Sanguine Cove where the heart is? [m]

AW! Nori isn't officially joining in this thread but I got OOC permission for her to come back to the pack before @Nash returned from his trip.

Returning to the mountain brought her some measure of relief. At least in the sense she wasn't alone in a physical sense. She was tired on many levels, and she knew she was underweight. Couldn't remember the last time she'd eaten a decent amount of food. Her fur was dirty and unkempt, which used to be near sacrilege for the vain woman, but she hadn't had the energy to maintain it.

Her head hurt. She didn't know if being so close to the Cove was helping or hurting on that level.

Dull brown eyes fixed on her paws, still dirty, still cracked and bleeding. Hadn't they been so, since she'd dug Archer's grave? Would it ever be alright to clean them?

Nori instinctively halted before the border and, after a moment of hesitation, raised her head to call for... anyone who was listening. She was allowed to come back, and she knew that, but underneath the weight of shame and guilt and grief she still felt a flutter of anxiety in her chest.

(This post was last modified: Jun 04, 2024, 03:21 AM by Nori.)

Her father and brother were gone.

For the first time in her life, her grief had exploded into an anger. So raw and unimaginable that she kept away from everyone unless she spoke things that could not be revoked. All she could think of when she thought of the Sanguine leader was how disgustingly stupid. It, in turn, disgusted and guilted her to think of her own father in such a way. It shocked her to her very core each time a horrible thing wiggled its way through her brain. Yet she was dizzied by what she could only think to be selfishness.

Their elder had died. Then a child had died.

He had gone away and as if it wasn't good enough, Matos had gone with. She could not fathom a single reason at all that would have been good enough for them to go. News of death didn't change, it would always be the same outcome. He could have...waited. Only he hadn't.

It meant that those who could have answered this call were slim pickings and it was unfortunate for all involved that Eclypse skulked her way there. Head splitting with an ache from gnawing anything she could get her teeth on. The stress had morphed her into an unkempt creature with seemingly permanent bed-tussled fur and her features sunken.

The figure on their borders hardly looked much better.

What do you want? Her tone was a pointed sword of judgement and the stance she took made it abundantly clear of who belonged here.

For a second, Nori almost thought Moonshadow had risen from the grave to greet her. That, or Nori herself had joined her grandmother in the afterlife. But upon closer inspection, as haggard as the wolf before her looked, it became clear that this was a young girl. A yearling at best.

And an angry one.

Nori didn't really care. She didn't really care about anything, right now. If she had any energy left to spare on thinking about it, she might realize it was becoming quite the problem.

What do you want?

The vitriol in the question wasn't entirely unexpected with how the kid had approached her. Like a guardian ready to kick out an intruder. Nori supposed she looked every bit the part of a mangy stray.

"Nothing," she answered simply, staring down Moonshadow's mini-me. They had to be related somehow, she realized - which meant Nori was probably related to this kid, too. "What do you want?"

What new stupidity was this?

Eclypse wondered if they whole world had lost their brains and she simply hadn't caught the message. Her nostrils flared and her stance only further edged into a flaring dominance. A stranger who came to make demands of nothing. She found the thought impossible.

I want you gone if you really want nothing. Once eyes of soft moons had become gunmetal, hard and cold. So is that your final answer? Nothing? The problem was that there could be possibly no right answer to give. If they wanted to join, Eclypse had sunk the ship and the leader was away anyway. If they wanted to see someone, she would have turned them away just as sharply too.

Neither one of them could win and Eclypse only seemed intent on making sure this woman was miserable with her.

Her words only served to irritate the girl further, and Nori somehow still didn't care. She'd been hoping to meet Nash again, but fate had other plans. It seemed to be throwing her a lot of curveballs recently. Her own stance was neutral - not antagonistic nor submissive.

"Doesn't matter what I want. I think you would've wanted me gone regardless," she replied. "You looked like you made up your mind before I even said anything."

Nori flicked her gaze over the yearling once more. She really did look like Moonshadow. "I think," she began, blinking slowly, "we have the same grandmother." There was no way they didn't, and unless Moonshadow had had another litter of pups very late in life, this girl must've been Nash's.

She was right, but it didn't matter. A stranger had no say here in these lands. At least not as far as Eclypse was concerned.

It was unfortunate that this stranger dug her next words into the gaping wound of grief. The yearling held more grief in her heart for her grandmother than anyone else she had ever lost or been saddened by. It was unfortunate that she might have been excited to meet more family any other times or connect lines with relations.

Yet the thought of her grandmother was too much. Her head roared with pain and emotions that exploded into harsh words.

What does it matter if she's dead? Her tail had now come to sit fully over her spine, her head lifted tall and her words had been accented with the peel back of her lip. There was a hatred so vile and venomous on her face. A hatred that was so terribly misplaced.

I think you're right. I would've wanted you gone regardless, but I'll make sure you leave now.

Given that she'd never met this kid before in her life, Nori doubted she actually hated her as much as she expressed. There was a lot going on, and they'd both just lost important people. What would it hurt, for the girl to take it out on a stranger for a minute? It wasn't like Nori was going to fight back.

"She's not important anymore just because she's dead?" Nori questioned then, arching a brow. She didn't have much of a point to the question - it was just... sad, she figured. Sad that Moonshadow was gone, sad that the kid was so fucked up over it, and sad that Nori still didn't feel anything.

Make her leave, hm? After she'd braved the mountain to come back? Nori almost wanted to argue, but...

"Go ahead," she urged, wondering if the girl was just going to tear into her on the spot. "Make me."

marking this post Mature for some kind of excessive blood talk just to be safe SORRY
leaving this entirely open to your interpretation and if you want dice rolls, let me know <3

It felt like a rock to her head. It felt like blood pooled in her skull or ran down her face. Tears felt like blood to her now and she had not realized it. It was not her head that had been cracked open but it was the emotional well within her. Her anger and grief seemed to toil enough that words could not be a release now.

Her body was acting before she could have stopped it.

It was the worst part about being a yearling, full grown but hardly fully mature.

She launched herself at once with jaws wide and aimed directly for the woman. Tears felt like blood, but she need actual blood now. To taste it, to feel a warmth that wasn't this gaping cold in her.

M for some description of injury

Nori had expected this. Had encouraged it. It wasn't surprising when the girl lunged forward and teeth met her ear, and Nori yanked away on instinct. Her ear stung and throbbed, and it was the most she'd felt in ages. Blood ran like tears down her face, pooling in her right eye and dripping down her cheek. The girl was crying, it seemed, real tears - tears that Nori had been unable to muster.

She felt them, though. Her eyes burned, her throat tightened, her chest constricted.

"Good," she said, shaking her head and sending blood splattering across the stones. A chunk of her ear had come away when she'd yanked back, but she didn't care. Who was she impressing, anyway?

Honey brown eyes locked onto the girl once more, studying her. It probably wasn't enough - might never be, really, - but Nori didn't mind playing the role of punching bag for a while.

"Come on," the woman encouraged. "You still haven't chased me off yet."

just noting here that nori is fully welcome to beat her up too, accidental or not :innocent:

It did not feel good.

Blood on her teeth, her tongue. No amount of blood shed would possibly bring back anyone who had lost their own. Yet it was the only thing that brought her out into the world. The promise of violence had rustled her out of the depths of her misery, but it had launched her into something else entirely.

The goading only solidified her choice to continue.

This time her teeth aimed for the woman's shoulder instead of her face. Eclypse wanted this woman gone, but she wanted there to be a reminder of her when the time came for them to part bloody ways.