Wolf RPG

Alya was enjoying her newfound - and slightly illicit - freedom. She'd found that if you were fast, if you were quiet, you could get away with just about anything. Though she'd started out as the loudest of all the pups, she'd learned quickly enough that a certain finesse was needed to get some of the things she most wanted - and exploration was one of those things.

She might usually have tried to enlist one or both of her mirror-twins to come along, but the clever girl had also found that there was something to be said for plausible deniability. If one of them stayed behind, they all stayed behind. If two of them stayed behind, it was doubly so. As far as Alya could tell, neither the Great White nor Mamakaze could - reliably - tell them apart. Though this also meant that if one misbehaved, they may well have all misbehaved, Alya liked to think that punishments were also spread out quite nicely that way. While the punishment for wandering off might be harsh and unpleasant for just one Alya, when spread out between three Alyas, it was a piece of cake.

Today, the young princess was intent on exploring her kingdom. Although it would, naturally, go to Hydra before it ever belonged to her, Alya still felt a strong sense of entitlement toward the mountain. After all, she reasoned, she had to make sure that everything was in order for the Crown Princess - and for her mother and father as well.

So Alya sniffed along, eyes wide and tail wagging as she took in all the sights, scents, and sounds of Moon Pear.

At the sight of Dash, Alya forgot to be displeased at being found. "Dashie!" she called, romping toward the older wolf and delivering an affectionate (and gentle) gnaw unto his foreleg. "'m 'sploren. Wanna splore?" she explained, inviting him along. It was then that she remembered that she was not supposed to be this far from the rendezvous - especially without an adult.

Oh! But Dashie was an adult! Now that he was there, it was totally okay to be where she was!

Suddenly, her eyes narrowed. "How come you know Alya?" she demanded, aghast. Not even the Great White could tell them apart!

Mice, birds' eggs, dry bones. Little things had sustained her for this long, but she needed more. Hungry gnawed constantly at her belly. It was an ache that could not be ignored, and that refused to be exstinquished by the meager offerings she was able to provide it.

Her eyes glinted when they fell on the black dart moving through the undergrowth. Rinn knew not how she'd come to be on this mountain or how long she'd been walking or even what manner of creature the black dart happened to be. It was alive, and big enough to make a meal out of. That was enough.

With a silent snarl twisting her features, Rinn crept forward, step-by-step. She could not allow this one to get away. Not even when another, larger creature appeared did she cease her hunting. Their conversation would, perhaps, distract them both enough that she could draw nearer, come closer to her meal. Perhaps.

Perhaps she was too bold.

A strange emotion swelled in the inky girl as she received Dashie's gently chiding answer. A warmth, a sense of pleasure - and it was derrived from being set apart from her mirror-twins. A soft oh escaped the young child, and she tried to quash the glow of happiness that'd risen up under such awkward circumstances. It was very wrong to like this compromise in security. If Alya knew what was good for both herself and her sisters (and she liked to think that she did), she would put an end to this risky behavior at once, and be sure to go only with what the rest of her flock of black sheep happened to be doing - or to, at least, take far greater cares to cover her tracks.

But for now, for this moment, there was nothing that could be done, and Alya allowed herself a brief moment of respite to enjoy being herself.

And then that moment ended. A shift in the wind was all it took; Alya recognized a scent that she'd been very interested in a few days earlier, but she did not recognize the fear of her elder until she looked up and caught sight of his face. Her blood ran cold at the worry she saw there, but it was a brief and fleeting thing. Alya had never truly been in danger before. Though she'd screamed and cried when new things came her way, she'd always known, in her heart of hearts, that Mamakaze and The Great White would be there to swoop in and save her if she only hollered loud enough.

To little Alya, this time seemed no different. She looked around for what'd bothered Dashie so badly, but nothing was amiss to the girl's eyes. It almost seemed like a game as he placed himself above her, and Alya was content to stay in his shadow and wait for something fun to happen - something fun always happened when Dashie was around.

Suddenly, the larger creature went on high alert, eyes passing over the place where Rinn laid in wait. Her heart pounded faster as the possibility of discover - and thus, a lost meal - came to the forefront of her mind. Desperation gripped her.

Rinn lunged before the creature could run, or call its ilk, or find her and decide to attack.

Though the smaller animal had been her target, the cat knew that she would have to get through the larger before getting to its young. It was a pivitol moment in her life, much like the breaking of her fever several days prior. Here, she would test her mettle against the wolf and against fates, and only at the end of the battle would she know if she would live another day.

Claws out and teeth bared, the cat met her mark with a savage snarl.

It all still seemed like a game until that snarl reached her ears. Dashie's words, his tone of voice, the very scent he had begun to give off all spoke of a dire threat, a danger unnamed, of death - but Dashie could never scare her, even if he wanted. Even if he needed to.

But at the snarl, Alya's happy little bubble-world broke; a brown blur tore out of the trees and then it tore at Dashie, and distantly, Alya wondered who was screaming. It was a sound she didn't recognize. Terror she'd never known was laced into that cry, but she was learning it, now. And though her tiny legs burned to follow Dashie's instructions and run away, it seemed that she was frozen in place, watching as the two beasts met with long fangs and reaching claws.

The screaming stopped as Alya struggled to draw breath, and she realized that it'd been her making that noise. The realization seemed to bring feeling back into her limbs, and whirling, the young girl cried out: "DADDY! DADDY HELP!"

It felt wrong to turn away and leave Dashie alone, but Alya could not think of this now. Sobbing, the girl ran toward the rendezvous site and for @Charon, knowing no other way to help her friend.

Charon had been watching the pups. At first, Alya's siblings had convinced him that there were really still three of them through some good acting and switcheroos. Charon was at some point convinced that all three of his daughters were at the rendezvous site. But then he had begun to doubt and when he'd called them all together he had come to the horrifying conclusion that he was missing one.

Just as he had stuffed his other daughters with someone else to go look for Alya, he heard her cries tear through the air. He was quick to run in her direction, meeting her head-on and not stopping until he was with her so that he could wrap his muzzle around her to let her know that she was safe here.

Rinn's heart sunk as the first bite was landed upon her. Wolf, her mind told her, it's a wolf and his pup - but rational thought ceased after that. It was a fearsome beast that she was up against, especially considering her weakened state, but she was not quite as weak as she'd been when she encountered the white wolf, and she would not shrink away this time. It was too late to cease her attack, and the smell of blood - her own - was enough to drive her onward.

A savage snarl was still ripping out of her throat; she couldn't stop the sound from pouring out as she bared her fangs and lunged. The hunger was blinding, but the cat lashed out with her heavy, clawed paws to try and hang on to the darker creature. If she could hold him down, she could kill him. Rinn knew it, though she'd never tried to kill a fellow meat-eater before.

Alya thought that everything would just magically be better when Charon arrived, but it didn't. Not all the way, anyway. It certainly felt better when she stumbled into his embrace, but the sound of the fight did not let up. There was still that terrible screaming, and this time it was not her own.

She would never forget that sound; she would never stop fearing it.

"Daddy, Dashie daddy please, help please help," Alya said in one drawn-out yowl of fear. Her heart was racing as she begged her father to make it stop, his name mingling with that of her protector's as her words became less and less coherent.

At first he assumed that it was something trivial that she was afraid of, something that might teach her not to run off on her own or with her sisters all the time, at most. But as soon as Alya locked into his embrace Charon heard the screams in the distance. Hackles raised on instinct and ears perked forward. He wanted to go, he really did — but he couldn't leave his little girl here, either. He would never forgive himself if she would get hurt because he was out helping Dash.

But the situation required action and he didn't want to leave Alya alone, either. Charon thought back to when Atreyu had fought the bear that had attacked Flóki and Jorunn single-handedly because he was scared and had saved Flóki rather than get involved. He would never forget the tearing of his friend's limb right in front of his eyes as blood spat everywhere, the cracking of the bones... "Come, then hide good nearby and do not look," he commanded Alya and he then started in the direction of the fight. He'd heard the screams in the distance and so he followed them.

Charon let out a howl as he ran, both to alert the rest of his pack to the danger as well as let both Dash and his assailant — perhaps it would be enough to chase whatever was attacking him off? — know that he was coming.

A pained yowl escaped the cat as strong jaws clamped around her paw. Rinn recoiled even as the wolf wrenched with all his might, and the cat's enraged cry of pain only grew more shrill as teeth raked through the heavy pads of her paws as well as the sensetive flesh inbetween. The two disconnected for a moment - long enough for Rinn to take stock of her mangled paw, which was now missing two toes.

Pain, panic, and hunger all warred within the feline. A weapon had been hindered, but not all of them. Limping, now, Rinn charged once more, and somehow her damaged paw did not seem to reduce the speed with which she moved - only the ferocity behind her attacks. She was wary, now, of that deadly muzzle, and the cat sought to disable it as soon as she could.

Pointed fangs flashed out, far-reaching and accurate as she bit at the dark wolf's face. Some would liken it to a hot knife through butter, the way the lines of red blood appeared so suddenly upon his face, but the action was far less smooth than that. Rinn could feel the flesh ripping, reluctant to give way under her teeth but unable to hold itself together - but only for an instant before she reeled back again, hoping to disorient the wolf. Before he could organize a counter-attack (she hoped), the cat rushed in once more, aiming this time for the back of his neck, and seeking this time to keep a hold of him.

The howl of a second wolf went unnoticed.

Fangs ripped thrugh the skin on his face, sending blood dripping into Dash's eyes. He was disoriented, and unable to see the next attack coming until the last moment, though he heard the call of his Alpha. He knew it wouldn't be much longer before help arrived. 

As he saw movement of the cat, he jerked up and away, preventing it from grabbing the back of his scruff, but instead allowing teeth to sink into the side of his neck.  In that moment, he knew help was too far away. 

He continued to struggle, as at his very core, he was a fighter, even if he knew he had lost. The blood poured from his neck, and in moments, the Gamma was unconscious. In less than a minute, his heart beat one last time upon the mountain,  and the only place he had ever called home.

Daddy ran off and Alya did as she was told, dashing off to find a good hiding place. She'd played so often in these woods with her sisters that it took no time at all for her to find someplace she thought suitable. A pile of rocks that were hard to get into for a creature even half-again her size. Alya squeezed herself further and deeper than she had ever gone before, desperate to make herself safe even as she longed to run after the Great White. He ran toward danger, but he was the only thing she knew with absolute certainty that could make her truly safe.

The little pup was not far enough away to miss the sound of the fight - every echo tore into her heart the same as it was surely tearing into Dashie's flesh. The little girl was scared and confused and worried for her friend - but Daddy would sort it out. He would bring Dashie back and kill the monster and they would eat it. Everything would be okay.

Perhaps if Charon had seen that Dash was too far gone to help, he would not have attacked, would've stayed away with his little girl and made sure that she had been safe. He would've turned away, without the help of his pack, and left the problem for another day should it persist. Charon wasn't exactly a hero, and had he a moment to think about this, he would've chickened out, knowing what terrible things larger predators could do; knowing what, once, the bear had done to Atreyu.

But as things were, as he came running onto the scene and with adrenaline coursing through his veins and a protectiveness over his little girl and Dash both, he didn't waste time throwing himself at the mountain lion. He dove straight for the neck, hoping to get a good grip while the creature was preoccupied with his friend, providing him a chance that he wouldn't otherwise have.

It was Charon's howl that brought her and scent on the wind drove more speed into her approach by the second; she'd been far, off on her own patrol that did not coincide with this terrible scene at all. The cat, her daughter's safety, Dash's fight for his life -- she remained oblivious to it for uncomfortably long. Soon she could smell blood so plainly then came streaking into sight with a tightness in her chest she could only barely register when she saw Dash bleeding. The second she had identified the offending beast as feline, she slid seamlessly into the role all her own, hellbent on seeking only its end.

Perhaps with surprise in her favor, and Charon's attack coming when Dash's could continue no longer, she charged as well. Her angle of approach went differently than her mate's, who went right for the vitals of the neck. She viciously snapped her teeth for its hind legs with intentions to further cripple it in mind -- or rend any flesh she could seize in the meantime on the fallen Dash's behalf. Amekaze knew what these foul felines could do, and could spare no chances of having it spring away from them to harass another day.

Rinn had already set greedy jaws upon her kill; the flesh of his neck was gone down her gullet, and the black wolf's lifeblood was spilling cinnamon down a brown-sugar pelt. A flash of white in this cacophany of color made the cat's eyes flash, and she slipped her throat from the other's jaws just in the nick of time, catching the blood on her chest instead. Strong jaws raked down her collarbone, sending a white-hot flash of pain throughout her entire body - a bone had been broken, but only later inspection would tell her which.

For now, she tried to sink her own teeth into the other, even as she fell on her back. The feline's body tried to turn her paws to the ground, but Rinn needed those weapons. Disoriented, she attempted to grab the white blur and hold it to herself that she might rip into its belly with her strong back legs - but something caught her paw yet again, and another weapon as forcefully disengaged.

A snarl of rage ripped out of the cat as she kicked out at whatever was assulting her leg - she still had claws on that one, but perhaps she was too weak to throw the assailant off and land her hit.

The sounds raged on, but slowly, the young wolf grew deaf to them. Her heartbeat slowed, as did her harried breaths, and very soon, one mightn't've known there was anything in the rocks at all - her family, of course, would have been able to track the stink of Alya and Fear into the narrow opening, but a creature with a lesser nose would easily pass them by.

Eventually, even Alya herself forgot that she was in the boulders. The pup had entered her own realm.

His teeth hit their mark, but he didn't get the satisfaction of ripping out the cat's throat. Only when the animal turned and he hit its chest did Charon realise how big it really was. If it was not for the adrenaline he might have feared his position, but he had no time to think about such things. He did not even notice Amekaze, so engulfed was he in the encounter. The taste of blood was both satisfying and drove him on, even as the cat's claws wrapped round him and legs kicked at his stomach, causing pain to surge through his body.

But he was used to the beating, and while he wished to run away, he knew it would only be his end. He thought of Alya as he eventually let go of the cat's chest, driven on by nothing but the primal urge to protect his offspring. His body ached, but as one of the cat's gripping paws was taken from him Charon managed to get loose and once more he tried to go for the throat, because he knew nothing about fighting against enemies like these and the throat was the only best bet spot he knew.

A richly sickening satisfaction came from seeing the cat down on its back like this, although Charon's involvement tangled into her deadly claws did quite the opposite. When Ame could, she gnashed at the leg she could get to -- hoping, viciously, that this was making for one less slice to her mate's flesh and one moment less of this foul creature's life. With their domain underfoot and young meant to live in safety here, this would only serve to sharpen every ounce of ferocity between them, honed to a deadly edge that could easily escalate to the point of kill or be killed.

When the cougar kicked out towards her, Ame only ducked partially out of the reach. The smarting sting of claw over her shoulder and side could only barely register at a time like this. Instead what caught her focus was the weight of the cat's movements; this was not a creature responding to them in full, and while she could not make out the entire extent of the damage already done (perhaps by Dash), knowing this made her even bolder by the second.

She saw Charon come free, and renew his bid for the neck so felt these seconds to be very pivotal. To support this, she tried to keep the cat from being able to get up, feeling that if they could keep it down, they could get something critical done between them both. Ame went teeth-first for the cat's soft underbelly after snapping her way up along its leg then hip, and in doing so, was now keeping herself close to the beast where dodging was considerably less feasible. She believed it would move to fend off Charon before anything else. That just may be where she'd have to take advantage and provide the unexpected extra to let them usher this invader away from their lives.

With a mighty roar, Rinn tore herself away from the two wolves, eyes wild and bright as she stumbled back, back, and back. She was outnumbered here, and though she'd been able to take on wolves in the past, she knew that she was in no state to do so now.

"Let me have my kill," she hissed, eyes desperate and hateful in her ruined state.

He felt like they were doing well, but soon both wolves tumbled back. Dash' corpse was revealed when Charon scrambled to his feet, breath blazing and blood running down his chest, his and its. His first reaction was to protect Dash even though he was gone, but he was afraid as he faced the mountain lion that he might end up like his friend. There was little time to think and he spared a glance at Ame to see if she was okay.

It seemed wrong to barter with his friend's body like it was a tool to use, but thinking of his children Charon found himself coldly suggesting: "Only if you never return here. Or we will finish the job." His body was held high and teeth were bared, tail curled over his back. Dash was dead and his body was just a shell of the wolf that he used to know. Charon would've wished to have kept it on this mountain but he also knew that Dash would have wanted to protect the Ostrega children, any means necessary — that much was proven today — and this was his last opportunity to do it.