Shall We Dance? [open]

[Hermes]

He stretched his legs, drowsy from a long sleep. He'd been lazing about all day, and now the night, still a bit chilly from the fading grip of winter. His silky sable coat, smooth and wonderful, gave him a shadowy appearance as he stood, silhouetted by the moon. The muscles beneath his fur rippled, and the Lyxxus/Sennyo yawned.

He trotted in circles, working out the stiffness in his limbs, fluttering the gold and black wings that adorned his paws and waving his tail. Blinking bright green eyes, Hermes peered around. He didn't mind that no one was there to witness his brilliance, something rare for him. Being a loner was a pain these days, and chances were he'd only end up with a pack wolf, ridiculed for his choice to be alone.

Striding along in the moonlight, Hermes tried to ignore his flaws, the limp in his left foreleg, the nick in his right ear, the scar across his muzzle. All things he spend his time wailing about in poetic form, now ignored. He thought back, back to the day when he had earned all of this.

Rain, pouring rain. Howling, screeching, dodging and lashing out, trying hard to keep the other at bay.

Horns lowered, he could see her, apologizing, behind his opponent. Sorry? What did sorry mean? Sorry meant nothing when he'd been betrayed by his love! Sorry meant nothing when there were Yagi horns thrust into his leg, when he was screaming, when he was bleeding, so much blood!

But... but what did it matter now? Hermes smiled to himself, looking up at the moon. Ever since the new look towards loners spread across the land, he'd been trying to keep only the positive thoughts active in his head. In this case, shooing away the darkness of the memory, he remembered the song he'd sung to the girl that night, beneath the stars.

Raising his muzzle to the sky, Hermes began to sing again, letting his voice, smooth and dark as black silk, ripple into the air.

Shall we dance, my love?
Beneath the moon?
The night bears witness
To the stars
That whisper the secrets
Of the world.
Can't you hear?
Beneath the rustle of your paws
Stepping lightly,
Shall we dance?

Having forgotten the rest of the lyrics, he wandered the meadow, singing gibberish to the tune. For once, there was no need for theatrics or anything of the sort. For once, beyond the judgmental eyes of his fellow wolves, for being so strange, for being a loner, for being a cross-breed, he could be free of life!

Company? Who needed company? Laughing, Hermes pranced around, dancing as he had that night, so many years ago. Twirling, fluttering his paw wings, joyous in his existence! He didn't mind being alone, it was one of the many things that made him happy, although, among the memories of times spent with others, he did become a bit nostalgic for the old days.

"Ah!" he cried allowed, halting his dance, throwing his head back in theatrical form, "But for the olden days! I wish for the times I spent with others! I wish for my old home!" Sighing, the hybrid lowered his head, "I wish... I wish..."

But wishes don't come true, do they?

Or else I wouldn't have this scar.

Or else I wouldn't have this limp.

Or else I wouldn't have this ear.

Or else I wouldn't have this life.

Shall we dance, my love?

Shall we dance?

[KAI ♥]

Long white fur swayed in the slightly chilly wind, the nip still present from winter as she padded through the slow moving river, the only thing even slightly resembling her home in the Ryell Canyon with her pack. In that land the river moved slow swiftly it was next to impossible to even think about walking in it without the threat of being swept away forever. She wondered if her river emptied out into this one. As she waded she concentrated on the water, making it part in certain places, jump out at her, anything, but today the water had decided to be a little stubborn. When she tried to move it, it spurted her in the face, almost mocking her gift, that she couldn't get a handle on.

She shook her head and body clearing the snowy white of the droplets. Her multicolored front paws, the only ones she could see as she walked through the water, looked ripply and funny underneath the clear water, no froth from the quick moving like hers, and she finally looked up at the place she had come to be in. It was a lush expanse of green, also very very different than her red desert at home. It was eerie how much it freaked the young wolf out.

Kai scanned the terrain for new friends, or future pack members, her self appointed mission for the day. Now that Rhi was pregnant she didn't come out and play with her very much anymore, and Kai was growing stiff from staying in the den with her best friend. As much as she loved her, she couldn't stay cooped up with her forever, so here she came. It was times such as these she wished that she had wings, she could fly above the world and look down on all the others, but alas she was a Lupus, or that's what she was told. Kai didn't know what other breeds were like, she didn't know how to act. For all Kai knew she was a fish.

The young white female sighed and slowly waded out of the water, which was swollen with the melted snow threatening to flood any day. Whoever lived in this place should be careful, and get to high ground soon.

That's when she saw the wolf. He was black, but had the most peculier little wings on his feet, that she so enviously stared at, "Hello?" She sang out cautiously, she had learned enough of normal wolf behavior to know to be cautious to avoid being attacked, her raised tail wagged slightly at the idea of a friend, before she banished it from her thoughts in case of rejection. She blinked her pupiless eyes and began to run over

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes twitched his ears at the sound of approaching paws. Looking up, he sighted a newcomer, a girl. A lupus, from what he saw. Watching her approaching, he wondered what she wanted. He wasn't used to being spoken to these days, as soon as he was recognized as a lone wolf. Hermes sighed. Well, best to make the most of this time. How many other chances would he get to have a decent conversation these days?

"Hello there," he said to the other wolf, "What brings you here?" he studied the newcomer with interest, wondering why she chose to speak to him of all wolves. A hint of the very thing that made him cautious around females began to stir again. Twitching aside his tattered ear and putting a paw modestly over his scarred nose. Lowering his head, he studied the girl with his usual curious eyes.

"My lady," He said, adopting his smooth, coy voice, "I'm sorry to offend you with my blemishes, I suppose you wouldn't have decided to speak to me if you'd known..?" His stance was a mixture of submission and an elegant bow, giving him a docile yet gentlemanly appearance, or so he hoped, "I am Hermes the Unfortunate, very pleased to make your acquaintance, Lady of the Meadow,"

[KAI ♥]

Kai noticed he hadn't the scent of a pack on his fur, which made her almost quiver in excitement. That meant she could speak with him without him wanting her to join his pack, or without pack problems interfering. All Kai really wanted was a friend who lived close to her, that she could go and see. She didn't feel the same way about loners as the rest of her pack did, they thought them dirty, and Kai understood where they came from, but she didn't quite agree. They just wanted to be left alone. And she could understand that.

"Hi," she said, her voice a little squeaky with happiness, "Oh nothing, the water I guess you could say," she said referring to how she waded through the river most of the way to this spot. She noticed his scarred muzzled and ticked ear then, but just because her covered them, and her head cocked to the side, she pawed her own tick in her ear, that she didn't know how she got it, perhaps something she was born with? She didn't know why he twitched his injured ear back, and covered his muzzle, just that it was odd.

The white female was suddenly very interested in the grass and her claws scraped at it to see the dirt underneath, and in almost an intent she didn't care instead, looking at the lack of trees, another similarity to home, and the blueness of the sky. She shook her head, her ears flopping around, to shake these thoughts away and focus on what the male was saying to her.

"Why would that be the case," Kai asked, in her own coy voice which also reeked of confusion and had a childish sound to it, "Why I have my own blemishes, is that something to...Be ashamed of?" She asked him genuinely, she of course was not ashamed of hers, she didn't notice, nor care about it. She had her own imperfections, that of course, is was made her, well her. She grinned at his bow, and lowered her own body closer to the ground in a bow of her own. This wasn't a place where Kai was to be 'Beta Female' This was...different. Sure Kai was still a dominate female, but she didn't need to show it, or make sure anyone knew it. No one here would care. "I am Kai the...Uh, Believer" she hesitated at her word, not quite knowing what to say, but after deciding on it, she said it with a sureness that would make and wolf believe exactly what she had said was true. "And I don't think you're unfortunate, you seem happy enough, why do you say that?" She asked him her head tilting once again to the side in curiosity.

[/i]

[Hermes]

"Ah! Water carried you here?" Hermes said, looking up, "So you are a Lady of the River then? How wonderful!" He sat up straight removing his paw from his nose, "And as for blemishes, they aren't things to be ashamed of in most cases, but mine are the scars of cowardice and woe..." turning his head skyward, he sighed.

"Kai the Believer... what is it you believe in?" he asked, "What makes you Kai the Believer?" he took a sniff of the air around her. Other wolves existed there, mixed in with her scent. Pack wolves, sharing a common smell, "Do you believe in the pack? Do you look upon me and see scum? The embodiment of all things moronic?" dropping his head and his ears, Hermes smiled, "But why trouble yourself with unpleasant thoughts?" he stood, looking around, "The night is young, and not much else to do, shall we walk, Lady Kai?"

Melodious words and feelings stirred, and Hermes walked around in small circles restless from staying still too long. His poetic feelings began to well up, and his eyes shown with it. Still running off of the happy memories of his last moonlight adventure.

"I had a night like this once," he said, voicing his memory, "Yes, a wonderful night, with a young Yagi maiden nearly as lovely as yourself. Yes, happy times, truly happy times..." his old charm was returning, banishing all his previous, unhappy feelings. Running about, back and forth, his wings fluttering, he smiled widely, slyly, and in a way that was utterly Hermes.

"So, Lady Kai, will you come?"

[KAI ♥]

"Why yes, I waded all the way, got quite wet because it fought me." She said, not quite saying she had the power to ASK water to do something for her, and sometimes get it to happen. You see water cannot be told what to do, water is it's own being, and you can only ask and hope it understands you sense of urgency if it is a dire situation. "Blah, cowardice and woe, those are words of a person who remembers, I choose not to remember, making life all the more better." She said nodding along with her words. She too turned her head to the sky, trying to find the thing that made him sigh so.

"Why I believe in words. In wolfmanity ((OOC: HA!!(/OOC)), in the goodness that lives inside us all. I believe the sun will shine in the mornings, and the moon will blot it out at night in order to get a chance to shine in it's own way. I believe that rivers will always flow, and grass will always sway in a gentle breeze, much like it is now." Kai said smiling, there was so much to believe in, "I believe being in a pack is fine, it is nice, and a great way to meet friends. I do not believe that you are scum. I believe you are solitary, which is completely different from being a loner," the young wolf said indignantly, "Exactly. It is like remembering!" she said making connections in her ever to fast moving mind.

Kai nodded, but sensing he couldn't see it, let him continue on in his dialect. "Yes happy thoughts, but that's still remembering," she said to him, almost chastising the older wolf in a way, "Let's live in the moment, and in the future. Every step I take, takes me closer to where I am heading, and you as well, no?" she asked him, ever the philosopher.

"I do believe I will Sir Hermes."

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes looked about the Meadow, wondering where to walk towards. In the end, he decided to simply wander, sniffing the air with a happy sigh and thinking on all the things Kai believed in.

"Words, hm?" Hermes smirked, "Words... these are things I can believe in better than anything. Great Spirit? Maybe, but while the concept escapes me, I believe the words. A pack, to me, is a word as well. The definition is a family, and warmth, and safety. However, it is also the definition of something I can never be a part of," Halting his stride, Hermes struck a pose, allowing the moonlight to shift across his fur and glitter in his eyes. Smiling, he raised a paw.

"Vanity reasons," said he, "Personality reasons. So many rumors floating about. Lady Kai, did you know there is a pack that centers around their Matriarch, and spends quite a bit of time in learning and celebration? But they reside in a swamp, and I can't sacrifice my speed, a gift from my blood mixture, and, more importantly, I can't sacrifice my looks!" Giving a deep, theatrical sigh, he covered his nose again, "The mud... I went there once... and the mud... so dissuading."

Continuing to walk, he looked over his shoulder at Kai.

"You understand, right, Lady Kai? This is making sense to you?"

[KAI ♥]

Kai too looked around the vast expanse of grass, her eyes taking in the sights of everything bathed in the soft white glow of the moonlight. Her own white fur seemed almost to glow, as it was very clean compared to when she was home when it had a orange tint to it from the red dust in the air.

"Words, yes, the embodiment of all things. Without words, we wouldn't know that this thing we walk on is called the ground. We would not know who we are, but then again, we won't know who we are without hope either, but hope is also just a words as well, no?" she said, her mind moving quickly to process all of his words, "I suppose I can say I believe in hope as well." Her blue-y eyes glowed with happiness at the conversation. She hadn't been able to have such a quick moving witty dialect with another in a long time.

"A pack is a word, yes, and I agree also with your difinition, which is also words. So you see the word, provides even more words. But anyone can be apart of a word, with words, and even more importantly actions, but then actions are fueled by words, so we come back to words." Her connections moved quickly, and her paws flittered on the ground as his wings did.

Kai raised to her hind legs for a split moment, balancing there and also striking a pose, her own body illuminated by the white light, where as his was just barely showing. Her front paws thudded as they hit the ground and she raised the blue appendage to her face to examine it. "Is that so?" she asked him, genuinly curious. In the mud? Yes the white female could understand his aversion to mud. She had one at one time as well, but not for the same reasons. Just that it made her fur not her color. And Kai enjoyed being herself.

"Yes, understand I do. It made you feel dirty, and not handsome, yes? It made me feel as if I was not white anymore, and I cannot be myself if I do not look like myself!" The words spilled out of her mouth now as she smiled and continued on.

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes smiled. It seemed Lady Kai was rather clever. He enjoyed having conversations like these, and this conversation in particular was nice to have. Matters of belief and just thoughts in general made him think, and thinking was his greatest strength.

"Not looking like one's self is the best way to loose hold of one's self," he agreed, "I once heard tale of a wolf who lost his eye, an ear, gained several scars, lost a patch of fur and all of his tail, and when he saw his reflection, he was convinced he was a different wolf!" Hermes chuckled, "All his memories, everything he was, he was able to change to make himself a new person. He was apparently so distraught by the change in appearance, he had to make himself anew to cope."

He shrugged as he walked, still chuckling.

"The things wolves do these days, eh? I remember a time several years ago when things like these just happened, nothing more, nothing less. You adjusted or died," he shifted off of his bad leg awkwardly, "But things change, eh? Now all the time those who didn't have that mental option spent adjusting... seems wasted." He shrugged again and lopped off to a bend in the river. A tall oak stood there, stretching it's branches to the sky. The stars glittered overhead.

Running around it, Hermes looked back at Kai.

"Lady Kai!" he said, offering her a bow, "I say that we celebrate words and change and acclimation, eh?" he looked up at the sky, feeling happy with this brief turn in life, "Or perhaps we should celebrate a night spent in friendship? What say you, Lady Kai?" a glitter shown in his eyes, "Shall we dance?"

He twirled in a little circle, his paws moving effortlessly. He still remembered many of the steps he'd performed so many times, and he'd love to dance again.

[KAI ♥]

"Exactly!" She said, someone agreeing with her made her happy everytime. It made her feel as if she wasn't nuts. Times such as these when she got to have an intelligent conversation where fantastic.

"There is this wolf who has joined my pack," her tail raised higher in annoyance at that wolfs blatant disregard for her authority, "She had the nerve to tell me to back off from my best friend, when she was having pups no less. Who does that?"

Her eyes narrowed and she trotted after him to the large tree. Her eyes followed his movements, even though he could not see that she was for her lack of pupils.

"I think we shall."

Her own paws danced around as wel.

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes shook his head.

"Some people don't quite understand the bond of friends isn't something to be interferred with," he said, trying to remember the last step in the dance, "Those who try to push away someone's greatest friend only end up distancing them from that person as well."

He took a wrong step and all his other steps were bungled as well. His paws tangled and he fell face first into the earth. He chuckled, sitting up and wiping dirt from his nose.

"Perhaps that was a sign," said he, "That the days of memory have finally fallen flat upon the earth. Perhaps 'tis high time I stashed away those old thoughts. After all, just like before, aren't thoughts and memories just words? Like the rest of the world, they're forgotten eventually."

[KAI ♥]

Kai's feet twisted to and fro as she tried to follow Hermes' movements, they were complex and flowing and Kai looked clumsy next to him. It wasn't odd for her to look clumsy though, she was quite clumsy, she almost fell down the canyon stairs at least twice a day.

"Yes I suppose they don't, I feel though, that my friend will want her company more, she's older than I am, more expeirence, and good god she's gorgeous." She shook her head and watched him fall to his face on the soft grass, "Are you alright?" she asked him, giggling at his misfortune.

"Yes perhaps," Kai had been saying that remembering the past was not worth it, and that she always lived in the future or in the moment, it made her life much happier, "and perhaps it is time that we stop with our dance in the meadow and we continue on our walk, as it seems neither of us are particularly graceful tonight," she smiled at him and her eyes sparkled in the moonlight.

"So, Hermes, how old are you?" she asked him still smiling, and almost laughing at her completly normal question.

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes' eyes sparkled at the thought of someone who could be described as "gorgeous." Always happy to meet someone new (especially someone pretty and new) he wagged his tail, but didn't say anything of it, seeing as she and Kai seemed to be at odds to him.

"Well, experienced though she may be, a friend is always needed in times like these. Sometimes a familiar and loved face is worth more than a thousand years of experience, "Now, I believe I'll take your advice, let us walk again, Lady Kai,"

"So, Hermes, how old are you?"

Hermes froze for a second at the question. He never quite knew how to answer that question. His Sennyo blood made it rather uncomfortable, but also hard to work around. Most wolves he knew weren't shy about their ages. In fact, great age seemed to be a thing to be proud of in the eyes of some of his past acquaintances. However, for him, great age was still far off, although it was already achieved as far as some were concerned.

"Old?" he said, flustered, "W-well, age is unimportant, right? I mean, why would it matter too much? I am an age, and that's all!" he gave an awkward chuckle, his paw wings fluttering agitatedly. Of all the questions, this one was the hardest for him to answer.

"But enough about me," he said, struggling to change the subject, "You, er... you're, uh..." he couldn't think of a replacement, and asking her how old she was would only round the question back to him once again. Looking around, one ear flattened, the other perked forward, listening for something- anything!- that he could use as a distraction.

Fate worked against him. There were no distractions, no other words. He considered several acceptable answers, then gave one.

"I'm, ah, that is to say, I have some Sennyo blood in me... so... age, ah... last I checked, that was..." he knew himself to be fifteen, but wasn't sure how Kai would react to that. Somewhere in the back of his mind, the voice that was truly in love with himself sounded. You look awfully good for fifteen it said, The absolute definition of perfection! Shooing the voice away (despite the fact that he couldn't help but agree) he tried to make up a believable age. However, with the Sennyo bit already out there, he finally just gave an answer.

"Fifteen," he said, hiding his head, "Fifteen, perhaps living on to one hundred, who knows? But I'm still considered 'young' by those like me."

[KAI ♥]

Kai walked forward, her ears swiveling at sounds of grass moving around their paws as they walked and the faint fluttering of Hermes's winged feet.

"Lets," she nodded. Hermes seemed put off by her normal question, one she would have asked anyone and gotten a straight answer, and the naive female couldn't put her paw on why the wolves around here always balked when she asked them. Not all of them, no but certain ones, it was quite odd if you asked her.

He seemed flustered, and she heard his wings pick up their fluttering in...annoyance? Her ears went back at the thought that she had just made a irreversible mistake that might cost her, her friend. "Er, yes, Age is in fact only a number, and numbers are technically only words, correct?" She spoke quickly, stumbling over her words that normally came out flowing as the water she sometimes controlled.

"I'm er...Kai, and 2?" she offered up her age hoping to tempt him into telling his, also trying to make him feel more at ease with her, she hoped to stay his friend, even if he chose to join a pack, that wasn't her own.

"Sennyo?" She asked him curiously, Kai was still learning all the wolfen breeds in this place, her mother had never told her anything about herself or that other wolves weren't all like herself. She had only known the cave, her brothers and sisters, the lake, and her mother. And when that was ripped away from her and she ran, she found the world to be much bigger than that. Her eyes watered as she thought of her family that never would be again, and then she banished the memories from her mind again. Remembering, what nasty business.

"Fifteen, that is quite old, you look very nice for that age, I've never met a wolf as old as you, you must have learned a lot in all of your years, I can see now why you are so intelligent," Kai said, ever the insolent child, she paid no attention that this might not be a good thing to say to the wolf that had just hmmed and hawed over telling her his age.

[/i]

[Hermes]

Hermes lowered his head even further. Here he was, old man Hermes, taking a walk with a fresh young wolf like Kai. However, mind-wise, he wasn't too much older. That made him feel better.

"Sennyo, yes," he said, "A species of wolf who can live well on into 200 years. My particular hybridization contains enough Sennyo blood to give me an extended life. Hence, why I am old, but young."

He looked up at the mention of looking good for his age, as well as his intelligence.

"Well," he said, raising his head and carrying himself in a more regal manner, "I do spend a lot of time exercising both my mind and body, and one does pick up quite a bit of knowledge in the years one spends traveling," his theatrical self arose once again and he threw a paw over his eyes dramatically, "Ah, but the toll of the years is a heavy one, and I am constantly forced to estrange myself from other wolves to avoid them discovering my true nature! Ah, cruel Fate! Thou art a heartless devil!"

That done, he dropped his paw, blushing beneath his swarthy fur.

"Ahem," he coughed, "Sorry about that. I have a habit of dropping a more lyrical state of mind..."