The bear slithered into the lands of Amaryllis. Her father had led her to these lands. She explored the wilds for a short time, simply familiarizing herself with her new home. But father’s intentions were clear. They were here to reunite with the family. The Dieudonné.

Ursa was close by, but she hadn’t exactly made it to The Bluffs. The red stone was hard to miss, so she understood the general direction of the pride.

And much to her surprise; a call for the throne reaches her ears. She stops for a moment, her ears perked up and she couldn’t help but feel curious and confused.

Well, if there was a time to show up then it might as well be now. She approached the borders, and noticed that nobody was there. Oh. The challenge was much deeper into the territory.

She slipped into The Bluffs. If she was intercepted, she would simply explain herself. And if she was attacked, she would simply call for father.

Ursa approached the battleground, and she sat upon one of the higher stones, her sharp claws scraped against the rock. Now the show would begin.

― ★ ―
July Y13 | 1 y/o | Rogue Yearling | at Wolfbron Bluffs

code by scorpixia♡︎

He toddles after his mother, his stubby legs working overtime in an attempt to maintain @Faustine's pace. A woman stands in the center, and the air around him feels oppressive and stale, reminiscent of the way the moisture in the wind cools and condenses before a storm breaks.

He breaks into a little unsteady run and tries to squeeze himself between her front legs to watch the action. @Cassius ♔ is nearby, and Vernon gapes at him in wonderment; dazzled by his sheer size before he turns his attention back on the imminent clash between the two key players. Mama, what happens in the center? Vernon shoots back, mesmerized. Whatever happens inside it, he wants to be in the center.

GOD KILLS INDISCRIMINATELY AND SO SHALL WE

In multiple ways this was inevitable. He cared only for the ancestral command to rule and kill. The individuals should not matter. Should. Simply as he should not want revenge against the matriarch. So he didn't. He simply felt... more elated than usual. Waltzed up, scarred lips flapping, yellow teeth bared with that savage glee. Halted at the perimeter of the fight and scuffed his paws, too eager to sit. There were trespassers going uneaten but he wanted to gauge the direction of the challenge first. There would always be outsiders to harass. A proper pride challenge was rare. The best female would win.

He was a little late, but not on purpose. He'd been exploring outside the territory when the call rang out, the familiar voice drawing him home. If he had not understood the nature of the call initially, it was made obvious by the few strays huddled at their borders. Armande pointedly ignored them as he passed by - the call had come from deep within the territory, let them strain their prying eyes.

By the time he reached the main event, he found his mother had already struck, and there was a loose collection of pride mates present. Whatever quarrel there was between his mother and elder sister, it was between the women to work out. A passing glance over the challenge, and then his attention shifted to seeking out faces who did not belong. Guard dog mode activated.

There was a stranger by his grandmother - she could handle herself against a much younger lioness. A black-and-white man lounging beside his other elder sister as if he belonged there - if he was not welcome, then surely Faustine would see him out.

The first unattended stranger he spotted was a dark brown female that appeared to be around his own age perched above the fight. He'd move to find the path up to her, approaching quietly from behind. "Qui es-tu?" Who are you?. A question, and tone, that promised violence if the answer was not satisfactory. It was possible some of these unfamiliar faces were simply new members he had not yet seen due to his general tendency to keep to himself.

@Ursa

Adrenaline to rewire my mind

I come with knives

code by corvus

His arrival comes at a time most unanticipated.

It has been some years since Xavier fled Amaryllis, and the first thing he expects when arriving at the borders is the look of Lune's—justifiably—angry, betrayed expression. But the outskirts are hauntingly empty, and before Xavier decides to step over them on his own volition, a beckoning call rings from within the heart of the territory. Familiar and unfamiliar, older than he remembers, yet unmistakable in its intention. Thus, the cycle continues, as it always has.

And once more he stands outside of it.

Qui es-tu?

Ma fille, he rumbles, coming up from behind Ursa—whose scent he had managed to catch along the way to the scene of the battle. Et à en juger par son apparence, c'est ton cousin.

Unless he is mistaking the way Louve and Apollinaire are written all over him. Nevertheless, their shared familial tongue is enough to keep Xavier from bristling in response—particularly protective over the one thing he was ever proud to have made.

The entire reason he returns, now, and the reason he would stay no matter who wins this day.

His eyes flit first to the battle, before scouring the sidelines, moving from face to familiar face until he spots his mother and his sister among them. Safe, alive, if only all collectively holding their breaths as they anticipated a new queen of the Bluffs, or the reign of its current one yet persisting.

---

@Ursa @Armande
¹ My daughter.
² And by the looks of it, your cousin.

Ooc: Reti is at the border, not yet crossing over it.


That call...
This challenge was one he most definitely had a keen interest in.

Yet upon arrival at the scent marker he is vexed by the realization the challenge seemed to be occuring deeper inside the territory than he would prefer to venture. Even being on good terms with the leaders might not excuse that level of presumption.

Instead he scaled a rock pillar on the edges of the territory, using the height to catch a glimpse of the gathering crowd and the battle that likely had just started. He also noticed a suspiciously bronze and black splotched figure in there.

Damn it. That had better not be @Zinnia .

His eyes searched for @Elaine , trusting she would most certainly be in attendance. Locking his gaze on her he rumbled, willing her wordlessly to invite him in.

He wanted to watch beside her. To offer solemn support.

code by corvus

Upon her return to these lands, the first thing she heard was a call for her older sister's crown. Part of her was tempted to ignore it, to continue to ignore the quarrels of family that had ultimately been the reason she had wished to leave the lands and strike out on her own. But she supposed she ought to go see what all the fuss was about - at least to know who would hold the crown when the dust settled.

Taking care to disguise the star flecking that decorated her pelt, Régine would do her best to make certain she was not easily spotted within the walls of the Bluffs. Slipping over the borders of the Bluffs, the Dieudonné lioness would keep to what shadows she could - using her knowledge of the Bluffs she had grown up in for most of her life to do her best to stay hidden and to escape detection by her family.

She didn't really wish to interact with her family if she could help her. Poisonous green eyes would flick around to all the others in the area before resting her eyes on the main attraction. Her niece challenging her sister for the crown. This should be interesting. And likely would result in more family drama - so she was not eager to pledge herself so opening to one of the other at the moment.

---

Régine is attempting to remain hidden!

Also I'm trying to get exp for hiding for her since I'm swapping her trades to Barb/Assassin - it just hasn't gone through yet

text. "speech."

Art & Table code by Zodiac

My, my, wasn't this a surprise?

Not that she ever really concerned herself with politics before this -- much preferring to avoid the drama and semantics that many seemed to argue over. It wasn't often she'd heard such a loud call ring out to challenge for a throne, however -- and her interest was piqued. There was no way in hell she'd arrive as she was, however, and so the woman got to work. She rolled herself amidst a dusty, smelly pile of dirt, caking it down into the very deepest fibers of her fur and until her dark undersides grew to be covered with the dirt, officially painting her solidly ruddy brown to disguise her appearance. She takes the extra step to cover her face entirely, rubbing and patting the dirt well into the creases of her eyelids and along her nose until her dark undersides are washed away in a sea of dirt.

The ascent into the territory was simple enough, and she really didn't need to go far... but her nosiness warranted that she wanted a front row seat of the action from a higher ledge. Andromède nestles herself in between a pair of boulders, tucking her tail beneath her feet and curling herself up into a fairly hard to notice ball just inside the territory with her eyes peeled on the two strangers who began to fight before the crowd. Despite their differences, there seemed to be a similarity between the pair... family, perhaps? Only time would tell, as the voices that she'd heard thus far spoke in a tongue she simply could not understand and it frustrated her.

- Andromède is attempting to remain hidden! -

+20 - spy on another pride or family’s event (wb challenge)
+20 - sneak into a pride or group without getting caught
+20 - remain undetected in a large thread (5+ characters)

He howls with laughter and the sound of it rings in her ears.

@Apollinaire is always at her side. Always, always. Real or imagined, phantom or flesh-and-blood-- the differences are not always obvious. she often doesn't know the difference, but she's long since stopped looking for them. Lazare simply accepts it; more than that, she welcomes it. He is ( and will always be ) a welcomed shadow, twin to her own stretching out here across the barren dirt.

Owlishly she blinks in his echoing cackles, before following his gaze with the intention of finding the source of his amusement. Her head turns to see-- @Amara. oh. of course. She is here-- whole and hale. Tu ne te souviens pas? Don't you remember? There is no bitterness in her tone as she murmurs softly to the eidolon at her side, gossamer gaze settles upon amara. la femme qu'elle a tuée n'était pas une matriarche. the woman she killed was not a matriarch. Lazare loves her grandmother, of course she does, but that there was no punishment was a mistake. A tragedy in its own right. Her gaze shifts back to apollinare as he finally falls silent, and she wears a pointed expression. Sharp as a knife, silent as the grave.

if ludivine was not a matriarch, then why was apollinaire punished?

A question better left for later. Gbosts had all the time in the world. For now, to amara, lazare answers her question easily: ils ont besoin de ça. they need this. they, she says, excluding both amara and herself. The dieudonne-- at least this branch of this gnarled family tree-- needed something to rally around. They were never as active, nor ferocious, as when they had something ( someone? ) to snarl at. They'd come together in the wake of the slaughter, bristling and rallying against the ghostly sisters-- us versus them. they'd come together when the bear-man had attempted to topple louve from her perch.

Lazare does not need to win, here. She only needs to make them see.

Already she knows it's a fool's errand-- but that's what she was good at. Gaze alights up @Sébastien, perched high above. She beams at him, and more than a small part of her wishes to be at his side instead of here. idly she wonders if he would understand. Somehow, she thinks the answer is yes. her attention settles then, waiting for what she knows will come. Louve-- when she arrives-- says nothing. No words are exchanged here. Amara asks why but louve does not. Maybe she already knows the answer-- or assumes she does. They've never quite been able to get on each other's levels, and lazare doubts they ever will. The family needs a scapegoat, something to blame the tilting scales upon.

Lazare does not need to win, here.

She only needs to---

The piebald girl is no real fighter. she's never thirsted for blood the way her family did. But she is here, and just like before, she'll do what she can. Louve hits her like a truck, fast and intent. lazare has only the briefest moment of realization before louve is upon her and in that moment she does her best to tuck herself in, trying to hold steady when louve hits her. Lazare manages to keep herself upright but staggers to the side a step, shoulder to blossominy with pain-- obvious only until teeth grab hold of her.

Louve's teeth sink into the side of her neck near her shoulder, though the bunched fur helps to keep her a little at bay. In retaliation lazare attempts to roll her shoulder up and into her mother's jaw, hoping to dislodge her teeth. Simultaneously her muzzle snakes forward, aiming her teeth to try and grab hold of louve's closest ear.


lazare vs. @Louve
For wolfbron bluffs
1 / 5
Hits:

Rolling 5d20: 6 + 4 + 3 + 1 + 16

Dodges:

Rolling 6d20: 10 + 8 + 1 + 16 + 19 + 5

Luck:

Rolling 7d20: 17 + 2 + 13 + 20 + 5 + 10 + 6

+1 luck from lead advisor ( SÉBASTIEN )
+1 hit from lead fighter ( amara )

+10 - observe a fight (louve vs lazare)
+10 - learn a new fighting move (tuck in to avoid damage)
+20 - successfully stay hidden for the duration of a thread

manon creeps up on the scene from high up, using the long shadows of the rock to disguise the dark, desaturated hues of her fur. already there are many milling about the bluffs and though most of them are familiar - family - there are just enough trespassers that the young dieudonné's lips curl at the invasion of them on her family's sacred soil. though there is a part of her that wishes to descend on them, to taste their blood on her tongue and claws, there is a far more important matter to pay attention to first.

she will have her fill when her sister and mother are done.

for now, manon observes her mother's charge like the stillest of gargoyles, unbeknownst to any of those also watching below. her lips are pulled into a thin line as lazare seems to curl into herself just before the collision. though the move may not be quite as impressive as the fierce show of their matriarch, it saves her sister from taking a good deal of damage. smart, manon thinks, fully intent on using the motion herself when the time was right for it.

manon is hidden and observing_{BG — ART — CODE}