Sleeping Dragon Beetlebum

Ah. Tired but summer. The Family was close, he could feel them close.
Their blood had spilled on the lands here. Well, not here specifically. Close enough, though.
He stood atop the resting beast, the wind brushing his face. Looking across the wide land. In the distance, mountains. More beyond too. Deep valleys and rises.

Yes.
This would do.
To fix his Family, to rise again. With the Chosen one and all in tow.
The raven had landed here. And the murder would congregate in the Sahira name.
He howled, loud and clear to prove his presence, to call Preist to him and tell the rest that this land would soon be controlled. This would be their start, this would be where they rise -- maybe not where they end. But looking out across the land, the bland male smiled and waited.

---

@Krynn sorry trash post

Bland…
…such an apt characterization that Krynn had often observed. This new-found land even mirrored
the delineation of such a grey and tasteless scope. The black fur on Krynn’s back danced in the breeze as
her idle execrated musings fastly plagued her calm. This entire migration was not well received as it was
but having come to this land and to pass judgment showed only how juvenile Krynn could be. This was a
lush and fertile land at the base of a near inactive volcano with prey aplenty. Though it still wasn’t
enough and it still wasn’t the land to which might have been labeled home. Yet home wasn’t even a true
term to be painted on the realm that birthed her. Krynn was simply in a new place of unfamiliar scents
and eye sores and that vexed her most.

The Nightly colored Wolf tossed her yellowed eyes around the scape until a howl perked her ears. It
wasn’t familiar; however, there was no scent on the wind nor rub that hinted in mal intention. There
were a number of her “pack” that was slated to traverse into these new lands.

So a distraction she found and a distraction she would welcome. Krynn peeled back her snort skywards
and cried out her sharp feminine howl to meet the males call and show he wasn’t alone.

A call reached his ears. One of his, for sure. He'd observed that those who spoke or had been influenced by those who spoke Tsis had a certain pitch to their howl and voice in general. The accent in means to speak the language made it possible to identify and he was glad for it. 
He passed down towards the sound, locating the source easily.

He felt like he knew the woman, but that was all the same with his family. He watched her from a distance at first, then moved in with a low chuff.
"You're Sahira, right?" He had to make sure, of course. Blinking once, waiting for an answer.

Amusement...

     ...Blackened ears darted to a disturbance to her flank yet Krynn hadn't the need to move. One whiff of the cool air calmed her distraction thoughts on the familiar approach of Earp. Though... When he spoke she shot him a look of confusion that melted into a chuckle. "Blood of my blood."

Wait... She couldn't talk to him this way. He may have fallen and lost his spirit of memory. So she turned to him and stepped to a more revealing vantage. "I am your youngest sister, genius."

Her tail whipped behind her like a cloak as she perched on the edge of the cliff once more. "You suffering or amended by herb?" Krynn offered in a cruel jest.

The man chuckled low at her words. Still the Krynn he knew.
It had been a while.
"I'd always pegged you to be one to turn tail on the bloodline should it fall apart."
He ever so slightly touched his shoulder to hers. The only affection he showed to his bloodline.
"I'm glad to be proven wrong for once."
He gave his half-sister a wicked grin. Af if he would be the one sniffing around the wrong herbs.

He stood, looking out at the world before them. Silent.
Somewhere, Preist was. Zafina...a slim possibility. He sighed softly only to heave in the air. This land was good. Fertile.
Not the land of the Ancients, but the new land. The one where the Ancients had told him to come. He'd followed their directions and they brought him here.
To this mountain.
He was certain, now Krynn was here, that the rest will follow the directions too. This was where their legacy would rise again.
"Where are the rest?"
She was the first he'd seen and she'd probably been here longer. He looked to her now to read her face. You could tell what one was thinking just by their face.

Annoyance...

   ...of course he would snuggle up to her and of course he thought it was alright. Krynn even felt fur against her spine stand on end while her eyes stared at their contact for a brief moment. Still she wouldn't cause a scene and instead shook herself free of the awkward sensation while also gaining a few centimeters of room between both Wolves. Now she could actually focus and respond to her siblings open muses. "Give it time. There is still opportunity to leave you all yet."

Truth be told she had thought to venture out into the far horizon of the world. However that was purged after she committed herself to the will of the ancestors by taking up the mantle, and burden, she now bore. Still it was interesting to see how much of an enigma she was to even her own blood kin. 

Time passed both the Wolves by allowing Krynn to take in the wide grin of her surroundings until the Elder Brother spoke again. This time she grew faintly annoyed. "I see the dead. Not the wondering of the living. Perhaps you should seek them out if you are so worried for their safe passage?"

He snorted. Always the one to have a snide comment.
Despite her words, he knew she wouldn't leave unless allowed. If the Ancients fell silent to her, she'd be gone in a heartbeat. Perhaps drawn back if the time was ever right, but it was unlikely.
Krynn was the wind that swept the lands; wild and untameable who followed only set laws. The rest she made herself.
If he knew she thought he was snuggling ​up to her, he'd sooner kick her off the mountain.

Her suggestion was to get rid of him. Then a thought crossed his mind.
Did she think she should be the Chosen One? Was that why she was so dismissive them all these years?
He softly shook his head in dismissal of the thought and her option.
Anyway. Enough sightseeing.
He had work to do.
With that, he stood and moved off to ensure this place was good enough for their needs, and perhaps start a cache. 

((OOC: Sry, I havn't given the attention this thread deserves. Will fix that.))

----------------------------------------

The Midnight dark...

       ...always settled over Krynn's empathy. A trait her siblings knew to be stonewalled and unbreakable. Though, like the mighty mountain ranges of the world over, it too was etched with chinks like weaknesses in a turtle's armor. Earp, her Brother, unitedly took aim at that blemish by simply walking away. Normally the she-wolf turned a cold shoulder to such a retreat except that Novae fouled the connection of blood with the last of their meeting, Krynn and her sister. Now after prescribing to Priest a dose of vile tasting words to force his paws to take up a Mantle more fitting of the Ancients intent. Krynn felt adrift and in a increasing state of unease.

"Wait..." It fell off the tongue almost as a command.
Krynn spun from her seat facing the larger Wolf-kin while hiding that same unease behind a disapproving stare. A stare of even and passionless expression exuding a reign over ghosts, and demons, that may curse those who dare challenge her. "Speak what you cage."

Both Wolves were not blooded. Neither faced off against their own kind like those who defended their Ancestral Lands so long ago. Yet their line of succession demanded that no half measure seize them to indecision. Krynn exemplified this by her ability to face down even the like of her kin and speak the mind openly. Then again Earp also mirrored this strength but in expressions of the body more over. Snorts followed by the glare of an eye gleamed meaning. Something even one so detached from social interactions like his younger sibling may address if they knew to remain watchful of the signs. 

The setting sun draped Krynn with a revealing light that marred the unique guise of her whiten fur fashioned into the shape of a skull. In turn it enlarged her shadow as if summoning a twin ghoul at her flank. A scene that embodied the true shape of Krynn's psyche. As if she was always in league with a monstrous version, or twin, of herself but in rare moments the the façade drawn across her face could melt away. 

"...others-" Novae, Priest, and perhaps him, "-hoard their opinions in an age of uncertainty. -and we are weaker for it. I wish to suffer it no more."  Or worse they express themselves without thought to whom their name is upheld over. God like beings sowing discourse via obstinacy or over saturated emotion. "I am here now... I may not be on the morrow."

It's fine! We can certainly have more threads to develop them both <3

 

He halted, frozen still in the moment at her command.
He listened to her words, silent. She bid him to speak freely, so he should. It was only a tactical pursuit that he did not.
He turned to face her and her real form that was revealed by the sunlight pressed on the ground. He let out a short, quiet sigh and stalked towards her with his height over her.
Earp looked down, his face impassive.
He should ask.

"Do you wish to be the Chosen One, Krynn? Do you wish to lead us into the next phase of Sahiran lore?" His voice was quiet and husky, daring her to speak against what the Ancients wanted. Would she? She was daring enough, but she wasn't stupid. Either way, she'd still be sister.
He wasn't stupid either, but for different reasons. He didn't want to be the Chosen One because of the pressure. The thought of having to make all the decisions, give orders and fix everyone's mess. He was too pretentious for that. The man, as much as he'd love to command order, wanted to do his own tasks in his own way and those who messed with it would be reprimanded by him. Preist wouldn't mind, Earp could be valuable.

His eyes, gleaming with the Void, watched Krynn, knowing she would not back down. He wanted her to tell him straight what she was thinking.

A forlorn Breeze...

       ...swept the ground between them. The loyal Knight towering over a Witch born of Devils... -A representation that held more metaphor than wholesome meaning. It was as though the pair were on the verge of a silent dual until the titled "Nightmare" chose to engage Earp's initial move across their imaginary board. 

Charcoal painted fur shifted lazily along the spine as Krynn's gaze dismissed the question. A gesture that was more a scoff than anything. Yellowed eyes turned over her shoulder appearing to meet the shadow at her flank in secret council until returning to the sibling's question. "To the uninitiated... -I could see how such observations may beg the question."

In truth, his blunted interview enlightened Krynn as to her own nightly visions. They were now unveiled as premonitions. The first being a muddied cabal branded by a name of legacy though not entirely unified by the same. However the pair that conspired in the offset must have been Earp and another. Perhaps, Priest. The revelation pursed a smile unbuckling a shallow chuckle. The Ancients had, indeed, their own humor.

The reply that followed was not so hesitant as the last, "I am as we all are, a Sahira. -and such as I am. A Sahira cannot master the sea nor sky. That is a right reserved for another. Know that and be at ease, Brother."

She then turned away from him hinting that where she had spoken true it wasn't entirely a testimony given in full. If it was Priest or Earp that coveted the role of "Chosen One" then they both were destined for disappointment. For the stars whispered of another pair far removed from now. 

A she-wolf tempering Mercy within an Alpha who finds dissatisfaction in all his acts for the greater good of his pack. Which was the "One" was still uncertain.

"Now..." The tone was resonate, heavy accented, and of course measured. "...why you, of any, would question my role in the Great Design is my query."

The man stood stoic. Only his eyes followed her, meeting her dismissive gaze. He frowned, holding his tongue. He’d be quiet for for now.
He wanted to onow what she was planning; if his thoughts were right in assuming she craved power.  He supposed, in ways, she did. Should  he push her further?

She looked at him as if she knew something more about him that even he didn’t know. He was about to move away and demand the Witch to be certain of her loyalty when she confirmed it for him. His soft inhale may signal he was relieved that she confirmed so. He was still debating speaking. Still debating moving — though that seemed impossible for he was sure she’d locked him into place.

The question gave reason to her earlier look. His  ear flicked in annoyance and her spell was broken. He moved to face her head on. 
He had plenty of reason to question why the Witch was brought here.
“Perhaps the Gods wish to find pleasure in my death. I doubt it will be by your tooth or your paw, but one can not be too careful.”
The raven may just be paranoid, but it can’t hurt to question. Especially one known to be dangerous.
​Alula. 
He stared at Krynn, tentively accepting that she was an ally — for now at least — and he’d have to trust her; like she’d have to trust him. 
He wasn’t sure if he would walk away now or not. What could he do now?

How adorable...

      ...yellowed eyes narrowed into the ire of a serpent's gaze. Memorizing and deep, as to draw in an easy prey or to warn a greater creature that to further press meant they may lose more than what they will gain. Earp seeded a confession, unintentionally, that he saw Krynn as his death. -or at the very least an element in its making. 

To Krynn the Gods were themselves. Krynn, Novae, and Earp; Gods of the land directed by the whims of their Ancestors. The true Gods of old which, one day, would include herself and the heirs of her pack. So if the Ancestors willed the life of one sibling be expunged then all they needed to do was ask. After all it wouldn't be hard to do. One of a thousand possibilities danced within Krynn's mind. Circling around her in a spiraling dance of bloodied euphoria.

The task always fell to Krynn to rend the flesh of the fallen between her teeth which melted into black bile matted within fur and rot. At one point in her life she shed tears in those moments... Moments where her honored position was to "clean" the dead and give what remained of them a place for memory. Priest and many other came to see the white skulls of their fallen kin put on display but never once had any of the pack thought of "how" the dead came to rest.

...the last body lay cold in Krynn's mind, and on the brink of decay. Still her fangs tore into it ripping tendon and bone tirelessly throughout the night until the head was decapitated. The procedure was... degrading... at times. Krynn's jaw strained with cramps growing sore while she broke apart the spinal collumn. Then the real work began... endless licking, chewing, of wolf flesh until what remained was the skull itself. Presine and presentable...

It was Krynn who absorbed the "taste" of her kin into her own soul, and gut, forcing her spirit to not crumble while performing the sacred rite. After a while she lost taste for even the simplest earthly pleasures but found solace in her devotion. 

So... if the Ancestors indeed wanted Earp dead then he would fall and Krynn wouldn't think upon it with regret. In the night as he slept, or perhaps currupted food may bring him low, then again if Krynn were as vile as Earp had fantasized then she may think to twist one he held so dearly. Krynn was not blind to the relationship shared between Priest and Earp but Earp was oblivious to the infatuation Priest held tightly to Krynn. One or two months work of debauchery and honeyed words then Krynn could have Priest do away with Earp without her muzzle stained. It was that thought that crept a smile across her maw. The look of horror Earp may sport from such a betrayal or the wash of victory after a long wait and toil... but again it was still only that, fantasy.

Krynn returned to reality having shook away the terrors of her mind giving a nod to her brother's figure, "Perhaps..." The statement rolled off her tongue with a hiss. "...-or perhaps you are over burdened and overly cautioned. The sins you seek to unveil are not with me, dear Brother. Rest your inquizition on another Sinbound." For while her sins did indeed compare, in number, to the stars that brightened up the night, "I am not the one you seek."

Something about her words gave hint that Krynn knew who Earp sought but refused to divulge that name.

He stood for a moment. Thinking of her words. She knew what he did not. Damned witches.
The man tilted his crown softly, sighing loosely.
"You're right, sister. I overthink."
He'd let her think that he'd give in easily. It could be valuable to seem a little easy, but not overly so.
"But perhaps you could show me the right direction?" A gentle proposition. A soft stroke of inquiry for her to reveal secrets.
But, in truth, he wanted to drop it already. The subject tired him quickly.
But another Sinbound?
Alula.