Dead Empress Backwater whiskey-plied voices cried fratricide

for Aven, Neva & @Viorel only.

'If I tell you to run, you run,' she had told the twins in preparation. Magg was gambling everything she had left, both in leaving there and coming here. Staying hadn't been an option though, not when she couldn't trust what remained of the family she'd been born to. When even her daughters couldn't, just children and still that wretched woman had-

'You don't look back, you don't stop, for anything.'

Like how she'd still been a kid when someone had hurt her. Possibly, from this pack, to strike back against her parents for the loss of Sephrina. The warnings she gave before they reached the Backwater's markers were hopefully unnecessary, but... what if she was leaving one threat behind just to walk into the jaws of even worse danger?

Hopefully, Aven would return to health quickly with proper care. Magg stopped as the scent of a boundary marker filtered into her lungs, and she took a steadying breath before looking to her girls. She'd meant to protect them, and yet here they were...

"We've got this," the young mother encouraged, before finally bringing herself to tip back her crown and send up a howl, requesting an audience with the pack's leaders.

(This post was last modified: Nov 14, 2024, 07:25 PM by Eros.)

Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

The Slayer group had gotten to go for another journey, but this one had been markedly less exciting and fun than the last one. The results of what they had thought was a great idea had almost been fatal and had left her twin ill. That had make the walk longer, plus they were following a route that was very familiar - heading back in the direction where they had come from the first time. Plus, there were only three of them, three wolves - one adult and two children - one illness - eleven legs - and a whole lot of trauma. It didn’t make for a very rapid pace.

Her and Aven had barely spoken on the way here, following somberly behind their mother and doing as they were told. It was safe to say they had learned a valuable lesson, and the way that mother began becoming tense and spouting warnings to them had only further cemented this to Neva at least.

They arrived, and it was rather underwhelming - it had a creek like where they had just been and a lot of trees that at this point of the year were barren of leaves. Plus, even if it had been the spring their signature dead logs didn’t scream vitality. Plus, there was no big mountain view. But, there was no Nori and that had always been the goal, she just didn’t think this would be the outcome.

Neva sat obediently, silently, behind her mother and did her best to look small.

But Both Feel The Same When Your Eyes Are Closed

Please note: Aven may appear in any of Neva's threads without prior warning - even if the thread is marked private.

Aven didn't need to pretend anymore, hadn't since the moment she'd realized the water wasn't draining and that she really was trapped. Everything since was a fever-hazed nightmare that had yet to end. She stuck by Neva's side with relentless determination, and had felt an unfamiliar panic the few times Magg had needed to leave them stowed away somewhere. She'd almost died, and the way she felt, the way mother was acting, what if... what if she still could?

They came to a stop and she leaned heavily into her twin's side, head radiating heat and breathing audibly hindered. The mess of fluid and infection in her lungs gurgled with every inhale, and exhaling often made her cough. Green eyes fluttered shut, and she simply rested, too exhausted to manage anything more.

The voice was strangely familiar to the leader, though he could not place it for anyone he would be expecting to visit. It was older, more mature than when Magg had visited the Backwater as a child all those years ago and he didn’t think he would ever be hearing from the Cove wolves. He moved quickly to respond to the summons, interest piqued and only increased exponentially when yellow eyes fell on the trio sitting at their borders.

He had known there were wolves being attacked from Eros, but he couldn’t help but linger for a moment at the stump that had once been Magg’s leg. Then just behind that was two children who he doubted anyone could tell apart with confidence, one of them clearly ill. Eyes flashed back up to Magg, questions in his expression - but no sign of anger or malice. She had been just a child when everything had gone down and carried none of the blame that he placed so heavily on the mountain dwellers.

What was she doing here, and what had happened to them? Were these her children? The same age as his only granddaughter, but at least one of them was struggling. Didn’t they have a family that was supposed to be caring for them? Typical Nash, allowing this to happen on his watch.

The girls remained quiet, which was becoming a new normal. Magg couldn't fault them; she knew what it was like to be without stability in the wake of a trauma. They weren't going to be able to start healing until they were truly safe again. Her muscles tensed when someone else drew near, their presence felt before they reached them.

The face that came into view was familiar, and caused her innards to pinch and squirm. Magg's brown eyes dodged away a moment, showing proper deference not just to Viorel's authority, but also to her immense vulnerability in this moment. It was when she looked up again that she was able to see that his own gaze did not burn as she had expected it to. Ever so slightly, she felt something inside of her relax.

She could do this. She had to do this.

"My daughter needs help. We have nowhere else we can go."

She'd intended to say please, but couldn't get the word to leave her mouth. Her three legs shifted, and the determination shone in her eyes.

"What would it take?"

(This post was last modified: Nov 09, 2024, 03:57 PM by Eros.)

The father’s face truly softened at her words and his eyebrows pinched together over concerned yellow eyes. Truly what had happened to this group that they had nowhere else to go? Had Archer and Ally turned up at other packs with a similar story? His heart stuttered at the thought and he forced himself to refocus on the woman in front of him and the cubs at her side. Shaking his head softly he sighed, ”Oh Magg. We don’t turn away children in need here.” There was nothing she needed to do, she had already done it.

Lifting his muzzle he called for Eros and Clover to alert them that they would need assistance at the infirmary shortly. Then he gestured for the woman and her children to enter the territory, pausing only to press his side gently against the Slayer’s so she would have a scent marker of acceptance - having a Cove wolf within their borders would likely come as a shock for the Empress members.

Starting to move again, he glanced backwards at the children who were following silently behind them and then he murmured, ”What happened? Why are the three of you all alone?” What had gone so wrong that the only place she had to go was the door of her parent’s enemies?

There remained to be not an ounce of bitterness in Viorel's features. Was it the time that had passed? Did they truly not blame every Cove wolf for what had occurred? Could this really be so easy? He spoke as though she should have known, and yet it was difficult to believe. As he turned, she hesitated. Trap, something whispered inside of her. Magg looked to her daughters, heard Aven's ragged breaths, and the decision was finalized.

She followed while leading the girls, and just like that, she was a part of the Backwater. Her mind was abuzz with thought, with all that this both promised and threatened. This could be a new start, a chance to finally move forward without having her singular mistake forever held over her head. Or, she could be betting on the wrong horse, with more than her own sake at stake...

'What happened?'

Her chameleon colors shifted and morphed, kicking in as though she'd never shed that lizard's skin to begin with. It was natural to step back into, but that didn't mean the dissonance within wasn't roaring loudly in reproach. These choices could be impossible to come back from, but she couldn't let childish attachments get in her way any longer. She needed to be in this wolf's good graces.

She cast a worried glance back at her daughters, Aven needing them to go slow even as she did her best to stumble along with Neva for support, and spoke in a hushed tone.

"I... I couldn't trust them anymore... any of them. I thought... I thought their own grandchildren would be important to them but the awful truth is, no children matter to them. Not even their own. Not me... or my sisters..."

Her teeth clenched and her eyes pressed shut, the emotional pain clear in her voice and across her features.

Quick fade here since I will be away!

Magg was not the same as he remembered her, but then she had been so young last time he had seen her - barely a few months older than the children she had by her side now. He turned his head as he walked to examine them and slowed his pace when he saw them starting to lag behind. Identical, it was almost uncanny how much they looked alike and the way they mirrored each other. The only difference being that one of them wheezed with every breath and the other watched her nervously out the corner of her eye.

The explanation that he was given was vague - but it cemented his own bias against the wolves he had once called allies. Reckless, foolish, dangerous. It was bad enough that they had let daughter die in their care and lost the other, but clearly something terrible had happened if it drove out one of their own with a sick child into the paws of an enemy pack. Instinctively he glanced at the stone giant that towered through the trees before he remembered that they weren’t there anymore. Eros had told him they had abandoned their home in search of something better.

Viorel supposed that didn’t include Magg or her cubs. Looking back towards Magg he offered a smile, ”Clover or Eros will get her fixed up - and we have plenty of children their age to play with. Three of mine, and another who joined us about a moon ago after being on her own.” The Backwater had a habit of tacking in those less fortunate, and now three more had joined them.