[OOC: Just outside VB Borders, stomp/marching east]

She had survived the winter.. the abandonment of Iwaya...The change in scenery.. but it had changed the girl. Romah moved silently through the Brooks pridelands - her amethyst gaze taking in the trees and shrubs around before she paused just inside the invisible line. The child looked over her shoulder, her tail hanging limply between her still chubby cub thighs. The child couldn't get _far_ but she could get. And get she would.

Determined to find Iwaya, to find her parents she crossed the borders of the Brook and stomped her way into the neutral lands of the Grove. The girl wanted to find a way to make Orion feel better. She wanted to find momma and papa and drag them back so he would be happy again! Ears pinned to her skull in childlike determination, the three month girl kept marching in a steadfast line. She simply picked a direction and off she went.

LADY MUNTEANU

---

Slitted warm hues peered silently out from the trees, watching with amusement as the small child stomped so purposely forward. Such drive, for such a pitifully small creature... It brought a grin to her face, though one of benevolence? That was questionable.

After many a moment it became clearer that the child was indeed, alone. At least she was for the moment, lacking the proximity of familial scents tailing behind. No one was around, this impudent little thing found themselves a stray lamb away from their flock. This of course prompted the woman to ever so gracefully emerge from her hiding place. Her smile was sweet, maternal- a blanket of sweet honey draped over a certain wolfishness.

"My my... We're awful young to be so far from mother, hm?"

---

@Romah

Romah looked up when the voice broke into her thoughts and stopped in her single-minded determination to stomp her way to her homeland and drag her parents back. The dark pelted cub sat back on her butt, stretching aching legs out as she peered up, and up, and up at the stranger. "I'm gonna find Momma!" Tiny ears pinned against her skull to betray her frustration.

"Momma's Missin. I'ma find momma!" Orion wouldn't be upset if she found their parents. She was oblivious to the danger of this stranger - unaware that anything beyond the need for food and warmth were the dangers that she was able to fall victim to.

LADY MUNTEANU

---

This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of attempted child murder, mentions of cannibalism

Too young to even form sensible words... Nor see the danger in the eyes of a stranger. Motherless. Perhaps that's where the fault in her upbringing lay. In both her age, and the lack of guidance. The longer the woman lingered near the babe, the more obvious it became this was a pride's child. Some pride they were... To let such a small thing slip through their borders.

She could sit here and nitpick the decision making that led up to this all day, but that really wasn't what she was here for. No, she was not one to pass up an opportunity. How long had it been since she'd had the sanguine delicacy of something other than meager prey animals?

"Oh, that's terrible!" She cooed rather dramatically, taking a smooth step forward and leaning her head down towards the wayward child with a warm, comforting glow. "You poor, sweet little thing..." Such innocence, such stupidity. Had her hunger not been so powerful, maybe she'd have taken the child instead. But alas, when opportunity calls, one must answer or risk letting it slip away.

"Let me help you find her."

No sooner had she said that, did her head strike down like a snake. Jaws opened in an attempt to snap down on the small body- no doubt it would fit in her mouth with ease.

---

@Romah

She stared up at the woman with apathy, born of early childhood abandonment and the demoralization of having nothing. Orion was all she had in this world - the girl technically had other siblings, but she didn't know who or where they were. Truthfully, she had been too young to remember the one that had claimed them when they arrived here. Romah let her amethyst gaze look up towards @Lacramioara when she spoke of how sad it was.

The female edged down and something..snaked down her spine. Something screamed in bright, big bold letters in her brain sending a streak of fear straight to the center of that tiny piece of wrinkled flesh between her ears. Romah's eyes widened as she saw those teeth coming for her and S C R E A M E D. High pitched, and terror filled as she stared death in the face.

She turned and tried to dodge from those teeth, throwing her chubby legs as quickly as she could into the foliage that surrounded the borders of the Brook. The steel child would have some sense of self preservation, it would seem as she attempted to dive into the brush that might hide her.


Escape Attempt 1 of 3

Rolling 1d10: 6

LADY MUNTEANU

---

This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of attempted child murder, mentions of cannibalism, cruel imagery.

The splitting scream from the little girl pierced her ears, it was enough to drive her lips upward, revealing more of her pearly fangs. The sheer annoyance of it all. Even more so when her teeth snapped down onto air, sending a frustrating shock wave through her skull.

"Oh no you don't." She growled, pupils thinning into sharpened needles as she sought out the little blue runaway trying to dive into the foliage. Lashing out once again, she was pleased when her teeth caught a little chubby leg in their grasp. Quickly she coiled back to herself, harshly yanking the child along with her before attempting to re-establish the grip- make it tighter. She had to stop that incessant screaming.

---

@Romah
Permission given from Tabs to leg grab!

This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of attempted child murder, mentions of damage to young children.

The terror that had been instilled in her tiny veins had her scrambling, trying to get back to where she had come from when the sharp pain sank down on her hind leg. Romah's jaws parted to scream, this time not out in terror, but in agony. She tried - and failed to swing out with tiny claws to force the female to release her, dangling in the air by her right limb. The child screamed, as fast as she could suck air into her lungs, she would scream.

Ears were pinned to her skull, eyes of dual toned violet rheumy with the pain of having her limb broken - for it was an easy thing to break in the jaws of the adult with a much larger set of jaws than her own. So, she had but one thing left.. She would scream.

"RION...'WAAAYAAA" Her brother.. the owl that often frequented their parents. The tears cascaded from her eyes, spasms wracking her body as the nerve endings that shot down her leg spiked agony into every neuron of her brain.

LADY MUNTEANU

---

This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of attempted child murder, mentions of cannibalism, cruel imagery, child harm

She had it, now dangling in her jaws. It, because it was no longer another lion, but prey she was very ready to consume. But that screaming, that high pitched futile cry for help that made her ears ring! She should have made a better aim for the neck in the beginning. But then again, there was a large part of her that enjoyed the squirm... The struggle of it all.

She'd try to end this quicker. Leave nothing but the echo of the child's cries in her wake.

With little in the way of empathy she clamped down harder. And shook. Could the little thing keep screaming if it was rattled by her force? She'd see how much the little one could cling to survival. Either way, she was already beginning to break into a jog into the underbrush, to get herself further from the strong stench of the swamp-smelling pride lands.

---

@Romah

the scream sent a chill down her spine — fear and panic gripping along the edge of her heart and forcing nymeria into action. it was a foreign and unruly sound upon the air of the usually peaceful forest, one that did not belong here, or anywhere within the confines of her homeland. and so, she lurched from the borders of vermeda, adrenaline thrumming wildly in her veins as she pushed through the shadows of the grove, not quite certain of what she was going to find. but what she did know was that she had promised to protect zulema’s siblings, that she had given her word to care for them as if they were her own flesh and blood. it was for this reason that she could not, would not, let anything happen to them.

but what she saw was even more cruel than the valour ever could have imagined — for there was an unknown woman, with poor @romah clutched between her jaws, beelining for the security of the shadows. "stop!" nymeria cried out, lurching up behind the retreating figures with a look of panic splayed along her features. but she did not stop there, maternal instincts driving her forward as she attempted to get as close as she could, behind and parallel to the rogue. and it was there that the druid would look to outstretch her right forelimb, unsheathed claws attempting to collide with lacramioara’s right thigh in an effort to deter her from escaping with the babe.

Nymeria vs. @Lacramioara
for romah (dominance)
Round 1/3
Hits:

Rolling 6d20: 3 + 18 + 5 + 4 + 9 + 1

Dodges:

Rolling 5d20: 12 + 8 + 18 + 5 + 9

Time had passed quickly and the red woman came by as often as she could, while remaining in the Hollow to take care of her own business for Magnus and the pride. Coming all the way to the Brook was quite the chore of traveling but she was intent to not make the same mistakes that their parents did. Zulema would not leave them. She would not be her parents who simply ditched their children when things got too difficult.

It wasn't until she had arrived at the southern border, with a rabbit in her jaws, that she already had the scent of @Romah in the air. Zulema furrowed her brows and continued east, following the border until she realized that the child wasn't even in the border anymore but outside of it. Though as the Hollow woman began a steady slink away from Vermeda, did she see @Nymeria going full sprint and that was when the screaming hit her.

The rabbit was instantly dropped on the ground as Zulema gave a mad sprint. Crossing the distance between the pride's borders and wherever her baby sister was, hearing the cry of "stop!" and bolting. Not once stopping as she spied a stranger with her sister in teeth, Zulema threw herself forward and lunged in an attempt to throw the front half of her body, with front legs out, to throw around @Lacramioara's neck from the left side.

Zulema & Nymeria vs. Lacramioara
for Dominance
1 of 3 !!
Hits:

Rolling 5d20: 14 + 2 + 9 + 8 + 10

Dodges:

Rolling 7d20: 10 + 17 + 6 + 11 + 16 + 19 + 4

table by ferus, art by munk