Swiftcurrent Creek pack activity · fight or flight

Ahh you guys are too fast - didn't get a juicy post for Tuwa! She was still hanging around... but I think this is my last post & finishes the thread? She'll find Jinx again soon.

Blood continued to seep out Njal's gouged brow despite Tuwawi's urgent care. Unaffected by his spouse's efforts, smaller trails trickled down the length of his temple defiantly as if they were incognito, pretending to be tiny scarlet rivers cutting through his fur. She worked tirelessly, but her husband wavered and ushered her away; shifting their attention to their leader who now straddled the lion's body in a fit of rage. Njal was right — deep gashes oozed on her side, glistening with a certain wetness only blood possessed. Her grey eyes flickered back to her mate, but he had already shuffled away into the treeline. Tuwawi lingered indecisively. Should she follow him? A moment passed. No — Njal was a dutiful man and she shared his objectives. So, the exhausted woman crept closer to her alpha, unaware that the decision to let Njal slip away would haunt the Sveijarns for many restless moons to come.

For now, the chore of tending to the others spurred Tuwawi to step towards her leader. Fox moved in a staccatoed and unpredictable way as she stood upon the felled beast to land consecutive violent attacks. The two grew close, with all intentions to treat Fox as she had Njal, but a chalky body writhed in the corner of Tuwawi's gunmetal sight. It spun her focus to fall upon the downed body, and caused alarm to retch her gut in two.

Horror couldn't describe the emotion that electrified Tuwawi next. There, Jinx laid hunched. Deep wounds drained life without pause or remorse, her snowy fur saturated with rich crimson from neck to groin. However, worse was the dank scent of birth which wafted in the cougar's absence. Amniotic fluid stained the ground where the bodies of Jinx's prematurely birthed children laid in eternal sleep; thrust into the world before their time... still covered in membrane. Tuwawi immediately sunk to the ground, tail feathered tightly between her legs, bewildered by the sight.

No longer did she see Jinx as the perverse Mambo of Shearwater, but rather as a mother who had suffered an unimaginable loss. There were many ways to invent torture upon one's enemies... but not even Tuwawi wished for a fate this cruel. A low whine warbled in her throat as she crawled on her belly, ebbing closer and closer to the bleeding mother and her miscarried babes. Yet Jinx would not receive her, and so Tuwawi was forced to retreat though she did so unwillingly. Fox stumbled away, shortly followed by Haunter who had the foresight to usher the young urchin, Bones, as well. A sad light mingled in Tuwawi's gaze as she laid pinned and breathless. Something intangible lingered between them... something only a woman could understand... Yet, Jinx's guest managed to reluctantly remove herself from the clearing to find her husband, leaving before Jinx had begun the gruesome task to dispose of the small bodies which had never had the chance to seen the sun.