I walk a lonley road....

Well, Tyrone certainly hadn't expected her life's story. It was like she had read his mind, for he had just been thinking about where she came from, and now it all lay out in front of him. He cocked his head as she walked and looked away from him, shame taking over her usually proud form. He was a patient listener, though, his ears perked forward to catch her every word, letting them sink in. He waited until she was finished, her blue eyes shining and threatening to spill tears.

He folded his ears back in respect. "That sucks..." he said softly. "I mean, I'm sorry for... what happened to you... and stuff." He couldn't think of what else to say. From where he stood in life, he wasn't sure if he had ever been in love. Miranda was... lust. Complete and utter lust, and he knew now that it would never be anything more than that. And for that, he hated her. Why bother even declaring yourself a mate to someone? Tyrone held eye contact with her, though he didn't really want to, his own past creeping into his mind. "I had a mate... once... I've probably mentioned her several times, and I'm sorry that I didn't tell you sooner, or that she's not my mate any longer. She was good for me when I was young, but that's really all she liked about me... And she abandoned me when I needed her most. And, well, that's not a sign of a good mate at all, y'know?"

Tyrone released a great sigh in his shake and stood up, shaking his coat, and also shaking away all of the negative feelings that had suddenly collapsed on them. "Well, now that we got all that outta the way," he said, and looked over his shoulder at the mountains. "I'm thinking if we make a trip to those mountains there, we're more likely to find a corpse than out here. Though, I don't know what's over there. Probably some dangerous stuff, like bears or something."

They wouldn't be able to make the trip now, it seemed. The sun was beginning to crisp the horizon, bright orange rays slicing along the golden sand. If they left now, they'd be bacon by noontime. And, it seemed that it was at least a three-day journey. Tyrone yawned. He couldn't remember the last time he had slept, and he really wanted to return to gnawing on that rib-bone.

Tyrone perked up instantly when she called for him. "What? What? You want me to lay with you?" he asked, his voice like that of an excited young pup's. He practically leapt from where he was, making a mad-dash over to her snuggle-hole. "Hi!" he barked, tail wagging obnoxiously behind him... Then he remembered they were supposed to be going to sleep. "Oh. Um. Lemme just get comfy, then..." he said, tail stopping as he tried to settle down beside her. But, he found that he was much larger than he remembered. He first lay so that she was directly behind him, but then her nose got into his ear. He rolled over, but then he bumped muzzles with her, and her back left paw was in a very uncomfortable position. He scooted backwards as so they would have a space between them, but then his tail got all scrunched up against him. Tyrone growled, frustrated, and sat up. "Argh. I'm sorry. I just... can't get comfortable," he apologized, knowing that she would get annoyed at him faster than the temperature was rising in the desert.

"Huh, I never thought of that..." he said, stepping out of the hole. She followed, and then he went back down into it. He found that he was still rather squeezed inside - though Raven had seemingly dug it for two - but if he pushed against the sand walls, he could fit, little waterfalls of sand cascading down some of his limbs, but not collapsing completely. He laid down, his nose right in the dirt, but it felt moist and cool compared to the growing heat. He looked back up and Raven. "Well?" he said, a wry smile on his face. If he could, he would have raised his tail rather proudly at that moment, but it was tucked up against him. "Make yourself comfortable on Le Neste a la Tyrone!"

Tyrone's rapidly-beating heart suddenly calmed as Raven lay against him, her body naturally fitting into his. They lay in the cool and the shadows, the sun passing above them. Tyrone closed his eyes and gave in to slumber...

He was chasing someone... Someone across the desert. The landscape kept shifting between night and day, like wet paint dribbling and swirling, hues of midnight blue and periwinkle and gold and white. Tyrone's legs propelled beneath him, determined to catch up with this dark wolf, chasing them to what felt like the edge of the earth. Suddenly, the black wolf stopped. A she. She looked back at him, her blue eyes shining, teasing him to come along. Enchanted, the dream Raven led him into a cool cave that erupted from the ground.

It was in this cave that she lifted her tail, her heat meeting his nostrils. She said liquid words to him, but what exactly they were, he couldn't make out as he mounted her, instinct taking over. Raven seemed to be enjoying it, her lyrics rising in pitch and pleasure, and just as he felt he was about to thrust his seed into her, she turned and looked at him with burning, orange-colored eyes... Miranda's eyes.

Tyrone shot up, gasping for air, the nightmare having taken hold of him. At first he thought he was in the cave, darkness flooding his vision, when he remembered where he was... Down in the hole, with Raven at his side. He panted, trying to catch his breath, and then he noticed a hardness down below that only happened when... Well, either way, it was poking very rudely into Raven's back. Not wanting to get caught or have her be angered at him for no reason, he shifted and climbed out of the hole, though he had a feeling he had already woken up. He dashed over to the Oasis pool, splashing into it by the light of the moon.

Tyrone gasped, the water dripping off his nose and from his drenched pelt. He looked up to find that he had woken Raven, her blue eyes shining. Blue eyes... Okay, good. He wasn't dreaming. His ears pinned back. "I'm sorry," he said. "I... I had a nightmare. I didn't mean to wake you up and stuff." He shook the water off and he came close to her, as if studying each and every feature of her: her blue eyes, her dark pelt, her sharp muzzle, her small pads, her lean shoulders, her eloquent stature... He hated to admit it, but with every feature other than her blue eyes, she looked just like Miranda, and that only did more to unnerve him. He suddenly looked away as he thought this, ashamed of himself. But he shook his head, trying to rid himself of those... feelings, again.

"Well, it's dark out now," he said, changing the subject. The last thing he wanted to do was talk about the nightmare. He looked up to the sky. Tonight it was cloudy, a haze covering the silver moon suspended in the sky. "So, do you think you'd want to start heading for the forest? Or wait one more night or something?"

"Okay, sounds good," Tyrone said, lapping up some water as well. "But I don't think we'll have to hunt again... There's enough buffalo left for the two of us." He wandered back over to the kill, using his powerful jaws to snap off another rib bone chunked with meat. It was a little more than a snack for him, and would serve his hungry belly good, as a part of him was always hungry. The meat was drier now, even though it had been in shade during the day, and tougher, too... but it tasted delicious, like jerky.

Tyrone licked his chops, swallowing the last of the jerky morsel. His sparkling orange eyes gazed off towards the west, adventure surging through him. He had lived in the desert his entire life, and never even visited the forest on vacation. His tail wagged happily behind him. "I think so," he replied, chest swelling. "I've never been to the forest before, 'cause you know, I'm a desert wolf and stuff. But, hey, there's a first time for everything. Let's go!" He barked and bolted off, grinning as he did so.

With the full moon up in the sky above and the flat white desert below, Tyrone tore across the landscape, his legs propelling like four engine pistons. He whipped his head over his shoulder, hoping the black femora could run as fast as her name said she could fly. He would make sure that they'd get to the forest sooner than the sun would rise, and with plenty of time later to rest. This would be no slow trail, this was race!

He was actually beating her! Tyrone couldn't believe it, his legs thundering beneath him, like a storm passing over the wasteland. He glanced behind him again and his orange eyes widened as Raven caught up with him at blinding speed. He pushed himself harder, his heart racing, tongue hanging loosely out of his mouth, slobber dripping from his jowls. He continued looking back at her as she barked and nipped him in the side for cheating, and he could only laugh, still in the lead.

Unfortunately, he didn't see the tiny outcrop of rock directly in his path.

The next thing he knew he was flying, sand all around him, tumbling down and head over heels. He slid in the sand onto his back... And no longer in the lead. He lie there, panting and catching his breath, his tail wagging underneath him. "Hey!" he called, rolling onto his feet again. "You callin' me a cheater?! You're the one that distracted me!" He barked playfully and loped up to her, giving her a small nip in the side as well. "Aww, c'mon, let's do a fair race now. We're almost there, and soon, you'll be eating my dust!"

Tyrone couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as she clawed the tree, marking it like she was some kind of cat. Well, whatever worked, right? Tyrone stepped forward and sniffed the bark, but to him, it wasn't strong enough... So, he lifted his leg, and went on it as a more permanent marker. "There," he said, grinning like a king. "Now we'll definitely know our way back. Smells like buffalo jerky." He knew that this ought to earn him a good swat, so he prepared for it, ducking his head just a few inches away from her, his grin still in place. He lifted his orange eyes to the dark forest, inhaling deeply.

"Where do we start?" he echoed, eyes shifting from bushes to trees to the leaves and to just everything that was in the forest. He noticed that it was also significantly cooler than the desert, which he was not used to... All his life, he had grown up in the harshness of the desert, and this... This would be something else. He turned to his companion. "Er, you're better at this forest stuff than I am. Maybe you should lead the way... I'll probably get lost, or stumble upon a bear or something like that..."

And once again, she had disappeared into the shadows. "Hey, wait up! I can't see you!" he hollered, jumping after her. His nose was not at all adjusted to the heavy barrage of forest smells, so it was already difficult to keep track of her. He had hoped that maybe the moonlight would poke through the trees and guide his way, but it was not so. Tyrone caught up with her, Raven's lean form gliding through the brush whereas he managed to catch every branch, weed, and thorn possible. "Dammit!" he cried when he fell over a fallen log, landing on his face once again. He hadn't seen it coming, and stood up and batted the dirt off his nose. "I'm okay, I'm okay..." he said, shaking some of the leaves off of him and stumbling forward. "Fenrir, I never knew the forest would be so freaking hard to navigate through... Seriously..." He shook his head. "Anyways, you find anything? All I'm smelling is dirt and squirrels."

"My eyes are open!" he barked as she picked the bramble from his scruff. "But, seriously. I was raised in the desert. This really is the forest time I've ever been in a forest... especially at night. I know to you and some other wolves it's weird, but, that's just the way it is." He followed her gaze and inhaled deeply, now both seeing the creek and smelling it. He couldn't really smell the old wolf scent he was talking about, but it was a start. Tyrone followed her down to the stream, and the deeper they went into the woods, the more he was convinced that he was physically impaired when it came to forest life. Not only was he large and his shoulders seeming to bump into every twig and tree, not only was his nose overwhelmed with scents he couldn't recognize, and not only did brambles and burrs of all kinds stick to his fur, but now there were bugs. Bugs everywhere. Mosquitoes, in particular, flying into the fleshy parts of his ear, their high-pitched buzzing like a screeching owl in his eardrum. Tyrone growled and batted the air. He was used to bugs, but these... Well, they were everywhere. "Dammit all..." he cursed beneath his breath, but then glanced at Raven. She was ignoring the bugs entirely.

He took his own drink of water, but he stopped after he accidentally swallowed three more bugs... and one of them definitely wasn't a mosquito. His orange eyes landed on Raven's sleek form once again, and despite his growing hatred of the forest, there seemed to be something... natural with her being here. His ears flicked back at this realization: Raven was a forest wolf, and he a desert one. Sure, they could adapt to each other's environments, but... it was easy to see who preferred what and who did not. But he continued to stare, yet again fascinated with her dark, lithe body. She was beau -

A breaking branch snapped his sights away from Raven. His eyes darted back and forth between the line of trees that yielded to the creek, searching for whoever was there. He inhaled, standing tall and his tail crowning over his back, taking a very defensive position. If it was a wolf coming to assassinate them or any kind of predator on the prowl, Tyrone would make certain that no tooth or claw landed on Raven. "Whoever you are, come on out!" he barked, voice deeper than it usually was and matching his incredible size. He was ready to fight if he had to.