Two Is A Pack

Evening Downpour

Third-Person Perspective
Fox Den, Wilderness, Northern Kingdom
Sunday, 15/09/1032

"They really are..." Lily mumbled, zoning out and staring off into the distance. After a few seconds she was completely silent, her breathing slow and her body completely still. Suddenly she jerked back, lashing out and hitting Aiden before leaping away into a defensive stance. She stayed low to the floor, her ears back against her head and eyes fixed on Aiden. She came to her senses soon after, shaking her head and trying to hold back tears - she was horrified about what just happened, though she didn't fully understand it. "I don't- I don't know what came over me-" She whispered, tearing up.

Ignoring the fact that Lily had just hit him across the face, Aiden quickly rushed to her side to help. "Shit, Lily- are you okay?" He asked, worry thick in his voice as he tried to get her to look up at him.

Lily tried to speak, though all that came out for a few seconds was whimpering and fractured words. She stopped and tried to regulate herself, before getting back on her feet and wiping her tears away with her sleeve. "I-I'll be fine-" She said, turning away from Aiden.

"If you say so..." Aiden's brow furrowed - this had never happened before, not that he knew of, nor that he had been told of. Impulsively, he wrapped his arms around her and hugged her, trying his best to comfort her at least a little bit. Part of him knew there was something wrong, but he didn't know what it was. Not just yet anyway.

Lily didn't hug him back, but instead, just let her arms hang by her sides. "Thank you." She whispered, stepping out of the hug before looking back at Aiden, seeing blood running onto his lip from his nose. She pulled a piece of cloth from one of her shirt pockets and began cleaning his face, looking a little worried about him. "I'm so sorry for hitting you, you've got a bloody nose-"

"If it's not as bad as when I smashed it into that rock a few weeks back I'll be fine." Aiden replied, letting out a small laugh and holding still while Lily wiped the blood away.

"I don't think it's that bad" Lily giggled, stepping back from him. "But I doubt we'll never see something like that again" Lily laughed, easing up a little bit.

"If it was as bad as it was then, I'm sure I'd actually feel it bleeding," Aiden said with a laugh, wiping a bit of blood that Lily missed from his lip and looking at the sky, which was slowly darkening as the sun disappeared behind the mountain range. "But I learned my lesson from that, you've gotta have more faith in me-"

"Need I remind you of the loud crack of the branch you snapped the other day?" Lily laughed, stopping for a moment and thinking. "You're doing great, Aiden. I mean it." She sighed deeply and looked away from him, a small smile on her lips. "...and I suppose I enjoy having you around."

Aiden merely smiled in response, knowing better than to tease her about admitting to liking his company after the last time he did so. He tried to ignore it, but his tail began to wag happily as the smile grew a little on his face. He looked up at the trees around the cave before deciding to climb up one of them and nestle himself in the leaves and branches, watching the sun set through a break in the leaves.

Lily glances out at the mountain range, also watching the sunset. "Beautiful, isn't it?" She asked rhetorically, sitting down to watch it.

Aiden looked back down at the floor, seeing Lily sit down near the base of the tree. "Yeah..." He pauses to look back at the sun, mesmerised by all the colours. "It's a lot better from up here, y'know."

"Bit needy today, aren't we?" Lily leapt up and jumped off of the wall of the cave, up onto a tree and over to Aiden's tree, sitting down beside him. "This good?"