Originally, the teen titan did not mean to wander into the dense forest South of the Maw. He wanted to avoid the pines as much as possible after his run-in with the grizzly to the North, yet somehow he always found himself ducking into their coverage for security. He knew why bears stuck to the pines, it was the same reason he did.. but sharing a space with them made his fur stand on end the deeper he ventured into the shared hunting grounds. He was becoming desperate for food, the last time he had managed to get a substantial meal being when he hunted with the coyote. He was growing, his metabolism giving him a sense of restlessness and an absolute need to hunt.

The sun was already setting, the forest was dark.. he disappeared as well as he wanted to, but his eyes and ears remained alert for absolutely everything within their range. Bears were actively hunting, preparing for hibernation- he knew that, and now he knew just how scary ending up face to face with one could be, but he needed the prey supply within the pines. Even a rabbit, or just... something.

Dominus was massive, allowing him to reach branches most birds might have deemed safe and out of the reach of a wolf or bear; he only just realized this as he noticed a raven's nest full of hatchlings just shy of being old enough to use their wings nested in one of the pines. Had their mother not just been returning for him to witness, he might not have ever noticed- but her timing could not have been more unfortunate for her. He pushed through the branches of the pine tree, trying to stretch his body out through the thickness of it as much as possible as his jaws reached for the nest. The mother abandoned it rather quickly and without thought, leaving just him and the hatchlings.

The behemoth's back paws reached for more leverage, finding themselves on top of some of the lower branches that were thick enough to withstand his weight without snapping. They repeated the act, finding higher and higher branches until finally, he could reach the nest. Without much tact, his canines snagged the twigs of the nest and sent the hatchlings tumbling down the branches. He ate them relatively quickly and with relative consideration for their suffering, but he could not afford to go without taking advantage of the easy snack.

GOT AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER But the devil always won... He'd been told not to stick his nose where it didn't belonged but as far as Harbringr was concerned his nose belonged everywhere. His nose had lured him northward into a forest the locals said was haunted. Costanza, his barn owl companion, landed gracefully in a nearby tree and he jumped before fixing her with a critical eye. "Must you do that? You'll scare the hair right off of me." The owl cooed in her manner and chuckled. "I'm sorry love, this is just how I am." He turned to Ari, the macaque, for a little back up but the primate was occupied with keeping watch. Hari couldn't blame him. The horizon swallowed the sun at an alarming rate and it was nearly dark. Harbringr kept moving through. "I hope there aren't any ghouls in here." "Well," Ari's voice lightened. "If we meet any maybe Costanza and I can trade you off." Hari scowled at his companion then froze as he sensed movement. He took a deep breath, funneling air into his nose as he tested for signs of danger. The sounds grew louder, snapping branches and squeaking birds. Costanza called out to him and there he spied a large dark wolf in a tree, snarfing something down. He let out a sigh of relief. "Spirits, I thought you were a-" "Bear!" Ari screamed and Harbringr whipped around to see a large grizzly staring at him.

As most of the hatchlings fell within the tree's branches, the wolf was still snuffling through them for any last morsels of his meal. Not having to share his food with the snake usually in his company felt weird, but at the moment... he was thankful to have every bit for himself. The hatchlings did well to curb his hunger for the moment, so he was just about ready to pull himself from the tree completely when he heard the voice of another wolf.

The sudden noise startled him, causing his hackles to prickle along his mottled mantle. Piercing blue gaze found the wolf with the heterochromic eyes staring right at him and he paused, the shadows of something even further than the wolf catching his attention more than the wolf itself. As he realized the size and shape of the shadow, the rest of his hackles came to rise along the entirety of the giant's spine. His thick fur was absolutely bristled by the time his ears folded back, his inky lips parted from around the blue gums that framed his thick white teeth. Their pristine coloration could hint to the giant's truth, that he was young- but he doubted the other wolf would notice as it soon whipped around to face the same shadow.

The grizzly stepped forward through a break of light reaching into the pines, unveiling himself so that both wolves could take in the sight of it. It seemed smug about the fact that it had caught them unaware of its presence, which absolutely triggered Dominus' in itself. How dare he be comfortable enough to act so bold in the face of two wolves? He gave a quick glance to the other wolf, checking him for any disabilities that would prevent him from being of any use in a fight against the grizzly. He found none, in fact, he was pleasantly surprised by what muscle he could gauge that the wolf held. His attention returned to his target and he let a rolling growl rip through his throat. He was ready to fight if he needed to, and from the look of the bear- they would need to.

As the bear advanced toward the paler wolf, Dominus barreled forward and snapped his jaws- making the grizzly hesitate. Dominus wasn't equal to the mass of a bear, but he was nothing for a bear to sneeze at. Ignoring him was impossible for the grizzly, so Dominus would use that to his advantage and do his best to steal the attention of the bear away from the swifter wolf. He prayed only that the other wolf didn't take Dominus' brave act as an opportunity to flee and leave him with just the bear. He was too far into it to cancel his plan of action now that he realized he could be fucked, but his eyes became noticeably wider as the reality of the situation began to set in.

Continuing with his attempt to get the grizzly to face partially away from the piebald wolf, he began to move toward the stranger's right side. Dominus' head had already lowered to align with the rest of his spine, his tail had already flagged itself outward. He had set his defenses and walked with intentions of keeping his body level and his weight evenly distributed on bent knees. If the bear looked away from him, he would snap and threaten to attack at whatever side of the bear was visible to him. The bear seemed amused by this and charged the reckless teen wolf- forcing Dominus to shuffle backward and pray that he remembered the placement of the trees he was in front of so that he could avoid them. He wasn't sure how long he could manage to avoid the debris of the forest without getting caught as he backed up, so he prayed that the other wolf made some sort of distraction or attack with what was available to him sooner rather than later.

GOT AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER But the devil always won... Harbringr locked eyes with the grizzly bear then he quickly shifted to stare at its feet. He'd learned now that locking eyes was a challenge but he also didn't want to look away completely. Autumn had been colder than normal, it heralded a harsh winter to come and a desperate bear would eat anything and everything, even a wolf. Hari needed to know when the creature started to move but hopefully it wouldn't be interested in them. He set his defenses regardless, hackles raised, legs coiled as his ears went back and his tail tucked out. A low rumble escaped the bears throat and Ari scrambled up the nearest tree with a shriek. Costanza already perched, remained where she was, silent and ominous as she watched with her dark eyes. Fuck. The bear let out a challenging roar that clearly indicated there was going to be a fight. Harbringr looked up and snarled himself, trying to look as ferocious as possible on the slim chance that the bear would decide to leave them be and go after more hapless prey. Thankfully he wasn't alone as the large black male joined his side, snapping furiously at the bear. Harbringr quickly joined in but only for a moment as the bear rose to his feet then slammed back down on all fours with a roar. Oh yea, this was definitely a fight. Hari quickly shrank down as the dark male and the bear faced off. He sought to use this to his advantage as he slunk around behind the grizzly bear. He was pleased to find it was male but then the bear charged at the younger wolf. Harbringr was spurred to action. Faster than the bear he leapt forward, fangs latching over the bear's testicles. He quickly thrashed his head as the bear roared and whirled around. The bear was faster than he thought it was. He let go and tried to duck as the bears wrist clocked him in the head, sending him crashing down into the dirt.

Dominus was hoping that the piebald wolf would make an attack while the bear was preoccupied with him, and it seemed his hope had been placed in the right wolf. He heard the frustrated growl of the bear and watched as it spun behind him and tucked his ass closer to the ground. Clearly, the other wolf had made a fantastic choice- Dominus could smell and see the blood sprinkled across the forest floor beneath the bear's shuffling paws while it turned.

The same smug look the bear seemed to have on his face when he targetted the two wolves seemed to transfer to the teen's square muzzle now. Now that he did not have to flee for his life backward, he charged forward toward the scent of that blood. His top canines were aimed with precision, hoping to catch his upper left fang on at least some part of those already mangled testicles and bring them into contact with the inner part of the bears 'thigh' nearest to it.

He wanted to bite at the meatier portion of the bear's backside and dig for any sort of artery. He wasn't familiar with the parts of a bear that would make it bleed a bunch, but he hoped to find out. He made his bite as deep as possible, massive jaws clenching together as he pulled back and tried his best to do as much damage as possible with his attack. The bear quickly lowered itself so that its ass was completely safe against the ground and sat up, growling and spinning in place back to face Dominus.

While the bear was upright with its ass now protectively planted on the ground, it would attempt to smack the boy in the same fashion it had just done to the stranger, but Dominus' saw the repeated action coming and managed to feel the air of the heavy paw moving just out of reach of his face as he pulled himself back. Dominus wasn't sure how much the bear was bleeding, but the air was thick with the scent.

GOT AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER But the devil always won... Harbringr was slower to get to his feet than he'd like, the sudden screech of an owl alerted him to Costanza's prescense as she dove at the bear talon's slashing at it's face to ward it away from Hair who was still in a daze. The bear roared and slashed at her but then was suddenly violently concerned with what was going on behind it and it whirled around with a bleating roar of fury and pain. Hari shook his head as he finally got back to his feet with a grin as he saw what the youth was doing. Ah, hell yes! They were taking this bastard down several pegs. He wouldn't dare confront a wolf after this. The bear sat down firmly on the ground protecting Harbringr's original target so he had to pick a different one. Harbringr launched forward while the bear was distracted, his fangs digging into the nape of the bear's neck. He quickly pressed himself flush against the bear to avoid the claws that were trying to get at him. All was well until the bear tipped backward. Shit! Harbringr let go and tried to get out of the way but he fell to the ground with the bear on top of him, the beasts back crushing into his belly. Hopefully though this revealed some tender targets for the younger wolf to go after that would finally get the bear to give up and leave them alone.

"No!" Dominus' bright blue eyes were wide, his pupils barely visible as they reflected the sight of the bear tumbling onto it's back and trapping the piebald wolf. He worried about the amount of weight that was falling on the wolf and if it would seriously harm him any, whether or not the wolf would be able to get away once the bear got up on its feet once again. Dominus' talons gripped the earth beneath under splayed toes, his heart racing so fast in his chest that it was all he could hear.

As the bear fell onto it's back and exposed the complete underside of his body to the wolves, Dominus sprang into action knowing he needed to act quickly. His thick claws that were already embedded in the forest floor used their secure footing as leverage to close the distance between them within milliseconds. His teeth chose to seek out the flesh of the bear's inner thigh, as high up and with the least amount of fur as possible though he wasn't picky.

The behemoth wolf thrashed his head violently as he would tear into the inner portion of the bear's thigh, pinching together flesh with an incredibly wide range from what he grabbed with the initial bite. He felt his teeth fight to get past the thick of the bear's skin and muscle, and finally, he felt the flood of blood that he was aiming for. He'd managed to dig deep enough to open it as he wanted, and he assumed the bear would indeed die from such a wound... but how long would it take? The bear was furious, but awkwardly placed- by the time it tried to attack Dominus, Dominus had already backed off and reset his defenses while he readied himself to wait out the bear's end.

Weakened, the bear did its best to back off from the wolves after it rolled off of the wolf. With its heavily bleeding rump held protectively to the ground, the bear backed up toward the pines with a new fear for his life. This surprised Dominus, but he was thankful. With an attentive eye on the bear, he moved to the wolf that had been pinned beneath it.

"You alright?" He asked quickly, looking to the wolf only after the bear disappeared into the forest. Dominus had been lucky enough to avoid... any damage at all, really. It was a shame his spur of the moment battle partner did not share the same luck.

GOT AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER But the devil always won... Harbringr focused on his breathing, seeking to get enough oxygen to his brain, while his limbs pulled as he struggled to get out from under the bear. Thankfully it had landed mostly on his lower half but there was still enough pressure on his diaphragm to be concerning. He was at a shitty angle! That was for sure. Hari wiggled and squirmed as he tried to push himself further out from under the beast. Thankfully the massive youth he'd been fighting with ripped the bear a new one, causing enough pain for the creature to roll of him and go whimpering off into the woods. Harbringr took a big gulp of air into his lungs and stumbled to his feet. "Yea… yea, m'ok. Just need to catch my breath." He took another deep breath and coughed lightly. "You're a hell of a fighter kid, what's your name?"

As Harb stood there regaining his strength after having nearly been crushed, Dominus let relief finally begin to melt away the tension he had been holding on to through-out the fight. His chest was finally allowed to heave as he no longer put his energy into controlling, and his limbs were allowed to loosen as he no longer held himself in a prepared stance.

He collapsed to the floor as he suddenly felt weak from his exertion, the effects of his adrenaline slowly subsiding. The stranger complimented him and a bloody smile was given in appreciation. Dominus wasn't used to being complimented, truth be told. He shook his head dismissively, not wanting to believe that statement. He knew he was still a novice, and that other.. more experienced fighters were out there... like his brother, Tyranis, for one. He wasn't given the chance to vocally deny the words of the stranger though as he was asked for his name.

"Uh, Dominus Praetor. Thanks for not running away and leaving me with that thing." He knew the wolf had been given the opportunity, but he stayed and helped Dominus fight it off. The teen was certain that the whole scenario would have ended a lot differently if he had been left alone. The possibility had him silently cursing the lack of control over this newfound sense of bravery he kept accidentally experiencing.

GOT AN ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER But the devil always won... Harbringr took a few slow deep breaths, taking in the sensation of his own body as air moved through him. The muscles that covered his ribs moved as expected, sore as they were. He concluded that he didn't have any broken ribs but it was very likely that they were bruised. The large youth gave his name and Hari nodded. "No problem, Dominus. My name is Harbringr Klein." He stood and stretched, testing his limbs for a few moments before feeling certain that he was good to continue traveling. He did feel it was interesting the kid thanked him for not running away. Had someone run away before on him? Hari didn't feel it was his place to pry. "Well, I best be moving. Good luck, kid. Keep an eye out for them bears!" -exit-