Thicket of Secrets dramatic irony.

first victim & z is already super villain ;3;
tried my best to get nineva to howl but she really does not have her wits about her, so hoping this is enough to also draw out @Aideen or @Ash?

Nineva had just finished visiting with her family, very much intent on making the trip back well before sunset so as to be able to meet up with Tomen and coax him into taking a walk with her. Any day, really, was a good day but it was always exceptionally so when she could see @Korrin and her father, and there was a cheerful bounce to her step as she escaped the thickets and began her descent south over the land. Her tail swished through the air and her head bobbed along with her gait, slowing only as the river drew closer. There was a spot here where she could cross without soaking her legs, where was it now... ?

Her nose twitched as the wind brought two canine scents to her, that of her friend Duckweed's as well as a stranger's. Regardless of the other's foreign status, this would have brought a smile to her lips, except there was something off about the scent and she forgot her original goal as her eyes began to search around her for sight of the frail boy instead. Before they could capture their target, a dreadful barrage of snarling assaulted her ears, and her skin prickled with heat around her throat and nape as a dose of adrenaline was suddenly dumped into her veins.

Her paws pushed deep ruts into the river bank's mud as she propelled herself from it, chasing after that horrific sound. She didn't have to go all too far to see the duo, prominent through the brush and forest at their superior elevation. Nineva saw the man towering over her friend, saw his jaws closing down on his skull, causing it to completely disappear from her angle. Each withdraw brought blood, plentiful and violently vivid against Duckweed's pale coat, and then he was shaking him, was he already dead?

"No," was all Nineva could choke out, throat constricting with terror. She felt her heart quit beating and drop into the acid of her stomach. Her legs felt as though they were buckling but somehow she managed to keep charging forward. Her eyes burned with tears and her empty chest was shaking, and while her hope was little that her friend could be saved, she had to try, and the next time her voice managed to hit the air it was a resounding scream.

"NO!!"

There were no ideas within her head of what she would do when she reached them, but she knew that she would do anything to get that man off of Duckweed.

(This post was last modified: Jun 30, 2016, 01:33 AM by Nineva.)

A visit from his daughter always left him in a good mood. The world had brought her back to him and he could not be more grateful. It brought out within him the hope that Yuka and Narime would soon be returning from their mission and that the family would suffer no more separations. He was quite peacefully trotting the outer borders, marking the area just in case any there were any passerby-ers in the area. The russet-hued man stopped cold, however, when he heard he voice of Nineva, shouting above the running stream nearby. There was no time to hesitate, the Guardian was flying in a heartbeat. Horrors of what could of happened rounded in his mind and the Hervok could only think of a few things that he could do to anyone that harmed his child. The large man, was very much built for his strength and power, so he arrived a little late to find his daughter flying at a stranger and his grandson on the ground bleeding. It didn't take much deliberation for him to assume who had put poor, innocent Duckweed in such a state. Ash was not too far his daughter, using his back legs to propel him forward. However, canines flashing, Ash's intended target was the enemy's jugular.

ALP-Stock @DA, Della-Stock @DA & Dawnthieves.de

I think I've finally seen the light..in you.

permission to skip siki and to pp tossing duckweed into river and some screaming granted. Writing on kindle so forgive spelling errors until I can get onto computer to correct. Also I'm sorry he's such a dick. Please allow @Duckweed to reply before posting. <3 also can't tell if it's 200 words or not. Instinct says yes but if not ill edit when I have an actual keyboard.  

He could not have played the boy more perfectly. Like an orchestra first beginning a piece, there came the tiniest of whimpers. It wasn't until the male began to shake him that his little deer performed a crescendo that was both piercing and music to Zerxes' red ears. Over the screams, the interloper heard another; a horrified denial of what was happening. Z half-twisted to pin those devilish eyes on the approaching she-wolf.

Ooh, a second player! He struggled, delighted by the prospect of taking that sweet little piece down as well. He'd make more than a feast of her hide. It had been a while since he last had beautiful.

However, with the inevitability of a new arrival, Z sighed. Seemed his fun would be cut short. Caught as he was between the two newcomers - one far angrier than Z felt he had any right to be - the male knew he would have to change the rules.

In a move to stop the pack wolves in their tracks, Z lowered his jaws dangerously close to the boy's neck. One bite and it would be done. But then he'd have two more combatants fierce in their vengeance to deal with. Better to keep them occupied.

"Seems you've been granted a reprieve," Z whispered in his little deer's ear. Without preamble, the dark masked male hauled the boy up by the tight skin just behind his head and dragged him to the very edge of the ridge they were on before unceremoniously dumping his limp body over the edge.

Looking to the approaching male - clearly the bigger threat - Z smiled with feral eyes. "Whoopsies," he commented. "He fell!" With faux concern, his head tilted while he put on a frown. "Do you think he can swim anymore?"

Somehow, more than a year after he'd been killed, Wolesh still managed to screw his son over. Duck was prepared for discomfort and pain, but as the wolf chided his defiance and explained exactly what his plans were, the runt shivered in dreadful anticipation. He knew what it felt like to be smothered and choked, to be held underwater. He knew what blunt trauma felt like. He knew those things because they left no marks and drew no blood. The only time Duck had bled, and his mother had noticed, his father had shrugged and blamed it on Tauza and Staleek playing too rough. Said he'd talk to them about it. Knowing they were not gentle children, she had not doubted it.

The 'talk' must have worked, for Duckweed was never cut again after that.

He didn't know how to anticipate sharp pain, the way his thin skin split when his face was slammed down, the exquisite agony of teeth scraping against his skull. Though he hadn't been able to believe that he was ready to die, he knew he was going to anyway, and the idea of denying this wolf pleasure was the only thing which kept him from crying out -

But a whimper escaped, and then his scruff was grasped as though he were a child - no, as though he were a rodent, for then the violent shaking started and his world was harsh movement and pain and his head was throbbing and he was screaming, unable to even writhe because it was destroying his sense of mobility and rattling his brain around inside his gnawed-upon skull.

His vision was still vibrating when he was released, hearing nothing but a high-pitched ringing, not realising it was his own pitiful whines, oblivious to everything except the fact that this was it, he'd been born to be this and now he was going to die like this, it was sad and perfect and -

Faintly he heard the wolf's whispers, but didn't understand them, and didn't have time to process what it meant before he was grabbed again and dragged away, and whatever remnants of self-preservation he had left kicked in as he realised exactly what was about to happen - no, no he couldn't drown, kill him up here, don't let him drown, anything but that - but his flails of protest did absolutely nothing to stop it. There was a moment of falling, then his side hit the earthy bank of the ridge and he rolled down it, falling into the water and vanishing.

@Nineva <3 Depending on how quickly the Duck situation is dealt with, I won't post again until someone tries to save him, because otherwise my posts would just be full of 'oh no, am drown'.

@Ash you're up!, and @Duckweed feel free to pp Nin dragging Duck out, or whatever you need to post again~.

Her father was behind her, wasn't he always there just when she needed him? Yet her terror was too great to be thankful, and she only barely even was able to recognize his presence. All she saw through the blur of her tears was that towser looming over Duckweed, and all she could hear was her friend's screams, raw and powerful enough to slice her to ribbons. The closer her pounding paws brought her, the more she began to shake. He's alive, she tried to reassure herself. At least that horrid cacophony meant he was alive, but for how long?

Suddenly the monster's eyes were on her, while his jaws remained clamped upon Duckweed. The threat failed to register fully with her, negotiating safeties the farthest thing from her mind. Yet when in the next beat the boy was thrown, the violent assailant was also pushed away from her thoughts entirely. Her mismatched eyes followed Duck's tumbling frail body, and her gait swerved to chase after him. Youthful power surged through her hind legs as she pushed off from the river's bank, launching herself into the water without a second thought.

The river greedily swallowed her, enveloping her in its ice cold chaos. The current was fast as it pulled them both toward the rapids, but her only fear was for Duckweed's survival and she used all of her strength to power against the tide, searching desperately.

Warning for strong language

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The other man's speed, combined with his overshot, made it for a miss. With an angry snarl, the Hervok whirled around, mossy green eyes narrowed in on the bastard. He froze for a moment, focused on the jaws so close to Weed's face, making Ash, if possible, even more angry. To make matters worse, it seemed that the walking demon would not stop there. He was quick to throw Duckweed over and into the stream. The russet man's heart raced in his chest but a flash of gray caught his eye and his knew that his grandson would be in safe paws. Angry eyes focused on the tawny furred man, the irrational part of him begging him to go in for the kill but his ego reminded him that he needed to preserve this man's life. There were already so many suspecting of what he had done. Even if he was thinking clearly, it did not stop him from seeing red. Unlike Duckweed, Ash was built for war, his strength easily visible beneath his summer coat. This time I won't miss, you sick fuck. The angry man pushed forward once more, teeth and claws bared with the intentions of clawing, breaking, and hurting. This man, if he could even be titled such, deserved to pay for his crime and it truly did deserve to be punishable by death, but the Hervok knew his sister would not approve so close to home, especially if this man ended up being a pack wolf. The tawny-pelted man would not get away from him this time and Ash would be sure to leave his mark.

ALP-Stock @DA, Della-Stock @DA & Dawnthieves.de

I think I've finally seen the light..in you.

Sorry for the wait <3 @Zerxes

The world was cold and dense and slow, most of all it was slow. The moment he'd hit the surface, everything had taken up a lower tempo, his tumbling slowed to a cushioned fall, his senses muffled and blurred, and there was somehow both silence and a terrible roaring in his ears. Or what had once been his ears, maybe. Numb and in shock, Duck could barely feel his limbs, and as he stared up through the murky waters to a dancing pattern of confusing brightness which seemed to fade, slowly, slowly, he began to forget what he was.

On his own, he might have come to his senses, but it would have been too late. His body, at least, had the common sense not to inhale, although he had not had the chance to take a proper breath before submerging and his lungs were already beginning to feel empty. As he drifted to the bottom of the river, pulled along by the current as he descended like some thin furry creature of stone, some part of him acknowledged a disturbance in this otherwise peaceful, dulled world, as another body dropped into the river.

The sight of legs, swimming with purpose, then a face, and something fell into place - bubbles escaped his mouth as he tried to cry out in panic, stomach lurching as the silent scream was forcibly pushed out of him, and then suddenly he realised what was happening and any chance of a peaceful death was gone. In mindless terror he opened his mouth and breathed in to satisfy desperate lungs and in came only cold water, and the relief of inhaling lasted only a split second before he realised his mistake and the relief turned into burning, and he coughed only to inhale more and had Nineva not grabbed him roughly by the scruff and begun to haul him back to the bank, that would have been the end of Duckweed.

Z thought throwing the boy in the river would have been enough to send both parties after him, but found himself pleasantly surprised. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the girl making haste towards the runt. Brave little girl. What a happy plaything she would make! However, the interloper was forced to turn and address the threat towards himself.

He couldn't help but laugh, spotting the same devil snarling in the red man's eyes as his own. Perhaps the pair of them weren't so different as the other may want to believe. Zerxes had come to discover no one with any sense aspired to be like him. That was alright; the world could hardly handle one of him.

Unable to backpedal fast enough, Z felt the male's jaws clamp down tight just behind his left ear as he turned, dangerously close to the shallow groove his jugular sat in as claws dug into his shoulder and chest. While normally, the wolf would have been blind by rage at such an attack, he was too giddy with his success over launching the brat over the short cliff into the water below. Zerxes tore himself away from his opponent's grip and felt a canine shred through part of the base of his pinna. The scent of blood, sickly-sweet, flooded his nose and Z felt it coating the cream colored fur along his jaw.

"Mmm, think this is my cue to leave," Z murmured. He laughed as he launched forward to snap at the male's face once more for effect than to actually cause any harm before wheeling around and leaping straight off the short cliff. Prepared as he was, he landed on the other side of the river and then turned to look at Ash with a wide grin. "Maybe next time, friend." Zerxes shook his head, flinging blood - some already clotted - from his ear and took off through the trees.

Z's exit. You guys feel free to continue! Just lemme know whenever it gets archived. <3 @Nineva

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health

@Ash

Duckweed never resurfaced, and Nineva did not waste time in waiting. She dove under the surface once more, into a world of muffled violence. Her eyes strained against the stinging water to catch sight of the boy, blurred but notably still. Once more her mind screamed in terror that he had been killed, that she had not been quick enough and now there would be a corpse to pull back onto dry land. The shred of possibility that this was not so was enough to encourage her to push harder, propel deeper until she reached him. In those final moments, what would have been a scream only registered as life and gave her the extra dose of vigor needed to take them both back to the surface.

When at last they were both heaved onto shore, she choked out a couple spats of water before wheeling around on Duckweed. Her voice was frantic as she repeated his name, always in full because he wasn't a duck, some dumb stupid bird he was Duckweed, that tenacious little plant that sprouted up everywhere and that she'd always been fond of because it was vibrant and constant and benign. She loomed over him, unsure of what to do but lick his wounds and pull the water from his face and pray he regained his breath.