Shadewood We'll all die young

Forward dated to like 4/17? if that's cool?
He didn't trespass very far! just a few feet over the borders.

He had wandered in an apathetic stupor, barely paying attention to his surroundings and not really caring where he went. The pain in his stomach was back and again, he couldn't remember when he had eaten last. Maybe on the island with that annoying girl? He wasn't sure; the days all seemed to just bleed together. But the grumbling reached his ears and made him stop walking, unsure what it was at first. When he realized the sound had come from himself, he started walking again, stopping once more when he suddenly realized that he had, at some point, crossed the borders of some unknown pack's territory. Now that he was actually paying attention, the scent of claimed territory was everywhere. Zodiac stood there, unsure what to do through his brain fog. He should run, right? That seemed so exhausting, though. So he just stood there like a dumbass.

:eyes: Couldn't resist.

Following one of their own getting attacked, the Bull finds himself with excess energy. It’s put into patrolling their borders; head aligned with his shoulders, tail swaying after him with ease. Few are stupid enough to wander into a lion’s den, and yet, it appears one such man dares to do so. His pace quickens, massive bulk charging forth akin to an unstoppable freight train. Reiner attempts to slam into the left side of the hungry fool; ‘Go back to where you belong.’ The Bull’s expression remains stony—no teeth bared even in warning. Alas, should the boy resist, no mercy would be given.

Putting Chai in here for a little extra drama!

Chai had been weary as of late. Restless. Shadewood Keep was still the same, shrouded in secrecy and shadow as always. But within it's depth she noticed a change. Not that of new life injected into the pack. Not that sort. But a change in the dark Alpha, Cry himself. He didn't seem right. Didn't seem the same, as on that fateful day when she and Atticus had sought acceptance at his borders. 

It troubled her. Nonetheless, she kept a low profile and went about her business as usual, as if nothing were truly wrong. But when the sun would set, deep in the recesses of her den, she often laid awake. More so after her surprise visit with him. Many of her numerous questions were answered, only to be replaced with a dozen more, stirring confusion deep in her chest. 

Jolted into action by the scent of someone who did not belong past their borders, Chai sprinted towards the scene. Ahead of her was the hulking form of the Bull, a wolf she had not formally met, but understood shared a close relationship with Cry. His target - a statue of a wolf, with a coat pattern likened to hers. In contrast, Chai barreled in not with raised hackles or flashing teeth. The stranger looked dazed...confused. Her soft eyes narrowed and she wheeled to place herself between the Bull and the perpetrator. "STOP!" She exclaimed. "Let him explain. I will escort him." She said, coming to Zodiac's defense. She eased backward towards him, to gently nudge him back in the direction of the borders.

<3 x a million

He heard a strange sound, and at first he couldn't place it. But then he saw the large mass of a wolf running straight for him, and he realized the sound was from him charging through the trees. Zodiac closed his eyes and prepared for the impact, knowing that, in his weak state, he would be mowed down pretty easily. He braced himself for the pain that would come, but then it never did. Instead, another wolf was there, standing between them. He thought it was odd that she would defend him instead of her own packmate, but shit was he glad she was there. He finally realized what he had actually done and man, he was glad he wasn't smashed into the ground like a pancake right now. He shuffled backwards, not wanting to take his eyes off the other man as he moved back towards the borders. When he was safely out of the territory, he stopped and stared at them for a few minutes, unsure what to say. My bad, he said apathetically, shrugging his shoulder a little as he spoke. Guess I just didn't realize... he trailed off.

Before he makes impact with the trespasser, another fool comes to stand between him and his target. The Bull decreases his charge, just enough that he does not squish either wolf. Although he is likely to bump into his packmate, if she did not shy from his approach. He remains stoic; head lifting to loom over his nameless packmate with alert ears. Explain? The Bull snorts, shifting his hellfire gaze towards the trespasser in question. At least the boy tucks tail and scurries out of the Keep’s borders. The “explanation”, however, leaves much to desire. ‘Fools.’

Almost as though the mere thought of him brought him forth, the Phantom materialized out of the woods with condemnation written clear across his frosted irises. He had changed, he knew he had. But he had changed for the better. And as Chai had proven, this was what he was trying to avoid. 
Weakness.

“Chai.” His voice was the waterfall of arctic sea, condensed into a single drop. “Is he yours?” The question may have seemed innocent enough, but it’s meaning was clear-
Unless this male was a member of this Family, there was nothing saving him from getting the punishment he deserved. It should have happened, right then, and right there. But as a teacher to them all, as their Keeper, his duty was to mentor them as it was to lead them. 

“Because if he is not, what is stopping him from entering into our homes,” he began, closing the distance between himself and the group with unseen and lethal efficiency. And as he stopped, his winter gaze froze direct on the trespasser. “And slaughtering our own? Robbing from us? Gathering information and sending it to other packs?”

He brought his attention back to Chai, a delicate woman, someone who deserved herself a kind and doting man,...
a woman who was meant to stay away from these borders should she be saving trespassed souls. 

The gems of winter became slits as the lids narrowed over them.
Either Chai was with and for the Keep- or she was damning them all.

She remained with her back turned towards Shadewood, even as the Bull towered over her. Even as Cry himself emerged from the depths of the woods, striking out her name in a booming voice. Her only reaction was a rippling quiver of her skin beneath her fiery fur. She met Zodiac's gaze, which she noticed was a few shades darker than her own.

"You shouldn't have come here." She said it not as a threat, but as a fact. Hidden somewhere deep in those simple words was a warning. He didn't want to be in these woods...not with their laws and a man like Cry at the helm. "You need to pay more attention." Her tail sliced through the air. "Unless you seek to join, then I suggest you forget this place." She told him in an advisory tone.

Then Cry asked her a question. One that made her curl her neck around and look at him with pinched brows. "What? Of course not. I have never seen this man before in my life." As he went on listing the possibilities of what dangers he could potentially bring to the Keep, something in Chai slowly flickered to life. She didn't like the way he was talking. Not one bit. The soft spoken female never really had much of a spine - she disliked conflict. But she equally disliked others being judged too quickly. 

Her glacial eyes narrowed a fraction, something sparking ever so faintly in them. "And what if he isn't?" Her lips pressed tightly together, while she clearly struggled to release the words from her mouth. Words that she knew, she may regret. "Are we so paranoid to jump to such dire conclusions?" She planted her paws firmly against the earth, as if bracing herself to be physically struck or pinned down. Reprimanded. "I am not excusing his actions in the slightest. He is guilty of trespassing. That is perfectly clear. I however, chose to offer mercy, instead of my teeth first." Maybe she was too soft. Maybe this was why her whole family...her blood family saw so little in her.

You shouldn't have come here.

He had heard that before...back when--





Suddenly he wasn't standing in the forest with the two wolves whose territory he had trespassed on. Instead, he was was on the island surrounded only by steep cliffs and unforgiving waters with nowhere to run. They knew him to be the two-timing thief he was, and the saber's leader glared at him with his single, scarred eye, his want for Zigzag's blood clear as day on his equally-scarred face. 

You shouldn't have come here

Except there had been no warning in the angry pirate's voice as he spoke the words; his tone held the edge of someone scolding a petulant child. It was then he had been introduced to the ice cold, bone chilling fear of dying. He knew his death would come, it had just been a matter of when. 
At night when he was alone in the darkness, he could still see the pirate's murderous eye--still hear his scratchy voice.....




He woke from whatever trance he had been pulled into, heart racing and panic shooting across every nerve in his body. He felt like he couldn't breathe, and the eyes of the new man, the one who was talking fuzzy words he couldn't understand through his panic, held the same glint he had seen that day on the island. Zodiac wanted to run, but his limbs were disconnected from his brain and glued to the ground beneath him. He was forced to wait for his judgement once more, and the broken man could only wish that they would end his life swiftly.

Cry makes a grand appearance; the shadow approaches on edge. He is a lethal dagger ready to strike, and yet remains calm in the situation. The Bull stays looming, watching the scene unfold akin to a statue. Funny enough it seems the woman wants to play hero, and insists on questioning the leader's authority. The Bull glances towards Cry; if he were Jotham, the woman would no longer have her tongue.

No one, the Bull rasps, his bass voice scratchy and uncomfortable. He hates having to speak often lately. Used teeth first, woman. After all, the Bull was the first to the scene. Yes, he charged the trespasser—who looks like he is about to pass out any moment now—but he showed no teeth. He simply wished him to back out of their territory, as is the Keep's right. Hellfire eyes roll in her direction. Overdramatic women.

The Bull shoulders his way through the crowd until he stands before the boy, more akin to a husk without a soul than a living creature. Join, he advises. The Bull has the time to babysit another.

Chai had been subtle, and as she spoke, the lack of turning and fleeing from the lad who had come to be here was what had snatched Cry's attention from her. Where there were those who were alerted through sudden jerking movements, silence and stillness was usually what led to something worth paying mind to. As an assassin, he was meant to study such lack, as it hid those with intent, with deadly secrets. 
However this Anon male had no such aura. With terse extreme, he could only pick up...fear. 

Satisfaction scathed pleasing streams of coolant through him- He regained a bit of a better face for lack of a better term, offering less 'pissed off'edness in this ordeal. His intimidating aura was pulled back a bit, a reward for this man coming to terms with this being a place he should not have just simply wandered off into. But there was something behind that horror; something that a mere glance and list could not have caused. A deep breath pulled him from attemtping to decipher this male shred by shred- it had nothing to do with him, or his home.

"Paranoia, or awareness?" His focus redirected to the fae, a light lilt that deepened and murmured in the baritones suggesting she should word herself carefully from this point on. While he did not tolerate others pulling rank in this Family, he was the man who'd fought so hard to gather this home and set it in stone for them. He was who sought allliances and kept aware of the politics happeneing about their nearabouts, it was he who trained himself to prepare in case of emergencies that he would need to defend them, their name. 
And disrespect, questioning his judgement, and being abraisive to his law was what would earn whomever a death sentence, if not a ticket out this caring and protected place. "Mercy is for those who do not blindly ignore the laws of borders." If he just did not breathe, or was a corpse being dragged over clear piss lines and claw marks, then mercy, sure, fine, whatever. But he had a nose. He inhaled. 
And in Cry's eyes, he ignored. 

Reiner had spoken, reprimanding as well, and as crude as it seemed, the massive beast had a point. No one simply tresspassed and received nothing of it. The man being here and still standing was mercy, enough. The Demon even gave the whelp a chance to be within their ranks. Should he think he was worth being within Shadewood, then Cry would allow it. If not, and should this Anon male refuse, then he was free to be escorted out, or chased over the Isle. Either way suited Cry fine. 

However it was clear he needed to have a talk with Chai about the expectations here- Women were pregnant. They had just had an issue with harm being upon one of their members. One of them being pregnant. If Chai wanted to be a pacifist, Cry would have to end that once, and for all. 

cameo feel free to ignore

It was in the shadows that she did prowl, empress of the keep; fathomless eyes of sapphire dove swiftly between the passing figures, soft ears cupped forward to soak in the sounds of a tense, fragile conversation. The balance could so easily have shifted, tipped into the plates of tenebrosity - something deep, engraved into her husband's very soul, had been damaged. One thing she had connected, of course, was that his scent trails were frequently intertwined with Reiner's: a man she'd not conjured the... pleasure of conversing with as the days had passed. Whatever her suspicions were, a vital connection within Raziel (or Cry, as the others knew him), had snapped. He was not the same man he had once been. She sought to fix this, with time... or she would drown in his seething blackness, give in to the nefarious whispers of defeat.

Darker came the rumbling baritones of her shadow king's voice, pushing forth in his solemn order toward the innocent Chai, another figure she was largely unfamiliar with. Gwendolyn's tongue was held firmly clasped in her jaws, of course, until the words became too laced with brewing frustration; she bumbled forward, with a wide belly full of life, and pressed her side delicately against her mate's with an attempt to soothe. She could feel the shifting of charcoal fur against her own, and passed a knowing glance in the other girl's direction. Another flicker of her gentle watching eyes was passed along to the stranger, the one who'd unknowingly tresspassed into their concealed portion of the western regions. Something akin to empathy swam in her vision, but she dropped her gaze and then once more was gone, back into the darkness.

Back into the silence, the eternal ghost.

The guilty man before them stood, frozen in place. Could it be out of fear, or were all of his marbles loose? Chai didn't care...didn't pay any further mind to him. Her glacial eyes shifted, locking onto those of Reiner, who addressed her in a manner she didn't exactly appreciate. The soft skin lining her muzzle wrinkled slightly. "My name is Chai." She shot back firmly, her voice clipped. There was something about him...something that unsettled her. She didn't like it.

Looking away from both Cry and the Bull, Chai stared at an empty space past the body of Zodiac. Her Alpha's words registered true and clear. She had acted rashly - that she knew. But only because she did not want to see what might possibly be an innocent soul get hurt. But what if he really was here after their food? The blood of pregnant females and their unborn young? Her head dipped a little lower between her shoulders, ears pivoting back. She heard but did not see Gwen's brief arrival, nor the gentle glint in her own blue eyes. When she turned around again, the pale ghost was no longer there. Disgusted with both herself, this place and it's restraints, Chai made to leave. She slipped past the larger bodies of the males, sparing none of them a second glance. "Do with him what you will. What should I care." Into the dark she slipped, back to solitude.

The panic coursing through his body was beginning to rise to an overwhelming level and in response, his mind took over, spreading a familiar numbness  that started from his neck and traveled down each of his four limbs like a fog. His heart and breathing began to slow, and then his now emotionless eyes settled on the chin of the large wolf that had charged at him. Join? he asked, disbelief in his otherwise hollow sounding voice. Many things had been said while he stood there frozen in his past but for some reason, that's all that stood out. Why would he ask him to join? Shouldn't he be kicking his ass? His gaze drifted to the one who had stood in between him and being smashed--Chai was what she said her name was. Why had she done that? She didn't even know who he was; if she had, then she would have let him succumb to his fate. That seemed to be what she was doing now anyway,  which made way more sense to him. He watched her walk away, confusion flashing in his eyes.

Fine, he said, lowering his head in defeat. Maybe if he joined, that woman would be in less trouble and he wouldn't have to feel guilty about causing her problems. He was also pretty desperate for this to be over with so that he could go pass out; the numbness was starting to make his mind fuzzy, and he wasn't sure how much longer he would be able to function. Joining seemed faster and far less painful than getting messed up by these two.

The Bull cares little for names. His own a mystery to those who stand around him. Alas, he ignores the woman for her outburst. It seems her little temper tantrum grew enough that she wants to stalk off and slam the door on her way out.

Reiner would roll his eyes, if he hadn't turned his focus on the skeleton on their borders. He waits for an answer, and with it at first comes a question. 'Yes, boy. That's what I said,' is written clear as day on the massive wolf's face.

The youth around these parts seem to have no respect. A lot of bark, no bite. He'll change that.

Finally, the trespasser makes his decision, agreeing with a flat "fine". The Bull turns to Cry. In the end, it is up to him whether the boy would be allowed to stay.

Glacials snapped to the ivory stream that washed a stark meld of tresses between he and them, and with a brief inhale that began to drag the more he brought in, the Phantom learned his Ghost had come to see had riled him so. It was easy to see why he was smitten for her, as the moment she began to pull away, his body began to follow, insidious in its need to stay near conjoined to the woman who carried his spawn so diligently. Their spawn-
the Keep’s next reign. 

His possessive soul snatched his sanity as she finally was free of his touch, and within a matter of milliseconds, his voice hoarsed out to Reiner. 
Intent swam within, bereft and deprived of the ability to deny.

”Bring him.” 

And a lasting look he gave to the Beast of Indomination that conjured a bond between them. Reiner would know what to do with the simpering dog. The male would either survive the gruel work Reiner bestowed upon him-

or he would never leave the Keep, alive.

It was Gwen who saved this male from being slaughtered right as a sacrificial lamb ought to be, innards strewn before the gates of the leviathan woods for all who knew know what borders were, to see, to know. It was his belle, his Empress, his most loyal henchwoman whom brought his words, and not his fangs. His mercy, not his damnation. 
Who was to say his heart died long ago? It did not-
it walked with round hips, swollen paws, engorged belly through the Keep, head held high and sapphire jewels daring any to rise against her delicacy-
a beast never strayed from his beauty. 

With a pace that fought to not trail the Ghost whom still tangled his tapered mind, he instead chose to pursue Chai, calming his mind and body to a more business state, so the thoughts of ravaging his loyal wife yet again could fade away with little consequence.

A cutting look was the only answer at first, and he dropped his gaze to his feet to stifle an eye roll of his own, not really wanting to incite anymore anger from either of the formidable men. Zodiac was not really known to be brave, and he was not really trying to get ripped apart today. At least not anymore he supposed. 

Bring him.

Bring him? Wait, that sounded an awful lot like he didn't have a choice anymore. Z froze, unsure at first if he still wanted to take his chances and try to run. But a wave of dizziness and nausea quickly changed his mind; there was no way he could run. Yet.

Slowly, he took a step forward. Gaze trained on the ground again in an attempt to avoid any accidental eye contact, his entire being now shying away from any form of potential conflict. Another step, and he was following and allowing himself to be directed wherever they wanted.

Sorry about the delay! ❤ Wrap up post? Feel free to archive.

"Bring him."

Ah, the trespasser's fate is sealed. It seems regardless of his decision, the boy is forced into the Keep's embrace. The Bull won't question the command. His gaze stays steady on Zodiac, awaiting his reaction. Some are stupid and like to run. He wants him to be stupid, for the Bull loves a good chase. A step is taken in the trespasser's direction; 'You heard him.'

Alas, the boy is frozen; a deer caught in headlights underneath the eyes of fire and ice. Instead of taking off, he makes the bold decision to step towards them. The Bull snorts. Cry will lead, and he will bring up the caboose in case the trespasser grows some balls.