Walk | Talk | Think
With her silver-blue eyes alert and scanning, Callisto proceeded onward into the forest, traveling slowly behind the feline that led their way. She looked left and right as she walked, letting her nose, her most valuable asset in searches such as this, guide her as she went. The forest smelled alive, strong, and warm, so unlike the frosty scent the Gulley had begun to take on just before they departed. Was it like this here all the time, always green and growing, never touched by winter? Or would winter eventually take its hold here too? She almost wished, foolish as it was, that it stayed like this always. It might have made it even as desirable a location as the Fern Gulley was back home.
The forest distracted her, captured her attention as only the bounty of nature could, but she caught herself sending quick, sidelong glances at the grey wolf that kept pace with her. They pretended at normalcy, acted as if they were fine, with each other and what they had begun. But as the end of her season had come about and her mind was no longer consumed by hormones, she realized it was time to take a step back. Suspicions arose again that Jakart was no longer looking at her as merely a fling that lasted the length of autumn but as someone that he might spend his life with, someone that he would commit his life to. Seriousness had never been on the table when Callisto had instigated their affair, and she felt, strongly, that it needed to be taken care of before things escalated too far. Bella was right; he needed to be let go before he was hurt.
The problem with that was she had no idea how to go about it. Conversation had never been her strong suit - hell, it even surprised her sometimes to realize that she had someone tagging along with her who actually wanted to be around her, and for absolutely no reason that she could fathom. But, during the rare times she had actually conversed with others, for whatever purpose, she had never let her social inadequacies hinder her. And she damn sure was not going to let them do so now.
"Jak, we need to talk." Blunt, straight to the point, Calli addressed him as she stopped, turned, and faced him. She steeled herself as she lifted her chin with a stubborn set and eyed the wolf that had, unquestionably, wheedled his way into her life, the wolf that she needed to step away from. She should have done this sooner, she realized, before she had dragged him this way on a vacation of sorts, away from home and family. She wished she had realized it sooner, remembered so that they could be spared the awkwardness of traveling together if it came to that. But there was no way she was going to wait to bring it up until they returned, no way she could stand that nagging in the back of her mind that she was leading him on. The sooner she did this, the better off they would be.
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