are you wasting away in your skin?
#1
She had wandered deep into the heartlands, not too far from the charred ruins of the cabin she and Deuce and Tal had once shared, before Haku had come and begged them to come to Dahlia. She vaguely remembered her father, though she knew all she needed to do was look into any reflective surface to see his face. She, and her adopted older sister, Colibri, had been nearly identical to their sire.

As she wandered, the scent of a pack came to her nose, and she paused. The scent was familiar in some way, but not, as if one note of the scent was calling to her. She picked her way to the border, finding herself at the foot of a heavily decorated tree. A sign at the base of the tree gave what she assumed was the name of the pack. Cercatori D'Arte. She studied the tree until she came to a symbol that tugged a smile from her lips. A butterfly was carved into the bark of the tree.

The butterfly reminded her of her dual eyed lover, Kira. For a moment her eyes flickered green as her other half, Soul, tried to emerge. So far from the monster who had given birth to the inner succubus, though, Soul's efforts were in vain. Willow remained Willow despite the succubus's efforts. She stroked her fingers over the butterfly, imagining for a moment it was the brunette woman. A name carved into the tree caught her attention. Rhiannon.

Her eyes widened in surprise. She leaned in for a closer look finding several names carved into the bark. The name she lingered over most was the one that was familiar. Taliesin dir Rhiannon. She withdrew her fingers as though she'd been burned. Her brother, the supposed murderer. Taliesin had killed Liadain, one of the pups he'd shared with Kira. Then he, along with Brighid and Liam, had vanished. She had only tracked them so far before reporting back to Odadio and Kira that she had lost the scent, though not before finding the runt Brighid's body buried in a snow drift. She had carried it back to Kira, allowing the woman to give her other daughter a proper burial.

And now, it seemed, the male was here. She wondered if the pack he resided with knew of his crimes. She let a long slow howl fall from her lips, asking for a member in a position of authority to come to the border to meet with her.

((WC:417))
#2
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WORD COUNT: 518
...ilovepuppies♥


Sky was in the yard behind her house, enjoying the warm summer sun and watching her now five month old children play in the lush green grass that had grown back after a harsh winter. Not as harsh as the last, but still bitter in ways no one outside of d'Arte could've imagined. Blue eyes watched carefully as blind daughter and two sons tussled around in the yard, Fella on her lap as she sat with crossed legs in the grass, Casper not far from the kids, watching in mock horror as they played. Taliesin was inside, sleeping after a long night of travel back from Halifax for supplies. Yes, life was good again. Finally, things had settled down.

No longer did they blame Taliesin for the death of their late daughter, Tameri. No more blood had been shed since Liam's exile. They hadn't heard any word of the murderer for some time and it seemed as if d'Arte had finally settled back into peace again. The pack was growing larger every day, too; new members, new pups on the way, plenty of work for the council woman to attend to, plenty of expecting mothers for the coupled medics to monitor, plenty of work to keep them busy and just enough spare time to spend with the family and friends. Yes, life was perfect.

Finally.

Torn ears flicked when an unfamiliar sound carried through the air. Her children stopped playing, Lena with her excellent hearing but sightless eyes sitting tallest and picking up the sound first. "Mum, who's that?" She asked, scampering back to where she'd last left her mother a few minutes before. Cody was hot on her heels as usual, quiet as Myrddin followed suit. Howls meant Mum had to do business, which meant it was time to go inside and up to the room where Daddy slept.

"Sounds like a visitor. I'll be back soon. Run on inside and-"

"Stay near Daddy. We know." Cody whined, disappointed that their time for play had come to an end so soon. Sky sighed and shooed the kids inside, locking the door behind them and looking down expectedly at Fella.

"Ready to go?" She smiled, accepting his purr as a 'yes' and then leading the way to the borders...

It didn't take long for the young mother and her feline eldest to make it to location. It also didn't take long for that tail to flag up and that posture to go from caring, loving mother to dangerous, dominant leader. With Skye off doing her own thing, Sky was in charge and that was a thing that demanded respect from anyone who came to visit their borders.

"Wise of you to wait there, stranger." She warned, though it was rehearsed. "What brings you to Cercatori d'Arte's borders?" The bobcat, fully grown with red markings through his fur, dyed in by the purple-haired hybrid not a month ago, sat obediently at his mother's side, golden eyes easily lingering on the stranger's form, daring the woman to make a single wrong move.

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#3
She watched as a woman crossed over to her position, her cold blue eyes unreadable. Her posture was neutral, tending towards semi-dominant although not challenging to the approaching woman. Her semi-dominant posture was a habit left from the lands of Catalyst, where she was the favored pupil of the leader. As the woman spoke, Willow cocked her head, her eyebrows raising in a somewhat curious fashion. Her gaze was not on the speaker, however, but the red marked feline at her side.

After a moment, she turned her gaze to the woman. "I am but a wanderer, miss. I was reminiscing about the family I once had. We had a cabin nearby, but it's nothing but ashes now. I smelled the pack, and then came across this tree." Her gaze again drifted to the butterfly, then turned to the name carved into the bark, the family name. She waved to it, a gesture that almost seemed dismissive, except for the taut muscles under her silky fur. Her blue eyes were hard points of sapphire now as she returned her gaze to the woman. "I am Willow Soul. Is Taliesin Dir Rhiannon still residing in this pack land?"

She waited for the answer, her body seeming at ease, but prepared for anything to happen. She had been trained as a fighter, an assassin. She looked sweet, but her soft smile and gentle curves hid the killer under her fur. The only thing that might betray her sudden anxiety and anger was the way her hand lifted to stroke the raven feather that was braided into her auburn mane, the soft down of it stroking her cheek the same way the male who gave it to her had stroked her cheek.

Her gaze again dropped to the feline sitting at the woman's side, her hand falling to reassure herself that her belt was still there with it's pouches of miscellaneous trinkets and her small daggers. And then she was still, her icy blue gaze watching the woman and her cat. The sun shining overhead was a direct contrast to the cold the Soul woman felt inside as she thought of the devastation Taliesin had left behind him one day. The heartache of Kira, the sudden unrest of the pack. No one ever found out it was actually Azza who had murdered Liadain. No one knew that Tal had fled to protect the other two. All they knew was one pup had been killed and two went missing, leaving behind a distraught mother, Willow's former lover.

((WC: 423))
#4
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WORD COUNT: 278
He's a cat. Ignore him. xD


Willow Soul. The name didn't sound like any she'd heard before, but she liked it. It was a nice name, one of both power and beauty. Fitting. She spoke of the white man, her mate and the father of her children, and Sky's gaze cooled to ice. Fella lifted his chin at the mention of his would-be father's name, eyes narrowing a bit.

I'm Sky Rhiannon... and Taliesin is my mate. Her tone warned the woman away from drawing any of her daggers, noting the movement of her hand. As if reading his mother's mind, Fella eyed the belt, claws unsheathing slightly to dig at the dirt beneath him. You needn't worry. He'll only attack if there's a good reason to and I'm content with the blood I've seen shed in my time. No need for more. Her tone softened a bit, urging Willow to relax so they all could.

It was Fella's turn to talk. Daggers wouldn't save you anyway. He rumbled, not cockily, but matter-of-factly. It had been Sky who'd trained him to really fight. He could take on any armed wolf and stand a chance at surviving. Don't waste the blade. Little warrior, this one was. Sky glanced down at him, but decided against scolding him for talking out. He was being surprisingly polite for a change. Normally he'd have spat out a few insults by now.

Excuse him. This is Fella. He's... a cat, so the attitude comes as naturally as having fur for him. She waved a hand dismissively but the cat paid it no mind. He knew better than to let his guard down, after all. How do you know Taliesin, anyway?

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#5
The woman's blue gaze turned to ice, matching Willow's own gaze. As the stranger spoke her name, Willow realized why. Sky. Rhiannon. Taliesin's mate. Aw, shit. The mention of the feline made Willow's gaze drop to the cat in question. Her gaze was amused by the bluster of the feline. Willow had killed more wolves than she could remember. Literally. Some memories were shut away, with her alter-ego Soul, the succubus, the black widow. Outwardly, she relaxed, but inwardly she was poised like a panther, ready to strike without warning.

As Sky asked how she knew Taliesin, Willow actually laughed. It was partly bitter, partly amused. "Guess he don't talk much about his family, huh? I'm his half sister. We share a mother. But more importantly, we used to share the pack we lived in. I got a warning for you, and you ain't gonna like it, Sky. Don't have pups with him. If you do, don't leave him alone with them. He had pups with Kira, and he killed Liadain. Snapped her neck when her eyes were barely opened. Don't know what happened to Brighid or Liam, they vanished with him. Kira was pretty tore up about it for the longest time. Even her trysts with Odadio didn't ease her depression over Tal's betrayal.

She tried to kill herself. Ranting about the butterflies, and purification in flame. Dug up Liadain and burned her, burned the house they shared, and tried to walk into the flames. All because of Taliesin. He's sick, twisted. Its gotta be his father's doing. Lucifer used to lock me in closets, Rhiannon only knows what he did to Taliesin and Noah."


Rhiannon only knows. Those were words she hadn't heard from her own mouth in a long time. A phrase Deuce used. "Rhiannon only knows how you got so dirty. Rhiannon only knows why Firefly hates us so much. Rhiannon only knows why Lucifer treats you poorly." And yet, both Willow and her alter, Soul, believed firmly in Rhiannon. Afterall, it had been Rhiannon's guiding hand that had led them to Odadio's pack, to Odadio's tutelage.
((WC;351))
#6
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WORD COUNT: 250
The evidence and accusations are stacking up.


The warnings were spoken and the council woman felt a bitter familiarity in them. When she explained why, for a moment, Sky wanted to strike her. Why did everything accuse Tal of such evils? He wouldn't hurt a child! Surely there had been some mistake! That cold gaze turned dark, but the woman held her tongue, mind working.

On one hand, this was the 'proof' Orin had sought out back in the winter, when she'd first accused Tal of being evil and a killer waiting to happen. This warning was one that had an eerie resemblance to the stories she'd heard from both Liam and Taliesin. She'd heard of the deaths of Liadain and later, Brighid, but she'd never heard of how or why. Now it was as if this woman was a knock to the head; wake up and face reality. Your husband's a pup killer, just like his son.

She closed her eyes tightly and shook her head. "...Liam lived. Brighid died." She started, voice careful. "Liam... we'd adopted a girl together. Tameri. Liam killed her." Liam was evil. Taliesin had let him go. Orin... was Orin right?

Her teeth flashed in an attempt at rebelling against the idea. "No. It's all I ever hear of him. His father was a rapist and his son's a murderer, but that doesn't make him..." She trailed off and looked up at the woman. "...he's not..." She felt tears pricking in her eyes from both frustration and fear. "It's not true."

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#7
Her cold blue eyes watched the woman's reactions, feeling a jolt of pain for her sister in law. Pity filled her gaze as she watched the D'arte woman try to deny the truth that she so plainly presented to her. The brief explanation of what happened sent a fresh jolt of sorrow through the Soul woman. "I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Sorrier yet that it was Liam who caused the pain. Taliesin used to be a good big brother to me, before he and Noah abandoned me. It broke my heart to hear what he had done to Kira, how he left her broken hearted. I never thought she could really love, until they became mates."

Her continued denial made Willow shake her head, the raven feather caressing her cheek. "Sky... I'm sorry, but it is true. His betrayal of Kira put the whole pack into shock. We always thought he was just a scholar. At least they did. After he and Noah abandoned me, I wondered what he was capable of. And then he showed to us what he could do. He murdered his own daughter, my niece."

She glanced at the feline, then back to Sky. "Everyone else can see it too, if others have tried to tell you he's evil. Its a pity he took after his father so much. Mother was always a gentle soul, though a bit loose with her affections." Not that I'm any better, Willow. Souls sultry voice sounded in her mind, reminding Willow of the various trysts that she couldn't quite remember. She vaguely remembered the original tryst with Odadio, the one that caused the rift. She'd played a game with the male, a deadly game of wits. If she'd won, she would have been given a prize beyond measure. But he had won, and she had lost her maidenhood and her soul to the male. She couldn't remember the actual event, only that she woke up with his weight on her, a pain between her legs, literally.

She pulled herself from her inner recollections, her cold blue gaze on her sister in law. It was funny, when she was little, before she was sent away, she had an older sister, Colibri. They'd shared a father, and their father's looks, and their father's mate's disdain and outright hatred. Then she had been taken to Michigan, and her brothers had abandoned her. She'd longed for a sister, a family, anything but the loneliness of being the unwanted ward of the leader. And now she had returned, and she was still unwanted. She was sure Taliesin's mate wished she hadn't answered the call, hadn't met her or spoken to her. Perhaps she would have been happy. At least until the day Taliesin resumed the pup murdering that had caused him to flee from Catalyst.

((WC: 472))


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