scarlett

if you come over tonight, we can travel through time. we can sleep on the ceiling, and creep under black lights.

Scarlett heard the call from the Firnen King. She had been taking a nap in her den, but the call was enough to wake her up. Lazily she got up and stretched, and then finally made her way to the crowd that had gathered.

She plopped her rump down onto the ground, remaining in the back and trying to keep to herself. She couldn't help but wonder what this was all about though. She supposed it made sense however, there hadn't been a meeting in quite some time. She blinked the grogginess away, and curled her tail around her paws.

_{BG — CODE}

midnight mass
a crimson pool so warm and deep
lulls me to an endless sleep

His sister was the first to arrive, and he regarded her as warmly as he may through the storm of his mind – a brief grin whose cut rose and fell the nearer she came. Before she could come too close he stepped over the empty space where Ludivine once basked, possessive of its barren cold, with a rough heft. None deserved that place, even if it would never be warmed by her again. But @Astarte stops short, only close enough to relay some interesting news. Lorelei was placed in the possession of her husband’s ally. Gauthier’s grin faded to utter nothingness then, his features darkened and suspicious. Before Devorre, they were Rike indeed. How this realization broke upon him in slivers of chill, seeking her eyes with his own with sharp deliberation.

What ally would have once been of no concern to him. Yet now its subject is prevalent, especially on the heels of what was to come.

He leaned toward her as the pride began to arrive, the grit of his claws on the stone slipping across its face with a hiss as his weight shifted. We will speak on this later. There was no need to engage in the deeper conversation when there were tendings of greater importance at hand: the ambiguity surrounding most recent events requiring the utmost attention.

Everick and Etienne settled close by, followed by his son and daughter. Briefly he scanned the rest as they filed in, pleased by those who had made their punctual attendance - and perturbed that not all yet filled their ranks. Each took their desired place among the rest, the wreckage, attentive and silent. Each looking to him for answers to the questions that had not yet found their lips.

A deep breath swelled his lungs with trepidation – not for the anticipation of their reactions but for the barbed weight his words would hold over his heart. As though the quiet could suffer the imagination that nothing had ever happened; that through denial, all could still be undone. But there is wrath that quakes in his voice when it rattles up his throat like the smog of stoked embers, and for all its cold truth there is only heat that fills the space between every hard word. Ludivine and Léontine are dead by the hand of Wolfbron. His expression twitched with a snarl that tugged his lip over the flash of fang. I have been assured that it was a mistake. he toyed with the last word in bitterness, venom on his tongue. But I am not so forgiving of such steep disorder. His eyes narrowed as he recounted: blood for blood. Body for body. Yet could he even be satisfied with that alone?

It would never replace what was lost.

Gauthier hesitated for a moment, considering the bearing of everything that would follow. He, too stubborn to accept that the loss and its reckoning belonged to anyone else, idealized the thought that its labor would be his alone. But as he looked to those of Firnen, he knew that many held Ludivine in high regards and would be unwilling to allow him to see it out on his own. With its disgruntled assent, he continued. If Amara’s body is not deposited upon our doorstep, consider it a final offense. Train. Recruit those that are unafraid of dirtying themselves in blood. I have fortified our alliance with Isla of Scilla Lagoon and shall seek a stronger bond through their own allies. In exchange for their assistance, we must also offer ours. An undaunted unity.

A claw ticked against the smooth surface of the boulder on which he stood, his gaze dropped to the empty space. Lower, headier, and ignited by an irascible grief, If a member of the Bluffs rises against you even before my demand is met, show no mercy. He would not yield to their insolence on the bond of mere words, waiting for a debt that may never be paid. His patience had always been a tight string, but never so prone as this, so easy to s n a p.

He would see it paid, one way or another.

_{BG — ART — CODE}

He waited, and waited, and waited. Seemed the others of the pride weren't so prompt as his mother and himself. Lorelei didn't show, and he gave his mother a sideways glance of confusion, not having heard the discussion between her and Gauthier. Where the hell had his sister gone? Whatever, he wasn't her keeper. Not while mother was around and could do so. He didn't actually... know who Gauthier was talking about, but his lips peeled back in a low snarl to match the high sovereign's own regardless. Someone had dared to kill not one but two of them and the patriarch was upset about it so he would be too. Here was a chance to prove himself, but he would have to train first, he knew. He didn't have any experience with fighting, and throwing himself into the fray too soon would mean he wouldn't be useful. But once he had... there would be blood.

ART AND CODE BY SHAZ

She hadn't meant to be late to the meeting. Jiera had gotten so engrossed by her work in her garden that, even after hearing the summoning call from Gauthier, her mind was so full of what she needed to get done. It wasn't until a little while later that she remembered, cursing to herself as she makes her way hastily toward where the call had come from. She would stick to the back as she pushed out from the undergrowth and brush, green eyes surveying the crowd before landing upon her King. She made it just in time, it seemed, as he was just getting started.

And it was news she was not expecting.

Not seeing Ludivine next to him or leading the meeting was odd, but his words made it very clear why her presence was lacking. So Wolfbron had not only killed her Queen but the Queen's sister. Lips pull into a thin line as perked ears continue to listen, the lead medic making a mental note of having more in her stores since it seemed as though fights would be on the horizon sooner than later.

ART BY 86, CODE BY DEE, MODIFIED BY GUNNER

At least, the meeting begins. However, Amorette feels her eyelids drifting as she pretends to listen. A lot of this means nothing to her. There is a list of names and that is all they are to her. Foreign names. There is mention of a body brought to their doorstep, a slight flicker of an ear to show interest but it is quickly pulled back again. It seems they are waiting rather than doing and that was enough to drive her crazy. She lingers where she sits, waiting for others to move and leave before she does so as well. Unless she was given a direct order to shed blood, she would go back to her den and take a nice nap.

Art by Rabbit || Code by Zay

Dead by the hand of Wolfbron.

There is no word strong enough to convey the white hot wrath burning in her veins. There is no fire that burns bright enough, hot enough, to incinerate all that she wishes to destroy. There is no supernova in the universe that could explode in greater strength than how she clenches her teeth together as she arrives silently on the scene, blood bursting in her mouth as a single tooth snaps under pressure.

She approaches to stand alongside her sister, eyes narrowed dangerously on her father as he continues to speak and explain. Her tongue runs along her bloody maw as she presses into her twin, the only sort of reassurance she needs in such a time as this.

art ♥ code

There was a massive skip of her heart when Gauthier addressed that both Ludivine and Leontine had fallen at the hands of Wolfbron. A feeling in her breast as if someone had taken their claws and scraped out her very chest cavity and left nothing there. Carina might not have felt that she was on the same page as her two feminine leaders but she had done what she could to serve them anyways. So with the rest of what he said, she listened in the growing silence. There was no fear within her to wage war against but she felt the ever pressing presence of needing to protect Taraji at the very least. To make sure that she was prepared for the path ahead.

^{ART BY RABBIT, CODE BY CALA}