a wolf bride verseXPrincessSkye

[Verse]

The soldiers of the realm that touched the forest were ambitious. Their warfare was well-developed and their weapons were made out of good iron from deep mines. There was strength in their arms and legs and they saw a future for themselves at the ends of their lances. The kind of kingdom that would flourish. The kingdom of Alerra.

But for all their prowess in war, they had not conquered the forest. Its deeply colored roofs of leaves and its walls of trunks and oasis of clearings and bodies of water. Riches of their own, but not the kind that Alerra wanted. Or so the campaign leaders said. Surely it couldn't be old superstitions and stuttered warnings from mangled survivors that scared away such a progressive and fearless army? Nothing of ancient monsters and teeth in the shadows under the verdant foliage could keep the brave marchers and killers of the war nation at bay. There is hubris against your own gods, and then there is challenging ones from different pantheons.

Things in the forest of Orsykt heard the screams of both Alerron soldiers as well as those of their enemies. There was a minor skirmish happening. The hooves were thunderous and the human murder was on a grand scale, Though it seemed the conflict was dying down, and that Alerra was the victor. Another expansion for the Alerron king. It was too sad then, that the company lead by a woman on a horse had lost their path, too close to Orsykt, when they could have returned to celebrate for years after.

The forest and one of its masters had taken them. It was about time the earth here drank some intruder's blood again. Lately, there had been plenty, and their absence had been explained away by losses on the battlefield, when in reality the enemy was much older than neighboring kingdoms. The night was only beginning, and maybe it was the dusk that had confused the leader on her horse. More likely, the will imbued onto the forest by the creature who watched them was the culprit.

A wolf is cunning.

But it would seem to them that they were simply on the wrong path, or at an unknown juncture of the right one. The trees wore their leaves a little sparser, in a waiting autumn, but were still rich and heavy, almost blue in the ever dimming light. The men in armor traveled, as always, around their leader. Their grab was battle ready, and their sheathed weapons were sharp. Though late in the war they'd won, their armorer still saw to that they rode out fully equipped for meetings with stray groups of enemy soldiers. Though they all trusted their commander with their lives, a beautiful and skilled woman, they were starting to doubt her sense of direction. They should have been home before night came a knocking. They didn't know they'd been doomed when they'd ventured too close to an unseen boarder of Orsykt. They should have heeded that old superstition.

Another monarch than the one they'd sworn allegiance to watched over them now. One that was tired of their clanking iron, and their slaughter without inviting him.

A wolf is vengeful.

Eventually they came to an end in the road they were traveling, where the trampled earth and grass lead down into a large burrow. It was ominous even for very pragmatic soldiers, especially in the unstoppable advance of night. A rustle to the side startled them, and a tall things, with something even taller on its shoulders, stepped out to greet them.

A wolf is territorial.

There were yellows eyes in its head, and it was dressed in deeper shadows than even the late time of day could provide. It towered over them, impossibly, standing on two legs.

"Alerron soldiers are not welcome in my woods." it said with many voices, most of them animal. It was a dizzying sound that only barely managed to culminate in words they recognized. "But I will take Alerron sacrifices."

 

[PrincessSkye]

Lady Kaeleigh Ironstone was a woman of experience beyond her comparatively few years. The bellicose nature of the Alerron king meant that his knights had constant opportunities to prove their prowess. She had overseen a number of skirmishes, winning each with overwhelming force of will and technical skill. She stood taller than most women, and wore her hair long, to ensure that those she bested knew she was a woman. Her blackened armour was immaculately polished, and her bay destrier was of the finest stock.

Her training was peerless, and her equipment the finest money could buy, and yet she felt uncomfortable leading her men through the misty forest. The light filtering through the heavy tree canopy seemed improbably dim, and the shadows unthinkably deep. She felt that something was off even before her horse reared in fear. The voice (voices?) cut through her mind like a knife, but she managed to maintain her composure. She knew tat she had to hold face in front of her men.

"To whom is it that I speak? I carry the authority of the King of Alerra, and his force of arms." She managed to keep the quaver out of her voice, but her posture wasn't quite as upright as her trainers would have liked.

She knew monsters resided within Orsykt, and had read about them extensively. She knew how to best a wyvern or ghoul, and had a solid idea of how to fight off a bar-geist or bean-seadh, but clearly, this was something far grander than the monsters from the books she had spent hours studying.

 

[Verse]

The flesh on the saddle was female. The kind that some ill-gotten cults liked to place at the boarder of Oryskt forest, to commune and appease whichever entity they wanted. Sometimes, when their chanting spoke to him, Deflen would come. Wolves are not usually depicted as scavengers, but there is a lot said about them and maidens. The leader atop the stallion smelled fertile, and her body was strong. Enough that Deflen wondered how much of her he could take from her, and in turn, how much of him she'd be able to take into her. Her fretting did not match that of her mount, but she was compensating with gait for what she lacked in heart, right now. It intrigued the Contra Wolf.

Her voice, though well-kept, betrayed her to the myriad of ears that listened for Deflen. He stood there, outlined in the blue and black, still, while the echo of her question and announcement died. Humans are so uncomfortable with the unknown. And soldiers, particularly knighted ones, would rather battle than wonder.

A wolf is sometimes mischievous.

"Kingkk." the creature imitated best his current tongue could. The voices were better funneled in his large throat now, but there were still multiple, natural sets of vocal chords trying to speak one language. "Kingkk Rhylander, blood of the United Alerreon clans." the monster of Orsykt mused. This kingdom had once been divided in age-old war. The current rule was a resullt of a peace treaty many history scrolls had forgotten. But Deflen hadn't forgotten the blood they spilt, or the ones who'd come to him for favors. "He does not have the wits of the chiefs from which he hail." Finally, the sound was uniform, though still soaked and animalistic. The head on the standing shadow tilted, obviously looking at the riding woman.

"And he is inclined to promote males to lead his sword-wielding packs." The shape of their host inflated somewhat, when he sampled the air deeper. "Your smell sour of fear and pungent of mating honey." he pointed out, and her men drew their swords when he stepped into the light from a hole in the foliage. "It's going to rust your armor if you're not tended to properly."

Immediately dirty gold eyes blotted out the rest of his face, but when their vision might adjust from the wolf orbs, they'd see healthy canine features atop of powerful, long human neck that lead down to an impossibly tall, human, naked body. Their horses were thrown into a frenzy and one of the soldiers on his feet ran at the Contra Wolf in panic, glaive raised. Deflen backhanded him when he came within range, and his body fell forward while his head flew to the east. There was a silver shine to the monster's complexion, the result of fine silver hairs, that still left chest and abdomen naked.

"Are you here as an offering?" he asked Kaeleigh. "You present like a warrior, but I can smell on you that you're better suited as mating practice." There were still many men between them, but the yellow eyes were trained on her.

A wolf is sometimes truthful.