Enkindled {Tagged}

[Rykett]

After roaming the Forest of Love for a while and breaking a few hearts there, Volka decided to expand his horizons. The atmosphere of the Forest of Love oozed romance. Wolves came there solely for finding the love of life. It was easy to convince them that Volka was the wolf of their dreams. Now, Volka felt like challenging himself. Outside the pink forest, Volka would be relying only on his own skill instead of allowing the love forest’s sweet aura to help him. He’d have to capture and shatter a heart, himself.

After some time distancing himself from the Forest of Love, Volka soon found himself amongst a sea of grass. Occasionally, lilies wilting due to Autumn’s chill poked above the grass. Volka noticed grass rustling as rabbits hopped within its depths. Volka’s ice blue eyes scanned the warren. He spotted the distant figure of a wolf. He froze, making sure that the other had seen him before ducking into the cover of the tall grass. Volka thought over his plan of attack if the wolf was female. What personality would he assume this time? Usually he created one the accented that of his victim’s. This time was one of experimentation and challenge, though. So he created the personality before even gaining a first impression of the she-wolf. Should he try changing his name? No, Volka was fine. This Volka acted youthful and sweet. He was naive and trusting, a cheerful male that almost any female would be fond of.

The transformed Volka popped his head above the grass, eyes searching for the wolf he’d seen earlier. Hopefully, they were approaching, investigating him. He lifted his nose to the air, trying to catch a whiff of the wolf’s scent. As soon as his ice blue eyes fell upon the wolf, though, he crouched back below the grass’s cover.

emorli

[emorli]

Arani;

Arani's paws thump along the ground with every step, being the not-so-graceful wolf she is and she eyes the ground watching out for any small burrows that might try to catch her legs and trip her up. The autumn sun beats down on her back, giving her shorter, soft coat a sheen.

Without much else to do, the female stops for a moment to glance around the surrounding area, in search for something to keep this boredom from doing her head in. She rolls her eyes as the rustling of grass can be heard behind her, assuming it's some sort of small rodent. And with her head following the direction of her eyes, she extends her neck to find the origin of the rustling.

The large female's eyes squint slightly and her body tenses as a breeze allows the scent of what made the noise hit her nose. It seemed to be a wolf, male. She then fully turns her body around, facing the direction of which unknown wolf is hiding, her paws square with the rest of her body and her tall form only becomes taller.

With steps that are much softer than before, she makes small movements toward the wolf in hiding, stopping a safe distance away from the tall grass cover. Her expression is stern and unforgiving, and her keen eyes, unwavering, try to watch the movement of the wolf behind the grass carefully. She's silently fixed on the shield of yellowish-green for a few seconds before her voice comes out clear and sonorous,

"Stop hiding."

[Rykett]

A crisp command came from the other wolf. The voice was feminine. ’Perfect,’ Volka smiled for a flash, before composed himself and popped his head back into the open. His ice blue eyes were wide and innocent as they stared at the female. ”Uh… Hi!” Volka hesitantly smiled. Then as if he’d suddenly decided to trust the stranger despite her stern expression, he bounced to his paws, ”Have you seen all the rabbits around here?! There’s so many!” Energetic and playful, Volka practically skipped over to the she-wolf.

”I wonder where they all came from! I tried catching some, but they got away.” Volka didn’t seem frustrated as he stated the fact. Then he lowered his voice to whisper conspiratorially, ”I was gonna do an ambush!” He smiled at his cleverness for a second, then it fell slightly as he realized something, ”But if you found me, I guess the rabbits would’ve, too…” After a moment of thought, he cheerfully decided, ”I’ll just have to think of a new plan!”

[emorli]

Arani;

Her eyes widen slightly, taken aback by the somewhat over the top gullibility of the ashy-pelted male before her, but she quickly goes back to her previous expression, her eyes slightly drooping and her frown furthering. His personality would become tiring for her, and she was already trying to mentally prepare for that. His energetic form hops over to her, causing her to back up slightly, her guard not letting itself down even for a moment. She sighs, her ears twitching a bit at his voice,

"Uh, hi. Yeah, I guess." Arani glances around, coming up with a scenario in her head of other wolves that are off to the side who have dared him to do this and are currently trying to hold in their laughter.

Then, once she comes to the conclusion that there are no other wolves to indicate this as some sort of practical joke. The female looks down at the male slightly as she's taller, and sighing once more, she shakes her head while making sure to keep an eye on him. Maybe he's looking for an opportunity to strike and this ridiculous character is just a cover for some of his true intentions.

"Good luck with that plan of yours," she simply answers, hoping, in the back of her mind, that he would go off to figure out that plan of his. Her voice has an underlying annoyed tone, and the atmosphere that surrounds her only further indicates that she's not one of the best wolves to be poking at. Her eyes stare down at him with some sort of intimidating nature, unbeknownst to herself and in her own mind, she's questioning the male. How can a wolf be this excitable? This gullible?

[Rykett]

Volka carefully considered her reaction to his performance. She seemed to be such a stoic wolf and hardly phased by his exuberance. Perhaps, this experiment would fail… No! It was too early to decide the outcome. He could do this! This she-wolf would obviously take much longer to pull in than all of his previous catches. His personality needed layers. It also seemed as though he might be overdoing this puplike routine. He’d caught an annoyed hint in those last words. He needed to tone it down a bit.

Volka’s tongue peeped out from between his teeth as he seemed to get lost in his hunting plans. Then his head suddenly snapped to attention. ”I have an idea!” he proclaimed proudly, ”But I’m gonna need some help… Would you be willing, … er… oh,” Volka’s cheeks fluffed in embarrassment as he seemed to realize something, ”I’m sorry, I never asked you your name or even properly introduced myself! My name’s Volka! What’s yours?”

[emorli]

Arani;

The female stare's blankly at the strangely acting male. This definitely had to be a joke.

The female drops her head slightly, sighing to herself, her eyes closed and eyebrows knitted. She looks up about to shoot him down with a 'Listen, kid...,' but once he drops enough of the excitement in his voice to be noticeable, it catches her ear. She slowly looks back up to him, her eyes a little suspicious.

The male shoots a flurry of words at her, most of which she doesn't pay much attention to. He's cutting off his own sentences left and right until he introduces himself.

Volka. His name is Volka.

Without an answer, with a slightly tilted head, Arani questions him suspiciously,

"Who are you?" The question is not meant to ask him for his name, but rather who he is as a wolf. How he is.
The female ignores the embarrassed expression that's sprawled over his face. She wasn't going to let something distract her from getting an answer that she's satisfied with and it's evident on her face.

[Rykett]

Volka tilted his head as instead of answering his question, the she-wolf asked, ”Who are you?” Confusion flitted across his expression. ”I’m Volka?” he responded, but it sounded more like a question. Then he settled on an idea, ”Oh! You mean like my rank! I’m not in a pack or anything. I used to be, but that was only when I was a pup.” A darker hint touched his tone at the last sentence. Volka had decided that this version of him had a troubled past. Perhaps his optimistic attitude was a way to cope with the trauma.

Volka didn’t seem to be getting past her defenses. She didn’t seem to belief he was a real wolf. Well, there had to be wolves out there with the personality and coping mechanism he was replicating for her! It wasn’t his fault she’d never met one before. She just needed to give him a chance to reveal some of the layers that he had. If only she’d take time to understand him, she would care about him. Volka just had to be patient and persistent. ”I still didn’t catch you name?” He smiled at her.

[emorli]

Arani;

The female sighs heavily. She has no problem answering a question for her name. Such things were not much to avoid. "Arani."

Her gaze is heavy and demanding as she stares at the male, her voice still as stern as her expression.

"So, are you going to tell me your intentions here?" What is his reason for being here? Why would he be talking to her? Most wolves didn't exactly try to approach a wolf who looked like her.

Stopping herself for a second, she remembers the wolf mentioning a pack. Perhaps she can use this as a way to find out who he really is. The dark tone in his voice tipped her off that he expected to try to probe more into his past life.

"Pack? What pack? Why did you leave?" The female grew more interested in what was happening. If this was some joke it was one elaborate plan. Might as well just let him play it out for a little bit.

[Rykett]

Finally, the she-wolf offered her name and Volka accepted it eagerly. ”Arani?” he repeated, ”That’s a pretty name! Why didn’t you wanna share it?”

Her expression was still very much unimpressed, but Volka kept pressing onward as she questioned his intentions. ”Besides chasing rabbits?” he laughed. ”I miss talking to wolves,” he continued, answering simply with the slightest edge of loneliness entering his tone that would hopeful sell it, ”I’ve been a loner for a while and haven’t really ran into anyone-until you!-since I left my pack.” Volka flashed an optimistic smile at Arani.

Arani caught on the final word and asked after his pack. She actually seemed engaged. The whole tragic story was forming in his head. It included betrayal, a jealous Alphess, disappointment, and of course, death, but Volka wasn’t sure if his optimistic counterpart was realistically ready to spill, yet. So Volka shuffled his paws as if nervous, ”They didn’t like me or my mom very much,” he answered, evasively. Hopefully, Volka’s hesitance would only succeed in hooking her further, instead of smothering that spark of intrigue he’d noticed in her eyes.