The fae’s nostrils dialated as she fought for breath. The burnt sienna hues scattered across her nares twitched as she attempted to lift the delicate frame of her head. She suddenly yelped in agony, a female rushing to her side quickly, ears flicked back in dismay at seeing her leader in such discomfort. She nuzzled some herbs towards Laurona, but the sand flushed female refused, pushing them away.
“Laurona, please! Please take some! They’ll ease the pain!” urged the effeminate worriedly.
“No….Im… fine.” Laurona said with a weak smile between pants. “They’ll come soon.”
The younger female didn’t seem satisfied with her mistresses words, and with a sense of persistence advanced to support her again. “Please Laurona! I hate to see you like this!” she said with a slight whine.
The fae grew silent as Mardelius padded swiftly past the younger warrior, his eyes wide.
“Are you feeling okay?” he asked a bit hurriedly, pressing his muzzle assuredly against his mates. He didn’t sound nearly as worried as he felt, as he knew it was best he veiled his insecurities for the sake of his partner.
“Im fine, Mardelius,” she said panting, her eyes glistening warmly. She suddenly winced, clenching her teeth as another wave of pain rippled along her spine.
Within minutes, Mardelius was gripping the fifth pup tenderly in his powerful jaws, securing it at Laurona’s side for it to suckle.
Managing to muster the energy to lift her skull Laurona peered in on her newborns, licking the scruff of their necks to clean them of any afterbirth. Mardelius followed her gaze, a smile coiling his features at the site of his five newborns cuddled close together as they whimpered and writhed, struggling to get their fair share of the milk.
By five months later the pups had radically changed in appearance and size.
Rayo was showing potential as a warrior. He had a very compact build, with a smooth and well defined muscle structure. His conformation was accompanied by a very glossy black pelt, marked by strands of golden imprints.
Dax, the largest of the litter, cocky as he was, had many reasons to be. Not only did he outmatch many other pups in size but also in strength. Gifted with a very sculpted configuration, it’s undeniable that Dax had reason to boast of his talents.
Tira had an appearance that complimented her own nature in a manner that would appear deceptive to any onlooker. Flexible, graceful and slender Tira advertised her potential as a huntress with her pliable structure.
Max, the ‘omega’ out of the litter was handsome despite his weakness. Taking one look at the young male it was clear the reason he wasn’t the best fighter wasn’t because he had any form of impairment in his anatomy, but rather because he had left his talent for battle untapped due to his more amicable nature.
The youngest of the five was Foalan. Not as heavily built as her brothers and not as well conformed as her sister, Foalan was born weaker than the rest of the litter. In defiance of this, her figure in the sense of sexual attraction was sublime. Her enchanting charcoal pelt was entwined with sets of lovely ivory markings, which laced harmoniously around the edges of her anatomy in a manner that synthesized with the curvature of her body perfectly.
Despite the fact Dax was considerably larger than his elder brother Rayo, Rayo had established his dominance during early pup hood and so Dax remained loyal to his brother ever since. That is, with the exception of a few times where Dax got a little frisky or him and Rayo have a falling out of sorts. And it is one of those such moments, which led to the event in every warriors life that was inevitable. Their first confrontment with the Kronador.
Sweet stalks of grass marveled in the glossed light of the soft amber sun, as the trickling of the liquid clear river that thrummed in a buzzing harmony, reflected distorted ripples of a bee like creature that busily flew above. Tri-colored strands of dove-white, soft fawn tones and lush sky blue were drawn over the makeup of Tira’s slick figure as clumps of grass flew along behind her sloppy trail. Tira’s rippling coat glistened against the warmth of the soft rays. Whipping her neck around she rose onto her hind legs with pale peach paw pads digging into the ground below as she snapped the pearl white surface of her teeth together. A sense of triumph sparked against her soft, glimmering cardinal eyes as they surveyed the prowling shoulders of the mountains. Dax and Max were nowhere in sight, and so she took it under her assumption that she had won the race.
Spotting her brother Rayo she let her forepaws fall to the ground, stabilizing herself as she pivoted quickly towards her sibling, who had taken the liberty of curling peacefully under the shade of a beautiful descendant of the willow, alongside her sister Foalan.
“Hey Rayo! Hey Foalan!” said Tira. Granted, she had just won a distinguished victory by dominating her brothers in a friendly race, but even then, she was unusually excited.
Rayo lifted his head a bit lazily, as he had just managed to doze off. “Oh, hey Tira.” He said with a yawn. Foalan had been wide awake the whole time, just keeping her elder brother company while he napped. “Hey Tira. Beat them both again?”
“Yep!” she said, her tail thrashing to and fro excitedly.
Foalan snickered slightly, knowing Dax would probably be of bad humor when he came back, seeing as he had lost the race. Rayo however was hardly interested and simply began to groom his forepaws and neck scruff. They looked pretty dirty after having lied on the floor for so long.
Tira suddenly glanced in the direction of the Kronador border, ears flattening as some bushes rustled in the distance. The cubs were well hidden by the bracken, but still. Pouncing quickly to his paws Rayo bristled, lashing his tail as he readied himself for anything that may emerge from the Cimmerian shade of the Kronadors undergrowth.
Everyone’s gaze widened in bewilderment as the familiar contours of Dax and Max came crawling swiftly out of the foliage, clambering towards the tree where the others had nestled.
Rayo narrowed his eyes a bit suspiciously at his brothers, while Tira and Foalan cantered swiftly towards them. “Where were you guys!? What were you guys doing?!” asked Foalan in a mixture of confusion and anger from seeing them both come so calmly from over the border.
Tira grinned, ears pricked as she said tauntingly. “I won! I beat both of you!”
Dax snorted at Tira, rolling his eyes. “Me and Max quit remember?” he said, flattening his ears a bit, in a flicker of annoyance.
“Oh please, don’t go making excuses.” Said Tira with a huff. All most immediately she began to instinctively pull back her lip to reveal her calcified projectile, bearing them ferociously. This made Max retreat a bit behind his brother, but only slightly. Tira had a bad history of nipping her brother Max’s ears when angry.
“Okay, whatever, you won, yay you.” Dax said with a sigh.
“You didn’t answer my question!” Foalan said, feeling slightly ignored.
“We went to Kronador territory!” Max said excitedly.
Revolting into a bitter snort at the word ‘Kronador’ Rayo glared at Max, gaze slitted as his eyes tapered to focus on the two males. They weren’t lying, their original scents had been engulfed by the Kronadors, implying the two had disguised their scent before heading over to the Kronador territory.
“Kronador territory…?! What had you guys been doing there?!” asked Foalan awe struck. “We saw one! We saw a group of real Kronadors!” said Dax, puffing out his chest proudly. “Really!? Wow that’s so cool!” “Ya, what did they look like?”
As Foalan and Tira bombarded their two brothers with compliments and questions, Rayo felt a geyser of fury bubble in his chest. With a snarl he lifted his hackles, ears compressed against his skull as he scourged the air with his tail bitterly.
“What are you applauding? Their stupidity?! The fact that they just went and risked their lives so that their bodies could be cast away without mourn, or given honors!? Is that what your praising them for?” asked Rayo ferociously.
The pups all looked at Rayo in surprise, all except Dax, who curling back his lips also revealed his fangs, showing he wasn’t going to take his brothers words lightly.
“Your just jealous that I got to see a group of Kronadors!”
“I wouldn’t care if you just saw the lead Kronador! It’s not worth you risking your life over like that!”
“We weren’t ever in any real danger.” he countered with a snort. “Besides, we came out alive didn’t we? We just snuck into their territory unnoticed! We could spy on them, and help the pack!”
Foalan and Tira glanced at each other curiously, as if the prospect of serving their clan so early interested them. Though they obviously seemed a bit skeptical of the idea. However, more recently the pups had been denied to go on any of the more advanced missions because of their age, perhaps this would prove to the elders that they were ready for more serious training.
“Ya, well you just got lucky this time! Are you really just going to leave your lives up to luck like that?” snorted Rayo coldly.
Dax opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by Tira.
“Well…if he did it once. Maybe we could do it again. We’ll be a bigger group too, and there’s safety in numbers.” She pointed out thoughtfully.
Foalan nodded her agreement. “Ya! Besides, we could use some adventure around here! It’s not like we’re doing anything important anyways.” She shrugged.
Max kept silent, not wanting to oppose his brother Rayo so openly like this. He had all ways respected him, and sympathized with his brothers point of view, though he said nothing.
Rayo hesitated a bit before speaking, taken aback by his sisters cooperation with Dax’s plan. Grunting he raised his hackles, he was incredibly angry by what was unfolding before him. Dax narrowed his eyes, flicking his tail curtly.
“What now? Are you gonna go whine to the elders about us?” he asked a bit mockingly.