Aurielle Adravendi

The festivities of the First Night were kicking off well, with the feast and drink flowing. She herself had abstained from the strong liquids. Some of the drink was kept well hidden, to be hawked as wares come the morning Trade Faire. She was glad to include the Faire with all the other events of the next week. She’d meant to hold one earlier than this, and to have all of this going at once in one week was thrilling to an extent that her skin tingled beneath her fur. Or maybe that was the damned heat cycle. Wolves had broken off to explore the festivities, see previews of what would be up for trade on the morrow, now that all who would be arriving this Night had arrived. She had slipped from the main mass to stroll among the gers and yurts, nodding and smiling to any Festival-goers she passed, occasionally sharing a chat with one or two of the Nomads. It came to a head when a male from the nomads passed downwind of her and paused, sniffing delicately before snuffing out through his nostrils to clear his nose, and his head, before circling respectfully upwind of the Spirit and murmuring gently in her ear, “You’ll want to get more of your perfume on. Your latest application’s faded too much.” She coughed a soft laugh and whispered, “Thank you, Normiros. Tell Kalindia hello for me.” Hurrying away with a cling of moonstone and silver beads from her headdress, she wove through the hide structures, though her composure was far from rattled. Aelloshir was with her and the inky cat stalked ahead of her, pale eyes glaring everywhere before he gave a short burr of a growl. Not threatening, but simply warning her of a wolf coming their way around the bend of a ger. She paused mid-stride, considering. She’d managed to avoid any of the Festival participants since Normiros’ warning. The Nomads were trained from an early age to respect a woman in heat, and to stay upwind. And they had also abstained or drank very little of the strong drinks provided. She wasn’t so certain of the wolves that had come to enjoy the festival. She wasn’t given much time to think before a colorful form came into view. And she knew the man. Despite her condition, she smiled, greeting easily as her tail waved gently, “Good Eve, Jupiter. How go the Festivities?” She’d caught a glimpse of the young man during the Opening, but there were so many wolves to acknowledge in some way, and some hadn’t really approached her, that she hadn’t had a chance to greet him yet. And he had certainly grown into himself. He was easily as tall as her father, though with a runner’s elegance rather than a powerhouse of muscle. Had he found his family, she wondered as she let her haunches fall, though she bent to murmur into Ayodele’s ear, “Could you get the scents, please, Dele? My usual.” The Lemur nodded and dashed away, ringed tail in the air as the Spirits eyes turned back to the celestially marked man with a grin. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Jupiter was feeling quite nice. Aurielle had put on one hell of a shindig. Living so close to the Orchard of course he wasn't a stranger to fermented things. Hell, he'd even dabbled in creating his own concoctions. That hadn't stopped him from indulging here. Nah, that family or band or whatever they were knew how to please the palette. He'd sampled food and drink until he was fit to burst. Now it took all of his slowly loosening resolve to hold himself together. Jupiter felt as though a simple sneeze would burst his seams and whittle him down to a pile of blue confetti. Amadeus too had indulged. He'd hit the offerings harder than Jupiter and now lay sprawled down his companion's back mumbling a song about a fair monkey maiden with a twirly white mustache. Jupiter could feel the tamarin's taunt pot belly poking into his spine. He had enough wherewithal to think to himself just how annoyed he would be if Amadeus threw up on him. “Good Eve, Jupiter. How go the Festivities?” Jupiter lit up, his lips parting in a lopsided and uncharacteristically broad grin that betrayed his condition. "Aurielle," he said warmly. "Good, good. You throw a helluva party." "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”

Aurielle Adravendi

Aurielle grinned as she caught a vestige of what Jupiter’s companion was singing on his back, and as she grinned back at Jupiter, her eyes twinkled their amusement. “Thank you for coming.” She paused, lowering her head to hook a paw beneath the headdress and tugging it off wit a quiet sigh of relief. There was enough time between the Feast and the call for Fighting entrants that she could air her head for a while, and it felt good to have that weight off her brow and the lack of tinkling silver and moonstones around her face and head. She straightened, headdress neatly on the ground at her paws as she smiled up at the young man, asking “How have you been? You’ve grown much since we met.” It was no idle comment but an easy compliment and statement of fact. She was tempted to ask him of his family, but if the news was bad, she didn’t want to dampen his obvious good mood. Even though her scent was definitely getting stronger than the perfumes now, she wasn't worried. She sat downwind of him, and Aelloshir had one glowering, overprotective eye on the man from the shadow of a ger. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

Though her scent was mingled with a mix of others that didn’t stop Jupiter from getting a whiff here and there. It was such a dangerous scent. Evolution made it one of his favorites and though it called to him, he knew the truth of it. A bitch in heat was a dangerous thing. All the pretty trappings in the world wouldn’t make Aurielle’s cooch any less of a threat to the blissfully child-free male’s lifestyle. Even in his current state Jupiter knew that. It was for that reason he was going to have to satisfy himself with his thoughts.

She was a rather attractive woman. He would have liked to tangle his jaws in her mane. Perhaps he’d try his luck with her the next time he was in the west. An idea struck him then and he couldn’t help but smile to himself. He planned on visiting each pack regularly with wares to trade. Perhaps he’d find himself something sweet in each. “Thanks for letting me in,” he said, thoroughly amused with himself.

“Very well. A lot has changed since the last time we spoke.” His father had connected him with his family and in doing so given him the stability he had so desperately needed. “I never did find my mother, but I got my siblings back and connected with my father’s family.”

He had the wherewithal to know to eye her curiously. Inebriated or not, he was going to do his best to lay the groundwork for future endeavors. “How about you? Ya look like you’re doing well for yourself.”

Aurielle Adravendi

If the Spirit could have read minds, she might have found herself flustered by what Jupiter’s was thinking. There was the frankness of knowledge of what evolution drove one to do during her season, and then there was the emotional reality. In all likelihood, their ancestors of long, long ago, had probably never considered such a thing. It was mated pairs and all their offspring, most likely, rather than the empires and kingdoms that Packs had become in Boreas and Auster, and from what she knew and heard, the world at large. Wolves of primitive times had probably chosen mates based on genetic strength and health, rather than personality and appearance. Of course, at current, her mind was nowhere near the subject of mates and long dead histories of who mated whom and why. She was, in fact, thrilling that he had at least found some joy in finding his family, though she felt a stab of sympathetic pain in her breast as he admitted that he had never found his mother. But at least he had found his siblings, and a father, and further family to boot. At least he had that much. An almost wistful smile tugged at her lips as he remarked upon her own successes in life, and she chuckled softly. “I suppose I have. I was crowned much sooner than originally planned—only a yearling. It was for a good reason. You remember I told you of my mother and brother missing?” She trailed off, brows furrowing slightly as she paused, then went on, “The Nomads found them. They’d been taken by slavers when my mother took Aramis only just beyond our walls to have a healing lesson. It took only that moment of time for them to be stolen. My father stayed as long as he could until I was ready enough to take over, then left to rescue them. I … envy his battle. They were wiped out, the slavers.” A short, sharp sigh huffed from her lungs, her good humor all but gone, now. “Mother and my brother were returned, right upon my first pack meeting. But… They were shrouded in the memories of the fear and pain. And mother has never recovered. And now she’s gravely ill. And she won’t recover. Aramis has, but he’s desperate to find a cure that doesn’t exist for this kind of sickness. I’ve asked the Nomads. If any would know, they would.” Ayodele broke the tension that had settled over the shimmering woman, bounding in with a glass bottle in one nimble hand. Aurielle coughed softly, giving Jupiter an abashed look as she added, “But, I shouldn’t be dropping such negativity upon your head. Not in such a happy festival. I truly am happy that you at least found your siblings and family. Jupiter, this is Ayodele, and that, over there, is Aelloshir—you’ve met him.” She smiled, mask in place to cover the turmoil she’d come close to revealing, nodding toward the mountain lion, who was still giving Jupiter the look that was highly reminiscent of a big brother or a father of the daughter a hopeful peasant-boy might like to court. The last five inches of his tail were twitching, curling and uncurling methodically. Ayodele gave Jupiter a jovial, almost sassy wave before she uncorked the bottle, dousing the Spirit in a powerful waft of peppermint and vanilla, soaking the fur around her tail and scent glands in the perfumed oil before recorking the bottle as Aurielle stood, shaking out her coat and huffing out a sigh, gazing innocently off in another direction as Ayodele noticed the circlet on the ground and grumped. Aelloshir ended up glowering even more as the lemur dropped the headdress on him instead. The Spirit gave Ayodele a grin, remarking in The Old Tongue, syllables and consonants dancing off her tongue, ”I’m at my limit for wearing that thing, Dele. You might as well take it to the hut.” Switching fluidly back to Common, she turned back to Jupiter, asking, “And how is your companion? He seems to have enjoyed the feast quite a lot.” Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think

He nodded when she asked if he remembered what she'd said of her family. In truth he hadn't, but that wasn't the polite sort of thing to say and a little white lie didn't hurt any. His answer wasn't too terribly important in the long run anyway as it had little bearing on the storytelling. The nomads seemed to be a title of some sort but Jupiter was unfamiliar with them. He was curious about the slavers they had supposedly wiped out. Not that long ago his own family had taken care of a network of them and he wondered if maybe the two had been connected. It was possible. "I can imagine," he said in response to her statement about her family members not being the same after their return. No doubt the transition from free man, to slave, to free man again was a bit of a whirlwind. "I'm sorry to hear that." She was interrupted suddenly by the reappearance of one of her companions. As the cat was doing nothing of interest Jupiter glossed over him, but he gave the primate a polite nod after it waved at him. Although it was probably for the best it was a shame Aurielle felt the need to cover her heat scent. He rather liked it even though it was dangerous. Ah well. Though the scent was muted the effects of it were not. The genie would not go back in that bottle. It was going to be stuck in his nose - and his thoughts - for the rest of the evening. "Oh, it's alright," he said lazily. "Feel so good my mood can't be dampened and besides," he said with a shrug, "I did ask, didn't I?" Oh yeah, his companion was a thing. Amadeus had been so quiet Jupiter had forgotten about him. "That...is a good question." He glanced over his shoulder with a surprised look. Much to his relief Amadeus blinked blearily up at him. So he wasn't dead yet. That was good. "I see you're still alive," he said dryly to Amadeus. "How about you hop down and say hi or something?" Without a word Amadeus slipped off his back and landed on the ground like a blob of jello. He picked himself up and slid around one of Jupiter's forelegs. Once in front of it he wrapped his arms around behind his back and clung to the leg for stability. The little tamarin glanced around at those gathered. When his eyes landed on the lemur he put his lips together and let out a sloppy whistle. "Prettyy." Jupiter snorted and rolled his eyes. "He'll be fine." "Jupiter"   "Amadeus" ”You”

Aurielle Adravendi

A smile twitched on the Spirit’s lips as Jupiter assured her that his mood was undampened by her melancholy. It seemed her query as to his companion’s enjoyment of the feast reminded the blue-swirled male of the creature’s existence, and the faint smile filled out into a grin as the monkey roused from his stupor enough to slop from the large male’s back to the ground. Ayodele looked around with the wide green lemur eyes as a sloppy whistle came from the monkey’s lips. Aurielle gave a soft cough, hiding the laughter that threatened to roil from her chest to her mouth, one paw lifting to swipe at her muzzle as though disposing of an itch, but the less than ladylike snrk that escaped from behind the paw as Ayodele gave the monkey a sassy wink and bounded to the black mountain lion’s back, hinted that she was really trying not to laugh out loud. After a moment to compose herself, Aurielle cocked her head up at Jupiter, asking, “So, will you be attending the Trade Fairs or participating in the fights?” He didn’t look to be the kind of wolf that wasn’t a fighter. The cocky confidence he showed had been obvious even as a pup. Walk ---- "Speak" ---- "Hear" ---- Think