Whisper Caverns Submerge the Caverns

"War. War never changes.

Since the dawn of wolf kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power of tooth and claw, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage."

He had reached the limit of his patience and, with that, the king's soul had grown tainted and been claimed by hate. War had filled his heart, left his veins black with toxic sludge. Whisper Caverns would face a wrath unlike any other. He would flood their dank, dark caves with blood and bile, drown them all in their pitiful little hovel! He would drown them and He would laugh.

But first, He would leave them with nothing but fear. Maksim exhaled, his breath now a gut churning stink. The rotten scent of mangled flesh between his teeth seeped out, eyes wide and filled with ferocity that did not fit him. There was hardly a trace of Baranski left, no slither of the man he had once been. No. He had given himself over to the taint of War, summoned him through the fire in his belly and the cursing of their names. Full of loathing and venom, a hunger for the heart of Ash Hervok and his damnable queen left Him ravenous, fueled by the tension between the packs. The River king had made his pact with the battle hungry fiend--for now, he had won the favour of War ... or, so he had hoped. This Rider of the Storm was using him as a chance to show His power, to relish in the inevitable bloodshed. "They will fall," He had wheezed as he engulfed the Mackenzie wolf, "and you will stand." But it was too late to contemplate at what cost.

All had gone red.

No. The ghastly beast upon the borders of Whisper Caverns was not Maksim. War himself had come to pay a visit. He hissed from between His teeth once more, another vile concoction of stink flooding the air surrounding Him. Perhaps soon, Death would be able to come to these wretched lands to steal away the broken souls left in the wake of battle. Dark lips peeled back, yellow teeth exposed in a horrifying sneer. Before arriving here, He had stripped bark from the trees of Willow Ridge. He would turn the Caverns' allies against them, and vice versa. Scattering the wood across the borders, leaving the scent of a certain Elettra and Angier at chosen locations, War lifted his head and bellowed out a howl of challenge before he turned away. With a mangled chuckle, a hissing wheeze of morbid excitement, the bloodborn fiend stole away without a trace.

OOC: may give out orders to certain wolves after this so please post at least once to be here

IC:

Narime starts to her paws as a howl of challenge rings out across her territory. Her hackles raise and her teeth glisten in the eerie light while the woman listens to the call. It was distinctly a male's howl, but not one she was familiar with. Shoving herself against the ground with her tail waving over her back like a banner, Nari sprints towards the sound hoping to catch the male red pawed. Her head lifts as she utters a breathless howl for her pack mates to come and back her. Better safe than sorry, especially when an ambush could be waiting for her should she show up alone.

"@Ash , Yuka, @Deacon , @Nios come at once!" Nari's angry howl filled the air calling for back up.

She hadn't made a move towards Maksim or Minka's packs because Nari knew that her own numbers weren't high. She wouldn't run blindly into war with so few wolves at her back. The hunter was smarter than that. It took numbers to take out a dangerous prey item, or foe in this case. As much as she hated avoiding the forest that Maksim had claimed, Nari was content to avoid it since the winter had not been as bad as the last.

The wolf calling to them now was a surprise. She would have expected a whole pack to be calling a challenge at her borders to chase them out of their own territory, not a single wolf. She might have considered ditching her home to keep her family and friends safe if a whole pack had come upon them. However one wolf could easily be taken care of. If she caught this man she was going to tear him to pieces herself.

Her breathing quickened as Narime puts on a burst of speed. Her teeth snapping against the wind sent shivers down her own spine. The choking mists that swirled about their territory whipped past her ghostly form as the gray wolf comes upon the scene. Slowing to a stop, but still on high alert, Nari scents the air and looks around the sickly earth. The air itself stunk helping to clog up her senses, but Nari could make out the scents of Elettra and Angier. Her snarl disappears for a moment as she walks towards the first bunch of sticks and sniffs about them. Normally she would not have been worried if willow wolf scent was on her territory. So long as they didn't obviously kill something or eat from one of their caches on their land. As it were, there was no food around for them to have taken and no prey to be caught.

Confusion spread across her features. The howl had clearly been male, but both El and Angier's smells were here.

Narime knew Elettra enough to know that the dark woman would come to Nari herself to talk at the border. Angier on the other paw wouldn't have needed to even be here. Anger still stirred in her heart over the challenge that was made, but Nari knew that it wasn't Angier's voice who'd done it. Angier had a different tone or so she thought she remembered.

What in the hell was going on?

Quickly Nari looks around for other wolf scents, other signs or trails that would show who had been around. Eventually she found one set of wolf tracks, but not two. Again this was confusing to the hunter. She'd followed enough trails, and had enough experience in her job to know that only one wolf had really been here. However, why were there two wolf scents? She trots back to the wood and finally recognizes it as the bark from the willow trees. The wood smelled strongest of the willow alphas. Something was very wrong here.

They Came Knocking Only At the Wrong Door We'll Send Them Home Bloody and Sore A unknown voice rang across the lands, not someone he had yet met or was bound to meet. Deacon was already on the move when Lady Lagina let out an angered howl of her own. Opening his jaws the Archer-Lyall allowed his own unyielding call out. Dashing forward the boy used his long legs to his advantage. Tail lashed behind him like an angry cat. It wasn't often someone would see Deacon ready to attack and battle but the angry tones in the air had him riled up. When he arrived on the scene it was rather empty save for the silver form of his alpha. "What's going on?" A deep breath almost had him whine. Why were the the scents of his parents here? His ears pulled back while an anxious snarl ripped out from his dark form. Deacon's parents wouldn't do such a thing, would they? "Mom..Dad.." The words were said with more anger than one would expect from the young lad. He would never speak ill upon the Willow Ridge pack but now he was thinking other things. Where his parents angry at his leaving? Or was this truly the way the adult Ridge wolves acted? Hackles raised Deacon looked over to Lady Lagina. "My parents, the Ridge, this act was from them?" While the Archer-Lyall knew his home pack could be a bit rude and brash he hadn't known the would go this far. Crossing into Whisper Caverns? But then it clicked slowly. The unknown call he had heard hadn't been one from the Ridge he was familiar with, yet these scents were of his parents. "Wait a minute." Prowling around with hackles raised and ears alert Deacon sniffed around the scene. It was a mystery that had the young male's head wrapped up.

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Narime was lost in deep thoughts that grew fuzzy due to the anger that still fussed with her heart. She only barely noticed when one wolf came to answer her call. His approach was quick as she sniffed around the earth for any other scent that she might have missed. It wasn't until her eyes left the mist, frost, and earth that Nari spots Deacon bending over to scent the bark from the trees. He seemed equally confused, and for a moment Nari felt badly for him. The child who was on the cusp of becoming a yearling had only just recently joined them, and for him to see this made her insides squirm. She hoped what they saw was wrong. She hoped that there was trickery at work here, because if this was the truth then Nari would have to ask Deacon to choose between family or pack. For once she wouldn't be angry at the wolf in question if he chose family over Whisper Caverns.

She forced a sigh from her blackened lips then moved towards Deacon to press into his side gently. This action was more for her own comfort and to keep herself calm rather than to help the boy out.

"It seems that way but... something is off here." Nari pauses to look towards the earth only ten feet away where she had found one set of tracks that seemingly disappear. They were near where another few pieces of bark were placed. "Look here... one set of paw prints obviously big, and most likely from an adult male." She points her nose to the track she had found before to show Deacon. Big enough to be Sloane's size... and the indents of the pads may mean he was heavy in weight too... She thinks slowly while trying to imagine a wolf that large passing through her territory.

"Two scents are clearly here, Elettra and Angier... but only one set of prints. That voice, the howl from before had been distinctly male, but It did not sound like Angier to me... Did it sound like him to you?"

Then another question came to settle upon her lips.

"Hey... How heavy do you think your father is? My weight? or Ash's?" Nari asks tentatively hoping that Deacon would be willing to answer. The bits of information she was trying to drag out of him could be crucial to finding out who had done this. If Deacon says that Angier was around her weight then Nari knew that the print made here couldn't be from Angier. It would have been from a heavier wolf. If he said Angier was Ash's weight then it was still possible that Angier had come calling. However Deacon knew his fathers voice better than Nari. That too could help separate the truth from the lies.

...and who better to whisper both rumor and truth than those of whisper caverns?

They Came Knocking Only At the Wrong Door We'll Send Them Home Bloody and Sore The pressure upon his side from Lady Lagina was greeted with a lick to her chin. He appreciated the support whom ever it may be for between the two of them. Yet even the comforting side of the Lagina female wouldn't soothe the fire raging in his heart. The prints were easily observed by Deacon's hungry eyes. He was looking for any reason to believe this wouldn't have been his father's doing. But what about his brother, Skoll? This seemed like the doing his brother may conjure up.. "No, there's no way that was Angier...It couldn't have been him." Or so the Archer-Lyall boy was willing to believe. How much did he really know about his family? Was there some twisted family secret he was unaware of? Deacon's breaths grew low and shallow at these thoughts. His head spinning with all the possible answers and all the conjured up questions. This was almost too much for the boy to handle. It also stuck him as strange that when he left and joined the Cavern wolves that his mother and father's scent would come showing up. Moving forward but oh so carefully dancing around the evidence. Deacon didn't plan on touching the bark or paw prints. Especially sense there was only one set of them. It was another clue for the aging pup to pick up on. "I'd say more towards Ash's weight." Looking at Narime with fiery eyes Deacon found himself in a cross-fire. Family or pack? He loved his family dearly but everything clashing right now led him to defend the Whisper Caverns home. "Why don't we just go ask them? I know my father, if him, would have a valid reason for waltzing on in." Deacon had known his father to be a more professional man. It seemed highly unlikely that Angier would come pawing in here like that. Unlessit was an emergency of course. In that case the cards may shift and leave even more questions to be answered.

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