beneath the canopies

^^

She would need to return soon. She had been away from Elkshire for some time and disappointingly, Teodora was empty handed. Or well, not entirely -- she had gained knowledge from her own exploring and snooping of other Packs, their placement and how many she had come across in her travels but... she hadn't forged any friendships. She hadn't found anyone to recruit. Teodora was not best pleased with her own progress and she was determined to return to Elkshire with something other than knowledge.

The maiden suffered a delicate sigh as she drew her paw along the waters surface, rippling the water from the touch. She lay, tucked neatly against a tree trunk beneath the canopies and found it a nice place to rest, to annoy herself with her own thoughts. The she-wolf did her best to not think of Serpens and her broken heart, instead opting to think of a plan to be successful. ^^

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A heavy sigh drew her attention. Amaranth had been absent for a few days now, and it was customary that her mate at least make a quick tour of the surrounding land to ensure she hadn't fallen down some dark hole or gotten caught up in the bewitching charms of a stranger again - the woman was so peculiar, it was a miracle she was still alive. Valeska smiled and shook her head, stopping near the sound to peer out from behind a large tree. An unfamiliar scent - and a brown tail. Perhaps not the golden figure she sought, but someone laid on the other side, and the stranger had a very glum air about her once she got a better look.

“What is the matter?” she asked from around the trunk. “It is a beautiful day, and should not be spent deep in the pit of sorrows.”

Invited or not, the pale wolf fully emerged and sat in front of the dark woman. “You do not look familiar. Smell is unusual - heavy pack-scent, but it is not known to me. Where are you from?”

Valeska wasn't particularly knowledgeable about the current area herself; this was a little farther south than usual for her wanderings, but she had found herself lost in thought in the interim. The trees surrounding them were densely packed and wove a strange sort of covering overhead, blocking out all but a few dappled rays that streamed weakly down to tickle the shimmering ends of their fur. The brown wolf, in particular, held great fascination for Valeska in the way that her pelt seemed to sparkle intermittently in both gold and red hues, while she herself simply appeared as a pale outline against their forested backdrop; all soft whites and cloudy greys with a strange, ethereal haze around her form.

“Действительно трагично! — Tragic indeed! You are too lovely to be sad.”

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She should have been more aware of her surroundings, this she knew, but there were times that Teodora got lost in the clouds and she was aware of very little. This was one of those times, when a silver she-wolf appeared from around the tree she had laid herself next to. Surprised, she jerked her head from it's settled position and gasped, her ghostly gaze bright and startled. The maiden noted the accent, new and different to the ones that Teo was used to and she blinked, dark ears cuffing forwards as she realised she hadn't truly taken in the words until moments later. "Oh," she breathed, "it is. Very beautiful." Teo agreed quietly, her paw stilling atop the waters surface as the wolf drew herself completely from behind the tree and fully into Teo's view.

It took her mere seconds to note the delicate, feminine beauty that accompanied the silver she-wolf, noting that being of thicker build did little to take away from her image. Little, she couldn't help but note and instantly drew her long forelegs to settle beneath her chest and her tail drew itself from the earth to drape across her hind legs, hiding the very thing that had made her an almost perfect beauty, Teodora. You were so close, however did you end up so tall? Tall as a man! She heard the familiar voice crow and she quickly focused on the accented wolf as she sat herself comfortably before Teodora at the waters edge where she lay. "I... think I am from very south of here, now," she stated bashfully, not truly knowing how far she had travelled from her home. "I come from a Pack called Elkshire, where forests and water sources seem to dominate and I... realise I have not yet told you my name!" Hastily she looked to rectify her blunder, "Teodora Oteri, it is a pleasure to meet you." Oh fair one, she mused to herself.

The silver woman spoke first a language she did not understand but thought it beautiful how easily it flowed from her tongue, finishing on the common language and saying her too lovely to be sad. Shyly she ducked her head and cast her gaze away, offering a small giggle of disbelief at being called lovely, "forgive me. My sorrows are so silly," her broken heart, her disappointment and her failures tickled against her and told her just how silly they really were as she murmured her words. "And you are very kind to think as you do," she swallowed, her tail tip twitching against her legs. ^^

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^^

She should have been more aware of her surroundings, this she knew, but there were times that Teodora got lost in the clouds and she was aware of very little. This was one of those times, when a silver she-wolf appeared from around the tree she had laid herself next to. Surprised, she jerked her head from it's settled position and gasped, her ghostly gaze bright and startled. The maiden noted the accent, new and different to the ones that Teo was used to and she blinked, dark ears cuffing forwards as she realised she hadn't truly taken in the words until moments later. "Oh," she breathed, "it is. Very beautiful." Teo agreed quietly, her paw stilling atop the waters surface as the wolf drew herself completely from behind the tree and fully into Teo's view.

It took her mere seconds to note the delicate, feminine beauty that accompanied the silver she-wolf, noting that being of thicker build did little to take away from her image. Little, she couldn't help but note and instantly drew her long forelegs to settle beneath her chest and her tail drew itself from the earth to drape across her hind legs, hiding the very thing that had made her an almost perfect beauty, Teodora. You were so close, however did you end up so tall? Tall as a man! She heard the familiar voice crow and she quickly focused on the accented wolf as she sat herself comfortably before Teodora at the waters edge where she lay. "I... think I am from very south of here, now," she stated bashfully, not truly knowing how far she had travelled from her home. "I come from a Pack called Elkshire, where forests and water sources seem to dominate and I... realise I have not yet told you my name!" Hastily she looked to rectify her blunder, "Teodora Oteri, it is a pleasure to meet you." Oh fair one, she mused to herself.

The silver woman spoke first a language she did not understand but thought it beautiful how easily it flowed from her tongue, finishing on the common language and saying her too lovely to be sad. Shyly she ducked her head and cast her gaze away, offering a small giggle of disbelief at being called lovely, "forgive me. My sorrows are so silly," her broken heart, her disappointment and her failures tickled against her and told her just how silly they really were as she murmured her words. "And you are very kind to think as you do," she swallowed, her tail tip twitching against her legs. ^^

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The female's voice came out soft and feather-light, like the gentle rustling of bird's wings that drifted sleepily away on the wind. Valeska realized she must have given her a fright, and smiled sheepishly in apology - she often seemed to have that effect on others, and she questioned whether it was perhaps Nivia that favored her most of all the gods. The winter goddess was known as much for her stillness as for her undetectable approach, and though Valeska felt herself clumsy, she could be quiet when she wished.

Something peculiar flickered across the sun-furred woman's face, but it remained hidden by the swift manner in which she drew herself tightly together. The intent behind the motion was almost entirely lost on the Priestess, and though it bothered her, she didn't press - perhaps the girl was just tense around strangers. No matter.

“I have only been in the southern region once, I think, and it was very hot. Met horrible, foul-smelling Devil Wolf during a storm, and he gave me very nasty wound - I still do not know his name, but I pray the Five smite him with justice,” she snorted, frowning. @Vengeance would always hold a miserable place in her memory there - the Temperate region had shown itself to be a hostile and unwelcoming environment in her short jaunt there, as well as uncomfortably claustrophobic and damp. How something as lovely and gentle as Teodora could come out of there was a mystery to her.

“Teodora of Elkshire?” she rolled the words around on her tongue. Teodora suited the slender woman just right; pointed but elegant. Elkshire also had a sort of mythic quality to it, and the name itself drew to mind tall, tall trees surrounded by lush greenery and bubbling riverbeds shot through with sunlight. Perhaps that part of the South wasn't so terrible, as long as the monster wasn't there. “Oh - so, there are many elk? How nice! We do not have too many where I am from. My name is Valeska, High Priestess of Elysium, and I live a little further north of here beside great lake. It is beautiful, but could be snowier for my taste!” The little wolf laughed, shaking her thick fur for emphasis.

As Teodora coyly ducked her head from view at the compliment, a light giggle escaped her dark lips as her tail flickered nervously against her legs. How unfortunate that the girl found herself so ready to swat away kindness from a stranger - a reflex learned through life, no doubt. Valeska felt a pang of sorrow for her, and knelt down to lay more comfortably nearby. “Well that is nonsense,” she scoffed, tossing her head. “Pain is... subjev... ah, what is the word... subjective. It is foolish to say, my pain is nothing; it means you are measuring yours to another's, thinking it small in comparison. It is not. Your pain will always be your own, and no one can take that from you. Not even the gods look down upon sorrow.”

The little wolf paused for a moment, glancing up toward the heavy canopy above them. It was warmer than usual today, and the sun had melted some of the surrounding ice, so Valeska found herself grateful for the shade until the next cold front came through. She cleared her throat and continued. “What I mean is - it is okay to hurt. Tell me, what is hurting? Do not be afraid, for I am no one, from nowhere. Sometimes it is good to talk to ghosts; they do not know you like family at home.”

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It became a quick realisation as to who the wintery-wolf meant, given Vengeance's... not too charming qualities that made him stick out against the rest. He surely smelt like death and certainly he could be called the Devil himself from what she had heard (it was difficult for her not to be charmed by him, though, for it was one of her faults and he had quite the silver tongue. Naïve as she was) and given the place... it was unlikely that the winter-touched lady was talking of anyone else. Unless Teodora had missed them, of course. "Oh," she breathed in disappointment, wondering what had happened between her and the Warlord that allied with Elkshire. "I think perhaps you have had a run in with one from the Nightwalkers," Teodora stated softly, "no quite known for their tact but they are certainly astonishing on the battlegrounds." Or so she had been told, or would think. "Though I must say I am not quite a fighter myself," she trailed off with a bashful smile, shifting on her belly almost awkwardly. "I am sorry you have been harmed," Teodora apologised in concern, gnawing on her inner cheek as she washed her gaze fretfully over the winter-touched wolf.

The Maiden felt a flourish of warmth on her cheeks as her name and home repeated on her tongue, warm and heavily accented. She had not heard it said in such a way and found she liked it. Teodora tittered softly at the mention of plenty of Elk, her head nodding gently though she looked thoroughly intrigued as the woman went on. Valeska, High Priestess of Elysium, further North with a great lake. "Oh! I have not seen snow in... Gods, I do not think I have ever actually stepped paw in it!" She had seen it in passing, certainly, but she had not had the pleasure of experiencing it. "A great lake," she commented wistfully, "I am sure it is as stunning as it's High Priestess." The Earthen Maiden would coo softly, smiling warmly at the winter-touched wolf.

Her ghostly gaze peered through a thick row of lashes as Valeska settled down more comfortable, seemingly not in any hurry to leave. She swallowed thickly as Valeska spoke, her ears tilting back to cuff against her head as she listened. She had been attempting to bury her pain for thinking it was lesser than anyone elses and she had not felt particularly... right, for wallowing or feeling the gravity of her broken heart. Validation came in a surprising form; a winter-touched High Priestess. It was okay to hurt, she said, and encouraged Teodora to divulge her sorrows. Her tongue snuck out to sweep across her lips nervously as her ghostly gaze cast down to her shifting creamy-coloured toes.

"I..." she started and trailed off, the heartbreak coming back to the surface. "I miss my family, first. Both blood and Pack, the ones who had found me and taken me in and shown me what it was like to be a family not of blood," the Dominion... Faustus and Barbosa sprung to mind yet the others did, too, and her brother -- Gods, Roman had been all she had tried to find and she came up short every time. "There... there was a man, a Knight, coloured so prettily in blue and greys and to me he was so sweet, so charming and he followed me to even here, a land where I had not chosen to wake." Teodora felt her tears start to well in her icy depths and she lowered her chin as she sighed softly.

Teodora hoped he had found what he had been looking for, his siblings wherever they may have been. "We had danced in the rain in one of our first meetings," she cooed with a slight shake to her gentle tone. "I am not sure what love is aside from love of family but I... I do think he was love. Or perhaps an almost -- I... it hurts, now that he has left." Teodora sighed softly as she tried to regain her composure, having never really spoken of the hurt she had felt over everything. "It is all I have ever wanted," the Maiden admitted quietly, "a love so out of this world and puppies tripping us over every which way..." yet now it seemed like such a far away reality, it was a heartbreak in itself. "I had thought it would be him." ^^

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It seemed that the mention of her fateful encounter triggered some sort of recognition, and Valeska's eyes flew open in shock. The way Teodora spoke so casually of the demon and his kin disturbed her - for who could live in peace over such a monster lurking about the lands, clearly possessed by some evil spirit in his desire to wreak pain and suffering upon the innocent? Still, her mild-mannered acquaintance gave a brief summary of his pack as if she were only speaking about the weather.

“Tact? Pah! Did not need battlefield to experience his wrath. Only thing that saved me was size of space, and that I am very fast,” she snorted, glancing ruefully back at the haunch he had wounded then. “And you - your pack knows them? Are you not... disgusted, or put off, or at all bothered by these Nightwalkers? What could they have offered your family to be on kind terms?” She could little hide the incredulousness in her tone, but it was not directed toward the stranger herself. Teodora was gentle and sweet, and likely she had little to do with the greater plans of their two packs coming together in whatever unholy alliance they held, distasteful as the thought was. The Nightwalkers could only be a festering disease that deserved to be stricken from the earth, if its followers were anything like the brute she had encountered.

Their discussion turned lighthearted once more, however, as the maiden ventured a shy compliment toward the Priestess. Valeska grew hot beneath her cheek-fur, smiling and looking off casually into the distance as if it were of no concern, and failing. Since the dawning of her relationship with Amaranth, she was apparently not immune to flattery when in the company of a pretty lady - not that it would ever come between them. Still, it was a pleasant feeling. “Oh, you are very kind,” she responded playfully, dipping a paw in the pool before them and splishing it about as a distraction. “I will say, though, it is very beautiful. Would love to have you for guest someday, if you find yourself near; then you may experience snow, and the joy of rolling around in it! Amara and I love to play-fight, even if she does not like the cold.”

Teodora then spoke of her family, wistfully, as if reaching for a memory that now lay just out of reach. Her eyes had softened and her voice grew quiet as she began, gaze searching her paws and the waters beneath them as if its depths held the answers to her longing. “I am sorry you miss them, and that you are apart. It is a special kind of pain, and I felt it when I awoke here without my friends and my pack - though the Five were merciful and helped me to find them, even if I feel I do not deserve it,” she said softly. The terror of waking in an unknown land without a single familiar scent to guide her was not something she ever wished to repeat, and hearing that Teodora still suffered her own loss was heartbreaking. Valeska felt for the girl - loneliness hurt more than anything else on earth, and her dear friend @ "Annika" was a testament to that.

But nothing prepared her for the earthen woman's sorrow for her Knight.

She, too, had had her own dalliance with a star-crossed stranger, a dark man with an icy gaze called Rhelenso. They had met by chance in a sun-dappled grove in the Land Before, and one thing had led to another amid playful splashing in a pond until they had passionately... danced, together, the act itself binding them in a torrid relationship doomed to failure in the end. His duties to his pack had torn him away, and she had not seen him again until they chanced upon one another here, with the meeting only to end in sorrow. Valeska's heart had changed in his absence, and what he had to offer was a matter of too little, too late.

Yet she still remembered him, and there would always be a little piece of her heart that held his memory close.

Her eyes misted, and she fought back tears. “I will pray for your Knight,” she managed eventually. “My heart breaks for you, but I do not believe you are meant to be alone. The gods, they allow others into our lives sometimes forever - sometimes only for a season. It is not for us to force fate, but to allow ourselves to be guided by higher power to where we were meant to be - and I know your path does not end in loneliness.” Valeska sniffed once, then straightened up, blinking the wetness from her eyes as she cleared her throat to speak with more intent. “You are smart and lovely and nice, and you will find your Knight again, whether it is the same or a wolf of a different name. And you will have your... your puppies.”

Her heart twisted for a moment, pain flickering across her expression. Something she yearned for more and more as the days grew on with Amaranth, yet foiled by their own biology - how the gods were just, how the gods were cruel. To find the love of her life, only to have the dream of a true family ripped away by the limitations of the flesh.

“I, too, wish for children one day, but... I do not know if it is possible.”

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"I... do not claim to know the alliance between my Queen and the Warlord," she revealed almost sheepishly, ears cuffing backwards as she shuffled. "They had children to strengthen their alliance but what else, I cannot know," Vengeance was brawn, as were his Pack -- but Teodora was unsure if that was all that had drawn Celnes to making their alliance. "Hopefully you need not meet him again," Teo said earnestly. Vengeance had been kind to her thus far though she supposed as a Warlord, it was all in his title, wasn't it? War. War and violence came hand in hand and it seemed that Valeska had been at the other end.

She giggled, nodding her head as she smiled. "Truly?" she cooed happily, eager to see the snow and the lands that Valeska called home. "Mayhaps I might call upon you soon, take you up on that," Teodora had seen the snow on the mountain tips but she had never walked it. Was it much different snow in the mountains to the snow they got within the forest? It would seem she would one day find out!

"I am so glad you have had comfort in your pain," Teo stated softly, ghostly gaze twinkling with warmth and delight on behalf of the Ice Wolf. "The Five? Is that your religion?" the maiden asked curiously, knowing that Elkshire had their religion, the High Elk, so what was stopping others from having theirs? Religion was not something that Teodora would dabble in much, having little experience and little interest though she could see why others would take solace.

The maiden smiled softly as Valeska told her that she did not believe she was meant to be alone, that her path was not to end in loneliness. Despite the heart break she had experienced, Teodora's fairytale had always been true love with loads of little puppies at their ankles. Her own eyes would well up with emotion as Valeska moved on to coo her words at her, praising her with warmth and belief. "You are so terribly kind to think as much," she murmured softly, "I can only hope that it ends true." Her throat welled with emotion and she cast her gaze down momentarily, knowing that it was unlikely to be Serpens yet she supposed she truly had no way of knowin gthe future, did she?

"Sometimes... sometimes the impossible becomes the possible," Teodora stated warmly, not knowing truly the surroundings of Valeska's woes, wondering if it had to do with the she who she liked to play-fight with, Amara -- yet assumptions could not be made. "Amara... she is your love?" it would make sense, then, as to why she could not. Oh, to fall in love and have your desires so close yet so far. ^^

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The mere thought of Vengeance siring children with anyone nearly caused her to retch, and she swallowed back the sensation with a pained look in her eyes. How anyone could allow him close enough to share oxygen, much less touch them in any intimate way was revolting; how could the queen of someone as lovely and gentle as Teodora let such a terrible thing happen? Alliances forged for numbers - for strength alone - were weak at the core, prone to betrayal. A pact made of anything less than trust and goodwill was bound to failure in the eyes of the Five.

Bodies. Wolves as just - bodies. It was unthinkable.

And to sacrifice one's own, allowing such a heathen to fill their womb with pups was the worst thought of all.

Valeska returned her attention to the present, not wanting to seem rude as she quickly banished such horrible imagery from her mind. If Teo ever found her way in their neck of the woods again, she hoped the earthen she-wolf would take her up on the offer; visitors always livened up the place and she was not traditionally possessive of her territory. They had named it Fate's Respite for a reason; only those with truly ill intentions were turned away at the borders, though thankfully only one such creature had left their midst in that way.
'Thief,' she thought bitterly, thinking of (but not knowing it was) Vengeance's pale son.

If she had, maybe things might have turned for the worse much sooner.

“Ah! Yes, the Five,” she said, “Yes - they are called such for they are composed of five holy deities. Nivia, goddess of winter; Aether, he who presides over autumn; Rhys, god of summer; Sylvanus, overseer of spring; and Houtu, the All-Mother, she who heads the Pentacle and leads us in truth.”

Surely all nonsense to Teo's delicate ears, but she meant every word.

The brown stranger dipped her head sorrowfully, then, letting her eyes fill with glistening tears she refused to let go of - perhaps a metaphor for the love she carried in her heart for the Knight she lost. Valeska reached out to touch her gently with a paw, hoping to soothe the woman in some small, insignificant way in light of the pain that blossomed within her breast.
She did not deserve to be alone.

“Yes,” the High Priestess began, sighing lightly. “Amara is my love, though I am embarrassed to say I did not think I could feel such things for another woman. Suppose tradition has clouded the possibility for years, but it is still strange to think about from time to time. Unless the Five will it, I do not see how we shall ever...”

Her throat tightened.

“Anyway, it is no matter. Our bond is enough. She is enough.”

She smiled.

“I suppose I must return home, now, but - I hope we shall meet again someday, Teodora. You have brightened my day and made me grateful.”

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