and make a camp for himself…then he would train extensively. But otherwise, he kept to his normal short training exercise in the morning. Each day it felt like he regaining a bit more of his flexibility, despite the chunks of muscle that had been cut away from his legs and arms.

He’d set up his own little camping spot in the snow surrounding a large tree, keeping the fire pit well away from the pine needles that the tree had dropped in the fall and that continued to drift down from the branches every once in a while. It seemed like it was constantly in some state of dropping needles. Each morning that he had woken up beneath the branches, he had found more and more of the little pokey leaves on his chest, face, and a few had even landed in his mouth. He’d been using the dead ones for tinder to start his fires, getting retribution for the attacks on his face and body by the prickly needles. Now he sat before the fire, warming his hands and reaching for his pack to take out the last bit of meat that he had left. He’d need to hunt soon…but had no one to do it with. More than likely, he’d have to live day-to-day and kill a few squirrels or hares each day to keep himself sustained.

The warmth of the fire felt great against the bite of the frigid air against his face and hands. It was beginning to grow even colder now that night was coming; it seemed to come much earlier in the day than it had during the summer months, and he often built a fire early to combat that. Gideon had no problem being alone, finding a few small animals or canines to speak to every now and again kept him sane…A sharp snapping of twigs from the surrounding forest brought the male to his feet. Was he simply imagining the sound, having just been thinking about other canines? Or was somebody really there?

He readied his slingshot in case it was an animal that he could hit and or chase down, his entire body poised for action. Maybe they’d seen his fire. After a few moments passed with no further action, the male took a hesitant step forward. His large foot crunched into the top layer of snow, making a series of small cracking sounds. Whoever was there would know that he was here as well, now. Maybe they’d come out if they found that out…or perhaps they would flee. He went down into a crouch, eyes narrowed at the cluster of trees and dead bushes that lay just beyond his campsite. He had not heard the sound of any creature fleeing just yet…so he believed that more than likely the other creature was a canine like himself, watching him as he watched them.

Table code by the Mentors!

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