Pride stood stiff and cold as he stared down at Jayberry, writhing and on fire at the other end of the tunnel. He did not--to his own surprise--find any pleasure in this, no grim satisfaction or sadistic triumph. If anything, he wanted it to stop--to end, for the screaming to stop and this era in the cave's history to be over. But not with Jayberry alive--no; the -berries, at least those old enough to have fully turned, had to be killed. That much was clear to him--left alive, they would kill and kill again.

He would much rather have Jayberry's death on his conscience than Rift's. The agonized screams of Oliver, one who'd clearly known this wolf--asking her "why?!"--still echoed in his mind.

She was on fire, and she was down. Down, on the rock. Leaving Sylvanberry to Envy--and hoping the little bird-thing wasn't about to turn on them--he concentrated further on his magic. His intent was to rip a spike of gemstone--any gemstone--from the ground, to punch it up through the wolf's ribcage and hopefully kill her then and there.

He did not speak.

There was nothing else left to say.

exiting due to inactivity
@Envy

It was barely a clash, barely a fight. Envy wasn't looking to begin with, but they heard the screams and winced, the awful sound cutting right to their core.

They remembered, at that moment, the sound of crunching bone and the agonized bellowing; the sound of their own making as yet another of the poor Hybrid's siblings had fallen to their own magic. Elderberry's death replayed, once again, in their mind.

Vaguely they were aware of the hybrid moving closer to them, and they hesitated, then almost automatically slid forward in turn, allowing her the comfort of the feeling of their hide against hers.

They shivered, but was vaguely aware of the hybrid's speaking. Their ears ringing, heart poundng, and anxiety mounting by the moment, they had little response, and paused for a while, until a moment where they were certain they could be heard, and sure they were choosing the right words.

"She has hurt, and killed, and maimed, for pleasure..." they said, opening their mouth to speak again, but then closing it. What else could they say? That she must die for her sins? That it was her turn to suffer? Somehow it all seemed too much for the child to comprehend, and more than a little bit inappropriate. After all, she was family, right? Envy didn't want to even think about how they'd feel if someone did the same to their mamma, or to Charity.

Speaking of...

Envy felt their skin crawl. they had to get back to her. She was, at the moment, alone at the throne, and the thought filled them with dread. They wished, profusely, that she was the only thing to worry about, but they didn't think they could tolerate watching Jayberry die, not anymore.

It took a moment, and it was nearly impossible to focus through the din, but they reached out, hesitantly touching their mind to Pride's. They vaguely felt his fatigue; his forced apathy, and shivered. Their own ache, the cracking surface of their barely-contained calm, was plain to feel, waves of anxiety and shudders of horror throbbing beneath the surface, almost as though they'd break at any given moment. There were echoes, too, of awful, awful nostalgia. Pride? they thought out, with difficulty. I'm going to take the young one back to the throne. This is no place for a newborn.

And then, abruptly, they withdrew. They would hate for Pride to feel them breaking apart, and they had to get out of here. Even now their quills shivered as they turned up towards the hybrid, despite knowing-- or at least hoping-- that her eyes would still be closed.

"...Sylvanberry, isn't it?" they began hesitantly. "Come with me. I'll... take you somewhere else. Somewhere safe."

They pattered to the edge of Pride's armour, and began to scale their way down one of his hind legs before leaping the rest of the way onto the ground. They pattered a short distance towards Orion before returning to wait for her. Hopefully the wolf had enough on her plate to worry about. Envy doubted that she'd make a move to follow. Even if she did, they were sure Pride would cover their backs.

Speech. Thought.

@Jayberry

TW: Gore?

Jayberry had burned, once before.

She had thought here was no pain greater than that. No pain greater than her fur falling away from her skin, her flesh peeling away from her bones.

But this hurt even more than before. The fire burned brighter, burned hotter. She had lost feeling in her paws, small mercy that was, but the rest of her was aflame in agony.

'Make it stop!'

She thrashed, eyes wide and panicked, keening in pain and fear.

'I'm scared!'

Her claws scoured gouges in the stone, desperately seeking a relief that wouldn't come. If it were possible, there would have been tears steraking down her face. She keened, throwing her head back as she sobbed,

"Mama, help me!"

She thrashed, finding some small amount of relief as the fire let up on her side, being smothered beneath her with no access to air. The damage had been done, but there was no more flame chewing at her side, only the remaining sting of damaged nerves and consumed flesh.

"Papa, please!'"

She wanted her parents, her Mama to groom through her fur and make it all okay, Papa to allow her to curl up against his massive side and sleep until she felt better. But Mama was gone, vanished after Jayberry had failedherfailedthefamily and Papa was missing, long gone and probably dead and that hurt to admit.

Something struck her side, hard enough to shatter bone and she was thrown a small distance. She squealed, twisting to clamber to her paws, a scattering of foul smelling mushrooms growing beneath them, staggering as she fought to find her stride, bolting free of the Tunnel that had once been Home but was now just a Tunnel, no longer housing anyone she could call family.

=EXIT JAY=

@Sylvanberry