she only realizes what is happening too late.

it is @Victoria that fang scurries after, heart hammering uncomfortably in her chest. she recalls her own anxious adventure to the bluffs when she was young, unceremoniously following after feyre only to be thwarted by nephthys. thank gods. but this time it doesn't look like the youths are so lucky. when she manages to lurch onto the scene, it's already divulging a little into chaos. anxiety churns in her gut and the yearling bounces from paw to paw as she watches from a distance. "what would mom do?" she breathes, her ears settling against her skull and dismay dashing across her expression.

her mom would be way cool and kick their furry little rears home, she's sure.

groaning under her breath, she bounds a few steps closer and jerks to a stop at the edge of the border. looking downright miserable, she watches the little scrap unfold in front of her. as she watches, @Nephthys offers a snap to the oasis male that has crossed the borders after the kids. eagerly, she rolls up onto her toes, tiny frame lifting like a flower towards the sun. "neph!" she calls, voice high and certain - it never occurs to her, here, that nephthys could be a bluffs lion before a tollaire. but she stays where she is, on the right side of the border, even if she wants to launch her small frame across it and burrow herself against her sister's side.

fang hopes if she respects their laws that they'll give their cubs back. maybe if she asks extra, extra sweetly...._{BG — ART: drifty — CODE: dee}

i lost myself into the night i clipped my wings and fell from flight

Mayhem draws her attention. Where her home is normally quiet, save for the children who live here, today it is chaotic. She can hear the squabbling and smell unfamiliar bodies that shouldn't be here, and her protective nature finds no hesitation in making her way towards the commotion.

She is still just as quiet as she has always been, but there is more of a confidence about Bee now -- a calmness where she had once been a storm. Within their borders, she sees the cause of it all: strange cubs who do not belong here, and the young Dieudonné sisters putting them in their place.

A half smirk flashes across her lips and the Bezra makes her way to @Amara's side, mismatched eyes quietly watching the chaos unfold. An adult male has followed the unknown children across the border, but @Nephthys is quick to intercept him. For now, she remains a quiet sentinel beside her queen, an ear flicked inward towards Amara, alert but not yet on the verge of intervening.

table by sentinel / art

The snarls and cacophony of his siblings fighting someone echo off the stones of the Bluff, and the boy is fury incarnate. He drops what he's doing, the tattered fur he'd been shredding with growing teeth abandoned instantly -- passing material joys tossed aside without thought or care. As much as he squabbles over things and having them, his priorities are clear as he moves single-mindedly toward the sounds.

It's chaos, with his siblings locked into a rolling brawl versus two unfamiliar cubs, a little larger than they. He idly is aware of his mother present -- and not intervening, signaling approval to him -- as well as another unfamiliar man being confronted by more familiar Bluff faces. The adult strangers don't matter -- yet. He gallops unfazed into the chaos.

With both Elaine and Severine barreling down upon the gray-clad stranger (@Diantha) from both sides, Xavier moves to assist Louve with the brown cub. With Louve on one of the cub's sides, the colossal child attempts to pounce upon the cub's rear from behind. He attempts to plant both mitts of needled claws into each of @Victoria 's haunches, mirrored on each side, as he tries to grab and drag her away from his siblings. Tiny, voracious snarls tear from his throat, and he sees little except for cub-washed red. Nobody touches his family! Only he's allowed to do that!

xavier, louve, severine, elaine
vs
victoria, diantha
for
dominance !!

round one of three

Hits:

Rolling 4d20: 18 + 3 + 16 + 15

Dodges:

Rolling 0d20: 19

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 10 + 18 + 3 + 20 + 1

Art by Rabbit, table by cala

As always, she is the one who cannot hear the commotion, but during one of her commonplace patrols of the border the deaf lioness smells them. And she knows this smell. Remembers it from one of her first journeys across Amaryllis after arriving. The oasis had been a frightening place back then, riddled with the unknown and with violence- apparently that has not changed. Having learned that willful trespassers never have good intentions, the woman about-faces and begins to track the trail left by multiple members of Andal, demeanor unquestionably pissed off.

Finding them is not difficult, huntress that she is. They have made no attempt to conceal their scent, a fact that riles her rage even further, but she can also ascertain that there is cub smell among the strangers. Confusing, but not enough to quell the growing flame of her anger. When bodies finally come into view, Ursula understands the how but still not the why. Not that it matters. Their littlest warriors have their claws and mouths full of intruder cubs, two splashed in white and stripes in a way that foretells their directly shared lineage. If the situation were different, the Bezra might have smiled at the scene, content to settle down and spectate as Amara's brood overwhelms their opposition.

It's not different, though. Directly in front of her is the shapely arse of a large brown lion, one that does not belong here. The old adage of seeing red is not true for Ursula, but putting a visage to the smell that she's been hounding does peel her lips up and away from her clenched teeth. @Nephthys has intercepted the male but he does not yet bleed and so the spotted Bezra takes it upon herself to change this. Vermier's teachings have obviously stuck, and well. Blood is payment for trespassing, for disrespect. And, sometimes, so is loss. If Ursula truly had her way, she would be stealing one of these brats (specifically Diantha) since they apparently wanted to be among Wolfbron so badly. But alas, the great enforcers of the world change the Bezra's mind somehow.

Approaching at a fast walk, her paws do not make much noise against the ground, the hope being to use her pridemate's interception of the male as a distraction. @Amara and @Beelzebub's presence is noted but not outright acknowledged, Ursula's focus remaining fully on her chosen target. Freckled ears pin to her ruffled nape, and lilac eyes widen with unbridled aggression, lengthy tail low and snapping at her hocks. If she manages to draw close enough, she'll briefly rock her weight back onto her haunches before springing forward, intending to pounce onto the male's rump just as she would a zebra. Attempting to use both paws (claws extended) on either side of his hips, the lioness seeks to gain a hold with her rear limbs dangling, ready to maintain her balance and weight. Simultaneously, her jaws snap outward in an effort to bite him across the top of his back.

They will all learn this day that their actions do have real consequences.

Ursula vs @Rielus
You Fucked Up Dominance
Round One of Three

Hits:

Rolling 5d20: 2 + 11 + 15 + 12 + 16

Dodges:

Rolling 2d20: 17 + 14

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 20 + 13 + 14 + 7 + 6

code by corvus

The buzz of chaos is thick in the air, coiling around the coolness of the Buffs in a torrent that cannot be mistaken. It's as if a fissure has cracked open, erupting like a volcano upon the lands. Kieran has disappeared, once more, but she remains behind if only out of loyalty to the bloodline. His children prove just as good of something for the woman to obsess over as she has her sibling. Languid steps press into the cool ground as electric eyes flash with mirth as she peers at the children scuffling and her eyes go to Amara, briefly flickering to the singular adults, before going back to her. this is a much better use of the day. Are we going to dine on him? she inquires with amusement, eyes tracking the intruder. She was absolutely famished and wouldn't protest over a witless fight if she got a gnaw on some poor soul.

_{BG — ART — CODE}

The young girl finds herself lucky as her attack lands and she finds herself on the stranger's back. Her claws grip the back of @Diantha and Elaine has a single goal. Hold on and don't let go. She "attempted" to dig her claws in deeper to get a better hold and "attempted" to bite into whatever flesh she could get ahold of to help maintain her grip. Her blue eyes watch as each of her siblings jump into the fight as well. She was leading this pack but they would work together for the first time against a common enemy. She couldn't wait to see who their next target would be but for now, this was their goal. Even as another stranger gets in on the mix, their goal was the same.

"Elaine, Xavier, Louve, Severine, vs. @Diantha, @Victoria"
Dom Match / My house!
Round 2 / 3
Hits:

Rolling 3d20: 9 + 20 + 18

Dodges:

Rolling 1d20: 17

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 16 + 3 + 12 + 5 + 1

table by k'sariya

Chaos erupts at their borders, and the only reason Echo is late to arrive behind her first two sisters is to grab the sachel of emergency medicines she always had prepared now. More than once war had broken out under her feet and at her borders, more than once was she caught in a helpless situation with cubs dying...drowning... before her. Each one seemed more violent than the last, as though enough blood had not been shed for a lifetime already. First, it had been the Sigrun challenges and coming to live under their oppressive strength. Then it was Vermeda, whose bloody aftermath still finds her in sleep. So when she hears fighting from the borders, Echo fears for her home.

Would someone lose their eye today? Would someone die?

This time, it may not be strangers and Sigrun who come out in pieces but her own family - and Echo is terrified.

When she arrives, she is slinking towards @Beelzebub and @Amara once before turning about and pacing back again. Her eyes are frantic and focus first on the scuffle between all the cubs and then on @Ursula nervously. Then, they find @Fang, and her eyebrows knit wearily. The intentions of this small band (maybe parents and their small cubs?) are unclear to her, but it is very clear they are trespassing. This didn't look like the war party that had consumed Vermeda, but Echo feels primal fear grip her heart and mind all the same as she swears she can hear the tearing fur and rending flesh still just before her as loud it had been that day. It makes her stomach churn.

+15 Follow a character without getting caught (1/2) (Neph)
+15 Leave a trail of confusing tracks (1/2)

After his little workout with the Lightstone Guardian, he had left relaxed and in a good mood. As he had shared with Gawain, Bhaskar had the intentions to go visit Nephthys at the Bluff's borders. With that being said, when he approached the borders he saw a group from afar. The rogue was about to turn around before they could spot him, but the striking red pelt of his friend pulled him closer.

He slipped into the outskirts, while keeping an eye on the group, and masked any tracks that he left behind in the dust. Why? Because he was about to enter the territory. He slipped past the border and used the large rocks of the territory to hide nearby the gathering. Once within viewing range, Bhaskar narrowed in on the maroon Tollaire girl who was threatening some brown man, much older and stronger than her. He felt his heart skip with anxiety, but there was little he could do now. Amara was there, and a few other Wolfbron lions. Was that Fang, too? Wasn't the maned girl a Tollaire as well? And why the hell were those cubs fighting?

Bhaskar is hiding_{BG — ART — CODE}

i'd swim the ocean for you,

He was no fool. Trespassing brought consequences that he was quite aware of. That is why he had built defenses at the sight of @Amara. Yet she was not the only one to arrive on scene of the intruders, another thing to be expected. Cubs seemed to find trouble at every turn as he was finding out rather quickly after having met Diantha. Thoughts of grabbing the child had entered his mind but Victoria had also shown up, which posed a problem for him to escape the pride land unscathed with both. Of course, @Nephthys had shown then, with hissed instructions for him to leave immediately - that they would return the children once their punishment had doled out. This was not enough for Rielus; his narrowed eyes had turned on the lioness, the planes of his dark face neutral as he kept his head low and shoulders slightly forward. "I will escort the children home. They have no right to be here, and neither do I, but I only come with the intention of taking them home." For some reason he doubted that reason would be met by the lions of this pride.

Just as he had begun the reconsideration of removal for the cubs pricks of pain lit his rump on fire. His body swayed to the left as he had turned to meet the danger, placing Ursula's jaws just off to the right on his backside and creating a more loose hold as she bit down. Rielus would attempt to break the hold on his hips, his body swinging in an arc to the left as his open jaws sought to grasp Ursula's forearm at the joint region. He wanted to dislodge the lioness as quickly as possible with a feeling of urgency as he presumed Nephthys would join the fray.

What a mess for two cubs.

Rielus vs @Ursula
Dominance
Round 1 / 3
Hits:

Rolling 6d20: 15 + 17 + 3 + 10 + 8 + 16

Dodges:

Rolling 4d20: 1 + 9 + 5 + 17

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 11 + 5 + 15 + 9 + 6

^{code by wallflower bg from unsplash}

Her teeth sink into the loose skin on the side of @Diantha's neck, and Séverine attempts to shake like a dog with a bone, her ears slapped back against her skull. However, then @Victoria is jumping into the fray from behind her, and the pale cub snarls as teeth clamp down onto her spine. She whips around with a yowl, twisting onto her back and lashing out at the other girl's face with extended claws. @Louve and @Xavier are soon to follow into the fray, leaving the trespassers heavily outnumbered by Dieudonne royalty. She is vaguely aware of another fight breaking out nearby between some of the adult lions, but she has eyes only for her current tussle. Their cohesion as a unit is only proof of the formidable force that they will become as they get older -- a display of unity and power.

séverine, elaine, louve, & xavier vs diantha & victoria
for dominance/gtfo
move two of three
Hits:

Rolling 3d20: 4 + 19 + 13

Dodges:

Rolling 1d20: 1

Luck:

Rolling 5d20: 2 + 9 + 7 + 14 + 19

table by k'sariya