Bane stared with both eyes up at the clouds past the gap in the autumn leaves of the trees that covered his hillside. Shifting. Rolling. Shaping. Free to do whatever they pleased as the wind blew them along. The darkened fur of a foreleg coming into view as a paw attempted to bat at a cloud like a feline with a few repeated waves. Being alone in Somnium wasn't to bad. Never hungry nor thirsty though it didn't stop him from testing the water from the nearby rivers slow current. Cool and refreshing despite an obvious effect still not being noticed. The fish that lazily swam by were easy to grab up, and their little bones being returned to the water when he was done. What others that lived around here with him were curiously glanced at from afar but had yet to be approached.

The only other real curiosity to Bane was just what his family was doing? Every day during a spare moment the tree he had awoken close to in the grassy field was glanced at. Watching and waiting for a familiar face to rejoin him in the afterlife. With a content sigh the dead wolf rolled over and picked up his carving antler. Both eyes, whole and shifting in their curious hazel gaze examined the face of the closest untouched trunk. A cheery grumble was vocalized as he set about the slow and artistic process of carving out the Talutah symbol into the base of the tree. The first of three to spaced evenly in the bark. Dozens more had to be done on his hill, but the wolf had all the time in the world.

Walk | Talk | Think

Tahlia wandered, seemingly without direction, through a wood that was both familiar and strange to her. She thought she recognized it, felt as if she had strolled through it  or one similar to this wood before, but then again it felt different enough to make her second guess it. It was like some warped, twisted version of the reality that she knew, something both changing and reflective of the stationary and stable. How strange, she wondered, viewing it all through two functional, dark golden eyes that should not have given her the clear picture they did. But then again...things were often strange in dreams. 

She walked on, oblivious, and only altered her course slightly when she came upon the river. Even this held some familiarity but it was not an exact enough replica of anything in her days to make her think she had been here, in this exact spot before. Her thoughts were beginning to come back to her, to make her wonder and puzzle over the world, her, and her place in it, when she thought she smelled it. It was a scent she knew well, one that she had been chasing in the waking world to no avail. Thinking she might have better luck here, the russet she-wolf took off quickly in pursuit, tracking and following the scent to its source. 

She found him standing before a tree, his antler within his jaws, working away at the trees as she was sure he had countless times before. Tahlia's heart constricted at the sight of him, whole and healthy, his coat that had once been grayed out now whole and rich and dark again. He still wore his scars, proudly, but there was a youthfulness to his stance that she had not seen in some time, a wholeness about him that brought tears again to her eyes. This was how he should have been all along. 

It was not real, none of it was, and yet she felt unable to help herself. The golden-eyed wolf broke out into a brisk lope, calling out with a quiet bark to get her husband's attention, and did not stop until she was upon him. She bumped against him as she practically stumbled to a stop, ears tucking as she roughly nuzzled her head against his neck and chest. His scent, oh his scent...she could smell it at last. Unable to trust her voice with words, she barely managed to get out a whine as she continued to press against him, wanting in that moment never to leave him, to never wake up and go back to the world as she knew it without him. 

The willow scarred easily against the flowing back and forth motions Bane preformed with the ceremonial carving antler. A feather twisted along his neck with the shift of the wind. The first arc was almost done, humming with content at the beginning shape of the mark. He inhaled, nose twitching at the faint wisp of a familiar scent, tail brushing over the dirt once in a half wag, the memories of who its owner was surfaced. Countless times laying in their den when he'd hold her until sleep claimed the both of them. Cleaning each others muzzle with gentle strokes of a tongue after a kill. Their pride as they watched the wiggling and squirming babes against her stomach when rearing young. The two of them by a river as she fished with him just watching, a delicate iris held in his teeth for when she turned.

Old feelings and sensations. A kiss. A nuzzle. Words of want and need. A gentle press of his hips as he closed his eyes, muzzle skewing in an intimate kiss. Her breathlessness being voiced against an ear as his muzzle nipped and pulled on the fur of her shoulder and neck. Fangs roving and deliciously holding the base of her throat or puncturing the scruff of her neck. The shudders and shivers of their quarters as he satisfied her during many stolen moments together as husband and wife. The pure but raw exhaustion that claimed them afterwards. With bated breath at the growing sounds of another approaching he would turn at the sound only she could've made.

Tahlia's black and russet pelt pressing against his chest as she was suddenly there against him. Eyes closing as he held her with a foreleg to bring her close. Shapely and without the burden of young. Pelt as whole and as soft as she was in her prime. His Tahlia was here with him now. A cross between the growl she loved so much and a hum of content rumbled up from his throat. "Tahlia." Bane breathed. "My Tahlia." The wolf placed a kiss between her ears as he looked down at her. "Are you here to stay?"

Walk | Talk | Think

Another soft whine whispered from her muzzle as she felt her husband's leg raise and curve around her, scooting closer still at his prompting. Oh, she had missed this so much. There were no words to describe how happy she felt to be with him again, to feel him beside her, to let his scent surround her, to hear her name spoken from his lips again. Tahlia had been so lonely without him, lost and detached, unable to see that there were others there willing to share in her grief, willing to help her if only she would ask. But she had always been a prideful creature, too proud to admit defeat, too proud to request assistance. She had chosen, instead, to suffer alone and let the pain eat up at her until it had become too much.

"Oh, I've missed you," she whispered back, feeling the soft rasp of his tongue against her head and offering a kiss of her own against his chest as she remained tucked against him, not wanting to move, never wanting to leave. But of course the reality of the situation could not stay away for long. He asked, gently, whether she would stay, and she drew back just enough to look up into his face with a somewhat dazed, perplexed look. It seemed an awfully funny question for a dream to ask. "If only it were so," she answered, her voice still surprised and confused, "I am dreaming, Bane. Any moment I could wake up and you will be gone again." She lowered her head again to press it against Bane's chest, wishing to soak up more of his memory before that time came.

"Tahlia?" Bane questioned as he nipped at an ear to watch it flick against the touch. She missed him dearly, the way she clung to him, the kiss placed below his throat tingling from her touch. The warmth from their intimate embrace growing between them with each passing moment. "And I you. All of you." Her next words caused him to be slightly taken aback, causing him to give pause. Could the dead possibly be visited by dreaming wolves? Was that even a possibility? Perhaps she'd yet not passed on as he had and the gods allowed visits such as this. What factor was time in this place? Bane blinked. "I know I am dead," He started. "that this place is where we go when we die. I remember your touch. The way you held me when under that tree before the true darkness took me."

The tip of his muzzle brushed her forehead. "But now I am whole again, happy as could be. Even more so since your here even if you are dreaming." The Somnium wolf adjusted his foreleg and lifted her chin with a paw. A kiss wantingly placed on her nose, Bane closing both eyes and shifted down slightly. His muzzle parted with a rumble her ears certainly longed to hear. Grip tightening as she was held against his chest in the embrace they'd gone for so long without. With a shuffling of his paws he strode forward, easing Tahlia as gently as he could onto her back, fighting against the maneuver to keep kissing his mate. His forelegs were placed opposite her shoulders as he leaned down, nipping against her neck, the tip of one feather brushing the side of her throat. With but a whisper he would do as she wanted, needed even. The feeling of his touch and the bonding that he could sense she missed so much and had gone so long without.

Walk | Talk | Think

He was still where he stood beside her but she continued to nuzzle against his chest and throat, seating herself before him as she pressed close. It was amazing, wonderful, to feel him here again, even if it was not real, even if it never could be real as it had been when they both lived. Tahlia was desperate enough not to question anything, not the change in her husband nor the changes in herself, so long as it meant she could be here for a short time, to reunite with Bane after struggling so long without him. It was going to be that much harder to return for this little taste of bliss, but she needed it so badly. He was everything in her life and with him gone...it was like having no life at all.

Another quiet whine accompanied the press of his muzzle to her forehead and preceded his response, which was, again, rather self-aware. How was it that this dreamed vision of her husband knew that he was gone, acknowledged his own passing when he could have easily just held her close and pretended as if things were absolutely normal? It was so strange, so different than usual dreams, and yet Tahlia refused to think anything of it. No, if she did, it might pull her from the dream too quickly. She needed to savor this meeting for as long as she could, and she intended not to spoil it with the unnecessary.

His paw lifted, pressed against her chin, and at his urging Tahlia lifted her head to peer upward into his face. He looked even more handsome than she remembered, so young and full of life, his eyes whole and taking all of her in. She felt her own grow teary again as she continued to look at him, blinked once as he kissed her nose and then closed them as she melted into his kiss and let him pull her more tightly to his chest, her balance compromised. Only a slight noise of worry sounded from her as he eased her back, her body tensing slightly, but he held her firm, keeping her steady until her back touched the ground.

Only then did she fully understand what she had failed to realize as he had moved her, heard the growling as his muzzle parted from hers to travel down to her neck, the nips he placed there causing her to shiver with delight. "Bane," she whispered, shocked and amazed that she was getting this time with him, that even in dreams he could make her feel so alive and needy. She lifted a foreleg and pawed at the side of his neck, not caring if the movement ruffled his carefully placed feathers. Maybe she would even take one for herself before her time here was over, before she woke.

Bane gave a muted chuckle at his weak kneed mate. Fangs grazing through the fur of her throat, feeling the shivers as her body responded to his administrations. With but a single word she would voice her surprise, the way a foreleg was lifted to stroke the side of his neck. Desire and the minuscule hint of a sultry playfulness as he saw a crow feather fall away. Tahlia wasn't going to wait, the way she held him tightly as he pinched her neck between his forelegs, breathing quickened as he kissed the she-wolfs neck.

A step was taken back, his hips squirmed for a moment before taking a slow shuffle forward as the familiar motions brought them back muzzle to muzzle. And after lavishing kisses upon her throat for a moment he began to move with but a firm roll of his haunches, muzzle nipping the side of her neck, feeling and hearing her breathes next to his ear. For what seemed like hours Bane brought Tahlia up the tallest mountain, never quite letting her summit the peak when the top was in sight. All the skill, all his stamina and all the tenderness he could put into the climb being preformed alongside with her. Listening to wants and needs along the way. And when it finally came to bind their bodies together for sweet release his gaze broke away from her eyes. He bent her neck back as his fangs held firm around the she-wolf's throat, a muted groan given. Tahlia's quarters now following his gentle movements that eased her down from the high they had reached together. Exhaustion quickly set in, Bane standing over his mate as they waited, jaws withdrawing, nips now being placed with his nuzzles behind Tahlia's left shoulder, a paw caressing her side. Trying to keep her distracted. To let her go back with a dream worth remembering.

"How are you back at home when not dreaming?" Bane mumbled against her neck. A whine threatened to leave him as they suddenly became unbound, the deceased wolf rubbing his forehead against her cheek as he was finally allowed to freely collapse upon her. "How many young were there? Are all the pups doing ok?" So many questions he wanted to now ask, and it was a fear that if she was dreaming that she could stay a little longer and provide answers.

Walk | Talk | Think

The feel of him settling over her was more than enough to get her heart racing, even more so because he was supposed to be gone and their time together was supposed to have been at an end. But here he was, thrilling her with each kiss, each gentle and stirring nip, that he placed against her neck, drawing her along on this slow rise without any sense of urgency or rush. Tahlia might have felt desperate to hold him close, to stay in this moment for as long as she could, mindful that it was all a dream, an illusion that might shatter at any second, but Bane acted as if they had all the time in the world. And it was all the more breathtaking for it.

She could not remember feeling as satisfied as she did once they had reached their end, could not recall a time during their waking lives when their stolen moments together had seemed to matter as much. This was a union more special, more precious, because of the impossibility of it, the unbelievable circumstances that should not have allowed such an act to be possible. The russet and black wolf was more than breathless; amazed, dazzled, struggling to regain her senses as she descended from the high, she nearly missed Bane's initial inquiry, had to think a moment to find the answer. He relaxed, easing upon her, and her legs weakly trailed along his sides, her tongue sneaking out to rasp softly against his neck when he prompted her with further questions. Right. She needed to answer him.

Absently, still weakly, her paws played against his sides, her head nuzzling against his as she answered him in a tone that was somewhat dreamy in quality. "One," she murmured, "Just one." But even as she tried to envision him, the image was fuzzy, a lack of attention or care leaving her with only a partial picture of what the child was like. And his name...she had had no part in that either. What was it Anais called him? A quick flutter of anxiety reared up within her, causing her brow to furrow worriedly over her dark golden eyes, realization of her state in the waking world slowly settling in and becoming known to her for the first time in months. "I..." How did she even begin to explain that? How could it possibly be true? She had always been so conscientious of her children, of herself, and yet what she remembered, or at least what she saw now in retrospect, was something, someone, entirely different. It can't be true...

His haggard breath disturbed the short fur of Tahlia's cheek, her jawline sniffed with a relaxed sigh. There was hesitation as Bane fully lay himself upon his mate, still attempting to calm his panting breaths. Taking a moment to pause and glance down, settling his stomach against hers, feeling the rise and fall of her chest against his. A paw grazed along the side of her hip. Tongue slowly starting to groom the she-wolfs neck fur when he felt her forelegs graze along his sides. Laughter threatened to escape him at the look on Tahlia's face, a tender nip placed against her shoulder. Bane hoped she was satisfied, that she would remember this dream when feeling lonely. That she could come back one night and do this all over again.

Bane felt her muzzle against his cheek, heard that only one pup had come forth into the world when she replied to him. Then something within her changed, Bane not quite noticing the shift at first as he was busy nibbling up the crook of a foreleg. It was the silence that captured his attention. She was glanced up at, the wolf shifting from where he lay upon her to rise the front of his body over her. Something was wrong. The way her brow was furrowed. Bane gently nosing the tip of Tahlia's muzzle. "Tahlia?" The Somnium wolf nudged her muzzle with rising worry. "How is our child? Female? Name?" Something was wrong. So horribly wrong with the look she was giving.

Walk | Talk | Think

She stared anxiously, almost as if unseeing, away from Bane, her thoughts at a different place, a fuzzy image that should have been crystal clear. It frightened her that she had no true recollection of the child he asked about, had not even a name to offer but only that it was a single son born into their last and final litter. There was no reason for it to be this way, no way that Tahlia could rationalize it in that moment, and desperate to remember something, anything, she tried to think back further. How had it been before, during her pregnancy? That, too, was fuzzy, distorted, though less so, and just a little she began to remember. Bane was gone, and her life with him. Her den had been made empty, and so had her heart. And the child…

The touch of his nose to hers brought her back with a quick blink of her eyes, finally looking back at him as if seeing him for the first time. He was so clear, so solid above her, and yet her thoughts of the waking world were so thin, so broken. It should not have been this way. Somehow she needed to fix it…but not from here.

Her heart was beginning to race again, though now from distress. This was a special moment, a rare treat that she should have been savoring, but all she could think about then was her children, the hazy place she had left them, and a desperate need to make those images clear. "I need to go back." The words were spoken shakenly but decisively, the revelation of what she needed to do coming over her and convincing her in that moment that if she could just wake up she might make things right again. As if she could get there where they were by foot, she squirmed beneath her husband, trying to roll and press him away so that she could get her paws beneath her. Still she spoke, her voice growing more desperate by the second. "I need to get back to them. Bane, I need to go."  

It was the silence that first got to him, the way she avoided his gaze with that troubled look in her eyes. Bane reached his muzzle around hers and brought her face to face with him. "Tahlia? How is our child?" The Somnium wolf reiterated as he leaned a bit further upon her. She was avoiding the question. Perhaps he was asking the wrong things of her. Perhaps something truly horrible had happened and only now, as she lay there beneath him at his prompt she was beginning to focus. "How are you, back there? Our young?" The inquiry was almost forced out, it ending with a worried whine.

But she didn't immediately response, saying the she needed to get back. By these words Bane drew away slightly, forelegs straightening as he still lay over her. Tahlia wriggled beneath him, repeating that she needed to get back, that she must go. Her movements were frantic, shaking and scraping to get to her paws beneath him. The male wolf relented in the fact that he allowed her to stand. But Bane strode to her front as she stood, gently bringing his jaws over her muzzle as he stared into her eyes. He needed her to focus. And tell him just what was going on.

Walk | Talk | Think

He moved, as she had hoped, allowing her the space to roll off of her back and up onto her feet. Tahlia was quick to stand, but as soon as she had she was at a loss again. How did one break themselves out of a dream and back into the waking reality? Her paws shifted restlessly beneath her as she shifted around in place, her thoughts a wild torrent within her mind. She needed to get back to her kids, needed to reassure them that they would all be okay, that they would survive on without their father no matter the difficulties. She needed to be there for them as she had failed to be these past months, as she now was starting to realize. For too long she had been consumed by grief, swallowed whole by the emptiness of her heart. She was supposed to be stronger than that, braver than that, if for nothing else but her children. She needed to get back and fix things before the bonds she shared with them were broken beyond repair.

Again Bane was before her, demanding her attention as he wrapped his jaws around her own. There was no time for this! Could he not see? She needed to go back! The black and russet wolf whined, closing her eyes and breaking contact there while she tried once again to squirm out of his grip. "Stop! I need to go back," she begged, but even as she thought of it she could not think of how. Thinking it, wishing that she was awake, should have been enough. It should have drawn her up and away from this fictional world her mind had created and back into the reality that she had failed to truly live in since Bane’s passing. And yet…here she was.

Her legs began to shake, panic slowly creeping in to replace her anxiety with something worse. "I need to wake up. I should wake up," she spoke aloud, as much to herself as to her husband, who was still only trying to understand what was causing her distress. But not even saying the words aloud made a difference. The forest was still the same, she was still the same. And Bane was still staring at her with a look full of concern. The image of him she saw went blurry as her eyes began to fill with tears, a broken, heavy feeling settling within her chest as she whined in desperation, "I’m not waking up. Why am I not waking up?"

Tahlia wriggled her muzzle away with a whine, still adamant that she needed to return and be awake. "Tahlia! What is happening back home? I cannot help you if you don't talk to me." His heart was breaking at seeing her like this. Bane didn't want to get more forceful with her. There was no pain in the afterlife, as he had found out with an accidental tumble one day. But it was seeming more and more like the viable option to get her to focus and say just what was going on.

Again she spoke of waking up. Desperate now, Bane taking another step towards her when he saw the tears. His neck wrapped around hers, a paw reaching around her neck as he sat. "I do not know Tahlia," Bane began as he leaned his head back to stare into her eyes. "I cannot help you if you don't tell me what has been happening. The name of our child. How you are back with our young." These was one thought in the back of his mind. Bane knew his wife to be strong when it came to their family. He didn't think she would have the capacity to take her own life when there was a family to look after. But the thought was already planted, and the more he held his mate he began to realize that there was nothing wrong with the family back home. There was something wrong with her. Bane's grip tightened slightly as he settled in to wait for her to tell him what had happened.

Walk | Talk | Think

Everything was wrong. This was supposed to be a dream, nothing more than something her mind had created in her sleep, but not even telling herself to wake up was working. She repeated the words again and again inside of her head, had even muttered them aloud, but still she was here, within these strangely familiar woods with her mate standing across from her. And, gods, the look on his face. She was hurting him through her distress, though not nearly so much as she knew she would once she explained to him that she was not waking up. That, unknown to her, she never would again.

He drew her to him, curved his neck around her own and held her with a foreleg. Tears spilled as she thought of her plight, understanding what could have been wrong with her but unwilling yet to believe it. She could not be here to stay, as Bane had first thought. She had her children to take care of, her family to raise and watch over. There was so much left undone there in the waking world; how could she have been sent here, to this afterlife, already? Bane consoled her gently, but still he was adamant about finding out the answers to the questions he had already asked, repeating them yet again as he met her watery gaze with his own that was steadier. Oh, how could she tell him what she remembered, what she was beginning to realize? How could he ever take hearing it of her?

"I do not know his name," she finally admitted guiltily, her tear-filled, golden gaze pleading while her ears pinned themselves to her skull. "I don't know anything. When you...when you left, you took part of me with you. I didn't...live right after that. It's all just a blur." Gods, how had she even carried the poor child to full term? And her poor children, seeing her like that... "I am weak when I wake. I go to be with you, by the tree." How pitiful she sounded, how fragile her psyche that she had broken so horribly with his loss. And how horrible she felt to know her children no longer even had her to care for them. "I do nothing else," she whispered, ashamed to admit it, to own up to letting herself deteriorate so quickly. No hunts, no exercise, no time spent with her family. Just endless hours in her grief, chasing the memory of her lost husband. Her eyes filled again, her sadness choking her voice as she stammered, "And now I cannot wake." Did it really mean...? Was she lost now too?

"My Tahlia, talk to me." Bane whispered as he cradled his mate against him. He placed a kiss between her ears, wanting to cox out the answers he knew she had. The Somnium wolf rocked himself from side to side where he sat, trying to keep Tahlia calm and focused. When she looked up to meet his gaze, the tears streaming down the side of her muzzle, Bane's fears were confirmed. All was not well with her back in the land of the living. Their offspring were assumed to be fine, even the newborn. The babe that didn't even have a name, Tahlia only speaking the gender. Another son. And she continued to speak. To list the wrongs back home. With her. Everything regarding her. Mounting to a conclusion that Bane didn't want to accept, the deceased wolf now looking down at her with a mixture of shock and realization. Why she wasn't waking up despite all she was say and doing.

Tahlia was dead.

The thought ran through his mind several times as he still held her gaze with his own two eyes. Twin sapphire to deep gold. Both whole, healthy, locked at one another. And Bane clutched Tahlia all the more tightly to him, paw stroking down her back to sooth and shush, to cease and calm the she-wolf that couldn't go on living without him. "Shhhhh, it's going to be ok Tahlia. I want you to think of us together. By the river. By ourselves. As I said when you last held me by that tree. Now think of where we are now." Bane looked down at her, the river just a few steps away. "In time, before you know it, everyone will be here with us in this place. It is my hope that they will find their own bond that we had together before arriving here." The Somnium wolf brought the tip of his muzzle to hers. "We did our young right Tahlia." A passionate kiss molding against her muzzle before withdrawing to let her deal with the loss she had suffered within his embrace. In time he knew that she would be overcome this realization. And Bane could now be there for her. Forever.

Walk | Talk | Think

She half expected him to drop her, literally, to let her go and step away and be angry with her for not being stronger. She had always been strong in life. When he had been exiled from their pack when their first litter was still young, she had managed to get by and live away from him, to be strong for their children so that they could live within the safety and comfort of a pack even though the distance had never suited her. She had been strong even before Bane, when her first husband had passed, to the point she had been able to go on and remarry without any issue. But something about Bane had changed her, completed her, in such a way that to be without it had undone her, and there had been no recovery from that.

And still she expected him to be mad, braced herself for it, so that the tightening of his embrace around her, his soothing, soft tones, that did not sting or slander only caused her tears to flow more freely, in relief as much as sadness. She was gone from the world, unable to get back, but her husband did not hate her for it. No, he understood, he welcomed her at his side in this place that looked so strangely like their old home, and no matter that she hated herself for her shortcomings, he still loved her. He kissed her, showing as much passion for her as he ever had, and she felt wholly undeserving of it. She sobbed, pressing her face into his neck as she cried, unable even to stammer out the apology she felt he deserved.

There was no stopping the tears for a time, nor could she control her sobbing, but eventually they lessened and eased away, leaving the golden-eyed wolf feeling emotionally weak and exhausted. Her sobs had subsided into pitiful sniffles, and between them she whispered at last, "I’m sorry." Would he even understand why? She could not bring herself to explain, nor did she want to risk possibly sending herself into another sobbing spell by doing so. She closed her eyes shut tightly as she buried her face further into the dark fur of her husband’s neck. "I love you," she whispered, certain now that she could tell him again that she would never be able to say it enough times to satisfy her.

Bane continued to caress a foreleg down her back, gently shushing his deceased mate. She was here with him. All was now complete in her world now despite leaving so much behind. He looked down, watching the russet fur of her withers get ruffed up before being smoothed over by a downward stroke. Tahlia pressed her muzzle against his neck as she let it all out. His poor mate. What she must've been put herself through with his death. But she was with him now, and now they would be together forever. She would never miss him, Bane could always been there for his mate. Always satisfy her want and desires to the best of his abilities as said so when they first decided to become mates all those years ago.

"It's all going to be ok Tahlia." A kiss was placed between his mates ears. The female was letting it all out, and still he cradled her until she began to calm down. The tears dampened his pelt where she buried her face into his neck, a soothing rumble surfacing up from his chest. He though of her apology, the needlessness of it's vocalization. Bane knew she truly was sorry. "I know." A sigh left him as his mate snuggled closer, adjusting his grip. "And I love you." Bane mumbled, paw clutching her tightly to him. With the motions mirroring the moments before the time intimately spent between themselves, Bane brought Tahlia onto her back once again. His nose brushed her cheek, paws standing on either side of her shoulders. Going the way he previously had wasn't quite what the male had in mind, even as he bent her head back. A kiss was placed along the base of Tahlia's throat, nibbles leading up her neck before a trailing lick settled the fur. Bane did it over and over. Tahlia was known to enjoy this kind of attention.

Walk | Talk | Think

She could almost feel the gentle rumble that he made as she snuggled against him, as his paw that cradled her to him stroked over her back and held her close. He still wanted her. Not just in that moment, but overall. It was amazing to her that he would, that he would not punish her for failing to be with their children longer, for following him so soon into the afterlife. Tahlia could have stayed there tucked up against him, within his soothing embrace, for ages now that time no longer mattered. Just to feel that same depth of love and want that she had felt, which had torn her apart when he had passed, through these simple actions of her husband was reassuring like nothing else could be, and she never wanted to stop feeling it, to know that he still and always would care.

His grip on her changed, drawing her more purposefully to him, and this time she was more prepared. Her forepaws lifted to hold onto him as he eased her once more upon her back, not nervous this time but cooperative, and she tucked them against her chest once he had set her down. Her dark gold eyes were still full of her devotion to him, her love for him, as she stared upward into his face, his nose softly caressing her cheek before he eased her head back.

She complied, her eyes closing as she exposed her neck, and felt the rasp of his kiss against the base of her throat. A tingling trail followed the nibbling motion that climbed her neck only to be soothed by the lick that retraced the path to begin the process over again. It kindled her desire with each pass of his tongue, each tingling nibble, but slowly, so slowly. After all, they had all the time in the world. Tahlia murmured, a wordless, "Mmm," to express her approval, her delight, her breaths beginning to be drawn in more deeply. Between them, her forepaws lifted to knead into the fur of her husband’s chest, as much to encourage as to feel him standing there above her, solid and steady, while she slowly melted at his paws.

The pale fur of his mate's throat was no match for his tongue, weight shifting to lay upon the she-wolf. Tahlia's paws loosely trapped between their chests. Which was fine for Bane, help get them out of the way as he trailed an unceasing amount of kisses all over her neck. Tahlia murmured something, Bane far to focused upon distracting her with the love she had gone without. Pinned ears however began to catch on to the way her breathing had shifted, the paws the wound up to rove through the restored winter grey fur of his chest. "Tell me what you want of me." Bane breathed against the side of her jaw.

The wolf stopped his treatment before she could answer as he remained hovering over her. A smile creased his muzzle, his nose touching hers before drawing away to make his way towards the river. A thought had formed. One she'd appreciate, even as his paws drew himself though the riverside grass and into the water to stand unmoving in the shallows he knew Tahlia would enjoy it. If she could gather herself up before he returned, a glance given to the low grass she was hidden by. Out of the corner of his vision he saw it, a rainbow trout. Eager jaws lunged forward, fangs piercing it's scaly hide as he snapped to up. Bane moved up onto the shore and through the riverside grass with purpose, the corners of his maw upturned in a smile. Years ago, when he had approached her to be his, Tahlia had been fishing. She had been unsuccessful, however gaining herself a mate. Now they were together again. Bane had gained back his Tahlia. Practically beaming, the old wolf presented his mate with a fish. A minor gesture. But one he hoped she would understand and appreciate even if it's complicated message wasn't realized.

Walk | Talk | Think

It tickled a little, the way he made his way up and down her neck in kisses and nibbles, caused the skin beneath to prickle and shiver. But in no way was it an uncomfortable sensation. Far from it, Tahlia enjoyed it, every moment of it, and did nothing to deter him as Bane kept following his pattern. The woes that had darkened her mind were pushed away from the forefront of her thoughts by her husband's distracting actions, letting her feel what she had been missing to allow her to reconnect with that life she had thought lost to her. And because she wanted that, wanted only to exist in the moment with him, she let him pull her further into this dream that was her new reality, accepting it and him more wholly by the second.

She felt his muzzle move from her neck to her jaw, a quiet, whispered phrase nearly drawing out another shiver. Well…she had some ideas now, that was for certain, and perhaps the coy little smile she offered him as his nose touched hers might have given some of that away, but there was no chance for her to say anything or give an answer. Very suddenly he was no longer there anymore but was walking away toward the river, his attention already directed elsewhere as if he had not been teasing her just a second earlier. He walked through the grasses edging the river and into the waters purposefully. Leaving her lying there upon her back, her neck still tingling from his touch as she stared after him, and expecting a little more than she had received.

The black and russet wolf sighed, eyes closing. Of course she should have known. They were by the river again, the very same place where he had pulled something similar to this before. She should have guessed that their location might trigger a repeat of those events. Though she had to admit he had fooled her good for a second time. Tahlia finally opened her dark golden eyes again and rolled to her side to sit up, resisting the urge to follow after him and stay close. How solid was this new reality? Was it possible for her to lose her connection with him here? But no, he had been here longer, and if he knew it was safe enough to drift away, to leave her there on the riverside, then they would remain in the same dream. Trying to soothe her worries with the thought, she wondered how she might further embrace this and convince Bane that he wanted to hear her answer to his question.

A splash, a sudden diving motion punctuated the noises of the river, and seconds later Bane drew away from the water carrying a beautiful prize, a perfect catch of a fish both large and healthy. His own fishing skill had improved far more than she had taken notice of, and Tahlia was impressed. She smiled, wondering just how well his skill had improved since she had last witnessed him fishing. She let her husband approach her with his offering and moved to stand, her eyes roamed over the glittering scales of the rainbow trout and then upward to catch his gaze. "A fine catch," she remarked with apparent praise, but as she moved in her jaws did not reach for the fish.

Tahlia reached past it, tilting her head and muzzle so that she could draw her tongue along his chin and lower jaw in cleansing strokes meant to draw out the river water that still clung and dripped from his fur as well as provoke the feelings in him that he had given her. She took her time, knowing they had plenty of it, and cleaned up his chin, his jaw, his neck. "You took the river with you," she murmured to needlessly excuse her actions before she eased back and, with her dark gold eyes searching his, reached at last to take hold of the fish that he still held in his jaws and give it a tug.