Blackfeather Woods my star has left me to take the bitter pill

i guess astara woke up trespassing. i acknowledge the BFW trespassing rules!

seemingly overnight, wolves had come from the woodworks and claimed blackfeather out from under her. astara had woken up alongside @Averna, sleeping in the same den she had slept in for the last year -- only to find new scents interlaid across blackfeather. her sister's scent and mou's were prominent, but there were other scents too -- which caused a rifling of outrage in the yearling.

she should have been overjoyed to see blackfeather's reign rekindled. instead, she was furious. it didn't seem fair to her that wolves could slink in months after blackfeather's desolation, and make something out of what had been months of suffering for the two melonii girls. they had been abandoned; and now, meloniis returned, a day late and a dollar short. 

it had been nearly a year since limbs and blood last decorated the borders, but astara found as she rifled along her old haunts that much of the perimeter was disturbed. distrustful of any wolf that was not her sister, the girl furtively stole to their mother's altar. the hip-bone and the seeing stone were both where she had left them. placing her head through the pelvic bone and bearing the bone like a ghastly torc, astara seized the stone in her jaws and padded away from the altar in grim silence.

He wasn't a Melonii. His claim to the forest was limited if that was a prerequisite. But as Titmouse perused the slanting shadows, hunting through the overgrowth for something to present to his beloved (or something impressive to show off to her brother), he was surprised to notice the familiar shape of the girl. She wasn't so much a child anymore — too thin, he thought, and all legs. Gaunt; the winter must have been harder on the woodland than he thought. It made him feel intensely guilty for leaving.

The thing that stuck out the most was the strange shape around her neck; it was bleached like bone but darker, sullied by dirt and whatever remained of the animal it once was. Titmouse thought it was an odd look, but didn't question it as he slipped closer and closer - having adapted to the forest since returning to it. But the closer he got the stranger he felt. He thought he heard a whispered voice in the wind - but when he paused to look around, trying to fix his one good eye on the culprit, there was nobody.

Just Titmouse - and the girl, with her adornment.

He chuffed softly and turned back towards her, following deftly with his quick strides. As he closed the distance he slowed, relaxed his posture - tried to seem inviting. The last time he'd found this girl she had been less than enthusiastic, and he didn't want to disturb her too much.

After awakening the spirit instantly knew something was wrong. The spirits that normally whispered in her ears through most of her waking and asleep hours were now screaming. She did not understand their language but she knew that something was terribly wrong if they were screaming so loudly. Following nothing but her instincts the spirit dashed towards the altar where their mother's bones lay. With bated breaths the last steps were set. Horror displayed vividly in her eyes when she saw that it was missing.

The Shadow's scent was easy to distinguish and with a hiss through teeth the pale youth started making her way towards her blood-born sibling. She dashed to catch up, but soon her scent mingled with another. Someone else had found her first.

Bird.

The pale youth glanced between him and the dark one, yet unaware of the pack that had settled upon their lands, the wolves that had returned. It mattered little to her, truthfully. What did matter, however, was that someone had stolen. Thief, she hissed through her teeth as she slunk towards Thief, intent on taking back what had been stolen. Those bones were not Thief's; they were the Woods', the spirits'. Taking them would only risk their destruction, whereas any wolf that held the Woods would surely care for these holy objects well... whether with the night cub and the day cub in it or not.

astara knew if she were to be successful, she must be swift. there would be little time before her presence was detected, and while she was young yet, she knew that the punishment for trespass often ended in death. she froze only as she heard a step behind her, her long and slender ears pulling back as she set her cold gaze on the stranger.

mou. another wolf that had abandoned the forest in the most perilous of hours. an uncommon acidity crossed her features and she hastened her pace, eager to put distance between him — eager to escape what had once been her home.

averna’s presence was detected well before astara saw her. the pale wraith wasted no preamble, instead uttering a single word that cut astara’s flight at once. she stiffly turned around, fur bristling and tail erect as she fixed her with a deep scowl.

she was no thief, she was taking back what was hers in the wake of having everything stolen from her.

He saw the shadow, and then beside him — a sharp word stabbing through the dark. He turned and looked around, startled, and managed to find the pale shape of Averna lunging for her sister. He had almost missed it because she'd approached on his bad side — but as the two siblings clashed, Mou slid out of the way. It was not his fight — it felt more like a trial between the pair of them, and he would not step in unless he had to. It curdled the blood in his veins to think about harm coming to either of them and he was not about to strike out against them. The boy chuffed, sounding an airy and rasping note through the air to garner their attention, but did not speak - rather, he frowned at both of them like a concerned older brother. What was going on?

I feel like Zelda: Link's Awakening now. You could steal items from the shop rather than paying for them, but your character would be murdered by the shopkeeper, then upon saving & reloading named Thief instead of the name you'd entered for the rest of the game. :')

Her word cutting through the air stopped Thief in her steps. There was a scowl of hurt, as if she did not deserve this name, but it was clear to see that she was taking away holy objects that should remain within the woods. There was a hiss between her teeth as the pale youth stared at her dark counterpart. She approached, not intending to fight -- Thief would win -- but intending to make clear what was the right thing to do.

Spirit is here, the pale youth said as she gestured all around herself. Mortal bones must be here also. In holy place. She nodded to confirm her own words, and as she reached Thief she pressed her nose against the bones, then gestured in the general direction of the altar that they had been taken from.

astara resented being called a thief. against her better judgment she remained frozen, allowing averna to step towards her. she did not agree with her sister's opinion of where the bones belonged, and it showed in the harsh bite of her narrow aubergine gaze.

our mother belongs with us, her glare seemed to convey; already a current of hackles rose along her back. this is not our home anymore. she refused to leave the only artifact of her mother behind - if anything having her home stolen, and then her mother's bones stolen in the same day, seemed unnecessarily cruel to the nightcub.

Their spat felt like a private moment, but there were no private moments anymore when Titmouse was around; he was a leader within the woods and had to start acting like it. A part of him knew he should drive the pair of them out — children of the old regime that they were, any other conquering force would've done so. They were not pledged to Maegi the way he might've liked. But, they were only children. The forest was all they'd ever known. Mou was many things but he would never let harm come to a child, especially the children of someone like Relmyna who meant so much to him. That meant he'd have to step in and somehow become a mediating force between the twins; but he wasn't exactly skilled at negotiation, and too often in the past he was the cause for chaos, not the resolver of it.

But he would try; for the sake of these children, for the sake of Relmyna's legacy, and the strength of their newly established claim.

He slunk closer as the two bickered, hoping that his long strides and sneaking steps would be enough; they argued in their way, and the ghost tried to circle around to flank Astara before she could get further. He wasn't so concerned with the bones she coveted. The holy quality of the reliquary did not fit in to his mindset at the moment. He wanted to keep them together; they were family, and this was their home even if it had been taken over. He was no conqueror - blood would not be spilled.

Astara, he called to her as he stepped from the shadows in to her retreating path, Reh-min-a es here, 'Verna es here, here is home; you no need to run. He could've grabbed her and dragged her deep in to the woods, put her in to the depths of Wolfskull for attempting to flee, but that would be too harsh. By Maegi's own decree, they were not to use that cave for its original purpose - and there would be no kidnappings, no damages done. The boy watched her - watched them both - and tensed, waiting for her to fight back against the proposal in some way; perhaps she would run, perhaps she would stay.

The spirit did not really care to stay for the sake of this pack necessarily but even if they would leave then the bones still belonged here. This was a holy place and taking the bones elsewhere would take all their power in the spirit's opinion. Thief did not understand.

Bird shared her opinion, even though she didn't necessarily consider this homeas he called it. But the bones should be here, with her spirit. Spirit here. Bones here. No strength in bones outside. Why was her Shadow so stubborn?

astara reeled under averna's edict, her sights hardened in defiance. mou stepped into her path and like a flighty cat, the girl shrugged the pelvic bone from her shoulders and bolted, the stone clutched tightly in her jaws. her mother's bones could stay, but astara would not -- the way both her sister and mou lingered around her seemed like overcrowding, and suddenly the girl was overwhelmed by hysteric claustrophobia.

she did not turn back. if any soul pursued her, they would discover she had fled from blackfeather, and gone into the climbing chill of the mountains above.