Dare to Dream

(July 6th. Open to Phoebus and Mortaray).

The clouds overhead were ivory-colored blobs scattered across the blue sky, partially covering the sun. Which was a good thing, since July was the hottest month of the year. It was still rather humid, but not quite as unbearable as yesterday.

From the top of a mountainous cliff that acted as a barrier between the Pridelands and the beach, Phoebus inspected the camp. One of the sentries had fallen ill and Phoebus, despite being a high-ranking general, offered to take his place. It wasn't like he had anything better to do. Between wandering aimlessly through camp or sentry duty-Phoebus picked the latter without hesitation. He needed something to do. Something to take his mind off Esmeralda and Zephyr.

But unfortunately, Phoebus once again found himself loitering around with nothing to do. For the past four hours, the coast was clear. In order to pass the time, Phoebus daydreamed-thinking of the 'good ol' days' when he was still living in Paris with his wife and young son. How he wished he could go back to those days. Back to simpler times when he acted as the Royal Captain of the Guards and the worst he had to worry about was the occasional thief. Then, Phoebus was dissatisfied, as he was rather reluctant to imprison anyone due to witnessing Frollo's harsh treatment of prisoners (and most of them were innocent people Frollo happened to dislike-namely the gypsies). Phoebus remembered entering the Palace of Justice, intending to speak with his new superior. He found the Minister of ‘Justice’ overseeing the torture of a man, whom Phoebus guessed to be the former Captain of the Guards. Ouch. Yet Frollo spoke as his there wasn’t a man screaming in the background, it was as if he was casually debating on what to have for dinner. As if that wasn’t awkward enough, Frollo demonstrated his goals to Phoebus by using a slab of concrete and a herd of cockroaches. And that only scratched the surface. But in spite of this, Phoebus soon learned that some people needed to be imprisoned. It was for the safely of the civilians. Once Phoebus established that there was to be no torture of any kind, he could arrest unruly civilians with a clear conscience. His goal was to make the city safe, not punish (though the imprisonment should discourage others and the offender from committing the crime again). And just when things seemed hunky-dory, Frollo returned out of nowhere and chased him out of the city. That was how Phoebus ended up serving Simba. It seemed as if problems would never end.

With a tired sigh, Phoebus leaned against a tree and continued to watching the camp. Zephyr would have loved to see this.

It was completely unbearable. Just the fact that it was so humid because the rain was finally gone and that the extra water was being evaporated back into the ozone. True it was a very good sign, but Mortaray preferred the rain because it made it cold instead of this. He shook his pelt a good bit mumbling a little to himself about the humidity. True he shouldn't of been complaining but he did, a little.

As he proceeded up the 'mountainous' cliff the wolf shook his pelt trying to feel the small breeze brush up against his skin under his heavy set coat. He knew he would be loosing a lot of fur again soon, shedding. Ugh, how he hated it. Just the thought made him growl in discomfort. When he began shedding he looked like he had some of fur-loss disease or something of it. Grumbling he arrived at the top of it he let out a huff. He didn't know why he was up here, he just was. He just wanted to explore a bit he suppose or maybe go see...No. He knew when he need to see that person and that wouldn't be until later. Growling lowly to himself he shook his head before spotting the blonde man. However as soon as he spotted him he froze staring for a moment, hoping that the male was actually distracted with...well whatever humans think about. However as soon as the thought of hostility passed through the wolf's mind one of curiosity enter it. Now, Mortaray had seen plenty of humans in his life, but he never, ever tried to socialize with one. On the sense of friendly terms that is.

As he considered the thought he noticed himself approaching the human, with a single eyebrow raised as he looked at Phoebus. He sat down staring at him for a while before parting his jaws. "Hello?" He questioned, it was a very...blunt question and not exactly the best way to start of a conversation, at least in Mortaray's opinion, but it would have to do for now as he waited for a response from the male human.

(Ooc: WOW. Where the hell is my muse that post was just...so out of character for Mortaray. D|)

Phoebus turned and found a strange-looking wolf standing behind him. Under normal circumstances, Phoebus would assume this predatory animal was an enemy and unsheathe his sword. But for obvious reasons, Phoebus did no such thing. Still, something about this fellow unnerved him. Maybe it was because people in Paris generally feared wolves and viewed them as an omen. It was worse in the neighboring villages. People were scared to wander outside their village, especially during winter when the wolves were hungry. When the villagers did venture outside, they often carried pitchforks and torches with them. Sometimes hounds would accompany them. Phoebus personally found this to be a little ridiculous since wolves (contrary to popular belief) avoided humans. But now, he wasn't so sure. After seeing Hunter's shenanigans and several of his 'interesting' packmates, everything Phoebus once thought about wolves-may be untrue.

"Hello." Phoebus said politely, turning to face Mortaray. "Did someone send for me?" Perhaps Clopin wanted to talk with him about a potential prank to pull on Vinny or Aladdin needed a second opinion on some battle plans he composed. Or maybe Simba called an emergency meeting. Whatever it was, Phoebus believed it would be better than sentry duty. Well, maybe not the latter due to hostile relations with the Human Villains army, but one got the idea.

Mortaray immediately sensed the instant hostility coming from the man, and in turn he tensed, and his hackles were beginning to raise however, they quickly fell as Phoebus dropped his guard somewhat. He tried to settle down his muzzle that was pulled back slightly ready to snarl. He cleared his throat attempting to cover the snarl as he looked at the man for a moment. He didn't like humans one bit, he just couldn't trust him. However, his curiosity led him to conversant with this particular one. Lowering one brow and raising the other he seemed to have a very puzzled look to him. He shifted his weight a little trying to make it look like his hackles only movement because his shifted his weight to his other leg.

His ears stayed forward beside the fact they instinctively wanted to go back. "No one sent me." He stated replying to the blonde male with a small snort. "I just came to check the border....I was curious to see if any enemies were nearby." He lied, though the lie sounded like true words. If it was one thing he was good at it was cover his lies...especially now. He could thank his mentor for that....Shaking the thought from his mind he stared at Phoebus. "...Who are you?" He questioned never seeing the human, or if he had he didn't notice.

"Oh." Phoebus said, attempting to hide his disappointment. "I see. Well, there's no enemies here." he confirmed. "Not a trace of them."

Something about this wolf seemed suspicious, but Phoebus disregarded it-assuming he just wasn't used to having a conversation with a wolf. When Mortaray asked who he was, Phoebus straightened up a bit and cleared his throat awkwardly. "Oh! I'm General Phoebus." he introduced himself. "I am one of Simba's generals. I take it you're new around here. What's your name, soldier?"

Disappointment covered his features for the briefest moment before he looked at the overlook of the lands frowning slightly. When the human spoke again he just moved his ear and eyes into the man's direction. "I'm not exactly new...I'm just not the most well informed soldier." Mortaray grunted with distaste. He looked back at the over look of the land and snort a bit at the mention of the man being a general. He would of scoffed if Phoebus didn't look the part but he did. He seemed strong enough.

But appearances could defiantly be deceiving as Mortaray knew this very well. He could help but smirk a little at that thought though he pulled it off causally. "My name is Mortaray." He said looking over to the human, showing a toothy grin. "I'm one of Hunter's cousins." He said. "But enough about me." He said waving his paw dismissively. "What have you big, bad, brave generals have been up too? It's been pretty....Quiet lately."

"Hunter? I know him." Phoebus grinned, thinking of the scrawny wolf. "He's probably the happiest person-er animal, I've met. You're lucky to have such a cousin, Mortaray."

Mortaray's last question caught Phoebus off guard. He hadn't seen General Clopin in ages, which was strange because Clopin was usually very social. Phoebus guessed his brother-in-law was tending Belle, who had spent months in a coma. The brown-haired maiden needed her friend more than ever due to the state she was in. Phoebus had offered his assistance, but there wasn't much he could do but wait and pray that Belle recovered soon.

"General Clopin's probably taking care of Belle." Phoebus explained. "That would explain why he's made himself scarce."

General Bambi seemed much happier lately and Phoebus guessed it had to do with Geno's return. Geno had been devoured by Scar's lionesses months before and it was a quite a shock for the soldiers to see Geno alive and well again. "General Bambi's doing just fine." Phoebus said.

General Stitch had been acting strange lately and his behavior was...questionable. But Phoebus wasn't too keen on gossip, nor did he want to start any rumors. "General Stitch is doing fine as well." he claimed. "Robin Hood is too." Phoebus barely knew the fox general, but he heard all about him from the other soldiers. He was a resident of Nottingham and a former bandit. Unlike the bandits Phoebus encountered in Paris, Robin Hood was different. He stole from the wealthy and distributed their belongings to the less-fortunate, which Phoebus found to be pretty impressive. He must have risked a lot in order to manage such generosity. Frollo would have burned such a man at the stake.

General Aladdin seemed stressed lately and this concerned Phoebus. He didn't know what was causing Aladdin's unhappiness, but he hoped it would be sorted out soon. Other than that, he caught Nasira once again, but that was confidential information. Phoebus personally saw no point in keeping her imprisoned and assumed Aladdin was doing this out of spite, but did nothing to stop it. It wasn't any of his business. "General Aladdin's fine too." Phoebus lied.

And heaven knows where General Shang went!

Mortaray listened with a very slight interested, listening carefully to see if Phoebus's voice would wary a little and it did. That was all he needed to know. This man wasn't very good at lying so that provided him with more then enough information. He gave a flicker of his ears as he looked over to General Phoebus. "That so?" He questioned with a raised brow. He gave a dismissive shrug after saying that. "Oh well I thought you all would be planning another attack on those villains." He stated with a grunt.

'Yeah those villains you should probably be with...' He thought inside his mind silently. Yes, the wolf was a villain personality wise and moral wise but at heart he was sort of a hero...So it more conflicting to the wolf then he ever realized. He supposed that's what caused him to snap into a vicious blood thirsty rage on the battle field. He narrowed his eyes looking at the ground a little thinking of who it reminded him of...And he hated it. He would not become like his father, yet here he was killing without any misery for anyone, and finding pleasure in killing. He blinked before looking at Phoebus waiting for some sort of response as he swayed his tail back and forth.