His night-time walks were becoming less and less frequent, but the nights he needed them seemed to go on much longer. It wasn’t until the sky had gone from pitch black to royal purple that he realized how long he had been out, and it wasn’t until he heard the distant roar of waterfalls that he realized how far he had gone from The Maw. He approached the twin waterfalls with his mind still reeling and watched as flows of ice tumbled over the edges of the falls and crashed into the sea. It reminded him of something he really didn’t want to think about, something he had spent all night trying specifically not to think about. He sat on the edge of the canyon the falls had no doubt formed after millions of years of flowing undisturbed and looked down at the squalling birds with contempt as the waddled over the smooth stones with their saber shaped wings outstretched.  His half blind eyes narrowed as he watched the idiot things, he was no hunter and the fact that they  might evade him only made him angrier. He puffed and sneezed furiously before charging down the canyon walls, all but dropping in the middle of the stinking birds which shrieked with panic and attempted to scramble to the water. Hat mattered to Ruthgar was that they were slow enough on land to be caught and once he had his jaws around the lower back of one, he tore into it mercilessly, tossing mouthfuls of pin-shaped feathers and blood as it squealed and shrieked in pain. “Fook this bard!” He thought rabidly “’N fook Isis! ‘N fook Orsus! FOOK ‘EM AWL!” He stepped away from the ravaged carcass, his tongue lulling out of his mouth, feathers glued to his cheeks with blood. He would never do anything remotely close to this when any of The Crew were around, and he whole heartedly refused to let the pack that he was coming to love take the brunt of his frustration, but he still found himself needing to vent, somehow. The rest of the penguins were gone but he had only really needed the one. His haunches sank to the earth as he panted, tired from reducing the bird to nothing but scattered chunks of uneaten gore. He drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly, the last of his anger thankfully leaving him. This is him talking This is him thinking

Stomping, tail swishing irritably, eyes narrowed and glowing with annoyance. This was the typical way for Mara to approach others and really just how she walked around half the time. Shit just really got on her nerves. Everything got on her nerves. The asshole tearing into one of the penguins was especially irritating right now. She couldn't quite put a paw on what was leaving her practically frothing at the mouth in anger, but whatever it was this man was about to bear the brunt of her wrath. Those were her fucking penguins, she wasn't totally done feeding them to sea beasts even after Pyralis had left. She needed those, dammit. Stomping her way over, half-tail swishing and lips twitching the dark woman moved like a tightly coiled spring ready to explode. It was only when she was uncomfortably close by most standards that she stopped and glared at him with the most venomous of expressions, growling, "What the fuckin' hell are you doing?" Walk. "Talk" "You" Think

He had been so carried away with ripping the bird apart that he hadn’t even sensed the girl approaching him. Of course the damn girl was larger than him, no one here seemed to be smaller than him. The last thing he had wanted was to be approached, much less approached as rudely as the girl had. He looked at her over his shoulder with his only good, shinig, green eye, his brow drawn tight. “Da fook’s it look like?!” He snapped, raising his torn lip to show whatever fangs weren’t already visible, a snarl ripping from his throat, his hackles raising while his back was facing her. His tail bristled for a moment, his hips still reclined against the freezing, blood splattered, stones that lined the alcove. She wasn’t that much larger than him, maybe a little heavier but the height difference was certainly manageable. He waited for her to make some kind of move, his muscles tightening as he prepared to spring up and fight back. If she had been looking for a fight she had found the perfect chance to have one. He was too far for anyone in The Crew to help him but with the mood he was in chances were anyone that stepped in would have just been in his way. The fact that the girl was in heat had completely flown over his head but if it hadn’t there was little chance it would make much of a difference. This is him talking

The more she stared at the asshat ripping up the penguin the more irritable she became. It was an absolute mess, a mess she didn't create, and he'd probably scared the rest away. Her fun would be spoiled, the favorite food of the sea beasts scattered out of reach. "It looks like you're making a damn mess of my birds, and you didn't even have the decency to feed it to a sea monster." Most likely she sounded mad, in more ways than one. She didn't care, not for one second, so focused was she on how he'd made a bloody pile of feathers out of perfectly good bait. She hadn't needed to rip into unsuspecting by-passers when there were monsters to entertain herself with, those blubbery beasts that leapt from the water and slapped the birds silly against it's surface to bash the life out of them. It was amazing, their awesome strength and grace in the sea was so very impressive. And this guy was wasting bait. Just pulling it apart. She was fixing to start something if he wasn't careful. The way he bristled and tensed was just more annoying. This moron hadn't been as fortunate as her when he received his own facial scarring, bearing one blinded eye. She almost wondered about it, but she was too busy marching closer, ever closer, but still staying just out of easy reach, half-tail held high, eyes narrow, fangs flashing white against the darkness of her pelt. She thought about darting in and taking a nice chunk out of him for pissing her off. Watching him a moment longer she purred, "Gunna get off your ass and stop looking like a lump of lard, or what?" clearly trying desperately to push his buttons. It was way more fun to push someone over the edge than to leap at 'em without provoking the irritants a little first. Walk. "Talk" "You" Think

“Sounds tae me like yer jus shite at keepen yer burds safe.” He spat, his jaws snapping with each syllable. If she cared so damn much about the birds why wasn’t she there to protect them? He barely caught on that she had intended to feed them to “Sea monsters”, whatever those were, but had glanced it over, far too preoccupied with her slow approach. "Gunna get off your ass and stop looking like a lump of lard, or what?" His eyes narrowed as he pushed off the ground and turned to face her, his tail at half-mast, flagging an impending attack. His face curled into a fierce snarl, flashing all of his teeth, his toes sinking into the small stones, preparing to kick off. His fur was still splattered in blood, feathers, and viscera, making an already frightening wolf look nothing short of monstrous, he opened his mouth to let out a deep, low growl and snapped his jaws at her menacingly. “Ye canny say mooch abow lard, keen ye girly?” He hissed, the corners of his mouth turning into a menacing smile. “Ye look fattar than th’ seals hen.” He watched her carefully, every hair on his body standing on end, his gangly and awkward form poised to attack. He wouldn’t make the first move if only because his only fighting experience came from defensive maneuvers, but he was more than happy to coax her into snapping first. “Prolly dumber tae aye? Goin oan abou' sea monsters, this ain't nae fairytale bu eef eet weer ye'd be th' ugly ol' hag” He mocked, trying to push her over the edge. Somewhere in the back of his mind he heard Orsus’s booming voice proclaim“I shall never do harm to a woman.” And somewhere much closer to the forefront of his mind he heard his own voice yell; “O’ AYE?! FOOK OFF YE CUNT!” He thought of Orsus, thought of the hulking beast of a man walk to the edge of the cliff after being wrapped around the mauled corpse of his other beta, thought of him leaping over the edge as if he could fly. But he couldn’t. And he didn’t. And in spite of everything that man had said about putting Cerise first and being a father to his people, he had killed himself rather than be there for the rest of them. Rather than be there for him. His eyes remained locked on the girl’s, his thoughts now turning to what he would do if he saw Orsus again, and how they seemed to coincide with what he was about to do to the bitch that had tried to pick a fight with him. This is him talking This is him thinking This is you

Snorting, she looked at him sideways and rumbled, "Can't be watching 'em all the time, usually there aren't any random ass-hats traipsing around here ripping prey to pieces for the hell of it like messy pups." Her lips curled further with disdain at the very idea of what he'd been doing. Mara did a lot of crazy and bad shit, but so far she hadn't wasted perfectly good food for no reason. That was just too far. Cackling like some sort of nightmare she watched as he leapt up, keeping her body parallel to him so she could watch him and side-step a bit to keep the established distance between them without actually backing up. "Oooh" she cooed, pretending to be impressed by the showy display he gave, her exaggerated tone betraying her mocking intentions. Fluttering her lashes she retorted, "Ouch, you'd almost hurt my poor feelings, if this wasn't coming from someone with a face like raw meat. You're hardly a prize yourself. Starting fights like that, when it hardly looks like you're all that good at winning them." She'd drop into a crouch, circling the man slowly with a predatory gaze locked onto him, heart thumping a little faster as she grew excited at the prospect of ripping into him. Snorting and rolling her yellow-orange eyes she giggled, "Oh, and what would you be then? The washed up old fool who putters around being useless and ripping up birds? Is that all you're good at, or do you have more useless talents I'm unaware of?" Walk. "Talk" "You" Think

He supposed he could have admitted that he lost his head a bit with the penguin, and if it had been anyone else he might have looked away and admitted defeat, but that had stopped being an option a long time ago. Now he just wanted something to rip into, something to tear apart. “Dinny no cows could bae so hypocritical. “ He shot back with a sneer. Normally he would have taken that personally, maybe even been hurt by it, but his blood was boiling too hot for him to feel any emotion other than anger and his mind was too caught up in slinging the next insult to register anything she said. She blathered on, rambled really, and questioned his ability. “Am a far cry  bettar than ye at tellin’ stories ya reprobate!” He fired his tone dripping with smug arrogance. “An lest A keen keel one o’ these shites, I deneed sum ‘Sea Monster’ tae do eet fer me!” He rolled his shoulders back and slammed his paws down with a vicious bark, his body posed in a bow ready to reach up and grab her by her throat. The move was sudden and if she flinched- oh if she flinched he would know he could intimidate her, possibly even into submission. “Oy! How’d ye get so fat eef ye keent even catch one o’ these wee shites?” he taunted, “Mebe that hangin gut o’ yers es jus’ full o’ bullshite aye? Git fooked ya fookin tallow whistle!” He spat. This is him talking This is him thinking This is you

Snickering she shook her head gently, never taking her eyes off him even for a moment. It would be foolish to even blink when the tension was so thick in the air. Not that she was worried about her ability to handle this moron; you didn't have an attitude like Mara's and a need to brawl with anything that moved and come away unable to keep your head despite tension. "If I'm a cow, you're a big blubbery walrus." Raising  brow she added, "Why you aren't even as tall as me and yet look, you're practically as heavy. Perhaps you ought to go on more patrols and feast a little less sweet-cheeks," yes, the smell of pack didn't go unnoticed. "Good, I don't tell stories to idiots, or anyone. You're the one with this obsession over fairy tales and stories, maybe you ought to get your head checked you dim bastard!" she hissed, hackles raised. She'd brush past his nonsense, not expecting the stupid bumbler to know she wasn't using the monsters to kill her prey but rather crippling it and feeding it to them for shits and giggles. No, that was inconsequential now that she was getting fired up. A half blind mouthy fool with raw meat for a face? Hardly a challenge, if he came at her she'd do her darnedest to beat him into next week, pack or no pack. "Please! I can catch things a lot bigger than you ya dipshit." A wild, wicked grin washed over her face as she stalked closer, the safety of the distance she'd left ebbing away slowly as she rose to meet his threatening posture with a roaring snarl of her own and a crazed sort of confidence. He was all mouth so far, her ability to take him seriously was dwindling by the minute. "Does the mouthy meat-face find himself in a pack 'cause he can't even protect his own not-so-pretty face?" she growled, amusement thick in her tone, half-tail swishing as it raised ever higher in response to his banter. Walk. "Talk" "You" Think

OOC Note: power playing agreed to by Monster   “A keen protect mysel’ joos fine lass.” He said, his body still crouched, his lips curling back further as she stupidly drifted closer to him. “Ye on th’ other paw…” He abused the element of surprise as much as he could, lunging at her with a tearing snarl, his jaws closing around her throat, shoulder driving into her chest, knocking her off her feet and onto her back, issuing a loud crunch from the pebbles beneath her. He pulled back to look down at her, one paw placed firmly on his chest, his ears pulled back to the point that they were barely visible, his lip raised in a snarl, almost daring her to try something. Steam billowed from his parted jaws as if he was a great dragon ready to vomit fire and burn her alive. He leaned close, ready to taunt her further, and then snapped back, his eyes wide as he finally realized she was in heat. Suddenly it all made sense; her foul mood, her apparent desire to fight, the protectiveness of something that by all rights shouldn’t have mattered, all of it. He raised a rear paw, ready to step away before he made matters worse than he already had. He had started to berate himself internally for insulting a woman who was undoubtedly hormonal and for not noticing the blaring warning signs sooner This is him talking This is him thinking This is you

Maybe it was stupidity, a lack of amusement to keep her from being dumb, or this stupid heat bullshit. Whatever the cause, her reaction to the sudden attack wasn't nearly quick enough, something she immediantely began berrating herself for as she sailed towards the ground and braced for impact, face scrunching into a grimace. Air hissed between her teeth as she hit the ground, pebbles scattering in a wave yet not having enough give to absorbe much of the blow. That was gunna hurt in the morning. Some might say she deserved it for the way she acted all the time. Mara would say screw that. Staring at him, still not entirely impressed by the display, the dark woman glared up at her latest source of irritation with a look that could easily kill quicker than her fangs. One brow quirked up in response to his unexpected shift. "Well get the fuck off or don't, I don't have all day." she growled, though her tone was significanly tamer than it had been earlier. She was too busy thinking about how Feli and her brother would likely be ashamed of her failure here to worry about continuing with the horrible attitude she'd prctically trademarked. Admittedly they'd be disappointed for entirly different reasons... Visibly cringing at the thought, Mara attempted to roll away, huffing distractedly as her adrenaline subsided and the desire to rip the man's face right off subsided for the time being. It took a bit of effort to stuff all the thoughts of the only wolves who made multiple appearances in her life down to the deepest darkest corners of her mind. She didn't need them, or their opinions, or anyone or anything. "Talk" "You" Think

He jumped back as she rolled onto her paws, afraid of being caught in a compromising position and dropped immediately onto his haunches as he felt a warm blush rise to his cheeks, thankfully hidden under his soft fur. He kept his half-blind gaze on the ground, his jaw clenched firmly as a slew of self-critical thoughts raced through his mind. He could feel his body tighten under his thick winter coat and whatever thoughts weren’t scolding him attempted to reel in his basic and animalistic instincts. He cleared his throat. “Erm…Sorry.” He said gruffly, still looking down. He supposed he should have said something else, maybe explained why he had killed the penguin but he doubted she would care about his problems. “Sorry abou yer burds tae.” He muttered, although why he bothered to apologize for that was beyond him. He hadn’t expected her to settle down as much as she apparently had and what had ultimately caused the change in mood on her end made him just a bit curious. He wondered if he should leave before things grew awkward, but some small part of him, one that still craved blood and wanted to lord over her that he had knocked her flat was adamant that she was the one who had to leave. "Talk" "You" Think

So focused on fighting with herself internally was she that she'd nearly managed to forget the man sitting nearby. Woulda been an improvement to this day. The thought amused her though she was far from a state where she might laugh. No, that was well past her. Looking over her shoulder at the brute Mara suppressed the urge to curl her lip. It was the only reaction she could think to have. No one ever really... Apologized. Not to her. Honestly that was probably well deserved, it was rare for her to get into any kind of trouble that she didn't fully deserve for being, well, herself. Realizing her mouth was hanging open a bit while she tried to figure out a response to this, her jaw snapped shut with a loud click. No sooner had she done this than the second apology came and Mara could only respond with silence. What the hell? "Doesn't matter..." she mumbled under her breath, turning away a bit to continue trying to process what was even happening here, her face clearly displaying the overwhelming confusion and uncertainty. This was not how things should have gone down, this was weird and uncomfortable and Mara was never uncomfortable. Angry, irritable, rude, sure. But uncomfortable? Never. Something in her rebelled against the foreign emotions, giving her mixed feeling about what to do now. Run? Stay? Fight? Ears flattening she growled softly to herself, half-tail swishing suddenly while she tried to sort it all out unsuccessfully. Between the situation at hand and the overwhelming haze in her mind no doubt caused by her heat she felt like a big lump of stress and confusion. Add this to the list of reasons to absolutely hate the season. Standing and shaking out her thin pelt Mara moved off to go stand by the water, standing with her paws in the chilly water. Cool off, figure it out. One way or another Mara needed to fix what was wrong with her so she could move on with her day, and probably leave this dumb land to go find somewhere better to hang out. Clearly not everyone was as fun as Pyralis. What did others do to calm the hell that was their heat seasons? Well, there was the obvious, but that was about the only answer she had considering she'd never really spent a good deal of time around other females. "Talk" "You" Think

He glanced at her as she stepped into the water and looked away, he was starting to feel awkward. He opened his mouth to say something then closed it and looked away again. He sneezed nervously and rose to his feet. "“Roit.” He grumbled" “A guess A’ll bae leavin’.” He said although he stayed in place, lingering only to see if she would ask him to stay. He wouldn’t ask or offer to stay himself because after all he was the intruder and had all but torn her throat out, and yet he wouldn’t leave unless she told him to, if only because there was a chance she would ask him to stay, and if she did it would only be with one thing in mind. He would have been lying if he said he didn’t want to, but then he doubted any male regardless of orientation would ever say no to what the wolves in his old country called “a tumble”. He had turned the page on the chapter of his life titled “Isis” and was eager now to reclaim the portion of his life where he brawled, drank and fucked his way to notoriety as a fully-fledged scoundrel. Especially since, unlike the lands where he had become so infamous, no wolf here had been particularly turned off by his appearance, at least not enough to say so to his face…Well, this girl had, but he was willing to forgive her on the grounds that she was just hormonal. "Talk" "You" Think

The mixed emotions swimming through her mind were about to drive her insane. She wanted to explode, throw herself in the water, something, anything to just ease the tension. She'd gone from a fairly normal interaction - for her at least - to whatever this mess was. Thank goodness the hormonal disaster that was unraveling her only happened for one season. Smacking at the water with one paw Mara was about ready to go look for something to rip into when the man spoke. He was still here? Right. Where else would he be? She wasn't going to say anything to his words at first, busy probably making her own predicament worse by getting all worked up for no reason, yet she found herself searching for words. It would be easy to let him just walk away. She should just let him go. Fuck, this shouldn't even be a question, the fact that she was mulling this over was weird and just... Ugh! She'd be awkward enough feeling like she did normally but the whole interaction so far was just throwing her off more and she didn't know what to do with herself. Her head turned a bit to look at him, eyes filled with what could only be described as absolutely overwhelming uncertainty and the faintest hint of vulnerability. That was probably why she was stressing like a mad. Mara didn't do vulnerable, or uncertain, or whatever the mess she was becoming was. All she could think was what she'd normally do. Fight it. Looking at the man she'd previously been so intent on irritating and being completely pissed at, she saw an answer. But hell if it didn't feel strange to be thinking this way. She'd never once considered such things, not a single time. What did she have to lose? She didn't speak, if she did she was scared that she'd say something weird or dumb or maybe decide to get annoyed and lash out. Instead Mara walked slowly, carefully over the rocky ground towards the man until she was closer than even she would normally be comfortable with. Moving to brush against him with a gentleness she'd never used before with another living creature Mara would find herself in terribly close proximity to the brute, her mind still losing it's shit,  but her body quite happy with this decision. In true Mara form she wouldn't mince words, but opt instead to continue brushing along his side and start walking away from the beach, beckoning for him to follow with a wave of her tail. She wasn't about to be caught in the open, not  when thoughts of the only wolves she really gave a crap about had continued to sit in the back of her mind. No, it would be better to go somewhere dark so she could hide the choices she'd probably regret from ever seeing the light of day. Rash decisions were best carried out in the dark. Or at least no where easily seen. "Talk" "You" Think

He didn’t wait for her to say something, he didn’t need to, she had been quite clear on her intentions and he would be more than happy to comply. He kept close to her, the end of his muzzle never straying further than her thigh as they walked his tail whipping from side to side.  Eyes blazing, he followed her to a small alcove near the beach and deep into the cave until the walls were barely visible against the oppressive dark. Personally he didn’t give a damn where he was when the proverbial it happened, but then it  was never really about him. Not to him anyway, he liked to give women as much control as they needed in an attempt to make them feel more comfortable. The only thing he really wanted was to be considered a great fuck and he had all but mastered his craft since he reached his second autumn. He brushed his chin and neck against the end of her spine with a low purr. She was tense and while he wanted to change that he doubted he had the time foreplay before she changed her mind. He kicked off the ground, standing on the ends of his toes to compensate for the inch of height she had on him and dropped his weight down on her, his tongue grooming the scruff of her neck before he buried his nose in the thick patch of fur. There was no time for foreplay but he wasn’t about to make his first screw in over a year be completely undemonstrative. He dropped his head on her back, his neck brushing against her until his face pressed against her ribs and- -Fade- "Talk" "You" Think

It didn't take long for her to find the perfect spot to make this impulse decision. Dark and secluded, she still couldn't quite relax but this was better then being somewhere that she'd feel like Feli or her brother would magically appear and make her strange and awkward life a million times worse. Thinking about it made her reflexively cringe, so she banished all thoughts outside the present and instead of being freaked out by stuff that wasn't happening she could quietly lose her mind over what was happening. The physical contact made everything better and worse at the same time in the most amazingly frightening way. Mara didn't allow anyone to touch her - it just didn't happen, even with her own family. Despite the internal uncertainty, her body was quite certain that this was right and reacted quite positively to the feeling of him brushing against her. Yeah, this would more than fix her problems. Letting out a deep breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding all along, she relaxed into him and allowed herself to try and enjoy the kind of physical closeness she'd never allowed before. It was surprisingly enjoyable, and once he was on her and his tongue rasped over her fur Mara's confusion and stress melted away. Every touch sent sparks and shivers down her spine. This might not be so bad. Leaning into his touch hungrily, Mara allowed herself this one -and she still hoped only - experience. -fade- "Talk" "You" Think