Kyro begins

Kyro woke from his light slumber gradually and blinked his eyes open. The sun was still high in the sky, and he preferred things that way. Nothing would disturb him at this time of day, lending him to believe that it was safe to nap. He could not stay here forever, however. With a yawn, he stretched his front paws out before him, spreading his toes and scraping at the thin dirt under the scratchy shrubbery that he had taken shelter under. He slunk from beneath the bush, the twigs scraping at the thick fur on the scruff of his neck as he crawled into the sunshine. He stood straight then, and he shook himself to rid his pelt of the dust and any plant matter that had fallen upon him while he slept. His tongue ran along his lips and then he set out, his head hanging lazily as he sniffed along the ground for anything tantalizing.

With the faint suggestion of a rabbit trail tickling at his senses, Kyro began to set off in a definitive direction. His nose lead the way, gradually coaxing him along the path that the rabbit had taken. This was no mouth-watering scent that made his stomach ache for food. While he had not eaten in a little while, he was by no means starving. Likewise, while the trail was discernible, it was by no means fresh and hot. There was nothing more worthwhile to capture his attention, though, and instincts drove him towards the search for food when there was nothing else to do. Shelter, water, food, and a mate - those were the simple, basic things in life. He had the shelter and the water rather readily available. He was at that very moment seeking the third. As for the fourth...that was not his primary concern. He had no pack, no social life at the moment. There was nowhere to start looking for company, as far as he was aware. And for the moment that was acceptable to him. He was not driven to find others. It was in his nature to be content and at peace. Opportunities, he had found, tended to find you whether you were looking for them or hiding for them or didn't care if they came along. The last option had worked out best for him so far.

While his nose had previously only been privy to the stale rabbit sent, the warm grass, and the sun-baked earth, the wind suddenly shifted to blow in his face. Something new came with it. The scent of a wolf. He lifted his head and closed his eyes for just a moment, trying to discern whatever he could from the smell before the wind died and it would be lost to him.

Kyro headed into the wind, at first at a walk, and then at an easy, loose-jointed trot. His head swung faintly from side to side as his front legs reached out before him. His tail too waved back and forth gently as he trotted along. After spending some time in the sun, the warm rays seemed to be focusing on the darker sections of his pelt. All along his spine and on the top of his head, he could feel the concentration of heat. The wolf was female, he could tell that from her scent, and she was alone. Curious, and reasonably personable, he was drawn towards her. Why would he avoid her, after all?

It was not long before the shewolf was in his sights. She was a white figure in the midst of a golden clearing, watching him. His paws slowed him to a walk and he lifted his head, his ears pricked forward to listen for her. At a respectful distance, he stopped. His previously curious body language relaxed, not wanting to seem threatening to her. His ears relaxed, he shifted his body so that she had a side view of him rather than her only option to be approach him directly from the front. Now would have been the moment to call out to her in some sort of greeting. Kyro remained silent. His voice would not reach her from here, even if he tried. Besides that, his voice was not what he wanted to lead with.

Kyro could sense in her that she was uneasy, uncomfortable in some way. It did not seem to be fear, though it echoed the smell and the look of fear. She was just...ill at ease. It wasn't him, though, he thought. She moved towards him, almost seemed eager to meet him. Whatever was troubling her mind was not his fault. It also didn't put him off. He blinked at her when she spoke, his ears flicking forward to listen to her voice before settling back into a neutral position. Quietly, he padded forward to her, his nose twitching as he investigated her scent a little bit more. She had certainly been alone for a while - there was no scent of any other wolf clinging to her fur that he could detect. Though taller than her, he held his head lower so as to not be over her in any way. His body language was carefully respectful and polite, something he did put thought into, but also that came rather naturally to him.

"Kyro," he said softly. "Not sir." He did his best to soften his voice, but it would always sound the way that it did. It had always been deep, but ever since he had nearly gotten his throat fatally ripped out by a challenger, when he was hardly older than a pup really, it had been different. It was gravelly and rough, hoarse sounding even. His words rumbled from his damaged throat, their volume soft though not in the manner that a whisper would be spoken. At least she had spoken first, and her speech had not been perfect either as she stumbled over just one word. Hers was probably due to nerves, though, not physical inability.

That was as much of an introduction that she was going to get at this point. He hoped that his demeanor made up for his potentially disturbing voice. He also hoped that she didn't ask why he sounded the way he did. That only took more talking.

words / 300
tag / kyro
notes / x

Blythe.Kyro said the name to himself in his head. It was a pretty name, befitting the beautiful wolf that stood before him. She did not act a if she knew what she looked like, though. Her confidence level did not quite fit her lean curves coated in silky pale fur. Arbitrarily, she was an attractive female specimen. As far as his personal interest went, he did not have enough information on her to feel an attraction or not. Wolves were far more than their outward appearance. He was old enough and wise enough to know that.

He was enough at ease that he lowered his haunches, sitting down in the grass. "Nowhere else to be," he answered simply. It was true. The family that had raised him was long gone, left behind years and years ago. If he had sown any wild oats, he wasn't aware of any that had sprouted and grown. There was no one to keep him in one place for long, and a world of territory to investigate for a potential permanent home. He had yet to find whatever it was that he was looking for, but there had been some nice oases on the way. "You?" he asked her, his ears perking up momentarily in curiosity. A lone, scarred male wolf wandering about on his own - no surprise there - not really. A seemingly rather young, pretty little she-wolf like her...now that was a more intriguing question to him. He also wondered if provoking her to speak more would help her stuttering problem. It didn't bother him at all, but it seemed to be causing her distress. He could see the effort she was putting into every word reflecting in her eyes.

Kyro cocked his head to one side just a hair, watching her in curiosity as she seemed to struggle to answer him. There seemed to be so much going on in her head, he could only wonder at what it all was. Well, forget all of it. He couldn't fathom what a fraction of that must be. What an annoyance such a busy mind must be, how chaotic it must be to have a mine that ran in that manner. He was suddenly glad for the silence he had in his head at times. When there was nothing running through his mind, when there was nothing to think about and nothing to worry over. There was simply the moment and the presence of mind to be in it.

"You don't have to tell," he pointed out. She did not have to tell him why she was here. Perhaps it was personal and she was a bad liar so she was fighting herself on a lie to make up, or how much of the truth to tell him. Maybe she didn't know why she was here. There were all kind of possibilities, and he wasn't about to run through them all in his mind. When dealing with a stranger, there was on so much that he cared about why he was experiencing this with her.

Kyro watched her with growing concern/wariness. He was beginning to grasp, by the constant twitching of her ears, the darting of her eyes that something was not right within her mind. There was something wrong with her - something different, something that plagued her. If he had experienced her behavior without being this close to her, he probably would have given her a very wide berth. Crazy wolves were, more often than extremely violent or very sick (or both). They were dangerous. So far, she did not seem dangerous. She did not smell sick. She was not unkempt or poorly groomed. She looked fine, she smelled normal, it was only her behavior that was odd.

The closer she got to him, the farther his ears went back, regardless. He didn't particularly want her to get much closer to him without showing her intent first. He stayed still, though, not wanting to startle her. Besides...if she did anything aggressive he would crush her. There was no way that she could completely take him out. He had too much experience paired with too much of a weight gap. It did not come to that, though, and he didn't think it would. Or he would have moved away from her. His body tensed, but he stayed where he was.

As she whined, her distress clearly rising, Kyro was unsure of how to proceed. Her discomfort was contagious, though. He could feel it radiating it off of her, and it was making his skin crawl, as if his fur was causing a tingling sensation. He rose to his paws, his weight still shifted backwards, creating a bit of a lean away from her. "Blythe?" he asked in a worried tone. He had no idea how to snap her out of this, or if that was even possible. All he knew about her was what he had seen so far, what he was seeing now.