Shadewood I come back changed i can feel it in my bones

for @Cry and including @Gwen @Phex @Takara  and hopefully this'll help boost muse for @Higoro. @Deku and @Orochi too because this has heavy effects on plot ic. Pp'ing arrival for smooth flow

The time had come for her to make her move. She and Gwen had talked, Higoro knew of her sins, Deku seemed to be growing finely and even Orochi seemed to be alright. Takara had returned and professed her love and she knew she had a chance at everything she had ever wanted in life except for the faintest trace of regret and melancholy for Issun. She howled the sound authoritive and filled with intention, the summom for everyone including the angry Higoro  but holding challenge for cry. When everyone had arrived she inhaled and stood poised her tail high and stiff and her eyes filled with pride and soft with concern and genuine intention to help. "I have been here almost since the beginning and I have grown beside you. I have lost beside you, given birth beside you and raised my children beside you" she paused and took a breath finding herself quivering as she blew it back out again  her eyes turning downcast  "I have made mistakes. I am not perfect but I have also been the one keeping our borders safe and upholding the rules our leaders made. I have done their job. Gwen was tending her children and Cry....well he was doing whatever he does but i have been hunting, working out inner pack relations and dealing with my own problems and mistakes by my own. Phex and Higoro have helped but they haven't gotten the proper credit. Phex suffering alone and Higoro still cast out. What cry promised was a family and protection with freedom but he has us running his show. If I am to run it i want the title of the leader. I will work to fix any issues within this pack and if it is asked i will step down again but we need a change"


 she left that hanging and turned to look at both Gwen and Cry. Her gaze lingered contently on the man she so respected but her mind was on fixing their home for everyone and she knew she had to play it smart. "I have no ill will toward either of you but the one i wish to ask to step down is Gwen. Focus on your children Gwen...Let me take the entirety of your stress away" she then looked to Cry "Lead beside me. Hold your power. But dont treat me as lower anymore. Let me help you too" 

Her call surrounded his mind with something thorned and poised for so much more than a simple request. He rose from beside Gwen, his ire surely felt by his wife for being called upon like some whelpling that had gotten caught running into a snake's burrow. Iced irises narrowed in their deep caverns as he and the pale Alphess rose from their home and made their way to give audience to Minori. However, at his arrival, a gilde of silver speech moltened over his tongue as he prepared his refusal to Minori's claims and demands. He knew soon enough with her and her little band having their children here, there was going to be some kind of uprival soon. She would turn, and bite the paw which fed her, and that bitting would be here, now, and today. 
His surprise was barely held in check as she directed her insults at the pair of them- only to land on Gwen, his Gwendolyn, who mothered the Alphaic pair of wolves here, and whom had begun her structuring this pack into the kind and worthy respite it had been in the very dawn of this pack. Had it not been for her soft and welcoming spirit, his heart would have hardened against atleast half of the wolves who'd come and stayed, using the food she fought her life upon to hunt for, sleeping where she had prior patrolled and ensured the safety of, taking up the air she too breathed with her mate Raziel and their spawn. 

Minori had gotten her taste of authority...
and now she craved it all. 

His smirk came so fiendishly at this rehearse  of Minori's, almost as damning as the words he calmly and openly asked the wench. "Minori, you already have this place you demand, the rank beside me in nigh all matters...it almost sounds as though you wish for my place- not Gwen's." His assumption was concocted of her insults to his job around this place, his 'seemingly nothing' that he had been attending to. Sitting besides his Pale Shadow, the Phantom spoke again, baritones as closely cropped to innocence as a shark's inquisitive gaze. "I almost would be led to believe that you haven't noticed I have too been busy recruiting and keeping the basis between us and Firebirds as well as Melonii handled, as well...or have you been too caught up in your angsty hormones to see past your own narrow-minded lusts?" He wasn't even referring to their sex- no, though a tilted crown and discreet wink would lie and say he was. No, he was referring to her being allowed to shit out her little heathen spawn here with her band of degenerate wolves who were good for nothing besides wasting space and time. Of eating the food his Wife had dutifully placed in those caches and tucked away for a family who simply looked for their own gain, all along. "Was this your plans all along? To take advantage of a caring group and rear under their limitless protection until you could run through them like a group of fucking parasites?" How cute. Turning to nuzzle Gwen's shoulder, he only reminisced through the wonders that they shared as he threw heinous insults at the woman he so carelessly trusted himself to accept as a near equal. 
Returning the artic stare before him, it was clear his response to this bullshit. They burned an irresistable blue, one so dementedly lost in the winds that scored the frost-bitten oceans that you too could lose feeling in your limbs, should you stare hard and long enough into them. They were the eyes of an Alpha who quite frankly...had lost his tolerance of his leniency. 

Cry, the kind and mindful servant of his Wife was gone long before now, but now it was made quite evident that this was surely far from anything close to the generous man who welcomed this band of peons into these thriving woods. No...
only the Devil remained here. 
And without much more than a sultan grave for a voice, his silk warped to ruin all who defied him. In their embrace, the Melonii had nothing more to hide, the omens of Mephala's wrathful praise and destined future under Meldresi's herald of legacy. Of course out amongst the void of the Keep strode @Damien, the mass of despicable meat, flesh, sinew and savagery that very few beside his uncle Slade possessed. Whether his foes perished at his beartrap jaws or he finished their final breath beneath his hefty pads, the brute was nothing more than despair and hell, incarnate. Whether @Flicker or even if @Nocturnal was besides her King, he cared little for. But what mattered was his words were laid before Minori and her brooding pests with nothing more than a 'please' and a 'thank you'. @Cordelia might have even been watching from afar, but even that did not bear upon his list of mindful things. 

He was smarted a crack by Phex's mention, yet at Higoro's his arctic feelings resurfaced. Fuck that twat. Cry intended for him to starve outside of the borders, for Minori to come across his rotting carcass with nothing more than a parting whisper of loss. No, it was obvious she still gave a damn about the ranky rangy worm...so be it. She could keep his useless ass. 

"She seeks to replace you, Gwen...we can not lose each other to such an arrogant disease. Think of the children." Neverfucking mind Minori's own kids, he snorted with disgust. What good could they be if they were suddenly left motherless? 

He wouldn't say he he was against Minori, but he didn't really know her. Cry had been the one to offer him a helping hand even when Damien himself had limited himself to maintain diplomatic ties with his pack. Cry was a man of his word, and that, among very few other things, were the key to Damien's good side. So naturally when he approached to hear the part where Cry revealed that the asian chick was conspiring to overthrow him Damien could only feel disgust and contempt towards her.

Like a shadow Damien roamed around the gathering before deciding to step in and support his friend. Behind him he stood, tall and menacing to make it clear that whoever dared to pick up a fight with him would get Damien as well in the combo. He glanced at his friend's face hoping to get some kind of reassuring signal, but no matter the reasons for this confrontation Damien was very clear on which side he stood.

Phex stood quiet, her children kept close to her. She wanted them to be here. They were part of the pack too. As much as the new Mother wanted to, she couldn't decide she wanted to take on a leadership role. Not when she had her own personal life going crazy.
From the way Laroche was talking, they might leave anyway.

The whole while, she watched Damien. Her green eyes followed the shadowed man. She didn't like the look of him. He looked like he would easily make their lives all miserable if he so wanted. And she half wondered if Cry would stop him. She had her doubts. He'd not come to her for a long time, she'd been too busy to seek him. Hunting, looking after her Family. Looking after the pack. 
She looked to Cry, his face once a picture of kindness now a picture of hate. Hate for them. Laroche was right. 
She sat close to Minori, making sure @Bronwen and @Valour were kept tucked close to her. She would not leave them unattended. Not overprotectively mind, they could do whatever they wanted under her watch. 
"Minori is wrong. Neither of you are fit to run the Keep." She stood, her eyes on the pair. Cry and Gwen. Poor Gwen, infested with his spawn. Trapped. She saw her look, how she acted. She slowly breathed out. She had to leave here. 
"I don't like the look of these newcomers either. Therefore, I will be leaving." Was she right to announce it so publicly? To run away from this hell hole with the risk of being torn limb from limb and her children fed to some birds or used as coyote bait. 
Kovertol.
No, he would hurt them. Was he even still here?
Her chin lifted slightly, her tail curling, daring him to tell her No. She'd done all she could to build his Keep and now she wanted out. 

The howl was unexpected but Amaya went obediently and arrived shortly after it had sounded through the forest. She was there in time to hear Minori give her little speech and Cry's response to that. The gray woman chose to stay at the edge of what was going on. It was clear there was an upset among the ranks and she didn't know how that would play out. 

Her gaze drifted across to some of the others that had gathered, she was curious to know what they might be thinking about all of this. She wasn't even sure how she felt about this but she was certain she wouldn't like Minori leading the Keep. 

She didn't have to wonder what Phex felt about the situation. The woman had spoken her piece and frankly what she said just rub Amaya the wrong way. So much so a low growl sounded in her chest, how dare she after Cry had tried to find out what had happened with the Melonii.

There was disquiet, brewing in the keep.

She felt it like an unwritten, foreboding apprehension, a whisper of cool against her pelt, the slick, glacial brush of gathering clouds - they swarmed to her call like humming bees, those wolves that her husband had lulled into his reach; a tempestuous storm is how they stood now, vexed ripples of molten silver, facing one another. Against one another. It was almost ironic, given their very purpose - she might have laughed, had the situation not become so dire. What could she do? It was a churning sea of angst gathering beneath her eyes, an atmosphere of subtle electricity, diving and shooting between each stiff spine, rattling their bones. Arching tails, incandescent stares, and, worst of all, the words - oh, they did sting, like the needle of a wasp injected into her skin, they did, but didn't she deserve them? Didn't they all?

They'd all become so... unlike themselves. Turned against one another like esurient, ravenous hounds - perhaps that is simply all they were, now. Gwendolyn felt numb, to her very core.

"Let me take the entirety of your stress away."

Oh, it sounded saccharine, did it not? A preposition, glazed in honey, mawkish in nature. So captivatingly divine, empyrean, eternally swathed in tranquility. So faultless, and yet, so very feigned. Ridden with fallacious claims. Why? Because, well, Minori could not take Gwen's strain away, the pressure that she did not know - it was impossible in the most recalcitrant of ways. There was nothing this warrior could do to stand against her husband, else she might've accomplished it already, instead of dwelling in a thick pool of misery, just as the snow queen herself had, before accepting this pledge. He was a void of impenetrable darkness, and she'd be damned if Minori was the one to shatter this, like a film of glass; there was nothing she could do, and this belief had been corroded into her lungs, with every breath of suffocating ash to scorch her tongue. Perhaps it was a punishment, more than anything else, for her to be condemned to such a life, but she would take it. She would carry this burden, for her children, for her life - if Minori took control, what would become of the Eruna, and her family? Regardless of her conversation with the warrioress, Gwen did not, could not, hand her credence to the girl. 

She looked to Raziel.

As anticipated, he turned toward her, striding forth in his stygian eminence - the king of the wood, as it should be. She fought the urge to dip her sibylline chin as he approached, experiencing the prickle of electricity slide up her shoulder at his touch. You see, there was one aspect of their relationship, now, that flicked a switch within the winter-born sylph. Fear. There was nothing more dictating, more clamorous, than consternation, and her husband cradled it like a jewel in his own palms, to utilize as he pleased. While once in her place stood a priestess of kingdoms, there now wavered a bygone queen, bent to the will of her tyrannical partner - because he was more vigorous, in his will, than herself. Had she not lost so much already, perhaps she could have risen against him, beaten away the shadows luring his mind like a hungry shark, and yet, she could not. She had already suffered too long.
She let her husband talk.

He had quite a way with words, the dove mused - he wielded them as his weapon, to unsheathe his wrath in the most serene of ways toward the offender. His mask was his stoicism, his eyes his venom, but his tongue, his tongue the rope, to bind them all together again. This was why he had remained the keep's watcher for so long despite sanity dripping like ink from his skull, because of this unspoken power. And he used it against her. Because he knew she’d heed his command.

"She seeks to replace you, Gwen...we can not lose each other to such an arrogant disease. Think of the children."

Her breath hitched. It was caught as a bubble of ambivalence in her throat, of fearful contemplation, and she knew, deep in her heart that she must obey him. She must do as he says, because, what would become of her, should she flee? Oh, she knew it very well. There was no escaping this man, if he craved something - well, he would have it. But she could not allow her comrades to believe she did not try to defend their will, and idly wondered whether there was a place for her voice among these shifting tides. She inhaled...

And then exhaled, rising from her place atop the earth. Phex's declaration caused a spear through her chest, but she could not allow this hurt to surface upon her features, no - she must be serene. Confident. Everything she had once been. While Cry would fight with burning words, underneath his facade of solemnity, she would be the voice of reason, to pledge peace between them all. At least… she would try. "Minori," she began softly, barely a whisper, before steadying herself, chewing at the inside of her cheek. "I understand your concerns, I know them very well. But surely, this is not the way to solve our issues. My place has little worth to you, and, a fight is not what I desire. It would solve very little. If leading is what you want, that is not something I can give to you." Her gaze flickered quietly to Raziel, in silent seeking of approval. "I have made mistakes also, but, if this is something you were so concerned about, why did you not seek us out previously? Why did you not voice your concerns before? There are issues, I agree, and now that we have been made aware of everyone's concerns, we can work toward amending them. Fighting will tear us apart. That is not something we should risk."

She could recall a time, so long ago, where Cry was beneath her rule, and it was almost beguiling to ponder upon. She tried with all her might to pull up the courage she'd been granted from the past, and drag it toward the present, to guide her now. "We do not have to resort to violence to get something done. Tell me, tell me what needs to be changed, and I will see to it. We will see to it." She glanced around at them all, gathering her strength. "There are always going to be setbacks along the road, and it's clear we have hit one now. But if we continue to work together, instead of fleeing, or showing our teeth, we can become stronger together, and we can create the safe haven that we all desire." Now, her eyes settled upon Minori, and Minori alone.

"But if you decide to fight, what is safe, anymore? Do we want a war, a divide? Do we want our children to grow up in chaos? I know you are a good wolf." Please. I'm saying this for all of us. He won't stop. She simply wanted safety, for them all, and if remaining beneath her husband’s rule was the only way? She would wield it, without his suspicions, in all her vigilant timidity.

And now, she rested back on her haunches, the picture of soundless composure, despite the whirlwind of panic embracing her chest.

His words sank deep into her flesh eating away at her like maggots inside a corpse feasting away at the festering flesh and exposing her. Yet what she was was fire and she would burn and when fuel like that wad added she would destroy, especially where it concerned her family. "Yet you communicate not. Those jobs are for others, the alpha runs the home and makes sure his members are at peace. I stayed back home and was the one handling the drama here, protecting and feeding the families you allowed and swore to protect. Nobody but me and Gwen knew of anything happening. I had to handle explaining it" she responded coolly her eyes burning bright with cool calm though the way her expression turned cold was a sign of her calculating anger. She caught a flicker of movement and looked over Cry's shoulder to spot a stranger who slid up beside Cry and stared at her with contempt he had no right to in her opinion. Her gaze flicked to Higoro and she flicked her ears, twitching them rapidly for a moment to get his attention and praying he would get the point and come to her side. "Takara...take the boys and wait somewhere nearby" she said gently her eyes still calm but now harboring a darker intent. "You spoke not a word of this to anyone. You say that I have a spot beside you so why not communicate? This all could have been avoided. Instead you ghost around and do things behind my back without my advice while I do the dirty work beside the rest of the keep" she spoke firmly her voice no longer shaking her firm glare flicking from Cry to the man he had so smoothly replaced her with. Always one step ahead, she could see that now.


Phex wasn't entirely wrong, Gwen didn't deserve this even though she was unfit to claim a title such as alpha. She turned to stare at the young girl as she tucked her kids to her body and spoke boldly against the leaders who had started this place, the potential of it so beautiful yet....was it worth this? The alphess answered finally showing a hint of inner strength that surprised Minori to the core. Yet she noticed the glances at Cry and how the she wolf used her strength only to please the man. Her eyes flashed with pain and she curled her lips over her teeth spitting with disgust "yes Gwen...think of your children" the comment wasn't filled with nastiness but instead her tone softened and she turned away from the woman, seeing how tightly Cry had hold of her. Instead she looked to Higoro and then to Phex "My decision is to no longer be the one trying to keep a reign over everything while it crumbles. I will step down and renounce my loyalty and instead pledge it to the ones who must come first, my children and family. Anyone who wishes to join me for safety may do so. I am not a leader but your friend unless I am chosen to lead" as she said this she slowly began to back away, on guard in case anyone tried to halt her in her attempt to end peacefully.

He was too young to grasp what was happening entirely but he knew everyone was mad and sad and that there was growling and posturing and mean words. It all seemed pointed at Gwen and Cry who he had been taught were the great leaders but he also knew something was up he had heard daddy talk about it. He was confused as he was tucked against his mother and whimpered, his own lack of understanding but knowledge that everyone was mad was frightening and aggravating. 

When the Japanese woman said she was no longer loyal to Cry and Gwen and asked who would leave his gasped and struggled free from his mother to stand bristling before Cry, the one he knew as leader. "if you aren't loyal then stop yammering and leave!" he shouted, his eyes watery with tears but lips curling over tiny fangs to show he meant it. "Cry is my leader! This is my home and I dont wanna go nowhere!" His words became petulant and he stopped, pouting and puffing with anger before he dropped his tail and turned to Cry eyes wide before he cowered and showed the respect he felt the man deserved, sneaking curious glances at the shadowy brute over his shoulder.

So many decisions, when all it would take was a sleight of paw, and a dip of blood to set this bullshit contract ablaze. But Cry was no man of bravado, nor a man of useless violence. However, whatever dwelled in such a vehement prowl within, was. And it was everything in his power to keep it shackled. 

Phex spoke her piece, once again driving a wedge between he and what he considered his adopted daughter. This time he couldn’t exactly stop the floodgates as he seethed a low warning to her. “Amaya risked her life to figure out who had wronged you, under my own oath, and you doubt my capabilities? Despite my intent to bring you justice?” What little sympathy he could have even remotely summoned on her behalf was obliterated by her betrayal. And thus his mind cleared through the fog of held back emotions. Of weakness.

”Phex, you may leave. And you, your children, and anything following your bloodline will never be welcomed back to the Keep, whether this ‘crumbling’ pack remains, or not. You have been labeled Traditore, and should any of the named degenerates return to this land, they will be executed without hesitation.” His sentence was final. And there would be no held remorse for her plight, any longer. Almost as though it was needing to be said, he brought somewhat of a hurt face to Amaya, saying, “I apologize for your efforts  being shat upon by the victim, Miss Amaya. Your mission is concluded.” 

Bringing his view back to Minori, his eyes Atlantic gems glittered a creaseless azure, pressurized and almost begging to dagger the dark bitch with shards of crystalline ice. “I’ve no need to point out how silly it is to argue with you, Minori, but you continue to try me. Either prove your capability to back this stupid shit you keep claiming, or take your roach family and skitter away.” He stood, taking a step before Gwen, in case the few peons wanted to use her as his reason for going soft on them. Regardless, Gwen could kill a plenty of animals- surely she would defend herself, wouldn’t she? 

“I’ve no time to be a dancing dog in your pointless show. I’ve entertained your disillusioned ass enough.”

His words had only barely changed in their depth, but the chill could almost be felt across Teekon, itself. Minori didn’t exactly see herself flailing within the depths of the artic waters, but hyperthermia and over exertion would catch up with her soon enough-
and there his fangs would await to drag her beneath the dark blue sea.

The youth spoke up, and it almost made the ebonian draconian flinch. In what madness world did the whelpling bring to front his choice? He disregarded his lineage among filth and chose the winning team, it seemed. He didn’t know whether this was Minori’s own pup or whether this was Takara’s, but it almost made a disgusted chuckle choke from his chest. “Seems the decision of this one has been made-“ he snorted with a flick of obsidian aid to the baby fang. 

“Now make your’s.”

She watched the chill take over Cry and her lips curved upwards just the slightest. For a moment she basked in the cold, for a second she made it her home and regretted having pissed off such a powerful man but then she thought of how soft her sweet Deku was and how bad it would be for him when Cry couldn't contain the storm brewing inside of him. Megumi would not be happy in a place of darkness, even when his mother had her own darkness brewing and poisoning her heart. She listened intently as Cry threw Phex out as if she had meant nothing and her gaze flashed with more regret. It was her words that had started this series of events and now the young girl and her ballsy child would suffer because of it. 


Or perhaps they'd be better off somewhere safe. She snorted and let Cry's words roll off of her shoulders. She had nothing more to add, she had seen the truth of what she had worked her ass off to serve and she'd have nothing of it. "The only disillusionment I had was because of you so cleverly pulling  strings and working shadows to mask the truth. You are a darkness, an illness, and I am happy to be bringing my children and family somewhere where i wont one day live in fear or have to choose the wrong side just to live. I hope you all thrive here" she spoke once more and then turned, making a quick exit and shouting for Higoro to leave. She'd find them all again soon and she would take them to safety.

Since she'd turned a year old Amaya had been on her own and never part of a pack. Seeing Minori go at Cry and Gwen the way she was and Phex seeming to side with the dark woman. It made her nervous for the future of the pack. She didn't know if these sorts of things were normal amongst pack members or not. As for the things that were being said about Cry and Gwen...well Amaya couldn't really say if they were true or not. She knew Cry had always treated her well, with respect. As for Gwen, she didn't know the woman well at all. Then there was the fact she hadn't really been around lately, she didn't even know that the tensions in the pack were as bad as they seemed.

It did anger the normally calm woman that Phex could be so ungrateful for what Cry had tried to do and she let it be known. Cry had brought her into it causing her to shift uneasily on her fore paws. He wasn't wrong, she had done so much including risking her life to find out what had happened so Phex could have justice. The keeps leader did something else as he spoke, he released her of her mission. She would be staying home and she was grateful to not have to go back out pretending on behalf of a woman she'd clearly been wrong about after the first time they had met. 

She gave a nod to Cry to show she accepted his apology and understood that her mission was over. They would probably need to speak later but he had more important things to deal with.

She had to be honest with herself. There was a small amount of satisfaction when Phex was banished from Keep territory. Then Minori left and the keep shrank some more leaving Amaya to wonder where that would leave the pack. Had she brought Cordelia back to a dying pack?

"Come with me child. I will show you more than this place can offer."
Phex looked to the green-eyed woman and nodded with a grin. She wanted to see it all. 
Sobahn watched her leave and he did not stop her. He knew it was for the best she left.

The young woman stared at her son. Cry's words peeling at her skin like a sandstorm blast. Her eyes burned, but no water came. She stared at her piece of Laroche. The part of the world they'd made together, half of a whole.
And he wanted to not be with her.
Valour chose Cry.
But he was still her son, and she a scout. Not a rouge, but she could raise one.

The tan woman blinked, then smiled softly, looking to Cry then Gwen. She thought of them as her parents. Neither had come to see her or her children, despite how busy they may have been. She should've gone to see them, in truth. Was the fracture there before it was known?
She'd seen in his eyes what he thought when she'd returned.
I'm not impressed. You are weak. 
You are a soldier to me.

"Then so be it."
Her voice quiet in that dangerous way she'd seen others do. She looked to her son, giving him a careful look. He'd come to her, as long as she stuck close enough. He could stay here if he so wanted, but he would have to do what had to be done.
He would have to grow, learn, and kill Cry. He was a danger to everyone, Gwen needed to be free. Her hackles raised, staring at the shadow behind Cry. 
Could she leave her son when that babadook was around?
Valour was a boy and would be treated well enough. Especially if they wanted a soldier.

She nudged Bronwen into action and followed Minori.
Once gone, she would not return.
She made her own Family.

So be it.

He didn't understand half of what was said but he could tell that his Mama was hurt. A soft twang of guilt made him remain silent and he looked at his mother and then to his sister who stared at him expectantly, expecting him to follow them away from this place. He took a few stepd after them and then faltered turning to peer at Cry, lips quivering as if he was holding back words and then they fell still. He didn't move, not for a few long moments and before he did he looked at Cry "I could have been useful. I would have stayed loyal Sir" and then he stalked away, not wanting to be away from his mother and feeling that his sister's anger would be much worse than anything else he could face. 

Idk what's happening with this kiddo here rn so he's just gonna follow his mother and sister out