[PRP] - We're Not Dying Here [ Shishio Gen & Cetra ]

[Celeanor]

There was a wrongness in the air that went far beyond the absence of a familiar rosey-colored mare. The foul taint of nature gone rancid permeated the very ground at his feet, contaminating what had once been a lovely forest meadow. Beside the large unikalona stallion, a grey timber wolf from the local forest pack stood at rigid attention, his hackles up as he too sensed the wickedness of the night. Here, at the base of the A-ta-lv-yi Pass, unikalona and wolf were in skinwalker territory - where the land itself twisted in revulsion. Even they, apex predators in their own right, knew who would be the hunted should their paths cross the wrong shadow this night.

High above both watchers, the solitary moon held her lofty position, uncaring of their worry. What light she had to spare fell fleetingly through the ancient boughs of weathered oaks, dappled and dangerous, yet yielding nothing to their searching eyes.

"Which way?" Deep and guttural, the stallion's voice possessed an edge to it that the wolf was unfamiliar with. It put the alpha on edge as well, even as he struggled to control his rising fur with a good shake.

"East. And south. Deeper into the demon's lair." Shaking out his coat again, the wolf locked golden eyes with the eerie green of Shishio Gen. "Are you going alone?"

Unblinking, the stallion nodded, muscles tense as the wolf nervously licked the front of his teeth. "He will kill you this time, you know this." Silence greeted the wolf's statement, all the way up until the pack leader broke eye contact himself and looked away. "I mean no disrespect." He added, a soft whine punctuating the apology.

Green eyes unwavering, Gen finally looked back at the moon, and inhaled deeply of the night. "You stay. I go. Feral pack will not escape me a second time. Haast secondary." Another pause, this one lengthy as he inhaled. There was blood; freshly spilled and nearby. "New victim nearby. Smell on wind." Glancing down, the stallion only took a moment to consider. "Stay or go, choice yours. I go." Because that terrible scent on the wind carried a hint of the essence that was his partner. If Cetra was in danger here, he would never forgive himself further delay.

Sharply cloven hooves pushing into a canter, the big stallion took off through the trees, the only sound a breath of wind and the sound of hooves like a heartbeat.  

[Kyaishi]

Well, this day had just gotten fantastic.

It had started out simply enough, with a planned trek across Hakan and Elderwillow borders. The prolonged separation from Cetra's partner and closest friend had begun to wear on her a bit after a week of cleanup with Rubedo and Sukari, especially when their previous interactions had been so emotionally strained. Their most recent encounter with the catwalker that had dragged her into its den and called for an impromptu rescue had rattled her family a bit, understandably, and although she was fully healed, she felt it necessary to reassure them that her responsibilities wouldn't suffer for it. A week of strengthening their borders and overseeing patrols made her more confident, but there was a slowly developing sense of loneliness that had never tugged quite so strongly before, and she could only attribute it to Gen's absence. She was loathe to acknowledge to this newfound weakness as anything but a distraction, but eventually she had relented and planned to make a brief appearance on his scouting trek.

The terrain was familiar enough, but before long, she had begun to notice that she had acquired a shadow. Something large and dangerous was dogging her steps with a stalwart determination, although it never seemed interested in revealing itself, even when she deliberately made an effort to draw it out. The feeling of a predator's gaze on her back and violent intent in the air had made her hackles rise, deciding abruptly that she needed to lead it away from bystanders if there would be a confrontation. She couldn't risk exposing Hakan to a new threat when they were still reeling from the last, and she had no idea how prepared Elderwillow would be to receive... whatever it was on her tail. Instead of continuing east, she had turned south, into the outskirts of what she knew to be skinwalker territory.

The confrontation with the horned beast who had introduced himself as a Demon had rattled her right down to her bones. It wasn't simply the ill-intent that she had sensed, or the smug smirk he wore that seemed to imply he knew something she didn't; it was the overwhelming feeling of power, the feeling that she was greatly outclassed that had unsettled her. Cetra wasn't weak by any means, but the physical confrontation that followed felt like a farce, and she couldn't shake the distinct feeling that she was being toyed with. Still, she fought back fiercely, and the anger that she received in return for her defiance was thunderous and suffocating. Though only lightly wounded from their fight, she was thoroughly winded, and he probably would have been able to defeat her with ease, but instead... he spoke, then simply turned and left. Fled wasn't the right word- it seemed as if he had decided she was unworthy of his time. The devious and malicious smile he had given her before, though, and the threat that followed... it made her freeze in abject terror for her family.

As if the events previous hadn't been bad enough, the feral wolf pack that had descended upon her after the Demon's flight had just been icing on the cake. There had been no warning, no provocation- she could only assume that they were either starving or rabid, and neither option bode well for her chances when most of her strength had deserted her. The added complication of possible skinwalkers in the area made the situation worse than dire, especially when she was undecided on exactly where she could go with the risk of the Demon's wrath following her.

At present, her upper lip was curled back in a snarl of her own as another wolf lunged at her side, turning to strike at it with a kick of her hind leg. Two more were on her opposite flank, with one at her front and another by her shoulder. She couldn't spread her wings long enough to gain any lift without providing the creatures an easy target, and her attempt at outrunning them into a rocky dropoff large enough for takeoff had failed miserably. The only remaining option was to wait for help... which wasn't coming, since neither side was currently expecting her.

A frustrated noise rent the air between them as the two wolves on her flank decided to take the moment of indecision as an opportunity to attack, and she turned in time to swat them off with a wing, but it opened up her opposite shoulder for attack by the wolf on her left front. A pained curse disrupted the unusual stillness of the night air as tooth and claw raked into the flesh above her left shoulder, and she resisted the urge to rear for fear of exposing her throat and belly. Instead, she pivoted again to strike out with her back hooves, feeling a burst of satisfaction at the crack and yelp that followed and baring her own flat teeth in warning as the other four eyed her speculatively.

This was a problem.  

[Celeanor]

There was something to be said for the blood rage.

It was a boiling, ever-present reminder that he wasn't a hero - that his own mortality could be measured in the time spent between meeting someone weaker than him and someone stronger. It was primal, and it was ugly ... but it got the job done. With help, he'd learned to temper it to his will - not chained, directed.

Snarling as he broke through the treeline, Gen didn't bother with announcing himself or asking questions. Cetra was bleeding, her attackers were right in front of him, and he wasn't asking questions!

Charging the circling group of four, he slammed full force into the closest and grabbed the next nearest in his jaws by the neck. Clamping down, his teeth sought and fond the beasts spine, cracking it with a flick of his head. Another flick sent the body into the recovering form of the first wolf he'd slammed to the ground. Satisfied by the yelp of pain, he snarled when a third sank vicious teeth into his flank. Reaching around, he grabbed the third wolf by the leg and ripped the beast bodily from his own flesh - losing some of his left shoulder as he did. Still snarling, he savaged the creature with his teeth and sharp hooves - - -  

[Kyaishi]

There was a split second of surprise as the dark, hulking form of her partner came crashing through the brush in a rage, discarding his usual stealth for speed, but Cetra regained her senses quickly enough to turn her back against his, despite the savagery he had already launched into. A blood rage in a situation like this could be deadly, but she trusted Gen to direct it where it was needed and intuit her needs- they worked best as a unit, after all. The warmth coiling in her ribs at the thought that he had come for her was discarded quickly to be revisited at another time, when their lives weren't in danger.

The lunging form of another wolf brought her attention to the forefront, and with a newfound confidence at the sight of her partner against her back, Cetra met the charge with one of her own, striking out with a foreleg and pinning it beneath her weight. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted the other lunging for Gen's unprotected side while he ravaged the corpse of the wolf he'd already dispatched, and her tactical side kicked into high gear.

A push of her hoof against the wolf's windpipe to launch herself in the appropriate direction yielded a snapping sound while she used a wing as leverage to pivot herself around Gen's muscle, hind legs already rising to kick out at the offending creature with a fierce snarl of her own. It was met by another cracking sound that rent the air and made her snort in satisfaction, turning immediately to the one remaining wolf that Gen had tossed unceremoniously onto the other. The inertia that had allowed her to slingshot her weight gave her enough of an advantage in speed that she could pin the creature with a swat and press of her wing against its throat, letting a low growl rumble through the air.

A brief pause followed, golden irises sliding back to Gen's larger form with a protective glint, though she refrained from otherwise injuring the wolf currently at her mercy. The sight of his blood made her tense, anger at the creatures provoking a lust for blood of her own, but it was suppressed with a shake of her head as she brought herself back to the present. Cetra guessed that Gen had already been hunting something when he found her, although she couldn't be sure it was this wolf pack in particular- but the need for interrogation superseded her desire to extract retribution on his attackers. There could be more in the immediate area, and it was still unclear why exactly they had been attacked.

Pitching her voice as low and gentle as she could, she prodded carefully at her partner with a quiet, "Gen?"  

[Celeanor]

There was a quiet, observant part of his mind that recorded everything - even while he was otherwise occupied. It took note of Cetra's movements, and gave logic and direction to the rest of him as he steadied himself at her back and finished the attacker in front of him. Another, more visceral, part he was unfamiliar with thrilled a little at her efficiency of movement and tactics - but even that was smoothly set aside for later consideration. She was well enough to be at his back, and nothing could take either of them down when they faced it together.

So he was silent as she dispatched the remaining wolves, his adrenaline and Kalona blood heaving his flanks as he watched her subdue the final one and turn to look at him. Her query, had it come from anyone else, would have risen his hackles ('are you mad?' 'has the blood rage taken you?' 'monster!' ) but she was different. He was different, as a result.

Locking eyes on her, he took a long moment to compose himself. Less out of any real fear of losing control, and more to illustrate how not out of breath he was. It was also to allow his innate healing ability to kick in and start stitching his shoulder. She had a terrible habit of getting on his case about injuries when she knew damn well he could heal himself.

"Cetra." Her name was quietly said, but his deep voice always had a way of lingering over the last syllable. He was also incredibly glad to see her, a facet that manifested subtly in the way he moved to her side and looked down at their captive. In times past, he would have been a full foot or more away from her, but not now. She drew him to her like a moth to the flame, and he was nearly as helpless to stop it.

"Feral beasts. Killed many, possible corruption." How, he can't say. He is no Elder, nor spirit touched. The greater mysteries of the world elude him, but he knew well the law of kill or be killed. The feral pack had not been rabid, they'd moved too uniformly, too cleanly to be mind-sick. The manner with which they'd evaded him the first time had been too calculated. Whether it was a tactical incursion remained to be seen, or just chance luck that this pack had come upon Gen's herd and later, Cetra.

"Ask it. Wolf Families of the Elderwillow seek closure." He said, his voice a low, rolling growl as his eyes sharpened on the prone wolf.  

[Kyaishi]

The sound of her name in his low baritones calmed her in such a way that she hadn't even been aware of the anxiety there before.

The underlying softness with which Gen met her eyes provoked a similar sense of warmth from her own, and Cetra felt a bit of the tension in her shoulders dissolve as he approached her side, leaning almost subconsciously towards his presence even as her attention returned determinedly to her captive. The temptation to greet him with the subdued affection that they normally afforded one another was still secondary to the need for information from her prisoner, and any hint of weakness would be counterproductive to that end. More concerning still, if this wolf was somehow in league with the Demon, she didn't want any inkling of her close relationship with Gen reaching the beast's ears.

Hearing the mention of corruption and the many deaths on this wolf's head brought back the anger that she had previously set aside, and at Gen's words, she pressed her wing harder against the creature's throat with a warning snort. They were clearly too intelligent to be rabid, too comfortable to be starving. Considering the timeliness to their appearance, the possibility that the Demon had somehow called these creatures was seeming all-too-likely, and she didn't like where that conclusion led them.

Best not to let on what she knew for now, though, until she could determine how much the wolf knew.

"Why did you attack?" she ground out, eyes narrowing at the defiance she could already see arising in the wolf's eyes, jerking her head succinctly towards Gen. "Either you tell me, or I let him take a turn at making you talk. The pieces of your alpha can attest to the... unpleasantness of that choice."  

[Celeanor]

They danced this dance before, so Gen fell into step without a hint of uneasiness.

Barring his teeth at the creature, Gen snarled openly, and closely enough, for some of this beast's compatriots blood to drip from his teeth onto the ground beside the prisoner's head. Had he claws, they would have flexed into the ground as well, but he settled for mantling his thick leathery wings.

He didn't always enjoy the bad cop routine, but he certainly knew how to play this part of it.  

[Kyaishi]

The wolf's options were limited, and his position afforded him little recourse but to acquiesce. One look at the huge, snarling beast that had effortlessly laid waste to his pack had the fanged creature reevaluating his willingness to talk to the rosette mare, and his ears laid themselves against his skull as he growled out an answer.

"You were in the way."

The immediate increase of pressure on his throat from the onyx-feathered wing that held him down had him snarling in defiance, and the narrowed gold stare that met his own yellow eyes told him that she was not satisfied by that answer. Another cursory glance at the black unikalona stallion at her side told him that there would be no respite there, and his claws came up to clutch at the appendage that held him down, though he had no strength to fight it off of him. "All right, all right!"

The snort that he received in return could only be interpreted as impatience for an answer, and he had little choice but to comply. "The Demon. He holds the alliance of the others that hunt here. We sought his favor." He punctuated his admittance with a low growl, challenging glare meeting unmoved molten irises. His pack had no idea what kind of confrontation had occurred between the dark Demon and the mare, only that she had incited his displeasure, and they had seen an opportunity to turn it to their advantage. None of them had anticipated Elderwillow interference, but they had been somewhat careless with their previous killings.  

[Kyaishi]

Although she hadn't anticipated getting a pleasant answer to her heated question, the one that she received still chilled Cetra down to her bones.

It wasn't a falsehood. She had hoped... but the Demon was real, and he had already acquired enough alliances to draw others to his cause. What exactly that cause was was still unclear, though she had a deeply unsettling feeling that whatever it was, it now included the destruction of the things she held most dear.

'Your loved ones will suffer your defiance.'

His threat still rang heavily in her ears, making her freeze once again in an unsteady internal mantra of 'What do I do, what do I do...' while her audience- one concerned, one enraged- looked on. She had comforted herself in the past with logical solutions, self-assurances that she could find a way to exploit fallacies and anticipate her enemy, but this was one that had already beaten her three steps ahead. Somehow, he already knew that her weakness was her family, and she could sense that the weight behind his threat was real. Suddenly, none of the places that she could seek shelter were safe, none of the people she valued could be risked, and even... even...

A horrified glance towards Gen solidified the belief that she could no longer be even in his presence, lest their relationship become a target as well... though it might have already been too late on that front.

The scrabbling of claws at her wing was only a distant pain that barely registered as the wolf seized on her moment of distraction to fight at his bonds, although the weight against him didn't lessen. She scarcely noticed the tearing of feathers, the new blood drawn, too lost in her head to comprehend most of what was happening around her.  

[Celeanor]

It didn't take much to rile up a kalona, even a halfbreed like Gen. The horrified glance spared his way, the obvious distraction, and the iron tang of fresh blood as the prisoner took advantage of that moment of -- what was that moment exactly? Whatever it was, it didn't matter. She was bleeding, again. Her feathers were on the ground, again. The perpetrator of this outrage was ...

Green eyes narrowed to dangerous slits, Gen neatly stepped around Cetra's wing and slammed one of his dinner-plate sized hooves straight into the gaping maw of the wolf. Without pause, he shifted again,twisting his foot to ensure a swift death, then looked back to his partner. His savage expression cooled exponentially to an apologetic one once he realized he'd shoved her in his haste to put an end to the creatures struggling. Removing his hoof from the corpse, he stepped back to his previous position.

"Cetra?"  

[Kyaishi]

Lost in her own head as she was, the conflict happening in the stallion at her side escaped Cetra's notice, even as the wolf in her grasp struggled against the weight of her wing.

The unexpected and abrupt shove, however, jarred her back to her senses as Gen tore the struggling wolf out from under her and ended him with a stomp of his massive hoof. Blinking rapidly, she shook her head and took a slightly stumbling step back, breathing deeply. The mindless panic that had consumed her had begun to fade, but the threat and indecision remained- she still had nowhere to go, nowhere her loved ones could be safe until the Demon was slain.

The low and gentle utterance of her name made her eyes snap up to meet concerned emerald, her entire posture softening at his apparent worry. The stinging of her wounds began to return slowly through the haze of hysteria, though all of them were shallow and mostly harmless. The sight of his wounds gave her pause, but they were already stitching themselves closed with his self-healing ability, so she didn't start in on him with the usual disapproval at throwing himself in between her and the threat, as usual. It would have been hypocritical, anyway.

She paused, unsure of what to say for a moment, but the desire for comfort and the presence that was uniquely Gen won out after a moment, and she stepped forward to press her forehead to his neck, letting out an unsteady breath. The warmth of him was addictive, and though her mind was screaming at her to remember the threat against his life, she couldn't bring herself to pull away.  

[Celeanor]

"Cetra." Less of a question this time, his low voice caressed her name as his bloody hooves could not. "What is wrong?" It was unlike her to lose focus, even less so to lose control. Both were things he admired greatly about her, and he noted their absence. Whatever this was, it was serious.

Still, they didn't have time to talk about it right now. Aware of the poor timing and even poorer location, he nuzzled her briefly. "I am here. I listen. But we must move."

Unfortunately, he still wasn't one for long strings of speech, even with her. Lapsing into silence after, he did lean into her a little to lend her nonverbal support.  

[Kyaishi]

The sound of her name from his mouth gave her strength, the warmth of his muzzle at her temple beyond any comfort that she could provide for herself. Drawing a deep breath, she let it escape her slowly, golden eyes opening as she took a reluctant step back, acknowledging his statement with a brief nod- he was right, this was not the time or the place for this conversation. Whatever reservations she held about getting him involved were null and void at this moment, and the necessity of speaking in a place where the blood and dead carcasses of their attackers did not litter the ground at their feet trumped the desire to remain here. Still...

"We can't go to Elderwillow. Or Hakan."

The statement was punctuated with a serious, imploring look into the depths of his emerald gaze- she feared for her family, for his, and while the Demon roamed, she would not involve more than were absolutely necessary. A cursory glance at the surrounding area confirmed that skinwalker territory was not a good place to have this conversation either, and she was at a loss as to where they could go.

"Do you know of a safe area? Away from everyone?" she didn't resist the temptation to lean back into him this time, needing the wordless support his massive presence provided- she was safe with him near, this was something her body knew well, even if her mind doubted the wiseness of that decision. Even injured, he was a solid weight to her confidence, standing steady against the winds of her uncertainty, and Cetra didn't believe she'd ever been more grateful for his steadfast presence than in this moment.

"It isn't safe for them." The explanation was lacking, she knew, but she also knew that he trusted her judgement, and there was little time to delve into her reasons here.  

[Celeanor]

Short on speech, but long on action - the black stallion nodded his understanding.

"Yes." He knew of a place, and it was not terribly far. "Can you fly?"  

[Kyaishi]

Blinking at his question, she took a moment to flex the half-extended wing that she almost hadn't realized was bleeding- the wound was shallow, and barely registered. The entire scenario would have been mortifying if it were anyone but Gen to witness it; she prided herself on clarity of mind, even when faced with impossible odds, and she'd lost herself inside her own head for a moment. She was still a bit embarrassed, but it took a backseat again to the necessity of moving on to a safer place. Folding the bedraggled wing back to her side, she gave a cursory nod, gesturing forward with a jerk of her head.

"Lead on."