deeds of green thrilling light

The day was nearing its completion, and the sun thrust out its dusky oranges and pinks streaking across the sky. Olive, who had never considered herself a mountaineer, or had any inclination towards mountains or the tundra in any large ways, sat atop one of the peaks of middling size; it was just one of many amongst her vale, and she had found herself climbing and traversing a different one each evening, in the hopes of bettering knowing her home and fully dedicating herself to the land she now protected. Seeing endless sunsets shine out across her land was simply a joyful byproduct of such desire.
 
Olive was also motivated to make great use of this ‘middle’ part of her pregnancy, caught between the early nausea and the later lethargy. It was in these moments, that Olive felt the quality that she had extolled to Riannon some moons ago, when they discussed the essence of motherhood and where a mother’s energy was best laid. Olive felt the Goddess run through her, as if she were growing orbs of golden light within her belly; she was the very opposite of distracted. The woman felt whole and purposeful and worthy of this large role she played in the continuation of wolf-kind.
 
But now, something was different, and had changed in the best way — and it was not only within her, but within the pups themselves. Her experience had told her to expect such quickening as her condition progressed, but the midwife hadn’t expected how the beginning of their movements felt a lot like bubbles in ones’ belly, and she wondered for how long she had been missing these sensations, writing them off as the inner workings of her own body. But now she knew, and she delighted in ever instance, feeling as if it were the best kept secret that existed only between her and her children.
 
Not even their own father could feel such a thing.
 
With the last point heavy on her mind, the priestess descend that night’s precipice and in the waning light, meandered to find @Tiberius. He perplexed her in a most wonderful way; so deliciously complicated that it took significant effort to figure him out, and catch a glimpse of what existed beneath his scarred exterior. Olive had no idea how Tiberius felt about fatherhood other than an extreme dedication to preserving the sanctity of their home, but this was one (of many things) that she was thrilled to explore with him, and she fully expected to come out on the other side with a more solid union.
 
Catching his scent on the lowly evening wind, she moved off of her original course to pursue it. “Oh Tiberius, darling~ ” she sang as she pranced after him, imagining that every shadow would transform into the hulking figure that she so longer to see.

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Much like he always did, the titan had a schedule. Morning, noon and evening would he patrol to ensure that there was nothing lurking in the distances around their claim, marking his scent as he went though he had taken to doing a late night patrol too if he could not sleep -- though truthfully, sleep did not come to him all that often anyway. Night had not fallen yet, not deeply and thus he was on his evening patrol when he heard the sound of his Angel calling through the Vale.

He had not been far from her, his ears twitching as he cast his head over his shoulder as his molten gaze sought her out through the thick trees. Tiberius' mind continued to run a million miles a minute with every second that ticked by through Olive's pregnancy, his worry lining his heart and trying to keep the lands safe whilst not getting himself killed.

The titan could not allow his children to grow as he did, without his father, dead before he had even been born. It was a tricky place to be in as he threw himself with his entire heart into keeping Duskguard in tip top shape yet wanting to be cautious enough where he did not go into something he could not survive. Thankfully little danger had been at their borders, keeping him and everyone else at ease.

Tiberius would finish marking the land he had come to before he would turn around, one last look into the distance before he moved through the trees in search of Olive. It did not take long to find her, his whimsical woman trailing him and it gave him a pause as it always did when his gaze landed upon her. It trailed over her delicate features, her eyes of green, venturing down her neck and her shoulder as it landed upon her swelling sides where their children grew and like every time it left him a little bit breathless.

"Angel," he rumbled as he drew near, inclining his head towards her as he swept his tongue between her ears, kissing her crown as he breathed her in. ^^

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As she glided down the heights and deeper into the vale, her gaze slipped from the horizon to the earth that lay in her pathway, a foot or two in front of her toes. She gazed at all the rocks that passed underfoot, and when she perceived a larger shift in elevation, she would traverse it with a skip or hop, all in the same moment. It was nice and methodical, and felt good for her to create such a metronome with her body. The only thing that could rouse her from her canter was the smokey downturn of the Chieftain’s voice, like gravel that rolled in his throat.

“Angel,” came his greeting, and there he was, as if summoned by a spell — but what were monikers, if not that exactly?

She paused to allow his rakish gaze fall all over her, as if she was caught in a warm rain shower of his attention. She even feigned not seeing him for a moment, glancing over that way and just beyond, sticking out her nose to advertise the delicate curve of her neck. Then she finally glanced at him, eyes widening in mock-surprise before her expression melted into something more honest: a deep pleasure to see him, and to once again share his space.

The slight woman, too, used the distance between them to fully observe the entire sight of him. All parts of Tiberius were intimately familiar. She was pleased to see how he was whole, and exactly as he always was; just as he was pleased to see how she grew and changed… a perfect representation of the delicate dance of the divine masculine and feminine. Always a duality, and ever-unable to exist without the other.

It was then that Olive was reminded why she had sought him out in that particular moment. She was also softly reminded about how amazing it was, the connection between her as a vessel, and the pups as they grew within. As her own heartbeat quickened at the sight of her shadowlove, so did that of her puppies. They squirmed and moved about, reacting instantaneously to the fluctuations of her own body, inspiring a beaming smile that gave the titan notice that there was something larger at play.

The skip entirely still in her step, the sylph flitted closer to Tiberius’s proximity, determined to keep them moving purely with the thrill that shot through her own heart. She clasped herself to his side. “Can you feel it, my love?” she asked him, her voice dazzling with incredulity. He was not a Godly man, but it was impossible to deny that magic that sparked life, and animated itself within her now. “Can you feel how they dance?”

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If this was the last memory he had, Tiberius would think there no better. To have the woman he so loved and desired as the last person he might see would be an honour, though he did not come knocking at deaths door any time soon. The titan was determined to give his children the life he had been robbed of, the parents he had been robbed off -- the life had been robbed of. Yet... ultimately, he wouldn't have changed it, he supposed, because what happened and happened and here he was, at the paws of a woman so magical he thought he might be in the longest, most desirable dream of his life.

Save for some bumps. Shiroshika, his lost friendship, some despair sprinkled in there, some struggles -- aside from those, it was most certainly the best time of his life. Tiberius appreciated her where she stood, basking in all that was Olive and finding that when she looked to him, his world was right. To him she came, draping her side to his with her words lighting a fire within his belly and then he -- then he did, he realised. Dance they were, he realised, feeling them kick and wriggle against her and ultimately, him.

Tiberius swallowed thickly as his own heartbeat became loud in his ears, his head tilting down to cast his molten gaze between them where their fur and flesh touched -- her swollen side flush against him. He had known he felt love and affection for the woman, the only one to really see him and love him and truly, he had thought it might stop there, that only she could be what his broken heart desired yet as he felt the children they had created between them, together, wriggle with life against him, in her -- Tiberius knew then that his love knew no bounds.

He would love them so fiercely, just as he loved their mother. The titan lifted his gaze from between them to cast his emotional stare to Olive, his tongue sweeping out as he leaned down to kiss her crown, "marry me," he rasped to her, breathing her in and feeling bold as he asked her. ^^

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The man fell silent, and so did the woman, as they felt the sensations that twisted between them. It was strange, feeling something within her body that existed on its own and had its own autonomy even within the confines of her barrier; it was something akin to her heart-beat or her breath-rhythm, pulsing ever-onwards, only vaguely controlled by her own inner processes — certainly the pups were excitable, but she could not start nor stop their existence by thoughts alone. After her tryst with the man at her side, the entire process was taken entirely out of their hands, and it now lay with the Gods. How many there were, who they were, what they were meant to achieve in this world; it was a song written and conducted by invisible hands, the same hands that composed her own life, and kept her heart-beat beating, and her breath-rhythm flowing. In, and out.
 
In, and out.
 
Then he said the words that Olive didn’t know she longed to hear. The matter of marriage wasn’t on the forefront of her mind often, as she much considered it a formality and legality, which the bounds of their relationship couldn’t possibly abide by. Still, after attending the joyful ceremony for Amaranth and Valeska, and communing with Northfall about their war, Olive was quickly learning just how important formalities could be. It was the line that bound beasts to order, instead of chaos. It provided a standard measure by which people learned to live, and understand life. If Tiberius wanted to marry her, that meant something, even if Olive didn’t consider it necessary for them to build a life together.
 
It wasn’t necessary, yet he wanted to take that step anyways.
That meant something to her.
She looked up at him.
 
She couldn’t help the way her eyes swam with sublimity, and how the puppies began to squirm even more fiercely, and how Tiberius didn’t ask her rather with a polite and gentle air; instead he captained her, and tethered her to a reality she was all-too-willing to buy into. The Gods weren’t always so obvious with their gifts, but here showed their hand here quite plainly. If he commanded her to marry him, then wed him she shall — and if he had somehow gotten down on one knee and asked a question and then left a silence for her to fill with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no,’ then she would have said yes a thousand times.

A deep place within her was tickled that Tiberius was a man of the former option.
 
But beneath the eternal satisfaction she felt at watching their relationship develop right before her eyes, there was a wave of uncertainty; not in the future, and not in Tiberius, but of herself. “You have shown me love,” the sylph spoke finally, her voice threaded with the emotions that wove through her being. She gave him a kiss; a linger touch upon his cheek. “You have saved my life,” which she had never forgotten, even though they had healed and moved on from such a trauma. “You have blessed me with children,” or, rather, the desire to have children. She was a midwife by trade and by heart, but had never felt the impulse herself. Her freedom was too dear to her, and she had never met anyone she had wanted to be tied to in that way.
 
Olive bit her lip, eyes flicking downward, trying to prevent the wetness that was inevitable. “You have given me a home to grow old and gray within,” which was yet another deeply held desire that she simply had not entertained before their fateful encounter in the tundra, essentially binding her to the snows forever. All of these things, huge achievements, given to her so easily by the dark titan. Looking at it in the face now, Olive couldn’t believe that she was worth all of this. She would, of course, give him the answer he already knew he would receive — a whole-hearted, teary-eyed ‘yes’ between a cascade of kisses — but first she had to ask:
 
“Why me, Tiberius?” she questioned softly, nervously, her voice and gaze lilting upwards to meet his own. “Why choose this fallible little vagabond to love so dearly…to build your life around?” This wasn’t something she was sad about, and she didn't sound sad about it; it was more of a jittery curiosity that fueled her now. As Olive saw it, she was simply as everyone else was: a mere mortal, bumbling through life as best she could, making dear mistakes at almost every impasse. Tiberius, however — he was a figure larger than life. After rousing an entire army to save her from her imprisonment, Olive very much believed he might actually be a god himself. At the very least, he was the type of soul that inspired endless legends and godlore.

Loving Tiberius came as naturally as breathing, but show could she possibly be enough for a man like him?

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He had made himself vulnerable. He knew it, she knew it and though he trusted her to not take whatever vulnerability he showed her and break him with it, the titan still felt the rush of anxiety clog his throat. Tiberius couldn't look away from her even if he wanted to, not as her green gaze lifted to meet his own molten depths and on his paws he shifted but quietly did he breathe, as if going louder might shatter whatever was going on through her mind.

Tiberius didn't think she would say no. He may not know much about relationships or what they truly entailed but he knew that she loved him and that with him, she wanted a life. A life that they had started to build together before they had even really knew it yet it was still nerve wracking. The in-between, the waiting. He didn't know what he expected, really, but she began to speak and he was ensnared, just as he always was when it came to Olive.

 “You have shown me love,”  She had opened that part of him, unlocked it from the depths he had buried it. Certainly he had loved before though not much, perhaps the only one he had truly loved had been Lana but never the love that he felt for Olive. She kissed him and he shivered, leaning into the gesture without hesitance.  “You have saved my life,”  He would do it again. He would save her from whatever peril she might be in yet Tiberius also knew that he was going to work every day in his goddamn life to ensure all she knew was safety and home. Never again would she be taken, never again would she feel that goddamn fucking fear she had felt when the bastard had taken her -- never again would he be so careless in his protection of her.

He might have saved her life but it was her who had given him life. Breathed into him this new want, this desire he hadn't known he wanted. Tiberius had felt it, so raw and powerful and ignore it he could not. 

“You have blessed me with children," blessed, blessed, blessed -- the word echoed in his mind and Tiberius thought the word was accurate yet he would change the way she spoke it, if he could. They had been blessed with children, children he had never thought would be in his future. She had blessed him with a family, a family he wouldn't have minded being only him and her if she hadn't wanted any offspring yet it was a family that grew with them and for that, he was happy. 

She looked down, biting her lip and Tiberius' nose came to press against the soft fur of her muzzle, giving her comfort if she wanted it. A home, she said, he had given her a home where she could live out the rest of her life. She was his home, he thought. Even without the Vale, his home was her. There was no place that he could go and settle in without her that would be a home because in the end, without her, it was just a place. 

Why her?

Tiberius blinked at her question, rearing his head back only slightly but in time to watch as her emotion filled gaze lifted back up to him, her words on her tongue making his heart clench. "Yer home," he breathed quietly, his silvery brows furrowing together with wrinkles of fur and scarring. How could she think he would not choose her? He fell silent as he struggled for his words, speaking of his emotions had never been something he was ever skilled at. The titan was getting better with it, with Kuhn and Olive, with... the way life itself had been going yet still he took a moment to regain his tongue from the way it had tied itself.

"Ever since tha' icy river bank, yer been imprinted in m'soul," he whispered as he drew his head down to rest his crown upon her very own. "M'body, m'mind, even then all I could think about was tha woman who seemed outta this world," even if they hadn't lain together that day, Tiberius knew without a doubt that she would have left the same imprint on him. On his heart. His life. "Yer gotta understand tha'... 'fore yer, I ain't... love, family an' a 'ome weren't ever in tha cards fer me," he thought of the Dominion, of Vala, of Lana, of Faustus, of Zephyrus -- of the ones who had been his almost. 

Before him stood his reality.

"Ain't ever felt like... like..." he struggled, tongue coming to sliver over his nose as he fought to get the words out. "Like I's worth anythin'. Anythin' more than a body," because that's all he was, to most. A capable body who was dedicated to patrolling, guarding, protecting -- that's all he was ever used for. He got it, because he was goddamn good and dedicated but it was... foreign, to feel like someone viewed him as more. Kuhn did and he had become Tiberius' first friend and best-mate. He was slowly getting others in his life who saw him for more.

There was no world, dream or reality where he would choose to live his life any differently. "Yer everythin', Olive," the man stressed. "Yer calm me an' yer ignite me, yer so goddamn beautiful in every way. Body, soul an' mind," the titan swore vehemently, shoulders taut. "It's yer," Tiberius murmured, "only ever yer." Because no one had turned him the way she had and no one ever would. If by some goddamn nightmare came and she died tomorrow -- Tiberius knew he would never be able to look at someone the way he looked at her.

He wouldn't want to, either. ^^

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Was there ever a time that they would come together and not bear their souls for the other entirely? With every word, with every action, the pale fae fell deeper under the spell that had enraptured and entangled her so with the fierce Tiberius — as he would soon come to say, it was from that very first riverside meeting onward that she fell more in alignment with him and the weight, the gravity of his presence; what it meant to be loved by a titan like he. She had crooned her most sorrowful suspicions to him so that he could combat them, fighting the demons of her mind like he battled the demons that prowled in the real world. He processed for a moment, but did not keep her waiting for long.
 
She listened to him as he had listened to her, with her attention fulled trained upon his every word, the honey of their meanings alighting her consciousness with full knowingness. She wondered what good a tiny, weak creature like she was for a man the likes of him, over and beyond being an extreme liability and conduit of god-play — she had asked, and Tiberius answered, and all at once Olive realized that (though it seemed a miraculous feat) he felt exactly the same way as she, in that he saw her as a type of Goddess; one that, to him, represented home.
 
There was a small amount of sorrow that sparked between them when he mentioned never feeling worth anything more than a body; often times Olive felt the same way, that she was simply a vessel never to be satisfied, or to settle, or know contentment. “Oh, my great, black bear,” she bemoaned softly, allowing that feeling to resonate for only a moment before feeling it wash over them; because that was then, and this is now. They were no longer wandering the world as two separate, unloved and overlooked things. Now they had each other, and they had created Duskguard, and they had created babies, and it was fair to say that nothing would ever be like it was, ever again.
 
Olive responded easily, not having to think of a response. The moment the words came into her mind, they left her tongue; still, she trusted it. “Somehow, I knew you were in my future” she riposted with a sly look in her eye, rightfully pleased with how he had chosen to affirm her unease. Her blood flowed hot and her expression narrowed, suddenly aware of her desire for him — his words lubricated her in both mind and body, and ideas came to her easily. “Which must be why I had never taken another in marriage,” she commented, honestly never having thought about it before.
 
Up until now, the woman names Esra would have considered herself married to the Gods, and the woman named Olive would have respected that. It wasn’t until Tiberius came into the picture, that she found a way to worship the divine masculine as the mortal that she was. “It never bothered me — I knew that I was waiting for you.” Like a disciple to her diety, Olive sought to supplicate him with a few well-placed kissed to his rigid jawbone. She stepped closer, pressing her side into his, reabsorbing any space that had grown between them as they professed the depth of their love. “I hope they are like you in every way,” she breathed, closing her eyes, and taking a moment to imagine what a litter of Tiberius’s children would be like — nonetheless, a litter of her own.
 
Her eyes only reopened when Olive realized she had left his proposal completely unanswered. Tail sweeping against his hindquarters, the woman’s expression sprang into something overtly joyful. “Of course I will be your wife,” she stated in a low voice, almost as if this was an inside joke between them.“It would be an honor to take your name,” one of many it would be, but each name represented a significant link in the chain of her lineage; who carried on the story of their genes, and who added to it. It was the strongest connection she had to who she was, and now, she would tie it together with his. “and to demonstrate to our puppies what true love and deep support truly looks like.”
 
Above all, that mattered most. She wanted to perpetuate the good in the world, and whatever Tiberius thought of himself, Olive could see him as nothing other than the very best the universe had to offer.

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It had been a while since she had called him black bear but it was met with the same warm flush as it always were -- as all of the names she had for him were. From his cheeks to what was left of his ears, his flesh blossomed with warmth. It mattered not why she had said it, his words of isolation were taken over in his mind with the warmth she always provided him. From the get go she had been someone who had just seen him, not as what he could do for her but just for him as... him. A rarity in this world though something that was becoming less rare, with friendships like @Kuhn's, it was becoming more like he held a family. A true family, not whatever he had been given when he had been born into the world so wretched. 

Though he was not a man who believed in higher powers or Gods, he had become more and more inclined to believe that Olive was of something different entirely. Whatever world she had been plucked from, the titan had belief that she had been something so divine and that he felt he had little doubt that if she told him she saw into the future, he would believe her. Her admission stroked at something primal in him, something feral and possessive. To know she had never been married before ignited his spark and approval washed over him in knowing that like her, he would be her first husband. Her only husband, he thought darkly -- for no one would take him from her and in the same breath, if one attempted to take her from him then he would have little care for their lives.

In truth, there was little that the goliath knew about marriage. Wenda hadn't been married, Draven dead before she had given birth and even in the Dominion, he was certain that Minerva and Caligula hadn't been married. It wasn't something he had been around much though he knew of it's existence, his experience with it next to none. Tiberius felt the nerves pool in his belly as he wondered if he would be any good at being a husband, her husband. Drawn from his thoughts, her voice caressed his ears again and he drew his molten gaze to watch her.

She kissed him and he rumbled his affection as he leaned into her, wondering if it bothered her that he hadn't seen her coming in the same way that she had known he would come. Olive stepped closer, pressing her growing sides into him and every part of her that she could and protectively did he curl around her where possible, nose tilting down to bury within her crown. He breathed her in, belly fluttering with what he could only assume was love -- and in a moment he felt wonder. She hoped that they were like him?

Despite knowing she thought the world of him, the titan was still struggling with knowing that he was more than just his body, that he was... someone worth something. For her to admit she hoped whatever children they had would be like him with something so -- it made his throat clog with emotion as he swiped his tongue along her crown. "Like us both," he rumbled into her fur, tilting his head so that he might rest his cheek against the top of her head if only for a moment. He hoped that they had her beauty and her heart, her light. 

He pulled back and tipped his head down to her as she seemed to come alight with life, reminding him of what he had asked. Tiberius hadn't, in truth, been expecting a no but the man was often met with the worst so when she vocalised her acceptance to become his wife, he released a breath that he had been aware he was holding. Was it something built into his DNA that felt so ferally happy that she would wear his name?

Tiberius hummed as he tilted his head so that he could arch over her and tug her to him, as if cuddling her beneath his chin. "I love yer, Angel," he breathed, unable to swallow the rush of love and affection he held for the little woman. "Do yer wan' anythin' specific fer it, luv? Tha weddin'." Tiberius knew fuck all about it, in reality it would have been smart to suck up his pride and go in search for one or both of the women that had held the wedding Olive had been to, to ask for advice.

He was here now, he supposed, so he would go with whatever she wanted. ^^

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This moment between them seemed to linger into eternity, and if just for a few seconds, Olive allowed the turbidity of her mind to settle. Though she was always musing upon the future and the past, right now, she was only her. Whatever would be the consequences of their many actions and wants in this world, at least they had right now, and had whatever flowed so freely between them. She understood all that Tiberius had been saying just seconds prior — in another being, she had found a home and a future. Her earthly existence was far more fulfilled and vivid because they had simply lucked upon this resonance, and acted upon it.
 
Above most sacred things, Olive revered and felt gratitude towards whatever forever-unknown butterfly effect had caused then to collide in such a way that both of their trajectories were, from then on, intertwined.
 
She listened as the man crooned back to her, and she simpered quietly, allowing the flush to rise unbidden in her cheeks and the sway of her tail work like a metronome. The titan was not a man of many words, so she held dearly onto his every utterance. When he said that he loved her, she understood it as something more than love — something that defied all words they could reasonably understand, so they deigned to call it ‘love.’ Olive had ‘loved’ Benry, but what had that love amounted to in the face of Frostfang Vale, the regency of Duskguard, and a legacy that would continue ever onwards?
 
The woman was drifting off into her thoughts again, so she reigned herself back in order to answer her Fiancé’s question about wedding preferences. The force of her smile crinkled the corners of her eyes and narrowed her vision, because… truly, she had none! It seemed as if only yesterday that she had been a guest at Elysium’s own wedding, delighting in the gaiety and purity of such an occasion. In truth, several months had now drawn out since then, and so many things were now different. There hadn’t been any time to dream of festivities, but now that the moonflower was given a chance to dream, there was only one thing that came to mind.
 
“I want them to be there for it,” she spoke with a heart and voice full or ardor and pride. If her wedding was attended to by their children only and no one more, that would do for the blossoming mother. Certainly, the centurions of Duskguard could be counted upon, plus their allies to the East and West — but it was those puppy-blue eyes that she wanted upon her in her happiest moment, as well as the heavy-handed goldenrod of Tiberius’s own. “Isn’t that just the sweetest thought?” she cooed, ruffling the fur on her shoulders with a brief shake.
 
 
“I can’t wait to meet them. I am so curious to learn their every single facet.” Even when faced with her own wedding, the children still took center-stage in her mind. Still feeling quite small and limber (compared to the stuffy fullness she would experience later), the woman reared up on her back legs and draped an arm over his shoulder, though she nearly had to stand at full-height to do so. “We’re going to be so happy together.” she growled eagerly into his ear, her voice slipping from between gritted teeth as she gently gnawed at the edge of his tattered ear.

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