The Sentinels Bravery only means something to those afraid of death.

Raleska would have understood Dacio's plight -- for not so long ago, she had gone through it herself. Her entire life, her identity had been RUSALKAN. Her cornerstone, RUSALKA.

CAIAPHAS.

To suddenly be untethered, unmoored -- it was as if her reality had detached, leaving her no frame of reference in which to base all of her past thoughts and perspectives. As if her perception was suddenly untrustworthy, viewed from a different angle.

Dacio moved in. Raleska felt her belly tighten as flames licked past it; his cheek brushed against her muzzle, bringing a kaleidoscope of previously unknown sensations thrumming to life. She had never been touched gently -- not by her mother, not by her father -- this new sensation sent her skin crawling out in ripples.

She gasped softly, taken aback by the gesture. Dacio had only just touched the surface of the pool that was her need for physical affection, and now, what had previously been tranquil surface was oddly disquieted. By hormones, or by genuine need to feel validated, Raleska nosed along his muzzle in turn, her muzzle tracing like exploratory finger-tips the alien landscape that was his face and the scars pocked within.

When she sucked in a surprised breath, Dacio froze. He twitched, jerked his head to the side with full expectation of his face to be on the receiving end of Raleska's bite, but she made no move to bring him harm. Instead she reached out for him in an interesting turn of events and, despite his prior hesitation, he acknowledged the sudden realisation that he'd never been so sure of anything in his entire life.

He knew it when she touched him. She smoothed her sleek raven muzzle to his own, a gesture that roused the same pleasant flurry of butterfly wings in the pit of his abdomen that he'd experienced with Huā. Electricity sparked somewhere within him, coursed through each nerve in Dacio's system, set his skin aflame. Hooked on the sensation, he writhed forward to press his chest to hers as desperation to be in contact took hold and made void all sense of the world around him.

He rumbled, a low and crooning sound that began deep in his chest, and all suggestion of awkwardness was cast aside. Dacio traced the tufted base of a raven lobe with his lips, tested the guard hairs of her nape with preening teeth, peppered her fine shoulders with featherlight kisses. Gentle yet urgent, a new keenness in him to show her that he was worthy of her time, her trust.

All of this so new, and yet -- so intimately right.

Raleska's skin shuddered as Dacio traced his darkened muzzle along her ear, a whisper of excitement reverberating down her cheeks, throat, spine. Her blood coursed through her in a new song, a new tempo -- rife and alight with quivering ecstasy.

Was this what was missing all along? Dacio's teeth preened her neck, roving down her spine in a chill that climbed pleasantly -- and yet, insistently -- down her backside. She reciprocated in turn, breathing in the scent of his fur -- of him -- as she nibbled gently along his cheek, down past the pulsing of his temple. 

Her enmity forgotten, all Raleska knew in that moment was that she was close to being completed. He was the key, the bind that took her feelings and funneled them to something better. Magefire crept along her belly, her skin abuzz as she rose to all fours now, cradling her neck around his lean shoulders with tugging hooks of her teeth, urgent along the long quills of his spine.

MATURE! Some PP here, let me know if you would like me to edit! 

She moved to gather herself, but Dacio did not step aside to give her space. He remained as close to Raleska as she would allow, crowded her, felt his body shake with anticipation of the route that their actions were sure to take. All sense of self lost, forgotten, cast aside in favour of following the very instinct that originally brought him so far from Moonspear.

For a frantic moment, he worried that his unexpected conquest might seek to make a hasty escape. He hovered over her, eager to keep her close and fully prepared to follow should she try to run, but fortune seemed to favour him on that particular day. Instead the wolfess pressed herself into the willingness of him, receptive, suddenly as hungry to be touched as Dacio was to deliver.

He felt the heat of her breath, the press of her frame to his, and the warrior crooned as he swept forward. Teeth worked their way through the raven pelage of Raleska's flanks as he strode forward, trailing his body along the length of her own as instinct drove him toward a particular destination. His ministrations, though both urgent and needy should she decide to change her mind, were somewhat more careful in comparison to what he'd shared with Huā.

Dacio shifted to make attempt at gathering her beneath him. He hooked his paws around her trim waist to pull her with ease into his embrace, and reached with intention to seek hold of the loose hide at her nape. Pastel eyes found the scarring there, old injuries inflicted by him, and paused only for a moment of guilt before he gathered her fur between more gentle teeth. 

Raleska had no defenses in place for the warring instinct that overtook her; it was ancient, and it was omnipresent -- capable at once of pushing out all rational thought that had previously tethered her mind to realism.

Dacio moved alongside her. Each place he tenderly touched seemed to erupt with longing fire. For each of his ministrations, Raleska was surprised to find herself doing the same -- grooming tenderly along his soft skin, breathing in the musk and the desire that in that moment was Dacio entire.

He moved to straddle her, and suddenly, what had been a whisper of instinct within her was now a full-throated roar: it commanded her to steady her legs and brace against him, suddenly channeling her with the knowledge of a thousand primordial ancestors. She felt her legs stiffen as his weight slung across her back, a buzzing sensation crawling along and down under her skin.

His teeth gripped along her nape, and for the briefest moment a roar of the ocean and the scream of gulls flooded her senses, as a memory forcibly erupted its way to the surface of her mind: of Drageda, Blixen's teeth, his own -- she briefly buckled, a ragged cry stifled tight between her clenched jaws as she waited with eyes closed for what she somehow knew would come next.

Fade with your next post?

She cried out, though Dacio failed to consider the reason for it to be anything but excited anticipation of the euphoria they were both about to experience. Raleska rooted herself in place - did not turn fangs on him, move to escape, nor did she even squirm. There was a hesitance in him, of course, for this wolfess and her family had been enemies of Drakru for so long, and Caiaphas' kin were known to him for their unpredictable nature. He did not sense any fear or reluctance, so deemed it safe to carry on.

Still, he felt driven, and he saw no opportunity to back out now. With clumsy yet eager fumbling in the dark, Dacio fit himself snugly into place and brought their bodies together. A low rumbling of satisfaction reverberated in his chest and he exhaled shakily onto the velvet of Raleska's ears as his eyes fluttered closed, lost himself to the rhythm of nature's most delightful dance.

Black and white. Darkness and light. Rusalka and Drageda, at last come together to unite their warring families.

fading here <3

Their bodies pulled into place, Raleska closed her eyes and surrendered to the embrace of her once-enemy, moving with him as he moved within her. In that moment nothing mattered -- not Eurycrates' blood as it splattered across her face that one awful sunset, not the hateful glare of her mother's eyes, not Dacio and Opalia's teeth as they chased her through the underbrush -- all of it, up in hazy smoke as both Dacio and Raleska deferred to a deeper instinct than memory or pure survival.


With this union maybe it would not be black or white anymore; maybe it would not be Rusalka or Drageda, or fight or die -- maybe this was a new alloy, tempered into existence by the flames of war and the molten core of loss.

Maybe this was a new beginning for them all.