Blackberry had just turned to snap at Huckleberry again for falling behind and she saw their gaze fixed on her neck. She had, in fact, not at all noticed the fur gone missing until she followed her child's gaze and saw the piece of white fur belonging to Pride completely missing.

Shock and rage slammed into her and shook her so terribly that she was visibly shivering with fury. She whipped around, trying to find them, trying to see where they were and how he had gotten back his fur. "PRIDE," she screeched. "HOW DARE YOU?! SHOW YOURSELF, YOU COWARD!"

She turned as Huckleberry began to squeal with excitement and looked towards the place where they were pointing. There? In the shadows? She didn't see them, but Pride had shown a talent for magic. Perhaps they were hiding themselves.

And even if they weren't, this was grounds for terrible punishment - to steal from her, Blackberry! The deer was lucky to have escaped with his life! He would pay for this and so would anyone that accompanied him.

Before she lunged forward into the attack, she threw back her head and let out a screeching call, echoing through the section of Polaris and rebounding through the tunnel behind her. "BLOODBERRIES! COME AND FACE YOUR ENEMIES!"

She turned back towards the shadows and raced forward, her beak snapping forward, trying to find them. She couldn't see, but perhaps if she kept up the erratic attack, she would eventually hit the flesh she was looking for.

@Kitaka @Jayberry @Baneberry @Blueberry @Elderberry @Pride @Envy

Mother's rage-filled scream drew Jayberry from her sleep. In a single movement, before she was even fully awake, she was on her paws and moving. Every muscle in her body coiled and released, sending her racing through the tunnel.

She would have been quite the sight to see, nothing more than a streak of furious black rocketing through the tunnels. Mama was in trouble, and she was determined to prove herself. Black straight, she raced towards Mother's call.

Without breaking stride, she kicked off the ground, launching herself towards the shadows with a sound not unlike a bellowing rare, maw open wide as she attempted to sink her fangs into enemy flesh.

@Pride @Envy

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Elderberry had been close to the nest, pecking delicately at the mosses growing on the tunnel walls, when he heard Mother’s call and took off running at a wild sprint. Something about her tome told him that something was very wrong, but it was a call to arms, and that filled him with excitement. The clattering of hooves could be heard long before he arrived, and he skidded to a halt beside Huckleberry and Mother.

He looked around, not seeing his opponents at a gance. His eyes narrowed slightly. Were they trying to play foul using magic? Elderberry had hoped that his first clash would be an honourable one, but you never knew what the caves had in store. Elderberry finally followed Huckleberry’s gaze, his ears twitching- then he roared a challenging bellow that trumpeted in his chest, a contorted and strange sound that was somehow intimidating.

The lumbering creature had not shown his face in quite a long time. Too tired and too frustrated with the recent events, he had gone to hide from his family in the shadows, watching quietly but never revealing himself. Blue wasn't ready to come out of hiding yet, but it was forced upon him by the call of his mate. Oh, how he cared for her, despite her rage and lack of thought at times.

The moose watched from the shadows as the events to the call transpired. A white stag and a tiny little weasel seemed to haveenraged the family. Sighing, Blue left his spot in the shadows to go answer the battle cry.

"Pride, Iwould suggest yousurrender now, before you face out wrath." He stated, though it seemed the attackon the unlikely pair had already begun. Instead h rushed towards the duo, quickly gaining on his mate.

____________________
"Hear my war cry"

Tags: here
Notes: here

Pride stared down, irritated.

They had taken precautions. And of course, somehow, that other Gem had instantly noticed the missing fur? And somehow, high up on this ledge in the cave's dark, they hadimmediately been sniffed out.

Surrender?

Ha.

He swallowed the fur. It was gross, but he needed it out of the way, and after a brief choke he looked them over. The wolf was leaping toward... shadows, which was great, but Envy and Pride were high up on a ledge in the dark. It would have to climb here, and that meant getting here, first.

"Go," he warned simply, "or your leader dies. I've tried to do this peacefully." He glanced to Envy; the weasel had done what they'd come for, and escape was imperative. They were already out of magic. "And you, go too. I will catch up, do not get caught; I will cover our escape."

He turned back, summoning all of the magicka he could muster in one fell swoop; he would simply incinerate the goose if they did not back down. He thought only Blackberry could even reach them up here--and the goose's pathetic physical attacks held nothing against his magic.

The rock beneath the approaching flapping goose simply turned to flash-burning plasma, and Pride turned his head coldly toward her.

At least this time it didn't backfire.

@Envy

Envy could only watch in horror as everything they’d worked for went to shit, immiediately. They exchanged Pride’s glance and felt their breaths quickening. Pride told them to go. But they couldn’t just leave. They were exhausted beyond belief, and they didn’t think they’d be able to get very far before succumbing to starvation. With no use for it anymore, Envy let the shadows around them drop.

So they did the only thing they could do; the weasel’s magic desperately groped for nearby rocks and stone, breaking what they could into something they could use. And unbelievably, it worked. The weasel couldn’t help letting out a relieved sigh, dizzy with relief for a moment as they prepared to run. But should they? As a king, was that what they were supposed to do? Obey their subordinates? Envy clenched their jaw tight and looked at Pride.

Up here, high out of reach, it was easy to be brave. "As your King, I’m staying! I’m not losing any of my subjects!" They shrilled, trying to make their voice deep, and noble. But it wavered a little.



___________________________________________________________

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

tags: @Blackberry
notes: here

Blackberry looked up at the sound of the voice and saw him - Pride, standing regally upon a rock with a strange rodent-like thing on his back. She narrowed her eyes and hissed menacingly. She was just about to fly up and attack when she saw Pride's gaze shift and knew what was coming. He had used it in their fight and she didn't intend on falling for it again. She dove to the side just as the rock exploded into plasma and she rolled away, mostly unhurt.

She couldn't get up there, she couldn't fly. Not with these wings she couldn't. Perhaps she could struggle her way, but not only would it be embarrassing, but it would take too much time and leave her vulnerable to attacks. She needed to get them down here.

She hissed loudly again, her eyes trying to find something to hold onto when she focused in on the weasel on his back. She clacked her beak and flexed her stomach claws, wishing she could sink them into the arrogant deer's fur. "What's with the rat on your back, Pride? I didn't realize you kept such pitiful company. Something as tiny as that isn't even worth the effort!"

@Envy @Pride @Blueberry @Jayberry @Elderberry

Jayberry snarled as she slammed into nothing but shadows, and bounded off, circling and snarling up at Envy and Pride. She could see them now, and wanted nothing more than to rip and tear and kill.

She only noticed her brother when he bugled a challenge, ears twitching back to acknowledge him. A growl rumbled low in her throat, and she licked her lips, wondering what it would feel like for the deer or weasel's hide to tear between her fangs. It seemed that Father, too, was here, and that he knew one of these two. His voice was obvious, and she was rather surprised - it had been some time since she had seen him.

The deer seemed to be trying to warn them off, and her fur rose on end when the rock under her Mother turned into something that looked very dangerous. The weasel, however, was definitely opposed to leaving, declaring itself a King.

Peeling her lips back from her fangs, Jayberry snapped her gaze into the air, attempting to cast Terror on the deer.

"Speech looks like this."
Thoughts look like this.

Pride had every intention of simply leaving. He had what he'd come for, and Blackberry's ranting filled him with a sort of smug satisfaction; she was angry. Angry, and could do nothing about it. Good.

He glanced to Envy, and spoke quietly, tone holding genuine amusement. "She is raging because there is nothing they can do. Come on, before they have the sense to actually look for the path leading up here. I will cover us." He turned back again.

Pride's first intention had been to again attempt to blast the goose into smoldering ash, but at that moment, as he gathered his magicka, Jayberry rather inadvertently saved the day. He felt a strange and quaking fear threading through him--faint, but present, and distinctly unnatural. It felt cold and black, as if all that underlay reality were itself dripping with sinister intent, hidden just below a veil. As if he'd never seen true reality, before.

He froze for a moment, milky eyes blinking, all magicka slipping away--and then realized what this was. Spellwork. Reality, or not, it was a spell. One of them was casting. He looked down, wondering in surprise which of them was capable--and felt, too, a strange... envy of his own. He felt, in that moment--if only briefly--tempted by the power he felt there. Some part of him was urged to claim it for his own, to wield it against those who might stand against him--but the thought was pushed away as quickly as it came.

Now was not the time.

Hastily he began to summon up another spell instead, a simple thick mist to cover their retreat. As he did, as he gazed down on the Bloodberries from his hidden ledge, he saw only horror. Monsters, he thought indifferently. Do they not see what they have become? Has this evil so gripped them?

"Blackberry," he called down. He was both trying to buy himself time to finish the spell--and to make a point. Perhaps his last chance to make some impact on the foolish bird. He noticed at once that none of them looked much like the goose--one or two a little, but certainly not the wolf, or the moose. He wondered if she, as Reseda had, simply wandered around gathering the stones of the young and impressionable, and teaching them her ways, for the sake of power. "This is your family..? They do not look like you. I wonder... do you merely collect the young as they hatch, and tell them that your way is best? Do they know that you are wrong..?"

He let this hang in the air a beat, struggling to gather the fog, to shroud the ledge more closely. "You tell them what... that inflicting pain, fear, is good and right? It is wrong. They will be killed for it; they will tackle those stronger, and in their evil they will be destroyed by those with good and righteous hearts. One by one they will fall around you, bleeding and dying, until you have nothing left: and it will be. Your. Fault."

The fog thickened, blanketing the ledge, and he turned and spoke softly one last time to Envy. "Come, my King." Overly-stilted, overly fancy, but the weasel deserved the extra respect for what they had done for him. "Let them wallow in the frustration of their own violence, with the impotence of nothing to spend it on."

With that he turned, slipping away into the fog, hoping that Envy remained with him. He would carry them to safety; they could drink, eat, and mock the arrogance of the violent beasts they had left behind.

exit Pride, but anyone who wishes to pursue him is welcome, just tag me in a new thread or message me!

@Envy