Stone Circle When the party is over

Goodbye my sweet girl <3 Please let Arlette/Valette/Kaito post one more time! We will open this thread up to others in the following round!

There was a rhythm to her days, now that the first few weeks of infancy had passed. As the children grew, and neared their first taste of independence, Nanook found she only wanted to keep them near her. Their eyes had opened; they babbled, and sought to form their first words. Tottered, at times, to the cusp of the den -- and at times she let them out, but not too far, and not without her eyes to watch them. They were still too young for, that kind of independence, too vulnerable. And, she had not been able to shake that unscrutable feeling that she'd had when Valette had visited her, heavy with milk. That feeling, that this bliss would not last... that change was on the air, change she was not so sure about.

She wrapped around them tonight. Valette would be here soon, for she always visited these days, and often at this hour, when the pack was quieter, and the world passed into the moonlight hour. Sure enough, her sister's warm scent flooded across the entrance of the den -- but strangely, her shadow never followed. Instead, the tranquil air seeped with a sudden stab of fear-scent, her sister's - and she sprung to her paws at her sister's panicked yelp.

She snaked around her children with a sharp command for them to "stay", and she ripped from the underground.

And met a sight of absolute chaos -- a flurry of blood, and bodies, and claws. Valette's presence stood heavy a few meters away, and beyond that, she saw the forceful impact of Arlette against the cougar, saw the beast turn on her niece, and rip -- tearing her, and scoring the ground with blood as red as her eyes.

In that movement, she did not see Arlette. The resemblence, too uncanny -- she saw mother in the cougar's grip -- and the fear, the rage, the grief overtook her. Around her, the world filtered to that familiar shade of white, blinding her to everything, except that which mattered, and narrowing down her scope to the instincts that propelled her.

"Protect them," she shouted to Valette, and knew her sister would understand what she meant. She needed her sister: not here, but there, beneath the ground, where the children would be safe. Where Valette would be safe.

And in the furious rush, she began to understand.

Nanook moved like a comet across the darkening ground, blazing in her fury, single-minded in her rage. Burning, with the passion afforded any mother against anyone who dared shed their child's blood. And as her children were to Valette, so her sister's were to her: blood of her blood, and as much sons and daughters as were Selamuit, Kallik, Taktuq, and Ikiaq. Hers to hold, to teach, and to protect.

Arlette would not die.

The silver mercenary threw herself at the cougar's exposed side, and swung with a warcry, and sharp resolve, to force the cat away. Their weight shifted together, and they crashed to the ground. She could not see what had become of Arlette, but she understood what would become of her.

Nanook's grip slipped, her rigid canine limbs not made to twist like a cat's, but she had long trained her reflexes to respond to the fight. With a tumble, and a skid, she regained herself, and she sprung up and dashed forward again. Knowing, how quick these predators were. Knowing, that this fight would end in death. If she ran, she would spare herself, but Arlette would die. And if not Arlette, then Valette, and the children. And if not them, then Siarut, or Greyback, or any of the countless others who counted on each other to live their lives and give their lives for the sake of the whole, to lay themselves down for the greatest, and for the least.

These were her family; these were her friends, and as Nanurjuk had taught her: greater love had nothing but this.

She met the cougar head on. It had begun to turn back to Arlette, but now reared it's bloodied face. Spun around, and lifted to strike. A mistake, for him. With one last motion and a wily grin, she skid beneath it's striking mouth, and shot upward, just as the cougar brought its fangs swiftly down upon her back.

The cougar ripped her away, and she ripped out his throat. Hot blood spilled over her head. She could not tell what was hers, and what was the beast's -- as if that really mattered anymore. She felt the beast shift and weaken in its grip. She felt herself drop to the ground. Her final words were not profound. They were, instead, a triumphant laugh, that matched the wild smile on her face.

She had learned to lose, and she had learned to love here -- but her life had always been a pilgrimmage, a preparation for the better place that had always been prepared for her. Siarut knew how she loved him, she knew she left him with light he would carry, and give to each of their children. Valette knew how she had loved her, too, and she knew her children were safe in her arms, safe in Sia's -- that they were all safe with each other, and that was enough.

She saw herself hit the ground, her body dead and maimed, but her soul, very much alive. She was going home now -- she would see the One who had kept her -- and she turned toward Kaito's fallen body as the heavens opened up with glorious light.