Herbalists' Cache cen

dark fang does not wait.
sun eater gives the word and the beast in him answers. kill. it rips through his skull, drives his limbs forward like fire in his blood. his movement is immediate.
watching with flamebright eyes when sun eater’s wife snaps around and goes for him. teeth clapping. fire, she hits sun eater and for one heartbeat, everything freezes in his chest.
rage floods him.
no! he bellows, voice cracking open to the bone. he lunges after her, after the blur of her white fur vanishing into snow.
but others scatter—runners. a cataclysmic melting of the situation and the hunter’s mind goes into a wild fray.
traitors! he screams, voice raw, frantic.
he turns sharp, legs coiled. meleys! he roars, searching for her form. hunt!
his jaws snap, wild, maddened, breath smoking in the cold. catch pup-thieves! kill the rest!
the commands to take and steal his kin are hot. he finds the bloodhunter traitor and sees him.
dark fang surges forward, planting himself between the bloodhunter and the den. his body shakes with fury, teeth bared in a twisted, evil grin. red eyes lock onto @Ksura like a curse.
you die if touch bloodkin, bloodhunter.

It is all so fast.

A white blur in and out of the den; Sulukinak stepping aside as her uncle goes forward; the shouting of Morwenna—

She moves from Meleys and along the wall, to the den; lunging inside to grab a body. Are there others doing the same?

Too fast.

Sulukinak had placed herself so close on purpose, in the shadow of her aunt, and now teeth sought the nearest dark body—Ghenaya.

In, out; but could she extricate herself from this before the chaos swallowed her? There were others at her heel. The urge to clamp down those teeth around new flesh was hard to resist—

But the goal was removal, not harvest, not death. Take, run, find safety. Sulukinak felt the fat body of the child hanging like a rabbit from her teeth and ran.

morwenna's order is all the woman needed. keep them at bay. she would try her best, or she would die fighting; and she could only pray that ishmira, other shore, and her queen would make it out alive. with no fear in her heart and only the age-old call of battle; she struck. launching herself from her statuesque hold to soar at meleys. she would made do of her promise; she would rip the woman's tongue from her fucking jaws. 

her snarl is a guttural thing. untamed, filled with her wrath. her vision tunneled and targeted on her prey. muscles coil and ripple beneath her cinnamon pelt. jaws opened and only closing when she crashes against meleys, teeth sinking into the flesh of her shoulder. piercing, tearing; she would greedily swallow the blood that rushes past her tongue to flood her throat.

should she die today, she would do so with open arms, as death was a foe she did not fear. but she'd be damned if she wasn't taking one of these lanzadoii with her.

Other Shore could not tell if Star Eater had said too much or too little, or just enough. But there was a spark, and - in a blink - it had become a wildfire.

She heard one name. Ghenaya.

And then - too late. Another dark body reached the child before she had slipped far enough to find the pup. She had not made it far enough into the den, and Ghenaya was gone.

No - ! Too late! Dammit, too late! TOO LATE!

Eyes locked onto the figure, and Other Shore lunged at the Lanzadoii woman, sprinting, running, as chaos and horror alike dawned upon her. She heard a snarl rip past her ear, and the surging of bodies and blood - but all she had in sight was Ghenaya.

And now, Ghenaya, too, was disappearing.

Other Shore let out an involuntary screech - GHENAYA! SOMEBODY HELP! - and hoped someone would heed her desperate call as she pelted after the woman.

Something was about to break; the pack stood precariously close to a breaking point, and he felt the glimmer of hope that he’d had for a successful, peaceful departure slowly become snuffed. 

He tried to remain calm while he hovered near Sun Eater, his request lost as words began to fly. His head jerked up suddenly at the mention of the word Sheep. His ears perked for only a second, triggered by the mention of his favourite word before he sank back into reality. A reality where the next word uttered was Kill! and it came from the Chieftan. 

He braced himself- eyes darting to the den of the mouth where the pale Ishmira had attempted to make off with a child- only to be pursued by Sun Eater. And there, he made eye contact with Morwenna, who pulled the trigger on their escape plan.

Words he had secretly uttered to both @Kekoa and Morwenna would now be put into action- had they been able to depart peacefully, it might have gone much more smoothly when they would have had only Sivaak and her escorts to contend with- but that option was dismissed the moment Morwenna and all those who helped her were labelled as traitors. 

Darkness moved to shroud the den, and the threat Ksura dreaded the most stepped into his path and challenged him. 

He levelled his gaze, knowing the only way to grab C’ede’ would be to get through, or past the man. And while he summoned the courage to fight, he bellowed out the word, angrily.
RACCOON! 
This wasn’t a wolf. It was a raccoon, a tangly creature. It was a stick. It was a sheep. It was a caribou- it was something manageable. He took the man’s challenge, and broke through the distance between them, pushing off with legs that could launch the wolfdog metres in the air if they had to. His alligator-jaws snapped with percussive chops  that he aimed to muffle by burying them in the man’s shoulder. 

As for “raccoon”
It wasn’t just for visualization.
It was a cue.

disregard

Meleys and Dark Fang stand side by side. Sulukinak speaks up, taking place at Meleys open side as they stand united. As Lanzadoii. Though they may bicker and fight for dominance among one another, among the face of outsiders they should stand united. Morweena shouod stand united with her family. A family she had chosen, had made. Not the one she had no choice, and left. 

A laughter, a mock from cousin Black Hawk as she speaks poorly against younger brother once more. Meleys did not speak often, yet she was elder. She would speak. Yet of all the scowls, posturing and words, Black Hawk does not back these things up with action when the woman Meleys calls her out on it. Meleys would not make this same mistake. Black Hawk threatened. Meleys retorted with fangs. 

Kill. The word was spoken and Meleys charged, her target already having been made. Hunt!, it was screamed. Now she would hunt. 

Two bodies collided as they bull rushed towards one another. They younger hunter sinking teeth and tearing into her shoulder. Meleys does not allow herself to pull away from the attack. Instead, while Black Hawk is focused on tearing at her shoulder, Meleys tucks her neck in, chin down and turns her jaws into the other woman's direction. She seeks the side of the woman's face which is so very near, to tear and rip eye from socket.

there is searing pain, met with a growl that's torn from the depths of hawk's throat. teeth grazing her eye as she rips her head back; blood filling her vision. and still, she does not falter. still, she lunges for another bite. a bulwark steadfast, determined to fell the woman she collides with. blood be damned; hawk cannot find it within herself to care. 

metallic ichor drains from her now shut-eye as she lunges forward again. jaws snapping, spittle fyling. wrath that was once dormant, now bubbling to the surface. guiding the battle-hardened woman to keeping fighting. teeth snap to find the woman's muzzle, sinking through flesh. gripping, thrashing.

she would not fail again.

no posting order <3 PP w permission, left it open ended

time moved fast. time moved in the slow puddinglike quality of a dream. he saw morwenna's mouth shape words, understood at last, too late, that her defiance had taken utter root among his sun clan. 

she was ordering them, ordering her wolves as if this had been rehearsed.

snarling erupted; meleys engaging black hawk. other shore's cries. 

dark fang's shouts.

his own teeth were cutting for ishmira, his large strength dragging her down against the earth. sun eater bludgeoned, twisting bites and yanking fur from its moorings; he would be single-minded in intent until she released his son.

his! his! he had been barred from the den, and that he had respected. but all the while morwenna had planned an uprising. there was no reason to believe she had not run to darukaal to begin it, yet he must process this later.

his!
and all the while, disbelief. black hawk he had already known, but ishmira, other shore, even ridgeback? sun eater had been foolish.

never again.

and there must be again.

he sawed his head to and fro, cutting as deeply as he was able; blood slid between his teeth.

and like a rabbit flushed from its burrow, she is caught by the neck.

blood pours from fresh-cut wounds. sun eater is relentless, ripping tufts of fur by the roots in a frenzy. he is a madman, hellbent, forcing her facedown into the dirt. she tucks her chin to avoid slamming the child against the ground, eyes squeezed shut.

and then he has her by the back of the neck, shaking like she is caught prey. shredding. ishmira's instincts tell her to let go, to scream. plead submission at the man's feet and pray he grants her mercy. but morwenna has given her an order. take caan, run, keep him safe.

and so she does not let go, even as his teeth flay her flesh.

panic!
it was all around her.

snarling. teeth gnashing, blood spraying. bodies, colliding. the shouting of a voice some distance behind her — ghenaya!

her grip was too tight on the babe, she could taste blood and the copper was a shock to her system. then, she nearly dropped the little body—thankful when she didn't.

long limbs r e a c h i n g to devour
marshland, leaving the fighting behind and, hopefully, the bellows of pursuit.

exit! will continue in next thread.

he erupts.
the bloodhunter comes like a storm and dark fang meets him head-on, snarling, laughing—grinning like a beast loosed from hell. not one step is taken back. not one breath is spared. he will fight, fight like he has not fought before!
he will find thrill, the greatest of thrills. this man is no bloodhunter, and he is an excuse for even a man. he is weak, weak! he did not stand to fight, instead siding with the traitors! he is not saatsine! and for that, dark fang would shred and thresh his flesh.
his voice cracks open in a bark. i kill you, bloodhunter! dark fang promises. weak man! he bellows. and as teeth burrow into his shoulder, there seems to be no pain felt; at least, no show of it. instead, he only grins and cackles maniacally, turning on ksura with a fervor.
dark fang twists. teeth meeting flesh. he sinks low, head ducked, and drives forward with all the bulk and madness of a bull, jaws snapping for the underside of ksura’s jaw—aiming to crush the soft flesh there, to rip the voice from his throat.

chaos reigned.
it tore through the birthing place like a storm through dry bone—shouts, screams, snarls. blood already on the wind. her children were here. their cries pierced her ears, a song of terror, and her heart split open with it.
she had tried to run. but she did not go far. in the outskirts she had dug, hard and fast, and let fa'liya slip down with the caribou hide upon her shoulders. wrapped in furs, she planted a kiss, before returning to her snow shelter.
no! morwenna snapped, her voice thunder through the madness, searching, frantic, for each small soul she had birthed in pain and now would kill to protect.
but the smell—blood. she turned sharply.
ishmira—! her voice cracked as she saw the woman thrown down like carrion, sun eater ripping into her, shredding with blind rage. the bastard, the monster, his own blood in her jaws and he didn’t care. didn’t see. couldn’t stop.
morwenna launched.
she was muscle and instinct, teeth bared as she surged across the battlefield. she caught the scent of ridgeback in the corner of her mind, the snap of black hawk’s jaws clashing with meleys. others fought. but this was hers.
her babies. her wolves. her war.
she hurled herself at the tangle of blood and fur that was sun eater, going not for his shoulders but low—lower—seeking to unbalance, to drive her shoulder beneath his ribs and heave. get him off. get him off her. then, to snap her teeth at the soft flesh of his belly.
there was no crown here. no elegance. no matriarch.
only a mother. and the mother was done waiting.

Ksura’s conviction became shaken not in anticipation of pain, but when he saw the man he charged grinning in anticipation of their match. The blow of weight and teeth that was intended to shove Dark Fang at least a stride to the side failed completely, and the wolfdog slammed into fur, bone and muscle that was as as hard as rock. 

It was as anticipated; a full blooded wolf would have the edge over him- all he could rely on was his quick reaction time, that sheepdog instinct that made him capable of predicting a kick or headbutt moments before it happened. 

He tasted the man’s blood where his fangs did little but prick the skin beneath the man’s dense fur. He withdrew his hold the moment he felt the muscles pull tight, knowing the man meant to return the punishment. He heard a cackle, and felt his heart drop.

He skip-hopped backwards, snapping jaws warding the man off from the purchase that he’d intended, and felt the rip of soft flesh being torn in a long, bloody strip from the point of his shoulder up the side of his neck to his jawline, where it snapped and left behind exposed muscle and sinew in a long, thin, pink strip that began to well with blood only a moment later, thick, bright, and orangish-red in contrast with dark fur, white snow. 

So easily flayed was the skin of a wolfdog whose jaws were truly no match.

Raccoon! He belted again, his voice breaking in anguish as he began a boxer’s dance, hoping to keep enough space for himself, only to realize that his plan had failed.

There was no sign of Kekoa, and he knew couldn’t do this on his own. Snarls lifted from all around, and Ksura crouched, tail tucked, as he sent a glance in each direction to see the clamour of bodies and spray of blood. 

It was too much. It was all too much- and he was no match for it. He sought his escape route, and made a bid for an exit, dodging and weaving as he went.

Morweena was running with a child, only to come back to the defense of the pale yearling as brother Cen torn into her in order to get her to release her son. Drop him, drop him!, Meleys mind would scream. She was doing the child more harm then good by letting the child thrash around in her jaws as she was thrashed. The chieftan wanted only his children and they were in the way. 

Their cousin was long gone, having ran with another to safety. To keep Lanzadoii pups as they were. To not be taken from their home and customs. Dark Fang's target was fleeing as quickly as he arrived now. Where was C'ede'!? 

Meleys did not have the luxury of time in order to look, for even as she had caused Black Hawk to stagger back in pain, she was charging forward again, one eye closed as blood pooled from it. Meleys tried to dodge and turn, so that way she could remain on the traitor's blinded side. 

Teeth ravaged her. A flurry of them and as cousin sought her muzzle, it was met with open jaws of Meleys as they clashed and clicked against one another. Meleys arces further, the phantom wolf dropping then low and then suddenly back up again, aiming to use her shoulder (the uninjured one) to smack into the underside of Black Hawk's muzzle. It is with this same momentum do her jaws seek out the underside of the woman's neck - exposed, if her maneuver was successful.

chaos. this is chaos. snarls, the snap of jaws, the cries of agony—it seems the war had already begun, without the help of the clan in the glacier her cousins were so afraid of. her veins sing with wrath, an age old and primal melody. whale-eyed—least with the eye she can still use—watching as her queen launches herself at her husband. 

she cannot marvel in the sight of morwenna spilling blood long overdue. she cannot join her to tear her cousin apart. and she cannot step in to save ishmira or the pups that are now in the middle of the fray. a bellow of a snarl is torn from the depths of her lungs as meleys makes a counter attack. lunging for her throat. 

black hawk is fast, honed. she retracts away before those yellow fangs can sink into her flesh. a tuft of her cinnamon fur now stuck between the woman's jaws. her eye burns, but it's a distant feeling now, as rage drives her. it's all she can feel; not pain, not panic. 

just white-hot rage. the tank of a woman moves to her cousin's flank. barreling against her, teeth finding her back to pierce the flesh. she bites down with the force of a warrior enraged; thrashes, squeezes. she hopes she fucking snaps that spine and leaves meley's legs useless.

Caan can be freely skipped btw, just squeezing him in here for reference.

War was an unholy thing that most children would only hear of in the grimmest of bedtime stories and the most cautionary of nursery rhymes.

It is Caan's lot in life that he would be among the misfortunate few that witnessed it first hand. Not that he hadn't tried.

He had been a good boy, hadn't he?

He stayed quiet as the voices rose outside, tucked away amongst the bodies of his siblings. Innocent eyes uncertain in what was seen. He didn't fuss when he was first lifted gently in Ishmira's jaws. Not even when he could see his mother and father. How he wished to be let down and wobble to them both.

Caan only starting crying at the flash of bared teeth. A scream that was cut short as he was jerked along with the sudden start of Ishmira.

Each step sent a jolt through him. When the older girl was thrown to the ground, Caan yelped as he was sent down with her.

He was beneath her when he felt it. The drip of something warm and metallic onto to him. The boy knew little of blood at this stage in his life, but it caused something within him to stir.

Caan curled as tightly as Ishmira was let him, his eyes screw shut so he couldn't see. He wouldn't see his father spill more of Ishmira's blood. He wouldn't see the collision of his parents.

He would stay quiet, his body trembling like a leaf as he held his breath. Each passing second an eternity as he waited for it to stop.