Topic: To Lead, And To Follow

Faolan

Date: 2010-08-02 13:26 EST
When he arrived to the market there was a very confused look on his face. RhyDin was not proving to be any different than the other places he had been, despite what he had been told. His palm pressed to the stubble on his cheek and rubbed lightly. In passing the fountain, a coin was dug out of his pocket and tossed in. You owe me a wish, he thought to himself with a smirk, and sat down on a bench.

Across the market square, a head of golden hair lifted, shining molten eyes flickering across the gathered people as a nose sniffed delicately at the air. There, a scent she had not encountered before in this strange place the two-legs called RhyDin. One of her own, and yet not of her own pack, as so many were here. The scent was caught, followed, and she found herself gazing with disquieting focus at the one seated near the fountain, herself stood in the lieu of a busy grocery stall.

He gave a very canine twitch of his nose and took a deep breath. There was a visible lifting of his brow, and he didn't have to look up to find where the female's was coming from. He smiled to himself as he shoved a hand in his pocket, and looked down at the worn combat boots and faded jeans. He knew he was being watched. When the hand was withdrawn, it contained a cigarette, coaxed from inside a pack hidden in his pocket. He lit it; then, and only then, there was the slightest of glance to her.

That glance was all the invitation she knew she was likely to get. Moving out into the open, she was revealed to be wearing clothing she must have stolen off someone's clothes' line, for the shirt and jeans were woefully big on her, held tight about her waist with corded rope. With slow, certain steps, she approached from directly in front of him, no sign of hostility in her posture or scent. When she deemed herself close enough, her lips formed a very quiet bark of greeting. Clearly, this one had spent too long on all-fours recently.

"Hello to you, too." An upnod was attached to the greeting and he looked at her from behind the sunglasses and ball cap. He was deeply tanned, and in a faded t-shirt. She was certainly something to look at, even in her choice of attire. This was where Wyatt took notice of her choice of belts and canted his head. His own belt had cracked and broken in so many places he wasn't quite sure exactly what all was holding it together.

Her lips quirked into a smile more worthy of being called a smirk at this and she moved closer, though remained standing until she was invited to sit. It was a custom among the two-legs that at least she knew at the moment. The longer you stayed a wolf, the more the wolf shaped your thoughts, and she had been a wolf for several weeks before resuming her human form. Her head tilted as she studied him, arms coming to rest in a wrap about her waist. "Faolan," she introduced herself from behind that almost impish smile, inclining her head to him. "Formerly of the Mountains Mourne Pack." Her voice had the quick, lilting brogue of the northern reaches of Ireland, though it was a little more refined than most Irishmen could manage. Molten eyes blinked slowly as she watched him, clearly expecting the introduction to be returned.

"Wyatt. Would you like to sit?" He moved over and pulled long from his cigarette. After expelling the cloud of blue grey smoke, he nodded once, adding, "There is nothing else after that, no fancy title or anything. I'm pretty sure it's just Wyatt." Unless it was 'stop that thief', or 'hey, put that down'. What did it really matter, though"

With a sinewy motion of limbs, she folded herself into a seat beside him, arms lowering to let her hands grip the edge of the bench lightly. "There is little enough use of titles to us," she mused quietly. "I use it only to remind myself of where I come from." She watched him from the corner of her eye, drinking in her fill of his scent at the same time. "You are new to this place?"

"You could say that." His nose twitched again as a woman wandered past them with an armful of bags. The woman was talking to her friend, and with an extending of his arm, his hand slid it into the bag closest to them. When the arm was returned to resting on the back of the bench, he was holding a leather belt, apparently what had made his nose twitch. Once the girl was out of sight, he dropped it onto Faolan's lap. "I've been to a hundred places just like this."

Faolan

Date: 2010-08-02 13:28 EST
She watched the slip of his hand, almost laughing as the crisp, supple leather was dropped into her lap. "I take it my hand-fashioned belt offends you," was her merry reply as she ran her fingers along the edge of the belt delicately. "Some would look upon that as thieving, you know."

Evidently, she didn't, though. The corded rope at her waist was undone and tossed accurately into a nearby dustbin; she lifted the hem of the oversized shirt, and slipped the new belt into the loops of her too-big jeans, drawing it tight enough to hold. Her attention now turned to the shirt, studying the hem with a faint, calculating furrow between her brows.

"You have been a wanderer many moons?" she asked him curiously, sending a spill of tawny gold over her shoulder as her eyes turned to him once more.

"It does not offend me, but it makes it pretty clear the clothes are stolen. Most people don't fashion belts out of clothesline." He smirked as a drag of smoke was taken and expelled, producing a laugh to the next bit and he nodded to her. "Each that did would be completely correct. It certainly is a display of thievery. Then again, she should have been paying attention. It's the price of being ignorant of your surroundings. And I've wandered some." That's all that was said about that. He didn't make mention of how long.

Faolan's smile deepened, lighting her face with amusement as he spoke of clothes and thievery. The allusion to wandering, and the lack of information, was more than enough to keep her from questioning him further. "There is little that our kind do not notice," she shrugged with one shoulder. "Humans invariably miss what is right in front of their eyes. Do you have a den here, or do you still wander when your time here is done?" As she spoke, her fingers nimbly undid a few buttons at the bottom of her shirt, and she briskly tied those ends together tight, showing just the barest glimpse of the gold-touched flesh of her midriff beneath faded plaid.

He noted the flash of abdomen and smiled to himself, a last drag before the cigarette butt was flicked into the fountain, almost in the same manner as the coin. "I don't know. It depends if there is anything worth staying for." Fingers reaching up and scratching along his jaw line gave the distinct sound of sand paper stubble and rough skin meeting in a clash as he scratched.

"Honey roasted peanuts" Cinnamon roasted almonds?" A young girl with a pony tail and a uniform carried a cardboard box with rows of freshly roasted nuts. "Honey roasted peanuts" Cinnamon roasted almonds?"

Molten eyes flicked toward the girl selling various kinds of nut, a look of confusion on her face for a brief moment as she shook her head. "Why would anyone eat such a food that has no value?" she mused with a rich, throbbing laugh, leaning back against the bench. "What would the wanderer Wyatt consider worth staying anywhere for, I wonder?" came next. Her expression was distinctly teasingly amused as she looked at him for an answer.

Turning eyes onto the tray, he reached into his pocket and dug out a pair of coins. He held them out to the girl, resting where his cigarette had rested. He took a bag of peanuts and left behind the coins. Sugary foods attracted larger tastier creatures. He turned back to the woman beside him. "I'll let you know when I figure it out. Because I haven't found anything worth staying put for yet."

"Thank you, sir." The girl curtsied, her maroon apron touching the ground. She turned away from them and called out, "Honey roasted peanuts..."

A person may learn a lot from watching the interactions of others, Faolan knew. And this male interested her, with his silent conversing in the language of coin and commerce, and his understated wanderings. "I will go along with you for a while," she decided aloud, offering him a slow, sly smile. "To see what will induce one such as you to settle in any place."

Faolan

Date: 2010-08-02 13:29 EST
"Feel free. Just try not to be disgusted; I get drunk and debauched at times. Just a warning." He had been called a womanizer, and he wasn't going to argue with his accusers either because at times they were right. "And I am not a hundred percent sure I will ever find a reason to stay put." Had he been in the mood to be a charmer, he'd have said a smoking body and a brilliant pair of eyes would have been a start. Luckily for her, though, he was behaving for some unknown reason.

Faolan's smile merely widened at this little insight into his character. "It takes a great deal to disgust me," she assured him, "I may even join you in drunken debauchery." She let out another of those throbbing laughs, stretching easily in place before relaxing once more. "And it is better to have company on the road. The hunting is easier, for a start." The way she said 'hunting', however, seemed to be hinting at something other than deer and cows.

A tall man, golden blond hair pulled back into a pony tail, with a leather jacket, jeans and Doc Martens strolled by. There was an obvious sniff of the air and he turned his sky blue eyes on the pair. A smirk was on his face. Then he turned and faded into the crowd.

"I have to agree. A woman is a lot better at tracking and attracting during a hunt." There was a knitting of brows as he was clearly scented there in the open by someone in passing. Had the man stayed for a moment longer, Wyatt might have tried to lift his wallet. He didn't like when people knew who he was without returning the favor. The fact was stored away with the man's face.

There wasn't much a wolf in human form could do to mask their scent from others of their kind, and a few days without a visit to a river or pool made that scent just that bit more obvious. The one who had scented the air must have caught both scents, but the wind was not favorable for Faolan to catch his. Her eyes narrowed as she watched him melt away into the crowd. "You have run with a pack before, then?" she asked Wyatt, though the focus of her attention was on the crowd around them.

"I ran with a whore for a while. She outlived her usefulness." He meant it in the literal way. "And after they'd pay, I'd follow them off and take the rest they were carrying. She liked having the protection. I suppose that's the meaning of Irony." He smirked to himself and looked around, trying to catch sight of the blonde ponytail.

Her brow rose in speculative interest as she listened to him speak, the look of vague amusement remaining on her features throughout the little tale. "Whores get little enough in the way of protection," she offered to the conversation, watching as he looked around. She sniffed the air delicately once more, and smirked. "Over your left shoulder, between the stalls and the inn."

Did he stand upwind from them for a reason' The blond turned, and with a gleam in his eyes, stepped into the crowd once again.

A soft nod and his hand slipped into his pocket; another cigarette was drawn out and then lit. He rested a hand on her thigh to express the point that they did not need the walk away. "If he has something to ask, he may come and ask it. You're no pup to be drawn out that way." He turned his eyes onto the water in the fountain.

Again, her smirk deepened as he laid that outwardly possessive hand on her. No matter the point he was making to her; in appearances, he had claimed her in the eyes of any other wolf watching. Not that she needed it; she had scented no curiosity about herself in the blond, more in Wyatt. "Neither are you," she pointed out quietly, laying her hand over his for a brief moment. Her gaze followed to the fountain. "What did you wish for?"

Faolan

Date: 2010-08-02 13:30 EST
Wyatt knew nothing of rules, or matters of possession. He had gone through every moment without ever having a mentor. He took others of his kind home, but only on a strictly loner basis. He had never had a pack, and it wasn't a fact that bothered him. Turning towards the fountain, he answered her. "Hot fire and a hotter piece."

She blinked, uncertain of his meaning. "A hotter piece of what?" Faolan asked him, leaning around to look into his face, even if he wasn't looking at her. "I understand the wish for a hot fire, certainly, though perhaps you should have asked for it in a brazier. As I understand it, wishes can come true in this city."

The blond halted in the middle of the square, stopping to speak to a taller, dark haired man in a pinstripe business suit. The younger and shorter leather clad man nodded and pointed in their general direction. The older, yet jet black haired man glanced over and sniffed. A broad smile covered his face.

Smoking his cigarette, Wyatt crossed his arm over his broad chest. His eyes met those belonging to the blond as he took a drag. For the second time, he raised his brow, eyes never leaving the blond. Curiosity killed the cat, and he was pretty sure he was a wolf. So he stayed right where he was.

It was with acute interest that Faolan followed the line of Wyatt's gaze to their watchers, but it was the older man's eyes she met. There was defiance in her gaze that spoke of natural born pride, coupled with the independence she had gained during her time alone. The unanswered question could go unanswered, she decided, until a better time was found.

Both men were looking and smiling pleasantly. A troupe of minstrels with their lutes, yukeles, singers and dancers passed between the two pairs. When the minstrels finally cleared, moments later, the blond and dark haired man had disappeared. For now, at least, the watchers had dispersed, and the troubling scents cleared, leaving the wolves to learn more of one another when the time was ripe.

((Adapted from Live Play. Thanks to LoneWolfWyatt, Tyler Redfield, and Alaric de Laurier!))