I'll Meet You There [Roma]

[Arrio]

Pfffftttthhhh! Was the sound of his tongue has he spat another damned thorn from his mouth, a snort escaping his short snout thereafter. Dipping his maw to one of his front paws, he gingerly closed his front teeth on another thorn and with the grace of a surgeon plucked it from its place embedded between his toes. A hiss of air slipped through his teeth at the minor prick of pain before he spat out the very last of the little devils that riddled his limbs only moments before. Straightening up into a seated position, he quickly gave himself the once over, checking each foot and wiggling each toe to make sure he was truly free of the spiny annoyances. A sharp yip of victory escaped him as he hopped to his paws and gave his sleek summer pelt a hearty shake.

"Ahhhhahahaa... Thine pitiful sabres are no match for mine draconian hide!" There was a pause in his triumphant monologue at the accursed brambles. "Mine? My? Mine? Yeah, mine." He turned his grey-blue gaze upon the thickets once more, his long vulpine tail waving like a king's banner as he cleared his throat and puffed out his chest. "Mine draconian hide! A curse upon you and each generation you spawn! Devils and fiends!" With a snort he spun away from his conquered foes and marched off into the vast rolling plains of the Bellator Herd, something akin to a smug smirk plastered upon his foxy maw.

What had started out as a berry hunt quickly turned into all-out war with the bramble bushes and he barely escaped with his life. Okay, so, maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration. He went in, snagged a mouthful of berries, and then ran out after stepping on a few thorny vines. With his hunger far from sated, he turned his sights upon the sprawling grassland, his nose tipping to the breeze. The scent of fresh water, wildflowers, and grass flooded the air, but so too did the musk of herd animals, distant pine, and... blood? That sickeningly savory metallic scent of fresh blood was very faint but quite evident on the tail end of the wind and without hesitation – perhaps being led by his stomach – the wily little fox traipsed off in its direction. With any luck, someone friendly had made a kill on the plains and he could wiggle his way into a quick and easy meal, but he wasn't holding his breath.

[ROMA|RED]

The fields whispered the mute cry of death; the carcass – her sweet blood rich to a famished belly. The small doe had taken work to bring down, and it began disappearing quickly as Sister Wolf nourished their body. Teeth crunched bone, ripped through hide, pillaged her soft insides, and relishing in the residual feelings of the hunt. Now and again, attention was given to her surroundings, large ears flickering to catch the nuances and signs of a nearing threat. Safe.

She fed with abandon, consuming the meager meat greedily as her stomach growled and churned – taking in a larger load than she’d had in weeks. The wolfess was thin, her red coat merging into the tall grass and obscuring her from distant eyes.

Sister Wolf could feel her withdrawn half shifting to alertness – reaching to breach the surface, but she pushed her back. Roma had not known a hunger like this, the gnawing pain of a dying body. It had only been but a few times in the years they had spent in the Menagerie that food had been so scarce that Sister Wolf had quietly shifted the girl away, protecting her from the awareness of such an experience.

She cradled her like a pup in her mind as she licked crimson from cream jaws, her golden eyes lifting to settle on their surroundings. Black nose twitched, and her tail rose as her ears flattened. Something neared, something … her stance lowered slightly as her hackles rose. Threat.

Downwind, she could neither smell it nor see it but she could hear its movement – a thick coat’s soft caress through the tall grasses, silent feet … silent breath. Sister froze, attempting to assess the creature's location. It was small, that much she could decipher (attributing to why it was so quiet) but more than that she felt blind.

[Arrio]

Despite being built for sneaking and slinking about, Arrio was not the clandestine type. The innate abilities were all there, his body was in tip-top shape, and there certainly wasn't any lack of trying. He was very much aware of the simple ins and outs of being swift, silent, and secretive – so it wasn't a lack of intellect either. He was just really really bad at being sneaky, simple as that, and the only reason he ever managed to pull it off was purely by accident and not at all of his own doing. This moment was one particular instance, in which he wasn't even aware of just how softly his paws connected with the warm earth, or how little his sleek form stirred the grasses around him. Even with his tail elatedly thrashing about behind him, there was little to suggest anything was there other than the softly shifting breeze.

It didn't take long for that faint aroma to strengthen and beckon the scruffy young fox in way of its source, but a drop in the wind quickly snuffed out the scent and left him blindly gallivanting around the taller grasses for a moment. As he came within yards to the wolf and her kill, the scent returned, strong and tangy as it hit the back of his throat. Poking his head through the grass, he finally spotted them, and if his foxy features had the capacity to do so, they would have lit up with a Cheshire smile. "Mmmm... there you are." Slithering out of the tall grass and into the small worn down spot in which the wolf had felled the doe, Arrio kept a reasonable distance that was perhaps too close for comfort for his newfound companion, but just about right for the shabby vulpid.

"Ohhohohoo~ Nice catch!" His bright grey-blue eyes went from wolf to prey, admiring the effort and skill it took to take down such a feast. It was obvious from his size alone that he wasn't a big game type of predator, so every now and then when these sorts of opportunities arose, he did his best to weasel in on the action. "Y'know, I bet she put up a fight huh? Am I right? Huh? Yeah..." His gaze wandered back to the wolf, seemingly oblivious of her evidently defensive stance and none too friendly demeanor. "Ahhh, but for you that was nothing right? Psh, you do this all the time." He waved a paw very matter-of-factly and dropped his rump into a seated position, his tail whipping out to curl around his lower body. "Oh, but where are my manners. I'm Arrio."

[ROMA|RED]

A tense stillness had unfolded over the ruddy wolfess, her gaze darting from place to place as the threat drew closer. Her large ears strained to pinpoint its location until the grasses parted to produce a funny spotted fox-creature.

Golden hues met bright blues, and for several long moments she simply stared. His words fell on deft ears, Sister Wolf cared little about this language or human speech for that matter and only when he drew too close did she respond. Cream blooded lips peeled to show white teeth and hazardous intentions as a deep growl rumbled from her depths warning him away.

The creatures of the Menagerie tended toward the animal born, or human born – and usually characteristics from one or the other trickled through to either form (such as the waving fox,) but Sister was unusual. She smelled clearly of shifter, but the brilliant-tawny predatorial gaze she fixed the spotty vulpine with was anything but human.

The words however had a strange effect on her alter conscience, and Roma flexed again in response to the little fox – which confused Sister Wolf all the more. Not pack.

Back to feeding she went, keeping a wary eye on the other shifter – now and then she stared at him with an impressive reproach as her hackles rose to issue another growl. Clearly she had no intention in sharing.

However, she was getting full - her stomach reporting its digestion quite loudly. Sister Wolf was getting irritated by his talking, and an attack from the inside by her girl wanting to chat did not help. Over the years, Roma had begun to learn that once they were out of danger and Sister's focus was not so acute she could do as she pleased ... she just had to want to bad enough.

[Arrio]

He waited a moment for her to respond to his introduction, or at the very least give him some attention other than hostility. He had met with disagreeable types before and many were all bark, growl, teeth, or claws and not much of anything else. As a result, he'd become quite good at reading others, and while everything about this wolf was saying go away without actually saying it, the way she dismissed him and went back to eating suggested she had marked him as no obvious threat. The usual response. Those large triangular ears of his remained upright atop his skull and that foxy grin lingered upon his short vulpine muzzle. Unsurprisingly, Arrio was not the least bit intimidated.

Having garnered a reputation for being a bit of an oblivious little pest, a flash of teeth and the rumble of a growl was hardly enough to have him turn tail and scurry away. Instead, he tilted his head a little to look past her at her meal, noting that – despite her best efforts to finish off the meat – there was still quite a hearty helping clinging tantalizingly to its bones. His tongue snaked forth to lap at his soft white maw before he began flapping it again. "You're really gonna try and finish all of that? Really?" His head shifted back into a comfortable position, his ears wilting into a more relaxed state. "Cramming all that food in is going to be murder on your digestive system. Trust me, I've tried it. Caught me a big-ass rabbit this one time and ate it all and just... ugh... it wasn't pretty at all. Not a bit.”

The sound of her stomach protesting against ingesting such a large amount of sustenance so quickly seemed to chime up in time to add emphasis to his words. His ears gave and evident twitch and he let forth an emphatic chortle as he rose to his feet and meandered around in front of the wolf, keeping the felled doe between him and her. "Ahaaa~ see? Let that be a precursor of what's to come if you don't pace yourself. I'm tellin' ya. You won't be walking right for a week if you put such a load on your insides." His expression shifted into that of horror, as if he were recounting something utterly nightmarish.

"The pain... it was unbearable. Like a thousand thorns slowly shredding their way through my insides. Dehydration setting in from so much uncontrollable po-" He suddenly cut himself off at that moment, and had he the capacity to do so he would have raised on brow in a perplexed manner. Shaking the thought away he smirked as best he could in this form. "Y'know.. now that I think about it. I bet that rabbit was riddled with parasites. Ugh..." He shook his head more vigorously this time, his ears flapping about atop his head before he settled into what seemed like a geniunely concerned stare. "But still, I'm tellin' ya, eating too much too fast is way bad for you. Explosive diarrhea notwithstanding."

[ROMA|RED]

Sister Wolf’s ears flickered to keep track of the shifter’s position, pinning to her skull when she gnawed on a rib bone greedily. As he wandered around the far side considered chasing him off. Hunger won out over minor threat, the memory of her stomach clenching in pain fresh in her mind.

Roma had other ideas, and had her eyes not been on the carcass one might have seen the darkening of their golden eyes. It was a balancing act. Sister Wolf could not feel enough threat from the fox to keep pushing Roma back, and the lack of attention to what he said was perking Roma’s interest enough to pressure her to the surface.

Atop the double irritation Sister Wolf was tolerating, her stomach was complaining that it could hold no more. Too many things at once and her control was slipping. Roma rose as Sister withdrew, and between one breath and the next the red wolf became a girl.

Sitting cross legged on the ground next to the kill, she sucked blood from a thumb and cracked a smile before wiping crimson from her mouth with her jacket sleeve. Curly auburn-red hair was pushed from brown eyes, her freckled face tanned from time in the sun.

“Hey little man,” she said sweetly a touch of a southern drawl on her lips. Her stomach churned and she sighed, blowing air out as she patted her middle appreciatively. “Hungry?” Reaching out to the doe she hauled a small haunch from the carcass with a bite to her lip, and tossed it his way. Sister wolf protested, but Roma ignored her.

The doe was small, only a yearling – but as a wolf Sister had managed to consume multiple pounds and much of it was gone. Roma had barely caught the vulpine’s last comment, and after a second for recall she came up with something about overeating.

“No worries about my stomach, wolves can take twenty pounds in a sitting without blinking an eye. I’m a bit smaller, so for now ten will do,” she lay on her back a bit carelessly to stare up at the sky. As a wolf, she was not much larger than the fox and lithe. As a girl, her form suggested easy curves when better fed.

The contrast between girl and wolf was as night and day, and Sister Wolf often held a touch of irritation that Roma took advantage of her hard work. On the other hand, she never scolded her or made her feel bad for it. Part of Sister relished Roma’s happiness, just as Roma enjoyed the hunts with Sister. It was an constantly liquid understanding between the two, ever changing.

Still, she would not leave the kill and that kept Sister quiet. She knew in the end it was more of a worry about where their next meal would come from and if Roma gave it all away ... the point was moot. Roma shared, but would keep the lions share for themselves, and that made the wolfess happy.

[Arrio]

The wolf continued eating, paying him no heed, and so used to being ignored Arrio still was not the least bit fazed. Dropping his rump once again and settling into a seated state, the lean fox craned his neck to the left and then to the right in something akin to a stretch, a seemingly over-the-top yawn parting his jaws for a moment thereafter. One ear tilted to the side and then fell aft before rotating back into an upright position, its pair doing the same before both dropped outward slightly in the same relaxed fashion as before. Next came the toes of his forepaws, each one wiggled slightly, his stubby claws raking at the earth beneath them as he did so.

When his gaze finally found its way back to the wolf after his momentary distraction with himself, he found she was no longer a wolf at all, but instead a freckled girl. Her greeting caused him to wrinkle his nose just a little as he hopped up to his paws and raised his tail like a flag. "Little man?" His head tilted just a little, one of his ears dropped, and his eyes narrowed ever so slightly as if he were giving her the stink eye. "Who you calling a little man?" Something resembling a shiver rippled through his body and his fur puffed up as he drew in a breath and rose up on his toes, craning his neck upward in every attempt to look bigger. "I'm in the prime of my life, tip-top shape, and bred to utter perfection. PFF! Little she says..."

The moment she tossed him a piece of the doe he lost his tough guy act and hopped over elatedly, her words thereafter falling upon deaf ears as he happily tore into the flank and – heeding his own advice – took his time to relish every bite as he ate at a nice leisurely pace. Pausing for a moment, he turned his grey-blue gaze upon the girl. "Hey thanks." He barked with something resembling a smile upon his vulpine face. Being a retromorph he wasn't used to shifting and with fresh meat at his paws he wasn't about to do so just yet, not until he'd had his fill. Eating as a human was something he almost never did, especially when it was meat. While blood was delicious to this form, he really didn't have the stomach for it as a man.

"So, am I ever gonna get a name out of you or what?" He said between a few bites, the white of his maw thoroughly stained a very unmanly pink-ish red. He did his best to lap away the blood as he went along but he hadn't had such a good meal in a while, so it was hard to keep the mess – not to mention his appetite – completely under control. Not that he ever did anyways, but it was the thought that counted.

[ROMA|RED]

Roma chuckled at his protests and sighed again with satisfaction. When he went after the meat, she felt better for helping – however her wolf was still unhappy that she had shared.

It had been a while since Roma had taken the reins. There had been an interesting time the past few weeks that Roma had not bothered with much of anything – and she was curious about what it was that had drawn her out. She guessed from his disposition that mostly it was the pure fact that the fox wasn’t threatening their life.

Sister had always been good at steering clear of others in general, but it had been more than a few times that even smaller creatures then herself attacked first and asked questions later.

Her head shifted to the side to watch the spotted fox avidly feeding, and when he thanked her the corner of her mouth liftedup and she nodded once. Watching him … he reminded her of someone. Who? It nagged her, but it moved back when he asked after her name…. again.

She cracked a grin and sat up, a hand behind her to support her frame. ”Roma,” she said and yawned. A full stomach always made her sleepy. Hazy brown eyes looked to the fox and her brow furrowed. She knew his name. She had heard it. Had she heard it again she would know it … but she could not recall.

”Sorry, what was your name again?” she asked casually. It had not taken long for Roma to pick up clues about what she had missed with Sister’s presence, and learning to pick up where Sister had left off was not always easy … but never impossible.

[Arrio]

He munched away in relative silence for a moment, feeling her eyes on him every now and again as he chomped into a bone and sucked away the savory marrow therein. Finally content with the fact that he had thoroughly sated his hunger, the meager sized predator settled back upon his rump with a gratified sigh, his long puffy tail waving pliantly at his rear. He now tended to the arduous task of cleaning himself up, his tongue quickly getting to work on the ridiculous mess marring his face. He paused as she mentioned her name, his soft grey-blue eyes meeting her own momentarily as he nodded his acknowledgement.

"Arrio. Means warlike and fierce. Pretty awesome right? I think it suits me. It's tough. It's manly. Y'know, everything that I am." He spoke in a manner most boastful, but his tone seemed very facetious, so it was hard to tell whether or not he was being serious. Lapping away the rosy tint from his face he moved to his black ticked forepaws, licking away the reddish stains from the usually pristine white. Strange as it seemed, he really liked being clean, which wasn't the easiest thing to do in this place, but he managed well enough.

Once he felt like he had gotten himself as clean as he was going to get, his attention returned to the girl before him, his usual talkativeness returning as unreservedly as before. If there was one thing the ranch bred fox was good at, it was talking someone's ears off and then some. "So why so sociable all of a sudden Roma? Did my natural irresistibility finally break through?" There was that sly foxy grin of his that he could only do in this form with that face. Who knew a fox could smile so well. "Cause I gotta say this suits you better. All that growling and huffing and puffing was entirely unladylike. Pretty little thing like you doesn't need to be so..." He dragged out that final syllable like he couldn't come up with the next word. "...mean." He really had made his best attempt at coming up with a really smart big word but they all escaped him. How utterly disappointing.

[ROMA|RED]

Quite a talkative little thing wasn’t he? Roma couldn’t help the broad grin that spread her freckled face. Quickly she sobered, and nodded (at least as well as she could whilst lying on the ground). ”Very manly,” she agreed, her tone matching his own.

The smile returned to her face as she watched him clean himself like a cat. He took his time with it too – and made Roma feel dingy. Hm, maybe there was a river or stream she could dive into somewhere around here.

Once finished, he began asking her questions and her brown eyes returned to the sky as she kicked up an ankle to her knee and stuck a piece of grass in her teeth. Chewing on the end a moment, she stretched out and supported her head with her arms.

”Wolves don’t care about ladylike, they care about survivin’. Pretty does nothin’ for ya in this place you know that as well as anyone. Jes' happens that I could spare a bite. If’in not, I reckon I’da probly eaten you too,” she chuckled and eyed him a moment. She wasn’t lying.

Sister Wolf would have had no qualms making him dessert (if she’d been able to catch him) but Roma was having much more fun talking with him. No one had a decent conversation anymore. This is mine! Go away! I flee from danger!

With a sigh she turned on her side, supporting her head with her palm as her fingers combed absently through her hair haphazardly. ”Even if you are adorable,” she couldn’t help it. He reminded her of one of the ranch dogs with all those spots. Her father had a ton of hounds back home, but Arrio was flat squishable.

[Arrio]

As she explained why she acted the way she did, he listened as politely as he could despite not being entirely absorbed with her words. It wasn't that what she was saying couldn't hold his interest, it was simply that he had very little in the way of an attention span. While one ear remained tilted forward half listening to her voice, the other would occasionally twist and pivot atop his skull, zeroing in on the sounds around them as well as those in the distance. Being a cousin of the red fox awarded him with exceptional hearing and as a result it often beckoned his attention away from what needed it most. On the plus side it did save his life on more than one occasion, so there was that to be thankful about.

"How appalling. Absolutely appalling." Clearly he wasn't too thrilled with the idea of being eaten by her, or anyone or anything else for that matter. "A creature of higher intellect such as myself is meant for great things, not being scarfed up by predator in an act of desperation or otherwise." His soft grey-blue eyes narrowed into something akin to a glare, which coupled with those vulpine pupils of his may have seemed utterly unnerving. Then all at once his foxy smile returned. "But you're better than that mm? Surely someone like you would find such cannibalism beneath you."

At the mention of him being adorable, he almost scoffed, but instead shook his head a little and rose to a stand. Raising one of his front paws up over the carcass he shifted mid-stride and crawled on all fours over the felled doe and toward her side, hovering there for a moment. Looking down at her as a man and no longer a fox, his Cheshire-like smile remained, although his handsome features added well to its charm. "I resent that you know. Adorable is what you call a puppy or a kitten, not an exceptional specimen of manliness."

Dropping down and rolling over he mimicked her pose, crossing his arms behind his head and resting it atop them as his gaze wandered to the sky beyond dome. Having known nothing of the outside world until being thrown into this place, Arrio wasn't the least bit disappointed by the fact that he had traded one cage for another. This cage had fresh air, birds, trees, grass, wind, rain, and everything that was all new and wonderful to him. In those wide eyes of his the dome was not a prison, it was a home.

[ROMA|RED]

Roma smiled quite wolfishly as the spotted vulpine expressed his distaste for her statements. Sister Wolf sneered. Food was food, and though Roma had not quite experienced real starvation for herself the residuals and knowledge still made her hunger sharpen (despite her recent meal).

She closed her eyes and sighed dreamily. It had taken her a little while to realize that when Sister Wolf drew near the surface, her eyes tended to lighten to an ocher hue. As a result, she had learned to look away before another might take notice. Face to the sky, she reopened brown eyes – confident of their normalcy.

There was a shuffling, and stealthy movement. She felt his presence, but in unconscious dominance did not look his way.

When the face of a man appeared over her (and a very hansom one at that) Roma jumped only slightly. … an exceptional specimen of manliness. A chuckle slipped from her lips as she stretched out again without worry. She had known arrogance in men, but his was of a different flavor entirely. No to mention it was strange for a retro to affirm such self-regard and care for appearance. None the less it amused her immensely. Would she pester him more?

Relaxing beside her, Sister Wolf became anxious and (in a manner of speaking) began to pace in her mind. Roma gave her minimal heed – she was good with people where Sister was not, and this kid didn’t seem the least bit threatening (though wasn’t fool enough to completely discount him.) Her assessment was made out of his demeanor and presence, as appose to his capability.

Sitting up again, her eyes slid over him with appreciation. He was cute. Her bottom lip was captured by her teeth for a breath before she chuckled again and shook her head.

”Well! I’m sorry. I won’t call you adorable ever again,” … to his face she though mischievously. Her southern accented voice turned playful.

”A manly specimen … true-that,” she sighed as if at a loss. ”I guess you’re off that menu then,” she said with a smirk as if he were now on another one besides food.