Red Eagle - VoK Pride Writing

[Nia The Elf]

Sabira heard a few shocked sounds from members of the pride who were either already awake or had been awoken by the impact of the shooting star.
She was quick to stand and prepare to address the pride. No doubt the commotion from others would cause a cascade of waking and worrying - and a worried pride was a chaotic pride.

Standing tall on the ledge above the pride, Sabira watched lions emerge from their dens.
“Everyone, please quiet down and don’t be alarmed,” she started, “I watched the skies tonight, and a shooting star has fallen, which is likely the source of the shaking we all felt. I appreciate the worry you may be feeling, but I have heard of this happening before. If we could have a small patrol join me to investigate, then that would be fantastic.”

As usual, her address seemed to relax the atmosphere a little, and her pridemates talked amongst themselves or returned to their dens.
Rusco and Hellekin climbed up the slope and joined Sabira outside her den, volunteering to head out and investigate.

“The light came from the north, so if we head that way then I’m sure we’ll find wherever it landed,” Sabira led the two lions out of the pride and over the sandy plains.
-
Cricket kept away from the large smoking rock, feeling a faint thrumming coming from within. Clarine was sticking her nose way too close - stepping around smoking patches of the ground and glaring at the glowing rock.

Fading, the glowing rock shook a little, before the light wavered in pulses outwards. A deafening thunderous crack sounded as the stone split in two and the lions were plunged into the darkness of the night.

A pregnant pause. Silence. Cricket watched Clarine from quite a few steps back. They had both frozen in place.

“Cricket? Clarine?” Rusco’s voice called from behind them, and quick as a flash - a form of thick shadow shoots out of the cracked rock and seems to flash around the area in a black streak.

“What on earth?” Cricket could feel the breeze from how fast the thing moved, Sabira moved her head to try and keep track of it whilst Rusco stood strong and growled in warning.
-
What are you…
Hellekin focused on watching the shadow with his fae eyes. It appeared no different to the mortal plane view, but he was visible in both which was.. Unusual.

The creature froze in front of the meteor. It stared at the lions, crimson red eyes burning into Hellekin’s own. It was small, shadowy and covered in fur. Fanged maw stretched into a wide and ominous smile, before it fled swiftly into the night.

“That… looked dangerous.” Hellekin broke the silence, looking fully into the mortal realm again.

The lions turned to Sabira, who was frowning at Cricket and Clarine.
“Since Cricket and Clarine came out here on their own… which I appreciate the pull and curiosity of such a phenomenon, I really would have preferred you come to me first… but you two will do this for me. Follow that creature, stay hidden and do not engage unless it is absolutely safe to do so. Rusco and Hellekin, if you both would keep watch of this site - make sure the creature doesn’t return. The meteor has collapse the entrance to the jungle, so we need to open this up as soon as we are able, but safety from this unknown rock must always be priority.”

[Nia The Elf]

Cricket and Clarine stalked off into the night, leaving Sabira, Hellekin and Rusco by the meteor.
Sabira said her goodbyes and “be careful”’s and headed back to the pride.

The walk felt longer than it was in actuality; of course it must not have been the case, but it almost felt like there were hundreds of eyes watching her from all around. It made her uneasy and cautious in her step.
Is it just me or.. Did that owl have three eyes?

The pride was quiet on her return. Most seemed to have gone back to sleep in preparation for a new day of patrols and work, so those few who were still awake, Sabira decided to discuss the events that had occurred.
-
Hellekin had to blink a lot to ensure he wasn’t dreaming, or looking through the wrong eyes.
“Rusco… You didn’t, uh, see two sets of eyes on that snake, did you?”

The red lion audibly froze. “You see that too, huh. It must be this meteor,” he turned to glare at the smoking, crumbled rock, “that creature has done something to the wildlife in our territory. Have you seen anything?”

“Unfortunately, no. I’ll keep all eyes open.”
-
With heightened senses, Cricket led the stealth mission to follow the creature. It was swift, and they had already wasted a bit of time gawking at what had happened, so it was now down to Cricket’s senses and Clarine’s tracking skills to keep up.

They travelled for a while, the creature seemed to have skittered up the mountains and then all the way back down again. Cricket began to feel like it perhaps knew who was following it, and wanted to lead them on a wild goose chase. It just was seemingly circling the territory in different areas.
-
Something chittered. In the darkness. Hellekin’s head snapped round - it seemed to be coming from inside the meteor. Rusco had sat down on the other side of the rock, keeping watch in one direction whilst Hellekin could watch the other. It looked as if Rusco hadn’t noticed the noise at all, so Hellekin decided to check it out. He felt he had a bigger sense of responsibility, since he was able to see the.. Unusual and supernatural.

Gently testing the smoking patches of ground, he placed his paws carefully in front of one another, cautiously edging closer to the dull rock. Peering inside; he relaxed. It was empty. Not a fae folk in sight, nothing unusual at all.

Climbing over the edge and into the concave rock, Hellekin sniffed around curiously. There was a faint scent of sulfur; something he recognised from the odd malevolent fae he had come across in his life. But other than that, it was just a regular smoking hollow boulder.

Whoosh
-
Sabira had just addressed the pride early that morning. She had only got a few hours of rest, but the duties of keeping her family safe kept her wide awake. She had approached Etain and Ezimele after the pride meeting.

“If you both could go to the jungle pass, you’ll see hellekin and Rusco. Swap with them so they may take a break - they aren’t templars but I needed a temporary guarding of the meteor. At dusk, I’ll send Lamorak and Helaine to tag in.”

The two lionesses nodded and left to take up their posts by the fallen star, leaving Sabira to wait anxiously for news from that night’s watch.
-
“Sabira sent us to take over from you both, I think she wants a report,” Ezimele explained. Rusco, nodding, began to walk back in the direction of the pride; Hellekin grinned at the lionesses and followed slowly after.

“Not much happened, there’s not much to report.” Hellekin hummed in agreement. “You notice anything unusual at all? Or did you daydream the night away?” Hellekin hummed again.
“Is that a yes or a no?” another hum.
“Hellekin?”

Rusco turned his head as they walked, Hellekin just looked him straight in the eyes and smiled.
“Fine, don’t tell me. It wasn’t like I would tell you off, I get it you know. I bet it’s real tough staying in the moment when you have a bunch of little idiotic fairies nagging at you non stop.”
And another hum.

Cessair nodded a greeting as they made their way towards the camp, clambering down the slope and honing in on Sabira who paced back and forth outside of her den.

“Nothing happened, it was very quiet the whole night.” Rusco glanced at Hellekin for confirmation, but the brown lion stood still, smiling into space.

“Where’s the backup exit from here?” Hellekin suddenly perked up, smiling at Sabira.

Frowning, Sabira replied “You know where it is, it’s just the tunnel by the nursery. Why do you ask?”

“How many is there in this group?”

“Alright,” Sabira’s tail flicked in confusion and frustration, “There’s 37, you should know this, why are you asking? Did you see something?”

No reply. Just smiling. Eerily steady smiling.

Rusco huffed heavily. “Please forgive me for this, both of you.”
Leaping at Hellekin, Rusco pinned the slighter lion to the sand; Sabira barked out in shock but he kept his weight pressed onto Hellekin, his jaw wrapped around his neck.

“What have you done with Hellekin? Expected to get further than this, huh?” He snarled, pressing fangs into soft flesh in warning.

Thump.

Rusco fell the short distance to the ground; what once was Hellekin, now a shadowy form on the ground, scuttled up the wall and away from the pride. He watched Cessair - on watch - give chase as soon as she saw the creature, and they ran out of his view.

The founder and the knight stilled for a little while, Sabira tilted her head slightly as she watched Rusco.

“How did you know it wasn’t him? Of course looking back, the behaviour was odd, but you were so sure so fast. You took a risk there.”

Rusco picked himself up from the dusty ground, shaking his mane out. “I insulted the fae folk and he didn’t panic, I’ve never seen him smile - at least never that much - and I just had a feeling. I don’t think we can trust anything for now.”

[Nia The Elf]

[Nia The Elf]

The unusual words, terms and language dripping from the creature’s maw, it made everyone uneasy. They had no real idea what to do, and Sabira just stood listening blindly to the creature with no expression to her face.

‘Better game hider’ Rusco had caught from the verbal mess. It meant there was something else, something much more sinister than this thing hiding amongst them. Whether this creature was friends with it or not, they had no idea.

“Should we be taking that as a warning? Or a threat?” Cessair asked cautiously, watching the creature from the entrance of Sabira’s den.

Their founder remained quiet, seemingly staring at the creature with stony resolute.
“It doesn’t seem to be attacking, it’s only run so far. We do need Hellekin back - it hasn’t said anything about him so far.” Rusco sighed heavily; of all the unusual gifts that some lions had, why did no one have some sort of translation, or mind reading? It would’ve helped immensely…

Suddenly, Sabira started out of her stupor and announced “I believe this creature is as close to friendly as we can hope. From the fragments of what I could understand, I believe we have a different, malevolent creature on our hands. We need to stay vigilant; I need Clarine and Cricket back as soon as possible, and we’ll need to explain what’s happened to Helaine and Lamorak when they tag out of keeping watch. For now, we’ll let this creature go - but we’ll keep an eye on it.”

It seemed to understand, and didn’t struggle when the ropes were untied, nor did it flee immediately. It instead wandered out of the den and glanced left and right; looking for something. The lions followed it, out of Sabira’s den and up the top of the slope leading out of the pride.

It seemed to place random rocks in it’s mouth and crunched for a bit, swallowing some of the crumbling pieces. Until it started to choke, and spat out a glowing orb into its paws. It tried to explain something about eating a home, and punishing. Though Sabira looked as if she was listening intently and deciphering, Rusco and Cessair were totally lost.

“Hide friend. Take. How?” and at those words, the creature began to flash a brilliance of rainbow colours and shapes, continuing the display through the shocked silence.

Cessair spoke up, “You can look how you want, we just want our friend back…”

Slowing, the colours flicked to black and it tilted it’s head as if to understand what the lioness was asking for. Then, quick as a hawk, it leapt onto the ground - the released Hellekin breathed in sharply before coughing and spluttering.

“Welcome back, and thank you for letting him go,” Sabira thanked the creature, who now stood akin to a regular lion, but black as a void and shining with iridescence - its face spiked and mane stood like a zebra. Another toothy and eerie smile spread across its shadowed features.

Sabira turned to Rusco and Cessair, “Have you seen anyone acting suspicious or unusual lately? Anyone at all? We have no idea where this creature is hiding, and it could be anyone.”

The lions shook their heads, Cessair explained she had been keeping watch all morning but the patrols that came and left seemed like they normally were. Rusco had only just returned to the pride, having kept watch with Hellekin; who was the only lion to appear odd, and they had solved that issue.

“I won’t tell the pride of this. I like to be as open as possible with you all but I only fear that there will be unnecessary panic spread if I release this information. You three will need to keep an eye out for me and tell me immediately if you see anything at all unusual. As for this creature, I’ll grab Clarine and Cricket when they return and ask if they could guard them for me.”

A stealth mission. There had been a few of those lately. It wasn’t Rusco’s strong point for sure, but Hellekin could no doubt glean information. The pride were used to the brown lion being in odd places and staring into space.

“I’ll continue to keep watch by the entrance, I’ll keep a note of who comes and goes - if anyone looks unusual, I’ll give you a shout?” Cessair asked. Rusco nodded his approval. It was a good idea- keeping track of who comes and goes could help narrow down who had been separated from others and could have had contact with whatever was out there.

-
They had been walking for hours now. All through the night, Cricket had taken the lead and Clarine had slinked behind her, sniffing the ground and the air, looking for tracks. They were silent, very few words exchanged in order to stay as stealthed as possible. But, it had been a long time, and nothing fruitful was coming of this mission. Cricket swore they had been going in circles for the last few hours now despite fresh tracks appearing.
“I think we should just return to the pride, we could be out here for days and Sabira will want to know about this lack of creature.”

Clarine nodded and smiled a wide and toothy smile, so Cricket led the way back. Of course Clarine was being smart and not replying vocally; if there was any chance of finding this creature on their way back, they would need to remain silent the whole way just to be safe.

Animals with multiple eyes and fangs skittered around them in the shadowed gorse with which the lionesses hid as they crept through the underbrush and watched all directions of the fields and desert. It felt off, the vibrations of heartbeats and running feet made Cricket uneasy. The natural balance that she felt in the wild was thrown, and Cricket hoped that things would return to normal soon enough; it was all very much creeping her out.

[Nia The Elf]

Cricket returned soon enough with Clarine in tow, padding softly down the slope into camp. The pride was quiet, and Sabira waited for them outside of her den.

“What’s the news?”

“We saw nothing. The wildlife… everything is acting odd, quiet, and some things look odd. But we followed the tracks of the creature for ages; ended up going in circles we believe, so we ended the search and came back here,” Cricket explained, curious as to why they weren’t discussing inside the founder’s den.

Sabira nodded, thinking a moment. “Well, some new information has… arisen possibly? Turns out that whatever this creature is, it took over Hellekin’s body and tried to sneak its’ way into the pride. However, it doesn’t seem dangerous? It seems to want to lead us somewhere, and has warned us about something else also hiding. I’ll be leading a small patrol to follow them, so if you’d like to join me then let me know as soon as possible.”

Clarine left to continue her duties, but Cricket stayed with Sabira. She wanted to find out what this creature wanted. Hellekin - tentatively - also joined in, having already been in the loop of the events and what was happening. Lumis, though she had everything explained to her, decided to stay back and keep watch of the pride for Sabira.

The three lions escorted the creature up and out of camp. It held the orb is had found earlier in it’s maw, and somehow was able to read the colours and what they meant. It headed in a direction not oft travelled by the pride, they went south.

The mountains to the south weren’t really traversed, even in patrols. The mountains to the north headed to a lot of different areas, but the coast that the Pride was next to curved round in the south, so there was not much to find… Or so they had thought.

The creature leapt up the mountains and over the snowy lands with great ease and speed, whilst the lions were left to push through the heavy snow in great effort to keep up.

“Where on earth are we going?” Cricket’s paws and underbelly were soaking from the snow, it was cold and they had no idea how far they were meant to travel. The creature gave no indication of how close or far away they were from its’ destination.

On the other side of the mountains, the patrol approached a rock face; it was a regular wall, seemingly leading nowhere. The area around seemed dead, grey and sullied, no sounds came from any wildlife nearby.

The creature prodded around the rock face for a while, confusing the lions who stood and waited patiently. Suddenly, a loud rumbling sounded and the rocks of the wall crumbled to dust - revealing a long and dark tunnel.

Cricket peered in; it was too dark and went too far in to make out what was inside. A cool breeze fluttered over her, and she could feel a faint humming and thrumbing under her paws. The creature bounced from one ebony paw to the other, whining slightly.

“Go. We, Go. Stop Hider.”

Sabira pulled back, indicating for her pridemates to follow so they could discuss, but the emanating vibrations called out to Cricket, pulling her slowly closer.

[Nia The Elf]

“I can’t bring anyone else into this, I don’t want to cause any panic in the pride, but anything could be down there.”

Hellekin regarded Sabira carefully, “If someone sends a message to Rusco and Cessair and Clarine, we would have the numbers if anything happens. We probably don’t need anyone spying on the pride if the creature is down in this cave?”

“Alright, Cricket if you could go find Rusco, Clarine and Cessair and get back here as soon as possible, then we will venture into this cave.” Sabira’s orders pulled Cricket out of her stupor, so she ran, pushing through the already trodden snow paths quicker than before. She was thankful that camp wasn’t too far away; though the mountains were tough to ascend, she could see home fairly quickly.

Cessair was still keeping watch on the outside of camp, so was first to spot the brown lioness sprinting towards the pride.

Skidding to a halt, she panted out “We need Rusco and Clarine, Sabira wants us all with her - we might have found the other creature this creature was warning us of!”

Cessair nodded and briskly padded down the slope, whilst Cricket waited to catch her breath.

“Clarine isn’t here?” Cricket heard Rusco sharply whisper, perhaps a little less of a whisper than they wanted.

“I thought she was on patrol or something, but I haven’t seen her come or go, I’m sorry,” Cessair looked distressed as the trio grouped and began to run back towards the mountains.

“It’s not your fault, she could be anywhere, she’s good at slipping away unnoticed,” Cricket consoled.

The path over the mountains was even more trodded now, the grass damp and mudded from the snow melted and crushed away. It was a much easier trek up the slippery track, especially with so many of them running the same way. Rusco’s large form pushed away any stray snow that could cause speed or efficiency issues.

Nearing the tunnel, Sabira and Hellekin welcomed them, the creature smiling it’s creepy toothy smile at the sight of new friends to help out, though the orb in their maw dampened the effect of their smile quite a bit.

“So, I’m guessing we’re going in? To.. that creepy dark and horrible cave?” Cessair asked, her voice wavered with the idea of such a dangerous venture into the unknown, most likely towards a similar scary creature of unknown.

Rusco smiled, reassuringly warm. “We’ve all got eachothers’ back here. We need to do this to keep the rest of the pride - our family - safe. We’ve all got this,” he looked towards Sabira and saw she was grinning, pride oozing out of her warming eyes at her family caring so much for one another.
-
The tunnel stretched on like snail slime, cold damp rock was constantly under paw. Cricket’s fur stood on end perpetually, the thrumbing pulling her down and down.

But, suddenly… a light. An aura or pulsating blue, like reflections of the ocean on the rock walls around them. Blue growing more intense; the lions find themselves at the opening of a huge echoing cavern - tousled roots stretch all up the curvature of the walls and grow redder with a warm glow as they reach the centre of the cave. The roots pulsate, as if liquid flowed through them, and Cricket can tell this is the source of the upset in the balance and humming of the natural order above ground.

“I see you’ve found your way to my home,” a sly voice dripping with poison echoed around them. Above them, on a platform jutting out of the rock, a shadowy figure rests. It was tough to see, the shadows cast over their already dark fur, but the face.. The face looks familiar.

“Clarine? Or.. not Clarine?” Cessair almost squeaked out.

“Uuk’oks! Bad, Bad!” The creature that had shown them here lowered its front half of its body down to the ground and wiggles its rear, before leaping up-
and falling back down a foot in front of itself.

“I see. So this simpleton dragged you here.” It eyes the other creature, swiftly and silently leaps down, claws outstretched and fangs bared. Long whip-like growths stretch out from shadowy fur and ridges of armour sprout out of its limbs as it lunges.

Sabira reacts fast, leaping and knocking the ‘Uuk’oks’ out of its path towards her pridemate, they tumbled to the ground with a mighty crash - Sabira landing on her back and raking her claws down the dark fur.

Hellekin seemingly goes into a trance to the side, but Cessair, Rusco and Cricket are quick to leap into the action, Rusco’s sheer size easily knocking the Uuk’oks off of Sabira, Cessair attacking with swift sequential swipes, Cricket putting all of her force into biting and trying to help pin it down.

Hellekin looked around desperately, for any fae folk around to help.
“Look, I know asking the fae for favours is just asking for trouble, but I’ve helped some of you in the past, and we need help now! We can’t hurt out friend, but we need to stop this creature.”

Slowly, some fae crept out of the shadowed crags of the rock, chattering quietly to themselves. Hellekin could only join the battle himself and hope the fae would answer his plea, so he shook his head, closed his fae eye and thrust his whole weight at the Uuk’oks.

The Uuk’oks snarled and swung claws and teeth wildly at their assailants, plates of armour deflecting the lions attacks too nicely.

Suddenly the Uuk’oks fell backwards with such strong force that it wheezed - Hellekin smiled. The fae were here to help.

With the Uuk’oks now vulnerable, Rusco, Hellekin, Cessair and Sabira leapt, swiping and biting as much as they could, the fae helping, pulling this way and that at every limp - their hands and surprisingly sharp teeth digging in to skin and fur, Cricket joined in with her strong maw, biting and snapping all whilst favouring a paw.

[Nia The Elf]

[Nia The Elf]

[Nia The Elf]

S19 - 2 points - claimed

[Nia The Elf]

S4 - 2 points - claimed

Gringolet had never been an official parent before.
When he first found his way to Red Eagle, he approached the pride with two small cubs - Arktos and Brisen - and had no other choice but to keep these cubs safe. Though they looked nothing alike, the pride members seriously presumed they were his biological cubs. He can’t have really complained - he did feel a sense of duty to keeping them safe, and perhaps he seemed a little possessive over that duty.

He had absolutely no idea what he was doing, however. In a way, Arktos and Brisen were the test dummies before the “real thing”, and they promised him that he did well.
“You let us get away with some things that maybe you should have been more strict on. Maybe you were just a little scared to be forceful with us?”

Generally, he was pretty forceful and strict when he needed; having been the leader of his own pride once, so once he had gotten used to “parenthood” with the two found cubs, he was able to work on his mistakes.

The main fears and worries he now had for his own cubs were that they might grow up to resent him or their mother; as they were from different prides, Gringolet would hate for the cubs to grow apart from eachother or start to resent their mother or father for the decisions they made. He was dedicated to Red Eagle, but he loved his mate and cubs - Mensa came with him to Red Eagle and though they all got together often, he definitely still worried.

Mensa, Ara and Cepheus were all generally well-behaved cubs. Too curious for their own goods, perhaps, but he hadn’t had major issues like he had heard of other parents having. Mensa looked up to him a lot, so that mixed with his morbid curiosity meant that Mensa only got into trouble by accident more than on purpose. Curiosity killed the cat, as they say.. Though for Mensa; Curiosity distracted the cub.

He was proud of Brisen and Arktos, just for overcoming the loss of their parents and settling in so well to Red Eagle. With Mensa, he would be very proud to see him use his curiosity, intelligence and drive to do great things; all of his cubs have a lot of potential. Maybe, secretly, he would also like to see one follow in his footsteps and go on to lead a pride one day. Though Red Eagle, of course, is a great pride to give your loyalty to, it would be quite nice to see one of his cubs start their own pride so they could make an allegiance. Though he would never tell anyone that out loud.

Being a parent felt good. Really good. He would definitely love to raise more cubs, or even take in the orphans; of course they have experienced mothers who generally take that role up, but he must admit that his paternal feelings are very very strong.

500 words