Skill:

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Lithe

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She flattened her ears as he demanded they move and she did. She moved at a pace he was pleased with and they continued on to where the aroma of the world was different.

As they neared he felt the cold being stripped away, replaced with a warmth that was just wrong for this time of the year, he was young but he could feel in his bones this was all wrong... The scents of flowers filled his nose and the boy snorted in disgust as the sickly sweet petals that surrounded them... The tree's they blossomed with pinks that tinged his pale fur with a coloration that was off and almost pink himself.

The fuck...? He questioned as his eyebrows furrowed, his eyes narrowed, his tail dropped. Abaddon held his ears high as they continued on into the dew laden grasses that tickled their paw pads. Lithe...? He asked her, using her name in a calm way for the first time in her lifetime. Everything, it was just wrong, it caused a pit in his stomach that he couldn't explain, and where he didn't feel fear he surely didn't feel right... Perhaps Lithe might see him in a different light today...

The air changed before the ground did. It clung to her like damp breath, warm and heavy, filling her nose with sweetness that made her teeth hurt. It was nothing like the Spine—too soft, too thick, too much. She didn’t know words for things like "wrong," not really. But her skin knew it. Her fur stood where it shouldn’t. Her belly twisted without cause.

She kept walking anyway.

His voice cut the stillness. Sharp at first—what the fuck?—but then…

Lithe ...

She stopped.

The way he said her name made her ears twitch. Not pinned back. Not braced. Just ... confused. He had never said it like that before. Calm. Like it belonged to someone he didn’t hate.

She didn’t turn to look at him.

The trees moved ahead of her. Slowly. Breathing. The blossoms spilled light onto her back, tinting her pale fur with colors that had never been there before. The grass beneath her paws shimmered faintly. It didn’t feel real.

Something about the scent clawed deeper now. Sweet, yes, but hollow. Familiar in a way she didn’t like. It reminded her of the den when their father used to sleep in it—distant and silent and full of things she wasn’t allowed to touch. Of the way his eyes would slide past her like she was already gone.

This place smelled like that. Or tried to.

The wrong kind of welcome.

She didn’t speak. The silence stretched long between them as the petals danced overhead, weightless and unbothered.

Skill:

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Lithe

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He watched her stop at the mention of her name and he came to stand beside her, his nose sniffed the air a few times as he tried to scent out what was going on and the smells of blood and fur came to his nostrils.

What's happening...? He asked his silent sister as they were transported back home, but it wasn't home... Father appeared before his eyes, a distant memory that barely noticed him, the way his eyes would glide over him like he was nothing.

He wasn't nothing...

A growl came from his chest as the boy gazed off into space as he raised his tail high above his hips. He barked a loud sound, took a step forward, and let out a deep bark, guttural and feral as he tried to chase away the shadows.