Ashe’s pawsteps were the carefully placed steps of a master predator, picking her way through dirt and rubble alike with minimal hinderance. The black she-wolf was hardly a presence in the night, skirting close to shadows and ruins with only the glint of golden eyes betraying her. Her gaze flicked from shadow to shadow as she padded through the crumbling and decrepit buildings, and she was utterly astounded still at how well she could see in the gloom. All that she could smell had perhaps been the most startling thing to grow used to, but she had grown to depend on it quickly - especially on nights like this, when even her expert hearing detected no sound beyond her own breath.
Still, her glance warily turned over her shoulder now and then, to that black spire. Her heart raced every time she remembered it whirling on her with its terrible screech, Ronin's bright red blood dripping from it's teeth. The large wolf’s hackles unconsciously bristled, and she had to shake the chill from her pelt. Ronin was going to be okay. She'd go back and tear the beast apart, they'd make a plan. They'd be smart, they'd kill the fucking thing, and then she'd wait for whatever else she needed to face down to protect her family. As such, Ashe kept her ears pinned forward, eyes bright, four powerful legs carrying her in a fluid and silent jog through the shadows.
Only Ronin, Vervain, Devrum, Alistair, and Celosia knew about the wolf. The assassin hasn't realized how much she missed anonymity. Once upon a time, only the guild knew to connect Ashetta to the Assassin in Blue. Turning herself in, going to Northaven.. her identity hadn't been a secret anymore, and she'd stopped trying to hide it. Now all she needed was to be alone and out of sight, and she could shed her skin and slip into her fur. No one expected that the mage assassin had melded her soul with that of a wolf, and there was a degree of freedom in being both deadly and unknown again. It was why she slipped out from the ramshackle home she and Alistair had found, why she explored in the night in this body.
This body.. Ashe let out a soft and near silent growl of self approval as she slipped between a crumbling building and a pillar that stood on its own. She wished she could spend more of her time this way, built with powerful strength and speed, but more than that… this was a body no one had taken from. One that would rend open flesh with her claws and splinter bones with her teeth and lap up blood with her tongue, for this body belonged to no one. It was hers and hers alone, and she had devoured the heart of the one who thought he could take from her without her giving first. It's what she told herself over and over when she woke gasping and heaving up everything in her stomach, when her head was spinning with panic: reminded herself who she was, that she wasn't afraid, and that no one would take from her again.
The wolf continued on her path, and she cast another glance at the spire before she looked up at the evening sky - clear, and stars were beginning to wink to life. Her breath left her in a soft huff, and -
She smelled it first. The scent was something like pine and snow and a foggy sea, but there were so many scents that twined with it on the breeze: sweat and dirt and the sharpness of iron, the sweetness of leather and something else altogether unique. Ashe froze, ears straining in the silence…
She flinched into a crouch when a silver blade slipped home with a quiet thud between her paws. A snarl rippled from her chest and she snapped her head up to where it had come from. Who in the fuck was that? He jerked his head, as if beckoning her to follow, and she narrowed her eyes, lowering her head with a dark growl as she watched him move nimbly from his perch. The second she caught onto the direction he was going in.. Ashe snarled again as she lunged forward in the same movement as her jaws snapping down on the blade between her paws, ripping it from the ground and taking it with her. She race didn't immediately after after the hooded stranger that threw the knife at her. No, with one ear turned and listening to his footfalls, Ashe kept her gaze ahead as she bunched her haunches and leaped.
Ashe's paws touched down on a fallen pillar, claws gripping into the stone as she raced up and onto the nearest half crumbled roof. She let out a soft growl and kept her ear trained on him, quickly finding that form dashing away. She barreled forward with that blade clamped in her jaws, heart racing wildly in her chest. ’Who the fuck are you?’ she thought as she rapidly closed the distance, four paws devouring the crumbling rooftops. Who was he, and why had he thrown a knife at her? He had motioned for her to follow, hadn't thrown another.. a trap? Why? She redoubled her efforts, and without so much as a warning, her claws dug in and she changed her direction, making nimble leaps from a roof, to a crumbling wall…
And then she was landing on the ground just ahead of the hooded man on two feet. The raven haired girl whipped his blade from her teeth and threw it with deadly accuracy, aiming to his left and to pass by his head - it would cut into that shadowed hood of his if her aim was true… and the Assassin in Blue never missed.
Kalt
ashetta
it's live or die my way.
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