a lot of swearing ahead

Coming off a victory against Sergei, Kera was about fully asleep this time, when her name was called out to come step into the ring. Luckily, however, that much was enough for her to jolt awake. The wolf lifted her head, blinked the sleep out of her eyes, and went plodding into the wrestling arena.

She yawned and she stretched very widely, loosening her limbs back out.

Her fight with Sergei had been very close, but very fun. He was a good fighter and fairly considerate. Kera was unsure if he was that experienced-- or perhaps, like her, he'd never had to fight for fun. Just for his own life. Either way, Kera felt it was nice to not have to fight geese or geese-spawn or the like.

Kera took a few more moments to stretch her hind legs out before she settled and scanned the audience for whoever would be called in next.

@Huckleberry @Azizos @Glory

Shiny was still clinging to Huckleberry's back as he stepped out into the arena. He was feeling better after his last fight, but he was still a little nervous about this one. He didn't want to fight someone so small again. It stressed him out too much. He didn't want to hurt anyone. Huckle-friend, you'll be fine. I'll see you after the match. She jumped off of him and ran back into the crowds to stand beneath the feet of the Greaters crowded around her.

Huckleberry stepped up to face a white wolf and breathed a sigh of relief. At least it wasn't a kitten this time. It would be like his spars with Jayberry that he had when he was a child, although, of course, a lot less violent. This was for fun. Just for fun.

His little tail swished behind him and he tried to look optimistic. "Hi," he said a little nervously, but didn't know what else to say. He glanced towards the judges, waiting for their announcement.

Glory looked down at the two combatants before him, his eyes staying on Huckleberry for just a moment. He would be watching him carefully this match. He glanced towards Azizos before stepping up. He opened his wings once again. "Welcome back, everyone! We are nearing the final of the wrestling matchings! Whoever wings this contest shall advance to the final! We have the hybrid Huckleberry," he gestured in one direction, "against the wolf, Kera!" he gestured in the other, glancing as the hybrid stiffened with shock. A look of horror passed across Huckleberry's face at the mention of her name and Glory couldn't help but wonder why.

He shrugged. It wasn't important now. "Let the match begin!" he tossed back his head and released a burst of fire, as he had before, to signify the beginning of the contest.

@Kera

When Kera saw a moose-faced hybrid with wings and goose-legs, she didn't want to make any assumptions. She was on edge, but surely there were more geese out there, and more loyal shit-stick moose following them. That went out of the proverbial window when she heard his name.

That was not a coincidence.

The wolf's muzzle began to curl and crinkle as a vicious growl left her throat, lip pulled back far enough to reveal pointed fangs and broken teeth. "You," she began, the absolute venom dripping from her words almost palpatable. "Are a murderer."

Kera was almost furious that one of the -berries would even show up here, nevermind in a wrestling contest. "You are shit," she continued, pacing but not attacking. "Your family are all pieces of murderous shit. What did you do to your last opponent, huh? Did you kill them and take their stone back for your precious little brain-washed child army?"

Perhaps it wasn't just the thought that Huckleberry was here that had sent the rage boiling into Kera's chest. The cycles of not being able to do anything about it were rising up into her throat, pouring out in vile, snarling words.

"Your mother attacked me when I was freshly hatched," she said, her head low, half-braced for attack. "She lost. Lost her mind. The next time I saw her, she attacked me. I fucked her up so hard that she never recovered and became a raging lunatic. Apparently, she lost her fucking mind enough that she made you."

Kera sneered. "Your mother spawned a child army because she's a coward who can't win a fight on her own. It's a shame she spawned an actual offspring who looks like some pathetic monstrosity," she snapped, her voice going quickly hoarse. "I should have destroyed your mother while she was in the chrysalis."

@Huckleberry

Huckleberry knew about Kera. How could he not? Blackberry had repeated her name over and over, every time in the same spitting, hating tone of voice. She was her greatest enemy. The family had sworn to kill her if she should ever show her face. If she was ever found.

When she first appeared, Huckleberry did not think anything of it. There were many wolves in the caves. He thought that Kera was gone, disappeared. Perhaps hibernating. Perhaps dead already. He didn't care - he would rather never face her. But now...when Glory announced his name, he realized exactly who he was facing.

He froze. Shock and horror crossed his face and stayed plastered there. She was standing there, just standing there, the one that had killed his mother, who had sworn to kill his whole family. She spat and growled and every word stabbed deeper and deeper into Huckleberry's heart. He shouldn't be alive. He should never have been born. His mother should be dead.

He didn't know when the tears started flowing down his cheeks but there they were, dropping on the ground as his whole body trembled. Huckleberry... He heard Shiny whispering through their connection and he latched onto it like a lifeline.

His voice trembled and shivered as he responded to the wolf's cruel words. "....I know. Mother...m-mother has told me. B-but...I'm not...not...." But he was a murderer. He had killed the magpie. He had held her in his jaws and snapped her neck. His eyes widened and his stomach churned at the memory. You didn't do it. You had no choice. She made you do it.

Huckleberry nodded slowly, Shiny's quiet voice breaking through his own self-hatred and guilt. "I'm not a murderer! I never wanted to be!"

He shook his head, scattering small salty tears all around him. He stood up taller, the fear still burning in his gaze but a new sense of resolve breaking through and his gaze hardening. Shiny's words of encouragement and everything they had been working on were finally something he could show off. "I never wanted to be a murderer! I never wanted a mother who made me kill! You aren't the only one she hurt." Here he raised one of his claws and traced over the thick, visible scar the ran across his head. "Sh-she...my mother...Blackberry...she is...is..." he was faltering. He didn't want to say it. He had been trying to force it down all this time, convincing himself that he loved her. That she loved him. That she was his Mama and perfect. But she wasn't. "She's cruel. She's terrible! I hate her!" He spat out the last words but it was too much. He let out a sob, his heart heavier then he thought it would be. He thought it would be like a weight lifting off of his shoulders but it only pressed down harder.

"I don't want to die!" he suddenly screeched out, backing away from Kera.

@Kera

Self-pitying bastard, Kera thought. Her anger only rose with each sob and cry and tremble that Huckleberry gave off, but a part of her misunderstood why exactly he was crying.

She didn't come to the conclusion that her rational mind would have-- that Huckleberry was a child of abuse, nursed into a family of blood and murder. Brainwashed, forced to do things he didn't want to. Kera, with a mind clouded by fury, would have came to that conclusion had Huckleberry been a child.

What she saw, however, was an adult. What she saw was an adult putting on an act to ilict pity, and lure his victims into a false sense of security. An image of Huckleberry lashing out at some poor gembound with fake tears streaming down his face played out in Kera's mind.

The wolf's teeth ground together, tail lashing behind her. "I know she isn't the only one she hurt!" Kera barked furiously. "Are you that stupid?! That's the point!"

Kera stalked forward as Huckleberry moved back. She'd kill him right here and now, competition be damned. She'd break his chrysalis, send his blackening corpse back to wherever Blackberry was hiding. "She killed my friends," she continued, her teeth distinctly clicking as she snapped her jaws, fighting the instinct to start biting and tearing at will. "She's hurt even more. She prides in it."

It's your fault for not killing her properly. Their deaths are your fault, a proverbial voice nagged in the back of her head. Kera physically shook it off, the guilt, the sorrow, the regret. She clung to her anger, and her own words.

"How many gembounds have you killed?" She spat. "How many more did you pretend to cry in front of? How many of those gembound did you rip the stone out of, and instead of burying them, revive them? Indoctornated them into your mother's little murder-army?"

"How many times did you leave her, and come back? How many times did you have the chance to run, or kill her, and walk alongside her anyway?" Kera continued growling-- she'd never stopped --and her voice was long hoarse and croaking, betraying some amount of sadness behind it that even Kera wasn't quite aware of. "I know you were in that war, and I know who's fucking side you were fighting on."

"You're not fooling anyone with whatever the fuck this display is."

@Huckleberry

Huckleberry's entire body trembled so hard it was a wonder he was still standing on his feet. Shiny couldn't take it anymore. The little gembound pushed through the crowd and sprinted across the field. Calm down, Huckle-friend, calm down. As she neared the hybrid, she crouched and sprung as hard as she could, landing squarely on Huckleberry's back where she began to furiously groom his fur. It was a common practice between the two. Whenever Huckleberry felt he was slipping, she would ground him again. She would bring him back.

It helped, at least. Huckleberry had been moments away from another meltdown. Every word that Kera spoke lashed him deeper and deeper. She was right. She was the most right. He had killed before so did it matter the circumstance? Did it matter if he had wanted to do it or not? But she didn't understand, she didn't understand SHE DIDN'T KNOW!

"I KNOW," he screamed out. "You think I don't know?!" Despite all of Shiny's grooming, he couldn't keep himself stable anymore. There were too many memories threatening to overwhelm him. Too many emotions ringing through his head. It was like a bell tolling over and over, a thunderstorm that wouldn't let up. His breathing was quickening and his body was twitching. "I lived with her my whole life!! I watched her kill, I watched her train us to kill, I killed because she made me. Because she would have killed me! Because it was my life or the life of a stranger!! I d-d-didn't want to, I c-can't...she was innocent," he began to wail with grief, his legs unable to hold him up anymore.

Huckleberry collapsed on the ground, wailing pitifully. Shiny cried out and tumbled off of him, only to get to her feet and pawing at his arms. But he was gone now. His eyes didn't see Kera anymore. They only saw the bird, broken before him, her eyes staring into nothing. "N-no..." he whispered. "I'm sorry...I'm sorry, I didn't want to. I didn't mean to! Please don't...don't hate me...Cloudberry, please...I don't want you to hate me...I killed you, I didn't want to...she took you from me, I didn't want her to...I love you...please..."

Shiny whimpered and pressed harder. Huckleberry...Huckleberry!

Glory looked down at the two with bewilderment, looking from one to the other. Were they fighting with their tongues instead of their bodies? What in the fuck had happened between these two? His eyes frowned when Huckleberry fell and began to cry uncontrollably and he hopped forward again. "Hey...hey come on! This is a wrestling match! What do you think you two are doing? Is he okay?"

He looked around, wondering if a medic was nearby...or if a medic should even be called. "If you're not going to fight, then somebody forfeit, please! Otherwise, get the match over with!"

@Kera

What the hell was going on? Kera was still convinced that this was an act and that he'd just keep it going and going until he had everyone fooled. Kera refused to believe it, even if everyone else did. This much, at least to her, seemed like a wild stretch to illicit false sympathy.

Either way, he was still arguing. A -berry could never quite stop with that, it seemed.

"But you stood with her!" Kera barked. "Do you really think a goose would manage to kill you? Look at the size of you! Haven't you ever noticed how she can only win fights against things that are smaller than she is, and if they're taller than her she just sends in her fucking spawn?"

"There are plenty of people out there who could have helped you," Kera continued, still furious. "People you still fought against in Eridanus! You're obviously refusing to leave her side depsite all the bad shit she's done so what the fuck are you crying for?"

And then he was... babbling.

He must have actually revived someone he murdered and never told her about it because Kera didn't really know who Cloudberry was, only that it was another -berry. The wolf turned her head to Glory, stifling her growling further.

"He's one of Blackberry's fucking spawn," she spat, still angry-- though obviously not at the judge. "I'll fight him but I'm not fighting him while he's on the fucking floor."

She wasn't Blackberry, after all. If Huckleberry wasn't going to forfeit then he'd have to suck it the fuck up.

@Huckleberry

Through his fit he could distantly hear speaking. The eagle was saying something, his booming tones reaching through the haze. Huckleberry, you need to get up! Please, they need you to fight.

To fight. Of course. Everything always came down to fighting, to bleeding. Everything always came down to that. Kera didn't care about any of it. It was now that he saw the true fury of his mother's enemies. How much hatred had been born of her own. How merciless everything was. Pride's affinity towards him and made him complacent. This was someone with no forgiveness.

With a great amount of effort he found himself once again lying on the floor in front of the wolf. He shivered. If that had been a real enemy, he would be dead. He thought that they'd worked on this, him and Shiny. He slowly started crawling to his feet, trying to force his body to stay calm. He glanced up at the bird and looked down at Shiny. The catsquirrel reached up and licked one of the tears off his face before turning around and bounding back into the crowd. He watched her go for a moment before facing Kera again.

He didn't meet her eyes. He was too ashamed. She was right. He didn't deserve to be forgiven, did he?

He sighed a deep breath, still shuddering from his meltdown and his eyes still wet. "I...I will f-fight...but I won't start it." Instead of looking at her eyes he looked at her paws. There was no point in trying to talk to her anymore. Might as well get the fight over with.

@Kera