Dragoncrest Cliffs But the things I've seen in Scarlet Town did mortify my soul

@Rosencrantz

The cliffs still did not feel like home to Raleska. Often, she would gaze longingly at the realm below; picturesque in its neat smallness from such high heights. Her true home within arm's length and yet so far away.

She'd taken to scouting the perimeters often, reinforcing them with the savage pride of a conqueror. Every piss on the borders was a blatant FUCK YOU to the ghosts of Drageda, to the wolves on the slope nearby -- a constant, steady stream of middle fingers augmented into yellow and acrid urine.

Finishing her patrol, Raleska headed for the blunt cliff that overlooked Ankyra Sound. More than one thing troubled her today -- but most salient in her line of thinking was, why the fuck did she smell Rosencrantz?

Well Raleska, I will tell you why you could smell that man here now. It was because the snowy titan had been wandering their borders as usual, glancing over the cliffside to appreciate the vastness of the ocean and as usual - ignoring the island that still brought him some grief a year later. The heaviness of his heart had faded in time, hatred still festered at the feeling of the woman's games, but the wound was slowly fading as a feeling of indifference eventually would scab over.

He paid no mind to the little seafarer as he crossed her path. They had rarely met other than the one challenge he had issued a while ago to take her rank - such a feeling was gone now with no need for a higher than these days as he felt the respect of his packmates wouldn't come no matter what he did. All the archangel had to do was continue to serve the wives, the ones who he had any respect for in the pack for now, and the only ones that truly mattered other than the puppies in their care. 

So as the young dark woman crossed his path along the cliffside, he offered only a glance before wishing to move on with his own patrols. He had no opinion of her after all.

Raleska hadn't forgotten her interactions with Rosencrantz. While they had been few, they had largely been poor. First, he had usurped her rank in Rusalka -- and if that defeat was not enough, he had somehow managed to nettle his way into her adoptive mothers lives, fuck them, and then leave.

Little could rank Raleska more than that -- it wasn't just that he was a wolf possessed of the wrong gender. It was that he was a wolf who had used his gender against them - either unwittingly or deliberately didn't matter to the Rusalkan who had seen enough of men to last several thousand lifetimes.

What rankled her more than seeing him again, was the fact he scarcely gave her more than a glance before continuing his way. Raleska gave an honest attempt to decipher what that meant, but Raleska's mind was poisoned by bitterness and paranoia. To her, that glance could only mean two things: that he felt contempt for her and was avoiding her, or that he felt disrespect for her and was showing it by ignoring his packmate.

Neither of these assumptions sat right with Raleska, and that little act was potent enough to barb deep under her skin.

She followed after him, measuring his stride with her long legs. After deliberately placing her paw inside his pawprint, Raleska looked upon the disunited face of her packmate with yellow eyes that were remarkably flat and mean. "Funny running into you here." Raleska commented, nothing in her tone suggesting the venom which lingered underneath. "It's about that time Erzulie and Rosalyn go into season again..." Her gaze flitted to Ankyra briefly -- where had he defiled her mothers in that expansive territory? "Is that why you're back? To fuck them and then leave them with your kids?"

He didn't expect them to talk. Of all the members, the dark pelted girl was the one who seemed to be the least chatty, uninterested in anything but herself - and he could respect that to a certain point he supposed. However, today was different apparently. Her trailing him could be heard and tattered ears focused in on her by shifting their position on his head.

Today, she spoke to him. For the first time in a personal one on one conversation, and the underlying venom in her tone was enough to bring a sour disposition to his face. He liked her better when she avoided everyone - especially him. Your season is coming too, is it not? He chose not to answer her. His reason for being here was none of Raleska's business, only the wives had a say in his being here and not some angsty girl who had her own blame to carry from last year's breeding season.

Still without offering a glance in her direction, Are you going to run off and come back with a belly full of young again? That's right, he was aware of her little adventure last year. He and Rosalyn spoke when her scent left the borders. Concern faded onto annoyance and even more so now. Will you burden them with your brood again? After all, Erzulie did tell him that all the children here saw her and Rosalyn as their mothers... that was enough to explain what had happened.

Raleska stood before Rosencrantz with a dark scowl on her features. Her lips were tight lined as he avoided her question, opting instead to ask of her own season. "Why you asking? You wanna fuck me too?" Raleska shot back instantly, her riposte lashing with the pointed edge of a viper's fang.

All of Raleska's smugness handling so deft a blow faded away as Rosencrantz spoke to her of her own misdeeds. Her scowl transformed into something raw and ugly -- her eyes lost their hard lines and melted into hurt. How did he know? That was supposed to be a secret -- as far as Raleska knew, only Erzulie and Rosalyn held the truth to their heart. Had they told him?

How could they?

Rosencrantz's well-aimed spear thrust through her heart. The trust she had built for her surrogate mothers began to wither away, replaced then by a deep sense of irrevocable betrayal. They had told him and in doing so, had broken the last good thing Raleska felt she had in her life.

Her muzzle twisted into a snarl. "You fucking arrogant piece of shit." She had almost died that day that she delivered her children. She had wanted to leave them to drown in Ankyra, so they were no one's burden -- how was she supposed to know strangers and friends of old would come and save her, and by proxy, them? She hadn't been any more fit to raise them than a rock -- and it had taken months for her to heal. Knowing this, Raleska had forfeited her children -- who the fuck was he to come in and point fingers at her? She had stayed, at least. She had never left Rusalka.

Raleska felt her hold on her brimming anger slipping. Without thinking of the repercussions, Raleska lunged for Rosencrantz's disfigured face in a bid for his remaining eye. She hoped he spent the rest of fucking eternity in blackness, with his last vision being her ugly face come to send him into ruination.

I have no interest in 'fucking' a child. Or someone who acted as one in his eye. He mocked her chosen words, hoping that that itself would be enough to dismiss her and leave him alone. But he wasn't so lucky.

And just like the wild child she was, Raleska was quick to insult and lunge. Naturally, she aimed for his only remaining eye, something he had grown all too accustomed to and instinctively turned his face in defense to offer the already mauled side. He wouldn't lose his sight to some bratty child, not here, not now. 

To be talked down to by someone who came and went on a whim, at their own leisure. If memory served him well, which it normally did, Raleska was also gone to search for her mother around this time last year. Maybe earlier than the dead of winter, but an approximation at least. She was a hypocrite, a spiteful shrew. It was members like this who made it hard for him to respect anyone in the pack other than the wives and maybe... maybe some of the newer members (not thinking of the pups since they are an extension to Rozulie for now).

To bare his fangs against Raleska would only prove to be disastrous for him in the end he was sure. With all this hate, what was to stop her from lying to the wives in order to destroy his reputation? Even as fangs raked the puckered and hardened flesh of never healing wounds, he simply backed away for now, growling a warning to the spitfire.

Raleska hoped for a fight, anything to keep fueling the anger she felt by his words. He had no right to sling insults towards her, the one constant in Rusalka-Now-Sapphique besides the wives -- in Raleska's eyes, Rosencrantz had done himself (and her) a great disservice by being so callous.

Expecting submission given her assertive lunge, Raleska's eyes lit with challenge as she heard him growl. To growl at a wolf higher ranked was insubordination, and insolent at best. It didn't matter if he was right or not, it didn't matter if she was hypocritical or being a bitch -- to Raleska, growling back was paramount to the wolven middle finger.

Her eyes blazed as she closed the distance between them, tail rising and teeth bared in assertion. He could submit and fuck off, or he could fight back -- but Raleska was not going to let his disrespect of her slide to the wayside.

He would do neither. Forced to play defense, he simply kept his guard up and hoped for the young woman to walk away and leave him be. He would keep hoping as much even as she simply grew more agitated and lunged for him once more, there was no contact other than the silent demand to submit - and he refused. The guardian simply stood his ground and didn't flinch or move on his position. Should she attack once more, he would defend himself with only the required amount of force and nothing more. He would not be caught by this wretched girl as a danger for fellow pack members should that be her plan... 

His eye burned with defiance, gums stretched in his own vicious display that his warning kept ringing out in the cold air around them letting out a pale plume flutter from his maw. He would not continue the battle, but he would definitely not let her bulldoze over him either simply because she was unhappy with his presence and disagreed with Erzulie and Rosalyn for being accepted back. 

It wasn't her choice to make after all.