This is a private 1x1 roleplay between Kat Dukuu and I.
Please do not post here, but feel free to read along!

Adiv
of the Henoch Tribe

Animal Spirit: Bengal Tiger
Age: 20
Hair: Dark orange spiked and untamed with one tiny section of white hair on his left side behind his ear.
Eyes: Bright blue.
Personality: Quiet, easily grumpy, thoughtful, can become inconceivable when angered or saddened immensely, lazy, and loves his people.
Background: will add to later

Name: Candle
Species: red fox
Appearance: pic
He's pale, not all that tall or muscular, but with a sharp face and wide golden eyes. Hair is orange, long, and straight with white tips. Has fox ears and tail. Nails for both fingers and toes, are naturally black.
Personality: sorta cluessless, quiet spoken. Most would call him meek, but he has a very pronounced protective side in a motherly kind of way. He will fight back if need be. When he's pushed, he gets openly defensive. But will totally wander around in an epic state of adorableness and never notice how it affects others.

The embers in the fireplace beside the bed was still glowing when Adiv slowly opened his eyes. He stretched out flat before he turned over onto his other side and curled back up on his straw bed covered in fluffy animal skin. He yawned as he heard the door to his hut open and the late morning sunlight hit his eyes. He squinted, covering his eyes as he growled a little bit, trying to open his bright blue eyes to look up. When his eyes adjusted, his older sister stood with a hand on her hip, her white tale swishing as if she were crossed.

"You were supposed to be up in the cliff before the sun came up, Adiv." Alinta's eyes were in slits, looking down at her younger brother with disappointment.

"So?" was all Adiv grumbled as he turned back onto his other side and sighed, pulling his tail over to lick it clean while Alinta came stomping in. He stopped when she pounced on him the way they used to when she was picking on him while they were younger.

"So? The ceremony's today and all you have to say is "so"? C'mon Adiv," she said as she captured his hear between her teeth and he cringed. He hated when she did that. "Aren't you excited to meet your soulmate?" she insisted.

Adiv shook his ear free, his ears lowering for a bit as he shook the feeling of her teeth on him as he glowered up at him. "I don't know..."

Alinta pushed off of him, soon grabbing his hand as she tried to drag him off of the little square bed. "I will get father," she soon threatened.

Immediately, Adiv was up and Alinta stared over at him with a smug smile before turning her body away from him, heading out of the hut without another word.

"Bitch," Adiv grumbled as he rubbed at his ear that she had captured recently.

Candle stood in the tall grass, the black tips of his ears sticking straight up and alert. Wherever his two companions went off to, he couldn't hear any sign of them. Really, it wasn't fair at all. He did ask them to wait, but his soft voice must have vanished in the wind. He couldn't help that his shoe strap broke. By the time he fixed it, he found himself like this. Even the clouds from this morning went away. "Rhode? Atlas?" Once again, his small voice disappeared into the wind. He even yelled his loudest, but for some reason, his loud never reached loud enough.

"Rhode, I-! Ah...I give up..." Candle sighed and turning his head up to the glaring sun. He wouldn't find his companions just standing here, but what else could he do? He was the weakest link, the one destined not to return to the village. If he could at least see through the grass, he might make some progress, but the best he could figure was climbing the nearby cliff and who knew what that might bring.

The territory of the fox tribe didn't extend far as they numbered few and traveled only for special occasions, like now, for the coming of age journey. He never came out this far before and they came in search of the purple flowers they always took back as proof they traveled. And then they would place their flowers all in a bowl and all unmated individuals of the clan would gather. The shaman would be guided and they would find their soulmate. Candle shivered at the thought. He couldn't even imagine that even if it would be soon for him. As soon as he could find the flowers or at least Rhode and Atlas.

He started toward the cliff, not sure if it was part of his territory or not. He just thought he might be able to see over this tall grass if he did. It wasn't far. Candle hurried his feet, bushy tail swaying behind him.

The village was buzzing with people today, more than usual, but only because of the mating ritual. With how small the tribe was, it only happened on very few occasions and everyone in the village, the elders and such, would act as if this were the Winter Solstice or Semhain. But no matter what, Adiv would never complain. It was actually a joy to see his people in such lively spirits apart from their day-to-day rituals of waking up, doing their jobs whether it be gathering food, herbs, weaving, skinning, hunting, cooking, etc.

Before Adiv even stepped from the doorway of his hut, his eyes cast upwards towards the cliff that over looked the village. From a far, a long and narrow, winding path led up to a hole -- a cave with glowing firelight that could be seen to the naked eye. Adiv's ears twitched as he heard on coming footsteps.

A woman, Julabee, was immediately holding up a traditional wedding tunic to Adiv's body and he blinked down at her. Sometimes, people like Julabee, got too excited about the ritual ceremony.

"I wonder which one of our lovely, lucky girls it will be. Are you excited?" Julabee asked as her brown eyes narrowed on how right-on-target the tunic formed to him. She soon pulled it away from him and hung it over her arm, looking up at Adiv with wide, excited eyes and her tail slowly twitching with an eased excitement.

Adiv raised a hand to rub the nape of his neck, shrugging. "I'm not sure, Julabee, we'll see."

A guard joined them, resting the bottom of his spear down on the dirt path as he saluted Adiv and the woman before he spoke.

"Elder Mauree is growing impatient."

Adiv looked up at the cave once more and held his breath.

Candle came up on the cliff from the steep side. He could see a path in then other direction, but he couldn't easily get to it from where he stood. Boulders covered the ground, grass grown up over them, and he climbed on top of one. As a species both predator and prey, he preferred a path somewhat out of site, so Candle started to climb up from that side. If anyone came by on the path, he likely wouldn't be seen. He could hear noises up there, but he didn't know what they meant. Maybe it meant nothing at all. He just wanted to get his flowers and get home to a meal of stew and storytime with his three little sisters. After all, it would be his last night as a kit. Candle shook his head and continued up the cliff, using his lithe body and long tail to balance along the way.

Elder Mauree was a women older than anyone else in the tribe, which was probably what made her the most looked-up-to person here. She was smaller than the others, walked slowly with faded color in her ears and tail, which was cut in half due to an old infection that couldn't be stopped if the infect half couldn't be taken off. She had kind green eyes, many tiny varying black stripes in her tale more than her ears, and had grey naturally-straight hair always tied back into a leather bow.

Adiv had seen her many times before as she was more social than the last elder. She enjoyed joining the tribe in meals and was always good with the children. The only problem? She had no voice.

Adiv stood at the top of the path, looking into the tidy cave. Part of the hole was usually covered in vines to protect against rain storms and other weather problems, but today they were drawn to the side to let in the warm sunlight and gentle cool breeze. Even this high up, the breeze wasn't as harsh as usual.

A large fire place stood near the edge, at a safe distance from where the vines usually sat so they couldn't catch fire. A stone pole sat buried in the dirt flooring of the cave, curved at the top to hold strings of cooking food. And then beyond the fire place was Mauree, sitting at a stone table, grinding herbs.

Their eyes met and Mauree sighed with a smile as if to say, finally you've come.

"No one really talks about the ritual," start Adiv as he waked over to the cave wall where a drawing was created of many of his past tribe people in the drawing of a mating ritual.

Slowly, Mauree got up and walked over to stand beside Adiv, pointing to a certain drawing of a man reaching out to a woman reaching back at him over a fireplace glowing with what looked like a large cloud of smoke. As if that answered poor Adiv's question.

"Look, Elder Mauree, I just want to get this over and done with," he said with a soft sigh.

Elder Mauree looked up at him with a questioning look that almost made Adiv feel as if she was worried and curious at the same time. Adiv must have been the first of his kind to not look forward to the Soumate Ritual.

The morning sunshine left Candle's orange fur and hair warm to match their fire color by the time he reached the top of the cliff. He glanced around, seeng people. Orange fur was noted and he almost thought he found his two tribe-mates until he saw the black tips on the tail. Tigers? He kept in the bushes, his breath stilling. Not too far away he saw a cave, the direction the people seemed to gravitate toward. He of course did the opposite and skirts away, deep in his bush cover. How could he wander so outside his territory? And to a tiger's no less! He didn't even realize their territories lay next to each other considering tribes rarely associated.

Candle was just about to slink away pretty much anywhere besides there when something caught his eye--violet colored flowers growing in a bunch by the cave entrance. His eyes went wide, orange ears standing at attention. Those were the flowers! Now, he just needed to figure out how to get to them.

Adiv had gone into a rambling frenzy when Elder Mauree had returned to her little table and went back to grinding herbs. All the the while, a soft, calm and wise smile kept on the female tiger's face as she grabbed a few herbs here and there she had laid out beside her little stone bowl.

"...not exactly what I want, you know? I mean, I know pretty much all the females in our tribe and none of them strikes me interest. Isn't that wrong? I mean, my dad said he had a few interests before he was matched," finished Adiv as he plopped down by the little fire.

A wind came in through the cave and Adiv caught a different scent. For a moment, he froze, his ears lowering as he tilted his head up into the air a bit and sniffed the air carefully. Nothing too strong, so it must not have been something to worry about. There were guards. More than last year. Adiv knew they were safe from any rival tribes. If anything, the only tribes he knew were around here were the tribes that his leader was working on peace treaties with, however that worked.

Elder Mauree came over finally with the bowl, pulling Adiv's thoughts from him as she pointed to the powdery contents in the bowl as she then pointed to the fire before patting her chest right above where her heart was. No doubt she meant she was ready for the ceremony. But was Adiv ready?

Candle's ears swiveled madly as he tried to place all the different noises he heard. There were definitely other tigers nearby and after a minute, he decided they were patrolling. Not good at all. The cave smelled overwhelmingly of tiger, though he decided that was from centuries of their kind mingling their smell in it. He couldn't tell if any were there right now. Creeping slowly, he made his way toward the flowers. He refused to give up just because he felt afraid. He needed the flowers.

Diving into a bush within hand's reach of the flowers, he paused to breathe deeply. Then, he reached out and ripped up a handful of the flowers.

Elder Mauree was just about start the ceremony when a heavier scent caught his attention. He held up a hand as a "wait" signal for the Elder as he turned his back to her and walked over to the edge of the cave, looking down at his town. It all looked like a bunch of busy bugs to his eyes, but focusing in, he didn't exactly see anything that amounted to the scent. He looked over to the side near a bunch of their famous purple flowers when he eyed the small hand that had reached out for one of the flowers.

A thief? Intruder? A guard was stationed somewhat down the path and Adiv made a small cackling noise, warning him. The guard, who seemed to have been half asleep, jolted at the cackle and turned around to look at the bunch of flowers. His ears twitched and soon nodded towards Adiv without a word.

Adiv turned around to the Elder and sighed. "Aright. Now, where were we?" he asked rather slyly.

Outside the cave, the guard silently crept towards the bush. And when he felt it was time, he pounced into the being within it so hard he cause the both of them to roll out onto the dirt path, the prey beneath him, holding the purple flower. When he saw who it was, he stood up from the fox and straightened his leather clothes. The fox wasn't a threat, but he was still trespassing.

"You're one of the Red Fox folk, aren't you?" the guard asked. Others were beginning to gather around them in curiosity. "Why are you trespassing? You know you're not supposed to be on our land," the guard said with a bit soft of heart. The Red Fox people had never done them wrong, but they didn't exactly have a peace treaty laid out that allowed for visitors from their tribe.

Candle heard the cackle, but didn't understand it's meaning. He just felt relieved he had his flowers, clasped so tight no one could rip them away from him. Now he could take his place place in adulthood. Before he could slink away though, the faintest sound of footfall alerted his ears. A second later, he found himself pushed down, rolling out into the dirt. He let loose a weak yelp of surprise, quiet even in moments like this. Rather than protect himself though, he clutched the flowers to his chest to ensure at least they would be okay. It ended sooner than he expected.

Blinking up at the guard, he struggled for words as he nodded. "I'm sorry. I don't mean ill." He'd pulled himself up into a crouch, more like he was ready to blot than fight. The gathering of onlookers made him nervous, made it impossible for him to speak at a level anyone could hear at. The rest he said about being lost and the all important flowers ended up lost to the wind. He needed to get out of there, but even that will turned meek with so many watching eyes.

Elder Mauree stared at Adiv for a moment, giving him a chance to stop her before she poured the bowl's contents into the fire. When he gave no signs, he watched her spill the contents and the fire crackled violently. His heart began beating thickly in his ears as he realized it, that this was it. Adiv's eyes widened as he watched the fire turn from a purple, fading into a green, and then landing on a blue and from the depths of the fire came a small orb, swirling in the air as if encased in a see-through cage, sloshing around its limits as it began to descend from the air and move towards the path leading out of the cave.

Adiv's body turned towards the orb, feeling as if an invisible tether held him to it, guiding him along with it. He turned his head and looked to the Elder, who with an excited smile, waved for him to be on his way.

The orb pulled him from the cave, down the sloping path, into the town, and over to a cluttering of his people. What was going on? Why were they so cluttered?

And when the guards cleared their throats, the people noticed Adiv and the orb, gasping as they moved out of the way. The orb slowed down before young girls close to his age, but stopped before a stranger in the base of the crowd. The orb passed through the stranger's body and disappeared all together, as if it had never existed.

Adiv's eyes trained on his Soulmate and he had never been more confused in his life.

Candle was and had been contemplating how to get away, though he'd yet to do anything about it. All the people made him uncomfortable and further attempts to talk to him yielded little results. Just then, a rustle of noise happened on the outskirts of the crowd. He couldn't see the cause, but Candle gathered himself to make a run for it when the tiger people thinned. Before he could though, an orb rolled through the crowd and right toward him. What?

Freezing, Candle had no chance to get out of the way before the orb passed through him, leaving a tingle in its wake. Very slowly, he lifted his eyes to meet Adiv's. In the silence that had fallen, his one word came out loud and clear. "What?"

Adiv's eyes stared at the fox's, confused beyond all belief before he slowly approached the being who was supposed to be his soulmate? How was this even possible? Adiv had never even heard of this happening before. Never. In all the Soulmate stories, it had always been within the people of the person being matched.

The people who remained gathered around the two were silent, trying to take it in themselves, but from one word from his "Soulmate", a reaction of some sort rippled through Adiv's body. He felt like he was in a trance, his body being led over to the fox by an invisible string of some sort, like he couldn't help but to walk over to him.

Another tribe's member...let alone a male...?

Of course Adiv had heard of two same sex members being put together by fate, but rarely if that.

Behind him, his ears sensed the on-coming footsteps of the Elder, who was breathing fast. Shock and surprise oozed from her fur as Adiv turned his head to see the woman with her wood-carved cane, her eyes wide as she looked between Adiv and the fox.

"I..." What was Adiv supposed to say? He turned his head back to the fox and breathed out, finally figuring out what to say as he stood a few feet away from the fox. "How is this possible?" he asked, specifically to the fox.

Candle felt himself react when the tiger male spoke. He couldn't really explain it. This wasn't how his soulmate ceremony was supposed to go though. It wasn't even supposed to happen for days, maybe even a week. It wasn't supposed to happen in the territory of some other tribe. Did this sort of thing ever happen? Maybe he should have listened to the stories more, but he always viewed himself as still a child and therefore not in need of them.

Pulling himself a little taller, he took a step toward the tiger. "I don't know." Maybe because his attention was focused fully on the other, he didn't sound as meek. He forgot about the others until he saw the very old looking tiger approach with her cane. His eyes flitted to the woman. "Is this wrong?" He asked it both to the one who might possibly be his soulmate and to the elder.