Dragoncrest Cliffs Gleypa

Sniffing at the borders. Curious little boy. No danger at all. ^^

Their scent had drawn him closer and closer until he could find places on the ground where they had rubbed themselves or pissed into the snow. The world eater sat hungrily at the edge, pondering the terrain.

Heimsætur was stained red with the blood of the wolf on the beach. His dark face was painted crimson from his muzzle to his chest. Still, the bear lapped his tongue at his lips to taste it. Still, he thought of the warmth in the dog’s thick blood. It had not been satisfied. It still demanded more.

And there were more on the cliffs.

Heimsætur lifted his head and sniffed, huffing a great clouded breath into the chilly air.

Suzu hated the patrol. She worried, every time she had to pass along the eastern borders, where she could see the tangle of brambles in the distance. She imagined, every time she passed, that the bear would stand up, loom above the bushes. That it would lunge in her direction. 

She'd never even seen a bear before- but she imagined it as a dreadful beast. A monster. Something she'd been told of in stories, names sung to her in a dirge. Her mother recounted history to her, and for most of the months of her life, Suzu had listened, feeling only a slight tinge of remorse for those mentioned. She did not know them. She did not know the fear they'd felt when Shardik had loomed over them. 

Now, she did. 

She tried to hurry along the borders, tail tucked. The scent of blood and something feral and fetid made her go stiff. Something familiar, frighteningly so, made her shiver. Sobo. She cast her gaze around, looking for something...And then she saw it. Hulking shoulders, a long, heavy muzzle. Small, glinting eyes, dark, unsatiable. 

Shardik.

Its breath hung on the air like poison to a glass. 

She couldn't run, couldn't flee- but she could call out. 

She sounded the alarm.

Okay so he won't be here yet. So cameo Skippable for now. If he hoofs it he may make it.

Brown masked boy lay upon the cold harsh unyielding ground. Blood and gore around him, his uncle's body broken beyond repair. There was nothing to be done, nothing could fix this. He had looked, though he hiccoughed with every movement, and tears continued to leak from his eyes, he had tried to see if he could fix him, somehow, anyway. But his paws weren't enough, and his heart wasn't enough and you couldn't fix death with love. No matter how hard you wanted too.

His chest was aching and each breath whistled deep and made it hurt worse, but before he could call for his manman, or his granme a sound froze his blood and he screamed as loud as he possible could. There was no words to the scream, just blood curdling scream. a scream of absolute grief and fury and pain as he heard his sister sound the alarm at their borders. At their borders. Blood Ran Cold. He raced back the way he had come, knowing he wouldn't make it. Screaming for her.


SUZU! SUZU! Don't go Near De BEAR!! RUN SUZU RUN

He knew she wouldn't hear him. knew he couldn't save her this time, and that was a painful truth. Hopefully someone, anyone could get to her before him. Surely Manman and Granme would get to Suzu. They had too, absolutely.

Body aching, gasping breaths. He ran as fast as he had ever ran. Praying all the while.

she will arrive in my next post.

"I t'ought for sure, when I saw Stingray's face,
dat 'e had found de biggest pearl to date." 

She laughed merrily, lying against her sister's side in the wake of their pearl ceremony. She felt pleased with the outcome- everyone had found a pearl who had been permitted to partake, and while she did feel guilty that a few members did not get to participate, she felt it was right to keep something special reserved to those who were righteous enough to deserve it. 

When her laughter settled, she was reminded yet again of the discussion only days before that- about how to deal with the bear. The decision-making weighed heavily upon her. The pack had discussed options, and the outcome was something they hoped would suit them all. But it still bothered her that perhaps she had been wrong...Her pride and her humility fought a battle that was near-constant. She felt she needed to be prepared to make a choice that would never be put to vote. 

Few knew where Chacal had gone, late that night. Few knew of the discussion that the Tanzanite had brought to her Maman. Of the buried treasure that she had been shown, and what she had been told of its properties.

She knew. And she committed herself to it.

So when her daughter's voice rang out, a shrill cry for help that could not be mistaken, Chacal bolted to her feet. She had thought about this, day and night. To her sister, she turned, and gave one last look. 

"Take de children. Leave dis place;
take dem to somewhere safe."

She wished she could linger, reach for one last embrace. But she had played this scene through her mind over and over- and she knew what might become of her daughter if she spared herself one last moment with her sister. She turned and bolted.

She splashed through the edge of the lake, and carried bits of ice with her wetted coat. She brushed aside any who stood in her way or clamoured near the Roja den. Furiously she kicked back pawfuls of dirt and from the soil on which many children had been born, she unearthed the bringer of life's end. She dashed it to pieces with her claws. She flung herself into it, rolled, and coated herself thoroughly in specks of dried herbs. Her coat shone slick, with red highlights. On her pelt, she carried the hues of her mother, and the curses of her Maman. She did not shake her pelt- but informed the den's occupants to get clear with a roar, before she dashed for the borders.

Theo too heard his sisters cry. He was at the pearl ceremony thing still though when he and many others heard it. He dropped his oysters and pearls and started to race after his mother and brother towards where Suzus call of the bear had come from. He was lanky and caught up to Etienne fast, and started to our pace his brother but he too knew he could only run so fast. He just hope Suzu ran as well

The sudden turn of events sent her stomach churning. 

Bear. She had done this. As Chacal made her preparations, she was shuffled aside, and opened her mouth to say, to do, anything. To help fix this nightmare she'd wrought.

But Lilitu had never been brave. 

She hustles away the young and injured from the den, instead, helping to herd them away from this nightmare. 

And all the while, a mocking refrain—

You're much too tiny to be fighting BEARS, darling!

the plan is that the kids will be coming w mireille to sweetharbor



ofc ur free to do what u like but she will be hustling whoever to the island

@Etienne @Suzu @Theo @Stingray (also tagging @Quennell and @Swordfish as she wouldn't leave them <3)

when the bear arrived, mireille almost expected it. 
a time of tension and demotions and bear, when unknown threats stood against the cliffs she had only ever known as home.
and then she heard their mother screaming, little suzu calling the pack in panic;
chacal stormed away. mireille sucked in huge breaths. something had happened, someone was dead! her limbs felt leaden; she stared after her older sister and then forced herself to move.
first the den, for her brothers. then she shouted for her sister's children to join her, thinking somehow, lucid somehow.
coldness gripped the girl. she called for @Meerkat, hearing her mother summon her da; she squeezed her eyes closed and she knew she could not expect the young mother to be along, not after —
goin' to de islan,' grace in her notes, and lilitu helping them as well.
"go. move, little ones," mireille mumbled, pushing them toward the edge of sapphique, gathering aminthe with her, too stunned to give a lot's-wife look back at what she thought might be the end of them.

quen is going to take this chance to depart, feel free to remove him from sapphique :x

they were hustled along.

disaster struck and the guilt felt like it devoured him whole. like bear teeth around his skull — or did he merely feel what had taken his brother somehow? he motioned many of the other children off with mir as she led them like a stone against the tidal waves of tragedy.

but he had already told her how he felt and if he too was to be ushered off like the other children, it seemed his time to leave had come already.

only he would not go off to sweetharbor with siblings and cousins and nieces or nephews.

he curved his path off, out into the tangle and taiga.

slow and wading, not knowing how far he would truly make it.

the pack hummed with the death energy of their jade and the appearance of his killer on the rise.
chacal had come to her in the night, filled with a full fervency and erzulie had given into her care what was asked.
but that was before sobo had died, that was before the blood of another son watered sapphique's coastal crest.
chacal directed, ordered; she was the leader needed by their wolves now. and erzulie returned from her break to blink and see bodies rushing around her.
lilitu and mireille, retreating with the young. 
she did not see rhaegal yet nor cherub's wing nor njord.
she heard the full-throated cry of her daughter rushing to battle — fierce chacal!
but erzulie did not intend to lose another fucking child, not today.
what she had given chacal would poison and slow and plunder breath from lungs. 
what she held in shaking paw now, bloodied with sobo's end, was her ending. a small white seed.
rosalyn and her children and grandchildren and surely, surely the new ones who grew inside the raging tanzanite.
it was a fierce and great plan that chacal had concocted, peerless; she would see it through to its end. erzulie scuffed her shoulders silently in foliage, dusting herself in the same way without the same items.
and then she swallowed the white seed. it would turn her blood to something bone-eating and monstrous, and in fifteen minutes the white-hot fire of it would peak. a taste of her flesh now, then, the last thing for a bear to devour.
erzulie saw no more; she joined chacal at once in their dance, lunging directly for the massive creature who had cost her so very much.
no more.

she cried, but she did not let it consume her.

tears blurred her vision as she rounded children with the obsidian for a moment. ushered them off with her where they would be safest, where the bear would not reach them with teeth and claws.

there could be no time for kisses or hugs or well wishes. off they must be with the fiery obsidian as their beacon.

then she turned to the sounds of chacal and erzulie. consumed further by her grief.

she threw herself into the fray with them. small and wisp like. she could deliver no grand punches or blowing feats! she could only be on the swift feet of a scout, to dance and distract when needed. she waited for teeth and claws.

she waited for a blow as grand as a tsunami.

hope it is ok val is coming <3

alarms sounded from the cliff as val ran for his life.

this time not from the bear, but to it.

around him the lives of sapphique scuttled like gulls taking wing. unseeing, val strode past them all, following maman as she put sobo to his grave and retreated to the den.

chacal blasted past, robed in insiduous garb with hellfire in her eyes. val had the sinking feeling he was beginning to drift uncontrollably from them all.

but it was his mother who stole his breath away. he tried to press his head to her in one last embrace, knowing in that timid way a child knows that things had gone very wrong.

the children and young were being whisked away. val watched their fleeing forms, closed his eyes and embraced temporary darkness as wars' chaos raged around him.

he saw a pair of golden eyes glinting in the shadows, staring back.

val's eyes fluttered open, a war whoop piercing the air as he dove in after chacal and erzulie. SOBOOOOO!

*sobbing* I said he was no danger at all, you guys! *w* Heheh. Please PM me if you want any specific wounds inflicted on your sweet little pups… otherwise, Hammy here is going to swing like crazy. <3

Also, I’m assuming that Chacal is arriving at roughly the same time as Erzulie, based on Ebony’s post. Please let me know if that is not okay.

No posting order! Just get one in there if you're fighting Bearry B. Boscowitz. Those evacuating... I won't wait for another post? Probably. PM me if you want to fight. >w<

The dogs began to swarm upon him, like ants called by the stench of blood and decay. He watched the first one cry out. So soon after having devoured the wolf on the beach, he did not feel the same drive to kill. The small girl would not pose a threat. She did not have the strength to hold against the force of his massive paw or the point of his bloodied claws.

As they arrived, the bear watched. Its dark eyes switched from one to another.

Some thought themselves fearless. Heimsætur roared against their attack. Futile! The hunger began to reawaken, sparked by the prospect of blood on the air. The world eater saw a dark one dance toward him with the spiriting company of an old woman cloaked in red. The smallest of the attackers did not phase him. Jorunn might have lunged, but the bear’s eyes were fixed on the old woman and her pup. Another black speck attempted to aid. Futile, puny, morsels... 

Heimsætur swung a powerful arm at Chacal, claws aimed to mutilate.

The bear then reared back, lifting both of his daggered mitts into the air. The beast lunged, aiming to pin the red wolf down with his weight and crush her to death.

Suzu out!

In the silence that followed her call, she stood, opposite the bear. If it had not reeked of both Sobo and blood...

Oh, how she hated blood!

It did not move toward her, not when she called, and not in the few moments afterwards. So she stood, facing the bear, in silence. She felt herself tremble, and when she finally allowed herself to blink, she realized how dry her eyes were. The beast was simultaneously magnificent and terrifying. She heard the cries of her family, and heard them howling out to one another, but she could not turn an ear to listen. She looked upon the bear, for one fleeting moment-

with the same mystified fascination that consumed her when she studied other forms of life. 

It had teeth, just like her. And claws, and fur. And thoughts-

She could see it thinking as it looked at the other wolves who arrived. Maybe they could communicate. Suzu wanted to try- but she felt numb, senseless. Nauseated by the scent, and petrified by the sight of blood, and the wisp of beige fur caught in the animal's teeth. But when the bear roared, and the others surged past her, she turned and ran. 

She bolted away from the cries and roars, and only then did tears begin to sting her eyes.

Her mother ran with her into a battle she had never wanted to have. The sight of blood mingled with the scent of Sobo's fur drove Chacal into a frenzy. With each stride she prayed harder and harder that Suzu would still be alive- she was not sure she could fight a battle if she arrived to see her baby girl torn to pieces. She spurred herself forward, causing rabbits and birds to flush and flee as the pair of mothers raced toward the borders, reeking of foul medicines they hoped would cure the murderous ailment. 

She heard her brother's voice as he wailed Sobo's name. His breath fell just short of her heels, but his cry rallied her fervor. Chacal's breaths became a scream of rage, surging with every lunge in a harsh crescendo. Jorunn slipped into her peripheral vision. For two strides, she thought on the absence of the other men of the pack. Battle was the place for them, not shepherding children. She cursed them- but only for those two strides. 

Suzu was there. She turned and bolted when the bear caught sight of the offensive party, and whisked past her mother. Her heart clenched. She loved her own mothers so much, she hoped her children would not come to know the same pain she herself was unwilling to suffer. 

She gave a flick of her muzzle- and called out with a sharp "ARRET!!" To call the charging party to a sudden halt as the bear cleaved the air with one massive forepaw. She slid to a halt just in time- and felt the air sing just short of her muzzle. In the wake of its swing, she lunged, aiming to catch the back of the bear's left forelimb, up past its elbow. If her aim was true, she would be pulled along with its backswing, and would hang on with all her might- hoping to stay the swing of at least one of its massive paws.

Through clenched teeth and bear fur, she uttered a melodic curse:

"Móde m, chen!"

Somehow, Njord managed to get to his feet. His muscles were starved for oxygen, lungs shriveled from their battle with panic. He heard the cries of Sapphique shout as the bear broke their borders.

The man felt like he was in a dream. Hadn’t this just happened?

Death ran beside him. Its fangs combed through his fur. They both knew how this would end.

He barely paused as he passed by the scene. Erzulie. Jorunn. Val. Chacal.

The battle cries.

Was that Mireille and the others in the distance?

With Sobo’s blood on his paws, Njord was forced to make an impossible decision. Meerkat’s face came to mind. Do you trust me, mo chride? she had asked. Forever, he had said.

In a flurry, the man careened through the woods. He would find his family and free them from this place of death.

very brief because I haven’t had time to read other threads <3 just saw this one and I can’t not toss her in if things are going the way they seem to be. Rosalyn is very skippable - this might be my only post until it’s finished depending on how quickly it goes

Blind to everything, her only view was rage. There was no thought behind Rosalyn as she flung herself into the fray and set her teeth upon the bear.

She barely noticed her daughter or her wife, her lover, not even Njord as he turned and ran. She was a machine with one intent, everything else set aside.

This bear would end like the last.

Theo knew that he and the other young were instructed to retreat. But there were few wolves actually fighting the bear. And his mother was one of them. He could not lose her. And he was full grown, give it take a bit of muscle. He felt he could do this. So he raced away from his family, catching a glimpse Suzu on the way, and sent himself into battle.

He made himself look bigger by puffing his fur and he stood next to his mother to back her up. His eyes blazed with rage. “You mess wit’ my family, you mess wit’ me!” He snarled.

The boy, who was really the size of a full grown wolf now, reared up, slashing his claws at the bear, trying to land some strikes, though he knew he had little experience and that his strikes may not even make contact. He still liked the idea that he was trying

realistically Theo will get p hurt due to his lack of battle experience, and I'd like him to perhaps get picked up by the bear in his mouth or something and get like deep bite wounds on his sides before being dropped down, but nothing that would kill him. and I want him to try and fight at least a lil bit first before this

teo, i'd like wing to have claw marks from this. dealer's choice of where he hits her (choose one): shoulder, ribs, flank, or hip. surprise me!

Yowls of mourning washed over the cliffs of Sapphique like a tidal wave, crushing and drowning all beneath its wake. Cherub’s Wing of Honor did not recognize Erzulie’s agonized voice, and she stilled in her sleeping place, frozen by an aching dread.

Only the sounding alarm, warning them all of the bear – the bear! – at their border, drew the girl from her petrification.

She scrambled, flying towards the fray. But Wing did not know the territory well enough. The very land at her feet seemed to rise against her, keeping her from getting there fast enough. As dismay filled her like boiling water in a teakettle, she thought of Mireille. Of Erzulie. Those who she owed her life to. Her heart pounded, roared in her ears, furious at every detour, every redirection that delayed her arrival.

And when she did arrive it was utter chaos. She had come up behind the bear, watching in horror as he lashed out towards the crowd of gems that had assembled against him.

No, no, no!

This wasn’t how it was supposed to be. There was no organization, no plan. They had not practiced, they had not coordinated, and it showed in the pell-mell attacks at the godlike bear, who swung its massive paws and sought to crush – NO! Not Erzulie!

All thoughts became blank, empty, vacuous space in that moment. Even though she knew better, she streaked forward, white-hot as a flame, and opened her mouth to receive the bear’s hind end between maddened, razored teeth. She aimed for a leg, but she would take whatever came first.

rage and hate and anger and pain;
sobo, dead, dead; her daughter shouting in their words and their tones; erzulie drew up sharply;
theo
red heat and terrible fury poured into her heart. erzulie heard val's whooping and grunted, lurching back from the bear's crushing blow, pulling on all the power of sapphique's lwa and her own skilled guardianship to escape this first attempt at death.
it would come again.
ten minutes.
its claws caught her across the ribcage, drawing deep furrows of crimson as she hit the ground in a hard roll. chacal's gold-black frame flashed like wildfire and the bear's snarl shattered the air. agony flooded her vision, but the ruby forced herself upright with a hot hiss seething through clenched teeth. 
the woman soared for the space between the bear's forelegs, fangs cutting for flesh of the chest; clinging limpetlike, knowing that she must abide until it brought its teeth to bear.
and all the while, sand churned to scarlet beneath her.

im fine with anything happening to her!!

the bear was grand.

it swung at erzulie, chacal.

jorunn sought to pierce her teeth on bearflesh. arm or leg mattered not. she wished to pour the blood of it out onto the land so that it might repay in full everything it had brought upon sapphique.

if her own blood joined in that pooling, then let it be so.

teo has full permission to PP val. <3

around him wolves swarmed; some faces he knew and loved, others new to him but still cherished.

val streamed alongside his maman, his sister, his nephew, his packmate — when chacal and wing went in, val retreated. when the bear reached for erzulie, he sprung.

his teeth flashed as he swung for the bear, thinking of merrick and aventus and how he (alongside his kin) might at last come to end the might of the bear forever.

I’m sorry this took so long, everyone! This had a lot of joiners ;w; so I got a little overwhelmed.

Here is the plan: You will decide injuries to your characters. Heim’s movements will be generalized/vague in this post so that YOU get to determine what happens to your wolves. This includes – possibly – striking Erzulie so hard that she vomits out her poison. This is your choice, Ebony. I mostly felt bad she took the poison without getting the killing shot on Heim. Anyone who attempted a bite will have landed it. The bear is going to run away with a small amount of poison in him. He’ll be sick/vomiting/gross for a while and will likely leave Sapphique alone… for now. <3

Wing – if I am picking where the strike lands, I’ll go with a hip shot.

If this doesn’t jive with you, please let me know. I’m not trying to be a pooper on this beautiful party. I merely didn’t plan to have him die so soon. ;w; <3 Thank you all for writing with me.

Please do not fret. The chance will come to kill the bear. Just not quite yet.

Barking madness had surrounded the world eater.

Each of them lunged for him with their nasty fangs. They scored against his flesh, ripping new wounds into his large frame. The bear was not deterred until their numbers grew. Like rabbits, the dogs multiplied before him. He saw dark ones, red ones, white ones, and all of them carried hatred and bloodlust in the glints of their eyes.

The hunger was not enough to drive him into their mass of swarming bodies.

Heimsætur swung his giant paws at them. He found purchase in a few. The frenzy of it was too much to know where they landed or if they rose to fight again. If he was lucky with his blows, he would have knocked some of them into each other. He felt that as soon as he had marked one with his claws, another was driving their fangs into his flesh. Anger buried his senses. He roared. The world eater aimed a powerful blow at them.

Rearing back to stand tall upon his hind legs, Heimsætur created a modicum of space between his figure and the biting ants. His dark eyes did not seek them. He turned his blocky head to the trees. Sniffing at the cold wind, the bear dropped to all four legs in a thud.

It was not so easy to kill something. Living things clung to their lives, against all hope. The end was always there, but the urge to escape it was powerful. Heimsætur knew that he must flee to survive. One last swipe of his paw was made at the dogs. Spittle dripped from his dark mouth as he roared to them.

Then the bear turned and fled into the wilderness. It tasted something sour upon its tongue. Several miles away from the seaside cliff, Heimsætur vomited into the snow. Again and again, his stomach churned with sickness. Poison had crept into his body.

Madness consumed her as she clung to the bear, only to be torn off and sent flying with a hunk of bloody fur in her mouth. She did not yield to the pain in her hip and lunged again and again toward the bear in any gap she could find between her swarming packmates. She was shouldered, elbowed, buffeted by her brethren in their attempts to vanquish the beast.

Erzulie. Val. Jorunn. Wing. Theo.

She did not miss the red-tailed man as he appraised the situation and fled. She roared in fury, and turned her lashings upon the bear, pulling and tearing where she could- ever mindful of where her young son was. She kept him in the corner of her eye, even when she felt something puncture her skin at her hip the moment before her world began to somersault over and over again. Flung away from the creature, she rolled and rolled, leaving behind a bloody streak in the snow. 

She shook her head and pulled herself up, blinded by blood trickling down into her eyes from a gash across her forehead. She blinked and could see through a dark haze that the bear was fleeing. She tried to pull herself to her feet, only to find her back legs wobbly and weak. Steam rose from the corners of her lips. 

She could not give chase to the creature to shepherd it further away from her lands, but the attack had been successful; it was on the run from their home. She rubbed her face in the snow to try and clear the blood from her eyes so she could see the remains of her packmates and assess the damage; any who neared her would be fended off with snapping jaws. She was toxic, still, and would allow any to tend to her. 

"Who lives?" She cried. She rolled her eyes to try and see, though the whites of her eyes shone blood red.

totally understandable!! imma chuck this in here now so other participants can work with it or around it now. y’all feel free to PP val here <3

the bear was magnificently fast. val had little time to register the commotion around him. he was aware of his maman and sister most of all — and it was them he tailed as they harried the beast.

out of the corner of his eyes he saw chacal flung aside. a cry tore his lips and it was this momentary distraction that cost him everything.

val felt air underneath him suddenly, and then he was lifted from the earth. he hardly registered the score of welts across his face and chest or the cleave of claw along his stomach — what he most sensed was this sudden shift in equilibrium;

trees and faces whirled upside down. val sensed the ground was suddenly pulling away. the faces he barely registered — was that erzulie hurtling towards him, or was he hurtling towards her?

val arched his back and tried to twist so his feet were topside, but the chance never came — val collided with something he didn’t see with a heavy crack.

then, everything went black.

just getting her out of here for now in a way that makes sense so I can catch up some other places <3

Her senses had left her in a way that was different from others. It was years ago, the sands of their claim beneath her, and this bear was another. She smelled nothing but blood, fear, and the white hot fire of rage that seemed to consume everything.

They would not be driven away.

When the bear turned to run, Rosalyn did not hesitate or consider a moment to stop. She took off after it, unsteady but more whole than most. The true damage had been done years ago. She would not catch it; she didn’t have the strength or stamina anymore, even with the poison aiding her. A blessing since catching it would likely have meant a swift end.

It didn’t matter. She would drive it as far as she could, blind to anything and everything else around her.