Canon name = Nickname: Corrin = Lupus. Velouria = Vella. Keaton = Keaty. Setsuna = Seta. Hinoka = Hina. Sakura = Saku. Subaki = Superman. Ryoma = Red. Selkie = Silky. Kaden = Ka-da. Orochi = Viper. Takumi = Tako. Lastly, only Selkie/Silky refers to Corrin/Lupus as Lu-pu.
Consort: So… it's like 75%/25% for Conquest/Revelations? I agree on that for a requirement for RV, but for the alpha, I'd say it's because Keaty understands human stuff better… I mean, Keaty was beside Lupus more often than the alpha, not to mention the habits Vella picked up on. The alpha is just more rooted in Wolfskin ways. As for finding a new home? Hm… I'd have to think on that more.
I agree on Conquest, too. It'll be more about making sure the pack stays alive. I don't think they'll be going out of their way to kill, as that would just be too great of a risk. The pack's relationship with Hoshido will also be borderline aggressive… but maybe the alpha will respect the ones that helped Lupus? But only them, not the rest.
Lupus yawns, blinks, and slowly rises from her sleeping position. She then stretches out her legs… yep, still a bit sore. She lazily looks around the campsite, Hina is still quite asleep, as is her Pegasus, Seta is a few inches from Lupus, bobbing her head to and fro… doing her best to stay awake, it seems. "Good morning, Lupus~" Seta lazily sings. "Didya sleep well?" She turns her head, looking about as sleepy as she sounds.
"Didn't dream…" Lupus starts off, "Pretty good, I guess. What about you?"
"I didn't." She frowns, "Hina insisted that you get a full-night's sleep, so we split the night watch between us." She shrugs, "And I got the second watch." The frown turns into a smile, "How's your legs?"
She shakes her legs, "Good enough." Lupus nods, then looks off into the distance, "Well, I should…" Her heart starts aching before she can even finish 'should go now.'
Seta tilts her head, "The pack needs you more than us…" Yet again, without fail, Seta reads her. Then the Archer rises and walks towards Lupus, "And… I'll always love you, y'know? Even if you can't come back."
Lupus takes a step forward, "And I'll… love you, too." Why does it have to hurt so much?! "Oh!" She suddenly exclaims, reaching into her bag, "I… got something for you!" Several moments later and she pulls out two vibrant red feathers… pulled from Silky's mouth. "One for me… and one for you." She extends one of them with a smile. While it obviously isn't slick with the vixen's saliva… it has hardened over, making the individual strands rougher.
It still smells really sweet, too. "Aw…" Seta gives her that beautiful lazy smile, "It's beautiful! Thank you, Lupus!" Without missing a beat, Seta puts the tip of the feather underneath her hairband, securing it fairly well.
In response, Lupus places her feather underneath her own hairband, "...I'll miss you." The air turns somber once more as she takes up her hands, "And… I… mmph!" Whatever she had to say was cut off by the feeling of Seta's lips on her own.
Maybe it was better if she didn't say anything at all, then?
Instead, they just pulled each other closer, wanting to have more… more before they have to pull apart. Mouths part, tongues dance, light breathing turns to heavy panting, faces flushed, hands travel and…
"Ah!" Hina shrieks. "That's… really?"
The two pull apart, "Good morning, Hina~" Seta sings, as if she wasn't just caught in an intense kiss with the Sky Knight's little sister.
"Gods… out of all the things i could've waken up to…" She gripes, before shaking her head. "So… you gotta go now, huh?" A frown follows, "I'm gonna miss you, sister."
"Yeah, gotta get back to the pack… I need to make sure they're okay." They won't be… things are never just 'okay'. "I'll miss you, too." She adds after a second's delay. "I… oof!"
Hina pulled her into a tight hug, "Be safe, sister…" Her voice cracks.
As safe as she can get, anyway. "Alright." Lupus replies with, "I do need to get… thank you." With the, what should be, the final embrace, Lupus taps into her Dragonstone and sprints off towards the mountains… but not before she lets out a roar for those two. That roar probably held more emotion for Lupus than whatever she could actually say. She's confident that Seta will be able to appreciate it for what it is.
Lupus's legs might still be sore, but her stubbornness to make sure she can actually move around just fine kept her from falling at all. She could tell she is better in this form… the objects around her seemed to zip by faster and faster. Her wings are planted onto her body, so that the wind isn't slowing her down as much…
Oh yes, she is running fast enough for the wind to be a problem.
It won't keep her from the pack, of course, but it will end up slowing her down a bit.
Stride after stride, the area around her gives way to a completely new section no less than a minute apart. At least she doesn't feel as tired… she could even say she feels more energized… adrenaline? Or is her dragon form really just that better? She'd like to think it's the second one.
Lupus kicks up more dirt as she starts to already improve on how she's running, her round of sprinting starts to cover more distance… to the point of if she didn't have this 'head armor', then she might have had to slow down, simply due to the air slamming onto her face.
The mountains quickly come closer… while Shirasagi has since been out of sight for some time… almost there. To the pack, Keaty, Vella, the alpha…
At least, whoever's left.
When Lupus finally did reach the base of the mountains, she ran only about five minutes in… before deciding to shift back. For one, she isn't as agile in her dragon form, and she don't think it would be possible to make it around all of these trees in such a large, bulky form. However, the second and more important reason is that she would rather not knock down every other tree her body rams into.
It's for the best if she finishes this trip in her human form.
Thankfully, she also doesn't have that far to go. Nodding to herself, she keeps her pace, and despite not being in this particular section of the mountainous forest, she twists and turns through trees, branches, roots, and all the little bumps and ditches with an ease that no human can match.
No, she's only half-human… she's better than humans. She is Lupus, a half-dragon raised by Wolfskin and…
She stops in two steps. Why? It's an easy answer, as experienced as the beast-hunters and poachers are, they can never truly cover their tracks. Sometimes it's because of they fail to use the exact same shade color of leaves, or they snap some seemingly random branch, or their scent is stronger than the 'natural' smell they try to cover their bodies with. But, apparently even after being away for so long, she still hasn't lost this certain crucial skill.
There are traps out here.
She lets out a low growl, she isn't that far from the pack, and there are already traps littering the area?! With a certain grace, she weaves around the 'dangerous' part of the trap and breaks it apart. "Stupid humans." She growls again. Yet, in this moment, the 'you humans' doesn't bother her. She knows what she is.
Another dozen or so steps and she undoes one of those 'tension wires'. The process kept repeating, she'd move for about half a minute before encountering yet another one. And she kept going and going, refusing to let… A sick scent blankets this area… intense, potent.
Death.
She narrows it down, Wolfskin. She holds back a gag when she sees this male that one position where she hates seeing any of them in… furless. The only positive to this is he doesn't have even a portion of the scent of any of the pack, moreso nothing that smelled like Keaty or Vella. Besides, even though she was only gone for a few weeks, she doubts the pack has all of the same Wolfskin.
She takes the time to remove the arrow out of his body… toxins, of course. "If I find them, I'll make sure they bleed for you." She swears at the corpse. "No… when I find them." Nodding to herself, she resumes moving. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem the carnage ended there. One, two… three. More Wolfskin lined up on the ground, furless, without any Beaststones. The dragon in her roars, louder and louder.
She lets out her own howl… frustration, anger… vengeance.
Then, she was surprised to receive a howl… a howl… Her heart skips a bit, she recognizes that particular sound, the small change that only one of the Wolfskin ever does. Vella! Keeping her awareness up, she resumes her sprint, leaping over triggers, even managing to disarm some at the speed she's moving… not all of them, but a fair amount. She picks up the scents of many… but, they aren't at the old den and… there aren't as many.
Then she does reach the den… the new den. Her eyes scan the area, there are a few she recognizes, and if the ones she doesn't know aren't bothering with the 'human' that rushed in, that would mean that the alpha detected her… "Sister!"
"Oof!" Vella slammed onto her, openly crying as she gave Lupus a near bone-crushing hug.
Maybe if she were fully human, then it would be breaking her body. "Sister, sister, sister, sister…" Vella whimpers.
"Vella…" Lupus gently says, before managing to only slightly overpower Vella's grip to unpin her arms and return the hug.
"...Lupus." A more stern voice speaks. Power, dominance, she can even pick out the respect from the other Wolfskin… but Vella remains planted. ...The alpha wouldn't allow that. Or, maybe just this once and, "Velouria, off." ...The alpha only referred to Vella and Keaty as 'pups'. "Now."
"Brother…" Vella sighs, before pulling back, giving Lupus the full view of none other than Keaty.
"Keaty!" Lupus exclaims, "I…"
"Stay." He orders with such an authority that…
Her smile fades, "The alpha…?"
"Brother's the alpha now, sister." Vella nods.
"I had us move." Keaty… the alpha… No! Still Keaty! "Noticed something strange when we traveled a certain distance." He continues, "Humans from Nohr stopped following… can't figure out why."
Lupus tilts her head, before nodding, "Mot… er, the Queen has a magical barrier covering Hoshido."
"Sister…?" Vella prods. "You…"
"Velouria, not now." Keaty quickly silences her, "Lupus, continue."
...Wow, he's really changed. "She said something about 'causing Nohrians to lose their will to fight'."
"Hmph." He huffs, "Must only affect humans, then." A short pause, "Only one problem with this den… not enough animals to supply the pack."
"He has to send some back to Nohr to get meat." Vella continues. "And we keep losing more."
"Berries?" Lupus asks.
"She's dead, Lupus." Keaty doesn't need to say 'who', "She passed down what she could, but she couldn't teach them all of it. There are still so many fruits that we don't know are safe or not."
"There are also a lot of them that never grew near us." Vella adds, causing Keaty to nod. "I doubt that even she knew about these."
Well… Lupus had a fair amount of new fruit… "What do they look like?" She asks.
"Can't trust them, they smell too tempting." Keaty starts off with. "Tend to look like circles, some are red, shiny, smooth… some are orange, kinda bumpy, some…"
"Apples, oranges." Lupus cuts him off, to which he raises an eyebrow, "Safe. They taste really sweet, but they're safe. What else?"
"Really small, blue circles," Vella continues, "Sometimes they look like they have a lot of little bumps, but those are black or red…"
"Blueberries… then Blackberries or Raspberries. All safe. Kinda… tart."
"Tart?" Keaty asks.
"It's like sweet, but…" Lupus pauses, but unable to make an actual comparison, "It's… unique. The point is, they're safe to eat."
"Hmph." He huffs again. "...Good to have you back." With that, he turns around.
"Hey~! No hug?" Lupus gripes.
He sighs, "Not that I want one, but…" He faces her again. "I know you won't let it drop until you get one, so…" He shrugs. "Go ahead."
"I can see your tail wagging, brother." Lupus points out.
"..." He looks away.
Smiling she wraps her arms around him. "I'm… just glad you're alive. I had so many nightmares and…"
He chuckles, "Like a few dozen humans could stop me." There's a confidence to his voice that even the alpha couldn't match.
She breaks the embrace, her own confidence rising with his, "So, the last alpha…?"
"He and a few others held the humans back." Ah, just like she guessed.
"Was the king…?"
"No." He cuts her off, "Some woman with an axe just as large." He supplies, "Rode a flying scaled creature."
"She and her… 'mount' fought the alpha." Vella continues, "Two other women fought the rest."
"Just three? Beast Killers?"
"Two axes, one sword… no Beast Killers." Keaty shakes his head, "Other axe one had a similar mount."
"And they fought the rest?" Lupus honestly has a hard time imagining that.
"...Others were already dead by the time we left the area." He visibly flinches, "Alpha couldn't have survived." A howl echoes… success, returning… "I need to go and portion the meats." Keaty turns and leaves without hesitating.
"Brother's the alpha…" Lupus tilts her head. "So much has happened. Eep!"
Vella shoves her body against Lupus's, taking a deep sniff. Her tail starts wagging furiously, "Oh… I almost forgot your scent." She whines. "But I'd never forget your sound." A short pause, "So, you can… where's your sword?"
Lupus smirks. "Hey, sister…?" She smuggly states, "Wanna see something awesome?"
Vella's ears perk, curious enough to briefly drop the topics of her 'missing sword', "Treasure?"
Lupus hesitated… "Oh! Thanks for reminding me!" She digs around in her bag, "Chicken bones!" She smiles as she grabs one and hands it to her.
"...chicken?" Vella picks it up and sniffs it… then starts drooling. "Oh, that smells good." Seeming to know better than Silky, Vella only chews on it. "Mmm… Alright, anything else?"
"See this?" She points at her Dragonstone.
"Yeah, I saw the gem." Vella nods, "Is that a human thing?"
"Well, what if I were to tell you I'm not fully human?"
She stops mid-chew, "Wolfskin?" She asks, if a bit too eagerly.
Well, Lupus can't blame her, "Nope."
"...Kitsune?" She growls.
"Nope." Yet before Vella could guess again, Lupus channels that roaring into the stone, "...half-dragon." With that, she taps into the Dragonstone, shifting into her dragon form.
Vella drops the chicken bone.
The den is covered in silence. Lupus is on the receiving end of multiple stares… apparently this is strange enough to warrant stopping everything… if only for a half-second. "Half… dragon?" Vella repeats.
"Yup!" Lupus says in that echoey voice. "No need for a sword."
Vella walks up and strokes Lupus's scales on her leg. "Smooth… kinda wet?" She then, of course, sniffs Lupus. "Mmm… I got a new scent to learn." With that she shoves her nose up against Lupus. "...Could you lie down?"
Lupus giggles, "Sure!" She plops down onto the ground with a small thud, to which Vella starts walking around her draconic sister's body, taking in as much of the slightly different scent as she can.
Oh, it's good to be back…
A/N: And there Lupus is… back in the pack. Buuuut…
The alpha and a few others, including the, uh, 'eldest bitch' are dead. Keaty is now the alpha.
Also sounds like the pack is struggling. Less animals around them, and so many new foods that they aren't sure of. It's a good thing Lupus had all of those fruits and berries back in Shirasagi!
And… taking more liberties, this time with Mikoto's barrier. So, this version of her barrier works kinda like this: It affects humans, not Wolfskin. I would think that the beast-races are different enough to be 'excluded' from its effects. The magic would 'see' them as 'beasts'. So… if a Nohrian walked into the new den, this Nohrian would not be able to attack the Wolfskin… but the Wolfskin would be able to attack the human.
Still, the pack has to deal with Hoshidan poachers. Which do exist, mind you. Hoshido just isn't as 'flooded' with poachers as Nohr.
I wonder who was it that fought against the alpha and the remaining Wolfskin…
Aaaand, it's still up in the air if this will turn out Conquest or Revelations. Until then, gotta worry about the more potential immediate threat… Mikoto's barrier failing. I'm sure Garon would quickly send out the order to finish off the pack.