Firefly Weir I shouldn't care about your calls

Please DM/PM if interested in joining. Skoll just needs to give his brother a little piece of his mind before they head back to the Scowle... Minor PP since Niles is mine.

March 30th; Late morning, well after sunrise; Overcast Clouds; 32° F, 0° C. Moments after this thread.

While Skoll had been glad to remove Niles' from the edges of Willow Ridge, he certainly was not pleased with it. He walked behind Niles as a sort of precaution, ensuring the wayward Lyall wouldn't lose his head completely and stomp right back into Ravenna's jaws. Heading back to their part of the Lore was slow-going and, for a time, Skoll allowed Niles' sluggish gait. Whether or not Niles was actually thinking about what he had done in that thick skull of his, however, was another matter.

A growl bubbled up from his throat and he charged ahead to stop Niles in his tracks. His hackles high and teeth bared, he snapped at the youth, "How could you have been so stupid?!" He stared hard into those familiar grey eyes as if they would offer him an answer, regardless of if Niles averted his eyes or not. "Why did you think that would have changed anything?!"

The information that had been offered not only hurt Ravenna, but it hurt Skoll too, and he thought that wound had already healed. "You CAN'T do that. You hear me?" He waited for the Lyall to react, bracing himself for whatever outcome, submission, violence or otherwise both...

"You're no diplomat, Niles," his voice had let up a little, the syllables soft on his tongue but still heavy on the ears, "and whatever you did was done. It's passed. You can't change it. Understand?"

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

Niles probably would have stayed on the edge of Ravenna and Sven's grounds if it hadn't been for Skoll. Morganna and Celandine might have been able to manage such a feat, but for Skoll to be the one to sweep him away said something deep down to the frightened cub Niles had always been in the face of his older brother. He kept his head low and his tail slightly tucked between his ankles as he led the way, walking as a scolded cub might when caught where he wasn't supposed to be.

It wasn't until Skoll sped up and blocked his way that Niles stopped in his tracks. His ears laid back and his eyes lessened into slits as he looked away. When would the shame ever end? To him, it seemed: never. Unable to crouch down, he simply sat, mulling over the guilt and the stupidity that had gotten him out of bed this morning. All he had wanted to do was to talk - and, given, that Niles never truly talked until his adolescent months, that should have said something. Perhaps he should go back to keeping his mouth shut.

"You're no diplomat, Niles." The Lyall winced, the physical reaction of a verbal 'Ow.' His head ducked down but a sudden realization dawned on him. He had had other things to say and he wasn't given the chance to say it. He lifted his chin and turned to look at that scarred face, "She's the one wh-who's wr-ong. She didn't help me when Isolde died. She didn't even follow after us." He was quivering now; everything that he had kept bottled up after all these months threatened to consume him alive. "She didn't say ANYTHING to me when Mom and Dad died! They let me run! They said it was my fault! It was Dad's idea to go to Torbine then s-end me back to collect M-Mom and Ravenna. He said he had an idea where Torbine was." A whine whistled from his muzzle as he slowly stood back up and stepped away. "We were s'posed to make it! An', YOU! WHERE WERE YOU?! Mom's fav'rite an' all!" Had he been human, he might have shoved Skoll square in the shoulders. A foolish taunt. As it were, he growled at the Archer, his tail whipping dangerous at his back, "You didn't care for me then, so why now?! Ravenna should have heard all o' this, NOT YOU."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Niles was getting out of control, running his mouth and finding his anger renewed as he took a step back. These were things that Niles could not change; Skoll only wished he could see that. The Archer shook his head, just wanting his brother to let it all out until a growl punctuated his words. The posturing was unmistakable and Skoll found himself puffing himself up just as much. He might have been a few ranks beneath Niles but as his older brother, Skoll was only looking out for his kin, being older and more experienced in such things as pain, loss, and being misunderstood.

"You didn't care for me then, so why now?!
"Now, now," he tested, but his words had been drowned out.
"Ravenna should have heard all o' this, NOT YOU."

At the time Skoll had been tangled up in all of Hecate's schemes and looking after Sven if he had not already been succumbing to the poison his lovers were feeding him down in the Dell. By now, the Archer had had enough. "Niles," he tried again, his voice growing more urgent and commanding. From the corner of his eye, he took note of where they stood at the edge of the Lagoon's weir, not even a leap from the water. He would give Niles one last shot before he took to more drastic measures to get his point across. "Settle. Down."

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

"Niles," his name did not even faze him. "No one cares!" he cried out, his ears coming up for laying flat again. "No one even listens to me! It isn't fair!" He snapped his teeth, but not directly at Skoll. His breath quickened and his heart thumped about in his chest, "You could've helped me!" The stories of Skoll's misdeeds were often whispered in the Ridge when Niles was growing up. Why Skoll chose to not do anything was well beyond him.

"You couldn't play for my side for a change?!" It all stung, and suddenly he had nothing else to say. His eyes went to the ground. He wanted his mother to put Ravenna in her place, to make her hear him and see him as her brother. Just because he had fled the scene when Angier and Elettra had died, he was rendered into something invisible. "You ALWAYS let Sven get in the way!" he shouted, not even making eye contact anymore. As much as he wanted to ambush Skoll for all that he didn't do, he found it in himself that he couldn't. I was all nonsense from here, and Niles couldn't even understand now that there truly was nothing he could do but be in the present. "Even when we were cubs, Sven was always beating us up! You never stood up for me, you're like them! You don't care! You should've just left me there..."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

Minor PP on Niles here...

Skoll cringed as his cub-brother went on and on and on. One hurt after the other, and it soon became clear that it was all just one big pity party. The threat of a lunge had passed but that did not mean that Skoll couldn't make an opportunity for himself. As Niles rambled, he squared his shoulders and shifted his weight. If he could use Niles' already weakened state to topple him it would be enough.

He wasn't even listening when Niles started shouting for all nearby to hear. All he wanted was that one chance and he took it. In one move, as fluid as he could manage, he lunged forward with his paws outstretched, using his hind legs to propel him right into Niles' chest. It happened as if in slow motion. Niles rolled backward and to the left as Skoll's left paw guided his fall; Skoll's weight and force made certain they both made it to the water.

Skoll towered over his sibling as Niles laid on his back in the water. With a paw planted on either side of his head, the only place Niles could counter-attack would be his forelimbs or chest, pains that Skoll could manage. If anything, he was grateful the water was not as deep as he had thought it was, leaving everything past Niles' temple submerged. "I SAID," he raised his voice, craning his head downward to keep his brother in the shallows. "SETTLE. DOWN." The chill of it, even if only on his back, the back of his head and neck, and his ears, should have been enough to snap him out of it. He tensed once more, wondering if those tawny feet would kick him in the belly.

"Now you listen to me," he ordered, ready to jaw spar if it came to it, "Sven is my son; I will always take his side. No matter what. But, you, you're my brother. I care." He waited for some sort of protest, but not for long before adding, "I especially care when you're doing something stupid and you're going to hurt yourself, hurt your pack... hurt us. You have two choices: you stay here and drown in your misery or you get up and leave this all in the past. Thing is, I'm only going to let you do the latter, so when I let you go, are you going back to Willow Ridge? Are you going to throw a fit? Stay here? Cry some more?" His tail arched over his back as his hackles remained raised; he wanted his words to hit home for good. "I can treat you like they do if you want me to." It was a threat, but an empty one. He just hoped beyond all hope that Niles would refuse. Even if Niles and Angier's personalities were alike, Skoll was so sure that Niles was not one to simply lay down and take it.

(This post was last modified: Apr 04, 2018, 10:26 PM by Skoll.)

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

A young deer has been separated from the rest of its herd. Hunt Opportunity

Niles didn't even have a chance. Before he even knew it, he was knocked backwards and off to one side, landing on his back in the weir. His eyes closed as he felt the water splashed up around his head. Skoll's two forelimbs plunked down on either side of his neck, and he stared up into his brother's teeth. The chill of the lagoon took only a moment to soak through into the undercoat of his shedding spring pelt. He shivered as he listened, wanting nothing but to turn his head and finding that he couldn't. Not without seeming like he was going to chomp down on an inky black arm. Whimpers sounded from him as he was ultimately given one choice: to get up and leave this, all the grudges and all the hurt, all in the past.

To each of Skoll's questions, he shook his head. He wasn't going to go back to Willow Ridge. He wasn't going to throw a fit and he, certainly, wasn't going to stay here and cry some more. All he wanted to do now, really, was to hideaway in some nook and never come out.

"I can treat you like they do if you want me to." Skoll offered, and Niles shook his head enough to audibly ripple the water. It was a good thing only the two of them were out here, that no one had seen him so easily defeated... with Skoll standing over him all high and mighty like he had won some sort of grand battle. He might not have mustered the nerve to do as he was told otherwise. He whimpered a single note in utter defeat, "P-please let me up."

we can say goodbye, just head home, but if we're going to be alone
Chimera is currently traveling with Niles and may hop into this IC thread!

He hadn't heard much of it really but it was the loud punctuated words followed by the splash of water that drew his attention. The boy was swift to follow, a fear in his gut that there was another case like Maeve going to happen.

He weaved between the trees with an urgency in his steps, not sure how far off he was but when things grew quiet was when he broke through the foliage. The scene wasn't clear but the Lyall knew he was somewhere he was not supposed to be. He had walked into something he hadn't been invited to. His gold-green eyes recognized the one in the water though. It was a wolf he had teased before about a bumped elbow but this was a bit more than that. The other one - that towered over bumped elbow guy - smelled of Celandine and a general Archer musk.

"Get away from him." He poorly attempted to command to the oldest male. Bojay tried to make himself look strong and intimidating, trying to replicate all the grand guards he had seen in Torbine. He couldn't make himself look how he wanted though. There was a fire missing in the boy that had been swiftly stolen when Maeve went.

i know something you don't know
trouble coming to your home

Marisol's patience was wearing thin. The Scowle wasn't everything Niles had promised it to be, it was no haven nor did it even feel like home. She could hardly blame Niles for the disappointment, but it felt resounding all the same, like the continuous beating of drums. Thud thud thud, she needed to leave. It was all she could think about. But not yet, she'd made a promise and...despite all the nasty things Mari could be called, she wasn't a liar. She hadn't sunk that low, yet.

And so she sought him out, which actually was a lot easier said than done. Mari didn't follow him around like a doe eyed maiden, she prided herself on her ability to go it alone, but for the sake of knowing she generally had a vague idea of where he was and what he was up to. But these days? Not so much. She scowled (heh) deeply as she pushed along, meandering along the lagoons shore till a couple of dark figures in the distance caught her attention. At first she rolled her moon eyes in contempt as her ears flicked back, trying to block out their petty (no doubt Archer) drama. But then one of them looked kinda familiar, all grey and black and lanky.

The conversation, if it could even be called that, grew all the more heated as Mari slinked ever closer, clinging to the treeline as though she was a shadow. There was a splash and Mari sped up her gait, wondering what the hell was happening. There was no denying it, Niles had lost the upper paw and had landed in the drink. Before she could even process it all another face, a damn kid, appeared and chimed in as the knight in shining armour. How quaint.

Mari was no hero but....If Niles wanted an out she had one for him right there, on the tip of her tongue.

"Hate to break up the party,muchachos," she drawled, entirely unapologetic. "But me and Niles are leaving, you hear?"

Mari has left Relic Lore. I'm in the process of finishing off her threads, those I don't finish will be deaded!

Niles shook his head. Not once, but four times... five including the one that told him that he did not want Skoll to treat him the way Ravenna and Sven had. He sighed, but the breath of air was so short, so curt, that it sounded like a scoff. He was about to move, to allow Niles some space when he heard yet another pitiful cry.

“P-please let me up.”

Skoll griped to himself in his head. Oh Gods... here we go again. He growled at his brother again and was about to lay down another wave of discipline, this one more severe than his initial attack, when he heard another youthful voice, “Get away from him.” The Archer turned to find one of the pack’s cubs. It wasn’t one of his, so assumption alone told him this was one of his nephews, Morganna’s son.

“Beat it, cub,” he snarled, flashing his teeth at him. “This doesn’t concern you.” He turned back to Niles and clasped his teeth around that ivory jaw, but he was disturbed one more time. This time, a feminine statement put a halt to his plans.

“Hate to break up the party, muchachos, but me and Niles are leaving, you hear?"

Skoll relinquished his grasp but he did not move. The woman did not look familiar, but she did smell something like pack and she clearly had something to do with Niles. “Leaving?” he sneered at her, eyeing her up in all her small-statured glory. There was disappointment in his voice and cold daggers in his stare. “I think not.”

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away