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Feb. 1st, 2008 12:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
The forest is chilly in winter, like every other non-Caribbean corner of Milliways's outdoors in February. But the trees are a windbreak of sorts, and more importantly, it's outside.
You can walk here for hours, without ever seeing the main building, if you choose your paths carefully.
River doesn't intend to be out for hours, presumably; she's not dressed for that. But she has boots on, and leggings under her dress, and a thick sweater she stole from Simon years ago under her coat. It's enough to make tramping along the forest paths a reasonable proposition.
There are birds singing.
You can walk here for hours, without ever seeing the main building, if you choose your paths carefully.
River doesn't intend to be out for hours, presumably; she's not dressed for that. But she has boots on, and leggings under her dress, and a thick sweater she stole from Simon years ago under her coat. It's enough to make tramping along the forest paths a reasonable proposition.
There are birds singing.
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Date: 2008-02-01 05:35 am (UTC)The Wolflord has been in the forest before, and most creatures are canny enough to beware his passing.
Even if, thus far, he has harmed none.
Save, perhaps, a few demon bunnies.
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Date: 2008-02-01 05:44 am (UTC)River, pausing by a silver birch to stroke chilly (but gentle) fingertips along its fissured bark, doesn't seem to notice the change. She's smiling slightly at the tree, the same soft smile that animals and children coax from her.
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Date: 2008-02-01 05:53 am (UTC)And there are some truths that are best seen face to face, and not as memory alone.
So he circles her, emerging from the underbrush in her field of view.
He has, at the moment, no wish to provoke an attack.
Which may explain why, for a brief moment, his shields are down, as well.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:06 am (UTC)She turns to look at the huge black wolf, her smile gone into a waiting serenity with no trace of fear. Slowly her hand drops from the tree bark to curl in her pocket; it's cold, and she has no gloves.
After a moment, her mouth curves, very slightly.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:08 am (UTC)Then, very deliberately, he takes one step forward.
Perhaps it is a test.
Perhaps it is merely an offer.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:15 am (UTC)The same smile is in River's voice, a warm undertone. She's not speaking loudly, but all the same the words fall into the waiting hush of the snowy forest.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:18 am (UTC)There's a faint sense of amusement that brushes River's mind, different than the amusement Galadan feels as a man, though similar enough for comparison's sake.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:37 am (UTC)"Runs," she says softly. "Paws in the shadows."
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:39 am (UTC)There is, it would seem, little need for distance.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:51 am (UTC)It's an idyllic picture in some ways: the slim young woman with her dancer's poise, the great shaggy wolf pacing slowly towards her, and the tall trees arching overhead, and everything hushed and tranquil.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:54 am (UTC)And then he waits, silver fur shining starkly against the black.
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Date: 2008-02-01 06:59 am (UTC)It might be a question, or it might be a statement; it might refer to either of them, or both.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:01 am (UTC)And another.
He slips close enough to River that she might feel his passing, then takes another step beyond.
The look he turns on her then is, in its way, something like an invitation.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:10 am (UTC)And follows, hands tucked in her pockets again against the winter weather. For the moment, at least.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:12 am (UTC)He does take care, however, not to get underfoot--difficult as that might be for such a large wolf.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:26 am (UTC)She wasn't sticking closely to the trail even before Galadan showed up. And getting lost isn't something she's concerned about.
(difference is, the woods are the only place I can see a clear path)
Her boots crunch through snow, over twigs and along wide flat rocks covered in drifts of snow and leaf-mould. She moves without hurry, almost dreamily, letting her cold fingers brush over tree trunks and the dry branches and needles of shrubs and, once, absently, over the thick soft fur of Galadan's back as he slips past her.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:34 am (UTC)Call it the benefit of long practice, or one of the blessings of being andain.
And if, gradually, he slips ahead less and less often, it is only the press of trees (or lack thereof) that prompts him so.
Surely.
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Date: 2008-02-01 07:57 am (UTC)But today there's no one to hide from, anyway.
As she said to Galadan: got no destination. And it's a fine winter's day.
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Date: 2008-02-03 05:28 am (UTC)Which may explain why their wandering path eventually leads back toward the edge of the forest.
And the bar.
While Galadan might not be cold--coated in fur as he is--River is another matter entirely.
And he has sworn that no harm will come to her, wolfshape or no.
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Date: 2008-02-03 05:36 am (UTC)There are small objects in those pockets, always. She toys with some of them as they wend their way through the forest, and glances at Galadan as the trees thin ahead.
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Date: 2008-02-03 05:52 am (UTC)But he does allow himself to brush against her side once, twice, and then again.
But he does not shift from his wolf shape.
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Date: 2008-02-03 05:59 am (UTC)Then, brightly, "I'll handle the conversation."
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Date: 2008-02-03 06:10 am (UTC)But there is no hint of displeasure in his crimson eyes.
And River may feel the slightest hint of amused assent whisper along the edges of her mind.