Willow Ridge pups and cougars don't mix

@Guiness first for the first few rounds, then others may trinkle in! All welcome. Elettra is going to need help carrying these pups home. <3

Elettra Archer had been a smart woman, a smart mother, keeping to the territory whilst she was still so close to giving birth to her third (though second openly known) litter. Though she had bouts of nausea and when not this, she was horridly hungry, her pregnancy for the most part had gone quite well. It was just about as much pain and annoyance as the last litter and far more simple then her first. Elettra did not feel as though she 'glowed' like so woman felt, happy with being pregnant, enjoying it even... No. She hated the way she awkwardly walked. Hated always being hungry. Hating throwing that food she just stuffed into her face right back up again. Apparently, these feelings would soon be over, as she felt a familiarity within her that led her to believe her pups were on their way. As said, she had been smart...but apparently not smart enough. Another pain ravaged her, far more fierce and coming in far more quickly then she had otherwise expected. The pups were coming and they were coming now.

Her hunt for Hellebore was quickly cut short. She was just at the outskirts of her territory, riding along the border. She had expected that her labor would come along in waves that would last long enough to where she could get back to the pack den as she had before. Each step she took of her long, strong limbs was a stumble. A gasp catching her and as another pain shuttered, she knew she would have to settle where she fell. She was but yards from the border - ten, fifteen? She was not sure. Though she was home, she felt vulnerable, completely out in the open, chilly air as twilight decend the lands of Relic Lore. Her last two births had been within the safety of a den, with guardians and medics at her beck and call. Now she was so horridly alone - or so she thought.

The blood of birthing was fresh in the air once the first child came and came quickly. He was a dark coloration, bits of graying within his coat that mimicked that of your average Archer child. A son, fashioned with a patch of white at his chest. He looked everything she remembered her brother to be, even in this tiny little structure. Upon the second's arrival, Elettra's unease began to rise to a panic. She could hear the footfalls of an animal coming into her direction. She knew it not to be her pack mates, knew it not to be wolf. Even more so, she knew the scent of cougar. Had she not had a close encouter with a cougar during her last pregancy? Suddenly, this felt like it was becoming tradition... Her pale eyes flash to the second born, another son, as expected. The majority of Archer litters were males, though this son looked nothing like an Archer. He did not have the common gray-scale coating, varying from lighter or more commonly, darker. No, he was a timber hue, shades darker then Angier but held everything of the same markings as the Lyall. Finally, his own legacy had been born into the world.

She could visibly see the cougar now. See its pant, its long, sharp fangs and its tensed, poised position for the kill. Elettra's body wretched, scrunching up in a contraction as the third child made it's way. The matriarch's teeth bared, her eyes hard on the other predator in obvious warning. These were her lands, these were her children. Though in her laying position, the blood in the air strong and in obvious disadvantage, Elettra proved little a treat to the hungry cougar. The third pup was yet another son. Stark black, the blackest she could ever recall seeing in an Archer child. He was smaller then the other two and yet so very beautiful. By now, Elettra was very tired and keeping her threatening disposition even as she laid was of no use. The cougar was coming, the cougar was charging and Elettra's time was up.

He didn't know what was going on with him anymore. He didn't know why his muscles were always tense and his back constantly hurt. With the loss of Skana, Guiness had felt a deep grief within his chest. He hadn't expected to feel so strongly towards the woman who was only his partner in work, with whom he collaborated in time of war and defense. In truth, Guiness had somewhat become her caretaker, and the man had done the best he could to take care of the woman. She had been a woman of truth and Elettra had valued her much more than she had others in the pack, and so the Thorben had made sure to keep an extra close eye on them. The Guard knew that his role in the pack would end up changing soon though, and the older man had meant to make conversation with El about it, feeling uncomfortable talking to the new alpha male and preferring to keep to himself when around the man. So far he had not done anything to anger the honorable man enough to the point where he was sure that he would have to take over.

It was because of his inactivity in the pack, that he was surprised when he sensed the familiar scent of Elettra giving birth to her children. Almost immediately, the Vigilante made his way to his normal post outside of the birth den, but before he could get there, the scent of fresh cougar filled his nostrils. The man broke into a run, grunting at the pain in the process, his golden amber eyes pinned on the enemy that was charging towards his Queen. Not taking much time to think of a strategy, the man launched himself at the cougar, knowing that he was at a huge disadvantage. In fact, as soon as he thought he was about to get the upper paw, he was knocked onto his back, and it was almost in slow motion as he felt the sharp teeth of the cougar pierce his throat. Quickly turning his head, he also grasped as firmly as he could in his weakened state onto the cougar and letting his body weight drag the predator down with him.

Both animals violently tore at each others throat, and Guiness had the pleasure of using his hind legs to aim at the other's torso and stomach area. He didn't release his grip, his golden amber gaze locked firmly onto the form of Elettra and the new Archer linage. This was why he was here, and as the life slowly slipped out of the cougar it also slipped out of him. Finally it was over, and as the Guardian took one last time to look over at his Queen, he let soft, strangled words fall from his lips, "I will....watch....over you...all." He lay there struggling, and eventually, his eyes finally began to droop and then the man was gone. Guiness Thorben was no more.

Anyone is now free to join! Keep in mind, Xetor, Sorya, & Lunas joined /after/ this thread so cannot pop in. Anyone else is game, including @Jaromir and @Rowan (should he join WR).

It was so very quick that the tired, terrified mother barely understood what was happening. One moment her teeth were flashing, a furious growl from her jaws at the charging cougar and the next she was huddled in a ball, legs and tail protectively around her three newest sons in an attempt to use herself as a shield from the cougar if only to by them a few more moments time at life. Her eyes were tightly closed, her heart pounding and the mews of her newborn pups the only sounds echoing in her ears. After a few moments when she was sure the attack would have struck her by now, ears perked, eyes once more shooting open in wonder. ...And there he was: a flash of red, cream and black, a barreling, thick tank of a wolf. He power housed straight into the cougar without regard. Teeth, claws and limps a tangled mess and soon it was not just the blood of birthing that rose in the air now. Guiness cries, the cougars, the pups, and Elettra's own would surely not go without heard by anyone within the area.

In seconds, it seemed, the fight was over. Cougar down. Guiness down. There eyes met and Elettra whined, her body helplessly trying to scoot closer to him yet without much effect. "Guiness..." The name cooed from her lips, wishing to comfort him, to be there at his side. She scoots closer, crawling over the blood soaked earth and leaving the three tiny children temporarily huddled by themselves against the willow tree. She reaches out to touch her muzzle to him as his eyes fluttered, turning down, life slipping... "Guiness!" She cries out, but to no avail. He was dead and it was all her fault.

For one reason or another Angier knew he should have kept close but for one reason or another, he was very determined to keep the borders well-marked. The cubs would be here soon and the Leader was hellbent in making it clear that the lands within the Drooping Willows had been claimed by a pack of wolves. Every couple of feet he lifted his leg, scratched at the ground, and pressed his temple against the nearest willow tree. There would be no way in hell that something <i>or someone</i> would trespass onto these grounds.

He had thought wrong...

As soon as he had heard those particular sounds of distress - the growls, the scuffling, the hissing, and the cry of Guiness' name - the Lyall was sent running. Something was wrong. He made haste, nearly tripping and slipping across the forest floor where the branches draped along the ground but, eventually, he found it was all for naught. Upon first impression the scent of cougar stung at his nostrils, sending his wild, pale-eyed gaze in every which direction. This sort of enemy he had encountered before, but not like this. Here, on even ground, he had no advantage over the beast. His heart could have stopped beating.

"ELETTRA!!"

Nose to the ground he advanced until the scent of birth began to grow thick in the air. The arrival of his legacy had drawn the enemy to his lands; it summoned within him the will to finally... act. To defend what was his... The sight of a cougar tail limp along the ground caught his eye first but the air was much too still and too quiet. He held his breath as he rounded the base of the tree which harbored his mate and children between its roots. He trembled as he looked them over, clenched his jaw as he finally saw and understood what had happened as he noticed the blood along both the cougar's and the Guardian's muzzles and throats. Guiness Thorben had saved them.

"E-El?" his ears had come down, his attention not yet ensnared by the cubs at his mate's abdomen. Guiness, ever since his arrival to Willow Ridge, had been necessary... customary. She was the Queen and he was her Guardian. Her knight... and he had saved her and the children Angier had sired. To Guiness he owed everything he now had.

The winter had claimed and taken away so many of them and now the Springtime had taken away the Ridge's fearsome protector. Angier whined as he walked in a wide circle around Guiness and his opponent, stopping just far enough to remain a respectful distance from each of them. "Are you hurt?"

Are you watching closely?
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Adelaide had not had much exposure to the budding mother since she'd arrived in the Ridge. She thought she might try a bit harder, especially since Elettra was pregnant, and should anything go wrong, all eyes would be on her. It would be beneficial for the woman to trust her...With the winter truly gone now, Addie had been busying herself with collecting herbs. Anything she could find, since her own stocks had yet to really have much weight to them. But her own little medicine den was beginning to fill up with sundries and when she could not find herbs, she made quick work of small clumps of moss. Throughout the morning, her mind lingered upon the very pregnant Queen, disrupting her work. Perhaps she ought to check up on her. Maybe she needed assistance with her own stock.

Rising from beneath the rooty entrance of her den, after organizing what she'd collected, she decided that, regardless of the outcome, she might search out her leader. Her tail waved pleasantly behind her as she moved among the trees, a gentle breeze ruffling her fur. She had not gotten very far before she heard a chorus of yelling. Startled, Adelaide immediately ran in the direction of the noises, thankfully not far from her stores. The scent of birth was suddenly heavy in the air, forcing the woman harder forward, her paws audibly thrumming against the earth. She stopped immediately when she saw the bodies, a cougar and a wolf. Her hackles rose and her head snapped to the side, taking in the sight of Angier and Elettra, thankfully safe. Adelaide realized that she was panting, still frozen in place. "Are the children alright?" She asked suddenly, not daring to move, no longer out of surprise, but caution. It was now that she realized how utterly useless she might be at this very moment.

Lurking until the end of July - Please PM/tag me to get my attention

*Raises Asriel's paw* one baby-carrier right here!

The scent of cougar frightened the Archer boy, who had been meandering along the borders like a cat perusing its territory, not particular interested in doing anything productive aside from making sure the borders were marked with the scent from his paws. He balked when the scent first hit him, and he considered merely turning the other way. Asriel was fully aware of his own mortality and that he would not be able to take a cougar down on his own; it just wasn't possible. He was a yearling, but that did not make him an adult, so he had learned. But if he was going to be a guardian, he would have to stand up and fight, and his courage came to him as soon as he caught his mother's scent.

The fur along his back was standing up as soon as he made his way toward the borders where he could smell both his mother and the cougar- and he shied slightly when he caught the scent of blood- blood which belonged to his mother. Terror rose in his throat and delayed him a moment, before his undying need to protect his mother, and his future siblings, other heirs to the pack, spurred him into action. The sounds of vicious snarls and caterwauls caught his ears, but they faded the closer he got- and the scent of blood became stronger, mingled with that of the brave and selfless Guiness Thorben who had been the first- and the last- to meet that offending creature in battle. By the time Asriel arrived, Angier had arrived by his mate's side, as had another female, who was given a short but steely look from Asriel. He knew she was a part of the pack, but did not know her wel enough to think she had a post next to his mother where Asriel felt he should be.

The child was shocked by the gruesome scene. Blood and afterbirth, entrails from both the cougar and Guiness who still lay in the grasp of the cougar who had not been able to free himself from the bloody duel either. Both were dead, and from battle. Pain, blood, scratching, biting, clawing. No peace had been there for them, except at the very end, and it horrified Asriel to see their guardian, his mother's Knight slain in battle. Even the strong and fit could not outrun death, and it made Asriel all the more aware of how weak and mortal he was.

His bewildered stare was directed toward his mother when Adelaide spoke, and it was then that he noticed his mother laying on her side, worn and tired, but cradling new life close to her body. Adelaide stepped forward but Asriel uttered a protective growl and moved to intervene. He felt so high strung that he immediately moved into guardian mode- none save for family were to come near his mother. Angier was the father of these pups and he was their brother; he didn't care who he was stopping at that moment. He turned his smouldering gaze toward his mother, and in that instant, he felt fear and anger melt away to warmth. "Mother, " He breathed softly, but in his tone was the sincerest affection and congratulations.

WILLOW Ridge

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With Elettra being due, quite frankly, any moment since his acceptance into Willow Ridge, the Attaya youth had made himself abundantly busy for the few days that he'd been around. He had yet to meet the wolf but the male Leader's scent saturated their borders and made one of his self-assigned duties, well, easier. Instead the yearling had made due in stocking the caches. There was perhaps no more impressive feat than birth for a wolf, and with it came an impressive need for food.

Beneath the glow of twilight Rowan rounded on the main site, having just donated a fat hare to their stores. Almost immediately a draft brought him a fresh scent, indicating birth. He would have ignored it. Birthing mothers had no interest in company during the act, and he imagined the Leaders would let the pack know when they were welcome. But when he drew closer he noted the overwhelming scent of blood. Kids were no effortless waltz, he had grown to understand, but the sheer strength of the aroma was not right. Worse, the scent was not close. It eminated somewhere by their border.

He loped closer, alert on all senses, but cautious with his step. That was, until the distinctive scent of cougar caught on. Wolves did not have many enemies, but the overgrown cat was absolutely one of them. Rowan broke into a sprint. Names cried on the wind - Guiness, Elettra - both terrified him and spurned him further until he broke unto the scene, halting in its wake. The sight he could have never prepared for: three new borns, a wolf and cougar with bloodied throats, Elettra laying in her own, her king at her side, another Archer (he presumed, by age and scent) and a female of the pack.

The female appeared to await instruction while the other yearling made it clear where they could stand, no where close to his mother. Rowan's help, however good intentioned, might not be welcome where protective family was concerned. Instead the Attaya boy moved toward the scene of the crime, his hackles raising with a closer inspection. Blood was heavy in the grass, the scent of raw meat becoming rancid with death. Though he hadn't known this Guardian, the sheer anger and sorrow in the air around him was enough for him to understand that a hellcat had stolen from the Ridge wolves someone valuable, someone loved. And however their respects were to be paid, he would not be left within the cougar's grasp.

No kindness in his jaws he tugged at the cougar's swarthy paws, pulling its heavy arms away from the red wolf. The adult cougar was as heavy as Rowan, or even more, but bit by bit the dark yearling worked to untangle the two and free their lost member.

As far as Sköll was concerned, he had no business to tend to within Willow Ridge and he had no intentions to stay within its borders. There was one problem though: every time he dared to step over the invisible line that divided his mother's lands from the realm of Relic Lore, he took a step back with a sliver of doubt and frustration. He felt suffocated beneath the willows and, more than anything, he longed to be where he didn't feel like there were eyes staring at the back of his head. It was no use and, like any dutiful prince and heir might do, he traversed along his mother's borders, led on by the scent of his family as they had traveled the paths hours or days before him.

He kept his nose to the ground, sniffing through the grasses and attempting his hand at picking up the scents of the beings he thought to spy on for the next few hours. When his sister's scent trailed off somewhere else and Angier's freshest trail deviated from where he might have normally tromped, he stopped, the scent in the air beginning toe become populated with a number of odors that made his nose scrunch up before he snorted and coughed. Shaking his head and drawing a breath, he heard the cries and the commotion from somewhere ahead of him, but instead of running towards it all, he steeled himself.

The information he had accumulated in his mind - the strange and musky scent of another predator, his mother's anguished cries for her Guard, Angier's responding wail for the Leader of Willow Ridge - all told him to stay away... To not cause trouble... To make himself scarce... His silvery eyes narrowed as his left elbow was the first to unlock, allowing him to take a step forward. He wasn't going to cause any trouble, he decided. He was just going to watch...

Keeping close to the ground and under the cover of the willow trees whose foliage had grown in thick and green, he crept closer to where the pack was slowly gathering. Eventually he found a good spot pressed up against the trunk of a tree, the evening's descent proving to be a decent cloak as he was able to come closer to the curtain-like branches that cascaded from the top of his lookout place. Peering through the veil he watched as the pack's newest member, a yearling who could have very well been another Asriel, began to free Guiness from the grasp of the enemy. It seemed he had missed all the action - something he was grateful for. Since the pack had begun actively recruiting again, all the prince had desired was the opportunity to spy and snoop about... looking for anything to report back to his mother that would spell out their expulsion.

The longer he watched and took the scene in, the more envious he became, especially as his brother moved forward to physically and verbally signal that Adelaide was not welcome to draw any closer than she already was. An ugly scowl distorted his dark-furred face. Guiness was dead, and his mother had been possibly harmed. He moved to one side, careful to not disturb the branches and giveaway his location, his resentful gaze finally falling upon the subtle movements that were the cubs at his mother's side.

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

Morganna, unlike her oldest brother, knew she had no business following the trail of a cougar and very little desire to rebel in such a manner regardless of whether it was on their lands or not. Surely as long as they all gave it a very wide berth it would be on it’s way. It couldn’t be any more comfortable surrounded by the scent of wolves than she was walking past its faint trail. No sooner had her thoughts trailed off than a kerfuffle could be heard coming from within the confines of the territory. The hair down her spine stood on end but surely her mother would be safe closer to the den. Why would she be this far out when she carried such a precious cargo of princess’s in her belly?

But once again the princess was proven wrong as her mothers voice cut through the chaos, her call full of desperation - but what was she to do? She was just a yearling. She paced back and forth for just a moment considering her options. Surely she had not been the only one to hear the cacophony and so she would go. She had to go.

By the time she made her way to the scene the scent of blood, battle and fear lay heavy about the area. It was @Skoll she came by first - by chance, reaching out to brush her muzzle under his jaw to help to ease her own anxiety, pausing just a moment to observe the scene before she moved towards the gathering. @Angier and @Asriel stood guard over her mother, a mess of carrion a short distance away, the tangle of red and fawn fur all but ignored by the princess for now. She approached with measured caution, peach-hued eyes only for her mother, watching as much for a defensive flash of teeth as for a smile of reassurance.

The small squirming bundles that were, now she drew closer, more brothers could have left a disappointed scowl on her face were it not for the severity of the situation. "Let’s get them somewhere warm, should we?" She questioned quietly, still watching her mother with as much caution as she would have given any lumbering bear. If she was given leave she would reach for the tawny child and carry him back to the safety of the den, but if her mother chose instead to attack, she would retreat back to the tree-line where her brother Skoll remained concealed. She wasn’t a fool.

He had not been in the pack long and frankly he had not even talked to Adelaide yet due to being Elettra's personal bitch. Well today was the day. He was going to go talk to adelaide. He was going to talk to her and try to see if she would be interested in some hunting. He trotted towards her den which of course was not fare from his favorite sleeping spot. Just as he was about to step into her little clearing he saw he dart out the other side heading quickly to the boarders that is when the shouting hit his ear drums. Elettra was so close to birthing the shouts stirred an unease in Jaromir and he took off running in the direction of the shouting. It did take him to long to get there he could smell the birthing blood and the blood of the battle before he saw it. He rounded a tree and saw Elettra's guard and a cougar. The sight of the cougar sent his hackles to rise and for him to cautiously approach Elettra just looking to see if she was hurt or if the pups were hurt. They appeared to be fine so he backed away and went to the outskirts of the clearing not wanting to be in the way. He was sure that as soon as Elettra saw him her anger and grief for her guard would befall on him. Her personal punching bag. He did not mind it much it was something he was willing to give her for letting him join her family just because he was in love, or so the young brute thought, with Adelaide. He did not know the other wolves by name or smell. So he was extremely out of place. To keep his mind in the now he paced back and forth near the edge of the clearing waiting for either Elettra to command him to do something or take out her emotions on him.