o u o ♥

I really really love how this looks ♥

oh, you know me so well, darlin'. c;
♥

Hello there! I just wanted to say thank for the patience of both yourself and your character while meeting Sabastion. I realize that he won't be easy to approach in some cases, but I truly appreciate the understanding and kindness that Morikiah displayed. Sabastion fears large antlers, but with some coaxing he saw that Morikiah meant no harm. I am very happy that this sort of breakthrough was to occur on my first night of officially playing him. Thank you so much again! <3

This is a ghostly track.

Yuri slid down the ponds muddy bank and splashed into the icy water her eyes set on the stag. She moved quickly through the shallow water to the stags side and instantly began looking him over. Yuri moved close to him pressing her small frame against his one side and finally lowering herself into the freezing water. She shivered but went on to gingerly cleaning his wounds watching his face for any sign of pain. "Mori. It's alright.... You'll be ok, I promise." She whispered softly to him her sapphire eyes glowing gently.

Zero: Despite the coolness of the water, Morikiah could scarcely muster the will to lift his head, let alone move. The icy grip of the coming winter was a relief, if anything, numbing what would certainly be some of his more agonizing wounds. Despite the exhaustion of both his mind and body, he refused to let himself slip into slumber completely. No, he felt far too vulnerable to allow himself to be exposed like that. He glanced up upon seeing a shadow pass over him, about to let a threatening growl rumble in his chest. However, he was put at ease upon seeing Yuri. He let his head fall back onto the moist earth on the pond's shore, scarcely moving as Yuri quickly settled herself beside. He let out a weak chuckle, "I'm not... going to let this... get the better of me."

Schutz: Eloquence in matter; the tender tether between the hearts, and Morikiah could feel himself surrendering slowly to the eternal hush that was delivered when that special individual was near. She was last, the absolute last one he wanted to show up. Not because he did not desire her company, no; only because he did not want her, of all other deer, to see him like this. Beaten, bloody, laying in the mud, he was no longer a proud creature. He immediately tried to sum up the strength to lift his head as he heard her speak his name, but could do little but peer up at her through half-lidded eyes. "I... I hear you," He gently breath out as she gingerly touched her nose to his. He was grateful for her willingness to stay beside him, despite his condition, and the rose color that he was turning the water around him. "You... you don't have to stay... You'll get... blood all over your fur."

Her ears flicked forward when the injured creature moved. So quickly turned around and watched his eyes while speaking. A relieved sigh followed and she laid her muzzle on his skull so he couldn't even try to stand up. She listened patiently as he spoke and only then she recognized how bloody she already was. Not only her body, even her muzzle got bloody while cleaning his wounds and although she feared blood, she didn't even mind. "Don't worry, sweetheart. I can clean it another time." she licked his cheek but suddenly frowned. "Who did this Morikiah? Who dared to harm my man?" She began to shiver, the water was cold and her fur was quite thin. Djinn ignored it and kept cleaning his wounds. Fear overcame her and she observed the deer around them. "Is h-he still h-here?

As she finished tending to his wounds she looked around slowly watching the other creatures around them. Once she was sure that nothing was coming she placed her head gently on his neck resting just a little bit above the wound. Ever muscle relaxed a little but she was left on guard. She didn't want to move finding the bull's touch very comforting yet if he gave any sign of discomfort or dislike she would move.

I won't be around until later tomorrow, so I was hoping you wouldn't mind if I just went ahead and posted now. If this is a problem please let me know. Also, taking a few liberties since they aren't in-forest together right now.

Long post/ridiculous amount of exposition. Whoops. >.>'

--


It has been a long and sleepless night.

Eraline had not expected to meet with Morikiah in such a broken state. He had always seemed like a rock to her. A boulder in the distance, infallible, unshakable - if a bit overbearing at times. Indeed, she had not forgotten their first official meeting - him, so large, standing over Herla and Darcy's battered bodies while she had been caring for them, herself steadily growing more and more frustrated with the way his presence intruded upon the order she'd tried so hard to put the situation in. It had ended with her anger, her trying to push him away, yelling. Still, it is the memory of him standing over Bishop - owning him while in her presence that unsettled her the most.

Worse is that she'd come to understand, days later, that somehow he was related to her. More accurately, to her father. And that would make him her uncle, wouldn't it? So she had tried on one or two occasions to approach him, to apologize, to bridge that gap for her father's sake. He had always been surrounded - and if not surrounded, then distant, and while he did not frighten her - no, she has never been one to be easily frightened by males like Morikiah - a lack of surety had kept her at a distance.

Now there are two bridges to gap. Her father's as his brother, and Bishop's, whose attachment to the large large had become hugely apparent to her during the night. The Monarch Buck had already done so much to try to make good with her family; perhaps now it was her turn. And it is with these thoughts buzzing in her tired mind that she'd left Morikiah and Djinn in the night after Bishop had fallen asleep.

She returns now, her walk slow and deliberate, the exhaustion weighing heavily on her eyelids. In her human mouth, a large bundle of mixed plants: several flowers which resembled sunflowers without the characteristic dark centers, more delicate in appearance; smaller, too, like daffodils; then, another bundle of ruby flowers, tiny petals bunched together in a way that reminds her of Baby's Breath. She knows little of herbs and healing, but has picked up enough by watching other more knowledgeable hedge witches make use of the resources around them. She hovers at a distance from where the large stag is lying, and despite the darkness she sees a change in him that keeps her rooted curiously to her spot. Then she smells it - the scent of blood seeping from open wounds and Eraline feels her heart sink with understanding.

Orange fool.

Finally, she closes the space between them and comes to a stop before him, then drops the bundle of flowers and nudges them toward him with her nose. She says, firmly but softly, "The yellow ones, they're called 'Arnica.' If you eat the stems and leaves it should help with some of the pain." She motions to the smaller flowers, the ones that look like red Baby's Breath, "These are called 'Yarrow.' If you grind them into a paste and spread it on the open wounds, it'll speed up the healing, a bit. I'm sorry I couldn't prepare them myself but I only just found them. You can at least start eating the yellow ones."

Eraline lifts her head and takes a step back, enough to put some distance between them, then settles onto the ground, tucking her legs beneath her belly, her head held high as she studies him. "I don't know what you did to get hurt all over again but whatever it was, it wasn't smart. Not in your state."

"Good or no good, it puts you in a dangerous place." Her mouth at first tight and serious, suddenly softens into something else in one light rush of a sigh - something smaller and more understanding. Familiar. "Then again, I am no one to talk. I probably would have tried to do the same...were it for a 'good cause.'" She is stubbornly determined in that way - a trait which she has come to recognize as divergent of her father - for better or for worse.

The young doe settles down into the silence that follows. It's easy. Though they are family, they are strangers and the things she does not know about Morikiah hover above them like a rain cloud waiting to burst. Large golden eyes follow the movements of his skull as his teeth snag and crush the well-found plants; Eraline is surprised by the relief that washes over her. Grateful that he can eat and swallow at all. Finally, Eraline casts her eyes down to the ground, lets them stay there dancing upon the blades of grass bent and crushed beneath her knees. It is only a momentary politeness; she is, after all, here with a goal in mind.

"Listen, Stag Morikiah..." The green doe lifts her head slowly, keeps it straight and tall so that her honor is as visible to him as she feels it raging inside of her. "I wanted to apologize for the way we got off when we first met. That day on the Gods' hill with Darcy and Herla. Perhaps you don't remember - but I must apologize anyway. You see, I had only been trying to keep order. Trying to protect them. It had seemed, at the time, that I was doing it for a...for a good cause." Her lips stretch into a tight grin as she tosses his excuse back at him. "You are my father's brother, after all...and Bishop, too, holds you in high esteem. I only want for things to be settled, my previous attitudes accounted for."

And, beyond those pleasantries, she wants to know him. There is a yearning in her, one that has been pounding steadily in her chest since the day she realized their connection through Xetkal - one that she feels when she is near Mateo and Ravus and Galene, and everyone whom her father loves. But for Morikiah, the stag whom both Xetkal and now her Monarch Buck are so attached to, the yearning burns, rages. There are no proper words for this feeling so she does not speak them, instead keeps her gaze trained intensely on his skull and lets the feeling consume her for just a moment longer.

Track <3

"♥"

Soooo cute!

Schutz: His thoughts? XD

Rouda: Thank you ^^

The stag glanced down at the small doe stuttering beside him, though he could not help but remain attune to the world around them, should that bothersome stag decide to return. "It's alright, my dear. Let us hope he does not return."

"I'm not sure, but he seemed to be after you." His ears perked forward at the sight of the persistent buck approaching again. Getting to his feet, Morikiah motioned for the doe to follow him, he knew of a hiding spot frequently used by one of his friends. After coaxing the doe down the river bank, and beneath the bridge, he whispered to her quietly. "We're going to stay in here for a while, alright?"

Amazing read, I was so drawn into it.
But... Mori? ;;