Uh oh... she knew he was planning something the moment he uttered those three words. She wisely kept her mouth shut, narrowing her eyes at her captor as he he hatched diabolical plans, and she tried to guess them.

She watched as his eyes fell upon her bag, and she startled. No. He wouldnt. Her whole life was in that bag, he could break something, ruin her lifes work. Game or no, she was not letting him anywhere near that satchel.

The larger wolf turned himself onto his back, holding her to his stomach. It was a strange pose, and in other circumstances she might be tempted to bury herself in the warm parts of his coat and go to sleep.

Instead, she needed to think fast. She contemplated threatening to die his fur pink in some undetermined point in the future. In the end, she went for the one weapon she had in her arsenal. Pushing with all her might with her bag feet, digging them into his sides, she managed to pull herself forward, just a bit and shove her face into his. Knocking her muzzle against his, she would start to kiss him. Without much practice in these sort of things, she decided to experiment, adding a bit of tongue to fully distract the other wolf.

He was fairly confident in his ability to both hang onto her and to wiggle the short distance necessary to reach the bag. It would be an easy win and no one would be thinking about the cave or the storm or the various other heavy matters they were tiptoeing around and he for one would no doubt be crowing over a nice little victory. Granted, he still needed to figure out how to get hold of the jar, open it and dump the contents on her, but he suspected the only real option there would be to release her and dive for it. If he was fast he could get it quickly and the cave was small enough she would have nowhere to hide.

All his scheming thoughts stuttered to a halt as she clawed her way to his face and kissed him. Pyrrhic nearly caught himself, he almost saved his plan, laughed in her mouth and kept going, but the addition of a clever and cruelly applied tongue killed his efforts to salvage the situation. His brain hiccuped. What else could it do with this bizarre, alien experience that was not at all unpleasant?

All thoughts of the bag forgotten, he leaned up into the kiss. Pyrrhic’s arms were still locked tightly around her but having forgotten that they were competing it was likely he wouldn’t offer much resistance if she tried to break away from him. To do so would be a shame though.

With the taste of Pyrrhic in her mouth, she all but forgot about the bag herself. What had been intended to be a plan to distract him, became something more. Never in her life had she been in a situation like this before. Nestled in his stomach, his arms looped about her, his muzzle to hers.

Was this what it felt like to be loved?

She wouldn't even try to escape from his arms, instead, she held him until she needed to breathe, and when she went up for air, she laughed softly. Light headed, and riding a rush of endorphins. “It does feel real” she whispered, finishing a conversation Pyr had started some hours before.

"Speech"

Pyrrhic wasn't sure what to make of this turn of events. He had hoped she would come around to the truth. That she would accept the divine hand in their meeting and the subsequent ease with which they got along. Was that not destiny? How could it be anything else? He was of the opinion that every sign up to this moment pointed to fate. Finally Riva was coming around to it.  It could be argued that she was coming around to it too quickly, but Pyrrhic would argue that those who did not go where the Fallen God directed at the pace He set were not in fact following His command. For the sapling in the gale it was all or nothing, bend or be broken.

Breathless he looked up at her, one paw tracing the curve of her shoulder. Her admission had broken over him like a wave. Until now he hadn't realized how tense the wait had felt. How much he'd needed that answer. But hearing it, getting confirmation that he had been right, let him really breathe. Pyrrhic was riding a high of relief and exhilaration. He felt light both in body and in mind.

The ghost of a cocky smile turned up the corners of his mouth. He was tempted to throw out a 'told you so' but his mouth, still sweet with the taste of her lips, refused to form the words. Instead he leaned forward to kiss her again, knowing she would taste better than his teasing words.

Riva had been abandoned by her mother as a child, and taken in by an old healer. The healer had raised her, trained her, and turned her out to the world the moment she was old enough to fend for herself. She had discovered she had a brother, one raised and loved by their mother. He did not stay in Riva’s life either, opting to leave her, and scarcely willing to call her blood. She had joined packs, and watched them crumble. In other words, she was a wolf accustomed to the things she loved and wanted to be a part of, falling away. She held onto Pyrrhic more tightly, pushing her arms around his fur, burying herself in the plush warmth of his stomach. Her dampness and chill had been forgotten, she felt nothing but heat. The sound of the rain and hail, and endless storm, nothing but a pleasant background noise. She wasn’t going to let Pyr go. She wasn’t going to hang her head and let something she might love slip through her fingers, not again. She looked down at the half-smile on his lips, and knew he felt something too. "Real." she whispered, and she grinned back at him, carefree and delighted, and leaned into the next kiss he gave her. "Riva" & "Pyrrhic"

Pyrrhic pulled back and quietly savored the moment. After a beat he opened his eyes and looked up at Riva. His expression was serious as he studied her. He didn't want to get this wrong. Mortals were fickle, flighty things and he was afraid that if he pressed too hard she'd balk at his closing grasp. Pyrrhic was convinced of their suitability, but that didn't mean he was ready to give her all of his trust. There was still that fragile element of being a mortal that made Riva, in his mind, more apt to flee the will of Abraxas. Not that he could really speak much on the subject given his recent history, but nonetheless his reservations were there.

He traced the curve of her shoulder again and followed it down to the small of her back. She was firm under his touch; her frame hanging somewhere between lithe and supple. The slow, easy smile returned to his lips as he decided to go for it. With his arms tightly around her Pyrrhic twisted them both over. Only then did he release her to place both forepaws on the ground so as to avoid crushing her beneath him.

With slow and deliberate movements he began to nibble on her neck, inching upwards until he was at the hollow of her throat. There he placed a kiss before moving to her lips. He would continue on in this way; tasting and nibbling the many places on her body that piqued his interest. Before the night was over, if he got his way, he would have her.

-fade to black-

She melted into him, returning his gestures in kind, through she had no idea what she was doing. If some small voice cried out 'what are you doing!' It was drowned out by the taste of him.

Morning after:

She had somehow forgotten about the small space, the walls closing in on her. Instead, she slept more blissfully tben she had in a long time. She woke to the first hints of sunlight, filtering past the damp and drying weeds that partly blocked their exit.

She turned, leaning further into the warm space of Pyrs stomach. She stretched out her legs, yawning, and tickling his tummy by accident with her toes. She kissed his cheek, wondering if he was yet awake, and-- she bolted to her feet with a gasp. "Babies! Oh no, I took nothing to guard against babies!"

Since the volcano Pyrrhic had slept fitfully. The nights he had slept hard and woken refreshed had been few and far in between. He'd been startled awake by the memory of ground giving way beneath his paws more mornings that he could count. His grief, guilt or bitterness would seep into his thoughts soon after waking, marring whatever ignorant peace he felt. This morning was different. Riva stirring was what woke him up. Pyrrhic opened his eyes but stayed still and simply enjoyed the feeling of her pressed against him. He felt at peace and more than a little satisfied with the previous night's events.

Riva's alarm caused him to draw his legs up in surprise. He gazed up at her in sleepy confusion and slowly relaxed as he realized how misplaced her worry was. "No use worrying over such things now." Litters were a rather important facet of life, no? There had never been any question that he would father children. In a world where the mortal to godling ratio was heavily skewed in the mortals' favor, every fit Abraxas child counted. It was his duty to have them and as far as Pyrrhic was concerned, he was doing his part. He had found a suitable woman and done what he was supposed to do. Pyrrhic hoped Riva conceived from this even though it was unlikely since she was not in heat.

He motioned for her to lay back down with him. "If they're meant to be, they're meant to be." And if not today, tomorrow surely as he would not be satisfied until a litter was on the ground.

He didn’t seem terribly alarmed at the prospect of children. She put her paws on the ground, and looked to him, studying the light-toned boy before her. She remembered what they had done the night before, and blushed heavily, but kept her expression stern. “And if I had children, you would help me care for them, and raise them?” no child of hers would ever be abandoned. Not like Riva had been. “And your not the one who has to carry them” was a very quiet mutter. The idea of dying in childbirth sent a jolt of fear through her. Perhaps she was jumping the gun here, it was only one time, how likely was that to result in puppies? She wasn’t in season either. She was just jumpy because she had never lain with a man before. She was getting her tail into a knot over nothing. She smoothed down her fur with a few quick licks, and looked to Pyr sheepishly. “Sorry to startle you.” When he gave the ground a gentle pat, she didn't argue, instead collapsed beside him, and snuggled into his warmth again. they were both dry now, and the chirping of birds, and lack of rain-fall told her the storm was long passed. So long as she didn't concentrate on the space around them, she could be content to lay with Pyr a little while longer. "Riva" & "Pyrrhic"

“And if I had children, you would help me care for them, and raise them?” It was his turn to look at her. How different the views of mortals must have been for her to feel compelled to ask such a thing! Of course he would take care of them. They would be his, no? It would be a duty and a blessing. "I can think of few greater purposes in my life." Raising strong Abraxas children, seeing them to adulthood and to parenthood themselves, would bring him a wealth of pride.

He wrapped his arms around her as she snuggled into his chest and placed a kiss atop her head before musing into her fur, "In Aerie they would grow up strong and fierce. With your nurturing and my teaching they would become formidable Abraxas." He did wonder, though... "Tell me, why would you think I might not care for them? Do mortal men not take care of their children?" That would explain the over abundance of them, certainly.