Dead Empress Backwater Not for the faint of heart

RE: Nix, you come across the gory sight of a buck shedding the velvet from his antlers.AW

He was getting bigger with each passing day which left Nix thinking he should be able to explore a little further. Once he'd made sure his sister's would be safe in the den the dark Valle slipped out. He didn't know what he was looking for. Maybe just a chance to stretch his legs or maybe even some excitement. Whatever it was it led him further from the den than he'd been.

Into the forests of the backwater his dark paws carried him. His nose was to the ground some of the time but mostly he wanted to see the sights. Well that was until he heard a sound not far from his position. Nix stopped and hid behind a tree not wanting to be caught too soon.

Peeking out he saw a large buck. It was the first time that he'd ever seen such a sight. The thing was it looked like there was blood all over large things on its head. The blood seemed to be running down and what was worse was it looked liked skin of something was just hanging off. Nix was so stunned he couldn't turn away.

This was beginning to become a familiar pattern. Sephrina tucked into bed safe and sound with her siblings and the rest of the pack, until Nix would wake up and sneak out. A light sleeper, and prone to jealousy even on her best days, the dark girl was quick to get up and follow. Knowing this was definitely something that was discouraged by their parents she did her best to be quiet while also hustling to catch up with her sibling.

With it being so dark it was more of a challenge to track Nix through the night, and so she mostly had to rely on her nose and hope she could hear him. That is until she was distracted by a much more interesting smell, the smell of fresh gore. Leathery nose perked to the sky and twitched with excitement as she hastened her pace. Maybe her father or one of her older siblings who liked to stay awake through the night had caught something. Or maybe something had gotten injured and she could wait it out.

So excited about all of the possibilities Sephrina pushed past the tree line, and directly into the eyesight of the shedding buck. She didn’t even realize the mistake that she had made until she heard an angry snort. That didn’t sound like a fresh kill.

He'd caught the scent of two pups that had seemed to made an escape from wherever their den was, and normally he would have ignored it and continued with his day, but the familiar musk of a male ungulate permeated the air. Did he care about the lives of the pups? No, not really. But perhaps if he were to save them, it may make Viorel and Vayko think more highly of him. That would be a net positive for him, even if he risked injuring himself.

Rochus steered himself away from his path, making sure to keep his steps light as he followed the haphazard scent trail. It didn't take him very long to set eyes on the buck, his nose wrinkling at the sight of the thick velvet strands hanging loosely from the buck's antlers. One pup was standing out in the open, and while he couldn't see exactly where the other was, he surmised it was probably smarter and had chosen to hide.

His shoulder pressed lightly into one of the trees, golden eyes peering out at the buck. It didn't seem very aggressive as of now, and he wasn't about to piss it off by challenging it. Perhaps it would decide the two pups weren't worth getting more angry about, and Rochus could swoop in as it left claiming he had scared it off without actually needing to put himself in danger. The pups were too young to understand much, so it wouldn't be the most difficult task to convince or manipulate them into believing what he wanted.

Even in the darkness Nix could see the horrific sight before him. It looked more like some scary forest monster than a deer. His imagination ran wild of the awful things that could happen to him. His brain was telling him to run back through the forest amd to the den where he'd be safe from the creature. His legs on the other paw wouldn't move, he was stuck in place just staring.

The pup had to wonder why his mom and dad hadn't warned him about such things. Told him that there were creatures in the forest at night that could hurt him. Maybe he wouldn't have snuck out. Maybe he would have stayed in the den to protect his sister's from such a creature. Mayne he would have gone out anyway to see just how scary they were. He supposed he wouldn't know what he would have done since now he was faced with one.

From his hiding place he didn't think the monster had seen him. He was relieved about that but he was so enthralled by the sight he didn't hear his sister come up behind him. It wasn't until she was in front of him and he heard the snort from the great beast that his legs finally allowed him to move. He ran up beside his sister barking at the creature to stay away.

Sephrina’s pale eyes widened as she realized that the snort had come from a large buck in the clearing. It was very clearly not dead, but still stunk to high heavens of blood and flesh. Squinting at it she realized that something was hanging down from the antlers, and that something was what was making it smell that way. So wrapped up in what was before her, the pup didn’t realize her brother and great uncle were also watching the scene.

Maybe she should have been more afraid, but Sephrina was mostly just curious. She had never seen anything like this before, and so far the buck had not given her any reason to believe she was in danger. Suddenly Nix was by her side and barking up a storm, the Valle girl could only watch on the shedding creature to see what its reaction would be to this sudden addition.

Luckily for them it seemed impartial to the two pups. It snorted one more time at the sound of barking before reaching its long neck down and continued grazing on the grass by its hooves. Sephrina took a step closer, tilting her head to the side before thinking better of taking any further steps, she should continue watching from where she was.

Rochus had to hold back a disgruntled snort as the other pup finally scrambled into view, proceeding to quite foolishly yap incessantly at the buck. He watched with narrowed eyes as the creature simply snorted, but continued to graze, seemingly unbothered by the two pups. Well at the very least he wouldn't have to risk limb or life for them.

Still unmoving from his position, he began to weigh his options, all the while keeping a careful eye on the buck. He could slink away and leave them to deal with it as it seemed neither had noticed his presence yet, but that had the risk of them pissing it off and being unable to fend it off. Perhaps he could try steering them away from the buck to a safer distance, that way they got to see it, and he wouldn't need to get himself hurt if it became defensive.

He let out a low woof towards the pups, peeking half of his body out from the tree slowly so as to not startle the buck. "Don't get too close," he rumbled softly at them, a warning of sorts if they were paying enough attention to his tone of voice. Rochus took a few slow steps closer to the pair, intending to get up next to them and try to gently herd them further away if they did not listen to him.

Nix was worried that his sister's curiosity would get them into trouble with the monster. That was the last thing they needed since they had no idea about how to keep it from hurting them. He hoped that his barks might keep it away from them. Maybe it was more scared of them than they were of it or something g like that. Thankfully the monster didn't move from where it was but it did snort. It seemed unbothered by them as it continued to graze which caused Nix to cease his barks.

When Seph took a step towards it though he moved closer to her amd touched her shoulder with his nose. She didn't go further after thar. His gaze went back to the buck but it hadn't moved except a couple steps for more grazing. That stuff just hanging all around its head.

Then he startled when be head a voice behind him and his sister. His blue eyes landed on the man who'd appeared. The boy wanted to tell the man he had no intentions of going closer but he didn't have the words. Instead he watched as the man approached them. Nix recognized him of course but he didn't know much about him. He stayed close to his sister so he'd be right there if she needed him.

Sephrina had no inkling to go any closer to the buck, especially now that she was close enough she could see more clearly. The antlers had big strings hanging down and everything was soaked in blood. Wrinkling her snout when her brother touched her shoulder she whispered, ”It’s so gross.” Was something wrong with it? Or was this something that was normal for deer? Suddenly the pup was very thankful that she was a wolf and not one of their prey, especially if this was what they went through.

When their uncle barked at them the dark head whipped to9 the side in surprise. How did she keep getting snuck up on like that? She recognized the tawny man from being around the pack and knew he was a safe person to be with but she can’t remember ever talking to him. She looked back to her brother, was he going to tell their parents that they had snuck out? If so they were about to be in a lot of trouble. Dropping her voice as low as possible she murmured in his ear, ”Should we run? What do we do?” She wasn’t going to leave Nix here to take the brunt of the fall, but she didn’t just want to hang out here and get lectured.

Sephrina took a step backwards, eyes flicking back and forth between the clear figure of the buck and the blurry wolf approaching them.

He could hear whispering amongst the two of them, but didn't care for what they were saying. It was likely not worth worrying about anyway. What did they have to say anyway, at their age? Not much. But he did notice one of them take a few steps away from the buck. At least one of them had an inkling of common sense.

In his experience bucks were less aggressive while shedding the velvet from their antlers, but he didn't want to risk it with the pups. "They can still be dangerous and I don't want you getting hurt," he said as he took a few more steps closer to the pair, now almost within touching distance. "We can watch it safely from further away."

Rochus switched his gaze from the buck to the pups, now taking a step to move between them and the buck with the intention of physically herding them away from it if they decided not to heed his words. He was being far more considerate and gentle than he would have with his own children, but he didn't want them to go crying back to their parents about how mean he was. Speaking of parents, what were they doing out here all alone at this time of night? Maybe he could swing this in his favour.

"If you do what I say, I promise I won't tell your parents about you two being out here." A little manipulation never hurt anybody, right?

The buck seemed to be of to threat to them since it hadn't made any attempts to hurt them which was a relief. Especially for Nix since he was doing his best to keep his sister from getting hurt. She had moved closer so Nix had moved with her in case he needed to hurry her away or something. Though it seemed she had finally reached a point that she wasn't going to go any closer. "I wonder if it hurts," he said taking another look at the gruesome scene before them. He thought that with all that blood and the strings just hanging off it had to hurt.

Another's back had caused the boys head to whip around in the direction it had come from. The wolf appeared and Nix saw it was their uncle. Thst was something of a relief since he didn't really want their parents to catch them. He looked at his sister when she whispered into his ear. "I don't know. Stay for the moment," he whispered back. Though he didn't want to be told that they shouldn't be out there since he already knew they weren't supposed to be. Still he was curious.

Their uncle spoke again suggesting they watch the deer from further away. Nix looked at Seph, "What do you think?" He asked her still whispering. His attention was caught again by the man when he said he wouldn't tell their parents they were out so late.