shardik dragged the lean limbed corpse from the cave, staining the white snow with streaks of red matter.

he knew the dog had come from here -- where there was one, there was always bound to be more. like rats they came from the woods, infiltrating, multiplying -- shardik's gums lifted in a grimace of contempt. he would exterminate every one of them that dared settle so close to his favored den.

he had outsmarted this little thing -- how hard would it be to outsmart the rest of them? they were stupid and blinded by the bounds of their pack. they would come the moment they heard his throaty bellow descend their cliffs -- they would see their packmate, and surely, they would throw themselves to his jaws just as this stupid little dog had done.

shardik threw raleska's body -- (if it could still be called such - it was mangled beyond repair, her skull bare and open, her spine broken, her limbs contorted in grotesque displays of lifelessness) to the hard edge of stone. his thick skull tilted to the sky as a brutal bellow rended the air, throaty and murderous and summoning all to come and witness the might of shardik.

Chacal would be the first in the area, who fervently drew closer, when she'd caught the beast's scent approaching. The one memory she had of the day they'd lost Valravn, all she'd heard was its mighty bellow, which she could only hope had been terrifying enough to send Valravn running for cover. The rest of them had been herded away from the area like a small batch of chicks, kept safe as they were kept together and led away from the bear's locale. But it would seem once again that a bear had come to their midst- and while she too inept a tracker yet to recognize that this was the same bear, some little part at the back of her mind tickled that fancy. Perhaps this bear was a demon, come back to haunt them and urged forward by pure rage. 

The little shadow remained some distance away but even from where she stood she could see the soft, dark pelt belonging to a mutilated body holding still at the foot of stone in only the way a corpse could settle, twisted and without movement. She uttered a soft, high pitched whine, unsure just then if that was Raleska or Valravn though in that moment she mourned them both. The bear bellowed, and the little shadow slid to the ground in a subtle faint, though she forced herself to skitter further away from him, knowing that bears could be very swift, when angered. 

She issued a tearful cry to inform the pack the bear had returned with a corpse, and that he was still there, but she did not engage him. Warily she watched, hoping he might simply present the trophy and then leave their shores, though she couldn't help but wonder why he'd chosen to make such a spectacle.

She hadn't even noticed Raleska's absence, at least not yet.  Rosalyn was close when she heard Chacal's cry, though, and it was wrong.  She wasted no time.

She wasn't prepared for what she arrived to find.  Nothing would have ever prepared her.

At first there was only rage.  The creature was the same one, she knew it immediately, and that it had dared follow her there made her sick with fear and fury.  But then she saw the corpse it carried, and froze.... 

Chacal disappeared.  The cliffs, gone.  Rosalyn's expression twisted and she screamed.  The sound was a broken mixture of sorrow and palpable, white hot fury.  Her caution shattered alongside her heart at the sight of her daughter's corpse... because Raleska would never be any less.

And this monster had taken her.

Heedless of anything else, Rosalyn threw herself at the bear.  She would kill it, and if it killed her here as well, so be it.

The first thing that came to his senses was the bellow that called out through the cliffs. The light trickle of blood slowly followed into his nostrils causing for him to immediately follow the scent and arrive to the location where the sound had called out from. Chacal had ran past him, what would be alarming was more so soothing knowing that she would be away from whatever this was and not in the fray.

The mangled corpse came into his sight second to the bear that challenged the pack. From the stench, it was the hot-headed Raleska. Though his heart was heavy for a Sapphique member, he still couldn't help but think how it was only a matter of time for someone so reckless to meet their end. That he would keep to himself, she was gone, and there was no need to spit on her name.

Rosalyn already lunched herself to the creature, triggering for the guardian to rush in immediately as well to assist. He would have preferred for more to appear and assist in taking down this obvious danger. With hungry fangs, he aimed to grab the ursine by the throat, ducking down and rushing in underneath with snapping teeth. Unafraid of the claws and hoping he could at least be a good distraction while Rosalyn or anyone else on their way could do their own damage.

The red-tailed seafarer was not far from Rosencrantz when the bellow of Ursus and the shrill cry of Chacal pierced the winter air. A flash of white streaked through the pines as Njord spied his two-faced sensei reeling towards the chaos unabated. At first, the buccaneer hesitated  — untrained in immediate action. He thought of the kids. Solaire. Chacal. Should he find them instead of being on the front lines? Njord had barely begun mentoring under Sapphqiue’s pale knight, and he had never seen an Ursus firsthand. Only tales of its might and prowess warned those of Meares Island who might encounter the beast.

Then came the grieving war-cry of Rosalyn. It shook Njord to the bones. Something was terribly wrong. He could feel the familiar trickle of adrenaline through his veins as his paws began to carry him across the territory, hot on Rosencrantz’s trail like a steam engine. Then, the tree-line broke and he saw them.

Time became meaningless as the bear’s massive form lumbered towards the wolves. Rosalyn, Rosencrantz, and Erzulie engaged their foe. Chacal was shepherded away. And there, among the stones, was the broken body of one of  Sapphique’s own: Raleska.

Njord’s blood ran cold, and then suddenly very, very hot. He surged forth, joining the combined assault as the pack’s strength grew with its numbers. His lips curled, fangs gnashing as he sought purchase on the monster’s thick hide.

If one were to ask him, years from now, if he could recall this horror, Kaertok would say he could not. There were only flashes.

A bear.

Chacal.

Rosalyn.

Rosencrantz.

Erzulie.

Njord.

Raleska, dead.

No thoughts were in his mind then. Only hellbent rage like the others that this large creature should die. Die for stealing the thing away from them that he knew Rosalyn and Erzulie loved. Die for stealing the thing away from him that he had come all this way for. Die for killing her.

It was now five against one, and Kaertok was confident that the odds were not in the bear's favor. They would rip the bear limb from limb, or they would all lay dead at its feet.

shardik's eyesight was poor in his old age -- he missed the darting form of chacal, alerted to her presence only by the thin cry which wavered from her. by the time he investigated where the sound had come from, chacal had moved.

then came the first of the dogs to witness his magnum opus -- his greatest work in his lifetime of ceaseless violence against their kind. a keening wail set from rosalyn lips as she tore towards him, blinded by fury. no music came any sweeter than that disconsolate sound.

the great bear rocked onto his stout haunches, something akin to a wicked laugh spilling from his deep chest.

then came a second, white with a face disfigured. this one shardik focused the full bore of his attention, attempting to slap the cur down before he ever made it within the vicinity of his throat. rosalyn was forgotten then -- for rosencrantz had made an easy target of himself.

before he knew it, he was besieged by teeth from every direction. rosalyn, erzulie's -- the bear whirled around in a frenzied dance, aiming claws wherever he could despite the repeated sting of teeth.

then came a beast of grey with fire upon his tail,

then came a pale ghost guided by rage,

every one of them would find their mark on shardik's thick hide -- but shardik gave no quarter. blood began to spill profusely, matting his dark hide and staining the snow beneath his massive paws a strange and diluted red. somewhere, from rosalyn's first well-aimed bite, blood flowed in great gouts of dark red - donating a slick sheen to shardik's dancing paws.

but he was shardik -- he would never die --

for every tooth that strayed too close, shardik would counter with a furious swipe of his claws -- raking air or flesh with the same cold indifference. a splatter of blood came from every swing, a bellow from every bite -- but shardik fought well and shardik fought hard, despite the mounting disadvantage which threatened to soon overcome him.

She cowered in the shadows, hyperventilating as she looked from the towering bear to the dark form on the ground, so broken and bloodied that at first, she'd not known whether it was Valravn or Raleska. She still wasn't certain, seized by shock as she was, when she saw the form of her mother hurtling past her, followed within an instant by the pale form of Rosencrantz. They snapped and bit at the bear which had reared, to free up its front paws to use to claw them away. 

She immediately dropped limp from surprise and fear when she felt teeth at her own nape and for a wavering second she thought perhaps there'd been another bear- and that it certainly had her in its grasp though...It was far too gentle. And the figure bore her Maman's form. She stared up at her mother's face, terrified, as she was urged to run and so she did- scampering away and flattening her ears to the pulse of growls and roars, not knowing if that might be the last time she ever saw either of her mothers again.

She was shoved violently aside almost immediately.  She was blinded by both rage and grief and did not fight with caution.  Her only design was to kill.  She'd never been this angry... last time they met, desperation had guided her.  There was none now.

So she hurled herself again... and again... and again.  Her blood spattered the sand, dripping from gashes on her forehead... her sides... her withers.

But her jaws finally caught their mark.  She knew others had joined, but she ignored them completely.  It was only she and Shardik, her jaws closing on his throat.... tearing.  He ripped her from him and she took a piece with her as she fell, slammed with rattling force into the sand.

Slapped away quickly, claws cutting deep into his nape, shoulder, and neck; but his attempt was not lost. It was the perfect distraction as intended, allowing the others the opportunity to rush in while the ursine was focused on the immediate threat. While Sappquique backup rolled in one by one, launching themselves to the killer bear - Rosencrantz quickly stood up once more. Blood pooling from his wounds but not keeping him down, not yet. 

This time the others would be his distraction while he aimed to find his target under the creature. To the tender fat of his underside and bite, rip, chew at anything he could reach and dig his way through the bear's gut, legs, and inner thighs. Anything he could get his teeth on so long as he was able to remain underneath the thing. Here, he would do the most damage possible where the flesh was softest and left mostly unguarded.

the bellow that tore across the cliff was unmistakable -- the very same voice of the demon that had pursued val from iktome to the south.

his insides shriveled in fear.

last time, val had run. he had left raleska and regin and chacal behind, and had fled into the plains. it made him a survivor, but it also soured him -- and he knew he could not always run. not when it meant leaving something important behind.

the clamor of snarls and voices led him to the grisly scene; the blonde-furred monolith dancing around lunging wolves. to the side, a sight val wished he had never seen: raleska, slumped into the dirt in a contortionist's impossible pose. lifeless and beyond repair.

val gulped, closing his eyes as fear wracked his frame. @Chacal, where was chacal? he turned to see erzulie streak towards her, instructing she run. wordlessly, valravn pursued after his sister, casting glances over his shoulder as his mothers, his family threw their lives at the jaws of the bear.

The Sapphire dove in with gnashing teeth and winkled lips, but when the great beast rocked back onto its hind legs Njord balked at the sheer size of the beast. It’s massive 5-fingered paws slapped at the relentless Sapphiquians... but they were berserkers – incensed by Raleska’s death.

As he zigged and zagged around the bear Njord could see the blood start to flow. The Ursus’ claws sliced through flesh easily like a soft cheese. First Rosalyn began to bleed and then Rosencrantz, who was cut deeply across the nape. Njord paused, shocked that the pale knight had received such a blow. Hesitating was a great mistake.

Shardik’s beady eyes targeted the frozen man and wound up. Njord, who spied the large paw hovering above him, scrambled to escape the bear’s range, but it was a fruitless effort. The Ursus’ swing nailed him across the haunch and sent the man flying, tumbling away in the blood soaked snow.

Dazed, Njord struggled to find his footing. He hurried, but swayed (probably a bit concussed). The wolves, who appeared like colorful smears in Njord’s vision, continued to attack the bear like angry hornets. His pack needed him! Pull it together, he told himself. Wish a shake of his head and a whip of his fiery tail, Njord ran back into the fight. As Rosalyn was momentarily knocked back, Njord took her place. A relentless affront: the tactic of wolves. He bit at Shardik’s open wounds and latched onto the bear’s hide. He would not let go unless Shardik's flesh came with him.

Thrashing, blood, and mayhem surrounded the white bear as he and the others attacked the true bear. Unfortunately for Kaertok, today was not his day. A set of claws raked through his throat when he launched his umpteenth attack, severing his lifeline. He would die thinking of Raleska, thinking that this was why he had been called back; to help avenge her death.

The large white body lay limp, crumpled at the feet of the bear who had caused so much heartache for the wolves of the Teekon Wilds.