Grizzly Hollow the taste of ink

Rank challenge between Nin & @Oula. Spectators are welcome, but there will be no posting order followed, so you might get skipped a time or two.

Nineva was pissed.

It was different from the consuming rage that had overtaken her after discovering what had happened to Duckweed's mother. It was a slow, building burn that charred her heart, blackening it within her tightening chest. Everything that could was going wrong, and she was still in the throws of that torturous heat, her patience nonexistent to begin with. Everyone wanted to push it regardless, it would seem. First it was Pip, but Veho had insisted the young woman couldn't be blamed, and the young Hervok believed him. After all, how could the omega fight off a grown male? She didn't even have a voice to say no with.

But now, Oula returned impregnated by a stranger and she was growing suspicious of Rook and Amaryllis sudden proximity, their scents laced together in a sinful way. Yvly was gone, Tomen had said he needed space when Nineva had needed him and Duckweed was vanished from the Woodlands as well. What if he'd been killed? What if Tomen wandered straight into one of them any heinous wolves that lurked the dark, uninhabited corners of Relic Lore?

Why couldn't everything just stay as it was meant to be, cohesive and orderly? What was so difficult about following the fucking rules? That was part of the problem, she supposed. She loved the Hollow, and her alpha for all that he had done for her. He'd certainly never allowed the pack to fracture, to wither or to be overrun. Yet there had never been laws, not that she could see. Abandonment was not punished, the sanctity of marriage meant nothing and the women were apparently free to spread their legs and create all the liabilities they wanted for the rest of the pack to shoulder come their birthing.

It made her blood boil. She had still been considered just a girl when she'd entered her heat, and yet she'd proven more self possessed than any of them. So why should they stand above her? Her prowling paws brought her closer to Oula, the woman whom she'd once thought would finally be the queen the pack needed but since her search for Rook had proven nothing but a disappointment. The capture hadn't been her fault, but dammit what good had she brought them since returning? Fucking Rook. It could always be traced back to him, couldn't it?

She was rambling within her own mind, feeding her own fires, and a part of her knew that, but it couldn't be helped. Ash Hervok's blood coursed strongly through her veins, after all.

Oula was within sight now, and Nineva wasted no time with pleasantries. Her tail hiked upward and chin tucked, ears splaying forward. Everything about her posture thundered dominance, and as she passed the other woman, her jaws reached out to muzzle grab the Whitebark wolf.

(This post was last modified: Mar 23, 2017, 11:53 PM by Nineva.)

 Oula walked comfortably through the territory, feeling safe and at home within the haven of cedar trees, even with everything that had gone on as of late. Never would she have expected to be attacked here, among her packmates this was not somewhere she needed to be on guard. The Whitebark woman was ignorant to the wolf that lurked in her shadows, tallying her sins and plotting her downfall.

Oblivious to what was to come, Oula did not have time to prepare herself. The only warning that something was about to happen was the sound of paws thundering over the snowy ground towards her. Oula's ears defensively pinned back against her skull, her body twisting to face whatever it was that had come for her. She expected a lynx, a bear, a territorial wolverine, perhaps even a trespasser wolf. Her heart thundered at the thought of Azar, and she winced as pain pricked across her muzzle as the fangs met their mark. A furious growl rose in her throat, sage eyes opening to find a silvery form bearing down on her.

At first she thought Amaryllis had gone back on her word, but through slitted green eyes a silver iris looked back at her. Nineva. Oula shoved roughly with her forepaws, pushing the larger female away from her and tearing her muzzle from the her grasp. Oula couldn't tell what had gotten into Nineva. Whether it was the surge of hormones that came with her first heat or something else, Oula couldn't tell and had't been given the time to ask. 

Gaining some space between them, Oula's silver hackles bristled and her tail swayed loftily. "What the hell has gotten into you?!" She barked. She braced her legs in a wide stance. Nineva had caught her off guard once, but would not catch her defenseless a second time.

A low growl gurgled up from her throat as Oula forcefully pushed her away. Nineva's pursuit was not instant, however. She could acknowledge that she had likely caught the woman completely off guard, and such a reaction was thus reasonable. Especially given her illegitimate state. Yet as her posture flared, refuting the young Hervok's dominance, the girl took a predatory step forward, mismatched eyes glinting with the anger they contained.

"Nothing at all," she responded casually, before her voice twisted with acidity, "because I kept my fucking tail down."

Didn't she know how much Nineva had struggled with all of this inside of her, how she hadn't even been able to sleep closely to Tomen anymore because his touch was as dangerous as fire? Because she knew her place, knew the consequences her actions would render, cared about what was best for the pack, not just her own fickle desires. Oula was an adult, one Nineva had once idolized, and yet she couldn't do better than a fresh-faced woman battered by her first ever heat? She wouldn't believe that she had better self control than an elder like the one before her. So instead of being taken by passion, Nineva could only assume that Oula simply hadn't given a damn.

"I won't pretend to respect you, harlot."

Her postured remained glaringly dominate, but she was giving Oula one last chance to forfeit her rank before she would force the woman onto her belly.

@Nineva

Oula stared back at Nineva as the girl postured and puffed, clear fury evident in every stiff motion from the Hervok. Oula's short tail swayed high above her back, her hackles bristling as Nineva responded coolly, as if she wasn't the one who was behaving erratically. Oh. So that's what this was about. The whitebark felt an ugly flame burn white hot inside of her, though she tried not to show the barb had gotten to her. She sneered, pale lip lifted crookedly over yellowed fangs. Whatever Oula had done herself, she wouldn't take such disrespect from a female that was not only younger, but lesser in rank and experience. 

"You think you have it all figured out, don't you?" Oula spat, angled sage eyes narrowed bitterly. Oula did what she had to do. If no one looked out for her needs, she would take care of them herself. And whether or not Nineva understood that mattered little to her. She didn't need or want the younger woman's respect.

A deep rumble started in her chest, ground out through clenched teeth bared between wrinkled lips. Small brown ears folded flat against her creamy skull as Oula pushed forward and lunged at Nineva with a snap, warding the younger female off. 

Of course, a woman as self-possessed as Oula would not hang her tail or turn to simpering. It was a wonder that Veho was so involved with such vastly different wolves. Nineva need only look at @Rook cross and his courage would fail him, the man having yet stood up to her in any fashion. Whereas the mother of Veho's children vehemently opposed her, the words she hissed indicating that Nineva simply didn't have the whole picture of why the older woman had found herself pregnant.

The girl scoffed. She wasn't so arrogant as to think that truly, she held all the answers right underneath her paws, but this was clear cut enough for even a child to gather. Regardless of whatever reasons Oula told herself she had, she'd done nothing but endanger them all, from the pack as a whole to the multitude of children now waiting to be birthed, for a flicker of gratification that she'd not earned. She could have challenged back up, taken Veho as her mate again, secured a future not just for herself but that litter within her.

Maybe if Nineva put her in her place, here and now, she would began to see just how grave of a mistake she had truly made.

Oula made a move, and Nineva's mammoth frame reacted accordingly. Rather than retreating from the strike, she lurched to meet it. Heavy paws lifted to grasp the other woman's shoulders as her jaws sought purchase on her nape. She would not mess around with posturing any longer; she had every intention of forcing Oula off balance and into the snow.

Edit: Added in a quick fadeout just to archive

There was no denying that Oula was a cocky little shit. Despite Nineva's superior size and considerable weight advantage Oula figured she would be able to scare off the much larger female. Her snapping jaws and aggressive lunge was met by the silvery woman lurching straight towards her, not shying away as Oula had hoped. The younger woman's confidence might have been commendable were it not her own standing the girl was after. 

The pair crashed together, Nineva wrestling her heavy weight onto Oula's shoulders. Oula's elbows buckled under the force but she shoved back, limbs shaking as she struggled to keep herself on all fours. To be knocked off balance now would mean certain defeat. She snarled, her tongue snaking through bared teeth. As Nineva's fangs fought through the thick fur of her mane to grab her neck, the Whitebark woman forcefully shoved her head back trying to buck the younger female off of her, but the solid wall of muscle shaped like a wolf wouldn't budge off her back. 

She growled furiously as Nineva's teeth sank into her nape, seeing red. She couldn't let herself be bested so easily, for this woman to not only insult her but push her from her rank was the greatest of shames. Oula's parted jaw reached for the closest thing accessible, her fangs searching for a spot on Nineva's chest to bite and pull.

But as hard as Oula fought, luck was simply not on her side that day. For it was luck, Oula told herself, not skill or strength or fortitude, nor anything else that allowed Nineva to overpower her.

(This post was last modified: Jun 22, 2017, 07:33 AM by Oula.)