Ankyra Sound i never grew up all at once - i did it one place and another along the way

@Caiaphas

the thoughts had plagued his mind enough for him to make a decision. it was the only way that he could think that would spare him from being an outsider. the young ghost had done everything that had been asked of him; he had gone to war against wolves he knew nothing about, simply because she had asked him to. still, he did not feel as though he was a true part of rusalka or the great force that his mother had worked to create. though he tried, he was still left with the hollow realization that he was a stranger to them.

no more, though. the wildling would not stand by and allow himself to be pushed to the side. he wanted them to know his name. he wanted to be a prominent member of the pack, and he had done so much in order to prove this point. he had ventured out and beyond their territory to scout the nearby lands; he knew them well enough that he could have led the entirety of rusalka even if he had been blind. the wilderness was no longer a stranger to him.

finding his footing on the beach, illidan drew back his crown and called to his mother so that she might approach him. he could feel the worry creeping in. the ghost did not know what caiaphas would say to him and his demands. he did not know if she would scoff at him, or cast him aside for someone better – someone like svalinn... who had been there from the beginning. it didn't matter. he would challenge svalinn, if it came to that.

what, no caterwaul?

a somber howl went up through the winter air, requesting the siren’s presence strand-side. she obliged, having already known the voice to belong to her once-errant (but displaced no longer) son. 

as she came upon him and measured his expression, she saw a hard glint in his gaze that pained her, for it called to mind the determined set of kierkegaard’s wizened gaze. the sylph paused, her expression inquiring, as she sampled the tension in the air between them.

he waited tensely for her, doing his best not to shuffle in place or reflect the nerves that waged war inside of his lean frame. all the while, his eyes scanned the terrain for the familiar figure. all that he could hear was the cry of a lonely gull and the crash of the ocean against the shore. for once, he was grateful that the sea was drowning out the wild thrumming that his heart was likely making. he could feel the beats in his neck – pounding like war drums.

there she was; caiaphas appeared as though she had materialized from the very sand that he stood on. she strolled toward him with a curious expression. the boy wished that he had a stronger relationship with her. perhaps, it would have made his wanting easier to ask for. more than anything, he did not want to disappoint her so soon after having been reentered into her life.

“i want to challenge for beta,” he stated swiftly, in a tone that was far more confident than he felt. the wildling realized that he had provided very little buffer to that, and lowered his head some. internally, he reprimanded himself for his inability to speak to those around him. he had spent far too much of his childhood as a silent observer. to have a conversation of this magnitude was beyond his capability, but he would try – god, he would try.

“i want to be your beta...”

a moment that spanned an eternity seemed to pass through them; it lasted mere seconds, yet in that time the sylph had measured up the inscrutable gravitas of her son, and had known whatever words to come out of his mouth would have been hard-wrestled to loosen.

she half-expected an announcement he was leaving, or perhaps, that he hated it here -- instead, she got a proposition that caused the corners of her lips to curl up in a devilishl pleased expression.

she had not yet considered which of her offspring would embrace the leadership rank; they had been freshly indoctrinated into adult deportments, and all of them (even raleska) performed in a manner caiaphas would have described as 'adequate'. yet illidan, much like svalinn, had fought had for his mother's approval -- and had won it.

"okay, good." she answered after consideration, the tip of her tail twitching in amusement. "if there is one thing you can learn from your mother, let it be that you must take what you want -- no one will ever simply give it to you. life does not work that way. you crack the bones of life, and you steal from it its marrow -- otherwise, someone else will do the same to you.

you want something, take it." she paused, glancing back to the grotto where the rest of the wolves likely were. "but there is no one in beta rank." she added quietly, almost somberly: "so you will take it from me."

the siren lowered her muzzle, shielding the wound along her neck with a ginger step. "hit me three times, and i will give it to you; but mind the neck."

the boy watched her intently, and when she spoke he felt a stirring within him that suggested there was already a capability and similar mindset that existed in the marrow of his bones. he had learned well enough that he was required to take what he wanted. he knew that the world was not kind, and things of that sort would not simply be given to him. this was how he had found his place in the realm of the fighters. in order to get what he felt he deserved, illidan believed that he would tear it away with tooth and claw.

but to fight her was something that he did not anticipate. there was a moment of hesitation inside of him, but she appeared ready to take whatever he would throw at her. it would have been so much easier if he had been able to meet a different adversary with his fangs. life wasn't easy, though. he reminded himself of this and nodded his head to her.

they were both torn from the battle on the cliffs. his shoulder had suffered a significant gash that had not been tended to well because of his wandering and scuffles with strangers. it didn't matter to him that it posed a threat to his capability. he was filled with enough feral motivation that he could push through whatever pain was caused to his figure. wounds would heal in time, but his stirring mind could not stand to exist in static for another day.

without another word, the wildling lunged for her and aimed to snap his teeth to her limb. he had learned quite a bit from the girl on the beach and the sandy brute who had ravaged him. the only way to move forward was to use those new skills.

illidan briefly hesitated, but he did not entirely falter. good. caiaphas lowered her skull, skulking like some wraith-like hyena around him -- and then he lunged.

long ago, caiaphas had done such a maneuver -- and long ago, she had learned the folly of making the first move. her neck was stiff and it screamed in resistance, but she moved anyway, countering her son's lunge downward by swinging her jaws towards his already lowering head. his fangs would find her legs, but their force would be rudely deflected -- and he would likely find in seconds a colossal weight bearing down upon the back of his skull.

unless he acted fast, of course.

the oppratunity felt almost too good for him to pass up on. there were few moments in his life where the young ghost realized that he was capable of conjuring something surprising from within himself. when she moved to counter his first plunge, there was a fraction of a second where he was transported back to his scuffle on the beach with the sandy brute. he recalled that he had really only had one trick in his sleeve, and if he hesitated for a moment longer... it would have been too late.

with a quick jerking of his skull, illidan aimed to slap his head against his mother's in a sharp headbutt. if he landed it, he knew that his mind would be throbbing and spinning with the force that had been put behind the maneuver, but he also knew that he would have landed his first strike. and that was progress.

well, caiaphas had never been headbutted by a wolf before. consider it a first -- a maneuver that took her by surprise and caused her to wheel back, wincing from the pain.

the jolt had hurt on its own merit, but the impact traveled through her skull down her neck, and she felt the wound on her neck throb in outrage. stung by the pain, she did something she had done a thousand times before -- she flung sand towards illidan's face with one deft flick of a forepaw, aiming to shower him in abrasive sand that might cloud his vision and stave off his attack.

lesson one: never fight fair.

circling him and shaking off the pain that dully pulsed in her hide, caiaphas lunged - this time hoping to hook teeth in a lean shoulder and possibly overpower him.

lesson two: never underestimate your enemy.

it was not her only attack she delivered; simultaneous to her snap of fangs, her front paws extended before her, her limb outstretched and paws flat ahead -- aiming to stove into his front limbs in the attempt to sweep his feet out entirely from under him.

lesson three: hit hard and fast.

the strike was enough to send a good portion of that pain back into his own skull. he could hear ringing in his ears, and his eyes struggled to focus on the task in front of him. still, it seemed as though his strike had been surprising for her. that had been one, he reminded himself with a steadying sigh. while he might have worried for her shoulder, and the wounds that already littered her frame from the war… he knew that he could not be distracted by it.
 
she was quick to recover, and illidan was forced to brace himself for whatever it was that she would throw to him. she dove toward his already wounded shoulder, and the ghost darted back fearfully. he could not take any further damage to the limb, or it would have crippled him. in his attempt to move out of the way, he had miscalculated her movements.
 
though he had saved his shoulder from the sharp snap of her vicious fangs, he had not noticed her attempt to sweep his limbs out from under him. in this, she was successful; he tumbled forward and felt his muzzle sink into the sandy beach. coughing and sputtering, illidan scrambled to find his footing again before she could prevent him from moving at all.

the siren continued despite the keen wail of protest in her limbs, despite the sharp pain in her neck -- admiring, throughout their tousle, the wiry tenacity of her son.

her previous move had been her final - and she slunk down into the sand besides illidan, her ears splayed in language that said the fight was done. panting sharply -- both from her efforts and the pain -- the siren spoke. "it is done, illidan the beta." she spared her son a rare genuine smile, its appearance fueled by the fierce pride she felt in her heart to have whelped him. "fight any that would take it from you."

their scuffle was over before he knew it, and he was left with heaving sides and a wild glint in the yellow of his gaze. he had thought that he'd failed. he had thought that she was ending their spar and telling him to turn around to grow stronger. instead, she peered at him with her hawkish gaze and granted him what he had arrived to take.

the pride that bloomed within him was indescribable. he did not let such emotions register on his features. illidan bowed his head to her and breathed outward all of the air that he had been holding in his lungs. when he met her gaze again, he thought he saw a flicker of approval there... but he cast it aside as his own hopeful imaginings.

“i will,” he vowed to her with a confident nod. he had taken his rank, and he would fight until he bled from every gaping wound in his body to keep it.