Phoenix Maplewood and with that timber, burn a hundred fires

twilight had come and gone, and the maplewood was alive with sound; among them lurked the huntress, thin and weary and resolute. there lay the trail of a hare here; along with the lurking scent of wolf that had her hackles prickle. she'd have sought him out if she'd been more possessive over the wood, had she the strength and capacity to do so.

as it stood, the pack was weakening; the addition of two new members bolstered them, yet not quickly enough. the huntress huffed as the trail veered into a thick patch of bracken and thorns, slipping around the thickest of it. she was determined not to let the scent go just yet, and a flicker of interest had her pause as she realized the scent did not continue on the other side of the undergrowth. another slow circle confirmed this, and she lapped around the bush once more, hearing the barest of scrabblings within. 

carefully, slowly, she poked her muzzle through the safest part of the tangle, hunger easily awoken. a soft step forward and then burning pain, exploding across her rear haunch instantly and suddenly. again, the scent of metallic blood like an explosion in the soft night air, almost tangible. the rabbit fled, a violent blur of motion, and the huntress crumpled as she whirled, vertigo booming behind her skull.

The girl had been an easy kill. In fact, he was sure he had battled badgers who put up a better fight, and left more scars. Admittedly, she had been no contest to his titan frame and had no chance to begin with once his boa-like jaws constricted around her neck. Pitiful, he sneers lowly to only himself. It was as if his month of living like a tibetan monk taught him no lesson, made no corrections to better his moral compass. It was as if he suddenly remembered who he was, who he came from and from where. Blackfeather Woods meant nothing more to him now than a pathetic pile of ruins would, but its values were instilled within the fabric of his being until the end of time, and that was not something he could change, evidently. To pretend otherwise was not something that earned him any awards nor benefitted him in any capacity. At least, he felt he had matured enough to have some sense about what he was doing; to not charge foolheartedly into old habits without rationality.

However, his next actions did not display the level of intellectual awareness Vaati believed he had ascended to, but the reckless impulsivity that rewarded him with the piece of scarred-over flesh missing from his neck. He chomped down right on her butt. Not that he was kinky like that, but because… well, he didn’t really have a reason other than he knew her to be his next kill and he made do with what he was given. Whether or not she realized that his ambitions were to murder her was another story.

she'd done poorly to ignore her hunger; the continued promise that she would eat at the next kill had been kept for days and broken each time. she whirled to face him, fangs bared in an instant and ears flattened. her breath came quickly as she struggled to dampen the vertigo that grew exponentially worse, to little effect. jaws snapped at him yet the motion only elicited another round of dizziness. gathering her limbs beneath her, seeing him fully and understanding him to be far more competent than the cause of the scars across her shoulders, she moved. 

she snapped at his face, the desperate mannerisms of a cornered animal. hackles prickled like viney thorns across her tape, and her whole body stood rigid and tense. the abrupt shift from hunter to hunted, quite literally, was as disorienting as the vertigo.

His steely dexterity remains unfazed as the woman claws against him; her attempts are tackless and desperate. Her claws occasionally find purchase on his marred skin, but the impact it leaves is not enough to slow his attack, nor halt the countdown to her total perdition. He makes a move to lunge forth, throwing his weight into the motion as he grips her closest ear in his bear-trap jaws and rips, severing the appendage clean from its place on her head. It releases from its chamber with a satisfying tear, and he tosses it to the side; there is still much more left to take. Vaati does not bother to take another breath before returning his canines to her flesh, tasting the erratic beat of her heart through the soft skin of her nape.

blink and pop and pain like she'd never felt it, the sudden absence of feeling coupled with hot fire. the woman snarls but it sounds too much like a scream for her own liking, she surges against him with wild fury that her hunger-carved body can not express. fangs close around her neck and the woman calls, notes surging from her throat in desperate call. the plains are too far for the strained summons to stretch; yet surely there must be others in the wood.

somehow, limbs rather below her and she pushes back blindly, head pulling back and not caring that she exposes her throat; the man already has hold. she ought to have followed the rabbit as it fled; and now can only clash against the titan as blood flows opening from the ragged remains of an ear.

LOIR TO THE RESCUE!

Loir had been exploring again lately, mostly at the Maplewood, but while she was exploring today, something had caught her attention. The smell of blood, and smoke. Loir's ears perked up, and as she continued on, trying to locate the source of the smells, she noticed Dawn and an unfamiliar wolf.

Fighting.

Instantly, rage burned up in Loir, and she was pissed off now. No one messed with her leader without her around! Loir started racing towards th wolves, snarling at Dawn's attacker. "Get away from her!" She snarled, hackles raised. Loir was basically going into a frenzy at the moment, and she desperately tried to make an attempt to knock Vaati off of Dawn, to try and save her. No one was going to get killed on Loir's watch, she didn't want any lives lost.

Aliac was doing patrol when she heard howl carry through the trees. It was clear as day and the she wolf ran towards its origination. She saw Dawn and another wolf fighting and immediately the she wolf let out a growl.

consenting to all injuries except death and loss of limb

Dawn's cry brought his ears forward in a dramatic fashion, scaring away the young deer he had been chasing through the thicket. There was no inkling of regret for the prey lost; there was trouble in the call, an urgent summons. Without hesitation, Shale crashed through the brush, taking the shortest way he knew to get to his niece.

A great pale brute was locked in conflict with Dawn, with a newcomer to the pack--Loir--coming to her aid, as well as Aliac. Knowing the story about the white-furred wolves in the Maplewood, his hackles rose, and his eyes raked the trees, searching for more ivory figures. Finding none, he launched himself into the fray, teeth bared in a rumbling snarl.

He hit the white wolf from the side, hoping to knock him over and onto his belly. His guts would paint the forest floor today.

Only at the very back of his mind does the frantic screech of a third part register. And he would have remained in perfect ignorance of the other, had the individual not ran straight into his side. His feet skidded an inch sideways upon the other's impact, not doing nearly enough to fully unsteady him. Vaati shrugged it off quickly; he was a big unit, very little did enough to unbalance his solidified frame. However, no sooner later did he find himself sandwiched between two strangers, essentially rubbing themselves against him in an attempt to what he presumed to be halting his attack. It was a tricky situation, his grip on the girl slackened and he realized quickly that in short time the combined effort of two against one would render him at a significant disadvantage. Had the two encountered the version of Vaati that existed nearly half a year ago, he would not have feined so easily. To battle them both in a berserker fashion with zero mind for consequence would have been the ideal route of choice, if Vaati was still the immature teen he believed to have left behind. As he assessed the situation, he found that the balance of effort against reward was not an equal one, and therefore, not worth his time. It was something he had learned by experience, to choose his battles wisely. If Vaati was to make any good use of a killing spree, it was imperative he could bring himself to acknowledge when it was wise to walk away. 

Breaking from the cluster, he leaves a chilling glare upon the unlucky individuals who had unknowingly sealed their fate in picking a fight with him. Internalizing their scents in the same way he did with all those he marked for death, Vaati sends a feral warning growl in the direction of the duo who dared to oppose him. With it carried a promise that should he encounter any of them alone again, it would be the last time they had the pleasure of walking the earth. When their minds began to blissfully forget the incidents that transpired between them today, he would return to finish the job. But for now, the man departs at a dead run, aiming to lose them before his trail is followed.

she surged against the male once more, and her nape tore from his jaws with a violent tear of fur and flesh. whirling, she stumbled back, noting dimly the arrival of Shale and Loir; the growl of Aliac unheard and unnoticed. she'd felt pain before, and thus she was able to shove it deep. the male was moving, suddenly, at a dead run through the wood as the odds tipped suddenly against him. 

breath came ragged, quick and uneven, rolling gaze coming to steady on her uncle. right eye blinked sporadically as blood dripped a slow path from the shredded ear, hackles still stiff and painted with blood where the male had ripped at her nape. she sucked in a slow breath, sliding onto her haunches yet remaining upright, eyes glazed as logic and thought sought to keep up with burning adrenaline.

Loir had been glad the snowy male had decided to run, and the fact that she had brought company with maybe scared him off. She then let out a growl at the male to ensure he would keep running and never return, and then Loir looked back at Dawn. "You're bleeding, Dawn. You need a medic!" She said, concerned, noticing the bloody ear and nape. He really got her good. Loir had thought, and she looked at Shale and Aliac. "Are any of you guys medics or do you two know how to heal, at least one of you?" She asked, concern in her eyes.

Dawn wasn't terribly injured, but she needed treatment before these wounds got infected.