It's the great pumpkin charlie brown

Tel’tukiira, thankfully, seemed to understand his intentions through his motions. She was a perceptive girl, intelligent behind her odd silver gaze and he continuously found himself appreciating her...in more ways than one. It was an odd feeling to a boy who spent all of his time with his family. The feelings he felt around the girl were distinctly different from the love and affection he felt from his sisters, mother and grandmother. The feeling made him warm all over, blush easily, and made his heart pound loudly in his chest. He was becoming more and more sneakily suspicious that he was forming a crush on the large, pretty Valhalla wolf, but a part of him knew it would bode him no favors. For starters, she was from an entirely different pack. Sure, they could meet outside the borders, but it would ultimately be fruitless even if, by some miracle, it did venture further. Takeshi knew he would never leave Ashen, nor did he want to. Everything he really needed was there, even if it meant he would never have romance in his life.

Secondly, the boy was mute. No one would want a mute who couldn’t even voice his feelings or thoughts. His partner would always be left wondering in silence, watching from the side while every other couple whispered sweet nothings to each other and had deep, heartfelt conversations. Eventually, the partner would come to resent him, no doubt. And children...what kind of father could he be if he couldn’t even inspire them. Couldn’t whisper words of condolence or encouragement when they were down in the dumps, or make them laugh with stupid dad jokes. No, the kind of life that he imagined came with a voice would never be for him, it was best to not ruminate on it.

She continued forward with him, the boy nearly jumping out of his skin when her big, bushy tail brushed against his side. He gave her a side eye, wondering if she was doing this on purpose, and the thought that she might have been made his heart speed up even more. No, certainly not. He was mute, no one would find that attractive, and he was an imposing looking brute anyways. So many wolves he’d known looked like angels, including the girl beside him and his grandmother, but he looked like a wolf from hell. Perhaps he was predestined for misfortune, or maybe he wasn’t destined for anything at all. Either way, he knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up.

She asked what he thought it wanted as they tracked it, his nose twitching every so often so that he could make sure they were on the right path. He rumbled a deep, vibrating, thoughtful sound in his chest, white checked tail swaying at his hocks as he considered her question. Rabbits didn’t usually want anything other than food and safety, and maybe adult rabbit stuff. But then again, this rabbit didn’t seem to be particularly normal, right down to the wink and the glowing purple eyes. Really, there was nothing normal about anything going on in the world at that moment. Fungi were glowing, crystals were popping up in places crystals really shouldn’t be, and voices from faceless, formless beings invaded one’s thoughts at any hour of the day, even during slumber. Why would a rabbit, of all things, be immune to the strange woes of their odd little world. In the end, he just gave a shrug with a scaled shoulder.

He thought of a way to ask her a question, maybe why she was out here, how she’d been, anything at all besides sitting there like a lame duck. Surely she had to be frustrated with doing all the talking. But, before he could, the rabbit dash across their path. He came to a screeching halt, eyes wide with startle as snow, dirty and other debris scattered at his feet. He felt the hairs at his scruff stand on end, a shiver going down his spine as a bad premonition jilted his bones. Takeshi knew he was no fortune teller, but his instincts were strong and unfettered and he tended to believe he could trust his gut in most situations. After all, it hadn’t led him astray as of yet.

It felt like it was going in slow motion, the way the rabbit scurried across their path, and as it went he could have sworn it grinned an impish grin at them. Another shiver went up and down his spine. Then, it was gone again and he found himself puzzled. The sound of bigger, louder pawsteps came sprinting toward them and they soon found themselves not so confused anymore about the little gremlin’s intentions when a tiger suddenly emerged from the brush, fury and hunger on its stripped face as it barreled toward him, unintentionally or not. He couldn’t help but feel the predator wasn’t in its right mind. Not that it was bothered by their presence, because it wasn’t uncommon for tigers to fell wolves, even ones of their size, but because of the glassy look in its yellow eyes. It was as if it were in a dream, its body acting on a will that wasn’t entirely its own. But surely it couldn’t be being controlled by anything, there was nothing in their world that would have such power. Even though the environment was strange, it had to abide by some sort of law of nature...didn’t it?

The boy let out a snarl, shoving Tel out of the way as the beast slammed into him, Takeshi having already risen to his hindlegs and his forelegs stretched out to cushion the impact and roll with the predator, sending them both a few feet away in a flurry of fur and claws. He immediately felt the beast’s sharp claws dig into his shoulder, ripping into muscle and pulling blood from his veins. His companions, ever lurking in the darkness with watchful eyes, came bounding from the brush with startled looks on their faces. His Akita immediately went to latch onto the tiger’s tail, teeth crunching on bone and the predator let out a faint noise of pain that should have been much louder, had it been in its right mind. It was as if it forgot all about Takeshi, like it had a one track mind as it turned to his companion now instead of him like he’d never even been there. It swiped at Benjiro and the dog barely managed to duck out of the way, nicking his ear as he went and drawing blood from there. The Ashen Prince stumbled to his paws, wincing at the pain in his shoulder. His glowing gaze went to Tel’Teukiira worriedly then back to the predator. He wasn’t sure what the best course of action was going to be in their situation, whether he should trust the girl to be proficient enough to protect herself, or maybe even smart enough to high tail it out of there (which he honestly would have preferred), or make the decisions for her, but he didn’t have many other options than to fight. So, he leapt back into the fray with jaws gaping and tail thrashing.