Beyond the Horizon

@Olive a sidebar conversation between Kuhn and Olive, others may be traveling with them

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Step after step, large paws carried him onward to the trail from the veil to Elswen. Walking along side Olive the big cat's large shoulders rose and fell in a steady rhythm, and yet, in the moment there was a silence.

Typically the two could always find something to talk about concerning the nature of reality, or how the unseen world might work. But, Kuhn knew that recent events had come between them. On the surface the woman seemed fine but, even though it seemed like he had put himself back in her good graces, there was a subtle aura suggesting that not everything had been filed away properly.

It wasn't a good feeling for the striped predator, to feel like he broke something he cared for. So, every step was painful.

"Olive...", he strained. "I want you to know that I don't want to come between you two. It... Wasn't like that... I just care about Tib, and... we got carried away..."
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They walked not entirely in silence, thanks mostly to the chattering and singing of their companions. This was Olive's first trip out of the Vale in months, save for the few times she had crested the elevated borders to explore the lands just beyond. She always returned in time to answer her children's calls when they cried, and to supp with them at the end of the day. Children were the ultimate tethering force; whenever expansiveness Olive had found by going wide in the pre-children travels, she similarly found by going deep into her family.

So Olive easily marveled at the sights along the way, the beauty of a route she had known so well only six months ago. This was the way to Cloudrest, where Olive had not only lived, but she had lived in power, advisor and strange spiritual sister to the scarred Queen. Olive was almost aghast to see the once-familiar landscape dusted in snow, feeling that it was still far too early in the season for such a thing.

or, it was more likely, time just passed by that quickly nowadays.

When they walked alone, Kuhn took the chance to bring up his liaisons with Tiberius once more. Her mind screamed to remind her that he was simply doing what she couldn't by broaching the topic, but she couldn't help the way her gut seized. What Kuhn had said (twice now) did not seem congruous with what Tiberius's connotations.

"He said that you are a part of him," Olive responded, succinctly. As a Godly woman, the Priestess was open to a great many things. Still, she would go to a great many lengths to protect the man upon whom she depended, the man who was only just discovering so many overwhelming parts of himself. "...that we are both parts of him," she clarified, looking at the ground as it passed beneath her milky paws, disappearing in the snow.

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It might have been easier to not broach the topic with Olive.  On the surface everything would work out, though sitting below in the depths, not everything was squared away. He has already pledged to make Duskguard his new home and if he was going to live there comfortably, this would need to be sorted out. There was a time where Kuhn would look forward to talking to Olive and would even enjoy her presence, but lately there was something that made him want to keep his distance, and here it was.  

"I love the man...", he corrected, doubling down after taking a moment of silence. But, even this probably didn't help what Olive was feeling, her lack of further elaboration or typical insight lead the cat to believe that she had just stated the problem.  

Only after a few more steps he continued,  "What i'm trying to say is that, I don't want to compete with you. You should come first to him..."   Looking away he nervously licked his chops, not exited to see how the woman might smack down his statement.  Though in the back of his mind, he wondered what Tiberius meant by 'In... any way possible'. It was a statement laden with a delay, and it wasn't likely that the titian would have just said for no reason, and even less likely that he didn't have Olive's best interest in mind.
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Love. Fascinating.

Olive nodded, bit the inside of her cheek, and kept walking.

It didn't displease her to hear this. No, it was a matter far more complex, and it eliciting a feeling from within that was kaleidoscopic and multi-faceted. On the very top layer, she still felt some small level of shock at the whole thing. Olive firmly believed in loving all regardless of gender, but she hadn't imagined that Tiberius felt the same. There was something about him that simply screamed biological virility, and it was a large part of what drew her feminine nature towards his masculine one. Of course, loving someone did not always mean romantic or sexual love, but Olive felt she was safe in making such an assumption about the new odd-couple.

She allowed herself to steal a sagacious glance over to Kuhn as he spoke about their supposed competition against one another. For a moment, she shamelessly watched the cat as his muscles moved like liquid beneath his coat, so much more larger and vivid than she. The pale woman could easily see what drew Tiberius to him, and vice versa. She understood because Kuhn and Tiberius both were expressing sentiments and desires to one another that Olive found also found resonant within herself. Only, the tiger and her fiancé were barreling forth in their relationship, and Olive couldn't help but feel like a hindrance.

Her true desires, for the most part, went unspoken.

Kuhn's words brought forth memories of her mother and her father. Olive herself had quite an unconventional upbringing, and had even seen her mother take a paramour. He traveled with them for some time, and no one seemed to find the dynamic confusing, least of all her father. They had been friends in the truest sense of the word, and when the relationship was not to last, both her mother and her father mourned. In this way, the seraph had been raised to understand the capacity of love and responsibility differently.

"Would it surprise you, if I said that's not how I think of it?" she asked him, quietly, unable to speak louder than a murmur aimed at the earth.

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Once again the comfort that the tiger felt in silence was dashed.  He knew that the best thing to do for himself was let it linger but, there was something about seeing the ethereal woman in pain that sparked his mind to try to find some way to find the right words.  At one point, Olive appeared to be a spirit to him, something otherworldly. Even then, in that moonlit night he felt like they had somehow had an atypical understanding for each other.  Even with Tiberius, they had to work at understanding the differences in their nature.  But, with Olive: the first time they met, he felt like there was always an unspoken understanding, a common thread. 

Catching the glint of the woman's emerald eyes tracing his form, he knew what they where telling him.  For only a moment, the striped man tensed himself, only somewhat surprised. Feeling a heat build up on his neck, his tail flicked behind him.  The waifish woman always spoke with a melody, and in every melody there where moments of silence, lines between lines.  It was the said un-said. The nature of magic.     

His eyes lost their focus, memories bringing him back to that night that she was in his arms. Trapped in his jaws.

When his eyes retuned to focus on the waif, they where for a moment predatory, sizing up the small wolf, judging how she might feel under his weight. 
 

 

He had to look away.  

"Really...", he almost purred, genuinely surprised and mostly relived; his shoulders continuing their oscillation, carrying him onward to their destination.  He still wasn't able to look at the woman, his eyes would betray his admiration for the woman's transcendent nature, and he knew his gaze could embolden his more private thoughts. "Tiberius told me, that he wants me to be apart of this.  'In... any way possible", he added, pushing his tongue against the roof of his mouth, wondering what she might say. Up until now he had felt a sort of repelling force from the pale woman, keeping his space. Now, as they walked the big cat seemed to subconsciously gravitate closer, until he could swear that he could feel the feint hint of her warmth against the brisk air.

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Whatever quietly sparked between them, Olive grew aware of it as well. It was the most intriguing thing, how relationships grew and changed over time. In fact, Olive found this part of life one of its most endlessly fascinating, and was what drew her to packhood time and time again, though her heart often longed and called out for the adventures on the road. Here with Kuhn, perhaps she experienced this in its most dizzying form. Olive had learned long ago not to question or attempt to guess at the future, especially where the striped brute was concerned. She found him, just like Tiberius, to be largely unpredictable. Only, unlike Tiberius, his presence had wafted in and out of her life as he dealt with his own business, his own life.

In a very axiomatic way, it was far more riveting and unexpected. From absolute strangers, to nameless paupers and supplicants of the Gods, to valiant Knight and unwilling damsel. Kuhn had stewarded the two inexperienced Alphas through the claiming of the Vale and the founding of Duskguard, hunted for her and napped beside her and her days-old litter; all the while, splitting his time between his friends in the Tundra and his friends on the coast. There was nothing normal or customary about it, though it was obvious from their recent treatise that she desired more from him.

She didn't know what she wanted with complete clarity, but she knew she wanted something that she could count on.

His heavy, iron-wrought gaze fell upon hers, and Olive dared herself not to look away, or to continue to shy away from whatever presented itself, and had been presenting itself. It was in that moment that Olive became aware of how motherhood and leadership had come to color her priorities; had she not a soul that depending on her, Olive would oh-so-fearlessly march into whatever future lay before her. In this this blazing new world of responsibility, instability meant risk and suffering — so, there was much comfort to be found, when one knew what to expect. However, it was clear how the extremity of her thinking was perhaps the singular wrench in the cogs of this triangular-whatever-it-was.

The only person leaving her behind, was herself.

Olive was working on it. She really was; the masked @Nikita had advised her on this subject at length, and she worked the forces of the universe to bless their convenance and provide clarity in the present. Despite both calling the Vale home, there hadn't been many opportunities to practice all she was learning about compersion, and the type of transcendental love that was truly unconditional. Here was the opportunity, here and now, and inside Olive was deeply appreciative of Kuhn for having been the one to open such a conversation, to begin building that bridge between them.

The sylph drifted to a stop, side-stepping at an angle to face him. "Tiberius and I want the same things." All parts of her body language was affirming, save for her tail dancing at her ankles in an unintentional display of bashfulness. So, the tiger and the chieftain had already talked? Oh, to be a fly on the wall of that conversation.

It was clear in their strange, roundabout ways that everyone wanted to make the others happy. It was a beautiful thing, albeit messy. "He doesn't want everything to fall apart. I don't want anyone to come before or after anyone else." She didn't want to act as Tiberius's representative, but she felt that he would be okay with Kuhn and Olive using him as a momentary scapegoat for the worries that were on all their minds. "Me and him, him and you," she spoke softly, "you and me." Eye contact maintained, Olive reached out a forearm, intending to place a slender paw delicately upon his.

"He doesn't yet see how everything is actually falling together."

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As he looked away from the woman he could still feel her gaze piercing him. Already the cat was struggling with his own imagination. So, he wasn't entirely receptive to having anyone see behind his eyes, and he knew Olive was one of a few who could discern his unconventional feline gaze.

When the woman weaved in front of his gate, it forced the feline to stop his heavy stride, and stare down at the priestess. Tracing the outline of her form with his gaze, he held his breath as she spoke.

Every bit of the woman's musical tempo had returned. No longer where there days of painful silence. Suddenly, it came forth like a crescendo of truthful proclamation. Every bit of her tempo, tone and motion of her slim frame, worked in unison to make the big cat's heart pound, and spine tingle with an energy begging to be released. Slate eyes, did not move from their target now, as if she had challenged him, and that in any moment this could explode into a contest of strength.

White fur on the cats neck stood on end, fluffing itself outward. Behind him, his long tail swept in a great arc as it raised itself higher into the air.

As that small paw touched down on the top of his own, it felt unnaturally sensitive, causing him to keep his stone gaze fixed to the pale wolf, and dig his claws into the loam beneath them.

Apparently, this was what she wanted the entire time.

Drifting closer the large skull of the feline, pushed beyond her aura, until he could feel the heat from her hide on his nose. Releasing his tongue, he traced the edge of the woman's jaw, across her neck and to the base of her ear. That was his answer.

Pulling himself back out of her aura, he sat back on his haunches to hide any of his body's more profane response to the woman's melody.

Still, this wasn't over. Though it was obvious how the cat felt now, there where still some loose ends. "I don't know if @Valmúa would feel the same way..." , he added, feeling a bit guilty that he just did that. Which brought his to his second thought. Olive was not Valmua. The sturdy warrior of a woman had this far seemed to revel in the heat of feline passion. But, when Kuhn pictured Olive side by side with the fire woman he couldn't imagine that any of that might work the same way.

"Besides... being with me might not be what you think...", he purred ominously. If this where to happen, she would know what she was getting in to.
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Had Olive wanted this all along? It was an interesting question, if Olive had the chance to ponder it. Her most enigmatic response would be yes, but anything between them hadn't been a possibility, so it was a simple desire that she did not give any credence to. After all, it was concern for Tiberius was what kept her from the suncat that fateful night in the Elsewhen, when the full moon sat cradled amongst the faraway mountains and they had cavorted so frivolously in the snow. Strangely enough, Tiberius had been the one to nudge open that door for her.

At first, she played the part of unwilling participant and scorned wife, but the dove could never keep her true nature hidden for long. After Kuhn took the name Duskguard and showed willingness to represent their family amongst the Court — well, there's only so much the woman could reasonably take before the potentiality began to excite her, and draw her ever-nearer.

Like a moth to a flame, fire that had somehow taken on the life and the shape of a cat; a tiger that now lived within her vale, loved her husband, and now walked beside her back towards the moonlight's most sacred dominion.

His wide face loomed larger, like a God of the sun, crowding out the periphery of her vision as his visage overtook hers. The breath was stolen from her as his tongue strummed against her jaw and cheek, strange and sandpaper-like, feeling so very unlike the affections she received from Tiberius. Her body began to warm despite the chill that pervaded these northern airs, as her attention traced the same pattern as his tongue. Her eyes slipped shut. The touch imbued her with a deep understanding and acceptance of this place in space and time, and who she shared it with.

When he sat backwards, she was subsequently drawn forth, as if held together by a magnet that refused to release. He was far taller than her, taller than Tiberius even and eventually gravity kept her grounded while he rose up to his reclined stature. Face hovering somewhere around his collarbone, she listened as he voiced valid concerns for Valmua and her own opinion of how things were (or weren't) 'falling together.' Olive had thought of this, not once but many times — even wondered if she should seek out the red woman, to commune woman-to-woman.

In the end, Olive had done nothing, even when she smelled Valmua within the Vale itself. She figured that it would come up when the time was right, much as everything else had.

The sylph lifted her chin, almost to ninety degrees, and murmured to the cat, "The Vale is large, and our hearts are open," as if it were that simple, though she wished dearly enough in that moment that it was. "Valmua will find her way, just as we are all finding ours." Perhaps Valmua was as Olive once was, entirely shut off to any possibility, until her nose was overtly rubbed in it. She didn't wish to minimize his feelings, or to push anyone into an uncomfortable position. Yet, she still dared a small kiss against his neck, and spoke sweetly, to settle within him some iota of trust that everything was perfectly fine, at least in this space, this moment.

"Newness is wonderful and strange," that was her overarching understanding of it all, the awkwardness; the slow, lurching progress forward; the great potential for offense and overstepping, "as long as it does not feel forced." though, sitting here and now, it all felt almost the opposite of forced. Still, Olive keenly observed his reaction from her close proximity.

The simple laugh that his warning then elicited from within the Priestess and light and teasing, somewhat taking his words as a joke. The pale paw that was still placed on his moved to snake around the back of his large wrist, hooking around it and drawing it upwards, as if it warranted examination. "Oh, is it something to do with these claws?" she said, hoping to paint a smile on Kuhn's oh so solemn expression. Having been by Benry's side for many, many moons, Olive wasn't afraid of any kitty-cat claws, or their dagger-like fangs.

However, she had never experienced them in the way Kuhn was suggesting.
She wondered if the fire in her belly was from the cat before her, or apprehension from the impending trial.
Probably both, she reasoned easily.

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He supposed he owed the woman that pass of the tongue.  Even now, as it was back in that moonlit night, he seeded to enjoy toppling the woman's holy venire talking the spiritual from its transcended to its base. For his daring action, she had no words.  Whiskers probed at the woman as he shared his affection; senses honed to take the life of prey told the cat of her lack of breath, the beating of her heart, and her surprise.  

As she made her way closer to him he didn't hold himself up in an unreachable posture.  Rather, the big cat slumped over some to partially lower himself for the woman, inviting her into his space.  Hearing what she said, he supposed that he would have to tell Valmua about this.  A deep rumble escaped him as the woman's own affection was placed into his neck. As much as he would have wanted to keep this going and return another something of his own he could not.  Not until Valmua was in the picture.  "I guess we will have to tell her about this...", exhaled the cat somewhere in the woman's blind spot. Though, it would likely be better if Olive did, he had just worked out the last bit of his infidelity.  

Though he would not further tempt fate, his body did offer the woman some assurance as his striped tail rolled from around his side, encircling the both of them in that space, coiling around her like a serpent.  Not fighting the woman, he grinned slightly as she took control of his paw.  Olive's way of being egged his smirk on as she transitioned from longwinded spiritual explanations to comment about his claws. Looing back at the woman's face he peered past his own exposed sickle shaped claws, his smirk cracking into a relaxed, if not slightly nervous smile.  

Although at times he had punctured or scratched Valmua, his claws alone where not a large part of his concern.  "No... Its not that...", he continued, still holding a gentle smile.  Largely, his claws and fangs where in his control.  Remaining seated he was able to hide most of his body's reaction to the conversation.  Still, his musculature tensed ever so slightly unsure if he wanted to hop backwards, or lurch forward onto the woman.  "Even if I was gentle with you, its still going to hurt.", he added, his lip up curling ever so slightly, to reveal a bit more of his teeth.   

Not knowing any different, it came as a general warning that a feline might give to someone they cared for.  However, as it was with the nature of life: pleasure and pain where divided only by a razor thin line.  The question was: Would she dance that line? 
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Olive couldn't say, when she suggested Valmua would find her way, that she would have suggested herself first. She absolutely had no desire to tell Valmua anything — not Valmua, who had tendencies towards bullying and harshness. Mostly, Olive had intended to simply de-emphasize this very obvious next step, since it was one they could not attend to at that moment.

Valmua and Tiberius weren't here,
but here he was,
and here she was,
and he wasn't pulling away,

and they were both starved for the affections they knew they deserved. The past month had been so tense amongst them all, and the future held so much more potential for stress, that it was almost strange to feel good about it even in this small way. But the fact was that Tiberius wasn't there, nor was Valmua. The fact was, the pale waif wanted to feel good, to feel certain of something, and she sought that support from Kuhn now. She was entirely caught within his gravitational pull. It felt, somehow, as if they both needed this closeness.

She pressed the concave side of her maw against the thick, silken fur that lined his next in swirling stripes, like tendrils of smoke. The woman couldn't help but giggle, still wishing to lull Kuhn into a sense of softness and playfulness, with her. "Perhaps your exploits with Tiberius have helped to shape her perspective somewhat,” She jested, casually suggesting that they had already fucked the status quo, and still their world hadn't crumbled entirely.

Likely, it all would continue to be okay.

The cat kept shifting in his seat, for whatever reason, and the jostling of his body against hers ignited a sense of turn-on that was undeniable. Her body became unctuous and pliable, despite doing nothing but holding each other in a prolonged embrace. Knowing that there were boundaries they could not right cross, not so soon after the aforementioned exploits, Olive regretted to admit that the fire must be cooled. Out loud, but somehow still to herself, she reasoned.

"My mother always taught me to see beyond this moment, and to not rush into whatever the present offers.” she cooed, pausing to swallow. Her throat was the only part of her that was extraordinarily dry. "There are times for it, but...” turning to press a warm and blushed cheek against the curve of Kuhn's neck, "I know there is no rush, here.”

It pleased her that, if anything, they could at least talk and tease and make merriment together. The prophet listened curiously to his portend, that even his most gentle of effort would be something less than enjoyable to her, and she scarcely believed it. Despite having been essentially celibate since the birth of her children, Olive still knew what the tantric perspective would be. "The right amount of pain, can make the pleasure greater." Olive leant her milk-white muzzle down to the paw she still held up into the crux of her own, and drew her tongue across the tops of his velveteen toes.

The woman only paused in her ministrations to look up at him with swimming, mischievous eyes. "I'm not afraid of you,” she admitted to him wryly, playfully, knowing well that she continued to play with fire.

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Looking over his shoulder, the big cat quickly checked to see of the rest of their traveling partners where near by.  For the moment it seemed as of they where alone.  Though at any moment any of Olive's children might catch glance of their mother trading affections with the strange predator.

Feeling the small woman's warm breath invade the thick fur on his neck, she had him avoiding eye contact, for fear that he might start something that he could not stop.  While the woman still held his paw, he could feel the looseness of her frame, begging to be moved by him.  Every bit of the woman's motion lit the man's spine, continuing to beg him to take action.

As the snow white priestess retuned to his neck with her cheek, the big cat's maw subconsciously responded, momentarily mouthing the whole of woman's rear skull. Even he didn't know if that was meant to be playful, or a sort of warning to cool their fire.  Counter to how she was acting, the woman claimed that there was no rush.  "Well, I'm not going anywhere...", he responded, nervously looking over his shoulder again.   

Her next words called him back, as she essentially waved away his feline warning, with one of her statements about reality.  Feeling her tongue cascade across his toes, his claws opened themselves wide, unable the help himself from letting the wolf find the most sensitive crags.  Unable to hold back, a feint rumble escaped from his chest, brought on from that sensation. 

At any moment they could be found out, but for one reason or another, the cat found that this brought a never before discovered thrill.  When their eyes locked, the tiger could see her challenge, dancing playfully behind those green eyes.  

"Well... didn't your mother also tell stories about the tiger?  The kind where you get eaten alive?"

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As a tantric practitioner, Olive had some insight, however small it was, into the powers of sex. The study of sexuality and sensuality was hand-in-hand with understanding what feminine energy was; and she understood it to be a most enchanting spell, and great manifestive force. In many ways, it was the most holy and sacrosanct energy in the world, capable of creation and expansion in the most overt and subtle of ways. In her life, Olive had met some who were thoroughly mystified by the left-hand path; and some who thought of it as a distraction.

Olive didn't know where she lay on the matter; she hadn't though she had enough experience in the area, to be a good enough judge of it.

What she did know, was that it was a form of prayer. Whatever surrounded the act, was destined to grow. It was important to know this, so that one could harness its power, and work to only sow seeds of one's true intention. Here she was, in a position she had never thought to be in, with the massive tiger squirming in the palm of her hand — and she full believed, if she were to brazenly proposition herself to him here and now, that he would not say no to her. Not for any futility of effort on Kuhn's part, but because it was a force that powerful; as biological and impulsive as eating and breathing.

When two forces in the universe wanted each other, there was little that could propel it in another direction.

With that in mind, Olive found it a brilliant thing that Kuhn and Tiberius had been able to stop their intimacy before it went 'too far.' Olive hadn't the restraint whenever she had first met the titan by that river, all those many moons ago; but she was determined to be its paragon now. The prophet, in all her sudden clarity, had a sense that's what would best serve their ultimate endeavor, of finding some sort of happiness together — one that did not abide by any certain set of rules, or a pre-determined timeline. As Kuhn had just stated, he wasn't going anywhere.

Neither was she.

So, with all of the reluctance in the world, Olive wrested herself from his gravitational pull. She took a fumbling step backwards as he asked if she had ever heard the story of the tiger, and gave a small toss to the fur across her shoulders as he mentioned being eaten alive. The ophelia's eyes flashed to him once more, a knowing smile playing at her lips. Her body and mind had stirred endlessly, though they had made their own personal boundaries clear. Had this been what it was like, when Tiberius and Kuhn had engaged with each other under the cover of business?

"I doubt she's ever seen a tiger before," she sang, gaze heavy, attempting to convey through her voice what she couldn't with her body. Her tail waved, and she pirouetted in a tight circle. "Eaten alive?" she sighed, suddenly uncertain if he was speaking in metaphors and aphorisms, or if he was slyly speaking the truth. "Like a ritual sacrifice," she suggested teasingly then, flaring her coal-tipped nose and licking her lips.

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The woman would have to know what she was doing to him.  Only minutes ago, she was reserved and aloof, and now after finding the right key to the puzzle, here she was, sharing her warmth, tormenting him.  It had been a lot to take in, Tiberius, Olive, Valmua.  All these relationships seemed to tug him in a different direction all at once.  In the present moment, Olive was the most persistent. 

After it came out, it was apparent that he should not have said that, the illusion to being eaten.  He knew what the phrase was designed to do: a metaphor designed to plant an idea. Still, Valmua had to know about this, and although he couldn't make any promises, it was apparent that the striped beast and the pale woman where both enjoying their profane dance. 

As the woman pulled away from him, his head dipped below his shoulder blades as his tail danced murderously behind him.  Slate eyes where keen to watch every motion the woman made, as her graceful motions reveled her forms from all sides.  It was not fair, it was like she knew that he would not, or could not do anything about it.  Having made the decision not heat their tensions further, he had to just sit there and watch, his tongue tracing a canine.

'A ritual sacrifice'  

He had always know Olive was clever, so when she returned a metaphor of her own, the idea of the priestess' making was planted in his mind. Everything about the way she had shown herself supported some willing 'ritual' and she was ready to give herself to it.  To him.  

"Maybe one day you will find out...", he purred with a slight show of teeth, before letting his gaze drift back off to the horizon.
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Her energy danced within her endlessly, and there was much that was influencing it. There was no doubt that the woman had been utterly homebound these past few months — but even before her postpartum confinement, she had been a relative homebody. It was so unlike her, whose true heart yearned for the road but, simultaneously, yearned for the comforts of home.

So she attempted to straddle this line, but it was impossible to deny that there was a void in her life where travel was concerned (graciously, it was perhaps the only void). What this meant to Olive, was that she had finally got what she had wanted; a chance to step away from home (which, at present, was quite stifling) and get back in touch with this feisty, industrious part of herself that seemed so at ease in the unknown.

Then, of course, was the upcoming trial. Though Olive had been affirmed by the Gods that cooler heads and open hearts would prevail, it was both a risky venture and the byproduct of months of organization. She looked in the little faces of her five girls, and knew she owed it to them to give every attempt towards a widespread peace.

Certainly, Olive had fears that Duskguard would have been called up as an ally for Northfall, necessitating that she and her kin fight against friends, and amongst warmongers. Olive couldn't have it, and she felt they were on the cusp of an armistice, whatever that might look like. The thought of solving this problem irrevocably, for two of her friends, was enlivening and invigorating. Even Kuhn would be encountering Vanderfell and Shiroshika, purported enemies, yet coming together for a greater good.

Then, of course, there was Kuhn — the behemoth who sat so teasingly, looking at her like she was prey, his for the taking. She couldn't say that she was, for Olive held the same reservations for Tiberius that Kuhn had for Valmua, but it was the loveliest game to play. She wrinkled her nose at him, as she might have done at one of her cubs after having done something profoundly cute. Then she huffed a sigh, a deep release of the knot that gripped at her diaphragm, and deep within her belly. "Perhaps one day,” she echoed, somehow managing to sound forlorn and beguiling in the same breath.

The pale sylph drew closer. "We have much to focus on,” The Travel! The High Court! The 'Whatever This Was!' It was all she could do not to be entirely washed away by the tides of her exhilaration. "We can't afford to be distracted.” she said quite facetiously, with a rolling shrug of one shoulder.

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