The Sentinels i send my scourge, i send my sword

inspired by this song
@Aria @Dante @Osprey @Eilidh @Tachyon @Kurai @Andromeda @Lucani @Constantine @Emaleth @Deirdre

lasher stood quietly, overlooking the lap and sweep of the ocean in the distance, and his mind was upon saena's words. to be displaced by the threat of war -- he could not stand for it. and yet he thought of his little witches, of the children that osprey carried. he could allow them to be hurt.

and yet he would bar murderers from sweeping down upon saena and her wolves -- he saw no other way. the druid turned away, resolute in his decision to seek out dante and attempt to mend the rift between the ash-hued man and his pallid niece. now was the time for such to be forgotten.

a thrumming entered the air, as he had never heard before, and the man paused, for it moved toward him. it seemed a cluster of storms moved toward donnelaith -- he sighed, but it would pass o'er them to the sea, as the rains had done before.

but it was not clouds -- the druid's eyes widened, and he glanced skyward to the darkening heavens. the din grew more cacaophonous, and fear began to mount in his belly, for he knew not what happened over the trees of his beloved land.

there fell beside him a wide insect -- taltos pondered it warily, the writhing legs, the wings that vibrated in the dust, and then descended another, and another, until the ground was thick with them, and lasher was forced to descend into cover. 

yet they followed, and even as he moved into the darker parts of donnelaith at a quick wolf-lope, the insects followed, and the shadows began to lift. lasher whirled to watch -- the redwoods! the pestilence carried off the leaves as so much chaff -- he could only stare helplessly as the ground churned with the thousands of whirring things that had been spat up from hell.

'round the druid, in all directions, the verdant greenery of spring dissolved -- donnelaith died into a premature autumn. wrought with terror now, lasher fought for composure. blue willow had long since been gone, though he had long awaited her return -- he thought of aria and eilidh, protecting the little witches, and called to them, to his wolves, to seek cover in the rock faces and deeply dug dens, crying out even as donnelaith was stripped to the greying branches of winter's skeletal hunger with the warm april sun high overhead.

a nightmare. a horrible nightmare. where her treasures died, and more than just one; for first it was her flowers, and then, she looked into the starved faces of those she loved. and when she awoke, that nightmarish premonition was forgotten! the trees and their leaves whispered their greeting to the cub, and she weaved among them, adoring them, her eyes bright as she moved to inspect her garden. intact, beautiful! a breath of relief, for a reason she did not think to recall, before she moved to bury herself among them. hello, my treasures! she spoke with glee, nuzzling them softly, tenderly, so that they would not lose even a petal from the gentleness of her touch! a loud droning hum could be heard, the likes of which the young cub had never heard, but she knew now that she did not know many things—

and when she turned around, she watched the redwood be devoured to nothing but wood. her muzzle parted as she fathomed she heard the screams of the trees, and the flowers behind her quavered. no! leave donnelaith alone! by th— too late, for they had descended upon her beloved flowers, rending them to nothing, and she felt them all around her. NO! she shouted, NO! for they left nothing behind, not even their stems, and deirdre, over the beat of wings and the screams of the trees, could not even hear the howl of her father. her protectors, her friends! deirdre lay crouched o'er any flowers her body could protect, which was a truly small, pathetic number, and if she could save them who knew? but she must try! her visage was assaulted by the crawling insects, and deirdre whined and whimpered without knowing what it was she must do to save the things she loved, and who loved her.

Please do not find Emaleth in this thread. Plot, plot, plot! ;) Just noting that for plot purposes, Emaleth will be leaving the territory amidst the chaos... Feel free to spot her, but please do not powerplay catching/stopping her. Thanks!

Donnelaith was her whole heart and soul; she danced betwixt the redwoods daily, and she considered the tall giants to be her friends. She imagined they whispered to her, sang with her, and that their magicks were her own— they enchanted her soul, and in turn, she chanted spells so that they might bloom and that their trunks may be enveloped with the soft and protective embrace of moss. Emaleth wound between them, now, in the dappled light and occasional beams of noon-sun that broke through the canopy of her trees. Her small, proper voice lilted through them in a nonsensical, sing-song whisper; a spell, a spell!

And she paused, both in movement and voice, when a darkness swept over the Sentinels of Donnelaith. It looked wrong. It felt wrong.

Her mismatched eyes cast upward towards the sky, watching with horrified fascination as the leaves began to move in an otherworldly fashion. It was as if a dark oil had been poured over them, and it moved with an unnatural speed down the branches and trunks of her friends— she could feel her hackles raise, a chill settling over her skin. When the disconcerting ripple reached just above her head, the air was suddenly thick with humming and swarming bugs. They would occasionally land upon her, biting, but flying away when they found no satiation in her flesh.

They were harming her trees; killing them.

She did this. Her magicks had gone wrong, she had misspoken her enchantment, and rather than blessing her friends and protectors with growth, the dark child had cursed them instead. A silent shriek of horror caught in her throat, for she realized that if her father found her, found out what she had done... well, she had never been punished, but she knew that any harm she had done would come back to her threefold.

Emaleth ran, sobbing, away from the sound of her father's summons— perhaps the curse would only follow her, then, and her family would be safe.

): my heart

The bugs came slowly, one here and there, and then all at once it seemed. A blanket had cloaked itself over them-- but it was not a blanket filled with warmth. It came to devastate, it came to destroy. Unlike Deirdre, Aria had heard Lasher's call. It was muffled and strained through the humming of the bugs, but she knew his voice. She moved quickly and carefully, her body low as she avoiding creatures that knew no boundaries. Along her way she recognized the sweet bell of Deidre's voice. Her blood went cold, her veins freezing her entire body as she raised her head and ears. The child, where was the child? 

She listened again, hearing more desperate calls for the bugs-- probably-- to stop. She dashed towards the sound, praying it was only the trees they harmed and not the beloved Donnelaith witch. The pup was dissolved to the ground, wailing and whining. Aria made her best judgement, deciding it was best not to try to reason with the babe to follow her and just to scoop her up and run. And so she did. The pale alphess grabbed the witch by her scruff as swiftly as she could manage-- Deirdre had grown quite a bit-- and prayed the child would not fight her. "We are going to your father," she murmured, a surprisingly clear string of words for a mouthful of fur. Aria hoped the child would understand this and stay, but there was no way to tell. She held tight to the child and moved quickly and lowly towards the sound of her beloved Lasher. 

But Aria had not heard the sweet cries of Emaleth, and only prayed the other pup would be safe.

Eilidh was tending the garden when the sound began, the humming of the earth that rose to a tumultuous sound, vibrating within her very being. Her father's howl rose, too, and her heart plummeted. Go underground, find shelter. What was happening? The pale healer rose from her garden-bed to find her sisters missing from the rendezvous site, though quickly she found Deirdre laying atop her flowers. Sister, come! We must go underground. Eilidh nudged her sister's belly, her shoulders, to get her to move. All around them Donnelaith was dying, and they could do nothing to stop it.

Then a dark streak caught her attention: Emaleth was running away. Eilidh barked at her sister to stop running, to come back, but it was hard to corral both children at once. She howled briefly for Aria, for her father, for anyone to catch Emaleth, then she turned to task toward Deirdre again. Come at once. This is no time to play! Her anger rose within her breast, and she huffed at her little sister, wanting her to hurry, to quit messing about, to take this seriously. Little did she know that her sister did take it seriously, and was tying to protect a patch of Donnelaith from harm. But as she saw it, Deirdre was ignoring her, and it made her angry and afraid.

Aria arrived then and scooped up her sister, so she struck out after Emaleth, her longer legs carrying her swiftly. Emaleth, stop! she hollered, hoping to get her dark sister in line, to follow her back toward the den, toward her father, toward anything she knew to be safe. In her heart she worried over the healer's den, but hoped the dry herbs would not tempt the insects. The creatures flew into her and obscured her vision, and she howled again for her sister to come back.

A peace had descended on the woman who felt ill at ease with her own state of physical being. The wolves here were kind and accepting, and Lucani was starting to realise she had a true place among them. But then came the torment of the sky. A humming, almost like a cool thunder, and then a great wild buzzing, and the world was black and ugly. Her staring eyes snapped suddenly closed as a locust shot into her face. She shook it off weakly, then set up a swiftened pace to find shelter and her bearings. But then — a child (@Emaleth) almost slammed right into her. She assumed immediately that this was another of Lasher's puppies, and did not hesitate to take the lead. Little one — but the girl was gone.

the creatures did what they would as if sent to destroy! the world was filled with white, as though it were some great snowstorm come to end all times. they beat against her, beat against the trees; light caught the winged beasts and made them look vaporous, but the things were tangible and devoured all things green in their path. they stripped her world of color, made it a bleak and dreary black-and-white. she thought of the flowers beneath her, chanted in a familiar, sing-song voice so they would remain rooted and safe beneath her. she closed her eyes tightly shut after a locust tried to do away with her emerald eyes, and so she did not see aria come.

a mighty shriek expelled from her then, and as her eyes opened she saw the last of donnelaith's color be stripped, though could not hear the cries of abandonment or betrayal. i co— but a locust sought the pink of her tongue, and she snapped her jowls shut, closed her eyes tightly. she heard cries for her sister, and though she had not struggled 'til now, she did then, fearing for her other half, her witch, her life and her truest love! she was released from the mouth thus, as her weight was not light, but she stumbled quickly and would be easy to carry again.

Didn't want to PP too much so obviously emaleth could swerve around him. <3

He had set himself to use the moment he could – becoming settled in the pack once more meant becoming useful, and Constantine was a wolf of physical action. His form glided along the borders, his eyes drifting to study the sequoia trees in their ethereal glory. It was a bright day – one of promise, and inhaling the salted air, Constantine felt himself more at ease than he had in months – thus, apparently, was the magic of family.
 
It was a gentle buzz that drew his attention from his task at hand – his fiery gaze drifted to the direction of the noise, a light frown marring his otherwise neutral features. His mind whirled at confusion as the dark mass propelled in the near distance – unlike anything he had ever seen. His figure instantly stiffened in the moment, his heart began to hammer as his confusion tried to draw a conclusion – and his only instinct was to run.
 
His haunch was pelted first by a massive insect – his paws thrummed the earth as he raced to his family, and his muzzle only jerked back to catch view of the bug. And then there were more – shooting forward, surpassing him and swarming him in the dark cloud. Overtaking his home.
 
His father’s summons were just barely heard over the buzz, such was destruction from noise alone. He heard shouts – came upon the darting figure of Emaleth, who he had only met the other day. She ran from their father – almost slamming in to the form of a silver woman he did not recognize. Eilidh called to her – desperate, and crowding forward, the dark wolf hoped to block the youthful girl, herding her in the direction of where he felt Lasher to be. “Emaleth, dear heart, this way,” he murmured, raising his voice to battle the incessant buzz.

PP of deirdre w/ permission

tachyon heard the drum of devastation well before his eyes witnessed it; with patters these insects fell from the sky and seized the sun, black gouts that roared and deafened and blinded. lasher's call barely pierced the thundering drone, but tachyon had already bade towards where he knew deirdre would be; her small and coveted garden.

like some hellish guardian he sprung forth from the swarm, a pale streak of flashing teeth and snarls. lucani, a wolf he did not know nor recognize, had flanked deirdre -- with a whirl of bared teeth he turned upon the wolf and seized deirdre, his gaze imbued with challenge should lucani dare come any closer. with a grunt he heaved deirdre upright and shouldered aria gently, plowing through the swarm towards cover.

I don't know if there's supposed to be a posting order, I'm sorry! But to alleviate some confusion/chaos, this is my last post in the thread. ^^;

It seemed she had stumbled near a number of her own family, a tangle of adults worried over she and her sister; little Emaleth darted this way, and that, not wanting to be caught and punished. She could not hear their words over the thrum of locusts, nor could she see very far ahead for the swarm that clouded the air. As a result, she nearly ran into the leg of someone much larger than she. But she had the agility of youth on her side, and the rest were just as confused and panicked as she with the arrival of the bugs— it was only due to the sudden chaos overwhelming Donnelaith, and that her small stature and dark fur were difficult to make out in the swarm, that the child was able to cleanly disappear.

THUS SAYS THE LORD

As the scourge came amidst them, Andromeda felt the first stirrings of true fear rise within her soul. There were screams, hollers of desperation and keening, begging noises made by faceless men and helpless children and she could do nothing to stop it. Nothing but to race back to her adopted pack to make sure they were alright, make sure they were safe from the storm, but there was nothing she could do.

Donnelaith, too, was ravaged.

Her only hope was to sprint as fast as she could to her meagre stores, places where herbs were plentiful; places discovered by accident to salvage what she could and then they were upon her, writhing about in a mad scramble for the precious, precious things in her mouth. The ground was bare, and she held the remnants of what she had once seen prosper. If they had so quickly devoured what were strong, healthy plants, then Ann's mind flashed to the memories of the child's tiny garden, her pride and joy at seeing her babies flourish and the obvious devastation she would see on her innocent features when she realised how merciless the plagues were.

Blinking away tears from stinging wings, the woman scrambled to her feet and made a dash for the howl that had only encroached upon her ears, a long, anxious call to gather for safety in numbers. Ann could not run faster than the swarm and it was in her haste to save anything she found that she tore up plants by the stems, sometimes without roots and sometimes flinging dirt and sod into her eyes but she kept running, kept going if only to have something to hold onto.

And she found her pack, having lost the cloud in their rush to devour what they could find, leaving the paltry things in her mouth alone even when exhausted, she dropped them onto the floor.

The screams.The cries of terror. The absolute desperation of screaming wolves. Kurai was part of this storm. This storm of noise, of bites, a storm of crunchy insects, clinging to every beautiful pelt in Donnelaith. No, Kurai would not scream or cry, because his cries would affect the future, the present, and the past. Cause' they were all one, every moment was the past, yet also happening, so the present, but always ahead of the last one, so the future. He was not going to twist time by crying, they would simply swarm into his mouth. He kicked out his long, elegant back legs at the clouds, and they nipped him. His pretty fur was being pecked at by the damned locusts. Where was the moondragon now? He wanted to be near Tsuki the blue in this moment, but she was far far away.

eh, i don't know if Aria is carrying Deirdre or not anymore... it looks like Tachyon has her but i'm not positive? going with that.

Tachyon stole the child from her, but she knew that Deridre was far more keen on the man than she was on herself. So it did not matter, she continued her run-- a bit lighter now-- and fell straight to Lasher, her heart pounding as she toppled into the safety of the den. Locust's still littered the insides of the walls, but they were not so numbered. She was rather ungraceful in this moment, a bit unlike her, but she laid and panted, praying the rest of the pack made it to safety somewhere.

Emaleth ran through the newcomer's limbs, and even dodged Constantine, in her desperate flight. Eilidh's sorrowful cries resounded through the wood as she fell into her brother's chest, weeping. Now that she was gone, away from their reach, Eilidh knew they needed to turn back to safety. But she must find her sister, but seek her tiny form in the dark embrace of the insects. Go without me. She said to the woman and her brother, her heart wrenching in her chest. I must find Emaleth.

She nudged her brother from her and followed her sister's trail, all the while pelted on all sides by the giant bugs, desperate for any sort of vegetation upon which to feast. But they found none on her, so jumped from her golden fur to the precious sentinels, their protectors. How her heart broke as she ran, screaming for her sister, blinded by the locusts that plagued their home. Finally she stopped after hours of search, and fell into a hollowed log to seek shelter, sobbing all the while, fearing the worst had befallen Emaleth.

mild pp/assumption, hope it's ok! <3 lemme know if not

When the first of the ominous humming came, Dante wasn't sure what to make of it.  As the dark mass of insects came closer, however, he'd made a beeline back to hunker down with @Osprey.  The droning buzz set his teeth on edge, but he had never encountered such a thing, so the nature of the danger was unknown.  He just knew something was terribly wrong.

He was tense as he watched the patterns of the swarming insects play against their shelter, more shadow than light and nearly blocking out any sun.  Likely many of the more inquisitive bugs would find their way into the nook, but finding no food, they would soon move on.

It seeeeeems there's no posting order...? I hope it's okay to roll with the punches on this, please let me know if there's an order after all! Either way, this is Lucani's last post in this thread~ ^__^

Pandemonium gripped everything she saw. She lost the pup in an instant, and Lucani — who had an illness that weakened her — did not have the strength to give chase. She knew now that adrenaline could only get her so far: she wanted to help the pack, but if she didn't find shelter soon she'd die. Wincing through a new cloud of dark locusts, the healer struggled to the nearest den and collapsed as soon as she stepped inside. The last thing she saw before she blacked out was, sharply, the most beautiful thing she'd ever seen in her life (@Aria). The tall female gazed down weakly at the impossible angel, and then fell into a hard and dreamless state of unconsciousness. Later she would wake, with or without the help of her new packmates, but for now she was suddenly and reluctantly removed.

Emaleth was a sprightly imp, the panic had set in and it would seem no reason would come to her during her flight. Despite the hope that he had blocked her path, the girl skirted about him, and his hesitance was one that was brought forward only by his desire to not scare her, especially being so new in her life. His muzzle thrust down a second too late, missing her entirely as he would have clamped his jaws gently to her scruff -- and her dark form was gone within moments, swallowed by the cloud of locusts.
 
"Emaleth!" His voice called, stronger than before as it boomed through the woodlands -- but it would fade to barely nothing in comparison to the buzz of insects, and before he could move after her, Eilidh was at his side, her slender form nudging him for comfort, her command clear. A silver wolf had taken Deirdre right from the jaws of Aria, and Constantine's eyes flashed with mistrust to the man -- but his intentions remained good, and he gave a nod to his sister as she spoke, pulling him from the chaos.
 
The others sought shelter inside the den, and yet the black wolf stood upon the outside, his eyes staring out in to the mess of insects and darkness.. hope pulling at his heart that Eilidh would return swiftly, and with Emaleth in her company.

Osprey had felt particularly tired that day, therefore she had not wandered anywhere far from the den she was sharing with Dante. When lying in the sun had become too uncomfortable (and lately it got even harder to find the "perfect spot" to rest and have some peace of mind), she had returned to her home and fallen asleep in the shadows. 

It was later in the day, when unusual buzzing sound, growing in intensity woke her up and made her peek through the den mouth. Only to recoil back, when at least two insects hit her in the muzzle. She had to retreat even further, when Dante arrived, out of breath and smelling of fear. "What's going on out there?" she asked.

Since they are doin their own thing I'm gonna throw another in here :D

"Some kind of a... bug horde." he said, a light growl of anxiety lacing the words.  He stared at the few that found their way in, and his ears flattened back.  He did not know where they had come from, or what would happen now that they were here, but this wasn't right.  It was a thing he'd never seen before, and that meant it was not to be trusted.

"I've never seen anything like it."  Before he'd reached the den, he'd practically been engulfed by a cloud of the winged bugs.  They'd been everywhere.  He hadn't even known that many existed in the world.  What had brought them together like that?

"Now that is something," Osprey suppressed the sudden wave of curiousity and need to go outside and see it for herself. But the opportunity presented itself - in the dim light of the den she spotted one of the aforementioned insects clinging to Dante's fur. Ears up she leaned closer to have a sniff at it, when it did not seem dangerous she took the next step and picked it up with the tips of her incisors. It squirmed, tickling her lips and making her to drop it on the ground. There it lied and Osprey put a paw on it to prevent it's escape. 

"Wicked," she told Dante and with a sigh she lied down and wait for the odd thing that was going outside to end.

maybe another round or so and then i'll archive :3

deirdre was delivered by aria -- lasher counted, and counted again, dread filling him -- emaleth. he heard her name shouted, saw the slender form of his eldest daughter press out from their shelter to find her sister. he made as if to follow her, but the locusts thronged tightly -- he stayed as he was, thrumming with frustration and fear.

when he was able, he left his pale witch in aria's care and stumbled out to find his eilidh; he came upon where she had secreted herself away and called to her in a mournful voice.