THE BETTER ViEW. [OPEN]

[Luke]

FROM THAT PARTiCULAR ANGLE
below the infrastructure of Spring leaves, the branches looked as though they were grappling at the cerulean sky above his head. Furtively blossoming flowers had sprouted around the Tree's base in an array of colors, and another had begun to emerge underfoot.

Lukas was happy.

Undeniably, a lot had changed, but things were beginning to look up. His bones might as well have been steel; he didn’t even recall the last time he’d taken a tumble or bumped into something. Was his blood still red? Memories were strangely faint of ever meeting that, too, though he probably had at some point. This absence was not unwelcome.. just a bit odd. Luke enjoyed oddities, particularly good ones. He felt the flicker of a smile forming - perhaps one of accomplishment - on his lips when he sat, his neck still craned upward as his gaze continued to scour the tall wood that was the brilliant center of Forsíða Tré. It was so massive it could have swallowed the forest and its tiny occupants if it wanted, cloak them over and hide them from existence. Oh, but how tall was it exactly? This was certainly something he hadn't explored.

"Oh dear.."

Deciding to approach the Tree, he studied it before pressing hesitant forepaws to its rough surface, etching marks into his pads. He then propelled himself from his back legs and hitched onto the bark wall, talons inserted between cracks in the wood. Before each precise step, he was sure to calculate the placements and positions of his feet, a new-found confidence slowing beginning to build. With his wiry and light build, he'd climbed many trees in his youth. Surely he did, but that didn't stop his bones from creaking and moaning in protest of the action. As he reached the first thick, jutting limb, he nearly lost his balance; reeling wildly as if he would fall at any moment, he clung to the base, a forlorn shudder running the length of his spine as his ears fell flat against his neck. He gazed down with bright blue eyes into the churning green and shadowed land (not that far) below him. Grunting softly with the effort, he pulled himself up onto that particularly juicy limb and stayed there, emitting a soft sigh. He'd made the first six or seven meters. With a brief glance upward, there were several more ahead of him.. and an estimate just wasn't good enough.

ooc;; Anyone welcome.
I invite Seven, though~
Someone needs to talk
sense into ambitious Luke.

[∞ seven]

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[atrb=background,http://i45.tinypic.com/e6vgo8.jpg] The tree, always so plain, had sprouted an amazing array of colors seemingly overnight. She didn't quite know how to react to it, but some inner voice told it that it was only spring working its magic. Stepping forward, she brought her nose to a flower and inhaled. It smelled like morning dew mixed in with some interesting fragrance. Stepping back, she looked up at the large tree it's self. The leaves where a spring green, the limbs and bark a healthy brown. Only a white shape, clinging to the branches interrupted the green and brownness of it. Seven squinted up at the shape, at first thinking it was some left over snow. But the more she looked at it, the more she realized that it couldn't be snow. It in fact looked like a wolf. But why would one be climbing the tree? To find an answer, she herself started to scramble up a root. Which was a hard task in itself, but once she confirmed that it was really a wolf. It would be worth the scrambling. No wolf would crack a neck falling from her tree. Once on, she walked up it till she was a few feet from the trunk of the tree. Looking up, her suspicions where confirmed, there was a wolf in her tree. At first she felt like laughing, how could he have gotten up there? Imagining the sight was interesting, a white wolf, clinging to the trunk like a squirrel did, and making it up from there. But eventually, the odd hilariousness of it faded. And replaced with mild anger, the wolf didn't look like one in her pack, and yet he was climbing or had climbed her tree. She stepped back. "What are you doing up there?" She scowled. "Get down this instant."

[Luke]

LUKAS RESTED AGAiNST THE BASE,
wary from the brief fatigue climbing had given but intent to go further; that is, until an indignant voice spilled into his ears and baby blues moved to the floor to see the Czarina scowling up at him. According to her face, he was clearly not making a good first impression as the newest member of the Order - her tone was laced with slight rage, maybe even disappointment. It caused his frame to tense and brace itself against the hard of the bark, as though her words themselves were objects she threatened to hurl at him.

"I do apologize, my dear lady," he murmured, shifting uncomfortably, his tone calm and collected despite the underlying seriousness of the situation. "I was wondering how tall this tree was. Naturally, I took it upon myself to find out."

There was nothing natural about wolves climbing trees, specifically ones that towered far above all else. She sounded very insistent on his coming down.. but he had not considered how he would go about doing that. With a stiff roll of his shoulders, he straightened up and maintained his balance, eyes never averting from the chartreuse-and-white pelt of the femme. Luke hadn't formally met her since his joining.. and this was not how he visualized that moment.

[∞ seven]

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[atrb=background,http://i45.tinypic.com/e6vgo8.jpg] As she stood and waited her mind, just a few seconds ago so intent on the climbing Lukas. For that is what she remembered his name to be, and he was ranked a scholar. But now, her mind was back on the tree. Never had she thought of climbing it, or even going up one of its roots. Always it had been the inside she was interested in, and the lands around it. As a Czarina, she was too busy to be interested in stareing at something and thinking about it. Unless it was a night, when she had a sliver of a moment to be doing so. The voice of Lukas dragged her out of her thoughts. "I do apologize, my dear lady," He said, in a murmer. "I was wondering how tall this tree was. Naturally, I took it upon myself to find out." Seven shook her head in disbelief. Of course it was good for him to be curious, but he could have told a keiyou to fly up there, instead of doing it himself. That way, he wouldn't have had to find a way down. But at least be was apologizeing for his misadventure. She took a few steps forward on the root, than leaned on the trunk of the tree and looked up again. "It's all well and good that you want to find out how tall it is. But you could have found a better way." She paused. "After all, how are you sopossed to get down from there? Sending up a keiyou would have been much smarter."

[Luke]

"SMARTER, HMM?"
Luke emitted a thoughtful hum and his eyes returned to the bark wall. "Perhaps. But I don't fancy relying on others simply because it has been deemed impossible for my species to reach such heights."

Emotion didn't seem like a very present thing in his Czarina's life. Her face was almost impassive, following every word out of her mouth; he couldn't read her like he could some. This produced a frustration that was not portrayed in Luke's features, but his tail did sway in aggravation of his thoughts. There had to be a way to break her stoic exterior. Climbing had been a foolish whim, dancing around in his head. Perhaps she, too, needed to consider an act that nudged her out of whatever box it was she was in.

"Do you ever dream of being something else..?"

It was a spur-of-the-moment question that slipped from his jaws as a jet-black raven claimed the skies and caught his eye. The more he contemplated it, the more certain he was that his own answer was no. He may have wanted, for just a second, to assume the role of a Keiyou or Yagi, created with convenient privileges that made it easier to thrive. But when the world stood before him, in ledges and layers that had yet to be breached, his heart hit the roof and a longing crept up over as well as a determination to wander those edges. It wasn't an aimless curiosity. Rather, it was a drive.

[∞ seven]

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[atrb=background,http://i45.tinypic.com/e6vgo8.jpg] "Do you ever dream of being something else..?" The questions echoed in her mind. At first she was mad, first the wolf climbs the home tree, and than he decides to pop an unseen for question on her? But than, as the words gave thier full impact. She winced. Of course she had, on restless nights, when she was young, in her dreams. Who hadn't thought of being something else... someone else? Seven has wanted to be a keiyou or a kukkien when she was young. The two where so pretty, one that could fly, another that could blend in perfectly with anything. But it was mostly because the two where pretty, and so unlike her life. That had been filled with violence and gore. But she didn't say that to the lupus. She didn't say anything. She instead leaned on the trunk of the tree and fixed an icy glare at him. Her anger going from mild to something a little higher. "Personally, I think you should rely on yourself to get down from that tree." She said, still glareing. After he didn't say anything, she stepped away from the trunk and stopped glareing. And instead just waited, spent.

[Luke]

HE COULDN'T DENY HER.
It was her land, her regulation, after all, and that meant abiding by her wishes. ".. As you please," he said with a curt nod, his voice cracking with the disjointed movement he made to regain steady footing. It was so much like his mother’s, so prim, so soft. He spoke with fluent, flawless articulation, and a moment afterward, a light chuckle fell from his lips. He was not intimidated by the hard stare she sent his direction; it was quite actually welcome, as he felt he deserved it. "I'll have you know that my intentions are not going anywhere, highness."

Cautiously, Luke reached out to use the tree base as leverage to climb back to earth, but misplaced his paw and went straight down. It wasn't a lengthy fall, but a short, staccato one, and he landed inelegantly with a ~thump~ right at the Czarina's feet. The alabaster white wolf instantly heaved off the breath of the breeze and the brief twinge of pain in his back, smiling up at her; not that he half-expected one in return. He was barely even a blip on her radar, considering she was a respected royal with little concern of his whereabouts, but he'd rather just remain so. Lukas was a shy boy, lenient, addicted to the pound of his own heart beat. She could despise him for wiping his curiosity all over her Tree, but he'd find a way to change that.

"On an unrelated note, do you need anything today..?" he asked off-handedly as he got on his four, lightly shaking off the particles of dust that had found their way into his coat.