Bearclaw Valley can you still sleep, the way i used to?
i will pry his bony fingers free
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All Welcome 
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indra knew nothing about pregnancy - either how long it lasted, or what its effects were -- (maybe @Blondine knew?) but she knew her sister would need food in the upcoming months. already she had stocked the cache's near @Laurel's den with small morsels; the corpses of lesser kills such as voles and marmots evidenced her efforts. she had even secured a grouse and a hare -- but these were scant offerings, and indra remained unsatisfied.

in the hopes of finding something more meaningful, indra had left the valley that morning, and did not return until near nightfall. she was almost spent from her efforts as she made her way back into the valley, the thin bent front limb of a deer held in her jaws.  it had been carrion from several territories over, but would surely offer some form of sustenance for laurel.

indra passed the boulder where the wolf known as 'the dumb girl' per laurel ( @Reigi ) oft habituated, and did so with a thick snarl glutting her throat. she could not see the wolf yet, nor did she even know if she was there, but indra intended to announce her passing with a deeply thunderous grumble. xan had told her to ignore his paramour's presence, but how could she when the brute insisted on occupying the only egress into the valley?

between clenched teeth indra huffed at the ridiculousness of the request. it was not her fault xan had poor taste in his concubines and they just happened to have an unfair vendetta against her. laurel excluded, naturally. 

in truth, she hoped to come across @Xan - but if she didn't, she'd be just as happy stowing the small gift to her sister away before hunting him down.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
Kunujâk
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Although he’d learned to tolerate the sunlight better since settling back into the valley, the night was still favoured. He moved through the valley and considered stopping by the whelping den he’d dug with his friend, but found his legs carrying him towards the entrance instead. Figuring he might as well knock out a patrol before settling in for the night—or, more likely, finding something else to occupy his time with—his pace was brisk and unyielding, up until he caught a whiff of someone; he slowed to a steady trot, ears swiveling to pick up on the approaching steps.

Before long, he saw the outline of another, who he realised soon after belonged to Indra. He did not make to change his path, but proceeded towards her and let out a soft chuff. Should she not stop him to talk, he’d likely continue right past her.
I can give it all to you, will you take it all from me
If love is a joke, then use me ruthlessly
Threads are titled after lyrics from Block B's “Toy”
i will pry his bony fingers free
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a spectre in the distance caught her attention and the girl slowed, limb still held firm in her jaws. as the two pulled closer she recognized xan and her tense posture slaked; she dropped her ears and head and strode towards him on snapping limbs. several feet away she disposed of the deer leg and addressed the alpha with a subservient mien, fully recalling how they had not left on the best of terms when they had spoken last.

indra wasn't here to apologize, though -- and while she was sorry she had insulted his children, she was not sorry she had insulted reigi's. her jaw tightened as she thought of that woman, and then of laurel -- and then she remembered why she had sought out xan in the first place.

she stepped back and the coldness that had come to habituate her once-warm features trickled back in. "you." she said icily, giving him such frosty side-eye his tits would probably freeze off. "you banged my sister."

she waited for the gravity that she knew of their tryst to sink in, and she lifted her muzzle perhaps too haughtily as she continued. "i assume that means you are mates now, right? does that mean laurel is the alpha female?" she leveled him another wickedly bitchy stare: "or are you like all other males in our life, flouncing in to fuck us, and then leaving soon as you've gotten your piece? you gonna keep two bitches on the side, xan? pork one while the other is mad at you? crawl back to the other when the first one has had it with your shit? was that your plan?"

she stepped forward again, already feeling her hackles bristle. "i have news for you, xan -- laurel is not a side bitch." if indra was taken aback by the sudden ferocity of her words, she didn't show it. laurel was involved and that was enough to stoke the fire in her heart to raging proportions. she was so tired of men and how they only thought with their dicks. as far as she was concerned they were all selfish pricks, magickal dick or not. a part of her stung too, that she hadn't been good enough to receive his action -- but then she remembered she'd be where reigi and laurel were, fat, uncomfortable, and unhappy -- what did they have to show for it? "what are you going to do, xan, to prove you didn't just fuck up my sister's life because you wanted a little action?"
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
suspended between survival and civility
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she was in fact sitting beside her boulder.

oftentimes she felt as if
THE DARK MAN who haunted her dreams and constantly lingered on the edge of her conscious had an EYE formed with evil and the sacred things it stole from innocent beings. it was hovering and omni-present.  it could see for miles and miles and miles.  its gaze filled her with the same fatal dread that thrums in a doe's heart as the wolf latches its jaws around the yielding, tender flesh of the throat.

there were two places that
THE DARK MAN could not touch her; one was in the damp ground of her whelping den and the other was here at her rock.  he was blotted entirely in the hallowed earth of her den, but here at the boulder he could see her. and though she hated it she gripped tight to her sanctuary with gritted teeth and watchful eye because she would not let him rip another thing from her grasp.

so it did not surprise her when a growl ripped through the night and she felt the
EYE's scorn focus on her; burning, teeming.  but it was not him.  it was her.

the redleaf sisters had not slipped from her mind entirely but they no longer occupied its forefront; she did not see them as a genuine threat and in some sick way reigi knew she had won (although to her xan was not a game).  it was proven by the swell in her belly and the title of wife.

reigi remained undetected, tucked delicately between the curves of her stone and the borders.  the night could have gone by without incident.

but.

the hysterical, accusing tone of the redleaf guttersnipe drew the raven to her feet.  she materialized next to her mate, and meets the petulant girl's frigid stare with a dreadful calm.  precious few of her words had spurred recognition in reigi and for that she was lucky.

she no longer had the patience to tolerate them soiling her homeland, ruining the only thing she'd ever had the chance to build for herself with their unquenchable desire to stir the pot.  reigi had been gracious thus far; she had reacted precious little to their self-assured posturing but indra had made the mistake of challenging xan and oh no, that would not stand. 

god help those innocent puppies; god help those redleaf bitches. if reigi had it her way, she'd kill them all.  she would be their
DARK MAN.

but she had been instructed to play nice.  she met indra's grotesque posturing with that of her own and ghosted forward on stiff legs every time indra dare take a step towards alexander.

she could challenge reigi all she wanted.  she could rip the roundness from her belly with bared fangs and make the snow bleed the colours of sunset — she doubted indra had the wherewithal to follow through.  but the redleaf could never challenge alexander.  and reigi would be sure of that.

3/3
Kunujâk
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The face he once saw as belonging to someone he must protect from further harm morphed ever so slowly into something recognisable. Gone was the broken girl, her body long since mended—save for the tail that could never be replaced—and her attitude raging. She was no longer the quiet one of the sisterly duo, a realisation he was forced to make as she strode towards him and then back—and right there came the steady flow of words, the edge like a razor blade as her voice sliced through the air. The way in which she stared, eyes harbouring the frigidness of his bloodline’s origin, set his hackles to raising and muscles tensing; her comment, so terribly straightforward, took him not by surprise, though the tone of her voice did have his tail sickling over his back as a reminder—this valley was his and her words were unwelcomed.

Upwards rose her muzzle and immediately he flashed his incisors, a silent warning; the intentions behind the gesture would remain forever unknown to him, yet his perception painted her display as something far from tolerable. But she continued to speak and he, for whatever reason, listened—but the words had no effect on him, aside from the furthering of his agitated state. “There is no us when it comes to you and Laurel—I didn’t have sex with you, I wouldn’t have sex with you,” his voice was low and accompanied by several stiff-legged steps towards her; at this point, he’d taken notice of his wife as she drew up alongside him, though he did little more to acknowledge her presence than offer a flick of his ear. His attention was focused solely on Indra, whose words suggested something that would never quite reach reality.

“Laurel is not my mate and she never will be because that’s not something either of us want—we’re friends and we’re both content with that.” Perhaps he should not have spoken for her, perhaps he should have spoken with her prior to deciding anything, but as far as he knew, Laurel had no romantic interests in him and he wasn’t going to try and force something that wasn’t there—not again. “And I am enough to fill all leadership positions. There is no alpha female or even a pair of betas—there’s only me and it’s going to stay that way until I say otherwise.” This was his valley, his home, his pack to control. He would not share that power with anyone that was not his and his alone, because he would not let himself have the throne be torn out from underneath him like the pallid king before him.

Alexander took a moment to steal a glance in his companion’s direction, her advancement forward making it nearly impossible to not offer some piece of his attention to her—but it lingered for but a mere moment, hardly enough time for him to even blink, before lurching back over to Indra. His body went rigid and he drew himself up to his full height, staring down at the fiery girl as if daring her to take another step forward. “What I do for Laurel doesn’t concern you so stand down and back off,” he ordered, voice like gravel as he fought back a growl. There was much that he tolerated, spanning from the crude comments and overall insulting nature of her words towards him and his companion as of late, but to be approached so casually and then chastised? He could not allow such behaviour to continue, not when, to onlookers, it was a challenge made against him perhaps not as a leader but definitely as a man—and being the wolf that he was, he had to put an immediate end to it.
I can give it all to you, will you take it all from me
If love is a joke, then use me ruthlessly
Threads are titled after lyrics from Block B's “Toy”
i will pry his bony fingers free
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all it took was a show of teeth for the redleaf's posture to slacken and her ears to fold; she had not intentionally challenged xan -- at least not his position -- though her words certain challenged his integrity. her gaze subverted and she scowled at the ground, her brave composure giving way to stifled grief for her sister; for the lives in her belly -- for their wretched and unhappy futures. 

she listened, allowing him to say his piece without interruption despite hotly wanting to contest it. he had listened to her, and she owed it to him to return the favor -- even though more times than once she wanted to interrupt with a hot riposte. when he had finished she allowed a silence to brew between them before she spoke. "laurel deserves better - that's why i'm here." indra's words were twinged with a bit of sadness; it was not the life laurel or her puppies deserved, and she knew it. "you got her pregnant, not anyone else. and you're wrong -- there is only us - laurel and me - it will always be that way. we came in this valley together, and we'll leave together too. you will not always be there for her, but i will. and i'll be there for her puppies too. with or without you." she was careful to not meet his gaze, but her words were far from demure.  perhaps she was not the gentle, timid wolf he had first known -- but truly, she had always been this forthright when it came to her sister. her protectiveness for laurel was devout in its rigidity, and had always and would always be that way.


she heard a noise besides her and turned. an exasperated sigh levied into the cold air as she saw reigi once more approaching with open hostility writ clearly across every aspect of her body. indra was bled dry of patience for the woman's incessant truculence and she rose, her hackles flaring like quills down her spine and haunch. her ears pressed assertively forward and her gums curled back to expose teeth; reigi's untoward aggression was met tit for tat. there was no hope for civil discussion -- or even resolution for laurel -- with reigi present, and indra knew that.

"leave." she commanded to the tawny woman.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
suspended between survival and civility
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the pent up rage that reigi carried for the wicked girls burdened her gaze, though she dared not to let it bleed into and betray the dangerous way she postured behind her mate.  tactically, she remained behind alexander; she would not become a threat untless indra made her one.

and if she went down that road reigi would make it clear that she would not stand to be punished for it.  she did not believe the redleaf sisters had a right to harass and belittle the wild woman like they had done so often for nothing more than an exaggerated sigh, a watchful eye.  what had they done for bearclaw that reigi had not?

in fact, reigi had done more than they had!  she sat dutifully at the borders after marking them each and every morning, guarding them from the
DARK MEN and other worldly evils that surely lurked nearby.  whenever a new face turned up at the borders, she stood guard until their alpha could arrive.  she had fought and killed intruders, she had kept the caches full, what did they do?

the petulant child before her was so far up her sister's ass that she couldn't see that they contributed nothing to bearclaw valley other than getting knocked up and stirring the metaphorical pot. their rank was held solely because of seniority.

but with the same intensity that she hated those miscreant girls, she loved her alexander.  he had stolen her from the wilds and offered her home in himself and in his valley.  although she hated these women.. she would not jeapordize her future and her children's future for the sake of some childish girls.

no, she commanded, her posture dangerously calm.  she did not stalk forward or meet indra's bared fangs, but this was her mate, and she would not stand down.

3/3
Kunujâk
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There was an immediate change to her posture and it calmed the male if only slightly, feeling his point to have been made and status heard. But that was not where their interaction was meant to end, that was not where the words would stop flowing from either of their mouths. She had more to say and, again, he listened—where this patience, however thin it was, had stemmed from, he couldn’t tell. It was there, though, and offered him the ability to not only hold his tongue for a short while but, also, rein himself back in and hide teeth behind lips; they made a brief appearance moments later, a flicker of white, at the suggestion that he wasn’t good enough—that her comment on Laurel deserving better went so much deeper than that, he was unaware.

But that all meant little to him after hearing the word leave.

Anger flared and his lips twitched but, ultimately, it was his worry that won out. “You won’t leave,” he stated—nearly commanded, even. “Laurel said she’d stay here, so she’s going to stay, especially since she’s carrying my… my children.” Saying that threw him off for a moment, the full weight of the matter crumbling down over him similar to how it had when he’d realised Reigi was with young. Forcing the thoughts from his head, he focused back on the fiery girl. “You’re not taking them away from me—or Laurel.” Although he did not love her, not like he did his wife, he did care for her. She was his friend and he wasn’t going to let her, or their children, leave.

Attention fled towards the raven, though his gaze flitted back and forth between them; whilst Indra was clearly riled, the other woman was relatively calm, but he sided with neither despite what that little voice in the back of his head told him. “Enough,” the albino ordered, staring down the tailless female, before swinging his head towards his mate, too. Both of you.” Though the way she postured was not threatening, her no didn’t help the situation. And although he liked hearing her voice, he wanted to diffuse the situation as best he could and avoid any further confrontation before things escalated beyond his control.
I can give it all to you, will you take it all from me
If love is a joke, then use me ruthlessly
Threads are titled after lyrics from Block B's “Toy”
i will pry his bony fingers free
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the conviction in Xan's words did little to appease the intransigence that gritted indra's muzzle; they could leave -- and they would -- it was up to the alabaster man to prove to them the life they carved in this valley was worth staying for.

neither indra nor laurel deserved to live under xan or reigi's spotlight -- they had been here first, they deserved better. indra knew in her heart that had the roles been reversed and xan in their shoes, that he would have never tolerated such mistreatment. "would you stay, if you were in our place?" she challenged quietly, knowing full well the answer.

indra turned her gaze upon reigi, wholly unsurprised by the woman's flat refusal. it was the umpteenth time the woman had refused any semblance of courtesy. reigi had saturated every aspect of indra's life and indra was exhausted for it. "it wasn't a request. I am speaking to xan -- alone ." indra informed her with bucolic coldness. she was entitled her privacy with her alpha, and if reigi refused her this simple courtesy -- well, it was not the redleaf in the wrong. she supplied reigi a full stare, a cold sneer housed on her thin gums.
now the wren has gone to roost and the sky is turning gold,
and like the sky, my soul is also turning.
suspended between survival and civility
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Bleep bloop. Phone post. Formatting to come. Please forgive typos.

----------

the triumph that had burned within the raven so brightly as she stood behind her mate quickly morphed into an ugly and all-consuming hurt -- it was a black and swelling void centered in her chest that hollowed out her bones and coursed to the end of every nerve.

all at once it was reigi who felt as if she weren't good enough. it did not matter how composed or good natured she was; so long as she existed in front of the redleaf girls she was reigi the insolent, reigi the wretch, reigi the retarded.  reigi, who with her presence soiled the hallowed status of the girls who did no wrong.

even to xan.

infra was allowed to harass and belittle at will but so long as the sandstone woman with no name so much as had a hair out of place, a breath that wasn't concealed, a gaze that lingered too long, it was deserving of punishment.

she felt both scorned and betrayed.  the unbridled rage she felt was not allowed to seep into her posture and break her composure but it was almost palpable, emanating from her suddenly in easily scented waves.

indra did not get the chance to address reigi before she had marched off slow and stiff legged towards her boulder.  this was no tantrum.  reigi would not flee the valley or seek alexander's love for once more it had been made more than clear -- 

no matter how hard she worked or no matter what she desperately tried to secure, reigi would always be beneath the redleaf girls.  and she would never understand why.
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Kunujâk
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Alexander did not speak again, did not address either of them. He looked between the females as more words were exchanged, but did not open his mouth in order to interject words of his own; it seemed to him as if things would never be as settled as he’d like for them to be, and that was something he’d need to learn to live with, even if he could not stand it. He only watched as Reigi wandered away, staring after her until she was no longer visible, and then turned his gaze back to Indra. “We’ll continue this later,” was all he said before turning in the direction opposite to Reigi—and Indra, too, hopefully—and heading off.

He was in desperate need of a break from all women in general, at this point.
I can give it all to you, will you take it all from me
If love is a joke, then use me ruthlessly
Threads are titled after lyrics from Block B's “Toy”