This content might touch on topics that are sensitive or triggering for some readers. Trigger Warning for mentions of murder, cruelty, cub death, gore, helah being helah. PLEASE be advised, this is a dark post- one of Helah's worse. Read at your own risk.

stygian shore || august y9 || @Revna

She was not much on self-reflection, more keen to live in the now. Yet, as she sat, as dawn broke across the horizon, she found herself staring at the water- contemplating life. Much had changed, agreeing to a proposal, agreeing to do things for a chance at power... Helah never thought she'd find herself within this position. That made her think, made her contemplative.

She considered the thing she had done to find herself exiled from her home-land. A place where she had never been wanted, never belonged. She remembered how she had coaxed the young cub- no more than four months of age away from the pride. It had been a game for her, to lure him away from his mother- the stupid preening bitch.

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The cub had followed her, and when she'd gotten further away she had made her move, pouncing on him without mercy. She had slowly flayed the child, listening to his squeals and screams with a sense of satisfaction, and it was the noise that had alerted the others. She- coated in the babes blood, had tried to say she'd saved him from rouge- there were scents all around, and yet... no one had believed her.

The cub had bled to death before a medic could arrive, had flailed on the ground from where her claws had struck its nerves and left it twitching. That cub had been the only living offspring of it's mother- who had been hunting when Helah lured him away. The satisfaction she had felt, upon watching her break apart had been perhaps one of the most proud moments in all of her life.

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Helah smiled, as the sun crested over the shore, the star casting a myriad of light and color across the churning waters. A cool breeze ruffled her fur, surely blowing her scent around, but she merely sat there- studying the water. She listened to the waves as they rocked against the shore, watching the fish flop against the surface distantly. Was that a fin of a shark? She could see things shifting in the water- a place that she sure as hell had no intention of entering.

Helah wondered, what would she do in this land that she was proud of? Truly, it hadn't been about killing the cub- no he had been nothing more than fodder to her course of revenge against it's bitch of a mother who had made Helah feel unwanted. Perhaps she would lay waste to a pride, perhaps needlessly kill someone here. Or perhaps power would not be so hard to grasp, she wouldn't have to do such depraved things.

Helah did not know, but what she did know was the sweetest scent in all the land was on that breeze- as it swirled around her, breaking her away from her thoughts and the darkness. Helah smiled, as she trilled. "Well, hello pretty Revna." A greeting to the other lioness, a welcome to disrupt her from her darkest thoughts and acts. A welcome reprieve from the pride that coursed through her veins- the best distraction.

ART BY YUMPY, CODE BY LARS

For some reason she is still drawn to the sea.

It was such a part of her life for so long, even after losing a daughter to the waves. Now it still calls to her; a habit that is hard to leave behind, even if she has left behind the family that is so closely tied to it. It is hard not to imagine all that she has lost as she watches the waves lap against the black sands of the shore. A daughter, a husband. How much more would she have lost to Vellen if she had continued on the path her earlier years had set her on?

Darkness draped over the island like a black cloak as she arrived at the sea and took a seat to watch the breaking dawn. It comes slowly, the sun beginning to peek over the horizon and painting the scant clouds and pale sky with oranges and soft pinks. A few seabirds drift along the air currents above, dipping and gliding on the wind across the skies. She watches them, focused and thinking, and does not realize that she is not alone on the shores until a familiar scent tickles her nose.

They are like night and day, @Helah and Revna. Good and evil, opposite sides of the spectrum. But there is darkness in both of their pasts if different shades of black. Revna willingly sent her child into the sea, where she met her death. And Helah? Well, she had her own dark past that she considered with pride. Shame and pride, good and evil, dark and light. And yet, somehow, the two are drawn together in a strange dance that began with their first fight.

She stands up from her contemplative place on the sand and follows the scent farther down the beach, approaching the colorful woman slowly. Helah scents her first and calls to her, using the same language they always have with each other. There is something in Helah that brings out a darker side of Revna - even if it is only a shade of gray compared to Helah's darkness - and she enjoys the thrill of each meeting. A smirk tugs at her lips as she is drawn from her own dark thoughts. She approaches Helah and sits so close beside her that their sides brush together. "And if I am pretty what does that make you?" she purrs in return, cocking an eyebrow up in question.

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Revna is not someone that Helah should consort with. But let's be honest, Helah is mostly made up of things she shouldn't do. She is a Sovreign of Vermeda Brook, the pride that Helah had her own issues with. She hadn't forgotten the annoyance of Cassandra's interference in her fight with Louve. Rude. It wouldn't be a slight that Helah would ever forgive.

And then Revna the beautiful female who had bested her in a fight, the female who's allegiance was... problematic. Yet, here she was again, and Helah felt a thrill within her- a thrill for whatever this was.

And if I am pretty what does that make you?

Helah smirks, her eyelashes fluttering over her own eyes. "Gorgeous of course. Sexy, stunning." She said, listing adjectives. "Though I'll say I could definitely use some of those adjectives to describe you, anytime." She speaks with a sly smirk.

"What are you doing out here alone in the dark? Looking for trouble?" A flirting question, as she cocked her own head to study the other female.

@Revna

ART BY YUMPY, CODE BY LARS