The waves crashed against the rocks and what remained of the debris left over from crumbling buildings around the harbor. The abandoned boats floated like old booties, just bobbing and occasionally knocking into each other. No sane wolf would touch them, even if they still worked. Boats were a human endeavor, and held no use to the Luperci and other creatures that now lived in the area. Even after so many years after the apocalypse, Spring Heights still looked like a human graveyard. Even though all the bodies have by now turned to dust or something close to it, all their cars and stores seemed to just be on hold. It must’ve been a bustling town, always busy, and now it looked like it was temporarily paused in the middle of a day’s work. It was eerie and strange to Rio, and it gave her chills every time she let the thought pass through her mind.
The day was quiet, cool, and gray. Rio didn’t exactly like this part of Halifax, but she found herself here anyway. She sat on one of the old docks, swinging her feet off the edge. The water splashed up onto her feet, and sometimes made it up to touch her legs as well. What crashed around on the rocks caused spray that dampened the rest of her fur. She didn’t mind. She needed a place away from Anathema for a while, and the docks of Spring Heights was suitable enough.
Rio stared out into the water. It went on for miles, miles of nothing. The boats continued to clank and clunk together as the water became rougher. There was a storm coming in from somewhere, which would explain the cool breeze now picking up slightly and causing the boats to bump around more. The more she sat there, the more the winds picked up. Her legs and rump were soon soaked by the water climbing up her legs and splashing against the wooden dock she sat on. She would get up soon, but not yet.
Aylu had yet again ventured from d'Arte and his duties. He was in need of something interesting, something or someone to take his mind off of Terra. He was done with her. Every time she was around he felt like he was loosing more and more of himself to the wild woman who always seemed to disappear when he felt he was getting closer. He had taken the two day trip back to Halifax, this time bring nothing more then a small satchel with his drawing and art supplies and his two best daggers, the one found on Shiloh's body and one he had found in a shop.
He had been walking for a while, letting his mind wander when he smelled the brine of the ocean. He walked idly along the docks for a while, the breeze ruffling his fur, the soft crash of the waves soothing his lonely heart. He walked to the end of the dock and turned as the wind picked up and thunder crashed in the distance. The waves were getting choppy and he pulled his robes against him, pulling up the hood of a cloak he had made himself from some of the ox fur he had kept. He was about to walk back when something on the dock caught his eye. A black wolf sat on the edge of the dock, the waves lapping at its fur as the ocean got rougher. He was worried about the wolves safety. "HEY!!! ITS NOT TO BE OUT THERE!!!" he yelled as he started to run down the docks towards the wolf. Was there something wrong?
[WC: 627 || Pts: 5]
PP with him getting into the house, hope its okay!
The wind was too much for her to pick up on anyone else’s scent nearby. Whenever she thought she caught onto something, a gust of wind whisked it away from her nostrils. And sounds were impossible, too, with all the splashing, clunking, and occasional distant clap of thunder. So, instead she continued to sit on the dock. If someone wanted to kill her, they could just push her in. Then she would at least have a fifty-fifty percent chance of survival. She could either drown, or somehow swim away and hide from her attacker. The boats continued to clunk together, and she was really starting to get wet now- thanks to the rough waters.
Rio lifted her legs from the water, now a lot of her was wet, and she was strangely starting to get used to being soaked from the weather all the time. A few days ago, she was stuck in another rain storm.. Guess it hasn’t totally blown away yet, she thought to herself as she arose from the edge of the dock. Just as she did that, she heard someone’s faint voice yell, which made her get up even quicker. She managed to get to her feet in time to see another male in a cloak running towards her, yelling something she couldn’t understand- she also wondered about his urgency briefly. His voice was carried away by the wind, and as he was coming towards her as she was walking toward land. She wasn’t about to get stuck on the docks in a fierce storm like this.
As she neared the brute, she noticed that he didn’t seem like the type that would hurt her and so she wasn’t afraid of him. Instead, she yelled back, ”What??” She was unsure that he could hear her either, but then again the sounds around them weren’t all that loud. It took her a few seconds to actually meet up with the male, and when she was right next to him on the dock, she said loud enough for him to hear her, hopefully, ”Let’s take shelter in one of these buildings.” She didn’t wait for him to answer her and continued up the beach toward the first stable-looking building she could see. It was a house, probably a seasonal house for humans, and it looked like it was in good enough condition to save their fur from the storm. Rio tried the doorknob, and like most houses in Halifax now, it was open. She wasted no time getting inside, and held the door open for the brute as well, and then closed it tightly behind them.
Surprisingly, all the windows were intact and the interior of the house looked livable. The furniture wasn’t dirty and it wasn’t a mess like most houses were from all the scavengers ransacking them over the years. This one seemed to be untouched. Rio was even surprised that the door worked. She plopped down on a couch, it was dusty, and now wet too, but it made Rio feel warmer. She didn’t bother shaking the water from her fur, which she probably should have before getting on the couch. She patted the arm of another couch next to hers, ”Sit, stranger.”
From what Rio could see in her position, the beach house had a spacious kitchen, nothing that she could use, a cozy living room with couches, area rugs, curtains, a fireplace, and electronics that didn’t work anymore, in which they were in, probably a bathroom because she saw a door across the room, and an upstairs that she had yet to explore. She didn’t feel like getting up just yet, though. ”I’m Rio, what’s your name?” Might as well socialize while they had all the time in the world.
Aylu followed the lithe figure of a female into one of the houses, happy to get out of the storm. He made sure the door was shut tight before following her to the living room. She had plopped down on a dust covered couch while he took off his cloak to dry it off. He soon did as she said and sat down on the floor by her feet. "Hello Rio. I am Aylu of Cercatori d'Arte. What brings you to Halifax?" he asked softly. He noticed she was still wet and like for Terra took off his robes. He was getting to the point where he was starting not to wear them anymore. He draped them over her dark form and smiled. "Don't want you to get sick because you got wet. What were you doing out there anyways?" he asked.
He was curious about this woman. Why was she out there? Where was she from and why was she in Halifax? These were the questions he was curious about. She wasn't like any other female he had met. Maybe she would be different then Terra. Then again he didn't want to rush anything and scare her away.
The brute sat on the floor when he could have sat on the couch next to her. She was a bit puzzled by this, but let it go. She watched him as he took off another layer of his clothes and offered them to her. Before she could refuse, he draped them on her wet fur anyway. She smiled and dipped her head in thanks without saying anything. She sniggled up to the robes he gave to her, and answered, ”I come out here a lot. This city never bores me.” She always found something new when she came. Today, it was the docks that never visited before. Too bad the rain had to ruin her beautiful time.
”Water won’t make me sick, but dirty water will.” She joked because mothers always told their daughters that the rain would make them sick. If it was dirty rain, yes. He prodded at her for her whereabouts, and she was brief. ”Thinking.” The docks were a good place to think and to lose one’s mind out into the sprawling miles of the sea. The boats’ clunking was enough to keep her on Earth, and the occasional lapping of cold water on her legs brought her in and out of deep thought. It was nearly impossible for one to totally lose themselves out there; unless of course, they fell in.
”I’ve never seen you around before, Aylu. You’ve always been from Cercatori d’Arte?” She always tried to be sociable, and since she began her best efforts – they’ve been pretty successful. She is slowly, but surely, climbing out of that deep, dark hole that almost swallowed her. Thanks to Harlowe.. His name was always in the back of her mind, and no matter how hard she tried to forget it- it was always there and it would be there forever.
She squeezed her eyes closed and shook her head lightly, pushing the thoughts of her deceased, rapist brother away. She would always love him, but memories of the encounter would forever haunt her. If there was a way to forget them, she would have a long time ago. ”What are you doing here, Aylu?” She attempted to take the focus off of her thoughts and back on him, so that he wouldn’t notice her inner turmoil. He wanted to know what she was doing here so bad, well she wanted to know the same thing.
Her answers were brief but he understood where she was coming from. He was a stranger to her and he wondered what she thought about him. "Thinking about what? I am not originally from here. I came from the states to follow my destiny. I have met many a people in my travels. I am a monk of sorts. You aren't the first woman to see me with my robes off but I hope to find the one woman who will be the last," he said softly, looking up at Rio.
Aylu pondered her question. Why was he out here? "Because I was trying to lose this ache someone left in my heart. I am trying to move on. I have been coming out here recently to find things I might need or just to let go. I didn't know others came out here. I...fell in love with the wrong woman. I just want to let go," he said looking down. Terra had meant so much to him.
she had left him broken and used inside. He wanted to be numb. To forget and move on.
Rio kept her eyes off of the male, and kept her gaze forward. The rain pelted against the glass windows of the house, and she was, like many times, grateful to be inside and out of the weather. Aylu was spilling his heart out to her, and she found it kind of weird that he was telling a stranger all of this. On the other side, though, it was easier telling strangers you’re problems because you didn’t know them that well, and couldn’t possibly predict how they would feel about them. Rio kept her gaze on the wall as she analyzed his methods. He didn’t seem like he was shaped to the world. It seemed that he wasn’t betrayed or broken much. If he were, then he wouldn’t be crying about his love for another and had been trying to move on.
”Thinking about life,” she finally answered. She was thinking about life, but she didn’t want to be specific with him. She didn’t know him, and unlike him, she couldn’t spill her problems out onto a stranger. She just didn’t find it right. Instead, she would rather tell her sister or her mother what was bothering her and they would most likely know the situation a bit better, and be able to help. She had done it before and her sister Caprica was the one to show her the light.
”Aww, that sucks.” She felt for him, even though she didn’t know him and barely knew his situation. ”Not everything works out the way we want it to,” she had a lot of experience with this, ”Never for me, actually, and I’ve learned to deal with it as you do too.” He would learn one day, and even if he knew already- he would learn, also, that one doesn’t spill their inner secrets to strangers.
She took off his robes draped across her, and even though she wanted to keep them on because they were warm- she didn’t want the monk to be naked. ”Well, then put them back on. I could be one less woman who has seen you without them.” She hadn’t really looked at him without them, and if he put them back on now, she wouldn’t remember what he looked like anyway. She still wanted the warmth of them on her, but she could do without it. After all, the house was pretty warm from all the windows being intact.
OCC: Sorry for the crap post. the next one will be better I promise
Aylu smiled and stood. He pushed her hands back down and sat down next to her. "I think its time I change my way of thinking. You have them," he said softly looking at her, really looking at her. She was beautiful. "Who would hurt someone as beautiful as you. You don't deserve to be treated that way. You need someone that will treat you right," he whispered softly. He knew they would be in the house a while. It was storming pretty bad outside.
"Life is a deep subject. I hope the answer you seek finds you soon. Everyone questions life at least once in their life. I know I did as a pup. Now I am here with you," he said with a soft smile. She seemed aloof and distant. He hoped he hadn't said the wrong things and scared her or something.
Despite the fact that she offered his robes back to him, Aylu refused. ”You sure?” Rio didn’t want this stranger’s clothes, and her fur was getting dryer by the minute. ”Mister, I don’t want your clothes. Thank you for giving them to me, but they belong to you.” She held them out to him again, this time dropping them in his lap, while looking at him for the first time. She felt bad, ”I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to be rude, but you don’t need to change your ways because you feel bad for me. I’ll be fine.” Rio got up off of the couch and circled around him to a mirror. She gazed in the mirror, looking at her scruffy fur from the wind and rain, and attempted to fix what she could of her hair. At least when she was done, it didn’t look so crazy.
Rio returned to the couch and sat down, instead of laid, and was just in time to hear the monk’s whispers. She blinked at him; she didn’t remember saying anything about ever being hurt – was he a mind reader? Luckily, he went on about life so Rio didn’t really have to say anything to his first, creepy statement. She looked away from his direction and looked at the hands in her lap, ”Yeah, I feel you on that. I’ll find my way soon enough.” She looked up at him when she said the last few words, nodding. Pups always questioned life until they actually grew up and found their way. She wasn’t sure if she had ever questioned anything as a pup, but whatever happened then made her who she was now, and she was happy how it shaped her. She was happy with herself, but not so happy with her situation.
She fiddled with a string on the couch probably from some kind of animal tearing at it before. ”What else can you tell me about yourself?” She really didn’t know what to say to him. He wasn’t leading them in any specific direction with his spiritual monk crap, and she really didn’t know what to say to him after. Why not get to know each other? They were stuck there for a while anyway. Maybe he would turn out to be a different person than the one he seemed to be. The shell that wolves put up to protect themselves was always the complete opposite of how they really were.
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Aylu looked at the pieces of cloth she dropped in his lap. Her comments bothered him. "It wasn't about feeling bad for you. I was just trying to be nice. Thank you anyways,' he said standing and putting back on his robes. He watched her go to the mirror and came up behind her. The urge to hold her was strong as she tried to smooth down her fur. "You look beautiful Rio," he whispered softly before patting her shoulder and going to sit back down.
Aylu's tail wagged softly. Tell her something about himself. "I have a loyal companion by the name of Cilantro. He is a Canadian hawk. I.. am not used to talking to females. Um... what can you tell me about yourself?" he asked with a small smile. Was she always so stand offish and stoic? He hoped to get to know her better. He was tired of going home alone
And to think, I almost sent you a PM yesterday about OOCly ending this … I’m still up for it, however O.o [WC: 412 || Points: 3]
The monk came up behind her when she was fixing what she could of her hair. She watched him in the reflection of the mirror, smiling at his comment. ”Thank you, Aylu. I appreciate that.” When he went to sit down, she gave up shortly after. There wasn’t much she could do with her frizzy hair. It needed to be wet, washed, and dried properly. She gathered all of it and pushed it on her back, then went to sit on a couch opposite of him. While doing so, she managed to notice the rain letting up outside of a non-curtained window.
She sat down and listened politely, nodding as he told her of his bird. She couldn’t say that she had one. She didn’t have any companions, actually. Not even a cat or a mouse. Not even a rock to call her own, aside from the bare den she slept in, in her mother’s pack. Rio looked away from him as she thought about what she could say. She fixed her eyes on a picture on the wall of some lady. ”I don’t normally talk to men either. Don’t worry about it.” She didn’t usually talk to anyone. She was pretty anti-social. ”Well, Aylu, I can’t really tell you much about me. I don’t own anything, I have no pets, and I hate where I live.” At the time, she hadn’t been thinking of leaving, but it was something she wanted in her near future. ”I plan on leaving someday soon.” She didn’t know where she was going; perhaps, to find her dad, then who knew?
Rio rose from the couch noticing that the rain let up just enough for her to walk in without getting drenched in two seconds. She walked over to the window and peered out. ”Wanna walk half-way with me to Anathema?” She said it almost in an inaudible tone, but she knew he could still hear her. The house was dead silent. She also knew that he lived somewhere along the way to Anathema, so that they would walk each other home. She turned to him and cast her beautiful periwinkle eyes on him, ”Come on, let’s go before the rain picks up again.” She just wanted to get out of the eerie house. It was dusty and it needed a good cleaning, and she didn’t want to be in it any longer. ”We can walk and talk.” She was halfway out of the door before he could even agree.
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OCC: Thank goodness you didn't. I have been meaning to tell you not to worry about the thread. Work has me coming home later and really tired Sorry for making you wait so long.
Aylu stood and came up behind her. "If you hate where you live why go back now? Come stay with me Rio. I don't have much to offer but a warm bed and a roof over your head but it has to be better then what your going back to," he said stopping her. "You deserve to be happy Rio. A part of me can tell.... feel your not. I am not saying that I can give you the happiness you want but I really want to try," he whispered before letting go of her wrist. He watched her with teal eyes, curious on what she wanted and where this was going.
He was a sentinel in a artistic pack. He lived right next to the stables and had almost nothing but a ox fur bed and his carvings. He had made a fire pit in the middle for meat and tea. He wasn't offering her much but for some reason he felt she might be happier in d'Arte. She was going to run back to a place she didn't belong and he didn't want to stand for it. "Please Rio... don't go back to Anathema,"
If we were on time with this thread, I might have actually considered his offer … but can’t now >.< [WC: 376 || Points: 3]
The monk caught her arm just as she almost slipped out the door. She stopped halfway and found herself backing into the house again to face him. His facial expression was almost sad, in a way, and her own soften to accommodate his. ”I have to. I can’t just up and leave. It’s my mother’s pack, I have to at least tell her I’m leaving…” Rio shut the door behind her and came back in. ”Plus, I have somewhat of a plan. I need things before I plan on leaving, and I’m working on those things now. There’s nothing you can help me with at the moment; just leave it all to me for now.” She knew he would want to help her, but there was nothing he could really do. She lied when she said she had a plan, but she was making one up as the days passed – each idea getting better and better.
Seeing that he probably wouldn’t let her go, even if she wanted to be rude and just leave, she walked away from the door and sat on the couch. He seemed to really like her, despite just meeting her about an hour or two ago, but she couldn’t say the same. Her life wasn’t as calm as his, and she couldn’t stand for a life of tranquility. Chaos was in her blood, it always had been. ”Well, I suppose I don’t have to go right now, but I do have to leave soon if I want to make it there by tomorrow night.” She’d rather arrive at the Anathema borders before the darkness came, but she saw that it wouldn’t happen this time.
”I appreciate you trying to help me, I really do, but there’s nothing you can help me with right now. If you can understand, I can’t just leave. I have duties, family over there. And plus, I need supplies for my trip.” She at least knew what she would be doing at first- she would leave and then live here, maybe. She needed a house to stay in for a little while, and this one seemed actually pretty perfect. She didn’t check the upstairs, but she would when she returned. At least it had a working door and everything.
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OOC Ending:
Aylu and Rio continue talking and walk each other home after. Rio leaves Aylu around where Cercatori d'Arte is and continues home to Anathema. She's confident she'll see the monk again.
