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 Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:09 pm
It was well into the next morning when Kumiho finally roused. Though the sharp, racking pains of labor were over, her body was still sore and battered from the events over the last day. The whole cave smelled of mud, birth, blood, grass, and fur. She snarled as she brought herself to her paws, padding over to Cerberus wrapped protectively around her baskets.
She felt a sickness rise up in her throat - the clean, shiny, enchanted Kawani grass baskets looked disgusting to her. The seams - so perfect. Woven by expertly skilled fingers - never having been ripped open to accompany her children; they almost seemed to be smiling her. Smug. s**t-eating grins of failure. Mocking her... mocking her failure. Taunting her with their perfection - there were no dead wind foals inside these pristine vessels.
She felt her body shaking with rage. "GET UP" she bellowed at the sleeping hound, violently striking her claws across on his wings. "Get these things out of my sight!"
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:15 pm
Cerberus was awake in a flash. Asleep on the job, careless, terrible. He never would have done such a thing-
But failure was quickly replaced with confusion as he cocked his head at his mistress.
"Master... I... what do you mean? Shall I take them somewhere safer? Do you fear retribution from the wind soquili? Fear not, I am on my territory once again. I shall protect our offspring... and you, Mistress."
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:23 pm
"You're so thick," she growled, flippantly turning her back to the smiling perfect baskets. "How much clearer can I get? These are weak, useless, failures. she spat. "They are beyond hope, these stunted, horrible, pathetic excuses for offspring."
She paced around the cave, her eyes wild and manic. Still filthy and bloody, her fur was frizzy, matted, and her obi and sleeves fraying at the edges. For the first time since Cerberus had ever known her, she seemed to look as vicious and evil as she knew she was in her soul.
"Cull them," she said, her voice wavering in her rage. "I will not let these abominations share a bloodline with me. They are not worth the grass they are laying in."
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:41 pm
Cerberus was dumbfounded. Never, in his life, had he expected such a callous order from his master. He had done many things for her - many terrible, wicked things. He had attacked and killed other soquili. He had even helped her procure Stormwild's last batch of baskets, and watched as she killed the foals inside. He was hers. She was his master. He did as ordered.
When their first brood of foals had grown older, and no longer weak dependent things, he had watched as they had been chased viciously from their territory.
But.... KILL... her foals...? HIS foals?
He found himself shaking his head.
He had never refused an order from the skinwalker. His old master had sent him here to this realm - to aide her... had he not?
Cerberus did something he hadn't done in years. He started to think. Really think.
He thought about how they met.
There had been no grand sign - just a denizen of the underworld - a race that he recognized. She had ordered, and he had followed. He needed it. He didn't want to think - he couldn't. Couldn't remember, couldn't fathom what else he was supposed to do.
But.... he wore no chains... not here.
What.... what power did the skinwalker have over him? He looked over her now differetly. Savage.... broken and hobbled.... dirty and stinking of irrationality. This was not a sage... not a leader.
He looked down at the baskets again. Her... no... HIS baskets.... and he placed one paw firmly on the ground and pushed himself up, spreading his wings and putting himself between the mad skinwalker and the vessels of life, and spoke a single word that seemed to be flung from the bowels of the Pit itself.
"NO."
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:52 pm
The cave went deathly silent as that single, two lettered word hung in the air. Kumiho stopped her pacing; her tails went limb behind her before bristling out. "Excuse me?" she growled, her eyes burning into Cerberus' "What the hell did you just say to me?" The manic waver in her voice was gone, replaced with a chilling, icy tone.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:56 pm
For a moment, Ceberus stood dealthy still and silent as well after having uttered THAT word. The word of defiance.
The world didn't end.
The skies didn't come crashing down on his head.
Chains did not swallow him up and drag him back to the underworld and The Gate.
He blinked, and felt a confidence that he hadn't felt in ages. His fur began to bristle, his lips pulled back into a snarl.
"I said NO." it was like running down a mountain - he couldn't stop now that he had started, but was building momentum.
"I have done EVERYTHING that you commanded me, Mistress but I will NOT kill our children."
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:05 pm
Kumiho felt as tho she could explode in rage. Every strand of fur in her body stood erect as she bristled. "You will do exactly what I tell you to do, you ungrateful slave," she wailed, her voice cracking at the audacity of her minion standing up to her. "How dare talk back to me? Who do you think you are, you sniveling, brainless, dog. You WILL kill them, and if you're lucky I won't make you dine on their dead flesh for defying me!"
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:13 pm
At his full height, Cerberus looked down on Kumiho with new eyes. He was taller than her. His claws and his teeth were just as sharp. He could see through her bravado at the wounds and weakness. He was stronger than she was.
The pinions on his back snapped and "barked" at the fox.
He didn't have to do what she commanded.
For the first time that Cerberus could remember, he felt FREE.
He took a step towards her, bristling and snarling. He was never much one for words, but in this case, he had a few choice ones that apparently had been festering inside of him for a long time.
"You can take your commands, little vixen, and THOSE you can EAT. I am not your slave. Not any more. If you dare lay a PAW on those baskets, Kumiho," He spat her name for the first time - not her title, not a sign of respect, "Then I will kill you."
((Note- any noise the wings make is only in Cerberus's head))
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:20 pm
Kumiho's eyes widened as the massive beast stepped towards her, and, somewhere deep in soul, a quiver of fear began to creep in. But there was no way the vicious purewalker was going to falter in front of her minion. But she felt her jaw slack open as he spoke her - his voice deep and menacing and disrespectful. He called her by her name - how dare he!
"You have gone too far," she seethed at him. "How dare you, Cerberus! You will regret this - " she barked at him before lunging straight at this throat.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:25 pm
The time for words was over.
She had no real power. Just words.
Just infuriating, evil WORDS!
Cerberus reacted, acting on ages of instinct and practice. He jerked his wing up to intercept the vixen, clamping its maw around her to hold her back while he went for a powerful bite of his own.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:33 pm
Kumiho screamed at Cerberus' jaw claimed down on the skin between her neck and shoulder. She writhed in his grasp, flailing her claws and trying to rake his chest and belly. She pulled and hissed, but found herself unable to free herself from his vice-like jaw. The small skinwalker could never face a brute such as Cerberus in a battle of pure brawl, but especially in her weakened state, she began to panic.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:38 pm
A familiar scent filled Cerberus's nose: the acrid stench of fear. He was quite familiar with such a scent. But smelling it in HER... the vixen that had called herself his master... it was the final blow to shatter the illusion that she had ANY power over him.
Small gashes opened up along his chest, but he was enraged now, and of such little consequence to him. His grip remained vice like as his very real teeth sunk into the pelt on her other shoulder. Her double-layer of fur was thick, but she could still feel the bite like the blow of a spiked club.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:43 pm
"Noooo ~ " she screeched, feeling her skin begin to give way under his jaws. She kept clawing and flailing, finally feeling the soft skin of one of his eyes on his face and dug in fiercely, her body twisting and writing in his jaws as she tried to slip from his grip and attempt to flee.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 1:50 pm
Her blow hit true and involuntariouly, Cerberus loosened his grasp on the wily kitsune as he let out a yelp of pain.
He felt her wrest loose.
He shook his head, vision swimming as he sprung forward with a mighty snap of his jaws. He didn't look at what he was grabbing, just bit with all his force at the fleeing form and grey-white fur. He couldn't let her kill them. He had to fight...
His mouth filled with fur as it snapped shut HARD. Fur.... and a satisfying CRUNCH of bone.
Cerberus bit clean through one of Kumiho's vulpine tails, about halfway down its length.
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Posted: Wed Jun 19, 2013 2:00 pm
An ear-splitting scream echoed around the gave as Cerberus severed her tail. Kumiho lurched forward, tripping over her front paws and hitting hard against the stone ground. She flung herself around and gaped, horrified, as Cerberus glowered back at her with a large length of one of her precious tails dangling from his jaws.
She quivered as the red-hot pain shot up her spine. She gave a panicked look over to her baskets, her heart racing. There was no way she could reach them; Cerberus was too large, too strong, and directly squared between her and the baskets.
Her heart was beating in her throat as she realized, for the second time in as many days, retreat was the only way to ensure her survival. Cerberus has a murderous look in his eyes - and this time it was honed in on her.
Summoning the last of her strength, Kumiho summoned all her energy and transformed herself into her feral form. Once free of the lumbering, large form of the horse, she made a break for it - running as fast as her vulpine feet could carry her out into the wilderness.
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