Stone Circle bring strife and discord with you wherever you may travel.

@Laurel - private for for a few rounds, then will be opened to AW. Please note this has been preplotted by all involved parties! 

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the man shrouded in dark greys moved along the tangled weave of juniper, joyless yellow gaze peering between the thick summer shade. ahead of him, @Louie @Riley and charles played. they roiled and tumbled, wrestling with the vigor that young boys oft do.

but iliksis was not interested in them -- his eyes trailed to their mother, who was sunning blissfully to herself in a warm patch of soft summer light. iliksis felt his stomach clench sensually as he saw her, her thin back turned and vulnerable.

she was sleeping. iliksis watched her sides heave hungrily, tracing the lean tuck of her mother's stomach.

the pups continued their play. he stepped past them, a man committed to the shadows.

he could kill them now, all three -- instead he lowered his body to each and whispered something soft in each of their ears. whether they recoiled or leaned in, it did not matter -- once the man had spoken his piece he strode past and left them to their own independence. riley did not follow, instead lurching drunkenly for a sibling as the man strode confidently away.

iliksis stopped by laurel's form, settling like a lean incubus at her back. he did not touch her -- there was something extraordinary about the suspense that hung in the air. he controlled it, it was his to wield -- rather than disrupt the tranquility, iliksis basked in it the way blackened oil might spill demonically across the gentle surface of a still pond, or the sinister way black rot might creep its way through a once thriving oasis.

soon she would wake, and she would know terror -- the man already felt lust curl in his loins, yet held his body steady.

Skip Ri-guy going forward - just to get this in his threadlog <3

the day the dark stranger pulled from the woods and whispered some malign incantation into riley's tilted ears was the day his life changed forever.

he had no fear of the man as he strode towards him. riley pulled from the tangle of his siblings and watched him with an indifferent, fish-eyed stare. the man sunk to his ears and words spilled from his shrouded form like some black miasma; it was not until iliksis pulled away did riley move again.

he blinked sluggishly, unaware of the malice that primly trotted on the heels of that strange man; where was he going, and who was he? riley thought these things belatedly, but then with the cruel indifference of a spoiled child he turned back to his siblings, and pounced on whichever one was still looking after the stranger.

Charles stared at the dark stranger as he spoke to his siblings first, then to him. The dark child simply looked up at the man, not sure who this was or why he was whispering things in his ear. He sure didn't understand the implications of any of it. Was this a game? Had his mother invited this man to play?

As the man left, the stared after the man, mulling the thoughts in his head over what he had said or what it meant?

Hey! The pounce of his brother caught Charles off-guard and he growled - a growl laced with laughter that betrayed this intent to play - fighting back tooth and nail as if he his life depending on it.

same, just one-post here

Hey!

The mother's attention was rused by this uttering of one of her children. She blinked her tired eyes and let out a yawn. They were just playing among themselves in the distance while she lay napping in a picturesque field of flowers, just enjoying the safety of Easthollow. Truthfully, Laurel had decided that she would not leave Easthollow for now after her run-in with the man outside. It was only by the grace of Nunataq that she had escaped. Ever since, her nightmares of that night he had come for her and taken her after she had laughed in his face and dismissed her had returned. Laurel slept uneasily and it showed in her tired eyes and many yawns. It was perhaps for that reason that she took a nap just now.

It showed in how absent-minded she was that even now she did not realise his approach. Not until she turned her head towards the cry of her child, still smacking her lips to shake off the tired feeling, and saw the man headed her way.

Laurel's body stiffened immediately. She looked around but no one was there to help her, not now. Laurel instantly got to her feet and stared at the monster in front of her. No, this isn't real, she told herself. This can't be real. He can't be here, of all places. How did he get here? Laurel just stared at him, helpless to act as he approached her. She wanted to run, she wanted to tear his throat out, but as he strode towards her, all Laurel could do was stand, stare, and wish.

the cry of the small child behind him went unheeded; iliksis’ interest in his woman could not be thwarted by means of simple noise. however, the little voice was enough to stir the attention of the child’s mother. 

iliksis drank in the slow terror that dawned across laurel’s features. he delivered a serpentine smile, which curled malignantly around his thin muzzle. he had been so very mad at her behavior their last chance meeting — did she know? she had not behaved the way he wanted her to; she had disappointed the man that called her his. 

he had vowed to remind her of her place, to show her what he was capable of when she displeased him.. but that sheer horror, the way she froze like a dumbfounded spring fawn — it mollified the monster, for it reminded him of his true power over her. 

she was helpless, and all because he was the one in control. hello, love. the incubus offered mockingly, his hungry teeth gleaming between the sinister curve of his iniquitous grin.

Hello, love.

After she'd narrowly escaped him that day in Bearclaw Valley, Laurel thought that she was free of him. She thought that she would be safe, so long as she stayed in Easthollow's territories. How could he have followed her here? How did he even know where she lived? How had he found out? Her heart thrummed in her chest as she stared at her demon, wishing that she had the courage to do anything against him, yet knowing that she was completely within his power now. She wanted to kick and scream and fight, like she had that night when he had surprised her and taken her. She'd put up a fight all the way through. But now she just stared at him and she didn't know what to do.

Her gaze drifted briefly to her children, who seemed unharmed in the background. She swallowed thickly and looked back at him, gently shaking her head. No... she muttered. You can't be here. Please. Please, just go. Her eyes shimmered as she stared at him. Laurel had never pleaded anyone in her life. She'd always taken control of every situation, but right now, her knees were weak and she could not take all of her children to safety at once. Fighting meant risking her life as well as theirs, and last time she had fought she had lost... Somehow, the thought of fighting and losing again was worse than to simply give up and give in. She still clung to the last shreds of hope as she faced him.

Hope that someone would find them.
Hope that he would decide against humiliating her again.
Hope that there was something in him that'd listen to her pleas.
Hope he had some form of decency.

no, there was no form of decency in those lightless eyes — no shred of humanity in the infernal din of iliksis’ defiled heart. an obscene grin unfurled anew across his features as he observed and thrilled in laurel’s trepidation.

her gaze moved slowly in panic, from her children to him — iliksis basked in the fright that rimed her white-rimmed gaze. she could beg and plead and it would do nothing to guide his hand away; he was the controller, and she his little plaything marionette. he set the stage, and laurel danced across it at the whims of his own cruel and craving hand.

shhhh, iliksis crooned, the smile withering fast. something ugly and perverse replaced that harrowing simper — worming its way across his thin muzzle like profane rot across something that had once been beautiful. it’ll be alright, he lied delightfully — it would not be alright, and laurel was implicitly aware of that.

curling around her like a malignant constrictor, iliksis reveled in the brush of her fur against his. she was his little lamb, his alone — he drew his muzzle hungrily across her neck and bit down upon her scruff. lie down. iliksis commanded in a lusty growl between clenched teeth. his desire to have his way with her radiated outward in rippling gasps until he could not control himself any longer — as his toy, she was required to do his bidding or else.

with a snarl and a gesture that made his previous ministrations seem gentle, iliksis slammed forcefully into the back of laurel’s spine, grappling the base of her neck between teeth that were uncaring of the pain they inflicted. he guided her forcibly to the earth and held her head there — where it belonged in the dirt. posturing himself above her, iliksis took his time to position himself; rubbing the flaming ache of his lions against the thin curve of laurel’s back. no one was here to help her, and iliksis drew sickening satisfaction from defiling her in front of the very brood he had sired. he could think of no better way to remind laurel that she was his victim, and that his needs were constant and without inhibition. iliksis would stop at nothing to get his way, and had no scruples about fucking her dry in front of her children.

Shhhh.

A shiver ran down her spine and Laurel stood shaking like a leaf as she observed him. Please leave, Laurel whispered at him, but he only drew ever closer. The wicked smile had fallen from his face and Laurel was not sure what version of him she preferred; the one with the smile that justified things for himself, that seemed to be convinceable to show some decency and some humanity, or the version that showed it as it was. That hid nothing.

It'll be alright.

A confirmation that it wouldn't be alright. Every word that fell from his mouth had been a lie. Every word he had ever told her -- from offering her the food to the 'shhh' he had crooned or these very words now -- every word had been a lie. It would not be alright. It would never be alright.

The second he touched her muzzle Laurel flinched, and then decided that she had to fight. For herself, but first and foremost for her children. If she did nothing, then what would happen? He would return, time and time again! She might not be able to defeat him, but she would have to fight for it, damn it!

Then why was she still standing there quivering even as he bit down upon her scruff and shouted his command?

It wasn't until the physical impact of being thrown to the ground that Laurel found her tongue again. Get off me! I'll kill you! she shouted at him even as her jaw was pressed violently into the mud below. I'll never let you touch me again! Tears spilled from her eyes amidst all of the pain and rage as he forced himself upon her and she screamed -- feral screams of the physical pain he influcted with each movement, and the emotional pain of her children being there to see it, the emotional pain of being too late to have stopped it like she should have, too late to tear him asunder from the position she was in now.

Too late.

Always too god damned late.

She screamed and cursed into the dirt, but it did nothing but get her mouth filthy with sand and mud.

she could beg, and she could scream — all it would do was drive iliksis’ desire for her deeper. he did not stop, for laurel’s words had no command over the serpent. instinctively laurel flinched away from his touch, and instinctively, iliksis drew his body closer to close the gap and the rush of cold wind between them.

he made no further sound as he straddled he frame, his teeth ground harshly into her nape. laurel’s throaty cries— the burst of anger — were answered with a clinical, almost horrific indifference.

the truth of the matter was, whatever molded iliksis had done so with inappropriate malevolence. he was, simply, a monster — no amount of screams or sobs would ever shake free the immoral hold of his conscious, nor work to draw compassion from his dispassionate psyche. laurel’s pleads would have better luck drawing blood from stone.

with a grunt, he felt himself force inside her — here it was warm and sweet, the only tranquil haven in iliksis’ chaotic life. here, he could control everything; her body, the pace, the raw sensation of flesh against primal flesh. he sunk his teeth deeper within her than perhaps any part of him had ever penetrated, a slavering and erotic snarl bubbling from his raised lips. as laurel screamed and cursed, iliksis pumped and reaped — driving with hellacious force in every swing. it was not a gesture of love, but domination — with each forceful impact meant to drag her face and her soul scathingly across the dirt.

a chilling noise overcame their quiet encampment, drawing indra from her scavenging of nearby cache. their idyllic plans for morning breakfast were sundered by the desperate cries of fury and loathing that came from the clearing. indra’s heart seized; she knew that voice. 

laurel’s voice. 

she dropped the mangled hare carcass she had only barely rummaged from the damp stores, turning at a headlong gallop with panic clutching her. LAUREL!! indra screamed in horror, her little legs striding faster than they had ever strode before. 

she did not worry for the children, she did not worry for herself; no, fear gripped every chamber of her withered heart, but not for them — but for her undeserving, sweet sister.

she came crashing into the thicket like a streaking bullet, a low moan pressed involuntarily from her throat as she saw the unthinkable. the greyed incubus atop the beaten form of her sister. NO! indra cried and bellowed at once, her voice strangled in horror as she surged forward. in a few strides she would be upon them, and every molecule within her tensed for impact.

she would rip laurel’s attacker limb from limb, so help her god — a hellfire burned in the mahogany depths of her gaze as indra dashed to laurel’s aid in blind and roaring fury.

Now all welcome. <3

Laurel!

The voice that called her name was at the back of her head, and Laurel couldn't even tell if it was really there or if it was just Indra warning her; too late, though, just like Laurel herself had been. Indra wasn't there in time to help her, just like she hadn't been there that night. Laurel could not see anything. Could not see her babies. She was afraid they might be watching, but her thoughts allowed her little reprieve from the numbing pain that shot through her body with every thrust he made.

No!

It was so much closer now. Almost as if she was really here. Through her blurred eyesight Laurel saw the fiery form of her sister. Could it really be her?

Not long thereafter her attacker was ripped from her body. The move itself sent a shot of pain through Laurel's body and she toppled over, but soon she gathered herself onto shaking limbs to look in horror upon the monster's tangle with her sister. She did not yet have the courage to fight, no matter how much threats she had scolded at him while he fought. There was something about being actually able to that stopped her in her tracks, and for now, she just stared in horror while she told herself time and time again: Go! Go! Now! Get him!

there’s little peace for those with evil in their hearts — iliksis’ own included. mid savage thrust, iliksis heard a splintered cry — no sooner had he craned his thin skull was a demonic glare of red upon him.

iliksis recoiled like a struck cobra, his teeth bared in a wild grimace as he was plucked (with some strangely inhuman force) from the back of his victim. his loins felt a bitter, all together excruciating pain of sudden severance — far keener and more integral than any knife’s edge. his balls sucked deep into his stomach in an unpleasantly cold surge, and a burning discomfort snaked its way up his belly.

as iliksis grappled first with the pain and subsequent fangs in his neck, he noticed laurel squirm away from him. heedless to his attacker, the serpent lunged for the flesh of his quarry — he would not let her escape. get back here, bitch! the man snarled, wrenching from indra’s grasp and setting his fangs for laurel’s face in furious retribution.

perhaps that was the monster’s first mistake — underestimating both laurel and the unhinged scarlet whirl besides her.

indra did not think as she came into the clearing, stumbling over deadfall and moss in stupefied steps. briars and goldenrod clung to her fur as she drove towards the man and her sister, wide-eyed and full of irreparable animosity. 

this fucking bastard— this piece of shit purulent shitstain! indra ripped him from laurel with a sickening heave, unaware of the physical impossibility her strength commanded. unthinking, in that way instinct often guided one’s hand, indra legged after the sprawled form of the man — her breath in staggered gasps.

get laurel away, get away, get to safety, laurel get away, LAUREL RUN — her inner monologue had hit pause, replaced instead with the bleating alarm of safety at any cost. at any cost.

she fell upon his frame as he turned to smite her sister. indra’s eyes closed as a noise high and keening cut through the air.

it was her. she was screaming — her teeth falling deep through tissue and viscera, her eyes wide and fringed with feral terror. she held and she ripped and she tore; not indra anymore, but the little girl who would protect her sister no matter what personal cost.

There were words hurled her way that Laurel barely even heard. Everything in her mind was just so hollow. All she could feel was the pain and the crashing humiliation that had been rained down upon her. She cowered in place, unable to move at all. She just hoped it'd all go away. Indra clearly gave her an opening to do something, but rather than doing something all Laurel could do was nothing.

She just sat there and cowered, completely disgusted with herself all the while.
She couldn't leave.
She couldn't run.

She couldn't do anything, completely petrified.

Until he reached out to her and his teeth snatched her face, ripping through the skin on her forehead. Laurel shrieked and it was as if she was brought to life. Just how he had brought her to life when he had grabbed her scruff and forced himself upon her, the touch made her react on instinct.

Except this time she wasn't pinned underneath his body, helpless and unable to react. This time she was out in the open. If he'd only left her there, she would've lain on the ground and watched idly as he did to Indra what he wanted while crying to herself. If he'd only not touched her. But he had. And she reacted.

Something primal and vile surfaced that Laurel had only felt once before; when she had attacked her baby half-sibling. It was a similar raw vengeance that she felt now, a similar purpose to take her life back into her own two claws. A snarl ripped through the air and Laurel launched himself at him, teeth searching for whatever piece of him she could find.

She might die here today, if nobody came to her aide, but she would be sure to take the worst of her demons with her straight to hell.

there were two things the demon did not expect; the harpy at his back, and the sudden retaliation of laurel. he had taken her complicity for granted — every time he had taken her, she had never once fought against him. laurel was so deeply held under his thumb that iliksis did not consider the unlikely — that at some point, the lamb would turn lion.

she came at him in a swarthy swing, her fangs bared. iliksis might have had a chance to dodge laurel’s snarling teeth, were it not for the savage little red thing at his back. he pulled away and was blocked immediately, inadvertently, by indra’s form.

with a wide eyed grimace iliksis attempted to cut laurel down, to show her the place only place she belonged was pinned beneath him.

he never had the chance.

laurel’s teeth clamped tight to his raised throat. iliksis reared back like a startled colt, aware distantly of the grim fate he had just sealed.

his throat, tight and stinging with pain, suddenly constricted as teeth clamped around it. there was a sickening pressure within him as laurel’s fangs punctured the thin membrane beneath his fur — letting loose a strangled wheeze of terror.


the beast’s dull eyes bulged. for the first time in iliksis’ life, there was an edge of light to them — a gleaming panic that set his skin crawling. no, he snarl-wheezed against his captor as indra beat behind him, feeling raw pain claw between his skin. his breath took on a rattling susurration. indra’s teeth sank deep into his haunch and extracted a startling vision of scarlet liquid -- liquid that thickly matted his fur and strung in shimmering droplets from his hide. yet iliksis was not aware of her, or the agony she caused as she undid him — he was only aware then of the sickening, heavy blood that bubbled in gurgling gasps from his throat, slick as red rubies.

he was aware, all too keenly, of the laboring of his breaths, unable to draw forth oxygen as blood murmured and pulsed from his throat and settled thick in his lungs.

strangled and desperate, the incubus threw himself against laurel in a final stand, a shimmering arc of blood cascading in thrumming rivulets behind him.

it took everything indra had to keep her footing, first as she collided with iliksis, and then when he leapt back into her.

snarling with yellowed teeth exposed to the air, she cut through him — once, twice as he lunged for laurel, dragging her along like his cursed pound of flesh.

and then out of the corner of her eye laurel rose, her features twisted and ugly. a small part of indra shirked in that moment out of fear for the violence that laurel’s expression portrayed: that wavering moment was enough for iliksis to tear from her grip, and pull indra unexpectedly forward.

unbalanced, indra dove for any leg she could — and barely had time to marvel the obscene splatter of red that tinged the air around them.

The young female dragged her paws, she was tired of moping around the camp contemplating what to do with her self. Vespera felt hollow, she felt nothing, she was willing to throw herself in any situation that was threatening Easthollow. The Mercenary's ears perked at sounds that were waving in her ears, Vespera slowly rose her head but was finding it hard to do so. She squinted her eyes at the direction of the scuffling, her blurred vision from losing sleep wasn't helping her in any way so she moved forward with a slow suspicious crawl. Red flags were raised in her mind as the closer she got to the source, the more it became clear that there was something wrong. Vespera's fur prickled in fury and annoyance, there was the sound of Laural, and Indra scuffling with a stranger, and she did not like that at all. How? How did we let some dick head get into our borders and into someone's den! She angrily thought, but the more she thought about it, the more she felt guilty, she was feeling too sorry for herself that she might have missed him.

But this wasn't the time to mope, this was the time for action, Vespera flared her nose and narrowed her purple gaze and ripped a deep snarl with all of her might and marched into the den. When she entered, it was chaos, there were heaps of blood splattered on the floors of the den, she noticed that Laural was seriously injured as Indra looked like she was fighting with her life. Vespera's gaze turned to the dark male who was not only trespassing but also trying to murder her pack mates. The young female stood where she was, unwanted flashbacks to the Leta incident left her dazed and horrified, she wasn't there to protect little Leta, it was her fault, and now it had come to this. The Easthollow wolf was able to snap herself out of this confusion and focused on the stakes at hand, she pinned her ears to her head and flashed her fangs. There was a little bit of fire in her eyes, her frame was weak, but Vespera was willing to throw her life away for letting it get this far, in her eyes, it was her fault for this incident and she had to fix it.

She wasted no time, she forced her weak body to charge at the male with the stored adrenaline making her feel strong again, her eyes went wild as she clamped her jaws on his muzzle like a bear trap. Vespera began to shake violently like a wild animal and drag her fangs across his muzzle and used her front paws to slam into his eyes and claw at them fiercely. She used her back legs to hold herself firm as she began to attempt to drag him down to the ground while clinging onto his muzzle and continuing to claw at his eyes, she wanted to kill him, she wanted to suffocate him, she will not let another get away with attempted murder and she was willing to go the extra mile to do so.

idk if u want scars, but Vespera doesn't have to give u any if u don't want to

It seemed that Laurel had hit home in some way. Everything was a huge flurry for her, and she didn't quite realise what was going on. All she knew was that there was a lot of blood everywhere and she was pretty sure at least some of it was his. He screamed and struggled and Laurel fell back from the effort he put into shaking her off. She watched him with fearful eyes as he rushed at her, but just as he was about to hit her someone else came out of seemingly nowhere.

Laurel ducked to the ground and watched as her pack mate grabbed the demon's muzzle. Her heart thrummed in her chest as she watched him bleed - did she make him bleed that much? - and Laurel kept herself pressed to the ground. Shame rushed through her that she would flinch again after she had only just attacked him, but the fear at facing her monster was too big. Her face smarted from the wounds he had given her there, but she didn't allow herself to look away from the spectacle in front of her, still fearful that her demon might come for her again.

gibbering like a madman iliksis threw himself against the woman that had been his undoing. no, no, no came the fearful shine of his wide eyes, rimmed in panic-white. blood gurgled thickly from his rattling throat, which now loosened like a slackened ribbon. his vision began to spot, darken -- and every sucking breath yielded nothing save for an obscene noise of wet and loose membrane.

iliksis did not see life flash before his eyes as his muscles tightened and his mind unreeled. he did not think back on fond memories, or see scenes of bygone eras. there was no canopy of inner thoughts unleashed, or shuttering phases as his synapses fired once, failed, and fired again into the swallowing dark. like distant stars they climbed and rose and flared and then fell into an incomprehensible void beyond reckoning. blackness was all the man saw as he fell to the ground, teeth tearing into him that he did not feel.

his last thought was of fear: banal, inescapable fear -- for evil did not discern between right and wrong, good-doer and evil-doer. evil was insensate, indiscriminate -- it cut through all like a scythe, indifferent to the hand that created it, and apathetic to its summoner. that was its nature, calloused and unbecoming -- and like so many evil things, iliksis met a violent end as he choked and spluttered on his own blood.

the judgment of his final act upon him, iliksis drew his final breath - his head thudding, his muscles and body on fire -- and then he sank to the ground as the wolves around him pulled him apart and bloodied the earth with his remnants.

when they were done he did not resemble the basilisk he had been mere seconds before. he was matted, bedraggled, his fur stripped and coagulated with bloodied matter and viscera. his yellow eyes stared back unseeing, half-rolled up into his skull -- and a gruesome, silent shriek of pain had permanently affixed itself to his stilled jaws, which grimaced back in the dogged way death grins to all.

and so ended iliksis' atrocious chapter, drawn to a close by his own iniquity.

if only it were that simple to vanquish the world of such depravity. iliksis' mortal soul was gone, but the world still produced monsters capable of unthinkable evil. evil was the many-headed hydra, and like many verminous things, nearly impossible to eradicate. cut one head, and three more snarling faces appeared in its stead.

the first thing noticed in many murder scenes is the spectacular quantity of blood in relation to the size of victim. perhaps most don't know how much blood the body holds -- for why should they? it gurgles darkly under the skin, unseen and often unheard. it pumps its quiet course throughout the body in constant flux, and when drained, often shocks those that come across it.

four liters.

spilled about like a splattering of rain. pooled under her like a puddle.

indra looked down, startled.

did i do that?

there was a wolf besides her, not laurel, that had tore into the man too.

did she?

indra stepped back in shock (where did i go?), searching, groping blindly throughout the violent scene, for laurel (are you okay?).

her limbs were shaking. her heart thudding so hard she was afraid it might break loose. she could not catch her breath, it came in ragged repetition, raw gasps.

she barely recognized the man before her (again, that bewildered thought --did i do that?). he looked like a crumpled and discarded thing, and indra might have thought him dead for weeks except all the scarlet dousing the trampled plants and welling in a dark tide underneath him: no, she had been here, they had done this. his sodden form looked far more grotesque than anything indra had ever seen, and so she looked away and crawled towards laurel in quiet shock.

are you okay?

riley did not care for his aunt nor his mother as they reeled from the carnal show; his eyes were transfixed on the man.

or what was left of one, anyway.

he had seen blood before, in the form of meat supplicated by his packmates. yet never once in his early life had he seen violence of this magnitude; bully his way through childhood as he might, this was a new level of cruelty in which he somehow excitedly felt intimately interested in.

transfixed by the bloodied pulp that sat inert in the earth, riley's ophidian gaze did not blink; he would return to this spot time and time again, and remember.