Duskfire Glacier if thine is the glory

kekekeke. i like chaos. i'm sorry. for the record he's alive.

wintersbane watched the storm clouds roll along the horizon, growing darker and darker until the afternoon looked like it was blanketed nearly by night. the air sizzled with lightening that streaked along the sky; thunder shaking the rocks under foot. his pace is steady; undeterred by rain that pelts him, quickly soaking through his thickening winter coat. he doubts he will find any stragglers out but with the wind and the rain distracting scents he is determined to keep to his patrol all the same.

the air around him dances electric; the air tasting metallic, his guard hairs standing on end along his spine. he can feel it zip across his skin and then came the flashing light —

bright as an exploding star, he sees a rapidly fading silhouette and then nothing but light —

and the pain as the lightening courses along his skin, through his body; searing and burning and rending flesh and fur —

and then the world goes black.

Let me know if I need to change anything!

 

Rain, rain, rain and more rain. It was not a huge bother, many a night did the woodland man travel in the cold, wet rain but the aura of his home felt gloomy. The usual beauty of the sun casting God rays through the colored leaves that adorned the trees was gone. In its place, muck, sludge and sickly grey slush coating the ground as water carried dirt and debris into their lands, then of course the sharp black that hovered over him. Rye wouldn't call it a pleasant day, even before he set out to speak with the Alpha of the Glacier about his daughter. It was damn near impossible to track the leader through the muddled scent, drowning in the rain much like the hotahs pelt, which only added to the difficulty as he could partially smell himself. All the dirt of days before being thoroughly washed from his skin as the rain bombarded him with such ferocity, such hatred. 
The trail began strengthening, a stable line to follow to his leader had formed. Rye thought surely it was only a matter of a few hundred feet, his pace quickened but as abruptly as the lightning formed was he halted in his tracks. The clash of earth and heavenly power boomed in his chest, rattling his hearts cage and seemingly shaking the floor below. Its power ripped fear through his core and for the moment, he waited in place. Minutes later a smell danced across the mans nose, frighteningly familiar, Rye checked his body to see where he had been burned but was surprised to see nothing. Not a tuft of fur out of place. The smell, burned flesh. A smell painful to remember, the burn mark on his leg throbbed as he tried to figure out why the had smell returned. To haunt him? Curiosity pushed Rye forward as links began to form. Wintersbane. Faster.  The lightning. Go faster! The smell. Run, faster! What were the odds? They cannot be so high, surely. 
The scene was everything he feared, charred skin, exposed delicate flesh and melded fur amongst it all. The aftermath of horror unfurling before his eyes, unyielding to the rawness of Winters situation. Ryes head lifted, his muzzle howling for help, fear stricken, but he wondered how far his voice would carry amongst the anger of the sky. Perhaps it was hatred after all.   

Her nerves had been frazzled lately. Worn raw, over fretting of how to control her violent daughter. Tzila had promised Lane and some of the others that she would speak personally with Wintersbane on the matter.

Today, she set out across the harsh, dark terrain to make good on that promise. Little did she know her foreseen conversation would never come. Not one to be in the least bit deterred by inclement weather, she sought out his trail. Closed in, steadily. She took some solace in knowing that their boys were growing well, never giving their parents any alarming behavioral issues.

Her silver eyes flicked up to follow the dazzling zig zag patterns of lightning across the night like cloud cover. The crash of thunder that shook the earth below her was largely ignored. Those who knew her well knew that Tzila was equally as fierce as her counterpart. Though, when a brilliant flash of light temporarily blinded her, followed by the gut churning stench of iron, blood and burnt fur and flesh, her blood froze.

The following moments, or perhaps seconds, were a blur. Before she even realized it, she was there, barreling in and accidentally shoving Rye aside while she stood protectively over the body of her fallen husband. Looking him over, she could find nothing that was untouched. She wondered if he could recover from this. Her eyes were too blurry with tears to see the true extent of the damage.

Rye and anybody else who were there were tuned out. All of she could think of was Wintersbane and the fate of their future. Between choked sobs, she whimpered. "No no, no." Gingerly, she nudged his chin to try to rouse him. "You can't...don't leave me...us..." Distantly, her anger stirred. It shifted as she thought to her daughter. If Makatza showed up now and tried to pull any shit, she would receive the full brunt of her mother's wrath.

The sky was dark. Almost like midnight.
Eldritch was trying to get some rest, wait out the storm...

A piercing howl ripped through the air. A cry for help.
Quickly, Eldritch launched from the floor of her cavern home and sprinted through the storm without stop. She followed the fresh pawprint trail and skidded to a halt beside Rye, her white eyes looking to Tzila and a fallen Wintersbane.
The carnage from the lightning strike was dire, she knew that much. 

Above the storm, Eldritch called to Winter's mate.
"We need to get him to shelter, @Tzila! It's too risky to stay out here!" 

Makatza, the topic on everyone's lips, was following her father into the storm. She had never cared much for being told what to do or where to go, today was no different. She saw her father leave and she followed a few paces behind him. She had trouble keeping up in the storm, she fell further and further behind as the storm raged on. She pinned her ears as a harsh wind with rain and a thunder rumbling loudly began taking hold. She wanted to go home, but not without her father. She began to run as thunder rumbled and the sky turned black.

She could barely make out his figure in the distance when the lightening hit. Like a deafening explosion she could feel it, taste it and most definitely see it. It struck the ground with force and might and she fell to the ground when it began shaking around her. She lost her balance and she quickly rose again only to discover the figure of her father was gone. She felt her heart beat, faster, faster. She felt fear. A big emotion for someone of her age, for someone who always had struck fear in others.

She could smell blood. "Dad!" She was screaming, calling like a siren. "DAD!" again. No reply. She saw her mother and Rye move quickly to the scene and she ran too. She ran as fast as her legs would carry her and then she came upon the scene. She felt nothing but emptiness, nothing but a hollow pain in her chest.

He was lying there with her mother protecting her, Rye calling for help, a black female came as well, asking that he was carried to shelter. Makatza could not hear much of what was said, the storm was raging on. Like the storm weather her inside was torn up, shattered and destroyed. She ran forward and pushed Rye away, just like her mother had done. She stood with a horrid expression on her face as she looked at her father.

"no." It was nothing but a whisper. A silent whisper as she looked at her mother with tearful eyes. Makatza had never cried before. Through her childhood she had never once gone to tears like she did now. She began breathing in small hiccups. "Mom is daddy going to die?" She couldn't bear it, couldn't contain it in her heart to know her father might not survive. Whatever her mother told her she cried. She wailed like a child being ripped from its teat, she was shaking madly as she could do nothing but cry.

After a few more minutes of crying and hiccups, she was able to contain it within. She swallowed it, swallowed the hollow feeling within and buried it deep within. No matter how much she cried it wasn't going to change circumstances. She might as well save it for later, might as well hold up her emotions, burry them deep within for later.

She quickly moved to help get him up and out of the weather. He wasn't going to live lying here. She wasn't big or fully grown, but she was going to help him no matter what. If anyone tried to push her away she would growl. Now was not the time to tell her to back off. "Where should we take him?" She looked at the black female who had told them to get him to shelter. She might have an idea of a nearby den they could bring him to.

While everything went on a tiny voice within the back of her mind began propping. It was small, almost not there. But she heard it, and she ignored it. She wouldn't think of it now as it whispered: This is our chance.