6/3/2015
Weather:
69° F, 20° C
Thunderstorm Nearby
6:18 PM
Ever since her talk with Gent, Rae had been growing more and more preoccupied with thoughts of Astraeus. The mahogany-eyed man had already begun eating up an increasing number of minutes of her idle time, and invading her idle thought the rest. Gent's concerns only served to increase those numbers, and now she was thinking about thinking about Astraeus. When did she start wondering about him so much? At first it had been merely a desire to see him again and again; to learn more about the friendly stranger. Without her really noticing, it had become a stream of inquiries about his personality, his life, his aspirations. She wanted to know it all. When the woman was alone she wondered about everything about him. Now she couldn't put her finger on why she wanted to pick him apart so badly. Of course she wanted to know about her friends and pack mates, but she didn't obsess this much over Gent, or Minka, or even the babies anymore. Eventually she was finding herself reminiscing; passively reliving their adventures and mischief, even their conversations in her head. Worse, she was finding that she liked it. She liked him. But did she “love” him? All it had taken to send her down this confusing introspective path was her blue-eyed hunting partner's prying. He seemed to think she did, or at least suspect she did. The swirling maelstrom of confusion hadn't left the poor girl; it plagued her even now as she reclined beside a freshly-opened cache, licking her lips after a satisfying dinner. She was sprawled on her side; having decided to take a break from her duties and get a bite to eat. The russet-furred woman laid there thinking until a familiar spring scent graced her nostrils. Rain. Rolling lazily upright, her dandelion eyes managed to piece together the scraps of sky that managed to peek through the forest canopy. Somewhere off to the west, the sky was unusually foreboding. It was still some distance off; the sunlight still filtered in overhead and warmed her pelt on this delightfully mild day. Unfortunately a storm always meant either warmer or colder days were destined to follow, and at this point in the season it usually meant the former. Raela got to her feet, padding toward the mesa with interest. As she pulled through the treeline and onto the wide clearing, her eyes turned inevitably westward, drinking in the deep blue storm clouds with awe. Standing there, watching the ominous skies and taking note of the occasional distant lightning bolt, she felt an emptiness crawling toward her core. A brief gust of air told her of the coming downpour; whispering through her pelt as she closed her eyes. The wind before a storm was one of the girl's favorite things. At that moment her heart sunk and jumped at the same time. Raela's eyes opened, angled in the direction Aeus' scent had come. Thinking immediately that she should see him, the subordinate paused long enough to roll in the grass and wipe the dirt from her paws and face. She followed up with a few licks to unruly areas, suddenly aware of what she was actually doing. When did I start caring so much about how I look? The girl really was worried he wouldn't approve – why worry about what he thought and not the others? Perplexed but with no more hesitation she moved down the mountain, toward the stream on the Crest's most western border and straight toward the storm. He's probably just getting a drink or something, she mused as she moved through the foliage. Her excited and fearful heartbeat felt like it kept moving further and further up her throat as his form was brought nearer. She'd even gotten more nervous around him than before. “Aeus? I need to talk to you,” she spoke, her voice sounding far less worried than nervous. Rae's eyes spoke volumes of the girl's anxiety at this very moment. There was a lot she needed to ask him. Image © Chris Smith PhotographyManipulation © Jenandra |