Life On Mars

Don't Believe Everything You See It had been a long time coming for the woman cloaked in flame to return to the place she once knew as a house but not so much a home, littered with it were memories that were far from marvelous as resentment filled her with each step she took under the red canopy. Her ears flicked, half expecting someone near identical to her to pop out of the woodwork and greet her in a far from pleasant way, often with a smile that could poison one just by looking at it. No such ball of pompous energy came to greet her, however, though she supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Her twin was anything but cordial and likely started her own life somewhere else by now, knowing her to be miss independent, though she swore she could smell her scent in the wind. She’d round the twisting trunks, amethysts glittering as she recognized the structure they weaved together to form, looking like something out of a fantasy book. Where she spent most of her first two years of life. As a child she used to think it was the heart of the forest, the totem that all the trees gained their life from and should anything become of it the land might lose its color. A contrasting story to the lore that came with the place of death dying the leaves but to her made just as much sense. To say this woodland wasn’t as enchanting as the one in the Highlands would be unfair, there were many oddities here that followed its own rules separate from the rest of the world. In all her travels she never found one that matched, no forest forever bathed in Autumn and that alone depicted how special it was and such a thought cancelled any hesitance in stepping closer. Her ears would perk forward at the sound of someone inside the little hut made of trees, to see her father too absorbed in a book to even notice she was there or perhaps he simply just thought she was someone else that would not gain such attention. He had never been the most attentive man in the world, too lost in his own downward spiral to focus on those that needed him but she took advantage of it, walking past his figure to the shelves that harbored artifacts of such rarity. Each one could fetch such a pretty price in the markets, someone might even risk a few limbs for if it meant having them in their possession. Materialistic. She never understood such attachments but at the same time she was tentative about taking away the ones she felt did not belong to her family. Particularly the two about the fae. Without a word she would yank them from their place on the ledge where dust puffed up and nearly made her sneeze before taking a few strides back. They were in good condition but seemed rather unused which wasn’t surprising, her kin found little interest in such topics unless it was to warp it to something else. Stopping to look at her father one more time before heading out of the nook, she’d let out one little fake sneeze to see if he’d do anything but only a flick of the ear would be spared. He looked old now, greys touching his brow and highlighting parts of his coat but he was still a fairly handsome fellow despite the lack of sleep one could easily tell ailed him. It mattered little as she left, though she couldn’t help but feel like she was missing something as she did not immediately start heading back to her newer residence but rather started to wander among the large roots. The energy seemed a bit restless here, like the spirits had been disturbed recently and it had them frantic. “Show me,” she said ominously as she set down the books, following the shift in the wind.

art ☓ table ▸ bunny

The festivities had ceased finally and Redwood had grown still once more. The silence ever peaceful. This was one of many reasons he had chosen to call this forest home. At least that particular disruption only came around once a year. Next time he'd likely sit it out altogether instead of taking chances and wearing his heart on his sleeve.

Sundstol had ventured out to clean up after the aftermath of such an event. Wolves were careless creatures...leaving their waste behind and destroying their natural environment in their wake. There were broken tree limbs, color stains, and animal bones littered about and left behind from countless feasts. He took in a deep breath and let it out in a gust of hot air, looking about the messy clearing. Well, this was why he was here after all...to look after the grounds he considered sacred to his ancestral line.

And so he began to clean it up as he could, moving broken tree limbs and collecting ones that could not be salvaged that he might be able to sell for lumber. He moved the animal carcasses to one area where they could decompose back into the Earth, thanking each piece for the nourishment it fed to whomever gained from it. The remnants of colored dyes would wash away with the plentiful rainstorms that would surely come with spring.

He was shuffling about, handling one of the larger limbs when he thought he heard footsteps. Sundstol paused in his work and lifted his large nose to the air to catch a scent. He hummed, the scent striking him as familiar and he looked about until he thought he saw a figure that sparked memories of his youth that he assumed were left buried with the rest. These remnants of the past, however, didn't pain him like the others had and instead felt lighter somehow as he studied the presence from afar.



@Wisteria

Don't Believe Everything You See Her tail would sway with content as she moved along the forest floor, only coming to a stop when she spotted a den she used to hide in when she was younger from her parents fighting. A webbing of roots that had lost soil from rain corroding it away, if the sun was angled just right it could bring the little room to light as if it wasn’t half underground. She often wondered if it had once been a fox den but she had never acquired an answer to that; no pawprints of the tinier canines or tufts of fur left loosely hanging around. A small smile pulled on her lips, remembering just how tiny she used to be when she would burrow in there and she couldn’t help a curiosity from blooming to see if she could fit in it again but another shift in the wind would pull her attention away, feeling like someone had gently grabbed her chin to point her face in the right direction as a silent way to tell her to stay focused on her task at hand. She’d let out a soft chuckle, finding Mother Earth rather pushy today in wanting her aid. Not that she was complaining as she took a couple steps back from the hideaway, calmly disregarding her prior curiosities as she continued to follow the wind's guidance. Snap! Ears would perk up as she halted from something breaking under her foot, though what wasn’t really the question as she recognized the feeling enough to know they were bones that crumbled to her weight, the stress slightly different from a stick and the sound a bit more crisp as no fibers had to be torn. Raising her paw, she’d glance down at the fractured little bones, distinguishing it as rabbit bones rather quickly, causing her nails to rake along the top of them, rolling them back and forth before gently kicking them forward. She’d let out a soft hum as she took in the formation they took, daring not to touch them further, looking for any indicators of them meaning something more than just a pile of remains. Ask some bones a question and they were prone to giving an answer but asking no questions and getting what you were looking for wouldn’t be so easy to find. One thing she could determine was that this wasn’t just for a hunt, too much meat left rotting as if eaten for entertainment rather than nourishment. Realization would slowly dawn on her as she took in her surroundings a bit more and the way everything seemed touched, defiled. Eleanor’s Day. The day of Lust as far as she was concerned. How could she have forgotten a festival that both pleased and disgruntled the woodlands equally? Where the meaning was absolutely divine, the way they celebrated was far from pleasant for the environment and the more she took it in the more she realized why the energies of the world were so off. Not that she wouldn’t have had fun had she made the little party, she would have had the time of her life certainly but perhaps that was just the carnal desires and chaotic cravings speaking. By the end of the festivities, however, half the occupants on a regular day would be far from gleeful to partake in such free or liberating antics. Shame though, she could have met some spectacular individuals that were available for more deviant activities and maybe someone she’d love to taste the crimson ink of might have been hidden away in the medley of caravans. Suddenly she felt like she was being watched, causing her to shift her focus to something or rather someone in the distance that didn’t look to be some small little bunny curiously observing her, no, rather they were quite massive and predator in shape. A bear of a wolf. No, it couldn’t be. She would not keep her gaze on them long before vanishing into the trees and foliage, out of their sight with a cheshire grin plastered on her cheeks. Weaving along the maze of trees, she would get closer and closer till she found a perch above him, climbing up a hunched over trunk till she was nestled comfortably in the basket formed by branches jutting out. She’d lay down there, allowing her paws to hang off as she lowered her face down toward the entity that had spotted her first. “If it isn’t my little ball of sunshine,” she cooed with a slight sheepishness, her tail giving a sway as she smiled down at him.

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One moment she was there and the next, she'd vanished. A ghost of the past, to be sure. It was what he told himself, even if the scent lingered in the air. He shook his head, lowering it to return to continue his work.

It wasn't until he sensed movement and then the feeling of a presence behind him that he lifted his head again slowly. He remained still, facing the opposite direction as his ears swiveled, alert to the smallest sound.

He heard the creaking and rattling branches as weight rested upon them and then a voice. He closed his eyes and inhaled deeply before letting out a long sigh, before he turned his body entirely around.

"Little?" A single brow rose, the hint of a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. When he laid his dark emerald eyes upon her own, the smile faltered slightly. The woman was most certainly the girl he'd known before, but...something was...off. "Wisteria." Even her name felt foreign to his tongue as he spoke it. "You've returned?"


@Wisteria

Don't Believe Everything You See Calmly she waited for him in the little of hers to react as it seemed he was part sloth the moment her voice reached his ears, seeing him freeze in place and take in a breath, making him only appear larger than before before he’s only partially deflated. Those fire tones of his pelt made her own look rather dull in comparison, though he was more of a peach leaning fellow while her own touched the more red spectrum; making him seem almost brown or tawny when close to her. She was tempted to reach down and gently smack him on the rump to get him to react a little faster, getting a little bored in the few seconds he was taking to gather himself and face her. Maybe he thought her just a fly or nymph playing around with his head, her ideas went on and on with what he could be thinking, always intrigued by the minds of those around her, most of the time. There were the selected few that she would rather never speak or think but they were rather few and far between, sinners far beyond what she’s ever done or considered blasphemous. Soon she’d be greeted by a pair of emeralds, ones that reminded her of a certain sailor she had some interesting adventures with in the Highlands but also of a boy she had once known years ago but they were surrounded by a man now. A man. The concept was funny in her head, had it really been so long that he no longer had that precious baby fat wrapped around his torso and squishing up his cheeks? He was still the sight to see but now he was eye catching in a completely different way as her gaze scanned his muscles that could perhaps crush her in an instant. Attractive. What was with her and wanting to be crushed lately? Maybe she really was going mad. “You are rather small from up here, in fact I’d say I’m taller than you. Oh how the mighty have become ants,” she teased, her tail swaying behind her eagerly as she straightened up a bit more proudly, with a grin ear to ear. “Oh?” she hummed at her name, ears flicking as it almost seemed abnormal to hear from this man’s tongue because it felt like someone new, a stranger and yet someone with the same aura she remembered so well. “Have I? Where did I go?” she humored, slowly getting up to hop down from the little basket, landing gracefully just a couple steps away behind him. It was rare she didn’t have an impulse of murder when she looked at someone of the opposite gender and even rarer still when she found light when they were in her presence. She would start to walk away, curious what he may or may not do as she went to gather the books she had left behind, far be it for her to leave them for someone to steal; if she wasn’t going to keep them she certainly wasn’t going to let them go for free unless it was the fae themselves reclaiming it.

art ☓ table ▸ bunny

Sundstol let out a breath of a laugh then smirked at the girl, now woman, who had claimed the looming tree trunk as her perch. "Well, why don't you come down here, lass, and see just how small I truly am." He challenged before looking her over once more He honed in on her body language that seemed to radiate a vastly different energy than what he remembered.

He watched every little move of hers as she straightened up then went leap down onto the ground, having to turn his whole body to keep her within his sights. Wisteria moved away from him and he moved after her, a shadow to her form like he had been as a boy. "You ask me as if I would know...why don't tell me, hm? It must be quite the story to bring you back where you started.."


@Wisteria