Bramble Falls your rugged hands and a silver knife

For @Sven only || Mid-day, Moderate snow, 29 ° F, -2 ° C

 

He needed a break. Things were starting to overwhelm him and his promise was over. He had stayed within the borders for a bit but now was time to break free again. Just to the falls where he had only been one other time. Kerberos hadn't said a word this time, though. He had snatched his precious fox skull and took off into the distance. While he wasn't fast he was well paced. He had come out here so often that usually nothing got in his way. Even with fresh snow dusting the area he didn't feel the need to be so alert. He had a mission in mind and he needed to finish it.

The roar of the falls got louder and Kerberos could feel his heart beat faster. Was it his heart beating in his ears or just the sound of the water crashing? It all sounded the same to him. While Kerb was terrified of the water he knew he had to do something with his little trinket. He needed the perfect hiding place.

Through his searching he had stumbled upon something unexpected. A tunnel. This was exactly what he needed. He held the skull firmly between his jaws as he tried his best to make it deep into the tunnel. The light was sparse but it wasn't exactly dark. So when something seemed to glisten for a moment, Kerb held his breath. His pale eyes looked to see what it was and he was stunned. Someone else had been keeping bones here. Not just a few femurs or ribs or a skull. This was a pile with a canine looking skull on top. The fox skull fell from Kerberos's jaws. An echo of the bone hitting the cold ground rung in his ears. Perhaps he shouldn't be here and he shouldn't be trying to add more bones to the pile. Besides, Kerb wasn't fond on losing his favored trinket in a pile of someone else's trinkets.

He stayed still, though. Wondered for a few moments before coming up with a conclusion. One small peak at what this creature had stored wouldn't hurt. Would it?

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The spray of the waterfall had erased most traces of Kerberos' presence, up until those last few meters. As Sven climbed, that someone else was near dawned slowly before the realization crashed into him violently. They were close, too close, and he couldn't see them outside of his tunnel, so they must be--

Throat constricting, Sven haphazardly covered the remaining distance in leaps, scrambling to make it to that hidden crevice which held his secret. He couldn't be found out, he wasn't ready, not yet, not yet--

Behind frantic silver eyes, all he could see was a young @Sahalie's face, twisted and half-hidden against him in disgust and apprehension of the mounds of bones they had discovered. What he'd been doing had been wrong, so horribly wrong, and now it was discovered. Someone knew, and so everyone would know, and they would take it as proof that he couldn't be trusted, that something too dark to be accepted was housed within him. No one was left that could protect him, they would oust him, take @Attica from him, he would have nothing.

Chest heaving, he pressed into the narrow entrance, blocking it completely as he fixed the intruder with white-encircled irises. Kerberos, his mind registered faintly, before a deep growl leaked from betwixt his bared fangs.

It didn't matter who it was. He couldn't be allowed to tell anyone else what he had seen.

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

He didn't have much time to admire the pile before someone else was here. The growl made Kerberos tuck his tail and lower his head as he awkwardly turned around to face whoever it was. @Sven? This was rather unexpected.

Kerberos allowed a soft whine to slip past his lips. He kept his eyes down and focused on Sven's large paws. "I-I'm sorry I just was looking for a place to hide my little trinket." His words were soft whines. "It's an old fox skull and you see I didn't want anyone to take it so when I found this tunnel it was perfect but it seemed there was already a whole pile here of trinkets." His eyes sheepishly looked to Sven's face before falling down to the ground again. "I was gonna leave but I wanted to look and see what was in the pile." His head turned to glance at it if only for a second. "I-I was just impressed someone had so many." The Draw wolf kept himself small as he could without falling and curling up into a ball.

The tawny male was ready to leave and keep his lips shut about the whole ordeal. He wanted to go home and sleep until he forgot about this strange encounter. "I-I'll leave." His voice was rather soft in fear of what Sven might do. He was so large and they weren't the best of friends. What was the pale man capable of? Kerberos didn't think he wanted to know if this was all of the young Ridge wolf's work. "You can have my fox skull. I know it's not much but I don't have anything else right now. Sorry."

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Kerberos immediately reacted with fear, and while something primal within Sven enjoyed that tormented glimmer in the other man's eyes, he felt the sinking of his stomach far more. This was exactly how he'd imagined it, how others would respond to this obsession of his. Proof that he needed to make sure no one else found out, and that this didn't happen again. He had liked Kerberos from the wolf's first impression, but he would have to silence him now, and then destroy his miniature mountain of telltale hearts.

Then Kerberos motioned to his 'trinket.'

Sven's eyes dropped to find it, a small skull. Fox, he knew even before the other man elaborated on it. The teen was good at identifying many diverse anatomical structures by now. Kerb was continuing to go on, but as those pale eyes regarded the skull, the aggression smoothed away into simple awe. It was only when the Draw wolf whined that he would leave that Sven looked up.

"No," he insisted, taking a step forward. All he really had to do to keep Kerberos there was to not move, though; his large frame was effectively blocking the only exit. His ears leaned back, now out of guilt.

"I didn't--, I wasn't--," he wasn't sure what the hell to say, what could possibly make this okay, but Kerberos' words had made him feel there might be hope that... that...

"You... you like bones?"

 

He was going to die. That was a guaranteed outcome. But if that outcome happened now or years down the road wasn't exactly known. Kerberos was really hoping it was the latter of the two.

The tawny Rigel was truly terrified. As Sven came closer, Kerb's tail pushed more between his legs. Pale yellow eyes caught as his ears moved, though. He had enough nerve left to look to the large wolf's face. Sven kept starting sentences but he didn't seem to end them. Kerberos was seriously struggling to figure out what the pale man wanted.

The next words caught him off guard. It was a question. "Uh, um, yeah." He struggled to get out the short answer. "My adoptive dad didn't like me having them as a pup cause he thought it made the place look dirty so I guess I kinda shoved the liking down." He shrugged softly as he finished. "But I found the fox skull in a peculiar situation and I couldn't really help myself. I've never had the chance to get more, though." Kerberos offered a soft smile to Sven in hopes it'd lighten the mood.

His tail slowly pulled out from between his legs. A small, low wag was given to the Ridge wolf. "C-can I look at your pile? I won't touch anything." His voice was lightly pleading like a child begging a parent for permission.

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His ears remained back, but his eyes were wide even as his brows had sunk down, looking up at Kerberos almost childishly with hope. The confirmation from the other man caused his tail to give a few uncertain wags, batting at his own hocks. He started explaining about his father figure, how the man hadn't liked the affinity, and of course he didn't, because it was-- ... wait, dirty? That was it? Not... repulsive, disturbing? Sven began to feel a fluttering in his chest as he continued to hang on Kerberos' every word.

His eyes found the mentioned fox skull and then lifted again at the man's tentative olive branch.

"Yes," Sven rushed to say. "Yeah, of course. I didn't, um. I never... I didn't think anyone else liked bones."

There was a bit more to it than that, and he couldn't tell how deep the similarity ran, but even if it was shallow he was still elated that someone shared his fascination. Anyways, he could pretend there was nothing more to his collection.

"That's why I hid them. Um. Look, over here," he slithered forward, past the other man and into a far corner where a smaller pile lay. Atop it, was an exceptionally large skull, two tusk still in place protruding from the jaw.

"Y'ever see a boar?"

It felt oddly good to see the large male so excited. The small smile formed into a slightly larger grin. He wasn't going to die. At least not now and here in this cave. Not by Sven's tooth and claw for this slip-up.

"I didn't think anyone else did either, honestly." Kerberos's tail waved around happily as Sven agreed. It had been partially unexpected for him to agree to show the Draw second the collection but goodness he was so glad it happened. He was swift to follow after the large male with a certain bounce in his step. He kept careful to not ruin any of the piles with his wagging tail. His pale yellow eyes looked at the smaller pile with the awfully large skull. Everything about it was impressive. "I've seen them when tracking and exploring but I've never got the honor to see the bones of one." He looked to Sven with a childish grin. "How'd you get it? If you don't mind me asking.." His head lowered slightly to show respect. It was a pleasure just to be seeing the collection and Kerb wouldn't push the kindness of Sven further than it was unless he was allowed.

"Hey Sven," The tawny male started off slowly. "uh, if it's not too much to ask, would you mind teaching me?" It felt partially awkward asking the younger boy to teach him something but in truth Kerb didn't mind that much. Better to learn from someone than never know from anyone. "Like how to find these and what are good ways to get them. Stuff like that I guess." His tail swayed slowly as he looked to the pale Ridge wolf's face.

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The more relief and joy spread over Kerberos, the more the same infected Sven, until he was fully lost in the elation of sharing his affinity with another. The risk of having the other man here, of him knowing this secret about Sven, were momentarily forgotten. Honor, he said, and there was a kind of reverence in his eyes that the teen couldn't help but soak up hungrily. He was certain no one had ever looked at him like that before.

"My pack actually hunted a few of them," he answered happily. "They were trying to raid our caches, so we took them down and the rest quickly learned to stay away. We fed off them, but I remembered where the bones had been discarded and went back for them not too long ago."

That was the best part about bones; they always remained after everything else decayed and vanished.

When Kerberos then addressed him, Sven's ears slowly rose up, eyes inquisitive as they regarded the other wolf. An ebb of anxiety soaked his chest, until the question was finished. Teach him? The boy's tail began to heartily beat the ground, no more reservation residing within him.

"Yeah, I would love to. I mean, not to brag, but I've gotten a pretty good system down for gettin' them nice n' clean n' white. You can start your own collection here, if you'd like. I'll make room for it."

His excitement was evident in his voice.

His eyebrows raised at Sven's story. "Whoa." He softly whispered. "Your pack must be insanely tough and really determined then." He grinned and looked at the boar skull with a certain admiration. How crazy was it that not only Sven's pack had taken them but Sven got to keep it as a trinket or trophy of sorts? Kerberos was a little bit jealous but he knew that the man had worked for this. It was rightfully his.

Kerberos eagerly listened to the pale Archer's every word. He couldn't help but slightly giggle at the word brag. "Are you kidding? You got every right to brag! Look around!" Kerb carefully spun around to look at everything that was here. The wide smile still on his face as he stopped turning to face Sven again. "What? Really? You mean it?" His tail wagged wildly as he tried to be mindful of the bones. It felt good to be radiating each other's energy over this shared interest. "I mean, yeah, that'd be like amazing." His eyes lit up to display a certain feeling he couldn't put a word to. Excitement, admiration, eagerness? Maybe all of them and more mashed together.

He still couldn't believe all of this. Sven had everything the Rigel wanted and more. "What kind of bone do you want the most? If you don't already have it." He looked to the pale male with a soft smirk. "I'll get it for you as repayment for teaching me and letting me use some of the space here."

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