It gets between your toes...

[coldcivility]

Lauradai landed gently on one top on one of the wide walls of Castleway, the sound of her wings more quiet than usual. Shedding her feathers she sat atop the wall letting her legs dangle over the edge facing the street and rolled her eyes when she noticed her white dress now had a nice green patch on the back where the moss now clung to it. She jumped down and landed in a crouch on the hard stone. Arising and wiping the moss off her hands with her already mossy dress.

Waking along the wall , preferring to walk barefoot in the moss that was absent in the more frequented parts of the road. She smiled as it tickled getting between her toes. She trailed her fingers along the wall behind her leaving lines in the green.

She stopped for a moment, leaning her head back and closing her eyes. The air was thick, and heavy with moisture but not stifling and she inhaled deeply, letting the fresh, clean scent fill her lungs. "If smell had a color, this would be pale, cool green." she said aloud. Her voice seemed somewhat muted in her ears, the sound quieted by the moss covered stones.

She continued to wander, ducking and weaving her way through the branches that hung all around, humming as she walked. No particular tune, just random, soft tones. As much as she loved the peace and quiet she wondered if she should pay a visit to one of the lower levels that was less deserted. She liked being around people and she could use a hot meal and a good stiff drink to go with it. "What I wouldn't give for a shot of something nice and strong." She didn't know to whom she was speaking but she liked the way her voice sounded in the air here.

She finally caught a low lying branch grabbing it and swinging her lithe body up to it. She sat down, cross-legged, closing her eyes and listening to the quiet hum of the area.

[Я Є Đ WOLF]

[atrb=width,470,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][bg=4e4e4e] The air was quiet here. Not like in other such places - where the noise was so profuse in the airs as to have a deafening effect. The poison of noise could take its great tolls on him, and it had before in the form of crippling headaches. But there were no headaches here. Only the quiet. Le Cyll prized quiet over most anything else, because it was so beautiful. It echoed so soothingly throughout the surrounding area here, and with it came the waves of a healing splendor. He had not altogether been himself lately, but now he was... better, you could say. If only here, he was better. If only where he could not go about devouring the creatures of this place, he was better. Though the loss of his lovely Seth and the prospects of raising their child weighed heavily on his already fractured mind, he thought... ...he was safe here. The name suited it. The wolf was most comfortable in his true form, so as he padded along the soft, green setting, his large black mass was as a passing shadow, and his wingtips trailed along the padded color on the walls. He had no sound to give, for he was not fond of making sound, but he did hear some coming his way, and when he did, the low-slung head perched on the heavy shoulders lifted, and the wolfish ears perked forward with a mild curiosity at the presence of another. The black, wet snout quivered, and he fancied he sensed a woman in his midst. He allowed himself the pleasure to walk in this green forest a few steps longer before he was faced directly with this woman. And then his tongue lolled out - a sign of peace and simple interest in what she was here for. "It is a fine day, isn't it?"

[/i] the mindspeak of the wolf lingered in the silent air, not causing it any harm but still heard over the sound of silence.

Normally, Le Cyll would have no need of such frivolous things as companionship, but today he seemed to crave it for the strangest of reasons. So he used his words, carefully crafted for just such an occasion, and he spoke plainly and in a freindly manner to this girl that he had never met before.

"I am Le Cyll... It is a pleasure to find you here, in the quiet."[/i]
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[coldcivility]

Lauradai was brought out of her thoughts by a friendly voice. However friendly the voice was, it startled her enough that she lost her balance and fell off the branch. Agility was her saving grace and she managed to land on the ground on her feet in front of the owner of said voice. She straightened her dress and tried to smooth the unruly waves of her hair, making a vain attempt to muster her dignity.

It would normally have bothered her to be brought out of her solitary reverie. And were she in any other kind of mood she would have given a polite but curt reply and walked away. But she was actually getting to be in the mood for some company.

She smiled warmly at the beautiful, black as night wolf she stood before.

"It is a perfectly beautiful day."

Her voice was as light and melodic as her mood, and she threw her arms out to her sides, leaned her head back and again inhaled the thick air.

Looking back at the wolf as he spoke she briefly bowed her head and closed her eyes her way of being polite and of showing respect to a stranger.

"It is a pleasure for me as well Le Cyll. My name's Lauradai. These streets are rarely occupied. People seem to be put off by the silence. But I usually cherish it. Too much noise and hustle can get to me. "

She wondered for a moment at her openness. She was usually wary of strangers but she chalked it up to the fact that she'd been without company for a long time.

[Я Є Đ WOLF]

[atrb=width,470,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][bg=4e4e4e] The woman, now that he was closer to her, he noticed was clad in entirely white. He would have laughed to himself at the irony of their respective colors, had he been in his human form, but as it stood, the wolf sufficed to let out a low snort of amusement - it was perhaps the closest thing he could manage to a laugh, and it lacked all the elegance of one, but it was simple, and it was genuine. He was rarely genuine. It must be the suffuse of green that clouded his mind and made him so terribly forthright. He politely ignored the awkward landing, and instead stretched his front paws out so that his head dipped low, ears back in the same greeting stance. It may have appeared an odd thing to see - this huge wolf half lying down, but the gesture was not so much one of greeting as it was one of submissiveness. Wolves were either dominant and willing to fight, or submissive and willing to listen. This stance was one that made it impossible for him to attack, and left him open to any attacks she might have - so it was considered a remarkably submissive pose. Thus, friendly. Odd wolflike customs aside, Le Cyll was startled by the bluntness of his new acquaintance just as much as he was at his own. It must be this place, he reasoned, and catching the meaning in her words, he stood up straight again and nodded his head. "I'd like to think the same of myself,"

[/i] the wolf said, quietly, "but then I would seek the quiet more often than I do. Perhaps it is merely that I am stubborn."[/i]

Another of those odd snorts came from the narrow snout. The wolf flicked his tail slightly, playfully.

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[coldcivility]

Her head followed the wolf's form as he leaned down low. She didn't know wolf customs or much about their culture but the position was low and made him vulnerable to her so she assumed it was either showing trust or submissiveness.

She flashed him a bright smile when he rose that reached her eyes. It had been too long since she'd had the pleasure of talking with another being so she decided to take advantage of it. If he got annoyed with her and left, so be it. But she'd found company in a usually deserted place. She could talk with someone and still be surrounded by the quiet.

Nimbly she jumped up on to a nearby wall and brought her knees up a enough so she could prop up her elbows on them and rest her chin on her hands.

"Well I was always of the mind that stubbornness is a fault while tenacity is a virtue. They basically mean the same thing only one version puts it in a bad light. So maybe you're not so much stubborn as you are tenacious."

She was by nature an optimist, though a wary one. She tried to see the bright side of things but wasn't naive enough to think that everything and everyone had a bright side. Some things in this world were incapable of having a bright side and their personality and nature made them, to her eyes, nothing but monsters.


She continued talking. Loving the fact that she was not alone.

"Besides, as much as I adore peace, quiet and solitude, it can get to me as much as too much noise and too many people. Sometimes you just need to be around them. Even if its just for background noise. I do it sometimes just so my inner monologue will shut up for awhile."

She laughed softly at herself. She was chatting like a talkative child which was very out of character for her.

[Я Є Đ WOLF]

[atrb=width,470,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][bg=4e4e4e] It was quite odd, this train of conversation. Not that he was in any way incapable of holding a conversation. On the contrary, years of reading and the few but enough times he was forced to communicate had honed his speech to something of an art form, but there was a difference between content and presentation. While he was being frank, Le Cyll was a terrible pessimist. It really explained many of the things that caused him such anguish. Perhaps even these voices he was hearing were in a way an extension of this deep seated pessimism... but he could speak well, so it did not quite appear as though he was "pessimistic." Perhaps conniving, even devious at times, but rarely did he seem so dreary. Which was why he found the girl's oddly bright comments so confusing, and this whole conversation strangely easy to continue. At the girl's reply, he strained to find something along the same lines of this unfamiliar optimism. Failing this, he simply responded with sardonic wit. "Yes, the sound of silence, as it is, can become loud as a yell..."

[coldcivility]

She took in his contradictory , yet not untrue words. Her mind went to the sleepless nights she lay with the silence so loud and oppressive she felt that she had to cover her ears to lock it out.

She let her legs fall and swung then back and forth as she ran her fingers through her hair. A clear sign that she was thinking.

"That's true..." she mused aloud. Her voice, while still melodic took on a darker, more serious tone.

"But too much of anything is oppressive. The light can blind one just as easily as the darkness can. Silence can ring as loud in ones ears as noise can. Finding the right balance can be tricky. Some people don't realize that. Personal preference plays such a large part in peoples way of judging others that it's nearly impossible for one to be truly and utterly objective. Those that dwell in the light cannot seem to understand those that prefer the dark. Different isn't bad. Just because something is intrinsic in ones own nature doesn't automatically make it right for everyone. There are two sides to every coin. Just because the sides aren't identical doesn't make the coin any less valuable."

She shook her head and smiled shyly raising her eyes to the wolfs and let her hands drop to grip the edge of the wall hard.

"At least that's my opinion. I know not everyone shares it or even tries to understand it. Most think people I've met whom I've shared my willing to accept beings for who and what they are just stare at me as if I'm a dull witted lunatic. But I've never cared overly much for what other people think of me. While it's their nature to be judgmental, its mine to accept."

She smiled wryly and raised a single dark brow.

"Why go against nature right?"

[Я Є Đ WOLF]

[atrb=width,470,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][bg=4e4e4e] He did not quire know why this concept of hers was so baffling to him. Surely, the many sleepless nights he'd wandered aimlessly the line of sanity and something... else... had caused him to ponder this. He had "pondered" everything. The wolf was very sure of this, because indeed he did think a great deal, and when one encounters an idea that one solves immediately, then one must move on to the next. And this is how it was with him: leaping from one idea to another endlessly, analyzing them - studying them for any relevance whatsoever and then storing them so that he might use them later. Oh yes, he was familiar with these theoretical laws of balance that she spoke of. He had come to accept them as a widespread phenomenon of nature, actually. Trees grew, and there was life. Fire burned, and the life died, but up from the ashes sprung a newer, fresher generation of life. The cycles involved in this "balance law" were endless. But to think of it in such terms... There could not possibly be a balance in logic? In perfection? Then where would excellence spawn from? Such terms as "good" or "bad" were merely an imbalance, and if everything must balance, then did that not mean to be perfect was to be average? Ordinary? For the entire universe to settle into one single, uniform shape? This thought made the wolf blink, then stretch his claws into the soft green moss beneath him. What terrible things to think of. This is perhaps why he bothered himself so terribly with his own thoughts. So inane and prattling... The wolf chose to respond with slightly less cynicism, but still with a healthy opposition. "What thought,"

[/i] he chuckled, his human voice unaffected by the wolfish appearance he now held. This is because he was chuckling with his voice, not his body this time. "So are you to say all things are to be the same? Equal? I would hate for there to be a mass of gray, lifeless block as our universe."[/i]

It wasn't that he disagreed with her that he fought her statement. It was more along the lines of sport. Sport drove the wolf almost as much as his insatiable intellect, and so he thought, when finally confronted with another intellect, that he might engage it in a sporting duel of wits.

And as if to show this, the wolf's tail wagged interestedly, but only once.

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[coldcivility]

Her smile became something deeper. The lightheartedness not leaving it completely but changing. So subtle a change that most wouldn't notice it at all.

All the time she had spent alone had caused to her have an appetite for new ideas and new ways of thinking. Debating an idea with ones self could pass the hours but she was enchanted to find someone who encouraged conversation.

She cocked a brow at him and turned her head slightly.

"A dull, grey, lifeless block of a universe would be something deserving of hatred. That's exactly what I'm talking about. I see the differences in peoples natures and instead of trying to force them to change it even if I don't like it, I accept it. If I don't understand the reasoning behind their thoughts, or actions I'd much rather sit and listen to them explain them to me then talk to them trying to get them to change. And when I do explain my way of thinking to people it isn't trying to get them to change their own ways. It's mostly to just explain mine.
What I mean by balance isn't equality in everything or having everything the same. I meant balance of a more personal nature. I don't mind being alone. But I neither would I want it all the time. There are some who simply can't stand to be by themselves. They're almost afraid of it. I don't agree with it completely but I'm certainly not going to try to convince them that being alone is a good idea, because for them it's not. Acceptance isn't agreement. I accept things for what they are. I accept that things are inconstant and changeable. I accept peoples natures. I don't have to agree with them though."

She fidgeted as she spoke. Playing with her hair and picking at the moss on the wall, but her eyes never drifted away from his. She had an uncanny ability to keep her eyes still and alert. A talent that many who spoke with her found disconcerting. They also didn't like how her mood could change so subtley from nearly a lightehearted almost child-like nature to so serious and dark. But she was a moonbird. As the moon has two sides so did she. The light and the dark. The dark side of her nature wasn't cruel or violent. Just a darker version of herself.

[Я Є Đ WOLF]

[atrb=width,470,true][atrb=border,0,true][atrb=cellSpacing,0,true][atrb=cellPadding,0,true][bg=4e4e4e] Le Cyll's head tipped, the long, full ears flung forward with interest. Her eyes never moved from him, but in turn his body never moved at all. The wolf was a a very still creature - not by nature, but by personal choice. Motion was indeed wasteful to him, so whenever he could, there was such an eerie stillness to him that it quite unnerved people. But then again, the wolf had never liked being stared at. The paws flinched unnecessarily, but besides that he kept himself in check - staring back with silvery intensity though he distracted himself with his thoughts. Then the more pessimistic nature of this wolf reared its not so pleasant head again, seizing the argument. "Oh, equality of the self I could see, but don't try to reason with people... You'll find that most of them are quite unreasonable. Devoid of reason in any way. Some defy it with their being, while others simply lack the ability to obtain it."

[/i]

The wolf chuckled. "Most people, I find, are very unreasonable."[/i]

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