Sleeping Beauty

Rogue was too fascinated by the stones dangling from Karaka's horns to notice the way she had tensed up when he reached out to touch them, but he did notice how pleased she seemed when he agreed to her price. That made him raise a suspicious brow. Perhaps he should have been more negotiable with those terms... but really, how bad could a couple of stories cost? By pure happenstance, he had selected the stone that had her first story in chronological order. Rogue settled in to listen while Karaka prepared herself and launched straight into her tale. She wove a beautiful and vivid depiction of her birth and her destiny as a storyteller, revealing to him her mission to seek out the stories of other wolves so that she might tell them as well. A bard of sorts, regaling the world with tales of lives of others as well as her own. It was a fascinating notion to the young prince, one that had him enthralled with the idea of getting to wander the world, simply meeting others and making their stories apart of your own.

As she concluded her first story, Rogue would give Karaka a slow grin and an amused laugh when she winked at him. All the while she had been speaking, his amethyst eyes had not left her for even a second; Karaka had captured every second of his attention with her storytelling. He thumped a paw on the ground a few times in applause. "Well, you certainly have a way with words, Raka," he remarked with an easy smile. "Guess your future as a storyteller is pretty much guaranteed with that talent!" Now there was just the matter of the price to have her entertain him, as she so mentioned. "And what would you like in return, miss Raka?" What would someone like Karaka ask of a prince of the most notable family in the realm? Money? Land? Prestige? Rogue waited with bated breath to find out the answer.

Turned out, the answer was even more surprising to him than any of the presupposed options he had thought of. A kiss! The surprise showed on Rogue's face for a brief second before it was swiftly concealed away behind his confident expression once more, despite how his heart was hammering in his chest all of a sudden. A kiss... Rogue had never kissed anyone before, but he supposed he was about to! Trying his best to not look nervous and hide his inexperience, Rogue flashed another grin back at Karaka, his tail beating excitedly against the ground behind him. "Hmm, you drive a hard bargain, Raka. But I am a wolf of my word," he teased her with some good natured mischief in his voice, eyes gleaming playfully.

Rogue's heart was racing. He had seen his parents kiss from time to time so he knew the mechanics of it and how to kiss in theory, but in practice...? Well, here goes nothing! Slowly leaning his face in closer to hers, Rogue took his time bringing his muzzle within an inch of Karaka's until he could feel her breath on his lips. He paused, hesitating for dramatic effect, or maybe to tease her, or maybe because he was hella nervous right now. Either way, after a short beat, Rogue finished leaning in closer, aiming to gingerly brush his mouth against hers in a slow, exploratory kiss, testing the waters so to speak and to see how she would react to gauge how he was doing.

"Rogue Klein"