[PRP] Not Dead...Yet (Burz & Sko)

[Princess_Feylin]

He had won his freedom during breytast vindar, but he had not fought for it. He had won because the lion he challenged failed to show up. Burz tried to tell himself that didn't matter, and that what really mattered was that he had won his freedom before the new warlord reversed Njal's proclamation regarding Burz's family, but he couldn't make himself believe it. He had failed.

His failure gnawed at him, filling him with rage and guilt that fed upon each other and produced epic levels of self-loathing. He knew there were things he really ought to do. He ought to start training and think about finding a viking band and earn a reaver's rank, or at least think about challenging that asswipe Tallskog to a holmgang so that he would finally have the chance to prove he deserved his freedom, but most days he did nothing. Literally, nothing.

After more than a week of lurking near the ice melts, during which his coat and mane became damp and tangled and matted, and his white fur was largely dun with the mud that formed up in the ice melts, he decided to descend and return to the forest to make his apologies to his family for failing them. He couldn't imagine feeling any lower, so he might as well make his humiliation complete.  

[bipolar bee]

Skogund was furious. He'd been furious ever since Klona had had her cubs. It bothered him so much, the fact that she'd been alone just long enough to find herself in a position to be disgraced, that he couldn't bear to look at her just yet. He'd failed his sister.

Thankfully Orvar was more than happy to assist Herryk in watching after Klona and the little ones, and Klona was a surprisingly attentive mother - or so Skogund had been told by Orvar and his father both.

He'd kept to himself, but his time in solitude hadn't been peaceful. Skogund had been warring with himself the past week. He wanted to seek out Burzum at the stronghold so that he might share some of the rage that burned in his chest, but he was a little terrified that he might do something rash - like seek out each of Njal's sons just so he could rip their throats out one by one.

Almost as though his thoughts had conjured his brother, Skogund eyed Burz as he entered the forest. From his place high in a thick tree, he had a fairly decent vantage point.

He wasn't sure what to say to Burzum. He wanted to lash out, defer some of the guilt that weighed him down. He wanted to fight and bite and hurt - but he did none of those things.

Instead, he merely said, "Well, if it isn't my brother. I suppose I should call you Uncle Burzum, now, though."

Each word was a low, serpentine hiss, spoken with just enough volume so that Burz could hear.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz glanced upward, nonplussed by his brother's soft hiss. He'd spent most of his youth fighting against a maddeningly high voice, eventually succeeding in damaging his vocal chords enough that he always sounded hoarse and raspy, just like he wanted. Hissing did not impress him.

"Somehow it doesn't sound like congratulations are in order. Are you finding that fatherhood disagrees with you?"

It seemed the logical assumption to make after a greeting like that. Thinking about the fact that Skogund had even had the opportunity to have a family, whether or not he liked it once he had it, lit a tiny spark of ire in Burz's chest, for he had not had that opportunity. It was not enough to provoke him to violence though. Besides, Skogund was up a tree, which would have made any attack from Burz's position quite a challenge.

"When can I meet the missus?"  

[bipolar bee]

Skogund merely stared at his brother before rising to his feet. The leaves of the branch he perched upon rattled when he moved, and Skogund had to admit that he liked the sound. It was almost soothing. He bounced again for good measure.

"Oh, no. It isn't me that's had cubs."

He sounded completely disgusted by the thought, and he shook his head before taking to a branch lower down, closer to the ground.

"Klona's had cubs."

He bounced on the branch he landed on. The leaves jittered.

"A whole mess of them."

He took to the next branch down.

"One of them has our grandfather's wing."

The next branch.

"And oddly enough, the same stone-like markings that Njal has."

His voice tightened, and he finally landed on the ground just before his brother.

"What do you think of that?"  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz narrowed his eyes at Sko bouncing on his branch. There had been a time when Burz had also been a tree-dweller, by and large, but there were no trees in the stronghold, and as a thrall he would not have been allowed to climb them anyway. At least not if he gave any indication that he enjoyed doing so. He ground his teeth and reminded himself that it was not Sko's fault he had been enthralled.

He was not entirely surprised to learn it was Klona who had cubs. She was careless enough to have let that happen, but he wondered who was responsible. It wouldn't be like the family to invite an outsider into their haven, and unless things had changed a great deal - and they may have done - he didn't see how any sort of courtship, or even rape, could have taken place. Klona had rarely been left alone.

As Sko explained, answering the very questions Burz had been pondering as he descended from his perch, Burz found himself grinding his teeth with greater vigor. For the first time since the day he told Naaja he was free, according to the terms of the breytast vindar, he felt something other than self-loathing. It was a familiar feeling: hatred for Njal's family.

"I have not heard of anyone in that family dying slowly and painfully, and I have been in a position to hear such things until recently. So what I think is that someone has failed in their duty to their family."

Fast on the heels of this thought, Burz wondered who had failed to watch her and prevent this from happening in the first place. He set that thought aside for the moment. There were other questions he needed answered first, even though he wasn't sure he really wanted to hear the answers. He needed to. He needed to know who he had to kill, and how slowly.  

[bipolar bee]

Skogund loved his family. He really did. He would do anything for any of them if they were in need, within reason. Rescuing Burzum would have been a death sentence. Absolute and without question, anyone who would have attempted it would have been slaughtered. It would have been stupid and senseless, and no matter how Sko wished he'd at least made an attempt, there wasn't anything he could do to change the fact that he hadn't. If there had been even a glimmer of a favorable outcome, he would have tried.

Skogund had always tried to do his best by his family. He never resented Klona for being the way she was, and had always been utterly devoted to his sister. It was bad enough that she'd gotten pregnant - but to have gotten pregnant by one of Njal's sons while Sko was supposed to be watching her (though he didn't even know if that was the case), well. It ate at him. It was alive, that guilt, and clawed at him from the inside.

"It is impossible to always watch her - and it is simple to see that she is not whole." Gods, he wanted to hurt something. Someone.

"I am going to kill him. Whoever did this, I am going to kill him, Burzum. We are going to kill him. You are home now. You are free. You know Njal's family. They will suffer, they have to suffer. I have never seen such terror as there was in Klona's eyes. She had no idea what was happening to her body, and we all thought her fat. She birthed the cubs as she ran back to papa, Burz."

Skogund paused, his claws digging deep into the earth beneath his feet.

"We will kill them all if we have to. All of them. The sons. The daughters."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"Mm," Burz agreed. There was still a note of censure in his tone, but he kept it mild. There were more important matters than assigning blame at the moment.

He listened as Sko recounted how things had happened. When he had lived with his family he had taken his turn in watching over Klona and he had not resented her for being the way she was. Being with her was nearly the only time he had not been filled with rage toward Njal in those days, because to be angry around Klona would only upset her.

Now, hearing about how frightened Klona had been, and how the family had suspected nothing until she actually bore the cubs, he was furious. His fury was not entirely directed toward the lion who had put her in her maternal condition, however. They should have at least been able to tell that she was pregnant, despite the odds against it. Grandmother Raven would have been spotted it in an instant, he was certain. And Kazul, too. The family had failed Klona, and he decided there would be a reckoning for that, but it would come later.

In the mean time, it was of greater importance to eradicate Njal's family from the earth. On that topic, and in response to Skogund's assertion that they would kill them all, he only inclined his head and rasped, "Obviously." That one word held ominous, murderous undertones.  

[bipolar bee]

"It would have been nice to have an extra pair of eyes on her," Skogund finally said, speaking his mind. Yes, it felt nice to lash out. It felt nice to put a little blame on someone else. Gods knew he blamed himself enough, as did Herryk and Orvar - and he was certain the others, as well. "But I suppose that would have been impossible for you, considering how you were playing pet to one of Njal's daughters."

Oh, yes. That was satisfying. He could feel his hackles lifting along his shoulders and down the line of his spine to his tail. There was an anger in him, a deep rage that pulsed in his chest down to his belly.

"She asked for you on more than one occasion, Burz. She wondered where you were, and we all had to lie."

He wasn't sure that it was about Klona anymore, at that point. Skogund was angry at his brother for abandoning them. For being foolish enough to be caught, for being gone for so long. It was easier to handle anger, though, instead of hurt - and so Sko focused on the rage. It was simpler, sharper.  

[Princess_Feylin]

Sko may have intended the remark about an extra pair of eyes to be accusatory and to make Burz feel guilty for not being there, but he missed his mark if so. Burz was angry at himself for several things, but that was not and would never be one of them. He would be more inclined to be angry at himself for not having killed whichever of Njal's sons impregnated Klona before he had a chance to get her in that position in the first place.

"My time might have been better spent," he allowed, refusing to rise to his brother's baiting. He thought momentarily about pointing out that the lioness he had been watching had not been hurt or impregnated under his supervision, and he had not had any assistance in that, but he resisted the impulse.

"I will be glad to discuss it with you at a later date, but I don't believe it is a priority at the moment. However, I am beginning to get the impression that prioritizing did not turn out to be one of your strong suits." His expression challenged Sko to prove him wrong in that.  

[bipolar bee]

While Burzum seemed to be unflappable, Skogund couldn't help to feel more than a little outraged. Well, mostly he was just laden with guilt, and yes, he really hadn't thought that anyone would want to ******** his sister. She wasn't normal. She was slow, and while she was incredibly sweet she really did have the most dedicated one-track mind probably on the planet. Skogund had gotten careless, and because of that Klona had gotten pregnant.

He didn't need Burz reminding him of it, and when his pale brother did so, Sko really only wanted to clobber him over the head. Hard. Multiple times.

However, returning home (yes, finally) with his brother would not be totally seamless if they both happened upon Klona and their father with bruises, bites and scratches littering their pelts.

"Oh, ******** off," Skogund muttered under his breath before turning his back on his brother, hackles at full attention. "Papa will be happy to see you, and so will Klona. Everyone will be, I guess."

Sko padded off, walking on the ground as opposed to climbing among the branches - something that was odd for the dark lion.

"I'm glad you aren't dead, or married to one of the bitches back at the stronghold," he continued, glancing over his shoulder at Burz. "I think I am going to need all the help I can get when it comes to the task before us."  

[Princess_Feylin]

"I doubt that. Especially if I look like this when they see me. Give me some time to clean up before you take me home and show me off to the family."

He glanced pointedly at his muddy paws and matted coat. If he turned up like this, people would certainly get the wrong impression about the life he'd led in the stronghold. He had been beaten, but not recently. Not for a long time, in fact. He had done this to himself. He regretted his lack of care now. He should have thought before coming back to the forest.

"For the record, I'm glad I'm not dead or married to one of those bitches. And I look forward to spilling all the blood in Njal's bloodline with you." After a bath. The blood would show up better on his white coat if it was clean when he started shedding it.

There was a part of him that wondered at this calm that overlaid everything he was saying and doing right now. He was still livid, but his actions reminded him almost of his Uncle Odd. He wondered if this was what Odd felt like all the time inside. That was sort of a strange thought.

"Who else will be taking part in the slaughter?"

pinchmonster

 

[bipolar bee]

"You sound like a female," Skogund complained, his voice carrying heat. He was still irritated, and he didn't like feeling as though anyone else blamed him for Klona's misfortune. He blamed himself enough, thank you, probably more than enough - and the fact that Burz had enough balls to sort-of-accuse-him-without-blatantly-accusing-him really pissed Sko off.

Now was not the time to deal with it, though. The time would come for them to clash, but now there were more important things for the both of them to focus on.

"You also stink, brother, so maybe a bath is a good idea."

This was mumbled beneath his breath, snapped out from behind clenched teeth.

"You and I. No others. We won't be barging in and doing things sloppily, either. I haven't figured it out yet - but now that you're back," Sko glanced over his shoulder with narrowed eyes filled with anger, "from your little vacation, we'll come up with a plan."  

[Princess_Feylin]

Burz didn't dignify his brother's whining with a response. If Sko took a moment to think about it, he would see Burz was correct. Arriving in front of the family in this condition would only distress them. It would be better if he at least looked clean. There wasn't much to be done about his mane for the moment.

"All right," Burz agreed. His own sense of calm was really beginning to freak him out though. It was not his natural state of being, and he could feel anger roiling beneath the surface. It just wasn't touching the exterior.

"While I'm bathing you can tell me everything you know or think you know about the lion who got Klona pregnant, and the circumstances surrounding it." A part of him didn't want to know some of the details he would have to ask for, like whether Sko thought Klona's participation had been willing or unwilling, but he needed to know these things. It was like an itch beneath a callus.

"And then we can work out a plan."  

[bipolar bee]

Skogund merely rolled his eyes, and let the action suffice as his response to his brother's suggestion. Whatever. His papa was going to be so happy to see Burz, and so was Klona, and so was everyone else - and he'd just feel like a failure again, like he had for the past few weeks. A big ******** failure that had let his entire family down.

Wallowing in self-pity wasn't really productive, but it made him feel a little better. He knew, deep down, that his father didn't really blame him - and he knew for a fact that Klona didn't either. It didn't matter, and didn't help with his own strong sense of self-loathing.

"Fine."

His thoughts once more turned to that pale female with the odd wing markings, and for a moment he had to wonder if she would be any help to them. Probably Burz wouldn't be much help, since he'd been busy baby sitting one of Njal's kin.

As they came up on a rather large, clear pond in a small clearing (it was one they often used to bathe in, fed by a large cool underwater spring), Skogund flopped to the ground.

"I'll tell you everything I know."  

[Princess_Feylin]

It hadn't occurred to Burzum that his brother might be putting himself though just as much anguish as Burz was himself. What had Skogund to torment himself over? True, Klona had ended up pregnant, but unless she has slipped away from Skogund's watch specifically, that wasn't really his fault. And, true, he hadn't made any sort of rescue attempt for Burz or the other members of their family that had been enthralled under Njal's rule, but neither had anyone else. Though if Sko had said anything aloud about blaming himself, Burz probably would not have offered any of these reassurances. He wasn't very good at that at this point in his life.

"That shouldn't take long," Burz muttered as he waded into the pond.

Living as Naaja's guard and guardian, he had been very free with his speech, regardless of what punishment it might bring him. Usually his unguarded words were intended to hurt or provoke, even when there was humor behind them, as now. He really didn't know how to communicate any other way. Like offering reassurance, pleasant discourse was a skill he had lost, if he'd ever had it.