Broken Antler Fen Would you rather be a king in hell, or a stooge in heaven?

Having spent some days resting away from the other members of Brecheliant — mostly avoiding the attention of Eljay, to be quite honest — Reyes felt less like a used speed-bag. His bruises had almost faded by now. The only deep cut left was the one to his pride, which was entirely his own fault.

In short: he sulked. As the days wore on he fell in to his usual routine of patrols and cache maintenance, little by little adding more distance to his route as the ache in his body receded. Not once did he think of Ramesses with ill-favor, or the man's guards; they had most likely put up with a lot of shit from Reyes and he couldn't exactly fault them for the defense of their home.

As his route took him through the clearing that he'd once, seemingly long ago, cleared for his children to use as their training ground, he noticed how poorly looked-after it was. Weeds had sprung up across much of the flat areas, with snow piled high regardless. Debris — broken branches from the trees around the clearing — had piled up and rotted in a way that prevented movement through the core of the field. There were toys, complete with teeth marks, left forgotten and strewn about, lined with ice.

Reyes set to work tidying up the place as best he was able, admittedly taking his time as he worked. After a couple hours of this toiling there wasn't much of a difference - but it kept him occupied.

Lele remembered vaguely of having met Reyes somewhere, but apparently that meeting had not been of much significance then, because she could not bring back and subject that they had discussed. If there had been any to begin with. Her interest in him was not based on building camaraderie only. She had a feminine curiousity in, what had drawn Teya to this man, who she herself did not consider as anything extraordinary. 

She watched him work for a while, before drawing closer, making her presence known with a friendly woof and asking: "Need any help with this?" 

He stopped when a figure appeared. It was their voice that drew his eye, and after glancing their way Reyes paused a moment but did not answer.

He swung his head back towards the ground, gathering a few more sticks and things and casting them aside; it was then that he murmured, no, with all the surliness of an old sea captain after a bad night.

A few minutes after that, as he was moving through the underbrush, he tripped on something and exclaimed, Fuck! and then sighed again a deep, crushed-soul sound.

A broken antler with gnaw marks came flying from the bushes after that.

Lele did not press further, after the guy's rather rude rebuff of her offer. She sat down to observe him as one would an exotic animal at work, trying to understand, what was that spark that drew Teya to him. Her first impression was not good at all. It could be that it was not his day or that he acted like this to all strangers. 

But, recalling little Raven's apparent uneasiness to discuss much her relationship with Reyes, she wondered, whether this side of him - the cold and rough - was, what she was hiding from the rest of the world. That maybe Reyes was that shapeshifter type, who could put up a charming face for the public to see, but be malicious, when no one was watching. 

The reader has to forgive Lele's low opinion of men in general or how she let assumptions take over the facts. All of which she did not know yet. But witnessing someone else being a fool in love made her view her past relationships from a more critical lense. Maybe - had there been people around her at that time - would not have understood, what she had seen in the man she believed she had loved very much. Maybe he had been no Prince Charming either. Maybe no one was. 

An antler came out flying from the bushes, drawing Lele out of her contemplation just a second too late. The thing hit her directly between her eyes and last thing she saw, before she lost her consciousness was blue sparks and dancing stars. Then it turned all black and she hit the ground.

Pffft oh no! Ukie!!

Reyes came striding from the undergrowth a few seconds later, dragging his heels. In fact, he was limping. During the cleaning process he'd managed to twist an ankle on a root, or some vines, or a toy — it had happened so fast that the specifics didn't matter.
He'd reached for the nearest thing and thrown it in a fit of rage. As he peered around the area to the spots he'd already tidied, he saw the crumpled form of Ukulele and the branching antler toy.

Oh, fuck me, he murmurs as he approaches her body. Damn it. Don't be dead.

That said, Reyes didn't check for a pulse or make any move to touch Ukulele, or to disturb her where she'd been knocked down. He took a deeeeeep breath and sighed in a particularly expressive, frustrated manner, before tipping his chin to call for @Eljay.

The howl rang in her ears and reverberated in her skull. Lele slowly came about, first opening her eyes and blinking against the bright white of the snow that was suddenly so painful to watch. She groaned quietly and wincing in pain, she pulled herself up so that she was lying on her belly. 

Head still hurt, she kept it lowered so that the tip of her nose almost touched the ground. It took some time for her to recall, what had happened moments ago, but when she saw the piece of antler lying on the ground, it all came back. She looked up at Reyes, who appeared to feel somewhat worried, if not guilty, and asked: "Are you bloody mental? What's wrong with you?"

He'd barely gotten the call out before the woman moved. Reyes' voice cracked lightly, and he swallowed the tension as he looked down at her. She glared back, going off about how crazy he was, or something. Pretty normal stuff when it came to Reyes.

Any guilt he felt quickly evaporated. He'd done his due diligence — help was probably on the way. Besides, it wasn't like he'd done it on purpose. That's the usual excuse, way to go.

Wrong with me? You're the one that came waltzing over while I was busy cleaning. Not my fault you didn't duck in time. He bristled and moved away from her a step or two, but did not totally abandon her. She could've been concussed.

I'm pissed off, okay? I needed to keep busy. That garbage there, he motioned to the antler was in my way and I needed it gone. You were in the wrong place, wrong time. Get over it. Nice.

Their meeting had not started on good ground and now it got progressively worse. Lele listened to him lash out at her, with an expression of utter digust. A small voice in the back of her head told her not to get drawn in the conflict, that he was just pissed and not in the right mind, but a louder one was upset of the harm that he had done and not the slightest hint of apology in his voice. 

"Just because you are pissed off, does not mean you can treat people like a jerk," she hissed at him. "Or is it the kind of treatment you reserve for women only?" 

The backlash from the woman wasn't a surprise, but the content of her message was. Being called a jerk wasn't too difficult for Reyes to swallow - he'd been called much worse and done much worse to back it up in the past - but the next part, that's what really struck him.

He stepped forward while his nape bristled. What the fuck did you just say?! Had Teya said something? He'd never hurt her. As far as he knew, he'd never hurt her. Had something happened at the party that she wasn't telling him? Had he done something?

What the hell are you insinuating, that I'm some kind of abusive piece of shit? I'm not; I don't care what hangs between your legs, or in this case the opposite. I came out here to clean up shit and keep clear of people like you. This isn't my fault.

He turned from her then. As badly as he wanted to punch a wall or something, Reyes couldn't let his anger and frustration overwhelm him either. He didn't want to prove this bitch right.

Lele knew she had stepped over a line, but you have to forgive her too - she was hurt, she was angry and Reyes' attitude did not help either. When returning to this exchange later, she would not quite understand her intentions of continuing to argue. As if by provoking him further, she was trying to make a point. To herself and the world - that this guy was a piece of shit. 

She did not even flinch, when he bristled and confronted her, she kept her gaze locked with his. The harsh words brushed past her. "That is exactly, what would such a person say," she told him quietly and with that she too turned and left him to his own devices. He was not worth a second more of her time.