It was with tantalizing delight that Isodora scuttled her way through the rocky territory of the bluffs, her jaws clamped tightly around her prize. The needle points of her fangs poked tiny holes in the antelope's bone she carried, aiding in her grip until she could curl up in a cozy corner of her choosing to begin gnawing on the thing. She craved a mother's milk as much as any cub, but the feeling of biting against bone with all the strength of her jaws was just too satisfying for anything else to compare. Her teeth scraped and her gums bled, and the child growled lowly with bliss.

The moon had risen high up to the center of the night sky by then, casting a luminescent glow on the rocks and on the individual strands of fur on her shaggy, blue pelt. She took comfort in that glow--felt its cool and soothing protection over her which she could take passive power in while she chewed.

@Xavier

code by corvus

i

have known anger before war or walking / i have known fear before i have known love

---

As he grows -- agonizingly slowly, it feels -- he finds himself somewhat restless on the more calm nights, without the whistle of the Bluff's harsh winds to lull him asleep. The silence settled over the red land is eerie, a void so deep that it wakes him. He stares out at the night sky for a long moment before carefully dragging himself from the den, giving dappled pelt a shake to loosen his muscles and stretch.

He roams, each day further in the territory. It's in searching the cliffs below for anything interesting that he spots tiny movement. He hones in on it, prowling towards it in a low trot. Day by day, he learns how to walk more steadily on the harsh terrain, but his paws -- far too big for his current form -- get in his way often, to his frustration.

Tonight, though, they cooperate enough to let him draw near in silence. He watches, unmoving, from above Isodora, squinting at her with a wrinkled expression that has become almost characteristic for him. The disdain is written across his face. Already, the instinctive beast within has begun to build the walls of us and them, and the strange enigmatic cub that had appeared in the Bluffs fell well into the latter category. He still thinks it's dumb that they took her in, but he knows his parents would scold him if he said it.

They're not here, now, though. And his eyes have latched onto what she has -- a bone. His pupils practically double in size. Target acquired.

He pounces, seeking to leap upon the much smaller cub from above, with no regard to how much heavier he is and the potential for her to be hurt. He seeks to snap the bone from above her with his jaws, hoping to snatch it away. It's his, now!

Art by Rabbit, table by cala

She darted her gaze upward to watch him as she gnawed, her eyes shimmering with interest though she did not tear away from the task between her paws. Perhaps she should have recognized the way his pupils grew as a threat, but, it did not occur to her that anyone would dare so something so bastardly as to take her prize. She let out a mewl of protest as his weight crushed her tiny frame against the rocks below, writhing and wriggling in an attempt to push him off of her.
"Off!" Isodora commanded with a growl. Bits of their language managed to find their way into her vocabulary over time, though they made her tongue feel awkward and tumbling. "Mine!" She insisted as she lurched forward, attempting to snatch the thing back with her teeth. She gritted her teeth together harder and pulled her weight backward to try and use it to pry her precious bone away from the Wolfbron prince.

@Xavier

code by corvus

i

have known anger before war or walking / i have known fear before i have known love

---

Xavier expects a fight -- he's never been able to take something without one due to the volatile nature of the Dieudonné children. But there are few that he has lost at an age where strength determines everything, where many muscles are not developed enough to form the grace required to keep something away from him. It's turned him into quite the bully, which he embraces wholly. So far, it's got him what he wants.

He snarls a little cub snarl. She catches him a little off-guard when she pulls her whole weight back, but he quickly seeks to mirror her, leaning his fat butt back to pull at it harder. "Non!" (No!) he growls through teeth gritted around the bone. "Est Dieudonné! Home! Mine!" When he'd sat with Cassine on the plateau and looked out over the land, and she'd confirmed that it was ours, he'd taken it quite literally. It's all theirs. Not hers.

Art by Rabbit, table by cala

He hissed more words that made little sense to the girl, except for that last one--Mine! Isodora scowled as they both clamped down on the bone and began to tug, surprised to find that his brute force was enough to make her teeth scrape against their prize as it threatened to break free from her grasp. Her chest filled with fiery rage at the notion of having what was rightfully hers stolen by this boy who had never been anything but unpleasant to her.

In a moment of innovation, her mind cleared and presented to her the apparent solution to her problem. Crazy as it seemed, she let go all at once. Let the giant boy pull back with all his might only to be met with no resistance on her end.

@Xavier

code by corvus