Blackfoot Forest BWP3: Let me go out with a bang!

For @Mesa (small PP to set the scene lemme know if that's not okay) and tagging @Mahler and @Takiyok if you want to pop in after Kazimir saves Mesa and is dying

The desperate look in Takiyok's eyes was what made her move past the anger and bitterness she felt toward her son. The boy had lost a fantastic man in his life, a father that she assumed was like no other. She had to forgive him for taking his young minded confused anger out on her, since physically she knew she appeared the weakest. She had noticed that Mesa was not around that day and with the quakes growing much worse than before, she was not comfortable letting the boy roam alone. Hence why she followed him to the forest that day...


The bellows of deer and distant sounds of a herd running caused her to hurry her pace, the scent of the boy as strong as it would get. She paused and looked around before hurrying onward. "Mesa! Mesa your mother wont want you wandering!" she shouted for the boy, ears pinning back at how dumb she sounded. She was not some stupid babysitter, why should she have to trek after some insolent little kid? Then again it would be her ass on the line if he died. 

All of a sudden the grunts of the elk turned into loud, startled bellows and the ground started shaking beneath her causing her to stumble and almost faceplant. She gasped and hobbled forward, leaning against every tree she passed so that she could continue her search. Her eyes lifted and kept watch for the boy and for the stampede of elk she heard coming toward the area quickly.

He had been trying to find his brother. It was stupid; Ego was gone and he knew it, but something had tugged at his senses and lured him away from the group. It was a foolish attempt to regain something lost; mixed with a child's curiosity to see the aftermath of the quakes, not understanding just how tenuous the situation was. If he could only find his brother in all of this! If he could only reunite the pieces of his family that still lived!

Mesa had no way of knowing if Ego lived and yet his efforts grew manic, he drove himself in to a run between the trees - until an exposed root he had not noticed was suddenly there, as if lifted preternaturally off the ground to grab at him, and he fell. The boy wheezed as he hit the dust chest first; for a moment all was calm, he regained his composure quickly, the blow having reminded Mesa that his efforts were a child's fancy - but then the rumbling started.

The earth hummed at first. Pebbles danced. The trees began to groan, all the while Mesa flattened himself against the dirt in anticipation for the ground to cleave open and devour him. But this was not a quake - a crowned head rose up across a powerful forequarter as the leader of the herd charged, behind him was legion, many churning limbs equipped with dagger-like points, the elk lord rose like Sleipnir as his horde pulsed onward, oblivious of the pup in their line of egress.

Her paws stumbled over the ground as she ran, following the scent and finding that it lead toward the sounds of the stampede. Her eyes flared wide as she spotted the Elk, the largest of them with a rack meant to pierce even the biggest wolf's flesh rearing up over a small huddled figure. Her heart leaped and she bolted, snarling as she threw herself over the boy as the large hooves came crashing down upon her. She yelped and for a moment fell flat upon the child, her body covering him as she turned her head and snarled defensively her flame hued eyes staring into the whites of the Elk king as he flared his nostrils and bellowed at her hooves rising and once again beating her upon the head and back. Through it all she remained over him, taking every blow while screaming and holding still until suddenly she went silent and lay upon him stunned and beaten senseless. Through it all the herd raced onward, trampling the earth around them unharmed but terrified. The scent of blood filled the air and she knew it was hers, the scent of it seeming to satisfy the Elk king though he departed by carelessly stomping upon her fallen body and urging his herd forward. For a few moments all was silent and she struggled to her paws, adrenaline fueling her and making her unaware of the massive split in her skull or the various places her bones were shattered. She used her head and pushed him out of the way as the sound of approaching hooves could be heard, another group of Elk following the first bearing down upon them. "Move! Get out of their path! she rumbled and staggered as she tried to shove him into action, falling down to the dirt where she stayed and whirled to try and frighten the Elk away from the path they were on.

She got her head split open really bad, gored a few times and her ribs and collar bone are shattered, internal bleeding etc. She gonna die pretty slowly. Like 10-15 minutes

In an instant there was a creature rising over him, flanked by others. They merged as he saw them, becoming a many-legged monstrosity as panic flared; wedge-shaped heads equipped with black eyes, blacker than anything, with peals of smoke huffing from flared nostrils, the clatter of cloven hooves against an uncertain earth—Mesa knew he needed to stand and to run and to do something or he was going to be crushed, but he saw all of this in a blink of the eye, and was frozen in terror, ill-equipped in that one terrible moment.

As those hooves came down upon him like many scythes to cut him down, he wedged against the dirt as tightly as he could. He took a breath, saw the entirety of his short life spread out in a panic-fuelled vision, just as something came to shield him. Mesa's eyes were shut as the shadow crossed over him and he thought, in that frantic and mindless manner of any animal faced with certain demise, that this was it. He was done. He would feel the biting pain and he would be with Stigmata again—

The scent of blood flooded through the air and he heard the violent crack and clattering of those hooves stabbing in to flesh, crushing, pulverizing. He felt something pinch the end of his tail and with a yelp Mesa's eyes flew open wide—and there he saw the bloodied silhouette of something canid, glinting like an iron barricade around him, rusted with blood and painfully familiar. Nothing prepared Mesa for the image that would be forever burned in to his psyche: the three-legged wolf, Kazimir, crushed beneath a stampede of spidering limbs. The warmth of blood as it flowed across his body—not his blood, not his pain, not his death.

He needed to move! Kazimir was shouting through shattered teeth, kicking at him, thrusting him away from beneath her protective carapace of a body; and he did, he moved as fast as he could, barely feeling the ground beneath his paws—Get out of their path! She was staggering behind him and he paused, just a fleeting moment of doubt, of wanting, as the panic mixed with his adrenaline. She was pushing him roughly along, scoring at his flank with her bloodied teeth as further limbs came smashing down around them both; Mesa dove around a hind, stopped short just as a pair of stags came veering in to his path, and ran, ran, ran, along with the herd, gasping and desperate, while Kazimir's protective silhouette faded to a shadow in his periphery.

For a moment it was not just her vow to Takiyok to keep him safe that drove her. It was the panic in his eyes, the sheer lack of defense that made her shift and remember all she had gained and the things she deep down knew she would never have truly. Dragomir,Aurewen,Stigmata and Mahler, she had gained friends and wolves she considered bond brothers, comrades, and learned what it was like to love the young and teach them new things. It was maternal instinct that sent her snapping at his flanks and propelling him onward, increasing his panic because it was what would spur him to move. All the while she drained in coherent function, slowing down by the minute and getting kicked and bumped every so often until the last one struck, a hoove snapping her hind femur in half and sending her to the ground eyes rolling upward to watch as Mesa ran ahead. She wasnt slowing in alertness but the damage was so deep that she was seeing everything through a warm sort of haze. Rose red pupils as her old partners used to say, a happy fading glee. "Keep going you stubborn brat" she murmured softly resigned in the death that had been presented to her. 

She could go now, a loyal member of Diasporat paying her debt to Stigmata through saving the life of his spawn. He had given her such a nice home, a true taste of family. 

note that she is not dead and anyone who wishes to can say goodbye. Otherwise Mesa is free to come back and question her in a separate private thread or here and can reference it anywhere (I'd love a tag <3)

The sound of Kazimir's voice slipped through the din of stomping hooves; the words would not translate for him until much later, when the adrenaline had worn off and he'd had a decent handful of hours to sleep. For now, while the immediate terror propelled him to stampede with just as much volatility as the herd, Mesa was practically choking on each breath and forcing his limbs to churn and kick the dirt as he sought safety somewhere away from the chaos.

;;;

@Kazimir.
mahler had come for the thunder of hooves, and found the valiant woman broken, bleeding out her last into the dust. 
unfair; bitterness choked him.
"kazimir," he mustered, a practiced eye woefully summoning the angst to know nothing could help the woman now. the scent of mesa lingered; he wondered vaguely how the boy had been involved, but decided it mattered not. "you have been very brave," the general choked softly, allowing himself a rare show of grief as he lowered his muzzle to soothe her cheek in the last moments.
the ruminants pounded on, unaware of what they had done, and the gargoyle breathed in the churned air and was still.

He ran until she couldn't see him anymore and she smiled, watching the dust rise from the dirt the deer had kicked up with their hooves. There was a heaviness to her body, a lack of sensation that could only be one thing and she knew it to be the end. Kazimir did not fret, she did not mourn, nor did she think of what she could have done. Instead she was proud of herself, proud that her last moments had been spent being true to Diaspora. She was so tired, it was so tempting to just close her eyes in the glow of her satisfaction and give in but then there were paw steps and soon a deep voice rumbling at her that gathered her attention. She opened her eyes partially, fiery gaze rolling upward so she could look at him but blinking slowly closed again. After a few moments she opened them and licked her lips, pulling in a deep breath so she could say something meaningful and as he touched her cheek she sighed it out, letting the warmth of his comfort soothe her enough to close her eyes. "Mahler...thank you" and then it was over. The last of her breath left her lungs and her muscles went lax, lips remaining stretched into a content smile.

tags for ref/to inform

with a breath, a murmur of his name, kazimir slipped into nothingness.
long after the dust had ceased its chaos around them, he remained alongside her. @Mesa could wait, @Takiyok could wait, all of diaspora could wait, could wait.
he lifted finally his voice in a call for all of them, for @Nyx, for @Ketzia, @Stag, @Monarch. pay tribute to the fallen one, he implored.

When at last Nyx arrived, she was met by a grim sight.

The tawny Ostrega paused to take in the scene, yellow eyes finding the fallen figure of a wolfess she recalled only vaguely. Mahler loomed over her as she lay on the ground, quiet and solemn as she oft found him, and her gaze lifted to seek his dark features.

"I'm sorry," she murmured. One by one, the wolves of Diaspora fell - so frequently that Nyx had grown almost numb to it all.

She could only hope that her turn might roll around sooner rather than later.

another had fallen, another soul struck from diaspora's reach.

stag answered in slow strides, eyes dull and vacant. no loss would ever rival the gutting loss of his father, but this -- this was a new wound to fester, to ignore until it became unbearable.

he was there only long enough to take stock of what happened: dust, blood, his brother -- kazimir. sick, i'm going to be sick-- bile in his throat, sharp --

and then his legs were reaching underneath him, the ground spinning

where am i going? a distant voice, stag's voice -- run run running away.. the snow and the dirt and the earth spun underneath his vision, and miles bled to miles before he came to.