2014.02.14 - Merciful Nature

The touch of winter has Breakstone Lake looking breathtaking this time of year. Though obviously deathly chill it's still a marvel to look upon with its glass like surface of calm to the edges where ice has formed to a thickness that has it glossy and smooth, the cold fog kissing along it's shores leaving snow draping like icy curtains off picnic benches and tables that litter the public portion of the lakeside. The only signs of life are a lone coyote hunched low creeping on it's belly through a spines array of reeds after a wounded goose, it's wing flapping wretched and broken off to the side the bleating honks it releases disrupting the quiet beauty. Within the next few heartbeats the starving canine will be upon the fowl.

It doesn't matter the temperature, or the season - Ororo wanders the private grounds freely where prying eyes are of no concern, though even in the open public she would not mind overly much at the stares that could be drawn by her attire and the fact that it is not suitable for the climate.

Ororo wandered from Xavier's early that morning after her re-arrival from a visit to Wakanda, one of relaxation and small diplomatic intervals, but moreso just relaxing joy amongst her people. Left upon a log the faux fur lined boots laced and bound like they are designed by Inuits themselves reside, not far from the boots her coat of a matching make hangs from a branch. Bare feet now tread into the snow, the long skirt of gauzy fabric overlaying a thicker satin material leaves a dragging path around the footprints, the dress is melded with the skirt base by the rise of the bound fabric up the front, dipping low at the front and at the back, leaving her bare to abdomen and the small of her back. Grecian almost in eloquence and wear over the lighter toned Nubian skin, silver rings binding the fabric like drapery and propriety to keep her covered where needed.

Pausing at the cry of the fowl her head tilts, the spill of white hair coming over only one shoulder as the other side of her head is cleanly shaven, though the broken symmetry of the Mohawk still allows for illusion. Blue gaze casts towards the heavens as a long silence follows the cry, no sight of it in the air, and as if in a silent reverie and respect in that vicinity snow lightly begins to fall.

Ever the hunter the Native American walking through the white pauses not far away from Ororo Munroe his prey already being captured between hungry jaws and spirited away.

"Feast well cousin." The man's deep voice whispers before his attentions turn to the woman who seems to be almost basking in the cold. "A lovely night for a walk." The man offers. His features obscured partially by the dark strands of hair that fall over his features and the ragged cowboy hat underneath that a bandana. His broad shoulders hidden under a wool fur lined jacket; his hands stuffed inside the front pocket. "Sorry if I am intruding, I didn't expect anyone else to be out here." Aside from the two drunk men who had shot the goose and been too lazy to pursue and finish what they started. Bearclaw having tracked the creature to put it out of it's misery, fortunately something else had the same idea. Something else that put the animal's suffering to much better ends than he would have.

Startled. It happened suddenly and quickly, but if you are in touch with surroundings like Ororo is, you are not used to being taken by surprise. Though her body remains still somewhere just at her feet the light blanket of white began to shift and lift like a reverse snowfall, a snow globe effect around the woman while she turned to look over the slope of barren shoulder towards the speaker. A breeze that encircled them twisting directions easy to blame for the reverse in nature, but not for the fact that her blue eyes had begun to pale.

A breath taken in a calm is easily gained, the moment of tension that was as quick as a strike of lightning fading with the up tilt of one corner of her lips in a small smile.

"Considering we had the same thought and goal, not surprising we interrupt each others peace. Not intruding at all." Turning to fully face the Native man her eyes drop and rise in a slow and cool assessment. "Are you new to this area?" Even Xavier's while she had been gone? Though not mentioning that...

"Yes I am. Some parts of it are surprisingly well kept. I imagine I'm close to private property..." Bearclaw shrugs his shoulders once then glances towards where the coyote and the goose were nothing but the signs of a skirmish in the snow and track marks signaling their departure. "It's quite beautiful." The man's skin is visible enough now, an unnatural pale, a bizarre contrast to his hawkish nose and proud obviously Native features. "I was just passing through." Pausing momentarily he tips his head back indicating a direction past docks and a resort location where tourists normally congregate. Probably as if the motion tells the tale of where he parked, which is what he intends.

"You are.." Ororo confirms in regards to it being close to private property, not bothering to follow his eyes to where the only remnants of nature taking its course are feathers and tracks. It belonged. What she is busy doing is looking at what did not, and it is not Robert himself, but some of the uncannily 'unnatural' features upon him that belied everything else - much like her own. African and yet her blue eyes, as well as white hair keep her very much apart from her heritage despite how it draws her deeper within in secret areas. Stories unshared...

"No rush, it is just preferred you leave only footprints." A smile there then, as she is trying to see the hope for true good intentions in the man, not to be like the ones who wounded the goose prior. "After all, I am sure there is much more to see then you have yet." Pausing she glances back the way of her things, though even dressed as she is and barefoot, is truly unaffected.

"Robert." The man says, "A pleasure to meet you." That is where he expects her to introduce herself in kind. "A strange footprint on the shores of the unknown." A handsome smile that doesn't show teeth eases along his features momentarily. "It would appear coincidence alone isn't at hand here." A mutual observation of their /unique/ physical qualities. The only sounds now are the settling of the iced over lake and the wind.

"Ororo, and I don't believe in coincidence either." Now the small smile that had been plying its trade at the edges of her lips is permitted to flash the whites of teeth, a passing gesture to go with the whisper of motion that sets her forward across the ground to leave footprints in the snow and instead take her closer to the icy banks of the lake. "Good to meet you as well, Robert." Though in her passing she inched daringly close, a test of her own though for what purpose remains unspoken. "What brought you here, then?" Digging to get right to the point, if there even is one and their meeting is not just sheer.... Happenstance.

"Ororo, a lovely name. Very natural sounding. What brought me to this location? I spoke the truth. What brought me up here... I'm not sure yet, I am still trying to figure that one out." Robert's smile lingers a hitch longer before dropping away once more, his brownish red eyes drift towards the lake. "I was actually on my way to Oneida but I suppose I am a bit off course. As it goes."

"Then maybe you should stick around and find out what brings you /here/, if what you have going in Oneida is not too... Pressing?" A small inquiry in her words, curious about the pale Native himself, and with current things going on she has a right to be, but then again there is always -something- going on and reasons for people of her kind to be wary. "Work taking you to Oneida?" Her words only broken by the light give of the low iced over banks beneath her feet.

"I imagine we'll cross paths again." Robert says quietly, "Pressing no. I guess we can just call it recollecting and connecting. Attempting to hrm be myself again." It sounds as though he speaks to himself as well as her in this. "From your attire and manner I am going to assume you live around here." Another of those light smiles and he is walking back the direction he'd come, slowly, however, as his walk isn't carrying him with any indication of haste. Perhaps he is giving her time to reply.

"This area is one of my homes, yes..." Pausing, Ororo looks back at him as the ice around her feet cracks and the frigid waters pool around bare appendages, though not far to sink on the shore line, only enough to barely cover the tops. A light rise of one of those pale brows, a light breeze whipping parts of that Mohawk over to cover the bare side of her head and lick across her façade.

"That is why I come here, peaceful enough to be yourself where there is no issue of... acceptance." Those eyes find him again and focus with a flicker of impending storm, though no sign of harm only the increase of that light snowfall to something a bit more blanketing. "Then maybe you should go before you find yourself trapped here." Toying with the man? Never. Though the lingering smile as she turns and walks further along the banks gives no other indication, no haste, just leisure as her hands spread at her sides and fingertips splay to feel the frozen flakes in their fall.