The excitement Toad was feeling about visiting Yuèlóng after her discussion with @Kukutux was delightful, for she hadn't felt this hopeful about anything for a long time. It was true that Brecheliant was still holding itself in her mind as a viable option if she was unable to find a husband in Moonspear or the Glen, but she just loved the idea of being paired with a powerful man and strengthening the alliance between the coastal pack and the Glen at the same time.

At the same time, she knew that it was all a long shot. Though the fair white maiden had bumped the brown huntress's confidence, she still knew it unlikely that the coastal wolf would find anything in her worth taking as a wife. So, as she wandered, she tried to keep her expectations realistic. The portly woman was hardly a princess to be wed to a prince; she was merely Toad.

It was Keres, strangely, that she nearly bumped into on her way to the borders. The silver woman had something worried and intense on her face, so Toad immediately moved up to her and asked, Keres, are you okay?

To hear her mother's name used for herself felt good from Keres, a woman she greatly respected. Nothing seemed amiss, and the mild worry that Toad had felt of the possibility of something nasty afoot vanished with the pleasant gaze of her pack mate. Toad couldn't help but grin wide and stupid when the guardian asked how she was, for there was much gossip to share.

I'm great! Kukutux and I are going to Yuèlóng to meet a man named Aiolos. Apparently, he is looking for a wife, and apparently, Kukutux thinks I might be a good match, she shared openly, unable or perhaps unwilling to control her excitement over the matter. Keres and Toad were worlds away in their day to day, but she figured that such news might be interesting to the silver woman.

I know that he has a son, Huojin, but the mother didn't stay. Kukutux said he's kind and polite, and high status. I'm a little worried he won't like me, Toad explained, smiling bashfully. The northerner had assured her that she was no mere girl, and that her kindness was an attractive feature. Still, she worried that Aiolos sought what all men preferred — someone as beautiful and elegant as Kuku. Those were features Toad simply did not have.

This month sometime. I wonder if Sialuk will join us, she answered, tail wagging.

Wolf scent.

The earth leaked with its foulness. Yakwahe's nose inhaled sharply, wrinkling with intensity. With heavy paws he strode mindlessly over the border, tunnel vision setting in on the sounds and smells of three. It was the grey one he stalked, the one whose scent was heaviest along the perimeter of this wolf place. The she creature's trail was obvious.

None stopped him because of the groups closeness to their treasured border. Moving up behind and in the trees, no doubt the ones in front of her would see him, but he cared not. Furiously, he charged from the forest, hulking weight pounding against the ground as he reared up behind the grey one and roared, swiping a massive paw at her.

I hope that's true! she answered Keres, feeling her cheeks heat up as she struggled to take the compliment. Kukutux had said something similar, so she assumed it was possibly true? She liked to think of herself as both kind and polite, although she knew that her terseness could offend sometimes. She appreciated the nudge, nipping at Keres lightly.

She nodded, just as Āzon approached her from behind. She looked at him and tilted her head with a, hello, as he cleared his throat. She wondered if he might have business with Keres, but, something else took precedence.

The smell, and then shape, and sound of a grizzly bear came from the trees beyond them, and Toad shouted, KERES!!! in alarm. Immediately, her eyes were wide and all of the fluffy, normally friendly fur on her back stood on end. Fear clutched her heart, but all she could do was stand her ground and hope that her warning was enough.

The scent was undeniable. As soon as the air picked up upon the unfamiliar scent of not wolf, but a fauna in the works, Desdemona was quick to pace down the mountain with a momentum of non-stop running. Her jaded eyes focused ahead and the scent became more and more clear, and the image of a bear was clear within the guards mind. She could hear voices down below in the glen, and quickened as fast as a wolf could possibly go for the help and rescue of any.

But she was far too late, and seeing the early destruction, Desdemona knew there was no time to waste. She could hear the worrying call of others, but she already was high in the air, a tremendous leap with claws out and fangs open wide;

she leapt at the bear in an attack.

The she-thing fell with the grace of a tin can shot by a rifle. He had little time to celebrate this brief victory, however, for as she stumbled to her feet, it was another she-beast that flew at him angrily. With the speed of lightning, she latched onto his front leg. But she was a little thing, and Yakwahe lifted his leg, her attached, and moved to snap his teeth onto her neck or back. Should he succeed, he would pry her away from him completely.

All of these motions shifted his neck up and away from the attacking white thing, who desperately grabbed instead onto his belly. It was so thick with fat, that the teeth felt like a bee sting — a thing he was most accustomed to from fights with the little insects. Little white insect, you will die, he thought.

Desdemona was there in a flash, clearly having detected the animal before any of them had. A split second made her wonder how it had gotten so close to the glen without anyone noticing, but she realized with astonishment the speed at which it charged. There was no time to howl for help, no time to do anything other than help in whatever way she could.

Amelia flew forward, loyally defending her friend and packmate from the horrible beast with snapping jaws, going after the back of its leg the way she would if a moose or deer had attacked. Concern for her own safety was absent as she made her move, fear flooding her senses and adrenaline taking over as Azon attacked.

Many helped to the fray as Keres stood perhaps paralyzed from the momentum, but Desdemona had to fully concentrate on the beast ahead. A wince and a cry yelped from the guard as the teeth burrowed into her fur, pulling and tearing- how much it had hurt. She could not remember another time having such a serious attack, was the mountain as abnormally peaceful at times, she felt her limbs had grown rusty for such an action..

Then she was torn from the bully, but despite the burning and the blood curling from her back, she lept to action moreso. None mattered but the factor where the bear was aiming toward, the bloodlust in the air and Desdemona- throwing herself right to the bears face.

The nipping and biting made him even more angry, a deep and disgusted rage rumbling in his gut as the snow showers blew upon them. The fat one snapped upon his leg, severing a vein that let loose blood quickly. He flung his weight around, swooping toward her, lifting himself, and slamming his gnarled claws in an attempt to fall right onto her if he could.

The skinny one went for his face, and for a moment, her teeth snapped onto the lower part of his jowl, pulling and tearing. The white one tore at his belly, and a wound opened and bled.

With the push from the silver one pushing her mouth onto his belly, Yakwahe flurried his paws at all of them, charging one way, then the other, slicing his paws wide and hard with a fury that mirrored a demon. A monster in spirit, it was Yakwahe had gave bears a bad name, tasting the blood of the wolven lessers on his tongue and finally settling his sights on the little dark one.

He reared, flinging his arms such to displace any attacks they might have tried on his front. Then, he pushed his teeth at the skinny dark thing, closing them shut if he could feel fur, harder than before, hoping to shake the she-thing in a sadist calculation.

Toad tasted blood from the stinking animal into her mouth. She refused to spit, pulling at the wound as a hunter would. But the bear spun to greet her. She felt herself inhale hard as he rose on his hind legs, throwing himself down as she dodged to the side… poorly. He snapped his weight, eight times her own, onto her shoulder, dislocating it and breaking her femur.

She yowled in pain, lucky to be alive from the attack but falling over to her side as she shook in terrible pain. The bear swiped about his front, and his claws swept across her face, ripping apart the side of her snout.

Tears came then as the adrenaline drifted into pure pain, blood pouring from her. She rolled to try to rise, but her shoulder would not allow it. And at that point, she could do nothing else but yowl for help, a sound that dissipated so thinly that none could hear it over the bear's terrible roars.

What she saw could only be described in a one-man slaughter, as the bear terrorized the individuals at the glen and clawed his way to victory. Even upon skilled warriors helping to bring the beast down, they all seemed to be but an ant to his reign as the bear swatted them all and brought his terrible fangs to them..

Unfortunately she was a victim to him. Desdemona struggled and whined as she tried to release from his gripe, the fangs tearing closer into her skin and most importantly, her neck itself. She knew such a precise location would cause in a terrible consequence, and she was desperate to get away. Not only for her own survival, but the guard knew if she were to fall in this instance, there would less wolves to battle in the situation at hand.. To the wolves she vowed to protect, she needed to escape.

Yet, Desdemona in her powess could not.

As the bear shook her with such a force, there was an audible SNAP that rung out.. And she grew limp.

Jaded eyes staring out in a lifeless void.

Once more the satisfaction of his felled opponents did not last long, for the snap of the little one and the break of the fat one enraged the lesser wolves. The silver one aimed at his face, snapping her foul teeth onto his thick, rolling neck. He charged toward the white one with her attached to him, for the white thing had been thrown but went for him yet again.

The white thing's jaws let loose on his armpit, and it hurt, and blood leaked from his wounds. Then he was a bear coated in comparatively tiny cuts, red stains blotching a filthy coat as Yakwahe finally aimed his mouth at the silver one on his neck.

He should have run, perhaps, but the rage blinded him. He hated these stupid dog beasts. And so he snapped toward the silver one hard to rip her from him and the world around her, eyes dilated in a murderous stare as he roared with fury.

Though darkness threatened to set in from sheer pain, Toad refused to go down without a real fight. She at last managed to lift her front half by putting all of her weight on her working shoulder, her other leg falling loosely under her. Her tail had also somehow broken at the end, but the pain of her face was what she felt the most as blood poured into her working eye.

With half a face she dragged herself toward the bear, just as Desdemona's body snapped and the monster shook her into the afterlife. Des, she tried to shout, but liquid was in her throat and lungs. This was all just a bad dream. A nightmare she would wake from any moment.

She saw the vague shapes of Azon fighting hard and Keres in a fit, but the bear's terrible sounds shook her ears. Feebly she tried to snap at him, but her teeth hit nothing but air as she wobbled on three legs.