Ankyra Sound [VS] I tried to kill the pain, I bought some wine and hopped a train

A challenge for @Firefly for leadership! (I'd like her to lose, though, so no roll necessary! Just want/need this for char development.) <3

No. It couldn't be true.

The howl that shook through the forest was enough to cause Raleska's blood to chill. It was impossible, untenable. Had her mother's howl not precipitated the usurper's, Raleska would have believed the wolf that howled was simply delusional.. but she knew her mother's voice...

And she knew the howl of The Usurper.

Raleska broke into a furious trot, pacing through the trees and towards the strand. Her fur was on end and a wild look hounded her eyes, baring a sliver of white which rimmed her fuming gaze. She looked crazed, even rabid as she made her way towards her mother and her betrayer. The howl informed her that her mother had been deposed, after all she had done for Rusalka. It brought the girl's blood to a frothy boil.

Raleska would avenge her mother. She would show The Usurper how wrong he was to ever lay fangs on her mother - she would deliver Caiaphas to triumph, and restore to Rusalka its rightful ruler.

He did not know what to expect following his call. Maybe Illidan would appear and congratulate him? Sure, he'd just ousted the boy's mother, but it hadn't been a malicious act. It was time for a younger generation to make the Sound great again take control of things. Maybe one of the women would appear and praise him for his strength, his virility. He felt good, regardless of who showed up.

Except when the girl came careening from the forest, as if the ritual of passing the mantle and singing to the sea had brought forth this demon; Raleska came for him, livid, practically feral (more-so than her mother, surprisingly). To what end? She held a challenge in her gait, imbibed with a youthful rage he should have recognized and appreciated, but Firefly did not say a word as the girl came at him - he merely stepped aside, unwilling to engage.

HEY, he bellowed, but even as the sound boomed from his chest he knew she would not hear him; he moved again, easily evading her ragged attempts to assail him and pointedly remarked, Kid, the fuck're you trying to do? He couldn't help it as his tone shifted to something snide, surprised she would do anything as brazen as this, but then... Firefly didn't know her that well.

Raleska wasn't having it. She wasn't going to take his dancing around her either. No, she was going to rip Firefly a new one -- give him a complimentary scar so that both sides of his face could be equally ugly.

She snarled and hurled herself at him - once, twice, thrice - each time he evaded pulled away, evading her attempts at vengeance. She would not stand for this - she would not see her mother's honor sullied, or her rightful rule taken out from under her. Caiaphas had made a home out of nothing, and here Firefly was, a Johnny-Come-Lately, to steal the show?

No, she wouldn't abide by it.

"I'm challenging you. Fight like a man." Her eyes flashed as she met Firefly's gave, her fur bristling.

Raleska lunged again with a snarl, ignoring Firefly's outrage. Her only focus was avenging her mother, maybe in the hope that Caiaphas might finally look kindly upon her. She would never forgive her mother for losing to Firefly, and she would never forgive Firefly either - but maybe she could, in doing this, restore what she thought was the rightful balance in Rusalka.

Although he dodged her unrefined attacks, she did not let up. Her stamina was impressive and made him think she'd be a good asset if she was trained properly - but that was a blip, and then it was gone from his mind. Her demand for him to fight was fueled by her rage so he wouldn't take it personally; Raleska was obviously taking the overthrowing of her mother very personally or she wouldn't be here, and Firefly wouldn't hold that against her.

If she wanted him to fight, he'd fight.

It was over pretty quickly after that. A couple more dodges to lift her ire to its limit, and then a feint, and he plunged towards her with one smooth movement to try and knock her off-balance. Whichever way she attempted to dodge would be met with his teeth, but even then Firefly wasn't going to do harm; much as the brat was irritating him with her overly emotional response to his ascension, she was still part of Rusalka, part of his family. His respect for her mother prevented him from doing anything too dire. His teeth gripped at her throat within moments and he drove her down in to the sand, pinning her the way he'd done to Caiaphas - and then he waited.

Raleska may have been Caiaphas' daughter, but she did not have the woman's skill in her craft. Firefly, after a few easy parries with his jaws, sent her tumbling to the floor.

A flashback then, of blurring red..

Blixen's teeth on her neck..

A scintillating arc of blood, against cold stone. His eyes, going soft, dimming.

"NO!" Raleska yelled, her ferocity suddenly renewed. She wrenched hard as she could to free herself, struggling against the phantoms of her own traumatic memory that told her erroneously the jaws of her packmate were the hungering maws of her enemy. She wasn't Raleska any longer, she was a cornered animal -- with spittle flying the girl backed up and broke from Firefly's grasp, a new burst of snarls rumbling from her throat.

Firefly was reacting to her challenge with some care as he did not intend to harm a child, let alone the child of someone like Caiaphas whom he admired so fiercely. He thought it was over. That she would slink off to nurse her emotional wounds, maybe, and everything would be concluded. Except that wasn't what happened — rather, she reacted to his teeth at her throat and appeared to dissolve in to a puddle of fright, uncontrollable and feral. 

He reacted to that without thinking because he was so shocked by the abrupt shift of her behavior - his tail arched across his back and he, without thinking or meaning to, removed his teeth from her throat but roared right back at her, devolving almost instantaneously to a creature intent on forcing the issue of his dominance. He met her growling and her fear with his determination, and loomed over her with a grimace, using his body to get his point across.

It was over so quickly, but Raleska wasn't done. She was pinned and soundly beaten, but she would not forgive Firefly for usurping her mother, for masterfully dominating her. With a snarl she hauled herself out from under the wolf, met his gaze with a scathing look for one moment, and then promptly beat out of there to find her mother.

She would not linger where she had been defeated -- she would regroup and calculate how to turn this to her advantage. Perhaps that, more than anything, showed the world she was Caiaphas' daughter through and through.