I’d kiss the wind and keep walking It’d be okay

For @Niklaus

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One more time out into the wilderness that wasn't Shiroshika's current claim!

The little swan girl bounded down the mountain and past the rolling hillside into a random direction she had not gone into yet. So far she had good experiences out here, ignoring the gloom and stress that was Shiroshika that couldn't really be helped other than some time to heal. Sachiko, being the healthy mind and soul that she was, chose to ignore it all.

Feign ignorance and act as happy as possible and wishful that the universe would deliver. So far it was working.

As she wandered away a fog began to roll in. Smothering her view with a blanket of white, but even then she could see the golden grasses peeking through. The smell of humidity gave life to the trees that she could smell without seeing them. The sweet gold grasses as well, flowers among other things.

To her, the mist wasn't frightening. No. It gave an air of mystery, one that excited her. The lack of sight heightened smell - yet still she wondered what this place looked like without the mist crawling upon its ground... The silence that followed the fog only offered the perfect stage for some mocking. Every so often Sachiko would hoot and hum, mimicking any birds she had heard a time before and enjoyed hearing it echo around without interruption.

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The morning was young, and the layer of murky fog that had gathered over the glade was thick and low. As his body cut through the greying meadow, the mist clung with tiny droplets to his neck and chin, forming enough condensation to amount to a small-scale dribble from the feathered tips of his fur. Uriel had been right when she had described the glade - it was staggeringly beautiful even in the dullest of weather. A pair of marigold-tinted eyes swept over the expanse, widening ever so slightly as they took in the stray rays of light that managed to pierce the monochrome and flood the grasses.

It was not the only thing glowing. A girl, not much taller than the previous one he had met had appeared at the edge of the clearing. He slowed his movements before stopping altogether, watching her intently, assessing. 

Her body was sloped into a feminine curve, gentle and the kind of graceful that could only be found in nature. Through the mist, her coat appeared primarily white - so much so that a sharp pain arose in his cranium - uncharacteristic and confusing. The hesitant creep of nostalgia wafted through his veins, and almost instantaneously his heart began to pace. 

Was this triggering some sort of memory? Is she someone from his past? As he stood there, he doubted it, tilting his jaw slightly in puzzlement. No, not her. Someone that looked like her.

She wasn't planning on stopping. Although the woman was at a slow pace, she didn't appear as though she may pause between now and her exit. Nearly scrambling to action, he inhales deeply, taking a purposeful step forward and towards the paler female. 

"Morning walk?" He manages to blurt, slightly more rushed than his usual thick drawl. With such urgency, the layers of his accent faded quite a bit. 

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With the brume clouding her sight, she wasn't aware of the eyes on her at a short distance away. Because of course, if she had known, the girl would have put on more of an act to draw them in than her carefree galavanting through the tall golden grasses. It didn't seem to be problematic at least as he, regardless of any lack of work on her end, approached through the murk with an almost so bad its cute ice breaker.

At least his tone was that. It made her giggle after the initial shock of someone approaching out of thin air had faded.

Carmine eyes quickly washed over his masculine build, tall... dark... just as she likes them so far it seemed, which for maybe not the best of reasons, had eased her initial anxiety. “Hmmm maybe.” She hummed with a few slow blinks while carefully positioning herself in front of him in only the most flattering posture she could find. It wasn't comfortable by any means. Twisting her head one way, legs long and tummy tucked - it was all carefully constructed.

“Is that what you're up to?” With a slight suggestion that she was more than willing to accompany him if he needed companionship during his promenade through the glades.

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 As he approached, she turned, and it was as if a light had flickered on. Now aware that he had been watching, she seemed to reposition herself at his front and center, draping her body in such a way that brought an eyebrow higher. That's a first, he thought, eyeing the soft amber hue that captivated her gaze. While he had originally planned on something different, he was slowly starting to realize he was not the puppet-master this round.

"Hmmm maybe," she coos, voice light and velvety. He finds himself leaning forward at the sound, jaw clenching ever so slightly. Regardless on if she reminded him of someone from his past or not, it was difficult to not see her as something he'd like to take between his teeth. "Is that what you're up to?" She slips in, finding a moment between the time it takes for him to refocus on the conversation to add what felt like a near-accusatory tone. Nothing heated, just something less .. mechanical. 

Now that they were closer, it was easy to look down at her from across the distance - not to mention she was now sitting. With a brief pause, he decides then and there to play along with her banter. In return to her question, his lips splay wide to reveal a charming, boyish smile, with only the hunger left in his eyes for her to find.

"Possibly. What's it to you, winig liebe — little love?"

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She couldn't tell what was going on between those ears of his, or see the cogs moving to what purpose behind those bright golden eyes of his... but what she did drink in was his attention on her. There was no nectar as sweet as a man captivated by her.

If she knew he was thinking of someone else perhaps her mood would have morphed to jealousy; and yet there was bliss in ignorance. While he looked down on her, she gaze up at him with round inviting eyes. Tilting her chin down to her chest while making her gaze as wide and innocent as they could go.

When he smiled so did she. His was bright and charming, hers shy and sweet though Sachiko herself was anything but shy.

“Well... We could accompany each other.” Letting rosy lids fall halfway, she gave the man of few words the stage next. Matching his pace in the conversation while gazing at him through long blackened lashes. Words could only go so far anyway... “The mist is awfully frightening to a little lady like myself.”

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His grin was met by a sweeter smile, which only prompted him to step ahead more. His paws flexed in the grass, while his face remained trained towards her. He couldn't help but chuckle as she coughed up something about the fog being scary to a little thing like herself. The invitation had been extended, and he was more than happy to oblige, if only to keep receiving attention. Peculiar that she appeared to want for the same thing. "What kind of man would I be to refuse? Who knows, there's probably things in the mist that bite back," he muses with a pointed look, as if he knew exactly where they would land their teeth. A quick shift in his eyes to her collar, and a quiet rumble in his chest was more than enough.

He pivots and aligns himself at her side, body slinking as he moves in the slightest fashion that equates to his shoulder brushing ever so lightly against her ribs. From this vantage point, he leans in, now fully accepting that she wasn't afraid to match his energy. The air from his nose brushes a warm gust onto her cheek, and he reaches out to nudge her with his nose as if to dare her into retreat. 

"Would you?" He tests, eyeing the fur that lay fluffed about her neck. "Bite back, I mean."

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Ah. They were always so easy. Not that she was one to complain about that. If gaining the attention of a man was anything but unchallenging the swan could have grown to perhaps resent men instead of yearning for them. Since it was simple, it helped to fill that void that her absent father of hers had left behind. A void that she would stuff with any man she saw worth even a little bit of her time, a fraction of it even, were it to ease any pain from the loneliness she felt at being abandoned.

“Ah~ So frigthening!” Playing along, she feigned sudden trepidation of the fog that surrounded them. Upon entering she had no such apprehension, and now it was being used as a tool... an excuse to walk with someone who seemed all too willing to give her any time of day.

The way he looked at her as he approached should have given the girl warning signs, instead, it excited her. Something she forcefully pushed down to keep a certain composure she aimed to keep.

With the light touches upon her ribs, the breath on her face as the man with no name creeps into her personal space, Sachiko is unmoving. Only stretching out to meet him with a single smooth motion of her head and neck. Craning to gently touch his jawline with her own nose and traced down to his neck. “We can find out together.”

If he thought she would cower after initiating, he would sorely be mistaken.

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Heat. It was tempting to give in to the sensation of her nose running along his throat, impossible even. At the sudden but almost expected pressure, his skin sizzles, reacting to the brief pursuance with a fever unmatched. It was as though two halves of a forest fire had met in the middle, and were now fighting over the last branch to sear. His own metaphorical flames licked fervently at the edges of her cheeks, her ankles, the angle of her spine - a warning to all ye who enter, there was something brewing that could not be so easily taken back. The adrenaline surged through his body, igniting every impulse a man could have but all the while narrowing his focus to only one thing in particular: pleasure.

"We can find out together," a dainty, sultry voice trickles along his collar, her words nearly burning into his flesh as she speaks them. If he didn't know any better, he wouldn't have caught the air of resistance still holding strong between them. What once was strangers meeting in the middle of a glade was now two souls poking and pulling at an invisible barrier - one that would give if the other placed just enough weight against it. He could nearly feel himself leaning headfirst into that quiet wall of almost and not quite, but he wasn't a simple man. 

No, he was something much more complex. Cat and mouse was not a game meant to be finished in one mere swipe of paw. This should drag, if not for her than for the sake of his entertainment.

Rumbling, he allows her to nuzzle against him like a sly fox, the glittering white teeth beneath his barely closed maw clenched. It wouldn't take much to shove her down, to trap her legs between his shoulders and present her with what she wanted to find. However, he favored a slow burn. This nameless girl - the one who reminded him so much of a ghost - would not escape his clutches so easily. 

"You'd like that," he purrs into her ear, teasing. His chest now braces against her own, and his neck cranes to rest against her shoulder, now speaking into the side of her cheek. "Something tells me you'd expect that," he adds slowly, making sure to press each syllable into her jaw. Meanwhile, his left paw moved to cover her own, pressing her foot with what he was sure was slight discomfort into the dirt below. By now, the golden rays of light had encompassed them both, at the height of sunrise.

"Which makes this all the more delicious." He breathes, before stepping away and giving a wide berth. All of the intensity settled behind his face, and he stared holes into her own, quite literally salivating from how close he got to tearing down that wall.

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Ah.

So this one wasn't as easy as the others. She could feel his push and pull. The desire for both control and complete chaos flickered between the both of them as they both seemed to walk the same tight rope together. Sabotaging the other by any means for the sheer pleasure of victory over the other.

While he spoke into her shoulder blades, she would roll and arch her back appropriately. Slithering around his muscular build for a moment before being caught by the heftiness of his paw on top of hers. The discomfort came in two forms. One was the pain of his weight against her more frail toes, while the other was being caught and incapable of moving as freely as she would have liked.

Touché.

Since pulling her paw away didn't seem to be an option that didn't require more pain through force - of which she would certainly lose - instead she waited for him to finish whatever little part he wanted to share. The game raged on, hotter than ever as both players were wise to the other's tricks. “Whatever do you mean?” While he was the bull, she was the fox. Sly, cunning, she would not give in and instead would continue to feign ignorance.

“Are you telling me I'd enjoy these monsters you speak of? Bitting me and me bitting them?” Wailing a drawn-out accusation, she would circle in the same direction he took - but away. Mimicking him to a point but allowing herself to be engulfed by the mist that surrounded their little board game here.

“How vile.” Slinking away from her little dance partner, she'd cast a sultry glance over her shoulder. Tail flicking in the fog as it curled around each movement of hers, daring him to continue or be frightened away by a little woman's bravado.

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Checkers. She was playing checkers, he was playing chess. The rules of the game grew more complicated when it came to his side, but the objective was all the same: conquer. His detachment did not seem to ebb any tension from either side - while he played at her apparent desire for sensuality, she mocked his poetic mouth, referencing the monsters he had mentioned not too long ago in her own retreat. Although they were both on opposing sides now, there was a string sewn between each of their eyes, bending and twirling before them but never breaking. It was obvious of what they both wanted. It was just a matter of who would succumb first. 

With the mention of vile, he could only muster a devilish smirk, trailing her body as it slipped about in the golden shadows. "Don't tell me you haven't ever thought about it." His voice comes out in a near murmur, just loud enough for her to catch it. Twisting to the side, he pauses to rest on his haunches, bringing one darkened limb to the earth before him to trace circles in the dirt. His eyes leave hers for the first time in a while, and they focus instead on his craft while he addresses her with that familiar tempting tone. "You're clearly an intelligent girl. Have you never wondered what it might feel like to sink your teeth into something with a bit more - well," he trails off, leading his train of thought into a tricky territory. At this second, he lifts his jaw, sliding one rough, pink tongue over his incisors. The action was so deliberate and slow, he almost begged her to watch him drool over her. "... More risk."

Klaus sits back to watch her, a man more put together when he's at his most chaotic. In the back of his mind, he wonders what she makes of this - if this is something she regularly encountered, or if men usually just threw themselves at her with all the resolve of a peanut. He contemplates if this is almost better than ever tasting her at all. The delicate line between what they would and wouldn't do.

What they still could.

Snickering, he rises once more to his feet, timing his approach so that he arrived just beside her hips. The flames rose inside his chest, and he bent down, grazing a stray line of teeth across her thigh should she allow him the opportunity. All the while, he kept his words even, calculated, despite the fervor in which he craved her presence. 

"Or do you like your monsters docile and complacent?"

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“Sir, I only asked if you wanted to accompany me in this walk through the mist.” She could barely hide the giddiness she felt at this moment. It took everything for her to not let a few musical notes flutter past those pearly whites of hers and give away her own little part in this game of theirs. Of course, he was no simple man and was too keen to be falling for her simple tricks... but that didn't mean she would relent either.

The little tell-tale signs of his didn't go unnoticed. His choice of words, the smirk he would give to her while they spoke. It all tickled her in the right places. Equally drawing her in as she wanted to draw him in. Like a bee to nectar, she wanted to taste him... and yet wasn't quite desperate enough either. There were others who could satisfy her in the meantime if this guy wanted to play the long game with her... the hard to get.

He was giving her what she wanted after all - the attention she oh so desired and deserved. Even if it wasn't of the sexual type... this was more delicious. It lasted longer. Prolonged the dance between them and if it didn't end today, she had every intention of continuing it another time... time and time again until he would be the one to give in to the desires.

Soon enough they were tangled with one another once more. He, nipped at her thighs while she greeted him with a daring look over her shoulder. Just once before did she have a man at that angle by her rear. It made her nearly shiver with anticipation to think what this one would be like in the act. “I like my monsters to come as they are.” Monsters - men, in that sentence both were of the same thing. Two words synonymous with each other as the two wolves were careful with their words. Her tail curled at his presence, rising just enough to caress his neck but never enough to expose anything... a light touch, that was it. “Which are you? Villainous, or complacent?”

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His nose brushed lightly against her rump, barely a tease but close enough to something more intense that it satiated a bit of his hunger for the time being. As if on cue, her tail swept against his chest, beckoning. He was too frisky to give in so easily, but the gesture brought a new heat to his ribcage. "I like my monsters to come as they are," the little vixen redirects, shooting him a staggering smile from his vantage point at her rear. He slides forward, making sure to leave just enough contact between their bodies along the way. "Bold words, coming from someone who has likely never met a real one," he murmurs against her cheek, intruding upon each and every personal inch they could share.

It was likely true, what he said. Monsters or men - there were some like him that would jest, but then there were others that would rather skip to the part where they shoved her snout into the dirt. Some that would take her, dead or alive. And as much as he boasted and flaunted a darkness within him, he would never be that kind of man. That kind of beast. There was a give and a pull when it came to Klaus, and at least he knew when to stop himself from crossing to the point of no return.

"Which are you? Villainous, or complacent?"

His face dropped a bit at this, risking losing the mask of desire he had worn so vehemently. Coal lips twisted, for a moment regarding her in more seriousness. "Let's say I'm somewhere in-between." His voice lowers, before stepping away. He didn't retreat to the other side as he had done in the past - instead, he hovered a mere few feet away, close enough to touch but far enough that he could no longer feel the warmth from her smaller form. This game - this cat and mouse, whatever they wanted to dress it up as - was just that. And at the end of the day, she was a stranger to him, someone he felt familiarity with but had no name. "Besides, winig liebe — little love, you don't want to meet someone on the far end." He adds almost as an afterthought, some semblance of concern almost hidden behind his now near-stoic expression. 

With a pause, he makes sure to meet her gaze, knowing he most likely wouldn't see her again after this happenstance meeting. For a second, he could have sworn they were green. 

Just his mind playing tricks on him again. He visibly shakes his head, trying to clear the vision. Once he found the blood-red hue again, the man settled. "Would you say you visit here often?" The change in his voice might have given his plot away, but he still couldn't leave without asking this one final question. 

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"Bold words, coming from someone who has likely never met a real one," He says, continuing their back and forth with a voice as smooth as butter and as delicious as wine... but something struck. Her smile faded as images flashed before her eyes. The girl's breath hitches in her chest briefly before speaking - a little faster than before as adrenaline poured through her veins. “I have seen more monsters than you'd believe.”

Carmine eyes watch as he departs from her side, the warmth no longer caressing her side and she missed it. Now more than ever as she remembers the monsters of which they spoke of. “Three to be exact. Of all shapes, sizes and species.” She steadies herself... Not wanting to lose herself in those thoughts here and now. “With teeth as long as a wolf's tail —” The monstrous sea creature that kidnapped Olive. “Claws, longer, sharper than a wolf's fang —” Tiger. “And one dressed in wolf's clothing.” Hotaru's father. She side steps around, taunting to approach him this time but doesn't.

She teases him instead. With her tone and liquid movements. “I don't think you have seen any on that end of the spectrum.” A challenge she leaves hanging in the air.

As hard as she tries, the memories flood in. "Would you say you visit here often?" The question nearly falls on deaf ears. She shook her own head, forcing Sachiko to root herself here in the now and not in the fears of the past. That's all they were... the past. “No —” A moment of weakness cracks through as she rushes her own answer. She breathes a deep breath to steady the nerves, to shake off this creeping sensation. “But I could.” Finding herself again, she smiles as cardinal meets gold, this time it was her turn to walk past him with a slow saunter - but never touching him as he did with her. Their hairs barely meet as she carefully carves a path by him, rounding the trunk of a tree that revealed itself in the mist upon her approach.

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As he drank her in now, the paler female stilled, a surprising change from her usual attitude. Her mouth appeared to quiver a bit as she spoke, something he was quick to notice while his gaze became trapped there after. He imagined her reaction was caused by something he had said about the monsters - and he assumed quietly that she had dealt with things a lot more frightening than a foggy day. Interesting how the most troubled souls seemed to hide their inner-clockwork so much easier than the ones who wore it as a flag. 

"I have seen more monsters than you'd believe." Her voice ended in a quick inhale, as though she were attempting to calm the stirring of something deep within her heart. So quickly had their banter turned dark, and his posture was quickly adapting to the new gradually creeping emotion. The fog was still swirling around their ankles, lapping at the blades of grass that populated the glade. He felt more suffocated than ever, now standing within it. He didn't know her much outside of a primal instinct, so it was difficult to place how he felt about her reply. Was it - sympathy swirling through his throat, unable to slip out? His jaw clenched and he looked inward, wondering why he was suddenly choked up.

"Three to be exact. Of all shapes, sizes and species. With teeth as long as a wolf's tail — Claws, longer, sharper than a wolf's fang — And one dressed in wolf's clothing." As he listened, Klaus got the feeling that she wasn't talking about wolves at all. By the way her eyes widened as she recalled, he could tell something about her past still haunted her in brief moments of passing. His body stiffened, possibly from the air of danger that kept reverberating off their conversation. As if these creatures - these monsters - stood before them at this time and place. He wondered if it would have been different had she had someone around to keep her safe. That thought was so quick and shocking to him that he quickly exhaled, hoping to blow away anything that imagery brought to him. 

Snapped out of his trance, she moves, gliding about the meadow with all the glamour of a swan. A pair of golden eyes follow, half-hidden by a furrowed brow. "I don't think you have seen any on that end of the spectrum."

An accusation. One of which struck him as odd, considering he was already struggling to remember anything past the time he woke up. As though he spoke from experience, but could not find the root of his pain. He wasn't sure how to answer her, so he shrugged, looking off into the distance with what he hoped appeared as indifference (and not lack thereof). "I wouldn't remember."

Enigmatic, but well enough. He hoped she wouldn't probe further - he wasn't sure if his memory could sustain such a large pressure to scrounge up details. He needed to get to the bottom of this amnesia, but for now, he didn't want to think about if he had met something as formidable as her own trauma. Luckily, she saved him from much thinking at all, taking a route that landed her directly to his side as she passed. His eyes closed for a quick second, shuddering as the scent of something floral and sweet wafted his senses. His eyes were already open again when she addressed his final ask.

"No-" She starts, and he stays turned from her to hide the slight disappointment that graced his lupine features. However, she wasn't done. "But I could."

He swivels then, gauging her expression, her words. Despite what seemed like hesitance, she was leaning into his plan. She wanted to return. Such a thing shouldn't have excited him the way it did, but it was easy to get caught up in the feeling. Clearing his throat, he looks at her chest now, avoiding eye contact with a very inconspicuous smile. "I could too," he murmurs, almost to himself. Not much of a promise, but something promising. His chin lifts, now seeking her attention as she had sought his own. He doesn't trail her, but he doesn't retreat, either. "Who else could protect you so well from this frightening fog?" 

The remark is made in a playful fashion, but the hidden meaning behind the words is more intentional. 
Who else could you need?
 

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She had expected her reaction and sudden morbidity to take something away from this so far pleasant meeting; but never did it cross her mind that it might awaken the man's own little dark secrets that he had locked away within himself. She was being a Debbie downer without truly understanding the depth of which that rabbit hole had gone, and was desperately trying to claw her way back to the more lighter side of things here. All he had as an answer was I wouldn't remember; and that was good enough.

She wouldn't pry after all.

Some memories were better left forgotten. Just as Hotaru seemed to have completely forgotten the time that her own mother had died... and was somehow here in this new life. Another thing that sent shivers up her spine - but at least the Empress was a kind soul. Even if she was a ghoul, there was not a hint of malicious intent of her being here other than continuing where she had previously left off.

Thankfully the man with no name bounced back as she did. Finding his way back from deeper thoughts and onto the fog and most importantly, her. Barely catching his first words, she leans on the bark of the tree she had found all the while gazing at him with doting eyes. “Well... If I were to find myself here again... How will I call for you?” She set the bait.

Would he take it?

Would he grasp onto it with the will to see her again? Letting the image of Sachiko sit in his mind for days... weeks, maybe even months and fester like some disease only to find relief when they finally meet once more.

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He would remember her. By all things, his mind would create a home for the ruby-red gems that bore into him now. Her shoulders slumped against the rustic bark of the tree behind her while Klaus kept standing, left too sizzling to sit for much. His particular way of dodging and weaving targeted questions was a skill he had learned in another life - perhaps one not so different from the one he was existing in now, living meal to meal and surviving from pure instinct alone. He wasn't sure how or why he had woken up with the headache to last a century, but he had a feeling it had to do with whatever nostalgia he now experienced with this woman. 

This was interesting, though. Not only were they subtly admitting their intent to see one another again, but they were reinforcing the idea with their refusal to consummate their meeting today. While he may not have gotten to dig his teeth into her the way he had originally (and currently) wanted to, he was satisfied with the knowledge that she might not be disappearing forever. There were moments in which he could try, try, try again. Until his metaphors were used and dry, and her easy flirtations were strained and forced. He hoped that time wouldn't come, but as he saw it, they had barely scraped the surface on what they could do to each other.

How they could burn.

"Well ... If I were to find myself here again ... How will I call for you?" She inquired, voice soft as silk. He felt something raw build up to his tongue, nearly waiting an entire minute before he managed to reply. When he did, his eyes softened, if ever so slightly. The first to know his name since he had forgotten it. Well deserved, if she managed to hold onto it until the next time he could tear the sound from her vocal chords. It would be his pleasure, truly, to hear it from such an angel incarnate. "Klaus," the man purred, his thick accent flush with the word he had practiced many times before. "And as loud as you'd like." 

The wink was unavoidable.
 

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Whether she wanted to or not, he too would nestle quite comfortably into her thoughts for a long time now. There would be days to come where she would want to come rushing back and call out to the strange man in the mist, to see him again and tempt fate and his ability to resist her charms she knew had power over him... but he was simply stronger than the basic male needs, and that intrigued her.

But she couldn't give in, she told herself. Already decided that she would wait at least a minimum of a few weeks before returning here to see if he would be waiting. Make him wait... not too long though, or he might grow bored. But long enough for the yearning to be impossible to shoulder. Yes, if she too could muster up enough strength, it would be perfect.

Klaus, he answers; and she, would purposely repeat it only within her thoughts. He wanted to hear his name come from her lips after all. Why not make him wait for that too? The fact that she would remember in a few weeks should be good enough to rev his engine when finally he would hear it in the glades, calling him to her like a sailor out at sea hearing the siren's song. “I like it.” Instead she would flatter him. “It suits you well.”

As well... she would purposely leave out her own name.

What was more attractive and alluring than a mysterious woman? “And if you don't come when I call, I will suspect you to be nothing but a spectre in the mist. A cruel trickery of these strange lands and nothing more.” You have to be here, she meant to say between the lines.

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This felt like a suiting ending to their morning. Although he would spend some passing moments the next few days - weeks - reminiscing on this meeting, it was hopeful that they may cross paths once more. If not to dance their little game one last time, then to put to rest any residual tension that remained between them. At her compliment, he grins lopsidedly, rugged and boyish once more. When she does not follow with her own name, he wonders if the thought had just slipped her mind. Then again, he muses to himself, nothing about this woman had been unintentional so far. He does not tug more, for he has already given her a name of his own. Winig liebe — little love.

"So it seems," the man would add in brief, just before she continued. He wasn't sure what was so fitting about his own name - perhaps the mere sound of it partnered well with his voice. Regardless, niceties were well received. "And if you don't come when I call, I will suspect you to be nothing but a spectre in the mist. A cruel trickery of these strange lands and nothing more." At this, he feels a trickle of a laugh bounce off of his chest, rolling into the area between them with a gradual fade. What a clever comparison - he almost felt as though he needed to bring this prophecy to life, and accept his new title as a ghost. The pressure to greet her as a phantom would upon their next meeting would be undeniable. Seems as though he would have great fun in the act, if he managed to illicit some real fear from the girl.

As a parting gift, he moved forward now, slowly and then with increased determination. When he reached her forefront, he bent down, aiming to plant one delicate nip against her cheek. "What spectre could do this?" He murmurs, before sliding past her and to the forest that laid beyond. As he took his leave, he would glance behind.

"Don't let any more monsters get you while I'm gone." 

 

FIN.

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Their meeting as quickly as it came, would soon come to an end. For the better - before either of them got sick of the other or before she would slip up and take it a step too far and lose their little non-spoken game here with no particular rules except for one.

Hoping this wouldn't be the last time, she struggled with the belief that he would leave her hanging the day she would come back and call for him. To be forgotten after all and left. That would truly make her the loser here of this game of theirs, wouldn't it? Though the thought crept up on her like a million little fire ants, the swan had faith that he was just as entranced with her as she was with him.

That this was not over by any means.

He steps closer this time to leave a little nip on her cheek, setting her skin on fire as feathery hairs lift throughout her body. “You tell me.” She breathes, not satisfied with just that as proof he would return. She would hold him to that, and curse him should he not.

As he walks off with a final word, she gives him a final glance with a cheeky smile. Nothing more needed to be said as they parted ways. With a new rhythm in her chest she had to return to the pass and rest, done with her travelling for today and possibly pick up a rabbit or two along the way if she could. On her way back to the Pass she would carefully map out the lands to remember the path back to the Glades. If she was going to keep him to his word, she had to keep her end of it as well and return when the new moon rises.

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Exit!

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