Blackfeather Woods The day I lost my other half...

It's a sad day today. @Nemesis @Kove @Cicero @Potema @Quiet @Whisper

Kendra hadn't spend much time with her brother lately but it was mostly because he was busy with his mercenary trade and doing boy stuff. But luckily the young male was now up to play with her. The two youngsters were playing and rough housing in a child like manner. There was no care in the world in their eyes. Sometimes one chased the other and soon they were close to the edges of the dark forest. Kendra was being better with the light, instead of favoring dark places. Kendra plopped down a bit exhausted from all their playing but happily smiling at her bigger brother. He looked just like their father only lankier, but she was certain that he would grow out just as big as him and that half brother of them... Sebastian.

She happily rested, panting heavily. Though soon that peace and happiness was disturbed when something came charging at her. Kendra let out a yelp in shock and pushed herself to her feet. But before the shadow seemed to pounce on her Pietro was in a fight with a cougar. She let out a howl in panic for everyone that was around. To then recklessly try and jump on the cougar herself. Pietro! She couldn't leave him hanging. She couldn't see well what was happening but she tried to chop her sharp teeth down on the cat's paw. Kendra was soon hit with one of the cat's front paws, hitting her hard. She could smell blood, but it wasn't hers. She let out a whines and calls of distress for her father, for anyone really. "Pietrooo!," she cried out in panic.

Burke rushed forward as soon as he heard the howl from his daughter, as a parent one knew what was a call that was fake and which cry was very much real panic. Kendra never displayed a nervous nature, one that would make her quick to panic. This made Burke rush even faster to the sound of his daughter calling out. He had been at the borders but awhile away. The large male felt own panic rise through his body.

He soon reached the site, which wasn't a pretty sight. His son, Pietro, trying to fight of a cougar. If the boy had challenged it or if he had other motives could not be questioned right now. Burke charged forward at the cat, noticing the blood in the air. Pietro didn't seem like he was fighting back much anymore. The protective father rushed forward, attacking the cat if his own life depended on it. You could say a lot about the stoic male and his past, but now he truly cared for his children. Kendra's whines of panic were only fueling that anger. He was not going to allow to have her lose her bother too.

:'(

She did not hesitate to rush to the scene as a cry went up among the trees, sending a murder of crows screeching from their hiding spots. It sent a chill down her spine, and as she ran, the looming scavenging birds soaring above the darkened sky towards the source of the estranged call did nothing but increase her worry. But the worry soon turned to impending panic when the scene unfolded in front of her eyes.

Blood.

She smelt it before she seen it. Kendra, Burke battling a cat, blood. She froze for a millisecond before her senses picked up. Burke was big enough to hold off the mountian cat, but Pietro.. what he he been thinking?! He laid unmoving behind the form of Kendra, and she panicked. "What do we do?" She sounded breathless, turning to Kendra. She hardly noticed that the girl was injured herself. "We have to do something. Use your herbs, or something!" Her voice was hard, demanding that something be done. She refused to acknowledge that he laid in his own blood, barely hanging on to life as it was. She moved to Peitro's form, his eyes barely open. "Peitro. Peitro, come on. Get up!" She prodded his forehead with her nose, but he was shockingly cold. No, no.. this could not happening. She looked back to Kendra with pain evident in her features, this could not be happening.

Kendra's eyes teared up in panic when she saw Pietro laying their motionlessly. She rushed to him and nudged him. Nemesis came quickly, while her father was battling the cat. She was inhaling quickly when Nemesis spoke about her herbs a full blown panic attack came to her. "I don't-- I never---," she let out, feeling so, so guilty. She started the burst out in to crying because of the guilt. She never learned how to be a healer because she didn't want to. How horribly selfish. Her brother just saved her life and she couldn't save his. No. No. This was not how it was suppose to go. Kendra draped herself over her brother's bleeding body. "Pietro!," she cried out loudly. "I'm so sorry. Forgive. Please be okay! Pietro! No! Please!," she whined.

Tears were making her vision impossible and she was not sure how her father was doing against the cat. "Daddy!," she sniffled. "Daddy.. I don't want to lose him.." Now Kendra was crying because she felt like the cat was going to murder him too. "Nemesis! Daddy!," she spoke. She would keep Pietro warm, he was cold, and she would lay over his wounds so the blood won't seep out, that was logical right? She needed to do at least something. "Pietro please..," she cried out.

Burke battled the cat but the beast was still quite strong. Burke might have the bulk to go head on against a cat but he did not have the speed or agility of a young wolf anymore, and frankly with his weight he was never agile in the first place. He was so busy with distracting the cat that was not running off that he did not notice that Nemesis arrived.

He let out a cry when the sharp claws sliced through his skin, over his rib cage. The teeth of the cat were around Burke's muzzle trying to bite him. Burke felt the tiredness seep through his body, but he could not give up and he would not go down without a fight. He was like an annoying weed he would always return. The male tried to grab the cats throat as he was still on top of the cat, though that did made him vulnerable for the sharp claws. Even him, as mighty as he thought he was, could not defeat a cat on his own.

Mikasi ran as fast as his legs could carry him. The closer he got the more worry and fear got to him. Familiar smells. Blood. Cat. Wolves. No this could not be good at all.

 And it wasn't. Pietro's bloodied body under Nemesis and Kendra. Burke fighting the wildcat with all the willpower. The sleek male didn't waste time to accompany his alpha in taking it down. With teeth bared, he flung himself towards its legs to try to demobilize it.

No, he was not getting up."Peitro, please wake up," She begged him, although the reality that he would not wake up set in. She looked defeated, something she had never, never experienced in her entire life. Somehow, she had always been able to overcome doubt.. but this was something else entirely. She had been the watcher, the involuntary baby sitter. And she failed. She was a failure, to him, and now he would not wake. "Kendra. I-I think he's gone," She turned to the girl, breaking at the sight of her broken expression. "Kendra, you can't do anything now. He's already gone," She moved to comfort her, but the girl flung herself at the unmoving figure of her brother.

"Kendra, leave him. Leave him," She moved to pull the girl away, but it was not a forceful intent. Nothing good would come of what Kendra was doing, although it may have seemed like a smart move. Peitro was dead. He was dead, and his blood still seeped, an image she would never get out of her mind. "He's dead," Her mouth moved, although she did not feel it, her throat felt like it was closing up although she did not gasp for air. It was all her fault. She had one job.. blood... she failed.. death.

Kove had been a ways off, moving through the woods with the borders being his final destination. He'd hit a halfway mark when the girl's cry had filled the air, encouraging his pace to quicken with a newfound purpose in mind. Something was happening, something awful enough to make the usually quiet girl cry out. His legs moved quickly, strides lengthened as he sought to fend off whatever it was that had caused the girl distress. Nothing could have ever prepared him for the sight he was met with, however. A fighting chance, at least, would have been better than what he'd seen, but the image seemed like something that couldn't be moved away from. Tragedy had struck, and at the claws of a beast most despised.

The scene before him was quick to register within his mind, and an attack plan was acted upon. The blood fueled his drive, as did the familiar faces he could spot all around him. The mountainous felines had been quiet for so long, no traces of them having been picked up on, yet now one had chosen to strike—and a fight it would receive, for Kove jumped right into battle alongside his pack mates. A snarl was never absent from his face, and his body lurched forward time and time again as attempts were made to bring the feline down, or at least frighten it away. Currently, he was oblivious to the passing of the boy, his focus being on providing a solution to a long standing issue.

From the tunnels he had come, intending to seek out his newly appointed mentor for a chance to move his training along. He was interested in completing his training entirely, in earning his mark and making a name for himself within the pack. He could live as being known only as Kove's son no longer, the desire to leave his mark having struck him down to the core. As he'd been moving, though, a cry had been carried by the wind and to his ears. It was Kendra, he'd recognized her voice almost immediately. Something sounded wrong, and in a matter of moments he could feel his heart thrumming within his chest. Each beat was more aggressive than the last, a rush of adrenaline having kicked in quickly after he'd concluded that the girl—his friend—was in some sort of danger. Xan had taken to seeking her out, but the entire scene quickly overwhelmed him.

Three seemed to be battling against a large creature, while Nemesis and Kendra were near to a body. There was blood, and a lot of it, but one word hit him the hardest: dead. Someone had died, but he'd needed to take a step or two closer before being able to figure out who it was. The second he had, however, his ears fell back against his head and his legs grew stiff, eyes shifting between the separate sights. A part of him wanted to fight, but he knew he couldn't. All he would do was get in the way, and so he'd chosen a different path. Alexander, after having hung back for several moment's passing, had approached the upset girl cautiously, drawing near to her in an attempt to console her. He didn't know what to say, or even what he could do, but he wanted to make it known that he was there for her. That he was her friend, still, and would not abandon her during a time in which comfort was most needed.

Kendra was draped over her brother while Nemesis was speaking something she didn't want to hear. She bared her teeth when Nemesis came close to comfort her, and even snapped a bit at her in her grief. The girl was not going to move away from him. Maybe she could still save him. When Nemesis tried to pull her away the girl let out the loudest high pitched scream that echoed through the forest. The scream was filled with pain. But it didn't stay with one single scream it sounded like it just kept going. It might have been the most horrible sound a wolf ever let out.

Out of breath and dizzy she fell over her brother again. There was silence around her, and whether it was because actually everyone had gone silent after her scream or because her ears were muffled and she could not hear what was going on she did not know. The girl stared down to the ground clearly processing the fact that she lost her twin brother. Her sole connection.

Burke was quite relieved when he had Mikasi helping him with the cat and attacking the beast. Burke clenched down his jaw around the cat's neck. Kove joined too and with the new found confidence of having the pack's back up Burke was not going to let this cat live. He held down until he was startled by Kendra's loud scream. It was not even a howl, he was not even sure what kind of sound she was making. Burke had his head snapped up. But as soon as the cat started to struggle he bit down again, having to deal with another set of claws scraping over his skin. As soon as he did not feel a pulse that often he jumped off the cat and rushed to his son and daughter.

Burke was covered in scratches, most were superficial but they were still bleeding. Only one was deep, the one over his ribs. The large male stumbled forward, seeing how blankly his daughter was staring. This was his fault. He couldn't even raise two pups to adulthood. Maybe he had let them too free. He should have been there for them and now... one of them was dead. The weight of Meldresi death came hurling down. He never really dealt with her loss, he just kept on working. He wanted to be a solid leader for his pack and had selflessly gone on with working restlessly. No one he talked to, no one he had shared his own pain with. He had the feeling no one had even seen the pain he had been carrying. That pain he hid away bursted out and rushed through his body, feeding on the new pain of losing his son. The large male staggered down to the ground, maybe for once really starting to look older. His muzzle laying long that of his son, nudging it. "My son, how bravely you fought," he whispered so softly. He did not deserve his Guardian title if he could not even protect his own son. It was such a strange thought since he never doubted himself.

Death was a part of life, and it occurred all too often where pups were involved. Yet somehow one never expects it to happen to their own, Cicero noted when he looked from the side and watched the lifeless body of the boy who had recently begun to rebel against him. With a fond heart Cicero remembered when Pietro tried to get him to give him credits for 'keeping his secret', an unwanted boon given against will. So often he had watched Pietro and Kendra from the shadows and so little time had he actually spent by their sides. Yet Cicero did not want for that which he had lost, did not weep for the time that they had not yet. Instead he savoured that which they did have.

By the time he arrived, the mountain lion was as dead as Pietro's corpse. Cicero stared from the shadows of the forest, mismatched eyes finding Kendra's shaking body while Nemesis tried coaxing her off Pietro. He felt detached, like he had when Meldresi, his own mother, had died. There was a sadness somewhere deep inside of him, but Cicero did not know what to do with it, and so it remained somewhere deep inside. Cicero just stared at the gathering, at their grief, at their pain, and somehow tried to find some of his own pain in theirs; tried to feel something... Anything.

When the girl snapped, she hardly felt a thing inside. She shared the grief, and there was nothing else to feel. But Kendra.. this would ruin her. "Look at him Kendra! He is gone," She exclaimed, defeated. She had not expected the girl to break away from her brother's deceased form so easily, but she had to do something, or at least get her to come to terms with the fact that he was dead. No amount of pressure would make the wounds stop bleeding, it would stop on it's own when it did not flow. "He is your brother, and he will always be so. But you need to let him go," It was her job, and even though she had failed, she had promised to look out for them. 

"He was brave, but now he is with Meldresi," Her tone had calmed, as she began to pray to Sithis, like Meldresi had told her herself. 

"Sithis is Mephala's Consort. Keeper of the Void, where we all go when we die." 

She had not believed her, that there was some calm place over the rainbow. But in that moment, she begged it to be so. She turned away from the girl, leaving her to grieve. Instead, she turned to the broken corpse of the lion, with the utmost hatred she had ever experienced. "Fuck!" And she tore at it's neck, even though there was no pulse. The cat was stone cold, yet it's eyes haunted her with the deranged grin it had in it's ominous eyes. And so she cut them out too. By the time she had finished her rage tantrum, the thoughts had only grown. It's insides spilled out like Peitro's blood trickled from his body. She failed.

And then she was gone.

With three wolves on the cat, it was much easier to take down. As its life had drained, the scream that Kendra let out startled him. It was like nothing he ever heard. It shook him from the inside. Shot fear and grief through his body. Why out of all the wolves, did Pietro have to die?

 As soon as the cat was dead, Mikasi hurried to the broken body. The man could not gaze at the bloody mess for long. He turned his gaze, closing his eyes. It was a nasty mess. It was a brave and foolish act to fight the beast, but at least he was able to save his sister. If only they had been there early, maybe the boy would have a chance to live.

She had just returned to the forest when she heard the cry. She recognized the voice though she had just only heard it a few weeks ago, and the cry of anguish and despair crushed her heart. Potema dropped the fox she had taken from the Moonlit Hills wolf, forgetting her intentions as she ran towards the cry. Potema knew that she had a younger brother — a little boy named Pietro who to Kendra like Burke was to Meldresi. She didn't know the boy at all, nor did she know how close he was to everyone else, but she knew that she was her brother and nothing more.

Kendra's last scream reached her ears and Potema entered the silent scene, smelling the blood and the mountain lion. Nemesis had stormed away, her curse bitter and full of grief. She looked at the gathered wolves, then to the pool of blood in the center. Kendra laid draped over a small gray body, and Potema knew who had died. Pietro. The boy she never knew, gone. The white witch walked tentatively over to Kendra, assuming her duties as priestess, unaware of Kove's presence. Potema nosed the little gray body and spoke a prayer quietly, though in the silence it was loud enough for everyone to hear:

"Lord Sithis, bless this child who has arrived into the Void far too early. Bless him and keep him safe in your embrace. Bless him and allow him peace with Meldresi Melonii, his mother. Bless him and allow him to live without pain or fear for the rest of eternity. This I ask of you, Lord Sithis."

She didn't know how else to go on, and fell quiet then, letting the words ring and fade as she spoke them. She looked at Kendra, then at Burke, knowing they both would take this the hardest. She felt a pit of guilt in her stomach — why didn't she seek him out? Why didn't she try to meet her younger brother? Potema swallowed drily, tears unable to fall for someone she never knew, only feeling her throat close up slightly and her teeth chatter. They had to bury him. No, he must be interred in the same way as his mother — it was only fitting for a Prince of Blackfeather Woods.

She had arrived, but she lingered in the shadows, only allowing her head to show as she observed the scene. Quiet had, like a few of the others, just arrived from a trip, but she did not show herself, too late to help, too quiet to say any words of comfort like the white-clad woman had. She observed, as she always did, disconnected from their sorrow yet feeling sorry for doing so. Quiet blinked as Nemesis fled the scene, then shared a glance with Cicero. Like him she felt detached from the situation, and had a pit of guilt and sadness deep within them. But unlike him, she didn't have to be.

Kendra was still draped over Pietro when her father laid next to them and others came in closer. Nemesis rushed away but Kendra was so out of it herself that she barely noticed others coming closer or leaving. She was still staring at the ground before her, in shock that she had lot her dear brother. Her twin. Her connection, the only one that shared parts of her life with her since the start.

Her pale eyes looked unfocussed. The prayer was not heard and she didn't care to hear it. She lots her brother and life was completely unfair for her right now. The young female did not know what to do now. She could only think and grief about what she just lost.

Burke laid next to his son when others came closer. Kendra didn't look well, like she was frozen into place. Burke nudged her but it didn't seem to wake her up. The father was worried that she might die too of actual heart break. He knew how close they were, always together and playing. "Kendra," he spoke to her but it didn't seem to come through. He looked at Potema and then sat down next to his daughter and the corpse of his son. He had the feeling that pulling her away from him would only make it worse.

He was a therapist or liked to think of himself as one. He sat by her and then looked at the other's clear grief was in his eyes too. "Leave us," he spoke. He would wait with her, until she was ready to let him go and bring him to his mother. Now he really needed a good burial spot for the both of them. Maybe by the keep he had planned to move Meldresi too. The one he would be placed in when he would leave his earth.

He gave a short nod to Burke when he told them to leave. Mikasi had not spoken a word since he came and wouldn't do so now. He was afraid that if he spoke, he would say the wrong thing and offend someone.

 Mikasi turned away, giving one last glance before walking off.