Carefully she treads along the border, right side facing the outside of the grove while her blind side remains on the inside of the territory. It was quite...annoying having to consider these things when she was completing tasks that had come so seamlessly to her. Icefang hadn't realized how much she took any of her senses for granted. How had Renozuri managed it? All the constant tripping that befell her within the grove had her reflecting on how her deceased husband had seamlessly traversed his environment. She couldn't recall seeing him falter once and here she was pissed off with 50% of her vision. Today, she would cut her patrol short normally going around her borders once, but the thought of leaving her youngest children alone clawed at her. It pained her to be away for too long, but even the simplest of tasks such as checking the borders, Icefang found it difficult in trusting others to do the job as well as she.

@Velasco

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Velasco X’uekai

Velasco lingers within the brook, his thoughts stuck in orbit. He'd planned to challenge for a better title until it had been filled. Now he lingered like a ghoul, a festering wound in his mind. What to do, what would he be allowed to do? A sickening thought, a weakness. He'd always followed, always obeyed until he hadn't. Then again, there were still two women above him, two aging women.

A white ghost catches his attention and the monster follows her with his eyes for a moment. @Icefang ♔ stood above them all, a chaotic force to be reckoned with a brutality that had controled the X'uekai. Had, when had it become had?

He stands rising to his feet quietly, his eyes never leaving the pale frame of his high queen, his madre. Dark limbs stalk forward towards her, approaching from her blind side. On purpose or forgetfulness? Then again her maimed face, her lost sight was hardly easy to forget. She'd lost again. Oh if only he knew she'd lost to a man, the sweet chaos the knowleg would bring.

code by corvus

If Icefang knew the thoughts that lingered within @Velasco's dark mind regarding her status in the family, she would of beaten him into his place below her ages ago. Aside from the occasional dominance matches for training and to ensure he knew how to fight for when he went out into the world to unleash his chaos, the queen had never harmed him in a serious manner. She walks with a relaxed gait, satisfied with the upkeep of the border's scent lines, but she does not see him approaching from her left. Rather she hears him. The shuffle of paws causes an ear to flick, Icefang stopping as her skull turns to finally take her eldest and larger son into view. She blinks in surprise, realizing how close he was without announcing himself or calling for her attention. "Son?" she regards him neutrally with a quirked brow. Did he need something? Despite his rather...subservient nature for the time that he did live with her, there was just always something that lingered between them that Icefang could not quite put her claw on. It had seemed worse once he found out about his father's death, but with the recent addition of Cassius, the mother didn't quite like the stare that her son was giving her now...as if she was a prey animal he had been stalking.

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She turns to him her mangled face a reminder of everything. Both good and bad, the brook was not the Imperio Sangre or Luminosa. It was not guarded by the chaotic ruthless fire of his father. But by women and twisted words. Lies.

Son?

The monster blinked as if he hadn't been aware he'd stopped when she had and was now staring at her face. Her scarred face.

"Madre"

He offers in return pink eyes tearing from the scarred side to focus on her good eye. Her good eye, she was not supposed to only have one. As much as doubt was growing, as much as something was stirring Velasco was still X'uekai, Was still the son of Renozuri and @Icefang ♔, and someone had dared to harm a member of his family. A crime that should be repaid in blood. "Who did it?" it, not that. Words posed to focus on the criminal over the crime. Who had torn up her face, and who would be paying for their crime in blood?

Velasco X'uekai

code by corvus, art by eightysichs (DA)

He seems just as surprised, blinking back at her when she addresses him. A breeze gently blows past causing her whiskers to twitch as silence falls between them. Blue eye glances over him - @Velasco had always been a harsh reminder of his father and staring at him now caused her heart to twist in her chest. Madre. The syllables take her out of the past as they size each other up. She hated it. Noticing how they all glanced at the glossed over pupil the same way they had at her torn ear when she was confronted by them. Though she knows the injury to her face is far worse than her ear. It made her questionable in their eyes and she could feel them questioning how much longer she would remain at the top. Or, at least, her paranoia told her as much.

Who did it?

Her jaw clenches. That dreadful question. The one that meant someone else had gotten the better of her. She drowns further in the silence - debating. Does she tell him? Does she spin another lie for his ears? The matriarch growls turning her skull, so that her blind side faces him and the good eye scans her other side outside of the borders. The words feel heavy on her tongue, but she forces her ego down. She had lost - that was evident.

"Harou."

She turns her crown to stare back at him.

"King of Andal Oasis."

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@Icefang ♔ seems to contemplate her words and something within the monster's darkens. Another lie spinning in her head? Another knife stabbed into what should have been a strong loyalty between mother and son? As she turns to look into the forest he sees her face, the mutilated part, the crime forever edged into her frame.

Weak.

He can't stop the thought, can't look at her like he had when he'd been her devoted little boy. She'd been everything a lioness could and should be. Strong, brutal, and adored. For he had adored her once, looked up to her as a son would worship the woman who had birthed him. Alongside his father she had been magnificent, she had been grace and violence alongside her mate's brutal and bloodthirsty nature. Now she was broken, beaten... old.

Harou, King of Andal Oasis

Her pale blue eye meets his pink and they stare at each other. In his head, the fight in the passage against a pale boy plays before his mind. There had been another, the Andal king a fuzzy memory almost forgotten. Yet not completely, not enough. "our allies betray us" the monster hums his tone neutral but sharp. Andal had been their allies had they not? And now they had burnt that bridge. Why? Velasco did not know and did not need to know. It didn't matter, what had been said or done on the desert sands all that mattered was that Andal had betrayed them, had hurt one of them.

"An eye for an eye" his dark lips pull into a wide toothy grin his pink eyes narrow as his claws flex into the ground. "Or maybe just an eye for his women and children" or anything else that would harm and hurt the desert king. Vengeance would be sweet and bloody.

Velasco X'uekai

code by corvus, art by eightysichs (DA)

Icefang has her own opinion on @Velasco. Despite the strong resemblance of his father, she saw him much in the same way and that had her often dismissing him in subtle ways that she failed to realize had tarnished their relationship. Spreading lies and excluding him. Things that she shouldn't of done to her firstborn, but it was hard to break habits that had happened time and time again over the years. He might of remained in the background much like his father, but for now he remained loyal, though Icefang wouldn't put all of her trust into him.

Our allies betray us.

"Yes. Andal is no friend of ours while Harou rules it." Her tone is angry, still bitter of the aftermath of their battle. She does not spill details of why they fought and she is thankful that Velasco does not seem interested in prodding for the details as his attention shifts to revenge. The queen's lip twitches with amusement as she steps in to brush her nose gently against Velasco's chin in an affectionate gesture. Something she had rarely done once he entered adulthood. "Why stop at the women and children when we could rip the whole place apart?" Her tone is dark as a sinister grin twists onto her features. "I want the world to tremble when they hear our name."

She glances him over again, tilting her head slightly as she steps back. "A crown has never interested you?"

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