Poking the Bear

DEVRUM When feasible, one should always eat the rude. It didn't take a fool to realize Ashetta had been avoiding Devrum. Hell she had been avoiding everyone under the sun. So much so it cost her, her own marriage, though the weight of that loss and how it effected the other was up for debate. When Vervain spoke of her meeting with Ashetta , Devrum took it all in silence. His warning had been genuine, though circumstances change, as they always do. She wasn't just some bratty girl who broke his friend's heart for reasons unknown...She was now his daughter. Devrum had taken this all in account, but he was none the less displeased at her lack of faith in a family she seemed to desire not so long ago. The massive black bear padded along the grounds, large snout sniffing as he tracked the wolf's wear abouts. The trail, oddly enough, wasn't too far off from the home he had been building for he and Vervain. The beast went still at the sleeping wolf, hazel and green eye dilating as drool slowly dripped from its jaws. Thick fur rumbling as the black bear began to slowly circle the wolf in a stalking manner. Its belly rumbling with a continuous growl before he called to her with a blaring roar that shook birds free of their branches above. Had the wolf awoken, she would find the massive paws continuing to thump as it circled her once more. Stopping before the wolf before it slowly began stalking forward toward her. Snout flaring, drool spewing, eyes narrowing with intensity as its large belly and back heaved with its breath.

ashe    Ashe did not sleep very often. She thought that perhaps she avoided sleep more than she avoided her family and friends - and that meant a considerable amount. She gave in only when her body demanded it of her, and it never ended with her feeling rested. She couldn't remember the last time she felt truly rested. Today.. today her body would not allow her to keep moving. She didn't go... home. She was still afraid of calling it that, of believing that it could be. She knew he was somewhere nearby, he always was when she got like this. He let her be, but his smell was never far - snowy pines and sea mist.    With that in her head, she had found herself a crook in the roots of a tree to curl up in, one that was vaguely familiar. Likely in her time of living out in the woodlands she had spent a night or two there already. She was dozing in a light sleep, curled tightly into a ball with her nose tucked under her tail, when heavy pawsteps invaded her sleep.    The wolf didn't move. Didn't stir but to softly let her tail fall away from her nose. Nostrils flared delicately as she pulled in the air, and her heart froze in her chest. That was the scent of her father that overtook everything else, smothering her senses with sudden ice. She had to tell herself not to tremble as she remained entirely still, and she couldn't decide if she wanted him to miss her somehow and keep moving... or if she wanted him to stop. To look at her, even if it was a look full of hate. Just look at her.    The bear bellowed, and the she wolf instinctively sprang into action with a snarling yelp. She lurched from her place in the roots and into the center of the small clearing as birds cawed and fled the treetops. Ashe's claws raked into the blanket of dead and rotted leaves on the forest floor as she set golden eyes upon the massive black bear. Her heart raced wildly as Devrum paused before her, began lumbering forward with dripping teeth and heaving breath. Run. Run, run, run, run! Every instinct was roaring at the wolf to flee the larger predator and survive.    But those were the mis-matched eyes of her father set upon her. And... if he was going to kill her, she told him she would let him. She had meant it. She wanted to whine, and her chest ached powerfully with her lungs full of the bear's scent - her father's scent. The wolf backed up a few steps from the bear with wide eyes, ears pinned back as she crouched low, belly near brushing the ground with her tail curling between her legs. She loved him, but he hated her, gods, and he was going to make good on his promise. She had run from Alistair one too many times, had hurt him, and Dev was going to kill her. She had hoped that staying away from everyone would be enough.. and she wondered for a moment if she should have just gone to him to seek out her end when Alistair first left. A low sound growled from her throat, the whites of her eyes showing as she looked up at the bear.

DEVRUM When feasible, one should always eat the rude. The black bear continued to lumber over in an unblinking glare. Belly and fur still rippling with the growl that seemed to stew. Feral eyes held the wolf's as his large snout sniffed against her. At first it seemed the Bear relented and was going to sit back. Instead his large paw swatted down and pinned the wolf to the ground, leaning his weight against the law to hold the wolf down. As its large head lowered to the wolf's, dagger-like teeth showing as the drool dripped onto her. "I told you, you break his trust...you break my trust...I would break you. You said...You would let me..." Growled the Bear to the wolf in the manner only attuned could communicate with. "In another day, in another world, in another life...I would snap your neck like a twig. It would cost me NOTHING but to just squeeze down and hear you...snap..." Claws from his paws slowly began to slip out as only a slight bit more pressure was applied. "You are a liar...filth...broken, and there is nothing or no one that can save you, not even yourself." The bear growled as it leaned closer. "Is that what you want me to believe? Is that what YOU want to believe?" The law squeezed down again, only briefly before it suddenly began to ease up. The feral eyes blinking, as the drooling jaws shut. "You're a stupid girl. You're stupid... and there is no punishment that can be given to you that you haven't given yourself. I was like you. Stupid. We're monsters, you and me. We've done things we will never forgive ourselves for. We got blood that will always be on our hands no matter how much we wash them. You can't outrun what you are right? If that's what you believe, than you aren't a monster. You ain't a murderer or filth. You're far worse. You're a coward...and no daughter of mine will ever be called a coward. Get up. Taking you home. Unless you are a coward...than You wait for me to turn my back and you go, but don't ever come back. Your choice." The bear communicated as it turned away and began lumbering deeper into the woodlands. Had Ashe decided to follow Devrum he wouldn't be taking her to Vervain, but the home was building for her, for them. He'd arrive, body rippling as he shifted back into his human form. Ashetta

ashe    Ashe didn't try to flee. The wolf yelped sharply when a massive paw slammed down on her neck, and the full weight of a black bear leaned down upon her. She let out a wheezing whine, and instinct had her paws scrabbling at the leaves beneath her to try and gain some kind of purchase and rip herself out from under the bear.. but it was entirely hopeless. Ashe was fast, she was a raised killer, but she would never match the strength of her father.    She stilled as he lowered a snarling maw towards her, and she panted heavily with feral eyes staring upwards as drool fell into her pelt. Breath was hard to draw under his weight, but she dared not move. His voice pulled a violent tremor from in her bones, and no matter how much she didn't want to, her lips pulled back to show her teeth in a snarl. The growl would not be quelled and fearful wildness gleamed in her eye.    At the pressure of his claws, her growl formed into a low whine. Something in her cracked beneath him. 'You are a liar...filth...broken, and there is nothing or no one that can save you, not even yourself.' Instinct demanded she dig her claws into the dirt again, to try and shove herself out from under the claws that dug painfully into her, to run and run and run -    She did believe that. It's what everyone should believe. But did she want that?    As soon as that massive paw let up from her neck, the black wolf scrambled to her paws with gasping breath, animalistic eyes wide as she regarded the bear. She didn't understand how he spoke to her, couldn't seem to form anything to communicate back, but she listened. He didn't kill her. She panted and kept her head low, and he began lumbering away with that word echoing in her: Coward. Her legs trembled as she watched him go.    Run and never come back, or follow after her father. The wolf turned her head to look over her shoulder, into the trees for a long moment, fractured eyes staring intently... and she turned to follow after the black bear, paws carrying her at a wary pace. The place he lead her to must have been what her mother had been telling her about, the home he was building. She paused at the edge of the trees as he shifted.    Within a moment, there was a raven haired young woman standing in place of the wolf. She pulled her blue cloak closer around herself, hood gathered around her neck and a disgruntled spider arranging itself within it. Fire blue eyes guttered as she forced her feet forwards and after the familiar form of Devrum.

DEVRUM When feasible, one should always eat the rude. Devrum kept his back to Ashetta as his ears twitched at the sound of her arrival. He absently worked to keep himself and the beast occupied. When left to his own devices, it was dangerous when the animal was left unsupervised. Vervain knew this and had mastered a technique for keeping a fair balance between the two. Nose twitched against his full beard as he picked up vacant lumber sprawled around into semi organized stacks. "Who is he? Don't recognize the scent." Devrum asked in a rather curt manner as he kept his eyes away from Ashe, stacking wood with no real purpose than to keep his hands busy. "Would be mighty fine of you to give some sort of sign to your mother that you're alive and well enough. She deserves that much before you go off doing whatever it is you're doing." Lifting a rather large stump, Devrum's body mass slightly increased as a more animalistic growl was heard as he flung it with an authoritative thump into the pile. "Is it worth it?" He asked, his voice more guttural before he turned to finally look at her. His body rippling into its normal state. "Whatever it is you're doing that has driven you from all of us without rhyme or reason? Is it worth the price of what you lost already? Or you figuring to one day come back to us when there is nothing else left for you but to do so." Devrum had thought he and Ashetta shared a mutual understanding or one another. Both endured horrors best left unspoken unless it was to one another. Ashetta endured her trials, Devrum his own...Both being tales few could stomach. If she had needed someone to come to, to understand, he thought he would have been the first one to come to...but alas it seemed she was content going about this self discovery with everyone but the people who had made it clear they were there for her. Vervain had cheated death and crossed another world to be with her, and was the only true family Ashetta had. It was her uncertainty of her daughter's whereabouts that truly vexed Devrum. Though the alienating of everyone else did not do much to soften the blow. "What does it matter right? Doesn't mean a damn what I say. Come morning you'll be long gone. Words in one ear out the other, doing whatever it is you have to do. Right?" Hands rested over his sides as he looked over Ashetta. "If you plan on staying til then, be useful and get a fire going." He'd motion to a makeshift fire pit made with stones for Ashe to stoke if she wanted to as he ascended the newly finished steps to what appeared to be a porch area. "When you finish with that come on up." If she had met with Vervain already, it was clear she had taken the good cop method, and Devrum the bad cop. Though in truth, there were multiple forms of ammunition he counted for, for his frustration with the girl.

ashe    Ashe didn't speak at first. She watched the massive man as he busied himself with various lumber, and she didn't move beyond her hand rising to idly stroke over the trembling body of her spider, tucked just under her hood. She pursed her lips just slightly at the mention of the scent that she knew clung to her, breathing slowly through her nose. "His name is Kalt," she said quietly, and she nearly cringed. Her voice always felt strange after a while as the wolf. "He's.. an old friend I've reconnected with." He wasn't asking for an explanation, she didn't think, and to explain that... it would take time, and Dev seemed to already know just what he needed to say to her.    Ashe remained silent again, her eyes watching every movement from the bear. His ripples in changes of size had her tensing, but he held himself - warnings, she thought. She kept her lips pressed into a thin line, absorbing his voice, his words. There a hot coal burning in her chest, hotter and hotter as he spoke. She was trying now. She was finding her way back to people again, figuring out what it was she wanted her life to be, she wasn't hiding anymore. Just... just from the bear who told her he would kill her if she ever hurt Alistair. From the man she had claimed as her father. It was painful, and her jaw feathered with clenched teeth as she kept herself busy with Soot, trying to focus on the soft hair of his body, his delicate legs.    He expected her... to stay? Of all things... She blinked and narrowed her eyes just slightly, tried to ignore the harsh tugging and longing in her chest. She had fully expected him to say his piece, to let her know exactly what he thought of her, and tell her to go. But to stay the night? She swallowed and cast her eyes downwards as he left the room, leaving her to deal with the firepit in the floor. She stood staring at it without moving for a long moment, her teeth grinding together. Was it worth it. Let your mother know. Gone in the morning. Ashe shook her head and set to work.    It didn't take her long to get the fire started. Tinder, wood, a few sparks of lightning and encouragement from fire magic, and there was a strong and steady fire blazing in the firepit. The heat was welcome in the late fall air, but... Devrum was waiting. She stared down at the fire for a moment longer, and with a deep breath, she turned and headed up the fresh stairs.    It was a porch. She swallowed past the lump in her throat, thinking back to the farmhouse in Northaven. She glanced over the bear, hanging back in the threshold to what would be a comfortable porch when Devrum was finished with it. She blinked and glanced around it before her eyes settled on him again, her hands crossing over her middle with tense shoulders. "I didn't think you wanted to see to me again," she said in as controlled of a voice as she could manage.

DEVRUM When feasible, one should always eat the rude. "Right..." Devrum responded curtly to her mention of this old friend. Nose twitching as he made a mental note to store his scent. He heard Ashetta approach from what would be the porch, turning slightly to regard her from the corner of his eye. "Unfortunately, unlike you I value the idea of a family. The fuck are you thinking? One moment you're climbing on me like a fuckin squirrel, can't shake you away...The next you fuck up your marriage, cut me off, your mother...but you ran into an old friend. Am I not supposed to think that's a coincidence?" Devrum turned to regard her fully, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back on a nearby beam. "I thought we figured eachother out you and I. We held a mutual understanding because we were survivors from fucked up hands dealt to us, and don't feed me that I wouldn't understand bullshit because of any fuckin person, ANYONE...I would have!" Devrum shook his head in frustration. "Fuck sake Ashe..." He growled, fighting against every instinct to let the beast out. "You think you didn't deserve a normal life? Didn't deserve to be loved, married, protected by a mother who cheated death for you and a father who would have done anything for you? You think don't deserve this life then, right? I mean what's the difference, we're both killers, I was forced to eat my victims. What right do I have to be loved, to build a family and do right by the chances given to me? You don't think I get the urges? I do. Every fucking night, but I found a way. You think I don't know who or what you are? Think none of us do? Than you're more full of shit than you think. It's easy to think that way to excuse your stupidity, fact of the matter is you have no fucking clue who you are anymore, and instead of turning to the people prepared to help you find that out, you shut yourself off, because it's just easier to give up. You're my daughter, I'm obligated to love and protect you. No matter how much you fuck up. Whoever it is, that kept you from us, Kalt...does not carry that same protection. You do, whatever the fuck it is you feel you have to do, because you're going to anyway...but if I see him, if he disrupts the life I'm trying to build with your mother in any way...I'll kill him. I mean every single word of it. I'll kill him, and you won't like what I leave behind. You can tell him that if you like, makes no difference. He stays away from this family." There was a stone cold tone in his voice as in, if Ashetta wanted to sway his thoughts or intentions it would be rather futile. "There was a point being a family actually meant something to you. You need to decide whether that's changed."