Dragoncrest Cliffs let me tell you that I saw your boyfriend walking down the road

just want to keep my momentum going and flesh out this arc a lil more - tags are for a pulse-check/inclusion so please feel free to reach out if the assumptions made are not ok or you’d like something else to be included <333

sobeille had not even gotten to say good bye to @Ajei. once the disorder settled and an understanding of her act came to the quorum of adults, @Kukutux had sent her home.

she did not even know if mae was alive - and frankly, it brought her savage pleasure still to relive the moment and recall the gout of red pouring from mae as if she were an upturned vessel.

until @Akavir’s teeth seized her. sobeille was lucky he was a more restrained man than she; her injuries had been tended at the camp by a mix of moonwolves and etienne. it was a solemn procession that escorted her home.

sobeille did not speak very much following moonmother’s decree. while a scolding seemed imminent, the restrained air kukutux maintained wounded sobeille more than any teeth had; and she had several new scars to speak of.

once home, her mind turned to @Cygnet. it was unfortunate (in sobeille’s view) so many wolves had been present.

next time, things would be different. though she had failed to rectify the wrong set forth by mae and cygnet’s treatment of ajei. they’d invited this upon themselves, and she was just here to balance the scales.

skulking and waiting for the sure reprisal from her maman and tante, sobeille listlessly hung a paw in glintwater’s shimmering surface — and wished her aim had been just a little quicker.

owing to its proximity both to the sea-tunnel and the roja den, lafayette spent much time near the lake. it was here that his last complete conversation with sobeille had taken place, and now he spotted his sister again, looking a bit forlorn by the water.

he'd heard about the fight between sobeille and a wolf from another pack, but he didn't know any details as to why. as the boy drew closer, he noticed the fresh scars, and the way her gaze seemed to be fixed on something beyond the present.

what 'appened, gran sè? lafayette queried, settling a couple tail-lengths away from where she lingered, his slender face curious. there was a ferocity to her that reminded him of lucette and shadess—but, like his littermates, scared him a bit, too.

he wasn't sure he had the same fire in him—or was even capable of such.

a man had harmed her daughter and it was all mireille considered as she came upon sobeille and saw the new tears in her flesh.
hatred and anger flashed plainly upon mireille's face. she joined son and daughter in that simmering enmity, stalking to kiss miette and embrace lafayette.
an enemy, she wanted to tell her boy, for now she held it as truth.
and then something came to her; something; had not @Chacal known a man from this creek? her anger grew as she sat quiet, collecting words in the time where her sister might arrive.

light footsteps drew her sulky gaze inward, towards the slender face of her brother. sobeille sensed trepidation roll off of him and found strange enjoyment in it.

she prepared a grand response, one that painted her the victim and them so clearly the aggressor -- but then her maman was upon her with a sweep of salt and wind. darkness habituated every nuance of mireille's face, the expression so terrible that for a moment sobeille was awash in awe for it.

could she bottle that emotion, she would worship it and mete out its dazzling elixir for muse on cold nights.

dere was a girl, sobeille started sullenly. two. dey insulted ajei.

and she left it at that, the ominous flicker of her gaze instilling a quiet sense of justice lived inside her.

lafayette caught that same expression on manman's face and shrank into himself, even as she embraced him and silently questioned sobeille. this was not his inquisition—but one all the same. 

a hapless boy, caught between feminine rage. 

not the last time he would find himself in such a predicament.

who's ajei? he piped up, and regretted it immediately. it wasn't his place to ask, or even in which to dwell. sorry, manman, lafayette murmured, and stepped back to her rear flank, letting her take the lead. 

what came next would be a scene to which he'd only play spectator.

lafayette offered sweet voice; her seaborn boy could do no horrid wrong as the monster had torn into sobeille's face. obsidian invited him to lean against the warmth of her flank as she settled beside his sister. but in this moment attention was on her own fury. only when ajei's origins were given did she utter a word.
"tell us again what 'appened, cherie," mireille coaxed. there was no anger nor punishment forthcoming. "but firs', i will tell bot' of you: do not trust freshwater wolves. i cannot know dat we speak of de same pack. but once a man followed your matant chacal back to dis place an' said he would return again an' again!" a scoff scorched the earth.
"your grandmaman erzulie an' i wid a fighter-man, rhaegal; we drove him away. an' when i was outside de packlan's, i fought him again."
anger chased itself in tight blinking. "he was a very large man, black fur. a white circle aroun' one eye. smelled of weak water an' pale trees. never trust dem, eit'er of you, or anyone else who donnae know de sea."
pronouncement finished, mireille turned her eyes upon mending miette and waited for the tale to unfold.

at first, lafayette's question elicited a probe of hideousness in sobeille. who's ajei? he asked, as if the relations of his sister meant nothing to him. sobeille regathered herself and remembered he was only male. he -- along with his gender -- could not be expected to understand the intricate network of feminine tribeship.

sobeille's eyes turned flat. she listened -- with growing malcontent -- to mireille's account. was it circumstance or coincidence that both wolves that wronged her shared the same pelt color? she tried to remember if the man's eyes were ringed in white -- but truthfully, all she could remember was the vivid color red.

mae, hopefully dead. she did not know.

de wolf dat pinned me smelled like dat. an' he was large wit' black fur. sobeille proclaimed, adding another face to her growing list of targets.

by all accounts, he'd spared her when he should not; but that earned no mercy from the saltwater wolf, whose skin still felt sullied by the violent touch of man.

dey were makin' fun of ajei. called her 'orrible t'ings. she told me, an' was crying. here some emotion stirred behind the conflicted murk of sobeille's usually strangely absent gaze. i went to teach dem a lesson.

mireille wove a tale of mistrust and deceit that centered around wolves living inland. he swallowed a lump in his throat as he thought of those new acquaintances he'd met at the gathering; not all could be that bad, right? were they really so opposed?

but he also knew manman was full of wisdom, and her words meant more to him than anyone else's. he'd keep the tale close to his chest always, and especially now as he listened to sobeille explain herself.

his sister was fierce—sometimes frighteningly so—but it seemed she had done the right thing by sticking up for a friend. he didn't blame her in the least. 

i met a big dark man at de gathering, too, lafayette remarked, once silence had fallen between the trio. his guileless verdant gaze shifted between mother and sister. but he was nice to me and luce, be singin' an' all—so maybe not de same wolf, den.

"dey be sneaky. treacherous. donnae trust dem," mireille said calmly to her boy. "ajei is friend to us. you were right to defend her," the obsidian decided. "was anytin' done for ajei? perhaps dese men could see fit to raise better daughters," her voice knifed, for mockery among women was something foreign to mireille, something to be rejected.
"de man who sang to children may be de same who put his teeth upon a woman." unforgivable. "sapphique has not fought for a long while. but i demand to know why," mireille growled, turning the ire of her eyes away from her daughter and son and out toward the sea itself.

such a male thing to do, to insert some tale of male do-gooding between a narrative of unconscionable masculine behavior! as if the former somehow forgave the latter; #notallmen, the boy preached before he was even aware of the masculinity he espoused.

once more sobeille felt the knife of irritation slide between her ribcage; once more, she calmly hid its presence from her expression’s surface.

her gaze focused solely on maman now; poor lafayette had burned the last of her patience. she was surprised — relieved even — to hear no punishment forthcoming. she had violated a safe space by attacking mae, and while she did not understand the boundaries that kept civil lives from wild ones, sobeille understood she had disrupted social order.

perhaps these men should see fit to raise better daughters, her maman commented — a savagery that uniquely put the pin of blame back on the root of their problem: men.

no, i don’t t’ink so. mebbe, but ajei didn’t say. i didn’t get a chance to say good bye to her. sobeille sulked then, wondering — if her aim was not true, mae might still be alive. there had been only one chance, and she blew it.