The raven queen perched on the black-barked tree, her single eye gleaming maliciously as she peering into crow territory. All about her, scores upon scores of her best warriors kept silent as they glared at their next conquest. A copse of trees, holding several families of crows, was dangerously close to her land. Why they were foolish enough to be so close to enemy lines escaped her, but she took advantage of their idiocy as soon as her scouts found out about them.
Raising her wings, her troops flew as swiftly and silently as they could towards the trees. Within a few moments, the silence of the dark woods exploded into a flurry of noise. Crows attempted to flee from their larger cousins, only to be torn down by a raven's sharp talons. Fledglings, hatchlings, and eggs were taken by the looters back to the ravens' trees to be raised as slaves. Some did not have the luxury, and were eaten by the more hungry of the warriors.
With the battle over, Morrígan threw her head back and cawed racously. Her raven warriors followed with glee, dancing in the sky. One of her generals, Bertrand flew up to her perch. "The copse is ours, Milady. But three crows have escaped. Our scouts say they are heading to Erebus." Morrígan turned to him, smirking. "How many crows does it take to deliver a message, Bertrand?" Her general smiled. "One." He flew off, a group of ravens following him.
A lone crow came in the night, chattering the terrors brought by the ravens. "There were hundreds" she cried when the Patriarch's escorts blocked her way to the haunt. "Let her through" he instructed with his deep voice slowly emerging from the darkness of his hollow tree.
"My lord.." she weeped, "The ravens attacked redgrove! They came to us in the night and took the smallest..."
"How many survived?" he asked sternly.
"they're all dead! I escaped with two of my brothers but the ravens killed them before we could reach you, I'm the only one left" with those last words she broke into tears.
"Take her to the shaman and tell him to take care of her" he commanded to one of his escorts, and then he came out in flight, he cawed summoning an army of irate crows that joined his battle cry and fluttered around him.
Meldresi was spending less time in Ouroboros now after the pack hunt. Jinx's condition had frightened her to say the least. She had slathered her saliva everywhere and snarled at random things while they chased the prey. It was quite scary, and Meldresi left the pack boundaries as soon as she could.
The night after her tryst with the silver wolf, she recieved another message from her goddess. Not a wolf this time, but a forest past Big Salmon Lake, a dark and ominous one at that. Waking from her dream, she slipped out of her den and stretched. Then, she trotted to the southwest, where the forest was.
A few hours later, she saw it, black and trecherous even in daylight. Trotting forward, she entered the dark woods, where there was no way of telling the difference between day or night.
I can make one for you if you'd like :)
The silver prince had been lurking around the Wilderness exploring his surroundings. He departed the Ouroboros early in the morning heading west until he came upon a river. He followed it upstream and into the Heartwood Forest.
Hours passed as he got carried away by the beauty of the lands, and before he realized it he had crossed the Heartwood and was now pushing into a dark and gloomy woodland. He put his advance to a halt when he noticed the light change, it was dark and dull, even though it was still daylight. Aghast by the dimness he started growing anxious and tried to turn around and get out of there, but there was no path to follow, he was trapped in the murkiness of Blackfeather Woods.
The young wolf walked away, trying to follow his steps back, but it was useless, he seemed to be walking in circles. He heard a crack in the deep and his body stiffened in terror, eyes wide open trying to get a hint of where the sound had come from. A dark body materialized in the thin mist that dimmed the background; a wolf. Relieved to see another being, he crept behind her, trying not to be noticed; maybe she knew the way out and would be his salvation.
The Matriarch ordered her looters to return back to the camps with their spoils, distributing them evenly amoungst the leaders. A few of them she told to send word of a head on attack with the crows, gathering as many warriors as they could. The crows would be very angry with the slaughter Morrígan had inflicted on them.
Her general Bertrand returned with his warriors, a few who were holding their macabre trophies to decorate their nests with, a custom she started that was quickly adapted. Bertrand bowed his head as he landed, spreading his wings and bowing to her. Her head flicked upwards. "Report."
"My Lady, per your commands we attacked the remaining crows and made sure only one got to Erebus' nest. An army was assembled immediately, my Lady."
"Good," she smirked. "Prepare for battle!" she cawed to her warriors, who filled the copse with their bloodthirsty battle cries.
"One more thing, my Lady?"
"What is it?" she said, sounding annoyed.
"Our scouts reported two wolves coming into Blackfeather Woods, from the west, slightly north...."
"Oh...?" Her single eye glittered curiously. What would wolves want to do with their forest?
The cloud of black winged warriors grew bigger as the Patriarch gathered his army. Erebus flew lower to land on the branch of a dead tree in which his council was waiting for orders. "The Ravens will not come into my lands anymore..." he said to them. He placed himself between Ophion and Nyx, who besides being his brother and sister, were his right hand and high commanders of the army.
"The troops are ready brother" said Nyx confident. "They're at your command, but we need your order to proceed..."
"Good" said the patriarch with a satisfied yet sober grin. "you know what to do" he cawed, and broadened his wings to fly right to the center of the raging army.
"We are the spyros of Blackfeather! lets show those bastards what that means!" he screamed, encouraging his crows that bustled before him.
"Crius!" he called out to one of his Liutenants "Send someone to watch those wolves..." he ordered with a pint of mistrust in his eyes, wolves didn't come into the forest often, so he figured something was out of place. With that, he joined his batallion, which flew deeper into the dark forest.
Meldresi turned towards the sound of an approaching wolf, only to duck as a raven, or was it crow? flew past her head and landed on the ground, dead. Soon enough there were hundreds, maybe even thousands of the things colliding in the air above them. She looked back towards the silver wolf she recognized from a few days ago, but now the full moon had passed and he was sane. Would he recognize her in this state?
"I suggest you lay low." she cautioned him. "The birds are fighting up there." Black feathered bodies dropped from the air, either dead or dying. It was quite a horrific sight, but Meldresi was pleased. Such a tulmultous[size=xx-small](?)[/size] place! It was perfect.
"What's going on!?" he shouted when he reached her side, dead black bodies covered the place, it was a baffling scene. A crow flew towards him, cawing something he didn't understand, and a dozen of them came behind him, attacking him. He stood up and barked at them, bit a couple and toppled some others with his paws, and when they saw he was too big for just a few of them, they left to rejoin the on going battle above them.
She saw an injured crow try to escape, flying low. The battle queen dived down, chasing after them. No mercy, no prisoners this time, no escape, those were the only rules she had for battle. The crow was slowed by it's injuries, giving the one-eyed Matriarch the advantage. Her talons sunk into its back as she pushed it to the ground, pecking through its neck to finish the job.
She whirled around, preparing to fly into the air again when she saw two wolves cowering as the bodies of crow and raven dropped by them. She flew up to them both. "Wolves!" she growled in the wolf tongue. "What are you doing here?!"
Two black clouds collided in battle, dead bodies stumbled on the ground matching the gloomy scenery of Blackfeather. Erebus had a small build, not made for battle, so he stayed behind, escorted by a flock of well trained Spyros, overseeing the strife that developed before him.
The plan was going accordingly to what was expected, Morrígan concentrated her army into a single block, and was by now crushing the Patriarch's Army. But he had an ace up the sleve, Nyx followed by her battalion emerged from the dark woods, right behind the raven army. He outnumbered the Conspiracy, and hoped that that, adding the ambush would be enough to contain Morrígan's army long enough to win the battle.
Erebus watched with a malicious grin from the safety of his tree, trying to spot Morrígan among her warriors, but she wasn't there, she was down below, speaking to a pair of wolves that lay on the ground. with a movement of his head he signaled Kirk, the strongest of his escorts to go for her. Kirk cawed and opened flight to dive through the trees and strike the Raven Matriarch.
Meldresi looked up, trying to distinguish who was fighting who. It took a while, but she could tell a little bit. "Crows and ravens I think. They're fighting..." It was quite the battle, both species were fighting each other fiercely. She'd never seen so many creatures hating each other so much in one place.
She jumped back when a crow(? They were hard to distinguish from each other.) landed nearby them, a wild-looking raven perched on its back, stabbing through its neck. The raven turned, its single eye locked on them. It yelled at them, in a wolf's tongue, wondering why on earth they were here. The priestess was going to answer when she saw a dark figure flying through the air, aiming towards the one-eyed female. "Behind you..." She warned.
The corvid battle was starting to get harsh, the yearling looked up with amazement, the place was creepy, but he wouldn't deny that it was very entertaining. The bustle of the birds was deafening, caws and growl-like sounds mixed in a symphony of blood.
A big one, rather fierce looking, landed in front of them, killing a smaller one with its claws; and Keith, who had just been attacked by a group of them, shot a growl at this one, warning that he had no intention to crack her open but that he wouldn't doubt to do it if she it tried something. To his surprise, the bird spoke in their language asking what they were doing here, "Oh we're just hanging out, you know? The place is lovely.." Keith growled again sarcastically, with a pint of annoyance in his tone. "Behind you..." warned the black female, and Keith turned to notice a crow flying disturbingly fast towards their companion(?).
As she attacked the would-be assassin, her reinforcements arrived, attacking the crows who Erebus assigned to trap her own. They crushed the crows, taking them unawares.
"You have nothing to be doing here, wolves" he said as if he was disgusted by their presence, "I suggest you take leave now before my Spyros chase you off. The Blackfeather woods belong to my murder and to no one else, do as I say and you shall not be harmed..."
Meldresi stared at the small crow that landed nearby the one-eyed raven, indigo eyes narrowed at the escorts around him. Her tail twitched softly and she raised her sultry voice above the din that was the battlefield. "I am simply exploring. I am not laying claim to these Blackfeather Woods." (yet), she thought in her head.
"But if you want us to go, then we will. We didn't mean to intrude." With that she walked away, hoping to head back the way she came. Though she would slip back in some other time. Birds couldn't smell, they only had eyes. And the eyes could often be decieved.
A big crow dove from the heights aiming for the talking raven's back , but she turned and received him with her sharp talons. A few other ravens came to scene to aid the assassin bird and yet another smaller battle begun after the wolves' eyes. But yet another bird came speaking to them, he claimed to be the landlord and the leader of the crows, and asked them to leave.
To be honest, Keith was starting to get anxious and he wanted to get the hell out of there, so when the black female said they'd leave, the white prince agreed with a quick nod and a wag of his tail. He didn't know the way out so she was his last and only hope, he'd follow her until they were out.
The battle queen wrenched herself from battle, screeching in rage at Erebus. "Blackfeather Woods belongs to the Corax Conspiracy!" She lashed out again at the Patriarch's cronies, talons seeking to draw blood before spiralling away. She cawed, gathering her ravens to her, ready to attack one last time to prove her point. How dare he claim that title. These woods belonged to the ravens, to her. She would destroy him for claiming such a thing, the pompous little brat!
The crow king cawed once again a guttural cry of warning at the wolves that stood up and walked away from the battle, if he ever saw them or knew they stepped on his lands again he'd have to get to more serious matters with them, he didn't mean any harm to the creatures, they weren't a threat to him or his murder, but he was a territorial leader and he liked to have control over what he owned.
The raven usurper screeched claiming the woods as hers, and the crow patriarch, who until that moment had had a little bit more patience that he should, responded to her words with a deep and sonorous cry that was so full of rage that his chest almost exploded. He flew back to the tree where he watched over the battle with his loyal escorts, at first he just wanted the crows to back up, but the raven's words now made him decide his next move, he'd crash the conspiracy, and Morrigan, that fowl was his.