How it irritates him now, to be anywhere near the scent of pine. Not that Hubert had had any sort of love for the perfume to begin with, of course. Why would he?

But the scent is made that much sharper by the thought of that secret garden left abandoned and overgrown in the forest depths. The very air seems to tear at his lungs with claws of bitter disappointment and betrayal, weighing him down even as he tries so stubbornly to ignore it all.

@Solanum was supposed to be the one that didn't disappear. The one that didn't leave. But where was she now?

The Brook is but a shell of what it once was, and Hubert will not shed any tears over that. Of course she would not be there. Yet for all the destruction they had wrought, the force that was once the Plains has fallen too. Those borders had smelled of a different King when he'd last passed them by. Such was the way of things, it seemed. (Yet still he will not entertain the idea that the Mire might someday fall.) No, what concerns the Prince most at this moment is that he has lost yet another trail.

He does not linger for long in the garden this time. It lives still, in surprisingly good condition considering how long its owner had neglected it. Had a helping, mud-stained paw been involved in that, perhaps? Hubert will not tell. He lets his earthen paws carry him to a quiet clearing, finally breaking free from the oppressive presence of the trees to take a deep breath of cool, evening air, tipping his skull upwards towards a sky painted in the fire of the setting sun. For a moment, he tries to let himself focus on nothing more than than the breeze ruffling his mane and the distant sound of fading birdsong.

On occasion, he can't help but think that he thinks too much. How exhausting it is, to obsess so much over all the things that have slipped out of his grasp.

Yet he will not cannot let go.

CODE / ART BY Yumpy

Shame had driven her away from everyone, and something with a thousand emotions she could not figure out had drug her back, the girl slipped into the garden she had nursed and breathed life into for so long, she expects destruction, ruins, death, and heartbreak. The chimera gives a shaky breath before she enters her haven, their Garden ot Eden, what her yellow eyes find are nothing she predicted. Sure, it is overgrown, but someone had been tending it.

Softly she inhales, his scent causing her heart to quicken and she cannot help as her paws begin to speed up their movements, carrying her small form to find him, ""Hemlock!" She screams his name, her voice holding tones of worry, of care, of desire, but most importantly, it's his name she first screams to bring him to her. No-one comes to mind and maybe that should make her feel guilty, but the two halved girl can only picture one face in her mind, his scent was stronger now and she sped up,

""Hemlock!"

She screams again, this time louder, urgency in her voice. She needed him to hear her, to prove she'd never left him truly, and if she did, she would come back.

She would always stay.

Shed promised him in her own way the day she'd saved his life, she may have slipped out of his grip, but here she was, giving him the chance to grab her, to quickly swipe her from the fall so that she would not slip again.

@Hubert

The hushed calm of the evening air doesn't quite reflect the state of emotion locked away beneath the Prince's impassive mask. But maybe this is the closest he ever gets to something like calm, when he forces himself to think only of the physical beat of his heart and not the vitriol that's pulsed through it for so long. A temporary reprieve, before he inevitably returns to the depths of the swamp to spit that acid at whoever's unfortunate enough to cross his path first.

But then he hears it, past his heartbeat and the rustling grass and the last notes of birdsong. A name carried on the wind. That name.

His eyes are doubtful when he opens them to the dying light once more, his lips twisting into a skeptical line as he turns to peer past the shadowy tree line. He hates that his pulse has been jolted to a rabbit's pace by what might very well be a figment of his imagination. He hates his body's show of weakness, for it often feels that he does not have much else, when he allows himself to think on it for too long.

"Hemlock!"

He growls, a possessive, wanting, desperate sound that builds up to a resounding roar that bounces off the trees as he catapults past them, his paws urging him relentlessly onwards to chase that familiar voice even without him making the conscious decision to do so. "Solanum?"

I'm here.

Are you?

CODE / ART BY Yumpy

Caring not that she may be disrupting the calm of the glade, she only cares about the way his scent grows stronger the more distance she covers. Her small body pushes forward, he had to be here, she could not let herself second guess that he may not be here. The traumatized side of her whispers to her that it may be a cruel, sick trick, run rabbit, run rabbit, run. Run. Run. No. She shakes her head, this wasn't a trap, his scent was real. He was real.

She growls in frustration at her brain, shoving all thoughts of this being a hallucination away.

Little mouse.

She shudders for a moment, only pausing her advancing steps to breath, sides moving quickly with her pants, she listens, eyes search the Glade. Please be here. She silently pleads, she wouldn't leave again, she'd never have left willingly, her lips part as tears threaten to spill down her cheeks, ready to accept that he had left.

Then she hears it. A roar, his roar echos around her and she's back up on four paws, Solanum?

""I'm here!"

Not giving him time to come find he4, she races to his voice, now they're both crashing through trees and brush, she does not slow, not until she sees his familiar face, a fiery heat seizes her chest and sends her heart fluttering. Solanum did not stop until she was closer to him, and she would launch herself at him, front arms reaching to wrap around his neck and pull him and herself as close as possible.

I'm here.

I'm yours

He's chasing a ghost, or so he thinks. A whisper of wind that'd so cruelly mimicked her voice, a garden of nightshade that'd set a perfume not unlike hers adrift upon the breeze. It fills his nose, so fresh and real, and yet she is already gone, neither hide nor hair to be seen in the shadows lengthening beneath the branches. And he is reminded that hope can be a dangerous thing.

Has he driven himself mad? Or is she the one that has driven him mad, simply by disappearing in the wake of giving him a taste of what it was like to lust and take and have?

He'd not thought himself so fragile.

His steps slow, though his narrow chest still heaves with breath, his pulse a quick drumbeat pounding in his ears.

"I'm here"

There again, but sounding from back the way he came, echoing around him in endless circles that he thinks may never end. Is it another growl or a laugh that rumbles from his throat now? Perhaps he truly is mad. And all for a girl.

Why does he still not let go?

Yet in a rare stroke of good luck, the Prince does not have the luxury of time to mire himself further into insanity. The sound of snapping branches and rapid footfalls bid him to turn quickly, and there he is greeted by a ghost made flesh, his arms filled with the chimeric lioness that he instinctively moves to embrace in turn, despite his shock. His voice is a low growl against the crown of @Solanum's skull. "You've finally returned." To the Grove? To their garden? To him?

"Where were you, all this time?" He demands, for that is the easiest thing to do out of countless things he should could do and say. Out of all the emotions he has been made to feel, it is bitterness that he knows best.

But he will not let go of her.

You are mine.

CODE / ART BY Yumpy

They both had somehow got turned away, opposite sides of where they'd been, but she'd find him, she'd always be able to find him and come back. Her heart pounded as she internally screamed, frustration evident in the way she shook, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He may not have been fragile but she was. And she was breaking.

But her racing forward into his arms seems to hold her together, she clings to him, listening to his voice as he growls words into her fur, a happy choked sob escapes her as she inhales him scent and clings to him.""I found you." She cries into his mane, fingers tangling into his hair, she is afraid to pull back and look at him, afraid she's imagined him.

She here's the bitterness in his voice and she would be lying if she said it did not hurt,she stiffens in his arms, if he pulled back he would see the new scars she wore across her muzzle and body. ""I was taken..held prisoner by Lorien.. after out night here.." Her voice shakes slightly as she finally peers up at him through long lashes, ""Before the raid..I.."

She felt the need to apologize, but for what? She hadn't wanted to be taken, she had not wanted to leave him.

There is hurt in her voice and eyes but she stays tangled in him.

It might seem as if they were destined to circle each other endlessly, if only Hubert believed in such ridiculous things as destiny. But they have been caught in each other's orbit, and every tragic near miss has only served to draw them closer together despite the frustratingly hollow ache of despair.

If one envisioned it that way, then it was no surprise that the chase would end in such a crash.

If it is possible to feel @Solanum's rapid pulse against his own skin, it is lost as mere echo trailing in the wake of his own rabbiting heartbeat, his blood still rushing from the adrenaline, the surprise, and the tumultuous ups and downs of far too many emotions than he cares to untangle in this moment.

Even after all of this, it is terribly easy to welcome her into his embrace, to curl around her as she nuzzles into his mane even. Even when he knows that it would be better, safer, to keep her at arm's length.

She stills at the sound of his question, and his hold upon tightens instinctively when she draws back, allowing her to go back only just far enough so that he can see her face and look into her eyes - and consider the scars gleaming in the waning light. His jaw tightens at the sight, an odd look gleaming in his verdant eyes that only grows sharper when Solanum offers an explanation that answers quite a few questions besides one. "Who was it that took you there?" So the chimeric flower had been rendered just another casualty of the war against the Brook.

He should have known.

Silence settles in the space between them, where the warmth of their breaths intermingles in the air, dark nostrils flaring with a shuddering inhale as Hubert's eyes slide shut beneath the weight of heavy thoughts. Only to snap back open to pin his flower beneath a piercing gaze. "There isn't a place for you here anymore. Vermeda and Lorien both have fallen and cannot keep you. It's time for you to come home where I can keep you safe." He tips his skull even closer towards hers, dark lips almost brushing against hers when he growls his next words. "No one will dare to steal from a Prince of the Mire." Not without paying dearly for it.

And so unfolds the grand reveal.

Hubert vs. ???
For Claim of @Solanum
Round 0 / 3

CODE / ART BY Yumpy

The feeling of being wrapped up in his arms is one that she can never get tired from, she buries herself in his mane and whimpers. She places a hand on his chest, and her other stays tangled in his mane, her lips press her love into his chin and his cheek, she inhales his scent and feels home.

They’re caught in each other’s embrace, neither one willing to let the other go, she presses against him. Wanting. Craving. Surrendering to him.

She pulls back when he speaks, hurt flashing across her face but instead of letting her go, his hold tightens on her, her eyes caught in his gaze, she feels his eyes roaming over her, taking in the scars that were now healed, she shifts and flattens her ears. Shame and embarrassment obviously on her facial expression and expressed in those yellow eyes. {“Aeistrios…He found me when I was just leaving the garden the night after you had left..”} She whispers softly, not blaming him for her being kidnapped, he wouldn’t have known, couldn’t have known. She had never had an issue falling asleep in the garden and making it back home, but that night the storm had slowed her and led her right in the mouth of the predator stalking her in the darkness.

She can hear and feel his shaky breath, she bites her lip, her eyes gently taking in his body, not missing a detail, she trembles a bit in his tight embrace. His next words are harsh but true, but then he tells her she needs to come home, and her eyes shoot back up to stare into his, {“Wha—“} She exhales shakily as his lips barely brush hers as he finally reveals where he comes from, and his title, still no true name but this revelation causes her to give the softest groan before she is nodding softly and shoving her lips into his hungrily. She would not fight him, she knew where she should be, she could say she’s known where she belonged since the first time in the garden.

@Hubert VS. No One FOR @Solanum
— DEFAULT —

Due to the no one answering within the timers, this fight has defaulted.

Hubert HAS WON THE CHALLENGE FOR Solanum!

Please allow the challengers to respond to the fight results first. As per the site rules, if 3 days go by without a post from the challenger(s), they can be skipped. Whichever comes first! Any posts made before this will be removed.

This time, there is no slavering mongrel looking to burst out from his Vater's stories to try to take away what so clearly belonged to him. @Solanum is his to claim and claim her he shall, as was the right of an Ecrosian Prince.

If he believed in the same 'higher' nonsense that that weird al-Najma bunch had, he might say that the stars have finally aligned for him, just this once. But it is the strength of his own will that shall keep his fortunes where they belong - at his side. Who should think to try to ruin this for him?

Aeistrios...Of course, it had been none other than the once-King of Lorien himself that had whisked her away into the dark. It did seem to be something of a hobby of his, though Hubert had only really felt amusement the pawful of times he'd witnessed the plum man's stunts before. "What else did he do? Tell me everything." It'd been different before, when the Prince had felt nothing towards the other pretty trinkets that were either stolen or ruined. But Solanum? She was his to steal. His to ruin for anybody else.

And so it is done, when the sweet taste of her lips crashes against his own and he surges against her in turn, fangs nipping at her soft muzzle, her dark cheek, the elegant curve of her neck. The shadow presses in to first devour her with his jaws - and then swallow her whole beneath the entirety of his heated embrace.

"Call me Hubert."

/fade exit with Solanum?

CODE / ART BY Yumpy