Drooping Willows falling like ashes to the ground [m]

Warning: Graphic, Violent Content.
@Eskil and any other Willow Ridge wolves that might be at the border.
Audio: "Believer" by Imagine Dragons.

She really didn't know how it happened, exactly. It was a blur, like most days had been lately. The drizzling rain that had begun to fall lately had turned her quiet, monotonous world into varying shades of gray that had begun to suffocate the monochrome wolf. She'd left Eskil after he'd yelled at her, telling him that she had made her choice, but she still had yet to leave the shelter of the willows. It was like something was holding her there, and she couldn't bring herself to leave.

The silver woman had entertained the idea of joining Willow Ridge to be with her daughter and the man that she loved, but was far too much of a coward to go through with that idea. So, she lurked, like a ghostly shell that had nowhere to call home. And that was what she was; what she'd always been, really. She'd known for her entire life that there was nothing good for her in this world, but when she'd seen Elle's little face, she'd begun to have the slightest bit of hope. But they could never feasibly be together...

...and Asha had always known it would end bloody.

She hadn't thought much of the white wolf with the red eyes upon first glance - even skin-and-bones as she was, she was still a trained warrior and wasn't concerned with fighting. But then the two of them had started to speak, and the wolf called @Paschal had wielded his words like a master swordsman. He'd been a perfect gentleman, had empathized with her when she'd told him about losing her puppies, and had even offered her some food.

She suspected that that was where it had gone wrong.

The woman had bent her head down to take a bite of the meat, and had been hit hard from behind. Lack of food and sleep had made her reaction time particularly slow, and she'd been unable to prevent the sharp bite to her spine that caused a burst of agony, and then numbness in the lower half of her body. She'd tried to turn on her forepaws, her hind legs dangling awkwardly behind her, but had frozen up for reasons she couldn't quite explain. The redness of his eyes seemed so vivid all of a sudden, his head down near her face and their opposite-colored irises clashing.

"Do not be afraid, my dear. You shall serve a higher purpose."

He sounded as though he had about a million octaves resounding in his one, singular voice, and Asha's muddled mind couldn't comprehend how it was just coming from one body. Logically, her atheistic mind understood that there was nothing religious or demonic in this moment, but the white wolf certainly believed there was. And it was absolutely, frigidly terrifying.

The red-eyed wolf bit her throat, only grazing the windpipe but still snipping through enough muscles and nerves that it would be impossible for her to raise her head from the ground. Which, to be honest, was probably for the best, as she was fairly certain she wouldn't have wanted to see what he was doing to her body.

She didn't feel him cutting into her at first, because he started lower, where the spinal cord had been severed. He began slow around the abdomen, her blood flowing into the mud and creating a ruddy brown around her staining silver coat. In shock, Asha just lay there, shaking and staring into the middle distance, her hammering heart causing the blood to flow quicker and quicker. She wasn't aware of the moment when he began tugging her intestines out, and she only vaguely saw, through a haze of red, that he was drawing on the ground with her blood.

Death came slower than she'd imagined, and the white wolf made it relatively painless. Occasionally, she'd feel a twinge of discomfort - a tug as he removed another of her organs and laid them out on the ground in patterns and shapes of his own language. All the while, he murmured to her - sometimes she understood him, and sometimes not. But she did hear him speak of voices, and of a land called Paradise that she would be taken to for her sacrifice to a being known by the name of Asheroth.

It made no sense to the dying, paralyzed wolf. Paradise was a fairy tale that she had never been taught.

She was trying to picture Elle as she drifted away, trying to imagine what she might be like a little older, and a little older than that. She imagined blue eyes and weird coloration. She hoped that Enoki and her pups were kind to her baby, and that Eskil would take care of her if she needed it. In a moment of clarity that only encroaching death could provide, the young woman realized that the love she had felt for the evergreen-eyed man had been a mere illusion - a projection of what she hoped would come in the future. She wished that she could speak to him, to apologize for confusing him so badly and lying to him with those three dreaded words.

Perhaps she would've loved him, in time. Perhaps he would have loved her. It could've been a possibility.

An image of Eskil playing with Elle was dancing across her vision when something barged into view. Paschal stepped before her, his white pelt so deeply soaked with her own blood that it was drenched red. She realized, vaguely, that in comparison to the crimson streaking his face, his eyes weren't actually red at all. They were more of a soft, rosy pink shade. In any other situation, she would've considered them quite beautiful.

"Rest now, beautiful. Paradise shall reward you."

There would be no Paradise for her - there would be no reward. If there was anything after death, for the young woman who killed and abandoned and lied, nothing but hellfire was fitting. Bubbling skin and singing fur would be what she would expect. She hoped for darkness in the afterlife, or perhaps reincarnation, so she could have a reset in life.

But Asha had never been much of a believer.

She did not feel the fangs once more around her neck, nor was she aware of the crunching bones in her neck or the fading of pawsteps. She died dreaming of nothing but burning rather than the bloody, visceral scene around her. A corpse of a girl who had been dead for years rather than just moments. Her soul had stiffened and grown cold far before her entrails had been ripped from her abdomen and splayed out in sigils and words that she could not understand.

No, she hadn't been alive for a very, very long time.

This had always been the inevitable.

The scent of blood was thick on the air, so strong Eskil could almost taste the metallic tang on his tongue. A dark perfume that was not unfamiliar to the him, and by the fetid odor alone he could tell that whoever it was had been disemboweled. He had mentally steeled himself for the carnage he would find, and indeed it took a lot to shake the warrior, he'd seen it all before and then some. He walked gently, putting the weight on the front of his toes as he kept his ears sharp, emerald eyes flicking between the trees. The muscles of his shoulders were tense, there was something capable of killing a wolf out here, and he didn't want to end up fighting for his life as well. While his instincts screamed at him to turn around and leave, the man pushed onward. For the sake of his packmates he had to find out what had happened, who had been killed and how. If there was a rogue cougar or grizzly on the loose, they needed to know. 

Eskil had seen his packmates that morning, but of course Sven was still missing. But Sven was a healthy, strong wolf, and mentally sound. He couldn't believe that the leader had met a bloody end just at the edges of the border, they would have found him sooner than that. And while she was not a packmate exactly, Asha had been in the area as well. He hoped to whatever power was out there that it was neither of them, and instead a hapless loner who'd been in the wrong place at the wrong time. But if life had taught him anything, it was to expect the worst. Asha had looked quite sickly the last time he had seen her. And while it wouldn't exactly be a surprise, and perhaps it was even inevitable, Eskil's ears flattened against his head. He couldn't help but think back to his last interaction with her, how angry he had been. What if something had happened to her, and she would never see her daughter again?

Eskil did not have to look very hard to find his way there. The raucous calls of ravens were an ever present dirge and the stench had grown almost overwhelming now. Eskil's throat tightening as he moved in closer, the heavy swarms of flies causing him to shake his head to keep them from landing in his ears and eyes. As he parted the ferns before him he was greeted first by bright swathes of red. Evergreen eyes slowly trailed upward, following the sanguine trails towards a huddle of ravens and a fox.  

Eskil bellowed, loping forward and chasing off the feasting scavengers. The birds took wing in a whirl of black feathers and the vixen vanished off into the undergrowth, leaving Eskil alone with the poor soul that had met its end here. He winced, his head falling as he immediately identified the small body and pale fur, the clouded, empty eyes that still shone with the faintest hint of blue. 

It would be easy to mistakenly attribute the carnage to the scavenging fox or ravens, but Eskil knew better than that. The blood that painted the earth couldn't have been spilt in death. She had been alive for a time, her beating heart pushing vital fluid through a shredded body. Eskil staggered backwards, shaking his head. Who, or what could have done this? The fur along his back prickled uncomfortably. 

Because Eirian secretly loves messing with those Whitebarks.

There was always something so tantalizing about the aroma of freshly spilled blood and who was Eirian to ignore such a powerful scent? Typically it was the smell of blood that led Eirian to a free meal these days, nose and paws working together to come across an abandoned carcass still adorned in strips of meat yet to be picked cleaned by the local ravens or other various bottom feeder inhabitants of the land like a fox or coyote or a freshly slaughtered kill by his canine cousins which he had no problem chasing off. The cowardly creatures. 

Today was no different and with a stomach borderline empty and ready to rumble in protest of being made full again, creamy limbs began to follow the heavily wafting stench of death and blood in the air, ears keeping close tabs on the amplified calls of ravens circling above that without a doubt aided in pointing the copper man in the right direction of an easily scored meal. Meanwhile keeping himself mentally aware of how close he was getting to the pack that called the drooping timbers home. The last thing he truly needed was to get into a confrontation with a pack wolf over who got to enjoy a free meal.

Gradually the stench grew stronger, though, and its potency threatened to expunge what little substance Eirian held in the depths of his gullet, forcing the man to halt momentarily and steel himself before continuing onward. "That doesn't smell like something edible..." He commented dryly now that a new set of scents began to contaminate what he assumed had been a deer kill or something else with a delectable taste. Oh, how wrong he was going to be. 

Wolf. That Eirian could make out the closer he drew to the tragic and carnage-riddled scene. Trails of crimson liquid now serving as his guide rather than the black feathered birds that had disappeared only to be seen again a few minutes later scattering about haphazardly above the treeline as if something or someone had scared them off. Pausing at one of these blood trails Eirian lowered his head to sniff at the liquid to determine who it belonged to and immediately revolted with what he found out. Head shaking to rid the stench from his nostrils. The scent rung an all too familiar bell. 

"Asha?! Asha!" Eirian bellowed with worry for both the silvered woman and the child she had birthed began to arise and caused the man's throat to tighten. An emotion he would refuse to openly admit should anyone ask. Like a raging bull, he charged onto the scene, citrus eyes scouring the area for signs of the woman only to be met with a gruesome picture. Eek had mentioned the silvered woman being more bloody than should be the day she gave birth, but this. This seemed entirely wrong. Lying a few feet away was the shredded corpse of a wolf, the scent of death overpowering now but it didn't take a genius to recognize the scattered pieces of silvered fur and the cold, blank stare of an icy blue eye from where he stood. 

"Asha.." Her moniker barely managed to fall off his inky lips in an audible tone, eyes widening the longer they absorbed the details. Unaware another had also stumbled upon the gruesome murder scene.

(This post was last modified: May 28, 2017, 02:14 AM by Eirian. Edit Reason: minor tweak cause Eek encounter )

Eskil stared at the grisly scene, at a loss for even what to do about it. Asha, Elle's mother, his friend despite whatever feelings she had for him, was dead. And not just that, killed. It was shocking, and sad, but there would be a time for grief later. Something had happened just outside his borders, and he had to get to the bottom of it.

He gingerly stepped around the gore spilled across the blood-darkened dirt, black nose twitching as he tried to pull out any other discernible scents beside the overwhelming musk of death. As he circled he noticed the blood hadn't just been sprayed haphazardly the way it might flow from a fatally wounded deer, as if whoever had done this had purposefully set about making a mess. He couldn't find any upturned earth or deepened clawmarks in the soil as one might expect if there had been a fight, or at least a struggle. Of course he had to remind himself that Asha wasn't in any state to put up a fight when he had last seen her. Stupid... Stupid to let her go. To think he might have prevented all of this if he hadn't lost his temper. He sighed heavily, trying to put his thoughts back to his investigation.

Eskil looked up as he heard someone shouting Asha's name and paws thundering over the ground. His hackles rose and he sucked in a breath of air, looking rather puffed up as he braced his sturdy limbs beneath him. Whoever it was suddenly slowed, Eskil's evergreen eyes sifting through the trees around him, finding another wolf just opposite of the corpse. The coppery pelt of the male stirred an uncomfortable memory for the Whitebark, and putting two and two together he figured it wasn't just a coincidence this wolf knew Asha's name. The woman certainly hadn't seemed the type to have many friends.

Sifting his mind for the name of the Asurn that had impregnated Asha, Eskil peeled his lips back in a grimace with spruce eyes locked onto the russet wolf's fiery pair. "Eirian," He growled, spitting the name as if it truly tasted foul on his lips. The father that should have been looking after the mother of his children had finally arrived, and much too late. 

"You fucking Asurns have quite the nerve, don't you?" He snarled, his muscles rolling beneath his grey coat as he set into motion. He stepped around Asha, almost blind to the viscera he stepped over to close the space between him and the Asurn.

I say we can go for rolls now giving Eskil the first attack?

Unlike Eskil, Eirian had not known the full gravity of Asha's condition post-partum, any signs he may have acquired on the scene now lost among the scattered pieces of her bloody remains. How frail and brittle twig like her monochrome silhouette was impossible to figure with how unrecognizable the body lay, hoards of humming flies already descending upon the foul smelling carcass for the prime location to deposit their tiny eggs where eventually a sea of maggots would overrun to feast to their filthy heart's content. Leaving nothing but sun bleached bones behind.

"Eirian," His moniker growled into the air like a curse and who was to say that it wasn't after looking at the crimson sprayed ground around them, bits and pieces of entrail scattered about in display for all to see. Citrus irises snapped away from the gruesome scene to lock firmly onto evergreen counterparts that glistened with something almost feral while more words came tumbling from this unknown male. "You fucking Asurns have quite the nerve, don't you?" "Who the fuck are you and how the hell do you know my name?" But there would be no swift answer to the Asurn's question as the pale tawny male was quickly set into motion and his target locked on Eirian.

Swarthy lips curled themselves away from tarnished teeth in warning and his charcoal dusted tail rises high above his spine while muscles tensed, bracing for impact against his unknown attacker. If it was a fight this stranger wanted then a fight he was going to get. 

There are several fresh rabbit tracks in the mud. Hunt Opportunity

Finally the Asurn seemed to notice him, and confirming his suspicion responded to Eirian. Whether or not the male was playing coy about not knowing Eskil, he couldn't tell. He briefly wondered if Asha had even mentioned him to Eirian, or if he was nothing more than a complete stranger to him. 

"I was Asha's friend," He ground out, his voice rough with a low growl. The Asurn didn't deserve to have his name, and all that mattered in this moment was who he was to Asha. 

"But I've known of your kind long before you ever put your filthy paws on her."  He spat as he angled his body, coming at Eirian from a diagonal. As much as this was about Asha, who's mutilated body now lay behind him as the bitter conclusion of the chain of events that Eirian had set into motion, this was about Eskil's family, too. His closest friends and family all gone because of the bloodline of the russet male standing before him. Whether or not Eirian had any hand in his family's demise, or even knew about it mattered little to Eskil. It was easy to place all his grievances onto the singular entity that was Eirian, who was already guilty of impregnating Asha then leaving her to die. Eskil tried to think not too deeply about the own role he had played in this tragedy. 

The Whitebark clacked his teeth in frustration, long limbs pushing against the earth as he lurched forward with little warning. He would throw himself at the other male, trying to use his own greater size to throw Eirian over onto the ground.

Fight post 2/6 || Eirian's attack is a hit, where he hits up to Eskil. Let me know if I need to change anything. Slight maturity warning too.

Russet ears strained to hear the words that came tumbling out of the pale agouti man's mouth with each stride of his paws, hoping to hear a clue as to who he was, but no such thing escaped those inky lips except a growled out claim to have been Asha's friend; some friend to have let her die such a horrible death, huh? before continuing on to spill more words and another claim. One that spoke of prior knowledge to Eirian's kind and for a moment the copper male wasn't sure how to comprehend what the other man meant by this, but eventually the wheels turned and puzzle pieces slid into place. A wicked grin gradually replaced the snarl upon Eirian's lips, a glint of pure evil sparkling in the corner of his citrus gaze. So the man had survived an encounter with the Asurns hm? Hopefully, Eirian wouldn't disappoint him with his newest run in.

"Some friend you proved to be. Allowing that poor bitch to be shredded like someone's pathetic chew toy." He taunted with a scoff, uncaring of his manners when it came to speaking of the now deceased woman whom to him had been nothing more than an incubator for his daughter. A means to fulfill a promise to someone who actually meant something to him. Eek had brought him to her whereabouts, had seen from the shadows the condition her body had been left in after childbirth. The reek of blood strong then too although dulled in comparison to now where every drop had been thrust upon the ground. He had no reason to seek out the mother for death was clearly knocking on her doorstep, his use for her expired. 


"I think someone's just jealous they couldn't put their dick in her first." He sneered with the grin upon his creamy face spreading further, another taunt left to hang in the air while the stench of spilled blood and rotting flesh burned their nostrils. Ravens overhead now hanging along the outskirts of the fighting ring to pick at the furthest pieces of flesh, their caws and squabbles among brethren nothing more than background noise for the wolves. Teeth clacked in frustration and Eirian pondered if this was the final straw that metaphorically broke Eskil's back or not, but not much time was available to think further as the larger wolf came barreling for him, lurching with the intent of making the Asurn suffer not only for the death of Asha, but for whatever crimes his relatives had done in the past without a doubt.

Citrus eyes watched the other closely, picking his timing carefully before pushing off against the Earth to move to the side and narrowly evade being knocked onto the ground. Silvered hairs tipped in black mingling with the fiery hue of his own in a passing touch before separating, both men now standing where the other had been. Facing Eskil, the grin that had been plastered across Eirian's face faltered to make way for a snarl once more, his own teeth clicking with the rise of a growl just behind it. "You're even more stupid than you look if you think I did this." He spat, literally, at the direction of the other's paws. To be accused of a crime be he guilty or not was dishonorable to the Asurn name. It was bad enough Eirian had already brought shame to the family with the loss in his fight against that old geezer Ice. 

The brief memory warranted a painful prod to the man's still bruised pride and ego, a quick shake of his bristled fur ridding the distraction. This time he would restore glory to the family name by winning over this filthy beast. No warning was given, just the sudden charge of his fiery body toward the other with jaws parted and ready to grab ahold of any part of Eskil he could. He would gladly freshen the man's memory on what it was like to enter battle with an Asurn.

Eirian's taunt rang in his ears as the gore around him became nothing but a blur through slitted eyelids as he charged. Eskil's pale paws thundered over the blood-slicked soil, carrying him towards the red devil that stood there smirking like the cat who'd gotten into the cream. He wanted to rub that haughty face into the filth on the ground, make Eirian viscerally feel what he had done to this woman. Where he expected a firm wall of flesh he was met with only empty space. Eskil dug his paws into the ground, claws anchoring him as he twisted to turn around and face the devil. 

No, he knew the Asurn hadn't directly ended her life, Eirian looked just as surprised as he had to find Asha dead. Eskil figured the brute was just trying to rile him up, and while Eskil didn't care either way for insults to his intelligence, he couldn't let Eirian think he was letting him off innocent. "You didn't, but getting her pregnant didn't help, now did it?" His voice dripped with venom as he prepared for the next step in this deadly dance. His head shifted downwards, instinctively protecting his neck as the crimson beast lurched towards him. 

Adrenaline dulled the hot pain of fangs sinking into the thick fur and hide of his nape, though Eskil snarled with irritation. He shook his head, bucking his neck upwards to tear from the other's grasp. He could feel a damp warmth seep down his neck, but it was only a distant sensation to the ripping of skin as he pulled himself free. Eskil staggered backwards, but quickly threw himself forward once he had regained his balance. With jaws parted his pearly fangs aimed straight for the smug bastard's face. Expecting the satisfying resistance of soft flesh and hard bone, the Whitebark was disappointed as his teeth clacked together with nothing between them.

Fight post 4/6

Eirian reveled in the fact his taunts were clearly getting the man riled up exactly like he was hoping they would, narrowly avoiding the first charge made by the enraged friend of Asha moments after speaking ill of the woman cut into ribbons and scattered about. Eskil tossed venomous words back in return, accusing the copper male of only a portion of the damage that had been done. At this a dramatic eye roll and snort was made by Eirian, citrus gaze locking onto the spruce green of his opponent before shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly at the statement. This was not entirely his handiwork, but who was he to deny the paw he had played in painting the final picture?



"Maybe, but she sure did enjoy me mounting her." A final taunt before his fiery frame gave a quick shake of his bristled fur to rid all distractions, lunging for that of Eskil. Parted jaws found purchase along the thick nape of the other male and satisfaction warranted a loud rumble to form in the back of Eirian's throat as the familiar metallic tang of blood teased his senses. His grip tightening against the struggles of his opponent to try and keep ahold of him until a few more rough bucks loosened his teeth just enough to slide the captured flesh free, but not without leaving a lasting mark. 

A wicked grin plastered itself upon the Asurn's pink painted lips as he watched the man stagger backward to regain his balance, seconds later coming for Eirian's face with a new sense of vigor. Ducking, he could hear the collision of teeth on empty air above his head while shoving his lowered shoulder like a battering ram into the man's chest in hopes of knocking the wind out of him. Jaws snapping at his legs to further trip him up and gain the upper hand. 

(This post was last modified: Aug 03, 2017, 01:27 AM by Eirian.)