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+--- Thread: Moonspear I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest (/showthread.php?tid=35095)
I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Charon - June 11, 2019
@Amekaze first, then all welcome!
Wind rustled through the ivory fur of the scarred beast that lay beside the Spear's borders. After the initial fall his jaw had broken Amekaze's first fall at least partly, leaving teeth scattered across the mountainside and an ugly splash of blood upon its rocks. Further along his tumble he had eventually let go of her chest, unable to hold on any longer as consciousness drifted away. He fell for an eternity, it felt, the King -- his crown ripped from his head and fallen from his throne. But it wasn't actually that long. It just felt long in these moments.
His last thoughts were -- They should remember me as I was before this, and I love you and This mountain will always be mine. Oh, how dearly he loved his family, his beautiful family.
His Amekaze, the love of his life. Not the love that had made him happy, and so their fall was symbolic to everything they had always given each other -- enabling, driven by pride, violent, refusing to back down -- yet she had always been a mate he was proud of. Proud to have by his side, the only one in the world worthy to stand there. She was the love of his life and so it was only suiting that he break a few of her falls as they fell down, his thoughts dominated by her most of all.
@Hydra, his prize daughter. The culmination of his love for Amekaze; smart, cunning, strong. He had raised her well. Too well, perhaps, but she would do well in this world. Even if her mate @Dirge was still a worthless piece of shit in his mind. She could do better. She'd do better. She would make a great Queen for this mountain, he was sure of that. @Lyra and @Alya would stand by her side and together the three of them would be invincible, as they always had been. Three parts of a whole, and the daughters that he was the proudest of. His biggest achievement in this life.
@Korei Julia, not as accomplished perhaps but over time he had grown to miss her nonetheless. He had wanted to make up, but now it was too late; he would never get to tell her how much he loved her, despite all the harsh words he had given her in her life.
@Vela, his mini-me, most spoiled, most deservedly spoiled. Oh, how he wished he could have seen her grow up further. He referred not being able to now. Hopefully @Jarilo would not remember him for the last month, but for the advice in love and for the strong lessons he had taught his first son.
And what would become of poor @Arcturus now? Charon wanted to look after his son, willed him not to become like Julia, but this past month had been tough. It was always hard to tell what went on in his head. Charon wished his son would not blame Hydra for his parents' downfall, for it was their own doing in the end, and she needed all the help she could get here now. If only @Revui was still here to support them all, the strong, stalwart warrior who had only just risen in the ranks to be Beta.
@Yama might sit in her hideout and smile thinking of him, he hoped, and his heart ached to think her sensitivity might drive her away from the others eventually, like it had Julia. He hoped it would not. Perhaps some day she would meet her counterpart @Yami and they'd be whole again, these two halves of a whole.
Oh, @Speedy, how he should have told her to run when she had that clever idea. His only hope was them to allow her to live so that they may have a last reminder of him, but what laughable thoughts those were. Wherever she might go, he wished for his children to live so that his legacy may live on somewhere, in some form. He hoped she'd tell them of their brave and strong father and how he had almost climbed all the way up to the stars.
And the same went for his grandchildren. Oh, how he longed to have touched them, held them, played with them. Hydra had asked it of him, but now he would never be able to.
@Maia, his future Queen. When Amekaze would no longer be there, she would stand beside him. Oh, how happy she made him. How he loved her in a passionate and crazy way that frightened him and made him feel alive. Terrifying, and now he would never get to see her again.
If only he had been able to make up with @Wildfire, or see @Floki again. If only @Potema, his childhood friend and so much more, had been there around him in the days. More faces flashed by, lost in the crowd -- Pyx, Satin (@Slavik), Scarlett, Blythe, Levi, Thistle, Osprey, his dear Osprey, even her stubborn daughter Wraen, Barf face...
And now he lay here, Amekaze draped over him, on the mountainside. One last fall broken. Silent payback: For all the times he had lied to her face and cheated her, even if it was out of love. For dragging her along down the mountainside on this path of destruction. Half his face was ripped to shreds and many of his bones were broken, but he felt no pain. One last sigh was uttered before Charon's broken body stilled by the bottom of his Moonspear -- their Moonspear -- and his eyes, one good and one glossed over, stared into the empty space ahead. Who knew if he was truly among the stars now among his ancestors and deceased friends -- and Galaxy -- like he always imagined he would.
The wind swept through ivory fur of the beast that looked like the great King, but the lights were all off now.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Amekaze - June 12, 2019
Victories were reserved for those that pay the price, and after that, there was nothing left for her to feel anymore. Amekaze didn't need to, she decided somewhere along the way. Every time she chanced her perceptions outward, nothing good awaited, so it may as well stay as absence to her.
So it seemed, anyway, as quiet returned now that she had finally stilled at the bottom of their descent. It took some time to set in, after all. She could still hear the fall, but somehow, not quite the impacts yet. She didn't need to, for her bruised and battered body told the tale, to every skinned spot of flesh to every broken bone. Merciless, but sweet to her tastes of course. The dark alpha had never found a foe quite like that, and she should have known it would take him to help her.
With it all came a very certain sort of acceptance, unfamiliar, but she sensed enough to welcome its eerily calming presence. Weakly she looked to him when she could force open her tired eyes to behold his face broken and body torn more than she had ever known. Her bleary thoughts made her realize that most likely, that this was the only way he had come undone from her: literally by smashing his grip apart, and, that he had taken the impacts even worse--all of this was her doing, with a little help from their home--but not once did she feel regret. Everywhere, she had burned, and she couldn't lift her head enough to look at her chest, or see the back of her neck. She felt it vaguely only enough, how messy and torn it must be with every shallow breath she could chance her blood only oozed more.
Struggling, even in silent stillness, she remained with him with her head rested familiarly on his neck. I meant it all, she willed him to know as she could only stay. The good, the bad, everything in between. From the young wolf hardly more than a whelp she had met on the beach once, to the wounded warrior in the mountains, to the accomplice to her crimes, to the father of her magnificent daughters and sons, to all the moments just spent with him--playing, patrolling, hunting, in the caves, at the waterfall, every last moment she could choke the memory of, all testament to what he had given her that was worth living for. Everything I ever said.. and did not say.
She believed absolutely that he had always known, short of these recent moons (where she wondered often what had gone awry in him?), and that was only another piece of what had made him so special to her; a bright light when her days got too dim, and always, not that she had ever been able to tell him outright until now as pain ripped over her every inch:
I love you,she whispered into his fur whether or not he would hear, but hopefully he would have always felt it. His radiance had meant so much and now, her thread was tenuous. We were never meant to be but together..
The greatest star.. in my skies,she choked pitifully then heaved a big painful sigh, her body protesting any effort at all.. but, she had no other choice. For him, and for theirs (--their offspring! which, where were they now?), it was the best that she could do now that the edges of her consciousness were blurring away into darkness and she finally had no more fight left in her, approaching peace, too.
;__________________________;
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Arcturus - June 12, 2019
many things arcturus had seen tumble from the inhospitable and celestial reach of the mountain. rocks, stones, once a fallen, smoldering star. and never in his life did he expect to see two shapes hurtling like meteors from the spear’s desolate summit; two irreconcilably familiar shapes that caused his world entire to crash down around him.
his wavering gaze followed their crashing descent, watching as their bodies threw down like furious spears — watching as their bodies dismantled and thudded and split apart, finally coming to rest in bloodied tatters on a rocky and barren shore.
he ran as he had never before; no no no no no his mind cried in tandem with his rising heartbeat; good god, please no —
and he came upon them both, strewn and bloodied and gone. the once tall, impressive stature of his father crumpled and distorted, his muzzle crushed and bloodied with his singular eye closed forever. alongside charon draped the dark form of arcturus’ mother, and it was here a choking despair seized the moonspearian boy. her once-sleek pelt was obscenely matted by blood with dust clinging, profane and wrong, against what had always been a glossy and flawless pelt. arcturus’ head swam, his tongue and mouth run dry;
mom,he choked, at once both loathe and desperate to nudge her devastated form; god, if he touched her one more time, would her form crumble and wither away? she was so broken already.
amekaze did not move as arcturus nudged her bloodied muzzle, those tranquil and knowing fern-green eyes empty and gone; her bruised body unrepairable beyond measure. ::mom, please.:: he cried, placing both paws against her shattered shoulders in a heave that resulted in nothing but a limp lull against the stone.
still amekaze did not stir. still, the dust settled around them and somewhere the clatter of a single disturbed stone begun its irreversible descent down the slope.
he turned to his father, the one wolf he could always count on to make it right — to fix the unfixable, assail the unassailable.. dad please, mom won’t get up and oh god i don’t — dad, help— yet no help came from the beaten patriarch, whose body had suffered assault and abuse beyond measure. despair crept into arcturus’ quivering bones, icing his very marrow with a deep and unsettling unhappiness. he felt the first sting of tears and did not even register it — from that moment, charon’s boy wept freely.
he could not bring himself to think it; they were not dead, no, they were not dead they were not dead — they’d get up, they’d fight it .. they were strong and they were always there for him and they’d be for him now.. they’d get up eventually and shake the dust from their hide and years down the road they would all come together and laugh about it..
but that was not reality, and was a world that would never happen. they were gone. two black and white bodies curled around the other’s battered half; devotion and infidelity, violence and tranquility, ying and yang — two souls that hung on the balance, and now, were gone forever.
who could arcturus go to, now? his two best friends, his parents — they had gone together and left him here. their lives were stolen by the ruthless greed of gravity and stone alike. they were not coming back. what cruel stroke of luck was this, to not just lose his mother, but his father too? arcturus felt darkness cloud his vision, black spots shimmering like the scintillating edge of a pool. his legs were suddenly shaky, his breath ragged — he wished a thousand times it was him sitting in his own pool of blood, his body cracked — not them, please not them.
he could look upon that ruined scene no longer. he closed his eyes shut and willed it be anything but what he had just saw; when he opened his eyes again, there they were — their bodies battered and broken still, yet nestled to one another as if clinging still to their mates even as the life was beaten from them.
somehow, their dissolution had been their absolution, but arcturus felt nothing but the keening blade of heartbreak.
arcturus looked upwards, towards the insensate and blasted slope. his sunny gaze was uncomprehending, his features stricken in unending grief — of what manner of dark turn was this, what transpired on that peak above that would rent his parents apart and send them spiraling to a cold and uncompromising death? he searched for hydra - for dirge — for he could not for one moment fathom his parents had leapt to their deaths willingly.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Hydra - June 12, 2019
Hydra, @Lyra, and @Jarilo each had chased Speedy from the reaches of Moonspear. While normally Hydra would follow her well beyond the borders, her pregnancy bid her to pause only a short distance from home and she barked a command to her brother and sister to stop as well. She needed them both to escort her home, given her pregnancy. She moved to nip them both in fond thanks, pausing when a peculiar scent that was both blood, bear, and @Revui registered. Her ears pricked and a line of concern knit into her features. Upon further investigation, she could smell @Arcturus, too. Hydra threw up her head and called for them both, though the scent of Revui was a bit older than her inky brothers. There was no urgency to the note, but there was much to discuss now—
More than even she knew.
The urgency in which she returned home was due to her state of pregnancy more than anything else, but she was thankful for that when more blood came to her on the wind. At that, Hydra did not so much as look at her siblings as she threw herself into a headlong sprint. There was too much of it. She could feel sickness rise in her throat, but she swallowed it; there was not the time for it. Hydra licked away the remnants of Speedy on her own lips as she bridged the gap between them and her parents.
The second to find them was their self-proclaimed favorite. There was no stopping Hydra once she did discover them, bloodied and beaten by one another, by the mountain. No, was her first thought; she did not even know how she had come to be between them, but there she was. Her eyes first fell to her father, and she noted the unnatural stillness to his form, and aloud this time, she said:
No.Adamant refusal to the cold fact that rest before her.
And then her gaze turned toward her mother. Still breathing. Still living.
Lyra! Can anything stop the bleeding?She demanded, noting the rate at which her mothers own blood was leaving her. Alarming. But she still lived. Was there still a chance? Hydra threw up her head and cried for her family, this time a demand and command booming in the note as never before, even for those that she imagined would not hear it (@Alya and @Vela). She looked back down to her mother, the shallow breathing just so, and her tail lifted above her hindquarters as befiit her new rank—her parents last gift to her, while they breathed—and commanded:
survive. Live!Her mother was the strongest fighter she knew, she had to fight this, beat this—
Hydra felt her limbs give, but not entirely, and then she lay between them, long, simpering, low notes coming from her.
I will do anything,she bargained in a whisper, her nose extending to touch against the still-warm muzzle of her father, and her mother, as she rest in between the comfort of them.
Tell me what to do,she said next, placating, ears flat atop her head.
You cannot go. You cannot leave us,she pressed again, wriggling closer and continuing to whine.
They had been there for her, the two of them, every single step of the way. Guided her, taught her—gave her the world. A world without them, a life without them... she could not imagine it, did not want to think of it, or face it.
Please,she begged, near-breaking with the thought. She would do anything, anything at all, and her mind raced through the possibilities, a whirlwind of the things she could do.
Your grandchildren...they needed her, too, but selfishly,
I need you,her first cubs... she had always envisioned her parents there to hold and love them, cherish and spoil them—
Charon was dead, she understood, but the terrible hope that her mother might not be, might somehow be able to survive despite the seeming impossibility of it outlined before her, was a cruel thread she clung to. Her eyes did not leave her mother as she hoarsely croaked,
Lyra!? Tell her, tell her she will live,tell me! Tell me everything will be alright!
Her gaze did lift this time, to Arcturus, seeing him there suddenly; had he been here all this time? Hydra acknowledged him with a blink, and summoned every ounce of strength she had in herself to find some measure of composure. She was still needed, too, after all, and she understood her mother might not make it but she dared to hope that she may. Hydra could not make sense of the occurrence any more than he could; the end was untimely and did not make sense, but she knew one thing for certain, the only thing that did make sense... but while her mother lived and breathed, she would not speak it, and she stilled her tongue for now, gaze falling back to her mother.
Even still, acceptance had yet to find Hydra. Sadness encompassed her, for now, and denial mingled with it so long as her mother drew breath.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Jarilo - June 12, 2019
Fresh from the last trail Speedy cut fleeing their mountain's slopes, he hung close to Hydra's side as a protective, willing shadow after she had called him back from the pursuit. He beamed quietly in her praise, and relished the energy spent. They had done what they needed to, he believed, although he acted solely on his sister's whims, passed down to her from the matriarch most likely in part--and he was remarkably at ease as a weapon for their cause.
With Lyra opposite him and his ears up tall, they began their move back home--so a soft worry was returning with the face of the Spear ahead them. He guessed they might return to their mother next, for he knew Hydra had been with her prior, and that Dad had called for her earlier sometime. Jarilo couldn't paint the whole picture, but he had come to suspect based on what he knew now that this was all the plan of the women he followed--that Ame would keep Charon busy, occupied somehow so he couldn't interfere, while Hydra set out and ousted the root of the issue. With that done, now all that remained was seeing how mother had fared on her half of the business, and he trusted that she had.
But he smelled blood, and not prey's blood. First.. there was an unknown, like.. a bear? Hydra's howl for the brothers made his head spin--what else was going on here? Was more going on than he had imagined? That wasn't all, that definitely wasn't it. As they kept going, he breathed in worse and she was off like a bolt of lightning after, and he was with her in his very next instant, soaring his longest strides over the paths to what awaited until he could finally see.
He staggered like he had been struck, eyes blown wide and fear coursing so powerfully that he forgot to surface for air until he had to with a gasp. A gruesome, awful scene lay before them, and processing it came with such a real panic that he had never faced, and not even close. He still followed after Hydra on some instinctive autopilot, and registered Arcturus' presence along the way. Worst of all, he could slowly understand, though had not seen it transpire; their coats were dirtied, bloodied, down here.. he could scarcely tell where one began, one ended, if not for their contrasting light and dark. His father's face was torn apart, her wounds more grievous than he could even see for she had pressed them against him, both battered far worse than he could even imagine possible. It all dawned on him slow, but true.
Mama..he whimpered, suffocating on his cold fear as his eyes raked desperately over them, wishing it would all go away and they would be like they had been.
Dad..!!he whined as his eyes welled straight to tears and his posture went wilting as he came to them hesitant, like if maybe he didn't disturb them, this wouldn't be real. When he reached them, he crumbled next to his fallen parents, wherever he could be despite the blood and the horror just to feel them both still with him like it always had been.
To the grayscale son, it was unusual to find them together lately, no less shaped like this. His father had been near the focal point of all their chaos lately, making him uneasy. His mother had been barbed in these recent weeks too.. he had seen it firsthand, and had been right to carefully chance her company whenever he could as he had felt something wrong. Now he knew why, but that had always been his lifetime: an annoying pest of such curious reverence that she had begrudgingly learned to tolerate more for all of his persistence because he was hers to shape before all else. In his upbringing, where Vela had taken their father's favor first for her obvious reasons with one look at her, Jarilo had naturally veered towards their dark mother even harder when their littermates were gone too--eager to please, and wanting for her company, it had always kept him in line even when she cracked the whip at him, too. She taught him much. They both did, lessons he used daily, would carry forward into the future, and now, without them to guide him... how to... fathom it?
He always knew them poised and proud, wolves befitting their mettle, with equal measures of darkly humored quips and wild power that he had admired them so unconditionally from his earliest, most clear memories. They had been different, two balancing forces, and yet he always knew together they were absolute--nothing else like it. They were always there, the world from which he had sprung from and been nurtured by.. and now, circumstance saw to it that maybe, that was all.
Their first son's entirely body quivered, and it escalated quickly to a quake now that his legs no longer had to stand up beneath him. Mutely he heard Hydra plead for their mother's life, and oh how he wanted it too, hence the fear and echoing her sentiments, though he couldn't say so. Could they help? Was it their place to? Matters between those two were final--to the boy in him, acts on par with whatever heavenly gods oversaw this lifetime. As he looked to his father, then his mother, his gut twisted and all of him shook, alive with grief, confusion, and downright terror for what was meant to come after this. What else? What could be worse? What could be done, and was there anything left? He didn't know what to do besides ache.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Vela - June 12, 2019
![[Image: tenor.gif?itemid=7853050]](https://media1.tenor.com/images/e9543f53e33e7d0baa8af7d324adcfe6/tenor.gif?itemid=7853050)
Vela had been gone since spring started, now in the mid of summer, she felt the longing to go home to her family. She had been roaming far past the hinterlands but knew that she would always return to her family. Naturally, she missed her father the most out of all her loved ones. Though, she often caught herself thinking that Jarilo, her mother, Hydra, and her other siblings were doing. On the other hand, it felt great to be in a place where she wasn't Charon's daughter. She could just be who she wanted to be. She felt that in Teekon her father's reach was endless and that all the wolves she knew had some sort of fight with her father. If they were on bad terms with her father Vela felt often conflicted if she should feel the same way about them.
After months of anonymity, she decided to shed that cloak and return to the wilds she knew. There was an excited bounce in her step that looked to be conflicting with her dutiful and stoic nature. She ran for miles just to get to see her mountain home once more. Eager to tell them about her travels and what she encountered. It was perhaps the most excited she had ever been in her life. Just thinking of her father's reaction made her happy. The speckled female slowed down once she was seeing the hinterlands mountain range with behind that her home mountain. The final stretch. She could feel the tiredness in her legs and decided to continue on a steady trot.
That was when she heard a faint but desperate cry for family. Vela's heart sank, this sounded like... Hydra. Vela instantly sprinted forward, her heart hammering in her throat. The newfound spurt of adrenaline helped her and her tired legs to keep a fast pace. The girl had trouble with the steep path's of the Barrier Mountains as she was so tired. Vela stumbled almost falling down, deciding that a steady trot would be better. She howled towards Moonspear. 'I'm coming! I'm coming'. Then it hit her, what if there was something with her father? What if she wasn't able to say goodbye to him? Vela's heart stuttered with that thought and pushed herself forward towards Moonspear.
She went off automatic pilot when the scents of Moonspear were hitting her nose. Vela howled once more to her family. She was here. Where were they? She felt comfort within smelling her father, her family. It didn't take long for the female to locate them. It didn't matter that she wasn't part of this pack yet especially with the sight that came into her vision. Her father was on the ground!! Vela stumbled forward towards the group surrounding her mother and father. "Dad!!," she keened. Her eyes tearing up as she came closer. Her legs gave out the moment she reached her father. She could almost not recognize him, that was how broken he looked. "Papa, no," she sniffled and nudged him. She glanced over at her mother's still body. "Mom! What?," she whined and tried to push her father to his feet with her nose.
This had to be a sick prank. "No!!," she wailed. Vela's wailing echoed through the mountains. She should never have left. She could never say goodbye to her father. She couldn't tell him how much she loved him. She couldn't even let her mother know that she appreciated her. "Get up! Get up!," she snarled between her wails. She had registered that her siblings were around her but this was no time to greet them. There was only one question. "What happened?!," she called out to no one in particular. Then her watery blue eyes fell on Hydra. Her big sister. But even she seemed in shock. "What happened!!," she cried out once more.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Dirge - June 12, 2019
The scene he came upon was a grisly one.
At first, the details of how and why remained a mystery firm and with great depth. The acrid scent of blood was overpowering, the tangled and twisted mass of two separate bodies so catastrophic that he could not tear his eyes away in spite of wishing he could. Hydra's summons had drawn him steadily though he was not among the second or third to bear witness to such devastation. The emotion that he felt was residual, pulled onto him by the weeping and mourning. Dirge was no stranger to death, being a hunter, but this was leagues away from a satisfactory kill.
He gazed upon their bodies and found that he felt a certain emotion that he could not place a name to. It was not a feeling of emptiness that imbued him, nor sorrow that came to set in his bones which felt weary. Disappointment, perhaps, he thought it was. A disappointment that things would not see themselves through, that somehow it had been easier to hurl themselves into a violent dance that surely ended in tragedy than triumph.
His ears folded back, resting neatly against the curve of his head. He pried his gaze away from the scene to take stock of the others that had gathered; such a gaze lighted on Vela for some length to place her before he realized that she had been gone all this time, and what a ghastly opportunity it was for her to return. He did not find Revui among them yet and wondered what had become of the boy, but in the midst of all the chaos that had been quietly ensuing on Charon's return, did not realize that he would not be there.
It was Hydra who he set his gaze on finally and gently made his way towards. The hoarseness of her ushering to Lyra promoted sympathy in him and once again he looked upon the leading pair with dismay—it did not seem there was anything they could do to revive Charon, let alone save Amekaze. Though he wished it true for the latter, he was not foolish to pursue it even if he had the ability. A soft whine escaped him; there were more questions than answers here if there was anything at all.
Brushing against Hydra's ear with his muzzle, he felt her still for reasons other than his presence there. Where words would have normally sufficed to render the situation in his favor, he was silent. There was nothing he could do to salvage it, nothing he could find that would somehow light the darkening valley left by death's strange and cruel hand. There was nothing more to do; he focused on her over it all. He hoped instead that somehow he being there would be enough.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Lyra - June 13, 2019
She watched as Speedy fled from their home and their teeth, from the mistakes she had made. Mistakes she now carried within her. There was a certain sort of disappointment Lyra felt as the girl's form slowly become a distant speck. As if there was unfinished business. She wanted more. Alas, the chase seemed to have satisfied Hydra enough, for her sister gave the command and both Lyra and Jarilo halted, returning to the Beta dutifully. What awaited them back inside the borders none could have guessed.
The first hint of something wrong was the faintest of smells — blood, a bear, and Revui. It was old but it was enough to unsettle Lyra; she turned to Hydra who had sent up a call just as another wave of scents hit them. Blood. More of it. Too much. Her sister suddenly broke into an all out sprint, closely followed by herself and Jarilo. She had never run faster in her life.
The scene they came upon almost made Lyra retch. At first she didn't recognise them, she didn't want to recognise them. Two shapes, battered and bloodied and so utterly broken lay at the foot of their all at once grand, powerful, and terrible mountain. Their home. Their claim that had so readily, so easily spilled the blood of its rulers. Lyra mouthed a silent no as her mirror image exclaimed the word, rushing forward. She stayed locked in place, only vaguely aware of the others who had already been drawn to the scene. Her brothers and sisters, entirely ignored in favour of the two who she now focused on. Her mother and father.
Dead.
They couldn't be. Not her father, not Charon, the proud, strong patriarch of Moonspear who had not once faltered in his stride. He had been beaten down time and time again but rose to face each challenge with bloodied teeth and a stubborn grin. A grin that had been cruelly twisted and crushed by gravity itself. A fall he would never rise from again. Slowly, Lyra tore her eyes from the battered form of her father to her mother, and she felt the first of many tears begin to prick at her eyes. Not her mother. Graceful even in death, she was poignantly draped across her mate's body, blood soaked and still. The dark spires of her hackles raised as if she taunted death itself. Amekaze had always flirted with the prospect, but never once did Lyra imagine she would lose. Not her wonderful parents who, despite all their flaws, were the ones who meant everything to her. They were meant to stand tall for years more to come, to watch their grandchildren grow to be as strong and capable as they, they were meant to see this mountain they very well may have raised up from the earth itself flourish and prosper, they were meant to grow old together, they were meant—
"Lyra!? Tell her, tell her she will live!"
The triplet was rocked from her shell-shocked trance and looked suddenly to Hydra, then back to Amekaze. There was just too much blood. Even if they stopped the bleeding, her bones would be fractured and shattered beyond repair. And Charon was already gone. Lyra couldn't imagine a world without the both of them standing together. It was both, or none. She shook her head, unable to form the words to explain to her sister that hope was not something they had the luxury of believing in here.
It was in this moment of lucidness that Lyra finally recognised the others; Arcturus and Jarilo who stood nearby, rooted to the spot in incomprehensible silence. Dirge who had arrived and was at his mate's side, seeking to comfort her. And then there was a familiar face which had materialised as if out of thin air and collapsed before their parents. It took a moment to realise the wailing ghost was Vela, and she blinked out of confusion, but now was not the time to question.
Instead, the Ostrega remained in place as the sudden wave of sober acceptance and heart wrenching sorrow finally crashed, engulfing and swallowing her whole.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Alya - June 13, 2019
Although the trip had begun with lighthearted excitement on Alya's part, she'd grown more and more anxious as she drew closer to home. Part of her felt guilty for pulling Nikai away from his mother and baby siblings, but she assured him that they would soon be back at Easthollow, but that she needed to check in on her own family. The higher Moonspear rose before them, the more urgent this need became, until she was nearly beside herself with anxiety when the familiar howl finally broke over the land.
"Hydra," she gasped, casting a fearful glance at Nikai. She began to run, but matched her pace as best she could to her mate's. Something was very wrong; she could hear it in her mirror sister's voice.
As much as her time with Nikai had tempered her violent spirit, Alya arrived on the scene ready to fight. Her first thought was bears or cougars, or that a new infant sibling had fallen from the high peaks. But the broken picture she arrived to see was so much worse. She recognized her father at once by his stark pelt, and her mother a moment later with a sigh of shameful relief. It was not one of her sisters that'd perished.
Still, her grief was palpable. She stood stunned besided her mate, staring vacantly while sorrow stole over her like a blanket of snow. Everything was cold and quiet, and Alya felt very small and alone.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Nikai - June 14, 2019
The journey had been relatively effortless for them. It made Nikai sad to be away from home again, but the thought of adventure was also thrilling. As they approached the large mountain that loomed up before them Nikai felt nervous to think of living on a mountain with his three legs; luckily he had practised. As the call sounded, Nikai frowned and exchanged a glance with Alya, after which they sped up their pace. He fell behind a little, simply slower than she, and arrived a little behind her near the Moonspear's borders.
He wasn't prepared for what he saw there. The forms of two wolves, bones broken, skin torn... He stood breathless and suddenly felt very tiny and alone. Nikai could not place it, did not understand that it was a throwback for him to the time his mother had died -- he just wanted to run home and hug Valette, more than anything. Nikai knew that Alya needed him, like Keoni had needed him back then, but this time he found it much harder to put aside his own grief, no longer a flexible pup.
Nikai stood beside and leaned into Alya wordlessly. He pressed his head against hers, comforting himself just as much as her as she stood and stared in horror.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Yama - June 19, 2019
It wasn’t her sister’s howl that brought forth the young mountain-dweller but the commotion—the impact. Yama was not far when her parents fell, lurking amongst the trees, just as she always was. Her day had begun with a carefree air to it, lackluster but easy. As her day progressed, it’d continued just like that, too; there was nothing to concern her with, mind put at ease by the fresh air. But life was always moving forward and the world ever-changing—things that existed one second might be gone the next, without warning, and there was nothing to be done to change that. It was simply the way of nature, life and death, always changing, always evolving. But… not all changes were good, not all existed to appease those that witnessed them. Some changes, ever so grand, occurred to bring harm; an ache that could not be soothed, a heart that could not be mended.
And this—this realisation—it hit her all too hard as she entered the scene.
Yama didn’t know what was wrong, not at first; she couldn’t fully comprehend the reason for her elder sister’s howl or why everyone was gathering, nor did she know why her parents seemed to be at the heart of it all—only, deep down, she did know. As she felt her stomach clench and twist and her heart break, she knew. She knew, as much as she wished she didn’t, and couldn’t help but drift forward; she did not run or rush in the slightest, she merely crept forward, legs stiff and steps light. And just as she reached them, everything suddenly came crashing down around her, her world turning and the light behind her eyes dimming.
Then, finally, the dam broke—
“Mama… Papa…” she choked out, all of the air in her lungs suddenly just gone. She didn’t want to believe it, she just wanted to go to sleep and wake up and see that none of this was real. Mama and Papa were still alive and watching over the mountain, watching over her and her siblings—they weren’t gone, they couldn’t be. It just wasn’t possible—they were the strongest wolves she knew, they weren’t allowed to die. But, as much as she wished it, she couldn’t change what had happened. She couldn’t close her eyes and wish it all away, or even force herself to believe that it was just a dream, because it wasn’t.
This was reality.
This was her reality.
And Yama, poor Yama... all she could do was shut down.
RE: I'm the biggest, the best, better than the rest - Amekaze - June 26, 2019
Never in her life had she been a creature to shy away from the dark. It was her element and with shadows and absences, she was home. A deep vast tranquility beckoned her, feeling familiar too in its embrace--arriving for her much like any other night sky, the vibrant twilight's hues shifting, lighter to dark before finally giving way to pitch endless depths.
Yet even faced with the backdrop of her dreams, some part of her wanted to hesitate. She knew why soon, and it was because of the pieces of her that she could not take with her now, those that she had needed to leave behind--because who says death can stop you? The mother hoped that she had given them all purpose, and of course, her life's goal in such a refined, lovely strength that no others would be able to match. Her story continued with each of them now and the mountain she and Charon had made for them.
Oh, but she could not tell them. What it meant, what it took, and what they were made of, neither what she had done or why. This bloodied scene remained her only explanation, and a few weakening breaths all she could give despite any and all hopes they carried. Despite everything she wanted, the bleeding was vast, her body suffering in ways she did not care to know it by any longer--and the main reason why she could no longer fight or even lift her head to see them. She felt them there with her, though.. dim, some more plainly than others in waves and currents, but that was more than enough. Was that because they were her, too? Or maybe they really had come to see that their mother had taken their father from this world, or maybe the other way around. In truth, she hoped they would see and feel the answers, then know that this was how she needed to strike the balance again to protect the sanctity of what she left them here. The newly-ascended Hydra had been the last to be with them both together, of course. She would be able to tell them how it began if nothing else.
But, these concerns were fleeting, gone like a puff of breath. Villify her or understand what it was she had to do, it did not matter to her now. Towards only one thing, she was sorry--sorry that she had to leave them all so soon, that she would not be there to hold the next generation born to these slopes or where else their reach may go to as well. She had wanted to see them all again and watch them grow into the masterpieces she knew them as, then shape the mountain (and beyond) to their tastes. Guiding them each in their own way had always proven to be one of her more interesting achievements, after all.
She really hadn't meant to stop here but really, was it an actual end past her? She left behind so much, them especially-creatures of their unique qualities, of the natures at play here and the nurturing parents like these could give. What else could she have meant to do? Amekaze hoped they all knew. To be strong, and to be forever--just like her. This was all she could give them.. a few quiet moments as she finally convinced herself to let it be, that this was it. After all, soon she had to go. She couldn't let Charon get too far ahead of her into the endless night.
✶
So a life greeted many years ago by the storm, and brought to a conclusion now by the mountain and her star, she would have it no other way here at the end of this one. Self-assured in her every move, there was no remorse in her very last breath.
;o;!!! this is just me being overly gratuitous in my ame sads, but for real, this is my last reply with her here. i was sort of considering making her a kind of posthumous read only thing but i'm not sure if i will or not now since i got a lot done here. anyway, i will miss being mamakaze to you all so much, thank you ♥♥