Oak Tree Bend lay your cards out

Decompression thread! This thread takes place immediatly after the challenge thread, same location. This thread has no post order, any OTB wolf may join, it will stay open for as long as everyone needs so no need to rush through the holidays. Here you may post any reactions your character may have, or (attempt) to talk some sense into Spieden.
Aponi first though please!

Spieden breathlessly wheezed, her muscles ached, her skin bled. The bitter taste of blood sat heavy in her mouth, dried between her teeth. Her eyes rolled up, slowly, finding Aponi. The other woman didn't look much better, but Spieden had obviously received the brunt of it. She knew when she was beat. Sure, Spieden could rip and tear and fight to her last breath, but she needed to save her energy. She had two lives dependent on her, and the next few minutes could make or break it. She remembered how fast it had happened... She and her brother hadn't had time to run, they sat dazed and confused in disbelief. Their world had been upended, the new hierarchy in place before the body had even cooled. Her sister.. her sister... gods, she still didn't even know what happened to her sister. She gasped, a strange sound coming from her throat but sounding very far away. 

Spieden blinked and shook her head, still wheezing and gasping hungrily for air as if she were drowning. Others were moving around her, and she was looking at them, her eyes meeting theirs but not really seeing them. Her pups. She stood up, staggered, stood again, still blinking owlishly as she finally stood on limbs shaking like aspen in the wind. She just needed her pups. "Please..." She whined, not the voice of a graying woman but a frightened child, stumbling backwards as she tried to retreat, forgetting how her limbs worked. 

(This post was last modified: Dec 22, 2016, 05:00 AM by Spieden.)

Somehow through the whole fight Aponi had yet to take notice of everyone watching around them, just how much of the pack had come to see them brawl. It wasn't until the moment that they both knew that it was over that the blue eyes lifted to see not only Serach but a handful of others. Sides heaving from exertion the Aquila could not contain the smile that spread across her maw, it hadn't been pretty or expected but she had done it. Lifting her muzzle to the sky she let out a howl of victory, a song that even those who hadn't gathered would know the meaning behind. For better or worse the Bend had a new female lead.

It wasn't until the plead came from the ground that Aponi realized that Spieden had never stood from where she had fallen. Instantly the pleasure from the silver maw was wiped clean and concern took it's spot. She had never expected the thrown to be handed easily from the first blow but she had not expected the fear that was held in the golden eyes now. Taking a step forward Aponi shook her head, "Spieden no, nothing bad is going to happen to you or your family. I'm not going to hurt you, nobody is going to hurt you. We want you here, I want you here. Don't mistake my challenge for your rank as anything more than it was and is."

Blue eyes looked towards Serach for backup, she wasn't sure how to handle this situation. After all, after her last rise to leadership her opponent had ended up dead, and that certainly wasn't going to happen to Spieden.

you do not know who is your friend

and who is your enemy

He didn't want to be a ghost anymore—but it was hard to stop, when the memories still held so much bitterness and pain. When, in every shadow, he saw the past; what had been, what could have been.. the things which, ultimately, had never been. And never would. Serach was grown; Sceral had a daughter; Triell had children; Corinna was dead. Large paws walked the borders, time and time again, but no matter how many circuits of the packlands he made, he couldn't work the restlessness out of his soul.

He knew what he had to do: plunge into the thick of it. Purposefully seek Triell out and bury his nose in that dark scruff, chew on Naira's tail a little, all those little things which would put him at ease once they were over—

A howl cut through his itching, roiling thoughts.

A song of victory as he had once sung out in the rivers and forests on the other side of the mountain; something had happened. Shifted. Changed. He should've seen it coming, should've known, but he hadn't. He hadn't really met Spieden, or anyone else, always sulking away. Ice's teeth ground together with a dry noise.

Enough of that. Enough of nothing. He turned for the direction of the call and took off at a lope, a white blur through the misty forest. It didn't take long.

He found Spieden, on the ground, bleeding, broken, beaten. He found Aponi, the silver female, victorious but worried. He found Serach, and a handful of others. At the sight of his son, Ice's tail lowered a fraction in recognition of—of what was no longer his. This pack. The future he had wanted to make. And now when his future had inherited it, he found himself torn between wanting to reclaim what was his (but what would it be, without Corinna?) and simply wanting to let life run its course. Ice was old.

Old, but not broken, not bent, not dead. His lips bared a hint of teeth in no one's direction for a second, before he settled for staring at Spieden in merciless confusion.

until the ice breaks.

(This post was last modified: Dec 22, 2016, 05:06 PM by Ice.)

let the stars above shine in your soul

She'd been hunting when the call had brought her attention to the fact that something was up but since it hadn't been a call for her alone or the pack she'd continued her hunt. However the path she had begun took close enough to where the call had originated that she could hear what sounded like a scuffle? Leotie wasn't really sure so decided to find out what was going on and if someone might need help but upon her arrival she found that it wasn't just a scuffle but a full on fight. She also noticed that no one was doing anything to stop it which she didn't understand surely someone had to do something, in her old life a fight would have been stopped.

With the fight being between Spieden and Aponi Leotie thought it should be Serach to stop it but he stood there. She wondered if maybe he wasn't stopping if for a reason, she didn't understand and hoped that she would. Remaining on the edge of the action she watched shocked and a little scared that this might mean something bad for her pack if the lead and second females were fighting each other.

She had learned many things during her time in the bend but as she had watched the fight she felt very confused. Then it was over and what followed was a howl from Aponi which confused the agouti female further. In the aftermath she worried about what would happen with the pack and wondered if she would ever understand what had happened to cause the two females to fight as they had. Leotie watched the scene before waiting for Speiden to get up or for someone to say something in regards to what had happened.

(This post was last modified: Dec 23, 2016, 02:39 AM by Leotie.)

Please see Kajika's OOC profile for OOC preferences, thank you

It felt like days had passed since Aponi and Serach had ended their patrol. Had he known what would have happened, he might have tried to warn his companion off of her decision to challenge Spieden then and there. But he didn't, and instead he had stood there in silent shock as Spieden lashed out at both of them. He had seen members of the Bend start to gather along the periphery of his vision, but his focus had been on Spieden and Aponi. His muscles tense, he watched for any sign of serious damage. He had almost interfered when blood was drawn, going so far as to take a few steps towards the action. Despite every fiber of his being telling him to throw himself into the fray to break the two women apart, instinct would not let him. This was not his fight - no matter what Spieden might think, he had not put Aponi up to this and he would not help her win.

Instead he had watched, frozen in agitation but unable to do anything about it. Only when Spieden had submitted and Aponi determined the victor did he begin to move. Slowly, he approached the pair, keenly aware of the surrounding eyes upon them. "Spieden...," he said cautiously as he approached. Something wasn't right. The frightened tone of voice and the struggle to get away reminded Serach of an animal being hunted, but nobody was chasing. "It's going to be alright...we don't want to fight. We just wanted the chance to lead together is all." That was the crux of the matter. The challenge would have happened no matter who had been leading. Flicking his eyes as the pale form of his father appeared amongst those gathered, he wondered for a moment if he would have done the same if the roles had been reversed and he had been the one challenging for a place at Aponi's side. I would, he thought, looking back to Spieden. In his gut he knew that whether it had been Triell or Drestig or Ice, Serach would have attempted the challenge. 

"We'd still like you to be an advisor. We still respect you - that has never changed."

Kydnt said she's fine with archiving this thread, so I'm going to give one more post to wrap it up and archive it. If @Aponi, @Leotie, or @Ice want to respond as well, just send me a PM and I can revive it.

They all converged around Spieden, but they were wary. Despite the concern on their faces and in their words, Spieden was a wounded, frightened animal, and she was acting like it. Their words were falling on deaf ears, and the fallen leader remained silent and looking for a retreat. Serach looked to Aponi, silently questioning what they should do and how they could help. But in the end, it didn't matter. Spieden found the retreat that she was looking for, and took it. Bolting like a frightened deer, the Coho woman ran. "Spieden!" Serach called after her, but it made no difference; she was already gone.

In his peripheral vision, he could see the shadows of other wolves begin to slink off. He wasn't sure how many followed Spieden into the woods, but it was too many to make him comfortable. His gut lurched and he looked around at the assembled group, unsure of what to do or say. Truth be told, he wanted to follow Spieden's lead and turn tail and bolt as the realization of what was happening hit him. She would not be here in the morning, and he doubted very much that the wolves who followed her into the woods would be either.

Weak in the legs, he turned to Aponi. She was bleeding from her muzzle, but otherwise seemed physically fine. The fight had gone remarkably well for her, despite being smaller in size. "I think you should go find Kyna and Lila, before they find out what happened from somebody else," he told her, his voice quiet but anxious. "I'm going to follow her," he added, although as they parted ways, Serach wasn't entirely sure where he would end up going. Slipping away, he let his paws guide him wherever they thought was best.

you do not know who is your friend

and who is your enemy

Once, Ice had been an animal to the bone—not unlike Marsh, but with not quite so few words falling from his blood-soaked tongue into the chilly air. The laws of the world had been made up of the scent of the wind, brute strength, cunning, food and dominance, the simplicity of a life in which the set of your shoulders said everything, and the sounds you formed into sentences not quite as much. This part of Ice both hated and pitied Spieden. It hated her for the white flash of fear around her eyes, hated her for the tension wrapped around her like lines of fire—just as he pitied her for it, for the words of Serach and Aponi falling on ears long past hearing the meaning of sounds.

He was unsurprised when she bolted. Disappointed, perhaps, but not surprised—no amount of talk could stem the blood-flow, but whatever had worked behind the bone of her skull left him wary. She had been beaten, she had been cornered, but the threats against her person had since long ceased. It left him wondering if Aponi was a demon in battle, for why else would she flee when the violence was a mere memory?

No matter, he thought as he stared into the forest. Life would play out as it always did, full of bitterness and pain, but even in the midst of that there was hope. "We just wanted the chance to lead together is all." Serach and Spieden had not been lovers, had not chosen one another; Aponi and Serach had. In that was something, an unspoken promise of trying, the one damned thing Indru had almost taken from them and Ice had given only to take away when he faded into the blizzards.

Serach parted ways with Aponi, and went after the fleeing leader. Ice doubted he'd find her, but he couldn't fault his son for going—he would likely have done the same.

Without a word Ice stared at the slivers left on the scene, bits of blood and fading scents and wolves slinking into the shadows. Letting out a near-silent smoky sigh, the large pale man followed suit, disappearing into the woodwork.

until the ice breaks.

let the stars above shine in your soul