<3 From here on we'll follow a post order, but I had to react. I just had to. xD WC: 1000
Knelt on the ground as she was, it was a good thing Jace did not actually attack her. She would have been dead before she could have reacted in the slightest. Instead, Desi was merely thrown off kilter, though mightily off kilter it was, by the violent actions of the hybrid woman. The other woman who, judging by her words was well-acquainted with Roran in some way, stormed onto the scene, coming to what seemed like an almost jerky stop over the white boy. Desi, and even Fuerte, though the grullo horse was already at a distance, fell back several paces, as though they had been shoved by sheer force of will. As she scrambled away, more or less, her bow slid from her shoulder, landing several paces further from her than she dared cross to try to retrieve it, and she flung her satchel behind her to get it out of the way. Her left hand gripped the skirt of her dress, pulling it upward and out of the way of her right hand, which dropped to slide the rose-hilted blade from its sheathe at her thigh. A flood of emotions flooded down on the colliewolf, the glaze of adrenaline cementing them all into place as the actions took place, seemingly simultaneously.
First and foremost, the young lady feared for her own life, and secondary to fear for her life was fear for her pack. There was a double line of torn sod between the place Jace had emerged from and the place she stood now, attesting to razor-sharp claws, if only on her hind feet. Desi made no mistake in thinking that the same would not apply to the claws on her hands as well. It would be foolish to not take every worst possibility into account. Beyond her natural defenses, the woman, who was clothed in fur of tan and white with sooty black on her muzzle alone, gripped a knife that would obviously far outweigh and outdistance her own little dagger. And she was obviously practiced; her weapon bore the stains of past foes on it; the only blood Desi's dagger had known was Roran's and her own, the week before. The collie woman's fur stood on end anyway, her tail rising to express dominance over the tawny newcomer as the woman's body sank into a crouch, prepared to spring away if needed.
The second emotion was anger. Anger that this woman would very nearly intrude on their land, anger that she would threaten a member of it, and anger that she had gotten in the way of Desi caring for the boy that she felt beholden to because she was his blood sister, and he, her blood brother, for all their ages did not differ greatly. The anger diffused quickly, however, as a chance breeze carried Jace's scent to Desi's nostrils. Apart from being of the same pack, the scent heaviest on Jace's fur was that of Roran's. Was this "intruder" actually a relative of Roran's? Though not a mother herself, Desi was aware of the depth of Hanna's love for her, and the black wolfess would undoubtedly take on an entire pack of wolves if it meant she might save Desi from the smallest harm. Either way, however, the woman was the warrior of the pack, and if she had to die to give AniWaya more time to mobilize, she would. She knew little to nothing of the alliance, after all. Her lips slid upward, revealing pearly white fangs that would rip and tear until their owner's heart beat no more; a throaty growl rippled from the woman's voice box, warning the slighter woman that no good would come of an attack. For, as lithe as Desi was, the woman with the half-crazed blue and amber eyes was skinnier.
Finally, the woman knew understanding, though a great many extremely tense moments passed with the pair in a stalemate. Regardless of who the other woman was, her intentions seemed true, as she had not moved from the place she had taken standing over Roran's slightly twitching body. Desi's ice and cocoa eyes moved to fix on the blue and amber of the other femme, trying to impart the innocence of the actions to come, and she held her gaze there. She allowed her fur to relax, she stood straighter, her tail drifted lower, wagging doggishly in a friendly manner. Her lips sheathed her teeth, the growl ceased to emanate from her throat, and all in all the woman tried to appear as though she were still in control of the situation but was no longer aggressively controlling it. This facade ended at the hand holding her weapon, however; it would be her one saving grace if Jace did not respect the effort she was making at neutrality, if not submission.
Taking a deep, steadying breath, Desi's knife-hand fell, relaxed, to her side. She addressed Jace calmly, as though they had not just been moments away from trying to tear each other apart. Good day. My name is Désirée, and I am the Ayastigi, or Warrior, of AniWaya. I believe we will not get anywhere if we progress the way we began, so perhaps I should take the initiative in explaining the situation. The woman was by far more brains than brawn, and she let this side overtake her now. About one phase of the moon ago, I quite literally ran into Roran in Halifax. After some discussion, he told me he wanted to be a Luperci, and I performed a ritual transfusion to aid him in that. You will find a thin cut on his right foreleg, and a cut on my left paw, where we shared blood. If the transfusion was successful, then as likely as not, he is merely showing the symptoms of impending shift. Surely you remember your own first transformation? The Ayastigi remained calm, and decided she would remain calm no matter what. Roran needed them, both of them.