Blackfeather Woods the absence of god

I'm just setting up the thread but you can reply any time! @Xan

It had only been a little while since Malice's arrival and she began to feel her looming presence everywhere. Perhaps it was just in her head, but she would never get used to Malice's scent upon her home. It was bad enough they hardly had food to feed their own, now plus a bitchy female and her baking gremlins? Nevertheless, she would not be contributing to that, as mean as it sounded. She had other mouths to feed, including her own and the new arrival was not her priority. However, her mate's son was. Technically, she was his step mother, but she did not feel right enforcing that title, nor did she know if Xan even felt comfortable with the logistics of the situation. 

Nevertheless, she sought him out. She needed to earn her brotherhood specialty for real, and she did not think Burke would say that mentoring the boy would not count. That was if Xan was interested in the Brotherhood as he had been before. Either way, she was due to spend more time with him even in the midst of the destruction of their forests.

Xan was oblivious to the relationship between Nemesis and the new recruit. Hell, he hadn't even known there was a new recruit until moments ago when he'd been loitering around the borders and just so happened upon the unfamiliar scent. Intermixed with it had been Burke's, but the scent of blood was not present, thus leading him to the assumption that someone new had been brought into their home. That realization didn't sit well with him, however, for the last recruit that he could remember had been a total ass. She'd acted as if she were better than him, which wasn't the case at all. Luckily, she'd eventually been put into her place and his rank then raised above hers afterwards, but the fact that she'd thought differently about her place beneath him would never click with him. The boy remained, still, as the arrogant sort, and never would that change.

He'd been moving through the territory, looking for any signs of a meal, when the familiar scent of his step-mother hit his nose. He wasn't yet sure if he could consider her as being anything more than his friend even after her marriage to his father, for the entire concept was new and strange to him. Often, he didn't question it, leaving it go and just carrying on with his day—which is exactly what he did then. Afterwards, the Inuit had followed her trail until she was spotted, bringing him to then call out to her with a short, "Hey." It was neither loud nor quiet, but lingering somewhere in between. Even as his voice left his mouth, he'd continued walking, refusing to stop until he'd successfully closed the distance between them. "What are you doing?" he'd asked, stopping in the space across from her. He'd advanced no further, nor did he sit, but stood there instead awaiting to learn about what it was that she was up to.

sucky post so I can get things rolling

It seemed the boy always found her than she did him. But it was high time he earned his place in the Brotherhood, as did the Spiderlings as well. The Beta only assumed the boy was interested in becoming an Assassin, drawing that father and son did not have the same interests in that feild. While Kove was a formiable Preist, Xan seemed to adapt to the beat and braun of the Brotherhood rather than the spiritual attributes it presented. 

"Spar with me," She suggested, very sure he would not hesitate. The idea flowed from her mouth as she advance forward closer to him. "I suppose you still want to earn your place among the Brotherhood," She inquired, but highly doubting he was lacking the interest he had been interested in since a pup. She remembered Xan when he first arrived to the dark woods, unafraid and unyeilding to the dark corners of it's territory. It had never wavered, at least according to her knowledge. It was exactly what the Brotherhood looked for, and Xan would be an excelent addition to their cult.

There was never any real way to tell what would happen when he was around Nemesis. Sometimes he was stubborn, but other times he fell victim to mortal emotions. It wasn't normal, at least to him, but had become something that he'd grown accustomed to nevertheless. So when she'd requested a spar, he'd hardly been shocked, but was instead somewhat curious. "Why?" was his question, wondering what had prompted her eagerness to duel. While he would never turn down a fight, he'd gotten to a point in his life at which he wanted a reason to do so. No longer did he have the desire to rush in without any questions being asked prior, instead wanting to decide for himself ahead of time if it was even worth it. Especially so was the case when Nem had asked him for a spar, for she was family and he didn't want to hurt her.

Following her request had been a question, to which he'd been far more forward with responding to. "I do," he'd said, the words having left his mouth before his mind had even the chance to approve of them. "I'm going to earn my mark, just like my dad did." Xan would do nearly anything in order to acquire for himself a place in the Brotherhood. It had been his goal since he'd been a small child, and never had his decision wavered.