A Bit Too Far

Skoll Haskel · 03-22-2012, 06:01 PM

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My cold dark tower seems so bright

Word Count :: 747 I had to rewrite this, so it's mostly a loooot pointless introspection without dialogue... Poke me if you need more actual sustenance to reply to! Even if this is hella long...

There were many concepts in life that he did not have to stop and think about. Some came as a result of his upbringing, such as a lack of understanding about the pains of starvation or exposure to cold or the paranoia healthy for one without a pack to run with. Other thoughts were more daydreams, and while he’d laze around thinking that one wolf must be part ghost or part horse, he’d never suspected that a feline could raise a canine child.

A perplexed whine escaped the boy’s mouth before he suppressed it. His shock at the connection between the moschate lynx and the little puppy was evident in his animated face, his jaw slackening and his brows coming together to a sharp point of confusion. Even the news that bobcats and the sort had the capability of speech was beyond him; the young male that’d fought him off an old kill had been wordless and screeching and fierce. This female, named Jeera from what his scattered mind could piece together, was cultured like a luperci, but no less frightening.

Green eyes flicked to the cub for some cue of what to do, how to feel. She scampered toward him, balancing with her forepaws on his pale chest, and blurted out an explanation of her own. Desperation darkened her molten-gold eyes and caused him to feel sick to his stomach. He was driven as a wolf and as a dog to protect her, his dual-heritage propelling him to challenge this enemy predator for her safety. She was not very far from Cour des Miracles, either, and he wanted to fight for his pack.

But the prince had not been raised for violence, in spite of the war that wracked the Court in the early months of his life. His eyes dropped, and that little gesture was a stark transformation for the dominant wolfdog. His tightly curled tail loosened at his hocks as he conceded these points to the cat, though the tension did not fade from his body. His legs remained stiff as the lynx prowled forward.

And then the final revelation came—that Kace had been orphaned. Perhaps an adult would have responded with a sad look and deep sympathies, but for a naïve boy whose parents were very much alive and very much a part of his life, he did not know how to react. A whimper came from him at the thought, however, and the last pieces of his aggressive façade crumbled. He wanted to comfort her, but her story made him so upset that he didn’t think he could trust himself not to start burbling like a baby. No one should ever go without a family, not without at least one parent or even a big brother to take care of them.

His ears flattened against his head at the lynx’s comforting murmur—as if he ever had been a threat. Did Kace think he’d hurt her bad like her parents were hurt? He whimpered again, but then the female addressed him. His ears continued to lay flat against his broad skull, and one lip curled as if he were about to denounce her suggestion as a trick—a ploy to get him into a weaker form she could attack, if she didn’t just tack during the vulnerable minutes it would take the inexperienced luperci to shift.

But he did shift, a tingling going through his shoulders and haunches as mass melted away from his frame. Skoll was still large in his lupus shape, but it was a drastic change. Some of his youthfulness was revealed in his body, the fact that he still had room to grow, but he was a creature obviously built for endurance.

“Don’t be scared,” the boy told Kace in a faltering voice, upset very much by the thought of ever making her fear him like Jeera suggested. “You taste sour, ’member? I won’t hurt you!”

He looked desperately at Jeera. “She can’t be all alone!” he barked, managing to rouse some dominance yet although he was not at all the aggressive beast from before. “She needs—she needs a family, and you’re not—you’re not—you’re not a wolf! But she can’t be all alone and trying to be all by herself and a mean wolf could get her out here!” His thoughts all ran together, bumbling from his mouth; he was losing control of his emotions that glowed plain as day in his sad eyes.

I swear it must be heaven's light

Image courtesy of night-fate-stock & SunOwl

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