Morning dawned with a light frost accompanied by a heavy mist, creating swirling shikigami that danced and clawed at his flanks before the sun rose to feast. And feast he must too.
"Orobashi, you fool." The spirit was weak, but it hungered. A clack of his teeth and Orobashi had made a decision.
The vessel slunk where the scent of pack wolves was weakest, tongue flicking snake-like to taste the air for caches. The stink of carrion was hard to miss - he began to dig. Emerging brown-nosed and wide-eyed, a goats leg clutched between his teeth, the ghost turned to make a beeline back the way he had come.
Hunting was certainly a suitable endeavor to help Masquerade work out some of their tumultuous energy. They gathered two of their younger siblings to help chase pigs on the north side of the rise. Their reward was a scrawny yearling living—dying, now—on the outskirts of the herd. Rejected by his brethren, he would fulfill more purpose as a meal for the wolves.
After feeding heartily on the kill, the Ulfr dispatched the two youngsters to particular caches with the leftovers, then made their way to one a bit more further away, near a stretch of borders. As they strode toward the destination, they caught a flash of movement ahead. Mistaking the stranger for one of the rise’s paler members at first, his furtive behavior and hasty retreat soon raised the alarm in Masque’s mind.
The meat fell from their mouth as they let out a loud warning cry that said, "Intruder!" With a snarl on their breath, they then galloped after the thief.
An alarm in the distance but getting closer by the second. It was only a matter of time before Orobashi was discovered, and it seemed that time had come sooner than he anticipated.
Ears flat and spine bristling, the vessel had another decision to make, and quick. Should he keep the leg he risked the fury of whomever was closing in, for the anger in their voice was sure to bring hellfire. In the end it was hunger that won.
Driven by the primal urge to feed himself and the spirit, Orobashi dug his heels into the dirt and sprinted the best he could with his prize in tow - a silent prayer uttered to the gods in his retreat.
the roar upon the wind belonged to augur.
he struck for the man broadside, meaning to cut off escape.
to trespass was one thing; to steal meat from the mouths of the redtail wolves was another.
he snapped upon any part of flesh that could be reached.
with an aggressive snarl, sunrise is quick to fall into the line of action and come galloping toward the sound of Bloodspot's alarm cry. the stench of the intruder fills her nose and the young guardian aims to cut off the stranger from escaping from the rise as she approaches from the wide flanks.
however, her father was already upon him, and so Sunrise too would join the struggle. although inexperienced, she dives in with her teeth unsheathed and aims for a chunk of flesh to find itself between her teeth. her father's presence only ignites the fire beneath.
Regret was something seldom experienced by the vessel, yet it is only anger that rises in his chest as the stormcloud rushes his periphery and collides with his flank in a flurry of teeth and fury. A yelp of pain and the leg falls from his grasp as he spins to meet his attacker, but it is the arrival of a second, smaller pursuer that prevents his teeth finding purchase.
Body shaking with rage, Orobashi feels her jaws close around his scruff. With a growl, he shakes the man off feeling his hip tear painfully and turns his attention to the young girl. Surging upwards, he hopes to dislodge her grip and disorientate her.
"They won't get away with this!"
Fuelled by the spirit's words, he aims for her throat, forgetting the man momentarily in his urge to hurt.
Two more pale figures appeared, these ones immediately familiar and welcome. Ahead of them, Masquerade saw Augur and his daughter fling themselves at the interloper’s flanks. The three clashed in a flurry of snarls. The Ulfr’s own charge didn’t slow.
Once, they might’ve hesitated or held back entirely. But today, Masquerade didn’t even think twice about leaping right into the middle of the fray. They saw the thief drop his contraband and aim his teeth at Sunrise’s throat. Masque saw red. A terrible noise tore out of them as they unsheathed their fangs and tried to strike right at the trespasser’s jugular.
Can we please maintain a posting order so nobody gets skipped? After my post, it should be Augur, Sunrise, then Orobashi. Thanks! :)
flame stalker was here.
her growls rent the air. his snarls supported her tone.
to see the stranger cut for his child infuriated augur, setting him murderously. large paws raised to press, to choke.
whether his aim was true belonged to chance.
sunrise may have never known how much she was loved until this moment.
the stranger comes for her throat, and for a moment it feels as if everything slows in the moment. she can see his approach, ivories unsheathed as father and bloodspot come to her rescue. but they'd never reach her in time. she would be on her own to die if that was the path she let herself succumb to. but what of mother, father, sister? of everyone in the rise?
think think think -- no, act!
in perhaps a last moment of escaping the death grip, sunrise dips at the last moment but feels the teeth scrape and rip open a wound. the side bleeds, but no jugular is clipped. sunrise sees the chance to escape. and perhaps for her safety, she was supposed to take the opportunity.
but there is too much fight within her, so sunrise does not turn away. instead, she comes to change tactics and tries to slam him off balance, finding him too hard to try and grip at the angle she contorted herself into. hopefully, it would be enough to slow him down, as the prized leg was already lost.
sorry if i skipped anyone, thank you all for joining and whumping my boy so early hehe
Unintentional as it was, it is the pale girl's attempt to slow his retreat that ultimately saves his life. Her blood sprays from his jowls as his teeth rake across her neck, coming away with nothing but a few tufts of stained-pink fur as the vessel's steps falter briefly. Whale-eyed, Orobashi twists back to finish the job, but it is just enough movement for the red-masked boy to sail past his jugular and connect fangs with shoulder, the sharp pinch of canines piercing flesh joining the ache in his hip.
Orobashi's bellows join the din as jaws snap towards red-mask's closest appendage, fury and pain and hunger urging him to taste blood once more. But he was tiring; an empty belly may spark the fire but, without the muscle mass to maintain it, those flames would soon be dulled.
A heavy pressure on his neck sends him spinning into the dirt and the world goes grey. Ears ringing, he sees the
shikigami grinning terribly, the cries of his attackers morphing into laughter. It is not until his vision clears and the
shikigami's face shifts to that of the stormcloud's that Orobashi's instincts resurge. Sides heaving with the effort, claws scrabble for purchase on the man's belly as he seeks to loosen his chokehold.
He would not die today.
He would not let it win.
The odds were heavily stacked in the rise’s favor, yet their target was like an eel: prickly, slippery and ceaselessly writhing. He moved so quickly, the Ulfr’s bite went very wide. Rather than tear into the soft flesh of his throat, the firm meat of his shoulder blunted their fangs.
He quickly whipped his head around and snapped toward one of their forelimbs. Without thinking, Masque thrust their snout into his path to block his attack. This time, they were a little too successful. The wolves’ skulls crashed together, the blow landing at just the wrong angle.
Masque dropped hard and fast, knocked out cold and quite likely trampled by the three other fighters in the ongoing commotion.
You can now skip Masque. :)
The cry was faint- and distant, but Lilia heard it.
She bolted from the borders she'd been patrolling, crashing through drying leaves and over patches of wet, muddy earth to rise to the summons, hoping that other guardians in the area might be able to come and defend their territory in the time it took for her to cross through the Rise. She heard the bugle of Augur, and felt relieved that the capable guardian had come to Masque's cry and as she approached, she heard the growling and snarling of Sunrise as well.
She caught sight of them just in time to see Masque collide with the trespasser head-on and crumple to the ground like a puppet cut loose from its strings. It appeared as though Augur had the stranger pinned, though he scrabbled with claws and Lilia knew that at this point, surrounded, his only option for survival would be to flee- but he wouldn't be given an easy opportunity to do so.
The Berserkr closed in, forcing herself into the fray so that she might use her frame to get between the fallen form of Masque and the others, and made a grab for the back of the man's neck, hoping for a chance to immobilize the thief so he could be properly reprimanded.
the interloper was quick despite his outnumbered nature.
had moon runner not been present, augur might have tempered his attacks.
however, the stranger had slashed directly for his daughter.
when thorn caller dropped, augur bulled his way forward, meaning to strike the trespasser broadside while corralling the young wolf's unconscious body between his forelegs.
there was a moment between his jaws and wolverine's where hapless boys might beat a hapless retreat.
it was a blur, perhaps because of the motion and excitement, or the blood that gushed from sunrise's wound. akin to the face bleeding profusely, the neck was perhaps a lucky flesh wound that would not leave her permanent damage but just looked awful. however, she could feel herself growing slightly disoriented in the mass of clashing teeth and growls.
bloodspot fell, though it appeared she didn't bleed strangely enough. with a spinning head, sunrise comes to pull back and attempt to jostle masque awake with feverish bumps of her muzzle. the sight of breathing would be enough for the youth to know she lives, simply unconscious.
whining, bleeding, out of breath, she comes to watch as the others continue their tumble. perhaps a cowardly move to leave the brawl, but what use would she be if she was near passing out herself? a few deep breaths, she steadies herself as she comes to take a few paces away from the beloved caru, hackles raised and ready to cut off a retreat should the man be able to wiggle out of this death grip.
and through it all, she hopes he is killed.
NS is skippable—here to defend daughter!
New Snow, too, late on the scene—she arrived with a terrible snarl loosing from her throat as she saw her daughter, bloodied. She battled between the desire to kill him, and protect her—
It was Mountain Boulder that decided for them. She was grateful for him, and motivated him with another snarl that commanded he repay the debt ten times over if he could. New Snow stood before her daughter, and the Caru, a bristling barrier—the hunted man would find no weak spot in the girls, not without facing the mother first.
But she did not think he would even get past the father.
His head spun. The collision with red-mask had made sure that his thoughts remained fuzzy and unclear. Through the haze, he was vaguely aware of the stormcloud's retreat; face pressed into the mud, more shapes arrived around the crumpled wolf. Amongst them, the girl, blood-soaked and pitiful, but alive. In that moment he wanted nothing more than to see her suffer as he had, to see her starving and withered form crushed beneath his teeth.
But they continued to come, stormcloud and two others obscuring his view of her, and there it was - the light at the end of the tunnel. A small window of escape that, should he wait a moment more, would surely end in his death. Fur caked in a slurry of red dirt, the vessel gathers the last of his energy and makes to slip between snapping jaws. The love of a family had saved her for now, as that split second had saved him too.
Oro out! hope this is okay <3 thank you all for joining, feel free to fade now if you wish <3
They swarmed, and the pale stranger had come to them and had fallen deep into a spider's web full of protective spiders on the ready. A gap between them gave him a chance for life and he took it- with Lilia crashing after his heels. Her harrying cries would follow after him, fading into the distance for some time, ensuring that the stranger was driven far from their territory.
She would not reach him- fear lent speed to his step, and eventually she would lose sight of him and turn back. She would return, eventually, and resume her patrol so that such a thing might not happen again so soon.
last for me! <3
with wolverine he would run.
the stranger would be terrified and driven out. only a fool would return to confront the strong teeth of such a well-guarded land.
when the berserkr slowed and returned to wind the borders, augur followed some distance behind, reinforcing her marks with his own until the entirety of the redtail territory was odorous with their pride and their number.
Masquerade came to with a jolt, their head lifting and sending a horrible lightning bolt of agony through their skull. Their instincts compelled them to get off the ground despite the pain. Eyes squinted and ears flat against their head, they stumbled to their feet and tried to assess their surroundings.
Augur, Lilia and the interloper were nowhere to be seen. Was Sunrise still with them? They tried to look for her, though they were nearly blind with the pain. Masque searched for her with their nose and thought they smelled New Snow.
With or without help, they could not remain here near the borders. Seeking sanctuary, Masquerade began stumbling deeper into the territory.
New Snow would help both daughter and Blood Spot. It was with them she quit the scene, a shield should the menace return. She trusted her man and her other daughter—and the Rise—to take care of the rest.
last from me!