Ankyra Sound holding on to the devil i know

they had been forbidden from the sound. naturally, loko found himself compelled to visit the grey stone and silent, giant trees.

a seawitch. ghosts. the words of his maman; dis place be haunted. loko glanced among the impossibly tall sequoias. a toothsome chill prowled down his spine. maybe sobo should be here instead of him.

he thrust the femur spear-down into the dirt. it snarled through a layer of ice, punctured the soft skin of the loam underneath. dat be for de loa. loko murmured, ears pricking as a whistle of wind carried itself through some distant cavern.

Fury was always close, always watching. 
And she saw when the boy came back, saw him throw a bone into the sand.

Quietly, she approached like a black widow stalking prey.

"Back to visit me?" She purred, knowing the boy had ignored her scent markers by being here. 
Her body was poised, eyes dangerous and silently willing him to get out.

the femur stood straight, white against a backdrop of dark forest. loko liked to think the loa would see it. maybe even the seawitch.

a voice came from the woods. loko looked up to a faceful of angry scars. how quietly she arrived! now she was meters away watching him like prey. he cared little for the contrast from matronly dotard from before.

with his spine straight and lips tight in the unsmiling strength he'd often seen emanated by his mothers, loko answered. "no. i be visitin' de loa."

aware his mother was absent, loko did not turn his back to the stranger. nor did he flee. again came the whistling, twisted wind through the mouth of an unseen cave. loko began towards it.

Firmly, Fury stepped in front of the boy, eyes and posture dangerous as she abruptly halted his path. 

"I will not be so kind a second time. This place is not yours. Go home." She growled, snapping teeth near his face with a warning she would quickly escalate if he did not heed.

loko froze as the stranger stepped in his way, bristling. ah, that pleasantry answered how she got all those scars.

for a long moment, loko weighed his words against the scrape of teeth which promised destruction to his hide. dis place is not yours either. it be sapphique’s old home. his voice summoned an inviolable surety only adolescents seemed capable of owning. touch me, and dey will run you from dis place. loko knew she had more to lose than he did, and it made his head swim with buzzing smugness. one altercation, one howl, would be all it took for sapphique to descend like a storm. she had no power over him.

a ready gaze measured the bared fangs presented to him. he wasn’t going to run like a little cub because she showed some teeth — but he wasn’t about to let her get close enough to sink them in him, either.

"Old home. My marks are here, yours are not. Now get out." She rumbled, interrupting him before he said the rest; charging him in a burst of speed with the intent to thrust him forcefully backwards via a slam of her shoulder. 
If that did not get her point across, she would make it that much clearer that his brazenness would get him killed one day, if not by her, then by any other warmonger who held no true conscience about mauling idiotic and bold children.

conflict at the sound. tension, so thick the listener shivered with it as she entered the scene. her eyes were on fury.

these are our neighbors, fury. i mean to make peace with them, her gaze drifted to the boy, familiar from when he had come with his siblings for mireille. a wolf of sapphique. no, she could not allow the queen to soil their otherwise-pristine first impression. the druids needed peace.

loko had not been bluffing. the shift of the stranger’s muscles was all he needed for instinct’s reflex to kick in — he sprung out of dodge with a howl upon his lips that set birds cawing from their roosts in the trees above.

all of sapphique would hear — and how long before they came?

he was about to piss on the ground in response to the stranger’s absurd claim, when the silhouette from the islands arrived. perhaps she was the ghost maman spoke of; there was a quality to her that elicited subtle terror within.

loko stepped back. his hotheaded stupidity came at odds with his quiet awe for this creature — he wanted to tell the scarred stranger to go fuck herself, but there was one problem: he knew a lifedebt was owed to the dark loa besides her. you be the one on the beach. loko apprised, distance kept between the spirit and her mongrel. is dat t’ing with you?

She woke up in Njord’s arms, like usual, and carefully extracted herself. For a few minutes, Meerkat felt like today would be better. She emptied her bladder, then went to search for some fresh water to drink, a lightness to her step, at least until a sound made her grind to a halt.

Plp, plp, plp…

Immediately, her hackles prickled. Meerkat’s jaw tightened as a wave of anger rippled through her. Her narrowed eyes scanned her surroundings, trying to locate the source of the irritating noise. It had rained the previous night and she quickly realized there was water dripping off many different surfaces.

Swallowing the urge to scream, she did the next best thing and fled. Her paws carried her west, between the towering pines and the marsh. Now it was just the sound of the wind in her ears and the anger ebbed as quickly as it had come.

Then a howl pierced the air, urgently calling for Sapphique. Meerkat came to her second abrupt stop of the day, heels digging into the cold ground. She couldn’t place the voice, but it had come from the sound. Remembering what Erzulie had told them, she sucked in a breath and hastened that way.

She stumbled across three figures, two of them unfamiliar. The third was Loko, she was nearly certain. She caught herself staring at the giant, scarred woman. Meerkat approached apprehensively, just hoping that more reinforcements were on their way. If this turned ugly, she wouldn’t stand a chance. She wasn’t a fighter.

And she wasn’t a mediator, either, but she was an ambassador. Hello… can I ask what’s going on here? I’m Meerkat, from Sapphique… She moved closer to Loko, though her attention remained fixed upon the two strangers, her posture carefully neutral and tense as hell.

erzulie had been crossing sapphique to seek rosalyn. perhaps they would go to the sheltered little beach, both of them.
but then her brash young son's howl rose over the cliff — from the direction of the sound.
"je vais te battre, garçon stupide et insensé!" erzulie vowed to herself, lithe legs turning her at once in that direction.
mireille tagged behind her mother, eyes frightened. erzulie did not bother to tell her to leave.
when the obsidian arrived on the beach it was to see loko facing the white wolf once more. she snorted but went to flank him, nodding at meerkat. it moved njord's intended higher in her estimation to see her down here in defense of the cliffs.
the otherworldly girl was given a long and level stare, a nod which recognized the power she did not yet understand. her mismatched glare cut to the white wolf. "i was kind before. allow me to be direct now: dis place is not for claimin.' you be far too close to my pack. you do not even announce yourself before you begin to piss all over de place." her eyes flickered between the unknown pair.
no one could stop those who wished to take a piece of land for themselves. but sapphique had the ability to make it bloody indeed. and she did not yet know this as the listener, who had saved mireille.
behind her, the girl's eyes widened, but she did not dare to interrupt her mother's controlled fury. 
"ankyra be sacred. and i t'ink you," erzulie growled, fixed upon the pale she-wolf, "be wanted for murder. my allies have already been informed." her gaze moved to the girl. "dere will be peace in de soun'. or dere will be none at all."
erzulie was a proud woman who saw the value of immediate escalation. sapphique held the power here, not the scarred beast.

in fear, the boy summoned his pack, and they came to him. sapphique showed admirable strength, a bond between them not unlike that which the listener hoped to forge between her druids. but this strength could not be set against them. she could not allow it.

the leader among them showed herself quickly, armed with a simmering fury and accusations; threats. it seemed the sunfire had scorched the earth here at the sound. all hope of the saints making any sort of peace had turned to ashes. what fury had said to her was true; she was not ready. she was not the one, not yet and perhaps not ever. the listener had been mistaken.

the prophet looked to fury, eyes lingering briefly on her face. have faith.

and she cast the queen into the fire, for the sake of the devout.

there will be peace, the listener spoke quietly, intending to draw focus to her words. her eyes were on the leader, the woman who had not introduced herself. behind her lingered mireille in wide-eyed silence. fury will leave. one of my own will go with her, to ensure that she goes far and does not return. i understand she has committed a crime against your allies, but the druids cannot allow her to come to harm. there are children growing within her. innocent lives which must be protected.

if she returns, the druids will have no part in any conflict between you, this much, she meant truly. if fury sought to rekindle this flame, the druids would warm themselves over her burning remnants. the listener would not sacrifice everything for her. she was not the queen who was promised.

she was only a means to an end.

we take no sides in such conflicts. we seek only to preserve life, as we sought to preserve mireille's life when she came to us, her gaze found the red girl now. would she speak? let us depart in peace. when fury is gone, i would like to invite you to visit blackwater. to speak of peace. friendship.

fury. if my terms are disagreeable to you, speak now.

from the queen, only silent acceptance. no doubt she knew the listener would see her safe despite the cost. her keeper, departed again... already the prophet grieved his absence. but she did not regret the sacrifice.

skipping and powerplaying fury with permission (:

to loko’s surprise, the cliff swarmed with wolves. first to arrive was meerkat — her positioning alongside him an unspoken contract of protection. he was about to buoy her words with his own version of victimtude, when erzulie strode quick to the scene. it was her arrival that put some sense in the boy. her gaze communicated all he needed to know: he was in even deeper shit than fury.

loko’s eyes widened to learn this unhinged woman was a potential murderer. and yet, the ethereal silhouette commanded her like a puppet.

it was not beyond loko’s threadbare maturity to send goading sneers fury’s way. the silhouette he respected for the sheer fact her existence was the only reason mireille stood safe but wide-eyed besides him — but if she harbored fury, she was not to be trusted. loko kept his mouth shut, feeling the heat of erzulie’s words scald the air between them all.

Before anyone could answer her, Erzulie stormed onto the beach, the svelte Mireille tailing her implacable mother. Meerkat’s head dipped as the Obsidian approached, sharp words cutting the cold air. Her lips pressed together, jaw tightening in surprise when Erzulie made accusations of murder. These were dangerous wolves darkening their doorstep.

It surprised her immensely when the scarred behemoth of a woman didn’t speak. Instead, the swarthy youth addressed the charges. Meerkat’s lips parted. This young woman couldn’t be any older than Sapphique’s youths, yet she spoke with authority. She promised there would be peace, assuring everyone that the white she-wolf—Fury was her name—would be leaving immediately.

Licking her lips, Meerkat left the diplomacy in Erzulie’s capable hands, subtly returning her attention to Loko and Mireille. She shifted nearer to them. They probably neither wanted nor needed Meerkat’s protection, though she couldn’t deny the impulse to stand with them, all three riveted by Sapphique’s commander.

one post for mireille <3

at the mention of her name, mireille blanched. she had been meant to arrange this meeting. she had meant to tell her mothers. the listener's power had been all she could discuss. and now — this. could it have been avoided?
"maman," she said timidly, slipping to erzulie's bristled shoulder. "i believe in de listener. she was true in de words she spoke to me." she tried to avoid the storm of her mother's eyes, and did not dare look toward the large white wolf, or anyone else.
meerkat's presence was appreciated; relief welled in the girl as she fell silent.

peace. the murderess was pregnant. erzulie could have scoffed; her tail lashed her flanks. they too harboured life, though ones she had long denied and ignored. but the truth of her situation was clear to those looking for it.
any whelp birthed by that one should be culled. she believed in the life of those who inhabited sapphique, who were born in her cliffs and her moors and her sound. only mireille's soft voice, piping behind her elbow, stayed her fiery words upon the subject. 
the gold-green gaze did not move from the listener.
but erzulie knew she owed the debt of mireille's life.
"you are de one who is powerful. spirits an' storms be speakin' to you." this much she had gleaned from mireille. "dis place can serve us bot' for dat purpose."  ankyra had a strong force in its grottos and sands and forests. 
her eyes cut with a hard look to the pale wolf. "i speak only for sapphique. not for de ones she has wronged. dey will still seek her after today an' you must cut a new parley wid dem, not i."
the listener was a powerful girl but she was still a girl. still a child the age of her own. "peace now. have one of yours take her an' go. we will not follow."
erzulie kept beneath her tongue any offer to turn redtail away from the trail. she was incensed. but she would not sacrifice this tenuous balance today. the obsidian looked to the listener, waiting for another word.