Stonewatch Timbers kiss it all better

WARNING

The following thread contains an uneasy death, as well as varying reactions to that death.

@Raela @Astraeus @Cessair @Alphinaud @Calanthe

@Kova @Moraxia @Marianna @Kino @Draven

This is @Minka's death thread, and is intended to be a pack activity, however posting is not mandatory if you have a valid reason for not doing so. If you decide not to participate, please pm me. If you have any questions/ideas you'd like to share regarding this thread and the repercussions it will have, feel free to send me a pm as well. I want this to go fast, so the first round will end on 9/25. Hoping to have this wrapped up in two rounds.

9/22/2015 at 11:52 PM - Clear skies, 47 ° F, half moon

Subterritory Discovery: Leigh Glen was named after the late alpha and founder of Round Stone Crest, Minka Leigh, by her subordinates after she passed within the gulch's verdant depths. Located at the base of the mountains which dominate Stonewatch Timbers, the glen was created by erosion caused by one of many off-branching streams. The water has exposed the layered slabs of rock that serve as a skeleton to the small range and opened up a once sealed-off cave, birthing a small waterfall and a shallow but wide pool of pure azure water. In the summertime and early fall, this source feeds a flourishing clearing of verdant clovers and wildflowers. During the day, it is blanketed by migrating butterflies. At night, it is overtaken by fireflies. The peaceful glade is isolated by a curtain of thickly clustered crabapple trees.

A voice stretched over the land, choked with flurried notes of panic and anguish. It called for the wolves of Round Stone Crest. It called for all souls within the Timbers who might have an answer. It called for time itself to halt, to crawl backward and give back what it was so abruptly taking from them all.

It had been at dusk that the queen and her king had finished their routine together, and he had offered something different for their night. It had been noted that the woman recently had been feeling slightly under the weather, often easily tired and sometimes experiencing chills and mild headaches. Each time she was asked, Minka had given a gracious smile and offhandedly attributed the symptoms to the change of season that was beginning to inch its way through the Lore. It was a reasonable thing to believe, and so they all did. How could they know any better? How could any of them suspect the vile thing that had taken root at the base of her skull, replicating so slowly yet irrepressible by her body's best efforts? Each time, she brushed their concerns away. Each time, they returned that beautiful smile and continued on.

His invitation had brought a light to her eyes, their destination a secret to the woman but promised to be an absolute wonder. She could not know the amount of planning he had put into this occasion, so much thought having gone into the moment ever since he had stumbled upon the secluded clearing with its thick, verdant growth and vivid, crystalline waters. The man had enlisted Kova earlier that day, disclosing his plans of giving Minka something of a retreat for the night to the boy alone and asking that he be sure to watch over his siblings. All of it had fallen into place so perfectly, and as the pair traveled shoulder to shoulder to the Glen, the king considered that perhaps tonight he would finally achieve some breed of disclosure on his relationship with the queen.

She had been so happy simply to be alone with him, and Gent truly couldn't fathom why, and yet the glances she bestowed him, the small smiles that swept across her maw, were as gold coins and gems for him to horde as treasures. He'd done his best to encourage those casts, to take her mind away from their responsibilities and her own faltering health, to build upon her mirth. As well of a job as he'd done, she still was out of breath by the time they had arrived, paw steps all but dragging through the thin littering of salmon crab apple leaves. She leaned on him ever so slightly, and yet still he couldn't know, for those auric eyes still shone so brightly up at him.

It was on the second hour of their refuge within the Glen that things began to change. They lay together beside the softly roiling pool, the moonlight strong enough to still encourage a surreal cerulean glow. She was cradled against his side, skull reclined against his shoulder to gaze up at the stars that nearly choked the black sky with their multitude. His eyes had been settled upon her graceful face and nothing else, soaking in every expression made as she spoke, reveling in this chance to learn more about her, her thoughts, her past, her fascinations, her aspirations outside of their shared responsibility. She had been midway through a sentence when the peace surrounding them began to spiderweb oh so subtly.

Her voice drifted until she was no longer speaking, despite her thought being unfinished. Those halcyon eyes of hers shifted out of focus, passing up the world around them to seek something deeper. Then they became searching. Then they became lost. Then they became hollow. Gent's alarm did not occur instantaneously. At first, he merely thought something had distracted her, and at last his pale gaze was torn from her to sweep the clearing, searching for whatever had snagged her attention. Nothing had changed, the only movement remaining to be the fall of the water at their backs and the lazy drifting of fireflies upon the air.

"Minka?" he prompted, taking in her features once more only to receive nothing in response. Still she stared ahead, and suddenly it felt as though she were no longer with him at all anymore. Once more he looked ahead, following the path her eyes seemed to be on, and still seeing nothing of note. Before it could truly register that something was wrong on this basis alone, motion returned to her. At first, it was a subtle vibration, channeling from her skin to his. In only seconds of passing, she was in the throes of full forced convulsions.

A yelp escaped him before he could bite it back, and the leviathan was visibly caught between an urge to leap to his feet and one to press himself around the overtaken woman and forcibly still her. After a single moment of hovering in an indecisive crouch, the latter impulse won the battle, and the king hugged the queen to him and held her tight. Panic overran his mind, the adrenaline flood gates opening wide within his system, surging him with an utterly useless wealth of energy. There was not a single inkling within his head of what was going on, much less what had caused it nor what could be done about it. The only idea that made any breed of sense within him was simply to not let go.

"Minka!" he hissed into her ear, "Minka, it's alright," voice truly pleading, "Minka, please stop," as though he could lead her back to him from whatever this was by words alone.

Yet he couldn't, and she didn't, not until it had finished with her.

When she finally stilled within his arms, it was not the stillness of a calmed soul, nor of sleep. This was more than quiet, this was more than calm. Minka fell limp, not even a heartbeat left within her.

The realization was far swifter to dawn upon him this time, and with it came successive waves of immense despair.

"No... no no no... nononono...." he vocalized, first in whispers but as the words rushed faster from his mouth and the horror mounted the raw emotion within him added volume to the denial. There was something he was missing, there was more to all of this than what he was perceiving. She couldn't be gone, not like this, not now. The words faded from his lips, silence overtaking the clearing once more. A silence that he couldn't bear. Untangling himself from Minka's limp form, he crouched over her, a monstrous black paw lifted to tenderly, gingerly touch her face. Despite the unnatural stillness of her body, she looked so peaceful, her eyes nearly completely closed with only the flutter of lashes left between the lids and her black lips slack. A slow, prolonged whine leaked from betwixt his fangs which were exposed in a penitent grimace.

How could he have let this happen.

Having no other recourse, and unable to endure this abrupt isolation, he lifted his muzzle to the sky. His voice stretched over the land, choked with flurried notes of panic and anguish. It called for the wolves of Round Stone Crest. It called for all souls within the Timbers who might have an answer. It called for time itself to halt, to crawl backward and give back what it had so abruptly taken from them all.

(This post was last modified: Sep 23, 2015, 06:26 AM by Gent.)

Calanthe had been watching the stars from the top of a high rise in the earth, delighting in the millions of pinpricks of diamond light that pierced the velvet blackness overhead. The half moon shone down at her like an open, smiling maw, and the pale she-wolf smiled back, content for now to relish in a few more fleeting moments cool silence, swaddled in the peace and stillness of this lovely night. She wasn't afraid of the darkness tonight - it was a friend, perhaps one scorned for its harsh ways and unbiased protection of both the good and the evil, but a friend all the same, for the moment. That moment ended in the shattering of the quiet. Calanthe leapt to her feet and raced towards the anguished cry well before she realized the voice belonged to Gent. Confusion and concern turned to something like panic - like panic, but not, because now she ran towards the danger. Now she ran to save her King, rather than abandon him to whatever fire rained down upon him now. She did not panic now. She ran instead on icy, implacable hate. Nothing had the right to cause the leviathan this suffering. He was supposed to be with Minka tonight. The thought chilled Calanthe's very bones, turned them to shards of permafrost even as her footfall increased in speed beyond what should be possible for her. She had heard Gent was taking Minka somewhere to be alone for the night. She had gathered on her own that this should have been as much to help the recently ailing queen recover as it had been to cement the future royal line of the Crest pack. What's happened? Where is Minka? Why isn't she calling?! WHY ISN'T MINKA CALLING?! The thought slammed into the front of her skull, hurtling her whole body forward until the trees became a blur. Her chest ached with the power behind her heartbeat; her ribs felt ready to give way violently at any moment under the fury of her racing lungs. Her Queen. A mother. Gent's love. A mother. A mother. WHERE IS SHE?! She didn't realize she had stopped running at first. The world swam before her eyes; the blood pounded so ferociously in her ears that for one wild moment all the world was thunder and shadow and the growing, panicked chill that gripped her heart more tightly with each erratic beat. She shook herself, impatient, terrified, furious that her own body couldn't keep up with the simple need to obey her King and save the Queen. Where was Minka? Where was Gent? What had happened to Minka? Her vision cleared at a snail's pace, too slow for her to move forward - and in spite of that, though she did not know it yet, her eyes were already locked upon the answer. Her ears flattened, her stomach sank down into her paws like shattered pieces of gravel, and still she could not see. Where was Minka? She smelled her Queen. She smelled both of her monarchs. They were here, they were standing before her, they would know what to do, surely. Gent would know how to save Minka. She blinked, and the world fell to pieces around her. She approached the body dumbly, head so low that her nose dragged lightly along the ground, pale yellow eyes locked stupidly on Minka. On her Queen. On the mother of the Crest. She stopped a respectable distance away - her body froze on its own. Instinct? Respect? Disbelief? Calanthe had no mind left to tell. Wide, penitent eyes wheeled upward until they found Gent's. The King was here. The King would understand her lack of decorum. The King would know what to do. “Gent?” Her voice sounded far away, sounded small, sounded young and fragile. Was that Gent, or was it Kenelm standing there before her? Was this really Minka, or was it Amarië, the eldest princess, slain by mountain cats and left to rot? “She isn't waking up," she heard herself-that-was-not-herself say. "What will we do now, Gent?” Overhead, the half-moon smiled down like an open, smiling maw. Below, the pale she-wolf crumbled to her belly with a choking whine. Et mundus obturaverunt obumbratio.

(This post was last modified: Sep 23, 2015, 07:01 AM by Calanthe. Edit Reason: Quick SPaG fix. )

The cries pulled her up as if she'd been dreaming. It felt slow but the realization was powerful and crashing all the same. It was Gent's voice, but it was a heart-wrenching and painful yowl; something she'd never before heard from the man. Her stomach sank infinitely into the ground below, and she was left frozen for a critical moment. Then, the adrenaline lit her chest and shot electricity coursing through her muscles in a half second. She spun, bolting for the source of the sound with every ounce of energy her body was capable of holding on to. Whatever she had just been doing held no meaning, no meaning at all in the wake of this disaster she'd yet to witness with her own eyes. Gent would not call like this for just anything.  That knowledge made her bones ever colder to the core. There was ice in her chest now; jagged frozen bits of fear cutting the woman from the inside out with every stride. Only once her body was hurtling through the forest at a painful pace; a pace that could have injured her frantic legs as they shredded the mountainside and shot over the rocks and logs; did she remember that Gent had also been with Minka. The calling continued, and she could hardly decipher whether or not the voices were multiple against the pounding of her heart, the wind whipping by and the frantic; erratic fall of her paws on dead earth. What had happened to them? What had happened to the both of them? There wasn't a single thought for any of her other pack mates in that moment.  In her horror Raela wanted desperately to call back, but breath was short and every inch of her lungs was necessary to get there faster. Faster. Even as Calanthe's scent crossed her nose the woman's mind remained on a rigid singular track. Gent and Minka. Gent and Minka. The anguished sounds left her skull and ribs bursting at the seams with pressure. In her haste she now scraped her skin against trees, stumbled over rocks and bent to her knees but never stopped running. Never stopped careening down the mountain's incline. If the very legs she stood on had broken she would not have stopped. By the time the scene was starting to come into view she was light-headed. Sight was a narrow cone before her and her balance reeled to find something in reality to latch on to. Gasping; her center heaving with the task of supplying the woman with enough oxygen to remain conscious, her flashing golden eyes locked squarely on what she knew to be Gent.  When her pace finally slowed a streaking pain split down her sternum and she stumbled forward on legs quivering helplessly on her last reserves of adrenaline. Her eyes pinched shut against it but fought themselves open, squinting, in the next minute. She didn't see anything. No bears, cougars; only Calanthe and Gent and...  in a few meager, awkward steps her grimacing face located the limp body of a stranger. Her brain simply refused to register what she knew to be true, even if she stood there, teetering before it. The coat, she knew the coat yes. And Gent was here; that left it to belong to the one and only matriarch even if her scent hadn't coated the entire place. The gravity and consequence of what had occurred failed to lodge itself anywhere in Raela's brain. She stared blankly, dumbly, like a newborn pup as her own panting gradually quieted.  Not a sound parted her lips as she stared, head and tail low. Just what was she looking at? And yet through her apparent denial it was the knowledge somewhere deep down that yes, she was most definitely dead, that kept Raela from going any closer, or even thinking of touching her. The subordinate's eyes were hollow; looking but not truly seeing. Her trembling limbs threatened to collapse, but somehow she just couldn't bring herself to do so much as sit down. Down was where her Queen was, down on the ground... dead. Just how she had remained upright was a mystery; she was a limp weight on stilts; each joint thoroughly locked and frozen still. In a sudden moment of clarity her eyes brightened, landing with concern and vexation on the Crest's one remaining leader. The query and the understanding was plain in her eyes. He was the one who had called out so painfully, after all.  Gent, she's... Are you alright? All else was forgotten.  Image © Chris Smith Photography Manipulation © Jenandra

            

Draven Lagina
I won't stay small forever

Draven started awake from a dream about chasing rabbits and found himself in the den, snuggled down for the night with his siblings - all three of them. Wait, why was Kova here? And where had Minka run off to? It was awfully late at night for her to be wandering around all by herself; how come she hadn't let any of them know she was leaving?

The dark Crest prince rested his head between his paws, staring off into the shadows of the den as the haziness of sleep slowly left his mind. No, Kova had said Minka and Gent were going someplace else for the night - a special place, he'd told them, a secret place that Gent wanted Minka to see first before he told anybody else about it. Momma had been a little bit distracted in the last couple of days, like she'd had a bad headache, so Draven figured it was a good thing that Gent was taking her someplace special. Momma just needed to be somewhere quiet and nice for a little while, and she would feel all better when she came back. Gent would help her. He was good at stuff like that.

A noise made the pup's ears twitch. What was that sound? It was kinda like a howl, only Draven had never heard a howl so... sad. Was somebody hurt?

The longer Draven listened to it, the more upset the sound made him. He tried to cover his ears with his forepaws, but the sound still came through loud enough to hear. He whined, wishing the sound would stop. It was scaring him. He was scared. He wanted Minka to make the noise go away so he could sleep again.

He finally leapt up with a yelp and rounded on Ari, pouncing against her side in a rising panic. “Wake up!” he plead, shaking his sister's sleeping form. "Ari, geddup! Something's wrong! We gotta see what's wrong!" It didn't occur to him to wake Kova. Surely his older brother was already listening. Surely he was already thinking of what to do about the noise. "Ari, please! I'm scared..."

Sleep, truly, was one of Ari’s most favorite things – it was second perhaps only to adventuring, and the girl took both very seriously. That her mother wasn’t present that evening didn’t bother her terribly. Minka was off with her Da. The three pups were left to curl up in a pleasant pile, and she thought no more of it, happily nestled between her two brothers when a distant call echoed. It took the child several slow moments to blink awake, urged by Draven’s insistent whining. Out of instinct, she offered the swarthy pup a sharp nip towards the ear, displeasure evident in her own stance as she lifted herself up, shaking the sleep away as her loose pelt wriggled.

Then, and only then, did she realize how strange Gent’s call sounded. Ears plastered backwards, she spared her brother a wide-eyed look, nostrils flaring before she glanced out of their den. “S’go,” she ushered before bolting off, leaving Kino in a heap to follow or to sleep – Ari assumed that Draven would follow behind. Fear was not something she understood, and was not something she could assuage. Never before had she any reason to be anything but confident and happy, and it was a cold, icy feeling curling in the pit of her belly that could only be labeled as wrong. Stumbling over rocks she could not see, the princess lost count of the number of times she fell on her chin, scrambling to collect her feet again only to press on. Wrong, wrong, wrong, something was wrong and she did not understand, but Ari had to know.

By the time she arrived at the scene, she’d no idea of Draven was still behind, or if he’d followed at all – Calanthe and Raela had already joined her Da and—

“Momma!” Marianna shrieked in alarm, sides heaving as she barreled past the other wolves, stormy eyes only for her mother. “Momma!” the child screamed again, ears flat to her skull as she pushed her snout against such familiar fur. She was not moving, the girl noticed, she was not moving, she should be moving, she didn’t understand, couldn’t understand, why was Minka just like—

Something like dread washed over the child as she realized her mother lay like some prize kill one of the adults would lay out to feed the puppies, life stolen away. She had that same, vacant stare with eyes only barely open, that same, strange stillness, and a wordless scream erupted from the puppy. This couldn’t be. It couldn’t.

“What did you DO!?” she screeched, whirling wildly on the adults as a frantic gaze searched from one to the next. What had they done to her mother?

 

A wild dissertation appears!

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Kino had been laying at the mouth of the den, pale form sprawled out in the dimmed light of the half-moon. As of late he'd been rather distant from his family, especially from his brother Draven. A certain rift had been driven between them since their fight over Draven's first catch. The boy still couldn't find it in him to apologize even though his words had been driven by a fever induced rage, and while he hadn't had much care for the words of others Kova's words had cut him deep. Even the words of Gent could not coax him out of his decision, though he'd done his best to convince everyone that he was fine. However, the tension remained with the two youngest Lagina siblings.[/color]


[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]While the others slept, his pale gaze traveled to the sky to watch the stars as they danced across the sky. He was a night owl, preferring to be out and about especially on nights such as this. Yet, by the request of his mother and Gent he had stayed within the confines of the den. Minka had been...off lately, they could all see it. The woman who had played games with him in the rain, comforted him during his sickness and provided him warmth and love from the beginning was definitely not herself. Everyone attributed it to the stress they'd been feeling with the approach of winter and the need to stock up the caches. Having not experienced a winter before he had no clue what to expect, he just knew that it was going to be cold. As he stared into he night, a faint sound could be heard. His head lifted and he blinked, brows creasing as he looked toward the sound. It grew louder as the waves neared him, and suddenly the absolute grief and panic that came from the voice, from Gent, hit him full force. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end and he was on his paws in a second, prepared to sprint toward the sound. However, he was stopped by the panicked voice and movement of his brother. Pausing regretfully he looked ahead then back at them with a sigh. Lifting himself he turned and trodded back to them, nudging both Ari and Draven with his nose. "Hey, stop freaking out. Gent called, we need to go to him." He said. He paused, waiting for his siblings to collect themselves even though his own heart was racing a mile a minute. [/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Once they had done so he moved out, breaking into a run that covered the ground with all the distance that his gangly legs could manage. Inside his mind was reeling, wondering what could have possibly made the mammoth man sound so distressed. His heart constricted, threatening to choke him as a sense of wrong came over him. Something was very, very wrong. The thought only made him run faster, not caring whether or not Ari and Draven were on his heels anymore. He needed to know, needed to see what had happened.[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Only, once he reached it he no longer wanted to see. Never wanted to see ever again, wanted to gouge his eyes out though the image was already burned into his brain. Calanthe and Raela were already there, shock and tears dripping down their faces as they all simply stood and stared. Minka was still, too still. His mother was never so still in his life, not even her chest rising in that moment. He knew the look, knew it from the prey he had killed and from the prey he had eaten. There was no life there, only a silence that stretched as her soul traveled further and further from them. His heart gave a stutter and he limbs locked, all breath within him stilling as all he could do was try not to collapse. The sound of pawsteps behind him alerted him to his sibling's arrival and he only had one name echo within his mind.[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]Ari[/color]

[color=rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.701961)]He turned, blocking her path and cocooning himself around his sister folding his chin over her head. "Ari, don't look. Please, don't look." He whispered, his words hoarse. He prayed that his sister would have common sense, that she would listen to him for the first time in her life. He didn't want this sight for her, she didn't need it.[/color]

(This post was last modified: Sep 23, 2015, 03:35 PM by Marianna. Edit Reason: Tried to fix the code. :c )

The ground was spinning out from under her, leaving her stranded, suspended by the snickersnee that seemed to have been run through her from nose to tail. Minka was gone. Half of their guidance, half of their protectors and rulers and lawmakers and peacekeepers and faith-givers... gone. Gone. Too much. Too many emotions. She was feeling too much all at the same time, and she only had one heart to feel it with, one mind with which to process everything, to try to tear some shred of sense from what was happening. Because there must be sense behind it. There must be a reason. Something very good must be coming, or perhaps something very bad was being punished. Minka couldn't just die for no reason at all, at no one's claws and no creature's teeth or hooves and no spirit's whim. She couldn't, because otherwise Calanthe's family might have perished for nothing, too, and everything that was wrong in the world could just be an accident. The world simply couldn't be that cruel. Calanthe couldn't accept it. There must be a reason, there must be something they all of them had missed— Ari's screams finally shattered the thick layer of wool that had deafened Calanthe to the world; she turned, still dumb with shock, in time to watch Kino jump between his sister and the... and their mother. Fresh tears fell from Calanthe's eyes, and the feel of warm fluid against her already wet cheeks finally alerted her to the fact that she had been weeping for some time. “We didn't...” Didn't save her. Didn't know. Didn't predict. We didn't let your mother die. We only let her killer find her. Draven was coming, though he had yet to catch sight of Minka. Something sharp flared in Calanthe's chest, and the woman found herself jumping in the black pup's way, suddenly desperate that at least one of Minka's youngest children would not have to see her this way. “Draven, stay back,” she heard herself choke out to the boy. She knew she wouldn't have the heart to stop him if he tried to get around her. “You don't need to see... Stay back, little prince.”

There is a family of deer nearby. Hunt Opportunity

;-;

Kova was sleeping with his siblings after the sun went down. He'd been aware of Kino still being awake, but trusted that his silver coated friend wouldn't leave the den. Gent had gone with Minka to some secret place to be alone with her. Again this had Kova both happy and oddly angry with the two adults. However he was more than happy to stay with Ari, Kino, and Draven. The youth had been spending more time with them as of late now that he was being trained as a teacher. However he had not gotten to really tell them any of the stories Tokino had told him yet. Kova had wanted to wait until they were old enough to understand everything he told to them. Though he had sneaked a story to Kino when he was much smaller than he was now.

The call had been heard while Kova dreamed, but he merely continued to dream that he was on a hunt and figured that Gent had called him in the dream. It was Draven's movements that startled Kova awake. He yawned loudly while grumbling in annoyance until his silver ears caught the worry in the dark pups voice. Maybe the howl was real? He thought quietly as his eyes flicked open and looked to Marianna who was also stirring.

Looking outside for a moment before picking himself off the ground, Kova noted how late it was. The smell of morning had not even crossed the chilled air yet. Normally his siblings would have been dead as a door nail asleep right now, so the howl must have been what woke them. Then suddenly Ari ran off causing Kova to shout a “Mari hold on!” until she disappeared out of sight. He lifted himself off the ground and felt Kino stirring. The silver pup then went off after Marianna and Kova couldn't help but sigh. He was afraid, and worried for his pack mates too, but he was supposed to be keeping the pups together and watching them. Obviously this job was harder than it should have been.

“Come on Draven I want to see what's wrong...” Kova lifted himself fully then began loping towards the call. He made sure to stop if Draven wasn't following, then continue onward. However they were all concerned as to what was wrong. So they were able to rush to the scene.

Kova first scented Raela's winding trail through the terrain. The scent of fear and worry was laced into her musky smell as he trailed her. Then  the fresh scents carried by wind hit him. Gent, Raela, Calanthe, and of course Marianna and Kino were there. Minka's smell was there too, but it was... odd. Normally her scent always warmed and comforted the boy, but a very light, almost indistinguishable sweet smell clung to her odor. With their prey the scent of death was different for each species, but it was always a semi sweet smell compared to a live animal. Kova's hackles rose and fell a few times as he worked out this first piece of information. Then he saw everyone upon reaching the clearing.

Minka lay there upon the earth unmoving while Gent stood above her. Raela and Calanthe were also close, but Kova had not gotten there soon enough to hear their anguished words. He stopped all at once and stared down at his mother. Those liquid blue orbs taking in every curve and hair on her still body. The movements of his siblings near Minka's body did not disturb his stare as the young male took in her unending stillness. He barely noticed Calanthe try to keep Ari calm or step between Draven and Minka's body. He then finally inched forward meaning to step around Cal and his siblings who snarled their anger out at the world. Making it to his mothers side Kova couldn't feel anything at first as he stared down at her. Even as he pressed his nose into her ruff to inhale her sickly sweet scent, the boy didn't show any emotion upon his face. Like Kino, he too was trying to hide his feelings. Then a tear fell. He wasn't crying. Not with whines and howls, but his eyes were.

“Mom.... Please don't be gone... Not like father...” Then very suddenly a rush of emotion slammed into the gray boy forcing him onto his rear while his head drooped over her body. “Mommy...” Kova whispered into her ear before laying his head over her neck. It was still kind of warm, but he didn't realize that the warmth had come from where Gent's body had lain over the Lagina woman to still her. He stayed like this for more than a minute before the scent of Gent in her fur pulled his attention to the dark wolf.

He was the only one with her... She was kinda sick but not badly so. Not for death to take her... Kova's brows creased as more tears fell from his eyes. His thoughts twirled around the connection of Gent and Minka. Then Kova stood up abruptly and looked towards Gent. He barely held his emotions in. All the rage that began to mount over his shoulders made the boys fur bristle, and much like Marianna, Kova began to suspect the only other wolf who should have been with Minka at the time of her death. Even Gent's scent was on her body fueling the young wolf's anger.

“Gent what happened here?” His question was uttered past a smooth and eerily calm face. Though Kova fought with himself on the inside. He fought to keep a snarl off his face, and to keep from outright attacking Gent.

Because Gent was the one who was supposed to protect his mother now.

Yet now she lay there dead.

Kova was sure that he would not be able to follow his own advice; the words he spoke to Kino to keep calm when you hate someone. If he didn't get a good or believable answer form the black wolf Kova wasn't sure how he would react. For a moment he lay back down beside Minka to cuddle with his momma all the while keeping his ears and eyes on Gent waiting for an answer.

Draven Lagina
the stars are falling down now

I'm not crying that's just strips of tape on my cheeks.

Having the rest of his siblings awake and just as concerned comforted Draven as they raced towards the howling, but at the same time the boy was even more afraid now that he was being taken seriously. Part of him wished they had dismissed his fear as the result of a bad dream. He would much rather be angry than increasingly afraid.

He managed to outpace Kova in the end, but only because he didn't stop as soon as his older brother did. He smelled Minka, and wanted to get to her side - especially once Ari started screaming, and Kino started trying to keep her away from whatever she had seen.

Don't look? What did they do? Nothing his siblings were saying made any sense at all to the pup, and in the shuffle of bodies before him he couldn't see what they saw. The little pup took two, perhaps three steps to the side, only for Calanthe to leap in front of him, her eyes frighteningly empty in her tear-wet face as she urged him away.

“I want to see my mom,” he insisted, trying to gallop the other way. That didn't work; she was still blocking him without even moving, and now Kova was in the way, too, and why couldn't they just move already? "Get outta the way, Cal! "

He shoved past the she-wolf with an angry snort and ran up to where Kova was laying with Minka. She looked kinda like she was asleep, but Kova was crying and glaring at Gent... and Minka didn't seem to be moving.

"Momma?" The black prince edged closer until he could nose at Minka's side. She was cold, way colder than he thought any wolf could be, and she didn't move or say anything like she always did when he wanted to get her attention. "Momma? Momma, wake up. Everybody's sad; you need to make them feel better."

Tears burned at his green eyes, but he didn't know why. Minka was just asleep. She was probably just tired because Gent had kept her awake too long, and now everybody was just making a big fuss because she was sleeping. It didn't matter that her eyes weren't closed. She was just so tired she couldn't even close them all the way before she fell asleep. She was fine.

"Momma?" He nudged her again, then reared up and shoved at her shoulder with both forepaws when she didn't stir. " Momma, aren't you too hungry to sleep? I can catch you a mouse, Momma, and then we can go home and you can sleep all you want to. Momma, please wake up. Momma? Momma?"

She wasn't moving. She wasn't waking up. Turning to Gent, Draven asked, "Did I do something bad? Is Momma mad at me, Gent?" His green eyes turned to Raela. "Rae, can you... can tell her not to... be mad at me?" He hiccupped. "I don't know why she's mad..."

His voice broke, and with it went the last shred of his own self-control as he threw himself back against Minka. "Momma! Momma, wake up! Please! Please don't be mad at me! I'm sorry! I'll be good, I promise! Momma!"

(This post was last modified: Sep 24, 2015, 12:42 AM by Draven.)