Hollowheart Keep Rattle My Broken Bones

@Nova Early Morning/Sunrise | Partly Cloudy — 8° F/-14° C | Just right outside Hollowheart Keeps old den | Date to be decided

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burtn . deviantart

Camio had lead Nova onward. After that sour interaction with Aponi he wanted to move as far as possible from those wretched wolves. They had made shelter in the old Hollowheart Keep lands. He knew that it might have been a bad move but he also knew it was a place where the two lovers would be safe from others. These tall creepy trees and eerie silence were bound to keep anyone out.

The Zamora male had woke earlier then expected. But he had enjoyed waking up earlier so he could lay silently in Nova's loving embrace. Though this morning there was something different. He didn't feel like laying in Nova's embrace. Something was gnawing at his mind. So nosing Nova's crown softly the male made his way out of the den. Moving so that he was a good five feet from the dens entrance he took a seat. The sunrise was breaking way through any clouds and trees. He was trying to soak up any warmth the sun would have to offer.

Sitting in the sunlight wouldn't help is wondering mind. His brain wondered to thoughts of Nova. How was he suppose to behave now? He had a loyal woman by his side who proudly carried the Zamora name. Of course those thoughts of some pretty little (well not so little) woman carrying his name also brought his mind to the thoughts of spring.

The spring would be a rather racking time for him. Nova was still a yearling but when spring came she wouldn't be a little girl anymore. Camio knew if she was still around by then that they would have to fight the urge of not letting instincts take control. That was unless Nova wanted something more then just the two of them. What if Nova wanted more then just two Zamoras? What if she wanted a whole line of them? Camio was quick to become light headed and found himself sliding to the ground. Taking in a deep breath he tried to recollect his thoughts.

Rattling his brain to collect himself more mannerly he knew what was where now. Nova was his, Nova also carried to Zamora name, and spring would soon approach. Spring meant puppies and hormones, which meant other things of instinct would happen. Taking a deep breath he realized this might actually worked out. If Nova and him were to ever do such a thing, Camio knew exactly where he wanted it. He wanted it right here where the old Keep was. It was a safe place that much he knew already. He knew life could live in these woods, as a pack had before. All he needed was to make sure Nova's head was in the same place...

"Speech"

and all the love lost was the love that i kept
in coffins and boxes, a museum of the dead

nova

Though she had noticed the soft touch to her forehead, it was swiftly incorporated into a pleasant dream. It was a welcome change to the nightmares that had been plaguing her ever since they had left Hollowheart Keep. But as the ground beside her cooled, she curled into a smaller and smaller ball, finally shivering awake as a gust of cold air blew into the drafty cave. She jolted up, immediately noticing her mate's absence and unable to stop the torrent of worry that swiftly followed. It seemed like everyone she had ever known had vanished from her life, and Nova still feared that Camio might get swept away just as easily. As her frantic eyes scanned the dark confines of the Keep, her frantic heart only calmed when she noticed Camio just outside, framed by the entrance. Nova stood, shaking out her pelt before walking to join him.

"Camio, what are you doing out here?" Nova asked as she slipped out from under the stone archway of the Keep, treading quietly to his side. She seated herself at his side and rested her broad jaw over the bony shelf of his shoulder blades. "Couldn't sleep?" She asked, tilting her head from its perch on his shoulders to nip at the back of his head. Nova really couldn't keep her paws off of him.

All the feelings and sensations Camio brought forth in her were so new and captivating. She could hardly imagine spending even a day apart from him, and their travels together had cemented her dependence on him. She had tried to imagine just where she would be, if she hadn't run into Camio that fateful day. What if he had left the territory just a day before she had gotten there, or what if Aponi had just brought Nova back to Magnolia Glen without making Nova return to tell her parents first? Nova's winced, thinking about if things had happened differently and she had ended up living with her sister instead of meeting Camio. Nova would trade a thousand Aponi's for just a hair on Camio's tail.

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burtn . deviantart

His silent thoughts were interrupted by his love coming out from the den. Staying silent he waited until she approached him. Her soft touch sending him wild in the heart. Oh how lucky Camio was to have a girl like her.

Listening to her speak he nodded softly. Setting his head on his paw. "Couldn't sleep?" Camio shook his head lightly before sighing. "Not at all. Too many things were on my mind, my lovely." His voice was a soft coo for only Nova's ears to pick up.

Flicking his tail he lifted his head off of his paws. Turning his head so he could steal a glance at Nova she smiled softly. "Nova, we must talk. I promise it's nothing bad." Just to assure her he stretched a bit until his nose could place against her cheek lightly. He needed to know her thoughts on this upcoming spring. It was a rather important topic to the young male.

"You know Nova, after this winter it's spring..." His voice trailed off hoping she might get at least the smallest clue as to what he was hinting too. Camio was hoping that her parents or an older caretaker had given Nova "the talk" so that it would make things less awkward for the Zamora male. It was bad enough he had to figure out what the two of them were going to do this spring. The last thing he needed was him having to explain to his mate was it was that happened in the spring to the mature enough wolves.

"Speech"

and all the love lost was the love that i kept
in coffins and boxes, a museum of the dead

nova

Camio's soft voice, one that she had come to learn he used only with her, and only when they were alone, sent tingles up and down Nova's spine. She nestled down closer to him, and her ears perked up as he said "We have to talk". She was a little worried at first and scooted closer to him, but he was quick to reassure her that it was nothing bad. Which then fed into her curiosity. Did that mean it was something good? Or maybe he just wanted to talk about their plans of where they were going next. But instead, of all things, Camio mentioned that that spring was up ahead. He trailed off, leaving Nova with little to go off of. If the girl's education had been more rounded, she might have caught on to the unspoken implication. Yet, Nova was completely clueless.

She lifted her head up off of him, peering into his dreamy brown eyes with her own dandelion pair. Her head tilted to the side slightly as she tried to guess what he meant. "Last winter was pretty harsh, we shouldn't let it surprise us this year." Nova said, then hesitated, her pink tongue reaching out to lap at her nose. She was still trying to work out what he meant by "after this winter it's spring".

She had to admit, she was utterly baffled. He couldn't have just been mentioning it matter-of-factly, after all, he had made a point of saying that they had something to talk about. She didn't think he'd be using language like that just to talk about the weather. "Why do you mention spring, though?"

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burtn . deviantart

Oh lord, she didn't know. Had her parents not taught her a damned thing? He guessed this was were he played the teacher role. "Well, Nova, uh," He managed to swallow the lump in his throat. How could he put it where Nova would understand and not feel weird-ed out? Flicking his tail he figured the best way would to be straight forward. "In the spring is when pups are born, right? Well, um, when you get older Nova, this spring actually, you'll go into this thing." Oh no, oh no, oh no. He was a guy. It was not his job to be saying what a female would go through to his lovely mate. "And when you go through that thing an instinct sort of kicks in. You know, breeding." He was praying that Nova was at least aware of what breeding was. "Breeding makes more wolves. And I mean I was just thinking about us..." His voice got lost somewhere between trying to maintain his mind and steady his heart beat.

"What are we going to do in the spring?" Camio thought that his explanation earlier might have been enough to get it across to her what he was trying to point out. And if it wasn't, well then Camio might as well thrown his paws up in surrender.

Taking a deep breath he stole a glance at Nova. "Come Spring it will be hard to stay away from you, and I mean instinct too." His words fumbled loosely in his mouth trying to make out words she would understand. Camio was sure he wouldn't have done this for anyone else but his beloved Nova. It was only her who would make the Zamora do such ridiculous things.

"Speech"

and all the love lost was the love that i kept
in coffins and boxes, a museum of the dead

nova

Nova's eyes slowly widened, growing to the size of saucers in a look of bewilderment at her beloved. More wolves, he must mean puppies. Nova had wondered where her mom had gotten those cubs, and her Ma and Appa had been awfully touchy feely last spring. Nova wasn't exactly sure which of the things was the breeding thing specifically, and she had her suspicious now, but she would be damned if she was going to make Camio any more awkward trying to explain it to her. She'd just have to fill in the blanks on her own.

Nova stayed silent after he finished talking, fidgeting her paws around and drawing patterns in the dirt in front of her. She was trying to think her way through it since it had never been something she had even considered as a possibility. It didn't take much introspection for Nova to discover a gut feeling, the same type of feeling that had her stuck like glue to Camio's side. Maybe that was the instict? Or something like it, she could only imagine.

Her little siblings had been obnoxious, but the thought of cubs that were her and Camio's, however... "Oh, they would look like us? Wouldn't they? Like you, but with tiny little paws, itsy bitsy ears, teensy tiny tails..." She started talking, her mouth getting well ahead of her brain. Her tail had started to wag, but she reined in her burgeoning excitement when she realized that she was putting the feast way before the hunt.

"But, I mean, only the leaders can have cubs, right? We couldn't just have pups, even if we wanted to..." Already Nova was trying to reason around it. Where then had Mercy come from? He didn't belong to her mom, like her and Aponi did, and he wasn't strictly Sagacity's either. Didn't they find him somewhere? And if so, why did they take him in? "Maybe, if we could pretend we found them..." Nova said quietly, scheming more to herself.

castlegraphics . deviantart
burtn . deviantart

He let go a big huff of air when she seemed to understand more. Listening to her talk left his heart feeling light and airy. She was so damn cute when she talked. Especially when she talked about what their children might look like. "Well, some of them might look like me but some of them might also look like their beautiful mother." Smiling softly he hoped that Nova wouldn't feel awkward by Camio calling her a mother. Even if it wasn't know it was a term she might have to get use to.

"That's the thing my love. I don't want to have to pretend we found them. I want to be proud and flaunt off the little Zamoras." Whispering softly he licked his ink lips in thought. "I want to have our family grow up knowing they are accepted. An-and I think I wanna do it right here." Camio was quick to bite his lip and scrambled his mind to find something to say. "I understand a lot of bad things have happened here but we can make all the good things happen here. I mean, these woods are obviously safe enough to have a family in, as the Keep lived here. Obviously it's a safe place to birth, for Naira had her litter here." He was praying that showing off the good things would reassure Nova that this was an okay sort of plan. He didn't plan for anything to be set in stone yet. Hell, they still had to make it through winter.

Gripping his paws lightly Camio let his claws dig into the cold ground. "I want us to have our own story Nova. Forget the past and what happened. Let's start brand new."

"Speech."

and all the love lost was the love that i kept
in coffins and boxes, a museum of the dead

and you can't see

nova

the wind in the trees

Nova felt her face warm as Camio called her beautiful, she still couldn't get used to the compliments. It would be odd to be a mother, but the thought of seeing her little cubs wriggling all over Camio and them calling him Papa seemed like it would be more than worth it.

Nova's nose wrinkled slightly at mention of the Keep. "I don't know about the Keep, these woods are so creepy and smelly, and when it starts raining it's so damp and musty I feel like mushrooms might even start growing in my lungs." Nova spoke in half jest, but she couldn't imagine making the little Zamora's grow up in such a gloomy place. It was really only her family that tied her to this place, and if they were going to start anew, the world was their oyster. Nova rolled onto her side with her back facing Camio, arching her spine so that her head pressed against his elbow. She looked up at Camio's face out of the corner of her eye. "Wouldn't you rather find somewhere all of our own? I mean, the mountains are beautiful, too," Nova said, letting her eyes drift over his shoulder and past the top of the stony den, spying the peak of the mountain lit pink by the morning sun.

Nova's attention returned to Camio, and she reached up with her snout to press her nose against his chin. "We could truly start brand new. I'm sure, together, we can find somewhere even better than this dusty ol' keep." She murmured into the creamy fur of his throat. Lowering her head, she let it rest on Camio's forelegs as she looked up at him, really unable to keep her eyes off of him for long.

-squeels excited to use this lovely new table

The thought of little children on the mountains was soothing for one moment but terrifying the next. "No no no. They wont be safe Nova. They wont be able to navigate the mountains like us. What if something happens." His heart stopped and his eyes grew wide as he looked into Nova's eyes for some sort of comfort. A whine struggled out softly as he threw a paw onto his face. "Maybe we can find some safe rolling hills or woodland to raise them in?" He figured that might be an easier settle than the worry of bundles of little fat and fur prancing around on an unsafe mountain top.

"Maybe we should worry about getting us settled first, then we can worry about our little bundles of future joy." Nuzzling Nova softly he offered a lick to her crown. "I think once the winter truly sets down in a few weeks we'll work on our plans more thoroughly. That is if you're sure you want this..." Pausing for a moment he looked deep into Nova's beautiful eyes. "You know I won't force you into this if you don't want this Nova. You know I wouldn't do such a thing." His words came out as a soft smooth note to her and her only. It was a voice he had grown to use only around her and only when they were alone. And now was one of those moments when he could relax and use his soft caring tone for his beautiful, stunning, one and only mate. Camio couldn't have asked for a better gift from the gods.

"Speech."

and all the love lost was the love that i kept
in coffins and boxes, a museum of the dead

nova zamora

Camio's worry about the mountains would have been funny if he weren't so obviously distraught by the idea. "Well, Aponi and I seemed to make it out okay. Our pups will have mountain blood," She said with a small smile, trying to be reassuring. "But you're right, it would be safer somewhere else. At least we have plenty of time now to find somewhere."

Nova met Camio's gaze as he looked at her, her ears catching his soft words asking if she was sure about all this. Already Nova knew what her answer would be. "I do, I really do. I want to start a life with you, it sounds wonderful," Nova said, smiling up at him. Her hope backed by a dash of naivety. Lovestruck, anything seemed possible for them. But spring seemed so far away now, especially when they had the present to get through.

"But what do we do now? We can't make it through the winter on our own. And the one plan I had- well... You saw how that went." Nova remarked sourly, withdrawing from Camio and pressing the side of her face into the dirt sullenly. She still thought about how poorly things had gone with her sister, and she still replayed the encounter in her head. She would try to think of what she could have said and done differently, and how it was all her fault that they were still without a place to truly call home. Nova forcefully sighed, sending up a poof of dust in front of her. "I'm sorry, Camio, it's all my fault we don't have anywhere to go," She mumbled.