[M] Blessed are the hearts that can bend

Gabriel de le Poer · 03-31-2011, 11:29 AM

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WARNING This thread contains: strong sexual content starting with the 15th post. Reader discretion is advised.

For Alaine, backdated to March 12th. Ezekiel has been within CdM for four days, as reference.

It had been far too long. Gabriel could not put off what he had to do, and so with only the warning to his mother he would be absent for a few days in order to retrieve his son, the Aquila began to make his journey south. He was used to traveling in his lupus form and covered the miles at an admirable pace. Still, it took him two days to make his way to the borders of the pack he knew to contain not only his eldest son, but the newest arrivals of his quickly growing bastards. He sighed, fearing the burden had been unwelcomed by Alaine. Anu had wanted her sons, and he had turned them over without argument. None of these children would be welcomed within Inferni.

The doggish male could smell the wolves and not-wolves that lived within the pack clearly. Its leader had changed, of this he was certain, but the scent was the same as the one he had smelled on Alaine. Unsure of where the pair he sought was, the Aquila began stalking the borders with the hopes of finding the two. Ezekiel’s scent would be clear enough against the others, and he did not wish to oust Alaine’s secrecy for fear of what her pack might do to the children.

Alaine Winters · 04-01-2011, 10:13 AM

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The air was sweetening by the passing day, although with each new rising sun came a little more of the heavy weight in the pit of her stomach. Alaine was an intelligent woman, and her instincts provided information her brain could not comprehend, manifesting itself as an impenetrable and growing dread.

Ezekiel had proved himself a valuable asset to the collie. He was a remarkably quick and willing learner, and with each morsel of information the highly-regarded Apothecary departed, the surer she became of her choice to take him on as an apprentice. His previous teacher had provided a solid grounding of basic medic-healing, the sort that dealt with wounds of the flesh and the blood. Alaine knew these things, but had already begun to teach the handsome hybrid male of more extensive weaknesses - diseases of the lungs, things within the body that no quick stitching could solve.

There was something magnetic about Ezekiel. A quality he possessed that allowed her, a most mistrusting and judgemental of creatures, to allow him full care over her children after only four days. Perhaps the exhausted mother had simply required a moment's peace so badly that whatever remnants of wariness she felt were buried beneath the layers of weariness and guilt. It was guilty pleasure, the time she took away from her children, although the keen edge of such an emotion was quickly losing its bite. Her offspring were Wrong; There was an unnaturalness in their very blood, incurable even to all her medical wealth of knowledge. It was simply how Dea had crafted her children - Part mortal, part madness of the spirit world beyond their own.

She had left Nana behind on this day, preferring instead to stretch out her own four elegant legs. It felt good to run free of her healer's satchel and her duty and worry and doubt, if only for a few stolen hours. However, a scent on the lingering breeze was quick to staunch that.

The cream and ivory collie stopped at the borders, her silky plume high and soft chocolate ears back, mixed signals of welcome and anxiety. She knew that scent, so very well, so very intimately. The Fae began to pace, uttering a soft whine into the tranquil silence. If he was near, he would hear her. The Warrior-King had come.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-02-2011, 04:31 PM

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A noise entirely unique to the savage world of feral things caused his ears to swivel to a black crown atop his broad head. Gabriel was a creature of a unique build, pulling from minor strands of heretic influence that had ultimately damned this woman’s son. His body was pulled from the wolf, but it was compact and well-muscled. No part of him seemed very graceful in its construction, and this was appropriate. He was a beast made for war and ruin, not the elegance that so opposed him in the woman he now approached.

It would seem to a stranger that these two would forever be in opposition. Alaine was lithe and fair, and Gabriel dark and obstinate. Yet the Aquila approached her as he might a dear friend, offering a tail-wag of reassurance as he read the nervous display in her dainty frame. A few whiffs of her scent, taken as he lowered his head to greet her, told him what he had suspected. Ezekiel was with her, though his son was nowhere to be seen. “Hello Alaine,” the amber eyed hybrid said almost warmly. Her anxiousness worried him, and this was why he did not touch her yet.

Alaine Winters · 04-03-2011, 12:09 AM

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He came to her call, just as she'd known he would - A creature of sinew and power, dark like a raven's wing and gold like the burning sun. Her polar, for she was of the moon and the forest, cool and green and ivory; two manifestations of a cruel world, each magnetic to the other. Of course she had known he would come.

As the familiar canine approached her, Alaine remained still, her tail still aloft and her ears still back. Emerald eyes regarded him warily, anxiously, curiously and perhaps warmly. She did love him, after all - Or perhaps, she had. When the warrior wagged his own tail and lowered his head in gracious greeting, her elegantly tensed posture loosened slightly, and soft collie plume twitched in a mirrored welcome. "Gabriel," Soft, accented tone lilted to his calling, although she did not smile yet. There was still too much worry for that.

A fragile, respectful distance was kept between the two figures. There was a stillness in the air about Gabriel, and his amber eyes revealed to her an intent beyond his words. She was not foolish nor naive enough to believe that his appearance was merely to reconnect - Such a relationship had never been expected, nor imagined. The King and the Apothecary were far too grounded, too realistic to harbour such silly fantasies. Her mind thus moved to the next logical assumption. "You've come for Ezekiel," A gentle smile finally bloomed now, although the warmth in her eyes hardened, became colder. How much did he know? How much did he wish to take from her?

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-03-2011, 12:39 AM

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The law of opposites existed within the pair as much as between them, and like all opposites they magnetized and pulled close. In another life the pair might have become their own fairy-tale. He might have saved her and himself, but the damage their offspring showed the flaw in this idea. Something in their blood mixed and soured. Gabriel had given up on the notion of happy endings after his first love had abandoned him for another. What he sought from Alaine and what she gave were shadows of what could have been.

She spoke of his son, and the Aquila smiled slightly. Of course this was where the boy had fled. After what his sister had said…well, it seemed logical. It seemed odd to the coy-wolf that his ferocious son would show such concern for children he barely knew, but after watching him chase after his sister time and time again he might have expected such a thing. Ezekiel’s one weakness was his devotion to family; it overrode even his loyalty to Inferni.

“And to see you,” he amended, amber eyes softening. “My daughter told me about the children.”

Alaine Winters · 04-03-2011, 12:57 AM

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Her statement was rewarded with another one of the King's rare smiles, proving its correctness. Her chest tightened slightly, but the collie showed no outward retaliation, her emerald eyes still cooly appraising. She did not wish for Gabriel to take Ezekiel. The woman had become swiftly fond of him, and in four days had incorporated him into her world as she had never been able to do with the King himself. But already, she was prepared to relinquish him - The coyote-hybrid was not hers to keep. The healer could only hope that the spiderwebs she had woven into the fabric of his nature would pull the young man back to her and his halfsiblings, to continue his training.

Gabriel's words produced a dead weight within her, and unable to fully withhold the intense wave of fear, her body trembled slightly. He knew about the children. For a long moment, she gazed at him in silence, transfixed by the strange warmth in the warrior's amber eyes - eyes so alike the sharp raptor gold of her daughter's. Alaine's mind seemed temporarily stilted, unable to form a coherent reply; when at last the confusion receded, she could think of only one thing to say. "I'm sorry," The pride within her crumbled slightly. She had born him children, but they were Wrong; she couldn't possibly let him see how their blood had failed. Alaine would hide her children from the warrior-King for as long as she was able.

She loved them, even as they were faulty. She would protect them from the wrath of their blood, and she would protect them from the father who would see them for the darkness they were. She was sorry for betraying him in this way, but there could be no other option for the mother.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-03-2011, 10:37 AM

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Even if he had sought to pull Ezekiel home for good, Gabriel knew is blood better than that. All of the Lykoi had wandered, unable to settle in one place for too long. It was perhaps thanks to his father that his own loyalty had run so deep. Perhaps too, thanks to his mother. Gabriel could not stand the idea of abandoning a home after all he had done for it. Scintilla had been enough; that war had cost him damn near everything, and darkened a once golden goat to the sable brown-black it now was.

But God had set him to burn, and Gabriel would never deny that Voice.

The apology she conjured puzzled him, drawing concern onto his scarred face. “Sorry?” He echoed, wondering why she would find herself at fault for such a thing. “You have nothing to be sorry about,” he went on, finally closing the distance between them to nudge her neck with his dark nose. It was a gestured that crossed a line between friends, but Gabriel had known her and he had touched her darker parts. Their intimacy was not something that he sought to ruin. “I’m sorry you were shouldered with this. And I’m also sorry, but I must be honest with you now,” he went on, lifting his head to look her in the eyes.

“I have children with another woman as well. They are mostly wolves, and I am unsure if she told her pack who their father is. The boys lived in Crimson Dreams when I last saw them; Oak, Alder, and Cypress. She wanted to keep them for herself, as is her right—and yours as well. Inferni cannot take your children, nor would I do such a thing. My daughter,” he paused, face darkening. “She did not take this news well. I would be wary of her if I were you.” Gabriel doubted Talitha would go against God, but she had proven her unpredictability to him before.

Alaine Winters · 04-03-2011, 11:24 AM

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It was clear that he did not understand the apology she made, and that was just as well. Alaine could not explain how it was she had failed him - One day, Gabriel would see the children for himself and he would understand. However, that day was not today, and some of the crushing weight that had filled her ribcage eased. His reassurance was taken in irony - Oh, little you know, my dark King - but the nuzzle was received with relative ease, the final icy tendrils of tension melting from her body as pink nose returned the gesture and temporarily buried itself into a dark and thick pelt. It was a gesture that once would have provoked her to aggression or fear, but with him, there could only be the dull acceptance of what she assumed to be un-reciprocated tenderness.

They had been lovers, and they had known love, in a memory that felt more like a dream. What did that make them now? Better than friends and worse than enemies.

His latter apology and warning pulled her from the canine embrace, and emerald eyes sought burning amber now. She would not flee from whatever knowledge he sought to impart that troubled him so - The woman had never been weak, and she would shoulder his burdens as well as she did her own. No lyrical words were offered to interrupt him, merely a weary but measuring emerald gaze that soaked up the information he offered. She was not surprised to find that he had more children; He had been an experienced lover, after all, and Ezekiel was proof that the Kin suffered from no monogamy. If he fretted for her female sentimentality or jealousy, then he fretted in vain.

The warning, however - A dark tide of foreboding that had sounded so similar from the maw of charming Ezekiel - cast a sharp glint to her eye. For a moment, the fae-collie was silent, digesting the facts she had been presented with. "I am capable of protecting the children, if necessary," Not our children, not even my children. Regardless, her words were not a bluff, and Gabriel himself had witnessed the rare and dangerous pagan-witch side to the generally meek Apothecary. Her words were a blatant return warning to the raven-warrior; if his daughter sought vengeance here, she would suffer for it. "Ezekiel took the news well, though. He seems to believe that your daughter can be persuaded against her grudges." She spoke of her pupil in a gentle tone, and a sudden lovely smile curved about her maw. "I am teaching him my skills, Gabriel. He wishes to learn, and although the travel is inconvenient..." It was essential that the Aquila take warmly to the idea of his son making the foray to her, to learn what had originally been stipulated as a woman's job. "I have made him my Healer's apprentice."

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-04-2011, 05:18 PM

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Gabriel did not doubt that Alaine was capable of what she spoke. He had seen the danger in her the night the children had been conceived, and he had recognized her capacity for violence. The Aquila’s jaw tightened, not because of what she implied, but because he knew the truth; if she did not stop his daughter, her pack would. Politics as well as violence had been inherited in his bloodline.

Silently, he listened. The raven-faced king understood her tone well enough, understood what she was implying. Gabriel’s eyes sharpened as she spoke of taking him on as an apprentice. A wistful smile crossed his visage, removing the battle-weary shadows and turning him young if only for a moment. “He was another woman’s apprentice once as well,” the Aquila explained, thinking of the woad-painted warrior. “She taught him the art of war. It is only fair he learns how to heal as well.” There was a subtle and forlorn distance in his voice. He recalled war, and what it took to keep soldiers alive.

“He cannot stay here,” he echoed, needing every able-bodied warrior despite the relative peace of Inferni. “But if your pack does not mind his presence, I will allow him time for this training beyond his duties. Likewise,” he went on, smiling in a peculiar way. “I will allow you passage within my clan, though I would suggest you stay with Ezekiel if this is the case.” Another warning, for her own safety. She was not a wolf, but she was not a member of the clan either. Many of his more zealous coyotes might see her as a spay or a trespasser and seek to do her harm—something Gabriel did not wish to see, regardless of her connection to him by their odd and damaged children.

Alaine Winters · 04-06-2011, 06:36 AM

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The darkness still pulsed within her, somewhere deep and secret, barely swimming in the shadows cast by years of pain and toil through once-youthful emerald eyes. He knew it well; Once, she had wondered if he would destroy her for it, but he had not. He had done much, much more than offer her a simple death, and perhaps that was a show of his growing weakness and weariness of the lonely world. As much as the thought troubled her, it also gave life to a rare thrill that chased through her blood whenever he was near.

In a manner so similar to his son's, Gabriel's eyes sharpened. They were harder than Ezekiel's - They had seen much crueler things, as her own had - but alike his offspring, the Warrior-King was quick to offer her a smile. Oh, he had been so handsome once, and that smile had the ability to melt bones and fuse hearts. Now, it was a shallow figment of what the woman imagined it had once been; just as she herself were merely a shadow cast by the entity of her innocence and youth. She made to smile in return, but the expression fell away as he spoke of Zeke's previous mentor. "He told me of her," She began slowly, eyes drinking him in, pools of phosphorescent green that sought something more than what they saw, "She was very close to you, wasn't she, Gabriel," A gentle whisper. Where jealousy should have been, there was only an empty ache. They had both lost so much - So many.

His declaration was expected. Cour des Miracles would not abide by Ezekiel's constant presence, and his true place was in Inferni - The healer knew this as clearly as she saw her place in the young man's life. However, Gabriel's allowance pleased her, for although she doubted that the father could force his son to do anything, she knew it would have strained her apprentice to go against his will. To the latter of his words, a genuine smile curved about her maw, a darkly mirthful thing. "You would allow me?" Gentle, sultry laughter awarded him the viable but pretentious sentence, "I wasn't aware I needed to ask your permission, omra súile," The old nickname rolled from her tongue in jest, and emeralds sparkled a little brighter beneath their frame of dark lashes.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-06-2011, 06:58 PM

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This is a weird post, I apologize. :|

They were older now, and much had passed between the time they had met as children. Scars and shadows had worn them into ghosts of what they might have been. Gabriel might have loved her first once, but fate and destiny belong to God and he did not question why. “The one was, yes,” he answered. “She was Ezekiel and Talitha’s godmother.” A pause. He thought of the girl who had come to him and spoke of the healer’s death, and how the boy had reacted when he had learnt of such a thing. “She’s dead now,” the Aquila added bluntly, as if this might explain his way for speaking.

If it had been anyone else, her mocking question would have earned a show of fang or growl. Instead he flicked his ear and cocked his head, eyeing her in the way a bird might. “Oh, a brave little trespasser are we?” He advanced and brushed past her, his tail flicking up to sweep over her nose. “Your pack might not mind if strangers come waltzing through, but we have patrols for a reason.” It was jest, playing on the rumors that he was certain preceded the clan—and by extension his—name. “Though," he went on. "You aren’t a wolf, and you hardly look threatening.” Another taunt, this time accompanied by a flash of ivory teeth; he was baiting her, pleased by her form and seeking to see how capable she was in it.

Alaine Winters · 04-06-2011, 09:40 PM

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His blunt note of the woman's death did not surprise the healer. Death followed Gabriel, and he knew it, just as pain had a wont to follow Alaine. It was their curse. Her sorrow for him was bittersweet, but lasted only as long as he allowed it to. When the male rose to move toward her again, she stiffened, although the amused sparkle did not leave emerald eyes. His arrogance was attractive, and when his dark tail taunted her nose she snapped playfully at it, sharp canine teeth clashing together on empty air.

His taunting provoked a growl of laughter to thrum deep within her throat, and the woman turned to face him as he paced around her. "My pack would never allow the likes of you, Ravenking. They'd smell you out," She jibed in return, unable to stop a peal of laughter spilling from her maw as he deemed her nonthreatening. "Hardly look threatening? Well, Gabriel," She crouched low, emerald eyes flashing hungrily at him, "You of all should know better than to judge a book by its cover!" The cream and silver collie pounced at him, a playful fighting snarl echoing her graceful leap.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-06-2011, 11:07 PM

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CAAAAAN YOU FEEL THE LOVE TONIIIIGHT

Play had been a long forgotten part of Gabriel’s childhood. He had played with his brothers and sister before being forced to flee his home, and afterwards not done such a thing since the Scintilla War. While battle was a regular part of his time there, often with Eli. His coyote friend had tried to teach Gabriel games and found it amusing when he failed so miserably at them. Jezebel had participated occasionally, along with some of the other younger members of their group, though their commanding officers had usually broken this up on the premise that they were wasting energy.

It took him only seconds to recognize her stance, and in that time she leapt. Had this been an attack from a stranger, he would have met her low and gone for the throat. Instead the warrior-king reared up and met her attack. There was no effort on his part; the movement was one that brought her crashing down on him, though he wrapped his large paws around her neck and sought to bring the collie down with him.

Alaine Winters · 04-09-2011, 10:27 AM

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Word Count → -- :: stuckinmyhead. future pp allowed <3

Gabriel wasted no further time with idle chitchat. Perhaps it had been an unwise move to mock-attack him - She knew many tales of those suffering from post-traumatic disorders that could have been triggered by such a movement. But it was rare, too, that Alaine instigated any sort of physical contact; as a girlchild of the Macha tribe, she had never participated in puppy spars or fighting training of any kind. It showed blatantly in her leap. The motion, although graceful, left her completely exposed with no actual plan of contact.

But this was, after all, only play. When Gabriel rose to meet her, a mock-outraged yowl pulled from her maw, turning quickly into a bark of laughter as she tumbled to the ground, batting at his face with ivory paws. She landed on top of him, growling around the laughter and placing both paws on his chest as though her meager body weight could hold him pinned down. "I think you ought to eat your words, Gabriel of Inferni. We don't tolerate trespassers here," The cream and silver woman stated proudly, her lyrical voice still echoing with laughter, "And I've got you pinned!"

The playful antics felt so strange. Not wrong, but not fully right either - Like a dream she had had once, like regression to a childhood she should have had. A childhood they both should have had. Perhaps some sixth sense warned her that there was a darkness looming on the horizon, and she sought to remember him now, not as what he or she would become. The ever-present phobic anxiety was there, simply masked beneath the strange happiness he had brought.

Gabriel de le Poer · 04-11-2011, 01:53 AM

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It was peculiar that two animals who had suffered as they had might find play still favorable. Touch was so often unwelcomed and cruel, but for the moment they were outside of such worries. Gabriel felt her feet strike his nose but there was no pain, only pressure, and he found her weight like that of a child. Pinned as he was, the Aquila could do little but look up to her with amusement. “Damn,” he cursed playfully, tilting his head just enough to show his throat. This was a sign of trust he had not shown many—yet he knew that Alaine would never harm him and so he did not fear this.

His body too, had begun to show signs of both trust and familiarity. With her on-top of him the Aquila felt a familiar heat rising deep in his belly. A low grunt accompanied the change in his loins, a contrasting pink against otherwise dingy no-color brown. He was not embarrassed by this, certain that Alaine was aware of her beauty and his own body could not deny such a thing. Roguishly, though with a greater need now driving him, the wolfish male made another feral noise of insistence.

Alaine Winters · 04-11-2011, 02:59 AM

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Word Count → 3+ :: fun fun fun fun

It was strange to have him submit to her. Empowering, but pleasing in deeper ways as well. Mentally, an old scar faded, just a little bit more. The sense of fate that Gabriel brought to her tugged insistently, warning her to the great yawning hole that the future could provide. She had feared his return to her, feared his darkness and his strength, but always he was quick to remind her of just why she had allowed this strange fondness to take seed within the empty cockles of her chest. She had born his children, after all; They would not be heirs, but they were shared blood. And deeply, she did love him, regardless of whether or not sensibilities could protect her from the harm of it. Alaine was a practical witch, sensible and quickly defensive. She guarded the tender, new vulnerability that he had created within her with much ferocity.

Playfulness quickly rekindled old flames. She felt his desire and it crafted her own, smile melting from maw to a more primal expression of similar animalistic drive. As before, she allowed him entrance to her body, but it was simpler now - The sunlight held the deep darkness within them at bay, and pleasure wrought only familiarity and a welcoming of the hardness of his body against her own sleek form. Light complemented dark once more in a dance that created all things, and she was a submissive but tender partner.

When again the two could regain their masks of control, his worn down by the passage of great trials and tirades, hers cracked by the cruelness against which he fought, the separated. The King called for his son, who came obediently as sons must, and the Apothecary bid farewell to the pupil she had adopted into that same wary warmth trapped in her ribcage. Zeke would be missed. She would return to the two slumbering wronglings and love them, one horribly and one hollowly, falling again into the foreboding that one day her lover might see them for the shadows that they truly were.

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