Silent Moon Plateau i should've been a better son

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@Tannis and @Vitani - Based a few hours after the rank challenge where Aes dies, and Wren is still trying to wake her up. Warning suggested by Cadence a few days ago: This is a puppy watching his mother die in front of him, so, be warned it may cause you feelz.

His mother had promised to return, but as the time passed by, he found himself worrying over her. The call had come in a proud and victorious manner, which had set the young boy on edge. Curious, he decided to follow the scent of his mother to determine just what was going on. He was horrified when he peaked his head through shrubbery to find his mother fighting with another wolf. She almost looked like she had an edge until Aponi made her move.

There was a choke or a scream, what it was he wasn’t particularly sure what it was. It was more of a shriek, a high pitched ‘nooooo’ escaping his maw as he came to the scene, witnessing Kyna’s mother push his own off the side of the ledge they were fighting near, tears threatening him as he watched it, his mouth open and agape. He wasn’t sure what he should be doing, all he knew was at that moment, his mother had fallen and she would likely be injured. He would quickly make it his job to find a safe way down to the ridge below that his mother had fallen to, finding a narrow path that remained wide enough for his shaky paws to tread across. He felt heaviness on his chest, witnessing the scene that laid out.

How could Maeve look up to her? Had his sister known of Aponi’s intentions to kill his mother? He couldn’t be sure, but it hurt like hell to know that his sister might have been involved in such an evil plot. He reached the same level as his mother, rushing quickly to her side like he would in a heartbeat. Family was everything, and he was supposed to be a knight to protect the queens, his mother and his sister. He buried his face in her bloodied fur, nudging her in the stomach with his paw. “Mama?” The less formal term being the first time he used it, choosing not to call her ‘mother’ like he normally opted to do.

He looked up, his eyes wet and his vision blurry from it. He nudged her again. “Mama, you gotta get up. We gotta go see dad and Maeve.” The words soft from his maw as he looked up towards the top of the ridge, wondering if the now alpha would answer for her crimes. Her body was limp and starting to lose its familiar heat as Wren buried his nose into her fur once more, not able to fight the choking sobs that he had been fighting back.

---

Wren wasn't sure how long he had been there, his face buried in his mother's fur as he attempted to get her to open her eyes and say everything was going to be alright. It was, wasn't it? It would all be fine and he and his momma would head back to the den to snuggle with dad once by the time the sun had set, right? It was too late, the moon rising in the sky as Wren sat his vigil, not moving from the comfortable position he had placed himself into when he decided not to leave her. No one would know, and no one would care. It had seemed like no one visited them or momma and Wren still didn't understand why, but it also meant no one else would come, except perhaps Vitani since she poked around. He hadn't even seen Tannis in a while, having been busy with his usual puppy antics.

Did papa know that momma was gone? Would he come and tell Wren everything would be alright. Once more, his voice hoarse and cracked he nudged his momma in the stomach with his paw. "Mama, come on, Daddy will be missing us and we're a long way from home. Ya gotta get up and we gotta go home. You gotta see Maeve and gotta see Father." The fur around his face were wet, his paws covered in a strange red liquid that had been leaking out of wounds on his mother's body.

His kingdom had been torn down in a matter of minutes.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

(This post was last modified: Aug 27, 2015, 01:38 AM by Wren.)

She had been too late. The scene was truly awful and she knew well enough what had happened. In a desperate attempt to save the young boy from seeing anything he shouldn't have to the Lieris woman scrambled. Breath rigid and paws ripping the mountain below. She had found a way down to the scene before she knew what the scene would even look like. When she came closer though her gut dropped. Wren was already there and Aesire was already gone. The poor boy...he likely didn't understand.

Slowing her approach she whined softly. "Wren..." Tail tucked, for once in her life, she crawled slowly closer to the boy. "Dear, mama is too tired to wake up. She -" Why was it so hard to explain? Perhaps because it was to a child loosing his mother? Or was it just hard to explain? "She's not gonna wake up." Head ducked low she tried to reach out to the russet boy. This was one of the only times in the pale woman's life that she wanted to comfort a child. In fact she needed to comfort him. He had seen far too much already. It was clear by his paw stains and his wet furred face that he'd been here longer than Vitani wished him to be.

"Why don't we go find your father or Maeve.." Honestly she wondered why in the world she had beaten the father to the scene. Shouldn't he had been here first? Not his child or the sort-of-guardian of the child. An anger of sorts bubbled up deep in her. He was no father if he couldn't take care of his child. Yet another anger had boiled up with the anger at the father. It was the hatred of Aponi. Had the cruel woman caused this to happen to Aesire? Had another mother, Aponi, killed Aesire, whom also had children of her own? Only such a selfish bitch would do this. Revenge would need to be taken. After the children were taken care of first.

Deep in Vitani's icy blue eyes sorrow and hatred mixed like an ocean. Someone would pay.

(This post was last modified: Aug 27, 2015, 09:03 PM by Vitani.)

Tannis really should have been paying attention, becoming more aware of what his pack had started to do to itself. He had been keeping to himself again, quiet and meek at the foot of the mountain, wanting to remain as something like a background character in a story or the extras on the set of a major motion picture. He was that guy reading the newspaper in a train station while the protagonist rolled through with her luggage, the man in the park who was simply walking his stump-legged corgi,  that unnamed vampire in a large coven with the code name of "Counsel #2" - nothing special or particularly eye-catching. As much as he wanted to seek out the role that he had once fit so well into within his birth pack, he held himself back as a simple subordinate. Allowing Nios Tainn to rise in rank above him did not help his confidence much either.

The tawny slinky of a man had been lurking about when he heard that familiar voice, distorted by pain and distress. Wren. His ears perked upward and forward and after tripping over himself twice he scrambled towards the boy's wails, soon realizing that he was being led up to the forest floor just below the Plateau.

What he stumbled upon made him flinch backwards as soon as he had set eyes on the sight of Aesire's bloodied and battered body and the ivory woman who blocked Wren from his prying eyes. The only thing that urged him forward was the fact that the woman before him had just told his little bird that his mother - the Leader of Silent Moon Plateau - was tired and that she was not gonna get up. He prowled onto the scene, sweeping around the other subordinate with a twitch in his step so that he could see for himself Wren's blood-covered front. His chest stirred with a wisp of courage and he was startled to find that just that trace of nerve was enough.

His heavy steps came to stand opposite of Vitani, placing Wren and Aesire between them. He glared at the woman in disdain in reply to the whole of her tenderheaertedness, "Don't... Don't honey-coat it for him. He will need this." His fur rose along his spine in both apprehension and a burning need to protect the boy at his feet urged him to crane his head down to touch the tip of his muzzle to the base of the young Caravello's ear as a means of comfort.

It was apparent what had been done - the Lady Aesire had fallen from the heights of their mountaintop home - but the "why" had yet to be comprehended. "Where's Maeve?" he asked, searching Vitani's face as if it had been written there with a mud-covered stick. He wanted to be sure that the other child, Wren's sister, had not come to any harm. "And Ace?" His brow wrinkled in worry and he fought himself to keep calm. So far his attempt was failing; whatever had just happened was triggering the panic he had thought he had forgotten... the kind that he had felt when his family had been assaulted by the Corvinus clan.

"We n-need to ale-ert @Phineas," he then decided, nudging Wren's side with his nose in attempt to separate him from his mother's side. "C'mon, Wren, get up."

@Phineas @Tannis @Vitani

The russet boy had curled into his mother’s side, trying to feel the warmth that still managed to cling onto her body, parts of his fur matted down by her blood as he continued his vigil with a stunning silence apart from his whines and howls in protest, trying to wake his momma up so they could go home.

Wren could honestly say that he wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting there when a familiar voice brought him out of his numbing daze. He turned to Vitani, whom he had affectionately nicknamed ‘Tani’ had come up to him, her presence unacknowledged as he muttered his mantra over and over, not keen to willingly leave his mother’s side for quite the time. The woman’s words hurt, stung even despite the fact they were meant to soften the blow that had been dealt to him. He didn’t know where his father was at the time, and his sister was likely playing with Kyna and her cursed murderer of a mother. Her words passed in one ear and out the other, except the ones about his momma not waking up.

Then Tannis stepped in, arguably his favorite person in the entire pack because of the amazing stories and the happily ever after endings. He turned his head slightly, feeling a presence behind his ear as he spoke. “Tani, Tannis, momma’s gotta wake up so she can yell at her for pushing momma.” The boy effectively wailed as he looked between the two of them. Tannis talked about alerting Phineas and then tried to move Wren away from his mother. “Nooooo. NOOOOOOO.” He whined helplessly as he fought to stand by his mother’s side, intent of continuing his vigil.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

If Aponi hadn’t told him what had transpired between her and Aesire, he would have been puled to the scene regardless. Wren’s cries echoed throughout the Plateau it seemed, and as Phineas’ swift paws came upon them, his eyes quickly drifted between those gathered. Tannis, and an ivory female he had yet to meet. He pulled forward, his gaze drifting from them to study the boy, whose heartbreak could be heard from a distance. “Wren,” he uttered quietly, gently. He had not met the boy – and while he had certainly held no love for his mother, he never would have wished her death upon her or her family.

He would have been simply satisfied to see them go elsewhere.

Tannis’ attempted to move the boy from his still mother was not working, and the alabaster wolf doubted he would be much more successful without physically extracting him. Stepping forward, the Argyris man made to nudge Tannis upon the shoulder before moving closer to Wren, his eyes softening. “Wren,” he spoke, his tone a quiet rumble. “I am sorry this has happened to your mother. She was a good woman.” Phineas had loathed her – but that had not meant that she had honorable intentions for their pack, even if she overstepped boundaries. “Would you like me or Tannis to take you to your father?” The ivory King wasn’t even sure if Ace was still a member of this pack – the man had not been seen by him since their last conversation before Aesire had given birth to her brood.

Maeve had been out occupying herself with a small adventure before hearing the commotion. She could of swore she heard her brothers voice, though it was laced with something she'd never detected in him before- sorrow. Her eyes widened as she made her way to the site, what could have possibly went so wrong as to make Wren, the strongest wolf she knew, weep? There were other voices accompanying him, older wolves, the most obvious belonging to Kyna's father. Had he been the one to upset her brother? The man was stern, sometimes described as harsh, but he wouldn't make a child cry- would he? Her still chubby legs carried her warily through what seemed to have been a previous battle ground. Spot's of blood became apparent as she closed the distance between herself and the others. Heart racing, the greyscaled pups little soul would never be prepared enough for the sight laid before her.

"M-mumuh?" Maeve's body began to tremble. Why was her mother sprawled out in the open like this, and why did she look.. off? "What's wrong with mumma, Wren?" Panic set in upon examining her kin's behavior, and she quickly rushed to evaluate the event further. Within the first touch, Aesire's body temperature had been freezing, making it even more apparent to the youth that something was horribly wrong. Now the pup had no experiences to share portraying to death, though stories had been told, and if recollection served her right they were pretty similar to this. "Mummuh?!?!" her eyes began to tear up, this had to of been some sort of sick joke. "Mummuh?!?!" she screamed again, prodding at the stiff, lifeless body with all she could muster.

I am not alone,

Maeve Destine-Caravello

Searching for the starlight in the darkest skies.

The scrawny excuse for a male had no right saying such awful things. The fur on the pale woman's hackles dared to dance up. "No one deserves something like this." She would have had so much more to say had there not been the young boy in front of them. But then she was struck into a clamer reality when Tannis questioned where two other family members were. "I haven't seen Maeve, and as for Ace...I'm not sure where the hell he is." The male, Ace, had seemed like a rather distant father. It made the skin under her fur crawl. Shouldn't the father of Wren and Maeve and the lover of Aesire been here well before Vitani and Tannis?

Next to show was a pale figure. A male she hadn't met but it seemed he knew of Wren. Backing up a few steps for everything to unfold in a more comfortable space she listened to the words of the ivory male. The words good woman sunk into the ears of the Lieris with each letter an anchor. From the brief time that Aesire and Vitani had been friends she seemed more than just good. Great, noble, strong, and compassionate. Yet the pale woman didn't dare speak out against the male. "I'd like to escort Wren too, if you don't mind." She lowered her ears and eyes. Maybe it was a bold request has she had barely made herself well known throughout the pack but Vitani still wanted to be there for Wren, even Maeve although the pale woman hadn't much time with the little girl Aesire had birthed.

Of course as soon as that thought had drifted from her mind the little girl had made way to the scene. A dagger of pain struck the Lieris' heart. It was bad enough one of the children had seen it so having both of them see it was awful. What did she do to comfort the children now? This wasn't her place. When joining this pack she hadn't expected any sort of bonding with members or to be thrown into a situation like this. She was in too deep to back out now.

Shallow water has trapped several fish in a small pond. Hunt Opportunity

Alright, so since Tannis is inactive, I think the current order right now is Wren - @Phineas - @Maeve - @Vitani

Wren remained silent, still protesting any attempts made to remove him from his mother’s side by both Phineas and Tannis. When the agouti leader made an appearance, Wren said nothing, and he only listened to the words he had to say. The man offered to take him to his father, and then Tani stepped in and said she would like to go too, but Wren just shook his head. “Noooo, I wanna stay here.” He insisted, knowing he couldn’t just leave her there, and he hadn’t really seen his father around regardless, making him not sure if he wanted to be around. There was a pang of sadness when he heard a familiar voice, pulling him away from his gaze at his mother’s face, avoiding looking at the wounds and the blood, but keeping her tawny features and emerald eyes to memory.

His poor sister, Wren stood up then, moving closer to her not that he had to go far, given she had taken a place right next to him. He placed a touch meant for comfort near the back of her ear as he murmured. “Momma’s not gonna wake up… momma’s gone.” There was pain as he struggled to get out the words, settling in down next to her to the point where their sides were touching, finding comfort in his sister’s presence more so than anyone else’s there. He found himself blocking out any words behind them, not wanting to listen to the bickering that Tannis and Vitani had provided behind the scene before the leader had arrived.

“Momma got pushed and now she’s not gonna wake up.” There was a gaze, filled with nothing but confusion as he settled his chin close to his paws, his nose touching his mother’s stomach as he fell into silence.

Swift as a Deer. Quiet as a Shadow.

Wren Destine-Caravello

Fear Cuts Deeper Than Swords.

The fiery eyes of the regal drifted upward from the children as the ivory she-wolf (who he had not met) felt the need to bristle at Tannis. His own lips pulled back to flash a warning at the two – his eyes cold as he studied her. “Perhaps the moment can focus upon the children who just lost their mother,” he murmured quietly, his tone dark before he pulled back. If she felt the need to start arguments with her pack mates, the man would chase them both away – he was in no mood to deal with it.

Wren was not willing to go, but the cubs could not stay here. His eyes strayed once more to Vitani, his tail giving an idle flick as he contemplated her words. Given her outburst, he was uncertain if he wanted to send the children with her, and debated instead taking them with him.

He relented, in the end, and gave her a nod. He could no more soothe them than any of the other pack members, and he would need to gather his thoughts, and take care of the body. “Wren, Maeve.. I’m sorry. But you should go rest with Vitani for now – and afterward, I will show you where we buried your mother.. and then we can go find treasures to mark her grave.” The words sounded so cold that he winced, but he did not know how else to put it. Aesire was dead – and there was nothing any of them could do.