[DND] My teeth and ambitions are bared.

[Angora Valentine]

Prompt [313/1200] January Prompt: Have a thread inspired by one of these photographs... 3

Angora was picking her habits back up after the unfortunate events after the Call to Court. The pattern of her days was beginning to normalize and she wasn't spending every minute hating the guts of every New Caledonian (exception: Nindari) to ever exist. There were other things to occupy her time and her mind than the Court. Her ambitions would not lie in wait while she sulked about an event that had already ended. This was not to say it was forgiven or forgotten; it simply wasn't as mind occupying as it had been right after it happened.

She had gone back to the Blackwoods most days, feeling as if it rejuvenated her more even than the broths that had strengthened and warmed her battered belly. Today she was there again on four legs, for less magical reasons than practical ones. The girl was on a hunt. The small impressions of a rabbit's feet were before her, their press and hop a little signal as to where the stupid creature was hiding. The pristine white snow that had been mostly untouched otherwise merely awaited a wolf's sharp teeth to end a prey animal's life and paint it with a bit more color.

Tension built up in her legs as she spotted the tips of two pale ears, her blue eyes honing in on her prey as she slowly approached. Her belly was near the ground... her body a coiled spring... and dash, she ran forward with teeth bared and a growl escaping her throat. Snow flew up around her, scattering in patterns around her body and disturbing the quiet tranquility that had existed beneath the Blackwoods' branches. Her prey didn't even have time to make a noise before its life was ended.

The Valentine girl held her kill aloft and began to walk toward a more sheltered area so she could eat it.

[Niko Prizmov]

Niko Prizmov // Annika

The Blackwoods were quiet until the lone killer broke the silence, alerting Annika with the smell of blood fresh in the air. She had taken to the forest to have some time to herself, escaping the very busy Prizmov tower, so the disruption irritated her. She wasn't expecting to be disturbed, and she worried that even in her own mind, she would not be alone. No matter, she would have to inspect this stranger instead. Perhaps that would keep her entertained.

The wolf's white fur mirrored her own, the muzzle stained with fresh blood. Only that of a rabbit, though. In her four-legged form, Niko left her cloak at home and was similarly naked, her silvery coat offering some camouflaging against the winter snow. She watched the woman walk triumphantly with her tiny kill, and she stalked her to her destination. She licked her lips and kept a safe distance. Her scent was masked with her usual perfume, although she wasn't confident this would hide the Prizmov musk.

From the shadows, Niko regarded the wolf woman with her eyes of fire and ice. The smell of blood in the air excited her and made her stomach growl. Although she wasn't sure if she was hungry for the rabbit, or for the wolf.

OOC:  WC: 217

[Angora Valentine]

(word count: 300)

There was a sound, subtle but present that made her legs lock into place and her lips curve into a growl even as she retained her hold on the rabbit. It had been the sound of someone's guts making a little rumble rumble noise that she knew all too well. Hunger. Another predator on the prowl. Her ears flattened back and she turned to look around for its source. There was a sharpness to her gaze that would likely be caught by whoever had been stalking her as she stalked her own prey.

She dropped the rabbit after a moment and licked her lips, her crisp blue gaze finding little to differentiate someone from the snow. One rust-colored paw dropped onto the neck of the fallen rabbit possessively. Her whiskers twitched as she leaned up into the air and scented for someone. They must be downwind of her, because she was catching nothing. This was someone good at hiding. Gora might not even have noticed them so quickly if it wasn't for their stomach giving them away. Her hackles rose and she snorted, an irritated clearing of her nostrils that sent water droplets flying in the air.

"It's really rude to just, like, watch someone without announcing yourself." she said sharply. Her tone was rude if it was someone superior to her. Angora Valentine would apologize if that was the case. She wasn't incorrect, though, in saying that it was a rude thing to do. Even if it was Elphaba Revlis herself, it was rude. The Boss could just also get away with being rude if she wanted. Given that - as far as she knew - the Boss was still laid up from her pregnancy (or birthing? had the Heir been born?), she doubted very much that was who followed her.

[Niko Prizmov]

Niko Prizmov // Annika

Niko carefully stepped forward, one paw after the other, eyeing the stranger. She resisted the urge to lick her lips as the bloody odour became richer and more pungent. She wouldn't back down into a submissive stance, not for anyone, but she kept herself calm and non-confrontational. In her mind, she was readying for a fight, making note of any weak spots in the she-wolf's defence, hoping for an easy route to her neck.

"I not see you before. Who you?" Niko enquired, her deep voice heavily accented. She would continue to play the role of the stupid foreigner, keeping the Salsolans underestimating her. If they thought they were above her, then she would have an easy path to their necks.

"My brother Egregore. I recently live here." Name-dropping her brother was a tactical move, but she would have rather left the woman with no information, sticking to deflections. But Egregore would give her a degree of safety here, as a slight against her would be a slight against the Prizmov house.

Niko took a few steps closer, keeping her hackles down. Her perfume would be obscuring her true feelings and bloodlust, as well as the stink of Prizmov tower and the path she had taken to the Thistle Kingdom. She worked to remain enigmatic, although that was becoming increasingly difficult as the Prizmovs wanted a more public persona than she was comfortable with. She supposed this encounter could be part of building hers. Although, she hardly knew who her true self was, let alone what she wanted the world to see. She wished she had kept her cloak on after all.

"I no threat. I here walking." She really laid it thick with her accent, although she was more than capable of speaking their bastard tongue. She wanted to aggravate them and prevent them from knowing her. Even her brother, her dearest friend. She wasn't ready for that, yet.

OOC:  WC: 326

[Angora Valentine]

(Word Count: 410)

Her tongue flicked across her lips, wiping away some droplets of blood that had beaded there after her kill. Agitation was written on her face as her glacial gaze remained locked onto the area where the stomach gurgle had come from. It didn't take long for the stranger to come walking out of their spot, each step carefully taken and body posture... calm. Not exactly deferential, but not confrontational either. Angora was displeased with the level of submissiveness and her upper lip curled slightly. It wasn't that she needed simpering, but she would've liked some gesture of apology for the rude behavior.

Then the voice... it took everything in her not to growl at the sound of a voice that reminded her all too much of Eggyboy Prizmov. The accent was there, thickly layered atop the words like SOMETHING. She didn't even need the other wolf to say that she was Egregore's sister to know that was the case. The Prizmovs seemed to be expanding their reach farther and farther every time that she looked. She'd mentioned it to Deirdra at the Saturnalia celebration; it made her apprehensive of their intentions. Especially as a new House, their increasing numbers were something to watch.

"I've been away at the Call to Court, then sick from being poisoned, so that's not surprising. When did you arrive?" she asked with some sharpness to her tone, her tail flicking once behind her in irritation that this Russian thought she was the one who could ask questions. Angora was the wolf of rank here, it was her place to demand answers and this one's place to answer them. Not the other way around.

The Tradesman stood up to her full height and let her hackles rise a bit, the faintest growl emanating from her throat. "Your brother should be working with you on your manners, the culture here is not kind to those that break our traditions." which included proper respect, something Gora didn't feel she was receiving from the heavily perfumed stranger. Part of it was that she was hungry and cranky from being sick; her bad mood might've been less a different time. The wolf tore into her meal carefully, taking a bite of her rabbit and swallowing it down. Her belly needed it desperately, the iron and the protein alike.

"My name is Angora Valentine. Tradesman Angora Valentine. And yours, sister of Egregore?" she asked with a lingering sharpness in her tone.