Blackfeather Woods I'll bring the shibe with me

I TOLD YOU I WOULD BE BACK
@Astrid and @Nemesis and @Cicero and @Potema and everyone else if they wanna

She'd been a piece of heaven for the time Damien spent with her. Deirdre had managed to change the Dark Prince in a way that, although it might come to be imperceptible, made the difference in the way he saw things from within himself. Ghian would come to make a part of Damien, and although only there, among the sequoias that guarded their realm, would they know him by that name, the Dark Master would remember it fondly.

He'd been grateful to her, he had actively told her so, but as soon as the memories started kicking back in and he put the pieces together to rebuild his memory, Damien could no longer stay in Donnelaith. There were lives back in Blackfeather Woods that depended on him -or so he liked to think- and he'd made promises he did not plan on breaking any time soon. So in the midst of the night Damien parted from the Sentinels, not before reaching out to his savior with a kind-hearted farewell and a promise to return. He'd gone back to the place where everything changed, this time carefully picking his path and watching his pace, all to gather what had been the culprit of it all: That stone, it's blue iridescence, its magic, was well worth it. And with it carefully guarded by the daggers that were his fangs, Damien traversed the expanse that separated him from home in the course of restless days and nights, all to find the edge of his land as silent and expectant as ever.

He did not hesitate to cross the borders, this was his land, his claim. His paws took his massive body right across the forest and into the dark, where he meant to find his sister in the hope she'd not yet given birth. He could not tell exactly how long he'd been away, but he knew that the whelping was well nearing by the time he'd left. With a deep howl he broke the silence, an announcement that their master was back, but his target was the Spiderlings' glen where he hoped his sister had already set up camp.

Damien. Damien was back. Her Forest King with his stories and sickeningly sweet compliments that had once mattered. She could not keep her heart from fluttering, even if it did belong to both her youngest and oldest brother. Why had he returned? Why did he have to mock her in this way? Astrid had thought he was lost forever, and yet here he was - in the middle of the night, mind you. Her wounds had healed yet scarred her for life, much like the absence of her only friend had. She frowned before rising and almost running toward wherever he was.

Storming at him, her face displayed clear anger and confusion. Ipik! She shouted at him, not bothering to keep quiet. Who do you think you are?! She questioned him, facing him with a less bold stance than she had wanted. You left for so long - you left ME for so long! She told him. Perhaps he had a reasonable explanation, but for now he was better off quiet.

If @Kotake, @Koume, @Vaati, @Ganondorf want to cameo, go ahead!

She wondered how her mother felt, when she and her brothers were born, when even Kendra and Pietro were born. She wondered if she felt just as she was now; full of pride for the little creatures who had done nothing yet but live. They wiggled about her, sometimes stopping near her teats to suckle, other times simply wriggling about. They could smell, she was sure, but their eyes were shut for now. A detriment for her; she could not differenciate the twin girls she bore. The firstborn, who she called Azura for now, she had marked with a small dab of red, but with her constant moving, it was hard to tell.

For now, she curled around them, the den warm, protected from the harsh cold outside. Her eyes were half closed; she constantly kept an eye out for Molag, the smallest and weakest of her surviving pups, always, always making sure he kept breathing, that he spent the most time near her warmth, to protect him from an early death. She nuzzled him for a moment, only breaking away at the sound of a deep familiar howl: Damien. She rose from her nest, a pup slipping from her side. She whined, unsure. She wanted to leave, but her pups...

She nosed them into a pile, wrapping them in a fuzzy pelt, soothing their cries with a lick or two before she went to confront her brother. Astrid had gotten to him first, the girl rightly annoyed. 'I will not leave you alone in this.' That is what you said, She was bitter. Where had he gone? It was winter, and there were now eight pups to feed. How dare he just up and leave, and for what? The glitter of blue caught her attention, and then the pulse of magic. She wanted to be delighted, but the length of his depature rankled her. Do not tell me you left all this time, without a word, just for a stone; no matter how powerful it may be,

With no sight and no way of hearing, there was little to experience for Koume. Despite that, she kept herself occupied; wriggling until hungry and feeding until she felt sleepy. This came with all the cries of a newborn puppy - annoying, yet full of life. Screeching only when she couldn't find a teat, there was little else the newborn did. It was all she could do at this stage of her young life.

When mother left - the first big event for her and her siblings - she cried as hard as she could. While the warmth stayed and the moving of her siblings calmed her, there was something missing. Mother! She tried to call her, but there was only so much Koume could do.

Life was fine without Damien, and Sheogorath had almost forgotten he would return some day. And so when he made his way to the glen to look for his dear sister, he was surprised to run into his brother. Whether the surprise was pleasant or not was hard to tell right away. There was a longing feeling that Sheogorath was not sure belonged to himself or his counterpart, but he washed it away as he approached.

"Brother," he said and he nosed Damien's cheek with a movement that lacked Cicero's tenderness and love. With an amused spark in his lively eyes Sheogorath asked: "Are you here to reclaim your throne?" It was no secret that Nemesis thought she ruled these woods now. Sheogorath was looking forward to see how Damien would respond.

Despite not being able to see or hear, Ganondorf was certain that his siblings were all overwhelming idiots that his mother couldn't bare with. After all she seemed to spend the most time fussing over him and it often left the red striped boy feeling superior to his litter mates. Obviously he was the favorite and her affection totally wasn't due to him being a shrimp compared to his older siblings. 

Yet when the warm pale fur he had been snuggled up against suddenly disappeared, the spiderling felt fear and abandonment creep into his tiny heart. She was going to leave him here with these hooligans?! It was outrageous and in an effort to draw his mother back to the den, Ganondorf joined in with his sister's cries.

Big-ass paws thundered the ground as the heir made his way through the cold forest. The path to his destiny was perfectly mapped in his memory, but everything else was blurry at best and connecting the dots was a painfully hard effort. He had to get back to Potema, at least he knew that much, and while it was a relief to find the glen bathed in her scent as he arrived, the scent of new life that clung to it like a pup to a mother's teat made Damien feel on the edge of guilt.

It was not Potema's the first face he saw. It was a younger, fresher face instead, and Damien found himself looking down at her bi-colored eyes bewildered by their holder's comment. He did not recognize her voice or her face, nor did her apparent familiarity with him seem appropriate. The star-kissed princess was lost in his memory, their shared stories, their bond, all lost; but before he could even make an effort to remember her, the white witch appeared at last, with some complaints of her own. Silver eyes found their way to her, apology and regret so tangible within them that it looked like he was about to kneel and beg for forgiveness. In fact, he started to bow his head down slowly, but once the moonstone was laid safely in front of Potema --as an offering that he knew she would hardly refuse-- he rose again with a stern glare, ready to stand up for himself rather than offering an apology. But the brush of his touch broke Damien's voice before he could talk, and the dark prince found himself fixated to the nimble set of mismatched eyes for longer than he would have wanted. That astute face of gaunt features had called for something within him, something that shook his senses -- it felt as though he should remember, but not unlike the heart-broken Astrid, Cicero's face was also stranded from the former dark master's memory and he could not recall a single thing about the other despite him having called Damien his "brother".

Unable to make up coherent thoughts, the dark prince blinked for a moment back and forth between the three sets of multi-colored eyes, all of them demanding something different for him with their insistent stare, bringing Damien to the edge of anxiousness. But clearing his throat, the dark prince made an effort to build a careful sentence, from which a short and cold "I'm here now," came out surely, and his eyes reassured to all of those who had gathered to greet him that he was not going anywhere anytime soon. "I want to see the pups, I'll take care of the rest later," he added, a request to his sister, a vague answer to his brother's question. He had a lot to remember before he could even think of rising up to power again, and for now his mind was flooded with concern for the only thing he could remember. His future.

How dared he. How fucking dared he. Astrid blatantly ignored Potema and only gave Cicero a look of approval - even though his words were hauntingly to the point. No - Damien did not deserve his spot as the king of these woods. He was just a selfish brat - Ipik! She wanted to shout his name and scream at how fucking stupid he was. She wanted him to feel just as miserable as her. Then she realised; he did not deserve her attention at all. The way he acted as if she did not exist; why would she want to stick out to someone like that?

I hate you... I really hate you! She shouted as she swiftly turned and ran off. Sparkling tears made her bi-coloured eyes shine in the soft light of the moon - her feet numb from running and out of breath as she entered her family den. She snuggled up against anyone she could find and curled her speckled tail tightly around herself as she sobbed herself to sleep.

Her brother, larger and stronger than her, bowed with guilt before her. The sight contented her for the moment, but did little to make her happy. To make her forgive him. The stone was placed at her feet — she felt it pulsate, a feeling which made her tingle — but Damien rose and became the brother she knew once more. At least, she thought so. Cicero arrived, and questioned what he would do next. Reclaim his throne immediately? Or wait? It was not a question that she would or wanted to answer. She wanted her children to survive until their first year.

Astrid's departure didn't phase her. She knew nothing about her love for Damien, she doubted any did other than she and Damien himself. There are four. I have not given them their proper names yet, She would wait until the first moon to do so, to ensure that they all would live — especially the last. She picked up the stone, then walked to the Glen, quick as she could, to prevent them from any further chill.

Feel free to skip Koume after this :p

The little girl screamed for her mother until her throat was soar. Even then; she continued her instinctual calling. Cold! It was so cold! Even with all her siblings stacked together, there was no safe place from the chill of winter. One could not escape mother nature; and Koume learned that then and there.

When mother returned, she was quiet immediately. Everything had settled, and so had she. It was not long after that she fell asleep again; the energy having been almost sucked out of her.

There was a look of confusion about his brother that spoke volumes. Sheogorath exchanged a quick glance with his sister, raising an eyebrow in silent question. They would speak more of this later, he decided. He was paid little attention by Damien, but it did not phase Sheogorath much. Cicero might have asked what was wrong, but not he. It would present itself sooner or later.

Astrid was less able to deal with the situation and Sheogorath watched her leave. Only physical pain must be down her alley, he thought to himself and had to suppress a grin. He looked at them both as they set off towards the den and told them: "I will return later with some food." His mind wandered as he disappeared into the darkness of the woods, and he considered whether to go after Astrid in her time of pain or hunt.

While from Cicero's way came but a decent self-dismissal, from Astrid came flames in the form of heart-broken words. She spoke of hate, of Damien, before running away as though her world was crumbling down in pieces. Damien didn't quite know where it all was coming from, but he had serious matters to attend before he could even afford to seek the energy to discover why the girl had been so moved by Damien's return.

Potema lead the way to her den, and in silence, with caution, Damien followed to greet the third generation of Meloniis to the world for the first time. He'd been late in his return, but from that point forward he vowed to never leave their side if that was what it took for them to become what they were supposed to. He would be a silent guardian in the background if necessary, and Potema would pass on to them their beliefs and their code, preparing them for when the time to start the physical training came around.

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