Neverwinter Forest up in smoke

So, they were gone. Lost to the sea he supposed, just up in smoke like they'd never been there to begin with. Screech had no idea where they'd gone and he was okay with that. A little butthurt obviously, but it had been the family aspect he had been hunting for, not the actual people from the party. They were nice too but they were not the goal. 

He had found Redshank on the coast with that awful girl. It wasn't what he'd wanted — so after defending his brother he'd taken off, returned to the Ravensblood and to Constantine, begun to take up some kind of a purpose among the wolves there as a way to repay their kindness in helping him. He wasn't very good at it (being good, kind, or helpful), and soon enough — using the excuse that he wanted to scout out some herds — he was venturing south again.

Back to the forest where the creepy Blackfeather woman had been trying to find her son. It was empty now for all he could tell, and it would afford him some shelter and silence while he contemplated what to do next. Ravensblood was his home at the point in his life; it was not his family, it did not feel anywhere near right to him, but he couldn't abandon them yet. The thought was there though. The need, too, for Screech to just say screw it and race back home to the Caldera.

If he did that he'd be killed on sight, and he knew that. But a part of him was lonely enough, starved in an intangible sense, that he was almost willing to try.

She couldn’t say what brought her to Neverwinter Forest. She only knew that she was here, now. Hydra moved through the forest and thought of Rannoch, Rian, and Cypress–

The Beta grit her teeth. Rian. That was why she was here. With everything done with Blackfeather, Hydra wondered if he had fallen into their grips and after all this time...

A tawny flash of fur in the distance caused her to start. Hope was a silly thing. Best to rip it out by the roots now. Learn for certain that this was not, in fact, Rian... but some lesser stranger. Remember and know that he was gone, perhaps for good.

Hydra was abrupt in her approach. She swung around loosely to see their face, greeting them with a low bark. The scent was familiar in a way that unpleasantly turned her stomach, but in the moment she attributed it to the way Rian had made her feel. She swallowed thickly, ears flicking uncertainly.

During the course of his departure, he’d acquired a shadow.

Truthfully, Sorina could not decide how she felt towards the boy. One minute she hated him with every fiber of her being, fully prepared to tear into him and leave yet another gaping wound in his flesh—but, at the same time, she wanted to feel him all over her again and experience… whatever that was with him. So she followed him, from a distance, and kept an eye on him and his affairs. She wanted to see if he did anything she didn’t like or approve of, or perhaps find a reason to start hating him all over again. Finding a reason was hard, though, especially when he didn’t really do anything that made her want to attack him.

It was awful.

When he ventured to another forest, she followed; she was close enough to not lose his trail, but far enough away to go relatively unnoticed. But when another wolf approached him—and a female, no less!—she felt herself bristle and a haughty huff flew out her mouth. She had half a mind to stroll out and intrude on the encounter, likely to declare the boy hers (even though he most certainly was not). Yet, for whatever reason, she hung back in the shadows, allowing him the chance to walk away from the girl and coincidentally run right into her.

don't wait up for me bc this is super lurky/maybe cameo and vague and not anything yet D: she's just following hydra from really far back I RLY JUST WANTED TO GET IN HERE??

She had been on patrol when she had found her daughter's scent leading off into the wilds, and her timing would have it that it was fresh enough to ring true. Struck with a particular whim and feeling worlds more grounded than even the day prior, she trailed on out after her but maintained a wide distance between the two of them. For now. Above all, she was happy to get out, stretch her legs, and exercise her nose on something more clever than the average meal. She could accomplish a lot roving, after all. Potentially rendezvousing with one of her dark trio was only an added sort of bonus, and besides, she knew they had good grip on these lands beyond their own; she was curious where Hydra may lead her.

Ame didn't decide if she would meet up with her sooner or later as the scenery threaded by and she adjusted her course as needed. She didn't pause as Neverwinter's pines rose to meet her. Instead, she took to their depths by slowing up and learning their routes better, so she may see how she could blend. A keen sense kept her guided roughly in the same direction as her daughter, hopefully, enough. She did not press all too close yet and savored the subtle sensation of pursuit.

Movin' along. Feel free to drop @Liffey in whenever, if you still wanna! (And for Hydra's benefit: click.)

Before long Screech realized he wasn't alone.

He heard something moving about among the trees and, thinking his luck had somehow reset itself and maybe he had found something good that he could bring back to the pack, he delved through the foliage without thinking. It wasn't long until the sounds stopped; whatever had been moving must have heard him or maybe spotted him and taken refuge in the shadows, so he stopped too and looked around. His ears were turning at every subtle noise - from a shift of the wind through the tree tops to the unmistakable chattering of a squirrel somewhere yonder. No, it had been something bigger —

And then there was a sound from behind him. Screech turned and took a daring lunge at this conflagration of sounds, thinking he had found or spooked whatever he'd been prowling after — but instead he ran smack-dab in to @Sorina in the shadows adjacent. This time neither her nose or his anything got all jammed up together; his chest bumped in to her shoulder and the boy was scrambling to hold himself steady.

When the bumbling moment of brief pain and confusion subsided he lifted his nose and glared sharply at her. You again? Finding her after all of their back-and-forth antics made him feel instantly cornered and he puffed up a bit, awkward and unsure and entirely at her mercy in the wood. It wasn't enough that she humiliate him, or attack his friend, now she was here with him and they were alone? Together?

(What was that about luck?)

Screech was more irritated by the thought that he'd been accidentally stalking her when he thought he'd found something actually valuable like dinner for his pack. But this didn't make sense. Wait - wait - you're following me? But if you're here, what the fuck was I — as he spoke Screech turned to face the darkness where @Hydra was hiding, not realizing how close he had come to finding her instead.

She hadn't been in full sight, but neither could it be said that Hydra had hidden—she had verbalized her presence, after all—but the tawny male heeded another, and Hydra was thankful as she had time to process. This voice was not the deep brogue of the one male that truly unbalanced her, but it was familiar... gratingly so. Hydra hung to where she was as she sought to place it, blending perfectly with the shadows and entirely unaware that her mother was there.

When the head swung in her direction, Hydra knew at once who this was. And it did not matter that he had a friend with him, not in the slightest. It was not overconfidence in her own ability—it was that she had caught him unawares before he had done the same to her. Hydra's reaction time was quick—she lurched forward in a bid to unbalance and pin him swiftly, a quiet mass of destruction as she came for him with defenses set and teeth bared.

She had warned him not to come around her neck of the woods anymore. He should have waited for the dust to settle. What arrogance was this? Hydra could help him live a little longer, but not if her father was near. She thought of Rannoch, of Gannet, of Towhee—she thought of this vapid boy and the war he would start with his presence alone.

What she would do, for certain, was kill him if he succeeded in all of that. Hers would be the last face he would ever see.

And then she thought of Galaxy. Of her unmoving features. Of the life that had fled her as this shit fled the scene of his crime. Of Alya, of Lyra—what if it had been them? What if it had been them?

Maybe she ought to kill him anyway.

The serpent was deathly still as she watched him search his surroundings, suspecting she’d been discovered—but then he delved into the foliage opposite of her, and she felt her body relax. For now, she remained hidden from view, crouched in the shadows that the forest created, staring at the one-eyed male. She didn’t understand her fascination with him—honestly, he wasn’t worth her time. He was just a worthless boy, so driven by arrogance that he refused to obey her. It was incredibly frustrating but, at the same time, rather refreshing; Sorina was used to getting exactly what she wanted, her brothers having almost always listened to her as they grew up together. To encounter a male that did not, and would not… she wasn’t sure how she felt about it, exactly, some weird mix of several negative and positive emotions.

Suddenly, she felt a mass collide with her body, bumping against her shoulder and sending her tumbling back a short ways. The contact, sudden and surprising, had her snapping in the assumed attacker’s direction, only to see a single-eyed face staring back at her—and she knew immediately who it was, his face and glare unforgettable. Her hackles raised as his accusing tone and she took a step in his direction. “I should be the one saying that,” she shot back, indirectly accusing him of having followed her—again. The young Gorgon, still as arrogant as ever, refused to even consider admitting to being the one following the other, because that wasn’t how things were supposed to be. He was supposed to be trailing after her, begging for her attention and answering to her every whim. But he refused to do so, leaving her feeling agitated and out of place, as well as encouraging her to do whatever she could to alter his mindset—which included making herself present wherever he went with the hope that he would eventually believe he was following her and then just give in to what she wanted.

“I was not follo—” Sorina’s words stopped suddenly as another dark mass shot out towards them—rather, shot out towards the boy. She took several retreating steps anyways, trying to avoid what she could, though her body became rigid and the fur all along the length of her dorsal rose. “Hey!” she shouted, taking just one step towards the new female. “What the fuck are you doing?! Get off him—I’m supposed to be the one attacking him!” She then tilted her nose towards Screech, gaze morphed into a glare and face twisted into a silent snarl. “What? Did you go and piss off another girl, you dick?” venom laced her voice and, should he be pinned beneath Hydra and the yearling left to inch close enough, a sharp snap to his nose would follow shortly after. “Hopefully she kills you.”—hatred-filled gaze flicked up towards the other dark girl, then immediately fell back to the male—“You deserve at least death for what you did.”

Sorina protested but there wasn't time to comprehend whatever garbage fell from her dark lips; Screech was staring wide-eyed at a behemoth of a shadow which lurched straight for him, taking shape within seconds, and it was a shape he knew. In no time at all he experienced a myriad of sensations: fear chief among them, an absolutely soul-crushing terror that made his limbs buckle even before Hydra had touched him. His mouth opened but only a pitiful sound erupted from him — and then his breath was taken too, because Hydra collided with his nimble, crippled body and the force of her weight kept him down.


Beside him was Sorina, screeching again. Protesting something. He wanted to get up and fight for her sake at least, absorbed briefly by some valiant notion of warrior-esque serve and protect bullshit. Knowing the Cerberus, the other two would not be far behind — but he couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't do anything to protect Sorina. It was fine, though. The shouting girl was not the intended target and Screech knew it. He writhed in Hydra's grip but it was futile, and soon enough he gave in to the weight of her. He couldn't stop her then, so what could he do now?


And then finally, Sorina's words began to register.

Hopefully she kills you. She was saying as she danced around the combatants, and while Screech did not take his wide-eyed stare away from Hydra for a moment, he thought he felt the Gorgon's burning gaze upon him. The pinch of Hydra's teeth hurt but not as much as the lash of Sorina's tongue the more she screeched, cutting him to the quick with how easily she was tossing him aside — throwing him to the wolves so to speak. He managed to open his mouth and strangle out a protest of, S-stop, she'll... She'll do it, before silencing.

Whatever happened next, he was powerless to stop it.

Though some time had passed, the whiplike sting on the family would last for several years to come. Perhaps even forever. Their judgment was severe, but it was their family. It was unfortunate that of all the places he had wandered that day, it was to Moonspear, where the Ostregas—who held deadly grudges, it seemed—lived. 

Sorina snapping at him incited her. Her words caused Hydra to look to Titmouse and snarl. At least death for what he did. She had let him free, and what had he done? Reaped more havoc...?! 

Death she could deliver. Did she want to? Hydra's lips peeled backward as she bore her fangs to him as he spoke. Of course I would. I took an eye, not your brain or your fucking ability to hear, so why are you here? I told you I would if you came to the Wilderness. You can't wait for the dust to settle—were you coming to cause more trouble? she snarled at him loudly and looked to Sorina when the sound abated.

Rannoch. Wraen. The only two opinions she considered in this. The only reason he breathed. Her selfish nature wanted to discard them entirely, but she could not. They were her friends, and they were pack.

She held him down, her eyes softening on the girl whose presence she found herself appreciating. What did he take from you? She asked, her voice gentler than it had been toward the one-eyed idiot, but still thick with the emotion she felt. For to her, he really had killed her sister. Indirect though it was, he still was guilty. It was Sorina who was a victim, too. She would not silence her. 

skipping mamakaze this round!

Sorina didn’t know what she wanted, not really. One second she wanted the male dead, but then the next she was trying her damnedest to get his attention; their brief coupling made her indecisiveness incredibly worse, for at times the memory filled her with a sense of longing and lost opportunity, whilst at others she regretted it and hated him for having defiled her. But now she had an opportunity to get half of what she wanted—him dead—and she didn’t want it anymore. His protest, though angering her at first as there was a command at the start of it, settled into her mind and made her weary. Would the other girl truly end his life? She didn’t think she wanted that—only because he had a debt with her, of course.

Gradually, things fell into place. With just a single sentence—I took an eye—she understood who this shadow-clad woman was. She knew what she had done and understood the reason the one-eyed male was so afraid—why he wasn’t fighting back, either physically or verbally, despite having been so eager to do the latter with the young Gorgon every time they crossed paths. Honestly, he looked pathetic. Cowering beneath the girl, silent and submissive—why could she not incite the same reaction? It seemed so easy to be in control around and of him as she observed Hydra do exactly that, and yet, the serpent had yet to be given the same degree of respect—or fear, she was not picky.

The spotlight fell on her, a question asked that made nearly every inch of her fur stand on edge. Although, in spite of this reaction, she was not the least bit hesitant with her words. “He fucked me”—it had been her first time and she knew not before then how it truly worked but, after it happened, she’d been able to link the events of that day to the discussion once held between her parents and all of their children, Sorina included—“and then he just left.” It did not compare to murder, did not even come close, but it was a crime worthy of the greatest of punishments, as far as the serpent was concerned. For now, though, she did not try to convince the attacker to kill the boy. She had some concerns, some curiosities in need of being eased first.

“How are you doing that?” she suddenly asked, motioning towards the boy beneath her with a lash of her tail. “He has disobeyed me countless times and ignored my threats. But you he isn’t fighting against—you he recognises his place beneath of.” Her gaze narrowed then, flickering back towards Screech whilst her lip twitched with subdued irritation. “I want that.”

What did he take from you? Said the harbinger of his doom, to which Screech could only loose a small whine before he was silenced by the pressure she exerted. He looked briefly at the roaming figure he assumed to be Sorina (although it could've been one of the other pieces of the Cerberus for all he could tell, waiting patiently to finish the job they had started together); it was Sorina's voice that responded though, and her tone was empty — the words not making sense to the poor boy with about as much understanding of sex and consent as an American high-schooler.

A fire ignited as she spoke, those first few words sharp and hard like flint. Then she was blaming him, consumed by that same fire, until she burned with adulation for Hydra and turned her attention towards his assailant.

'No, this isn't right,' he thought, feeling a sinking sensation in his gut and the all too familiar cracking of his heart, 'I didn't hurt her — I wouldn't —' but he was not brave enough to speak. He squirmed instead, suckling air with pathetic grunts as he tried to breathe.

Screech's eye went glassy a moment later, and he stared off in to space while the moments unfolded; he couldn't do anything except bask in their shared hatred of him. Fighting back meant certain death — something he still resisted, because the punishment had yet to meet his hollow crimes.

Rage. 

Rage was what she felt at her words. Hydra could only assume her anger came from the fact that it was unwanted and unwelcomed, and that this wolf before her truly was the monster that she thought. No, that she knew. 

How are you doing that, Sorina asked? ...you... he recognizes his place beneath...

I want that. 

Because he knows, Hydra looked at him and only him now, that I will do this—

Unbridled rage! She swept forward, removing her paw from the junction on his throat she had pressed, and dug in deep and true, shaking hard, the movements brutal and savage, the fount of his blood pouring freely! 

PP permission granted :x.... thread private for now as per discussion, and consent to skip given!

It didn't take a genuis to see where this was heading - it didn't even take two eyes.

He would struggle at first. The constriction of his larynx was one painful thing, that pressure growing swiftly with the closing of her fangs around it. The taste of blood would come next but not because she had broken the skin — it would come from deeper, from his lungs as they filled with air that couldn't escape.

The pain signaled the nearness of his own expiration date. Each moment slowed.
He would writhe. Plead with his eyes as they bulged from his head.

It was like in his old dreams. A raven consuming a titmouse — and just beyond, Sorina getting just what she desired.

Scent, a flick of her ear, and an experienced gaze that knew just what to seek guided her path true.. until she didn't even need to wonder. Noise erupted from ahead in the forests, then voices trailed in afterward. She cut for a direct path, although distance still remained, she swept it away and knew this would be where she would find Hydra.

She didn't stop until she saw the wolves, a little trio here gathered neatly in the old forests. One pinned beneath the wrath of Hydra, another of dark coat.. inconsequential, because not of the cerberus was all Amekaze needed to know as she swung her tail rigid over her back and said nothing, but spoke her depths nonetheless by presence alone. Wearing a wicked grin, she watched and loomed menacingly on the edge of it, poised to interfere only should the wretch slip from her daughter's grasp, or the other saw it fit to involve herself unwarranted.

She wouldn't do him the mercy of a quick death. 

Who knew how long his invasion of Sorina had taken? Who knew how long Galaxy had been gasping desperate gulps of air in vain as Titmouse fled? Tears pricked at her eyes, but she felt at peace as he continued to bleed, as he choked on his blood before her eyes. It was a monstrous sight, and she did not feel particularly good about this, but how many would she save? 

He gurgled. She could sense his last breaths were near. She sniffed the air; a snowstorm would be upon them very soon. No one would know. No one would find him. No one but Sorina, who wanted this, too, who knew he deserved this. Knew what he was capable of. 

She felt numb as she stared at his glassy eyes that would soon fully be glazed over. She had stared Death in the face many times to know she would see It soon.

The blood. As she crushed his throat, it would come pouring out of him, a grisly fount to baptize him — redhawk blood to stain him. It would be more than a name now.

The taste would leave his tongue. The trapped air would whoosh a final gasp; the death wrattle lost to the thrashing of Hydra's ferocity.

He would paint the snow. It would spray so wildly that even Sorina, hiding behind her new idol, would not be exempt.

And there would be Titmouse, finally laid to rest beneath the shadow of Moonspear's righteousness —

It was a sweet fantasy. 

Blood roared within her own ears, but she soothed herself as she pictured the faces of Rannoch and of Gannet. They would care most of all in this. She breathed slowly, an ear flick alerting her that though it had all been a dream her mother stood poised before the scene. That much had been true, not concocted of the inner-workings of her mind.

It pained her to see him live and breathe.

To Sorina, she responded: I gave him what he truly deserved when I found him after he fled. A sort of justice had been served. Crude and messy, but justice nonetheless. Titmouse was an idiot to have returned. Her mother had yet to serve her own justice, and a mothers rage was far worse than a sisters. He is yours, she relinquished the reins to @Amekaze, though did not move from her own station until she came. In the meantime, she would like very much to speak with Sorina; she liked her spirit.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

— at least, that's what he invisioned. A pitiful death, a lonely death, where the only people present were filled with loathing for him. Not his family, but these shadows that betrayed him. But it was only temporary. A product of his fear and weakness.

Abruptly the harbinger released her grip. Screech bowled forwards with a desperate gasp, sucking back a lung-full of air with greedy abandon; he thought he heard the ocean in his ears, but it was the blood finally rushing back to where it needed to be. His vision swam - and his mind was a fog - and as things settled he looked up, seeking Sorina's face.

He didn't see two wolves made of shadow, but three. Panic seized him with a stronger grip this time, and he flattened instinctively against the ground; he watched this new arrival with a wide-eyed stare and did not blink, even as a warmth and wetness spread from his loins and turned the snow a foul gold.

Her sights were quick upon the dusty-coated male, rife with some hazy shimmer of almost-validation. His scars, the ones etched onto him by her daughters, identified him perfectly for her. Finally, she got to lay her eyes upon perhaps one of the unluckiest wolves in the wild's recent span. She would never know why him, but the blame fit so nicely upon him and already this balance was supposed to be maintained. Now he was disobeying what the cerberus had declared: that he never come to where they could see him and yet, here, just a few stretches from their very doorstep was this piece of shit. As if his wrong-place, wrong-time antics at her borderlands had not been enough, something in him must have yearned for much more.

Hydra relinquished him to her and she honed in more. She rose more too, now baring her teeth at him from a greater height far more openly as she slid closer, shifting into where her daughter let her have the space to do so. Disdainfully, she looked down her wrinkled muzzle at him. "He is pitiful," she murmured to Hydra before her attentions moved away towards the other dark shadow. The alpha glanced him over, up and down, and smelled the fresh urine. Such earned him a new glare. Miserable, awful thing. Death would be a courtesy, and she wanted to see him suffer.

Amekaze didn't pin him down except with the loom of her presence. For good measure she abruptly swung a snap of her jaws at his muzzle. A warning, to test how fast he could move, or not. His call. How badly had they throttled him already, and more importantly, did he even possess the good sense to get the fuck out? She had little expectation for wolves of his stock; to her, they were never the brightest.  Her next, faster swing of her teeth seemed to start to encourage him up, or else she would keep coming until he had no more flesh to rend.

The serpent listened, she watched, but the answer was not what she wanted to hear. With the stranger’s answer, it seemed as if she would have to take his other eye in order to incite the same fear and submission in him as the girl did—but if he was left without any eyes, then what use would she have for him? If he were to be totally blind, then he would be useless to her. Scowling, Sorina’s tail began to lash back and forth in a manner most resembling a cat, irritation unmasked. “There has to be another way,” she stated matter-of-factly, a scoff lingering on the edge of her words. But the attention was cast to another shadow, materialising just the same as the blue-eyed girl. How many were there?!

Hearing the younger of the two’s word, her hackles raised. “No,” she forced out through gritted teeth, tail like a whip as the lashing increased in both speed and force. “He isn’t hers, he’s mine.” As Amekaze approached, the yearling followed after, taking several steps towards the boy—only to stop before she could reach out and touch him, nose scrunching as she stared at him in utter disgust. “Did you…”—it was almost laughable, the pungent odour in the air—“did you piss yourself? What the fuck is wrong with you?!” And how bad did that make her look? Claiming someone as hers that just went and pissed all over himself.

She was seriously considering getting rid of him.

Hydra listened to Sorina's response and blinked at her. If Sorina did not grasp there was more to take from a wolf than just their eye, there was no helping her. Hydra thought she might be a willing pupil, but when she sought to intervene she imagined she might be wrong about that after all. Hydra moved to prevent her from getting in the middle of things, but Sorina seemed to find regret before Hydra had the mind to step between them. 

The scent of piss was why, and Hydra could not find it in her to smile at his misfortune or his cowardice. 

This is the first time she has been given the chance to face the last wolf who ever saw her daughter alive without his back turned, she explained to Sorina quite civilly as she looked down upon him. Though she was appalled with what Titmouse had done to Sorina, too, she did not doubt the girl would get her chance at him if she really wanted; her mother was a ruthless woman, and may even invite Sorina to partake in the shenanigans. Hydra herself would only follow if summoned; she had her revenge and knew it was time to let her mother expend her grief. She did not think Sorina's claim upon him had been to keep him alive, per se, but rather to have her share of swings, and so she thought nothing of what was on Sorina's mind and attributed it all to desire for revenge.

She looked just like the other three, the daughters that had taken so much from him. The spitting image of the trio that he loathed and feared in equal measure - certainly he should have felt the same for her, too, but Screech didn't feel anything. Not until she grappled with a snap at his snout, scoring him swiftly with a practiced malice. He winced and scrambled simultanously. There was no need to wait for further prompting but his limbs trembled beneath him. The warmth of his urine soon chilled.

The woman spoke as if she were observing something lesser. Screech was a spoiled chunk of meat and the vultures were trying to determine what to do with him. Go for the soft bits? Crack open some bones? Bury him for later?

Sorina's voice was something he had become used to. The comments no longer cut him to the bone as they had initially, for he numbed himself. There was too much at stake to let himself feel anything at this point - so he stood there trembling and patient, tongue-tied and horrified. Screech could not look away from Amekaze even if he wanted to; he sought her approval knowing that there was only so much she would ever give him. He was standing though. He did what she prompted and he hoped it would satisfy some part of her.

Then, meekly, he dared to express his condolences with his gravel-pit of a voice as he gasped, I'm — I'm s-sorry.

The words of the other shadow were of no context to her, and neither did she intend to find out what her involvement really was in this, or the piss-soaked Redhawk. Amekaze did not find she cared to acknowledge her claim over him in this moment, whatever she thought that would mean to the Moonspear wolves besides worthless, and pulled back her lips for a wicked snarl aimed that invited the stranger to test it. She wasn't going to dawdle, or rein back any—not when she had Hydra here, and by extension, perhaps two other sets of teeth to summon to her side. The alpha could afford the aggression while feeling confident that she could get away with it.

When Hydra seemingly deflected those attentions away, she was back upon the silvery yearling now that he stood. She circled, growling only to his apology. Don't waste your breath, she thought, but there was no point; she couldn't grate the words yet. She was thinking of Galaxy again, unsure how he had done it if so, or why he was there at all. His apology meant nothing to her. He was nothing to look at, and somehow full sight of him, still meek, even failed to rile or appease like she hoped it might. "Never come near here again. We see you, you die." she warned darkly, in close, and suddenly shifted all of her momentum to move teeth-first for his neck. Her mercy was ambiguous at best, and certainly not given freely yet. She wanted any outcome to a lunge like this: him to flee, him to fight back, him to let her tear him down to nothing at all. To die, to suffer, to never set foot here again—he only wanted it done with.

As was the case with most things, Sorina did not care.

She did not care for the reasoning of either dark entity, she cared only that the one-eyed wolf was hers and someone else was trying to hurt him. She did not want to protect him, and she definitely would not put her life on the line for him, but she wanted him, specifically, as her personal servant—that’s the only reason she’d yet to tear him apart herself, after all. “I don’t care,” she stated, staring at the girl between her and Screech. “Whatever he did to others doesn’t matter to, or affect, me—so why should I care?” That it was another female bothered her a bit, yet the silent reminder that she wasn’t a Gorgon flushed out all traces of guilt from her system.

When his voice reached her ears, the serpent’s narrowed gaze slipped from Hydra and to the boy. She could feel her ears heating up, blood boiling with rage—and it was directed at him. “Grow a backbone!” she hissed. “What the fuck is your problem?! Stand up for yourself already! How the hell am I supposed to use you if you’re dead?” So easily her words shifted from possible concern to the true source—her gross selfishness. Snarls cast her way were neither acknowledged nor responded to, her focus honed in on the boy. Was he really so weak that he couldn’t even stand up for himself? She huffed, considering how well she might fare if she were to find another, stronger servant—one that would understand his place and actually listen, too!

And then the woman lunged and Sorina felt her body go rigid, stare unwavering as she awaited the outcome. What the male’s fate would be, with the strangers and her, she had to know.

The man who pissed his pants was, to put it in the nicest way she could perceive it, an imbecile. Hydra had warned him. Warned him because her mother or father would surely end him if they caught wind or sight of him. Hydra's intent would have been to drive him away, but her mother had come upon him, and now she knew his face. He was one lucky bastard, though. Her mother exhibited restraint and control for surely the same reasons she did—those that still lived. But her father would do no such thing. And at the end of the day, Hydra was his daughter, as much his as she was Amekaze's, and she had no qualms at all in falling into his violent whims when it was so well-deserved, regardless of the lack of satisfaction she would gain from it.

Her ear twitched as Sorina whined. Her gaze turned to her, and without mocking or amusement, Hydra asked: you do not think it ever will? Sure, it did not effect Sorina here and now... but were Sorina to have been holding the reins, and to try and protect him despite his crimes while she was holding those reins, the blame would fall onto her shoulders, too. It went without saying that if Sorina did not care that she ought to step away from this situation, at the least; this had nothing to do with her.

And then the scent of piss came. Her eyes had not fallen from Sorina, and though she could appreciate her motive, she had, unfortunately, selected the wrong man for it. Hydra had never used a wolf in her life, though personally could not see an appeal in it given she had no need to. She heard her mothers words, his true Final Warning; he had not respected the families grieving period, or Hydra's words. Hydra would move to action should Titmouse think to retaliate, or should Sorina try to throw herself in the mix. 

Hydra was observant of her surroundings, falling into a defensive position herself in preparation.