Dantalian stood on the edge of Aerie's territory looking out. Her face was set in a deep scowl as she glared into the dark Deluge. The reaving heathens had gone somewhere in that general direction. It was looking like they were just going to get away with it which did not sit well with Dantalian. They needed to be punished! As a child she was excluded from pack decisions so she had no idea what was going on, but since no one was going anywhere or doing anything other than recovering she'd gotten it into her head that the heathens were getting off scot free - and she was not happy about it. So she had decided, since no one else was going to do something about it, she would!

Determined now, Dantalian snatched up the makeshift armor she'd made and began to put it on. She had found some sort of ungulate skull that kinda sorta fit over her head so she was using it as a helmet and she'd stolen one of her mother's pelts and wrapped it across her shoulders like a cape. Around her neck she carefully twisted a tangle of thorns so if anyone tried to bite her there they'd be sorry. When the thorns startled to poke her, Dantalian briefly dropped to the ground and writhed around until her cape was tucked underneath the thorns thus protecting her neck from them.

Once that was done she jumped to her paws and looked herself over. She looked badass. Yep, this was the look. Those heathens were going to be so sorry.

With a determined scowl and a haughty bearing, Dantalian stomped into the Deluge. She didn't know where those wolves lived or how far ahead they'd gotten, but she was gonna chase them down if it was the last thing she did.

Dainty black paws picked their way over the stone littered ground. This was a nice, comfortable place to be. Plenty of solitude. Relaxing water sounds. Grunting puppy noises. Wait... What? The marbled woman stopped in her tracks and, curling her neck, looked behind her. A groan sounded inside her mind as red eyes lit upon the exceptionally small form of Pyrrhic's spawn. She was dressed ridiculously in remnants of dead animals and for some reason had thorns around her neck. What was the little idiot up to now? For a moment Fel considered just letting the girl go on her merry way. If she died, she died. Ah, but the silver streaked woman was currently in poor standing due to her absence. If she let the wretch wander off and die and it was discovered that she could have done something about it... well, best to avoid that. What an inconvenience. With a sigh, she altered her course, turning and leaping down a few levels of rocky platforms to place herself yet again in the path of the headstrong child. "Go home," she ordered, her bloody gaze stern and unbending. Children were such a bother. Why did they always seem to flock to where she was? It was annoying. If she had to pick the little bastard up and take it back to its obviously incompetent mother, she would not be happy. "Speech"

Strutting into the Deluge like a rooster, Dantalian was feeling mighty big and brave. In her head danced visions of vengeance. She pictured herself standing tall and proud over a pile of squalling heathens. Maybe even rubbing their tear stained faces in the dirt for good measure. She would kick 'em in the butt and send them running home to their mommies. They would be sorry. She'd show them! They'd rue the day they chose to mess with the mighty Abraxas! Rue it!

A familiar obstacle leaped into her path. It was like deja vu all over again. Affronted, Dantalian gaped up at Fel for a second. Last time she'd been too surprised to mount a good defense. This time she had words. She shook her head sharply in exasperation then huffed, "Not you again! Are you following me? Don't you have something better to do? None of this was meant to be rude despite what it may have sounded like. Dantalian was asking out of genuine curiosity. It seemed fair to ask since this was the second time her aunt had leaped seemingly out of nowhere to stop her.

Puffing out her chest, she added, "I have very important business out there. Family business." She paused, then repeated herself for effect, "It's very important."

Black ears flicked forward at the child's words and her gaze narrowed in annoyance. What were her parents teaching her? Fel wrinkled her nose in distaste before answering. "You aren't worth following. And I was here first." A little childish, but there it was. She had been here first. She really had. If possible, Fel's claret gaze narrowed more as the child spoke of having important family business to attend to. The woman sneered, the edge of one lip curling upwards to flash a fang. "You do realize that we are family, as unfortunate as that is? It would do you well to listen." Lifting one black paw, she pointed back towards home. "Go. Home." A soft purring voice sounded from up above. "Why don't you ask her what's so important?" Oona, the tiny black cat with big golden eyes stared down upon Danta with interest. Fel rolled her eyes and merely grunted, humoring the cat. She supposed she could listen to see what big, stupid ideas had roused the kid to war. "Fel" "Oona"

Dantalian's mouth fell open in amazement. This auntie was so rude! No one had ever talked to her like this before! "I am too worth following! I bet, I bet I'm more interesting than you!" It was her turn to narrow her eyes. She did her best to mirror Fel's expression. It seemed like the most appropriate thing to do given her aunt's behavior. Two could play at that game! As for whether or not she knew they were family, Dantalian nodded sharply and was quick to retort, "Of course I know who you are! You're auntie Fel, my dad's sister and maybe the meanest in your litter but I don't know that for sure 'cause I never met the one your mom stole!"

She planted her feet, jutted out her chin and somehow managed to look down her nose at Fel even though she had to crane her neck to look up at her. "Why should I listen to you? You're mean for no reason! That's not very family-like. We're supposed to be good to one another and bad to everyone else." Dantalian eyed her aunt up and down. "If you have that backwards you're not worth listening to!"

Her aunt's companion spoke up then, suggesting that Fel find out what was so important to Dantalian. The girl looked between the two and, taking Fel's grunt as permission to explain, said, "We got robbed and I want to fix it. My dad says it's important that the world knows who we are and what we can do, so I'm going to make those heathens pay." She nodded firmly to herself and then added solemnly, "That's our leglesy and it's the most important mission we have."

Listening to the child speak with such strong feeling brought a little chuckle from the tiny black cat. Oona gave a little wiggle of her shoulders and grinned. "Oooh, isn't she charming?" The feline was getting a kick out of this little interaction. Her counterpart was not. Or at least, not as much. There was a small bit of amusement to be found simply because the child didn't back down. On the opposite side, there was a large bit of annoyance because the child didn't back down. Children that didn't respect their elders should be drowned. Children in general should be drowned. Useless little leeches. If possible, the woman's eyes narrowed further as the girl spoke of matters that she knew nothing about. Missing family was a touchy subject with Fel. Especially after what she'd gone through to try and find them. Mean for no reason? "There's a difference between mean and stern. If I was mean, you wouldn't have been allowed to speak. I would have simply carried you back home." At least her sense of family was in the right place, she'd give her that much. They were supposed to be good to each other. Fel did listen to the girls explanation as to why she was trying to traipse off and get herself killed simply to humor Oona. She was a little surprised at the ferocity in the kid, but still, she wasn't swayed. "Legacy," she clarified. "Do you know how this story plays out?" Black ears flicked forward. "I'll tell you." "Little Dantalian traipses across the land with aspirations of revenge. If she doesn't get lost on the way there, which she probably will, she'll get either enslaved or killed by the pack in question." Fel continued to stare down at the child that was so eager to go off and die. "When you get enslaved or killed, we'll have no choice but to seek vengeance. The wolves that raided us were big and had many fighters. That wasn't even their entire pack." Fel folded her haunches, sitting herself and staring down at the girl. "So we'll go to war. Some of us may die. Others may be permanently injured." She was being just a bit dramatic, but if Aerie had to go against the Ashen Armada to avenge the stupidity of a child, then the outcome could be similar. "So, Dantalian, will you go to fight a losing battle or will you stay home where you can grow and learn skills that could eventually give you and the rest of us a fighting chance?" Yes, she was using logic on a baby. She hoped it would work because she really didn't want that gross puppy fur in her mouth. "Fel" "Oona"

While saying her piece Dantalian had stood strong. Her head and tail had been held high and she'd pushed her chest out; the very picture of stubborn pride. But as her aunt began to explain what would happen if she went after the baddies like she wanted, little by little, Dantalian's stance crumbled. The transitions started out small. A little less chest out here, a tiny tail droop there. By the the time Fel was done speaking Dantalian looked a bit like a wilted flower. Her ears were held at half mast and her tail drooped in the middle so that the tip hung down in a sad, upside down 'U' shape.

She couldn't argue with any of that. Dantalian may have been little and inexperienced, but already she valued sound reasoning. And she didn't have a good argument for any of the points Fel had made even though she really wanted to argue. To make matter worse, the truth hurt. A lot. She knew she was small. In a fight her papa could roll her with one paw. Until her aunt laid it all out like that, truthfully, Dantalian hadn't considered the possibility that bad things might happen to her. She'd been too caught up in what she wanted to do. She didn't want anyone to get hurt because she was a dumb baby.

Despite her efforts to stop it, Dantalian's lower lip began to quiver. She refused to cry, though. She would not cry in front of this mean aunt! To stave off the tears she bit her tongue and took a deep breath. In a small voice she said, "I don't want anybody to get hurt so I'll stay home..."

The tears in the kids eyes were instantly noticeable and Oona hissed her disapproval from up above. Fel shot her a glance and bared her teeth for a moment. The cat waved a paw, urging the woman to do something. Fel didn't want to do something. This was awkward enough as it was. She wanted to turn around and go back to what she had been doing before this little incident. Now that she didn't worry about the kid getting itself killed, there was nothing to worry about. Dantalian's little, quivering voice pulled red eyes downward and Fel frowned. Dammit... Now she felt bad. Why did she feel bad? With a huff and a glare at the cat up above, the woman spoke. "Look," she started off a little gruffly. "Just because you can't do anything now doesn't mean that you can't do something about it in the future." She gave the girl a reassuring pat on the head that probably wasn't too reassuring at all. She was really bad at this child thing. Children should be kept away from her until they possessed some sort of reasoning skills. Then she wouldn't end up in this weird state of feeling bad. "You have a lot of time now to train and become skilled in whatever field you choose." She looked down at the girl. "So are you going to be a fighter? A hunter? A healer?" Maybe if the kid shared the same interests as Fel, she could help to teach her. "Fel" "Oona"

Feeling very small now, Dantalian sat down and wrapped her tail tightly around her paws. The pelt slid off her shoulders and with her head down, the skull mask came loose. It didn't slide off entirely, but it hung off her features and listed to the side slightly so that her eyes appeared sunken in its recesses and off center. If she noticed Dantalian didn't nothing to fix it. It's not like it mattered anyway, right? She wasn't going to be fighting baddies anyway.

"Yeah, I guess," she said with a soft sniffle. Aunt Fel had a point. That was so far away though! When she said future Dantalian knew she meant adulthood. And that was just not fair. Grown ups were so old and it took forever to get old. Besides, she didn't want to be old in the first place! Being old meant doing boring things all the time for no good reason as opposed to being a kid who could do fun things all the time. She supposed there was a bit of a trade off. Skill and baddie-fighting abilities in exchange for being boring a lot. It wasn't a fair trade in her opinion, but she didn't make the rules.

Her thoughts flashed to the stories her dad had told her and in remembering what she wanted to do, Dantalian brightened a little. "A fighter! I wanna tear all the bad mortals up and spit them out like Abraxas did when the little gods were bad!" What else did she want to do... "And I wanna hunt too." A firm nod. "So I can make sure everyone is fed and stuff."

As the child admitted defeat and began to sulk, Fel frowned. There was a bit of sympathy within her. From an early age she'd always been raring to go as well. It wouldn't do to fall into the habit of sulking though. Reaching out, Fel straightened to horned helm on the girls head so that it wasn't squishing her chubby puppy face into some strange, rotting pumpkin. "Abraxas don't pout. We make the best of every situation. You can't fight the enemy today, but you can practice your skills so that some day you'll be able to. If you practice enough, they won't know what hit them." Fel, big, mean, Fel, gave the girl a little smile. It might have looked more menacing than friendly, but it was a smile. Up above, the cat chuckled and sighed. Of course Danta said that she wanted to be a fighter. They'd established that she wanted to obliterate the enemy. When she picked hunting as a secondary choice, Fel nodded. "Hunting is very important. Not only can you supply food for your family, but it will teach you to be smart and stealthy. Then you can sneak up and strike your enemy before they have time to prepare." Maybe Fel wasn't the greatest wolf to have around a young girl. Or young pups at all. She would promote bloodthirstiness. She would encourage them to be little warriors, little demons, little beasts. Despite not being great with children, they were still family. Every Abraxas was important. Every Abraxas was above the rabble in the outside world. "Fel" "Oona"

It was clear by Dantalian's expression that she was carefully considering her aunt's words. She may have been kinda mean, but she was also big and brave and kind of cool. Most people treated Dantalian like she was a little flower and talked to her like she was baby. Her aunt was talking down to her, but she was doing it in a way that kinda reminded Dantalian of how adults talked to each other? It was probably because Fel wasn't making her feel like a flower. It was kind of endearing in a twisted way and made her want to be a little bit more like her aunt.

Her sadness forgotten, Dantalian leaped to attention when Fel spoke about sneaking up on their enemies. Yeah! That sounded right up her alley. Like hunting those lizards. She'd run at them and run at them, but it wasn't until she got sneaky that she made any headway. And now she'd caught loads of them. "Then I'll practice lots! They won't know what hit them. I'll be fast and sneaky." Well, that settled it. She was going to go back home and get to practicing. It was the smart thing to do. "Come on, then!" Dantalian strode past Fel and began to head back. It was late and she'd snuck out of bed for her mission so any training would have to wait for tomorrow. Her dad liked to tell her that sleep made one sharp, so it made sense to go back to bed for now. "Can I practice with you later? I think you'd be a good teacher; I didn't even seen you until you were right in front of me."

-end?-