It was odd for Viper to be out at night. She was one to get plenty of sleep always, out like a light, never had an issue with it. But for some reason ever since she met Jupiter, her mind raced and wondered about him in her early sleeping hours. She honestly just wanted to shake the big blue jerk out of there. Even though she saw him much like a god, he left her in a rather uncomfortable and sad position back in the glowshroom caverns. And it really hurt her because she had never felt anything like that. Shameful, upset. It was a very hard thing to process for her and now that the thought of him was constantly waltzing around in her mind, she just wanted to chew it up and spit it out. Still for the most part she just laid in her cheaply made den or out under the stars wondering where he was today before she'd drift off into sleep. But tonight however, her itch to get him of her mind was a little extra annoying and she walked around the central lands of the continent hoping to just get a little more tired so she could just drop down somewhere and snooze. A clear sky revealed many stars, none that she paid too much attention to but if anything it was the most beautiful thing she had ever laid her eyes on, and that was something special through her mind for sure. The full moon illuminated gently through the treetops as she entered this odd swampland of muck and plants and roots. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darker surroundings coming from the plains outside. And if anything she saw an opportunity to get her energy out here. Her front paws, one by one, lifted her body up on an uprooted tree. It was definitely interesting how the trees and their roots grew in a wetland like this. Her eyes wandered up towards the branches, mostly in fascination but she would lose interest pretty quickly. Placing her hind legs on the root and balancing like a cat before finding her footing on the other side in the soft soil. Word Count: 366 OOC: Figured this would be an interesting place to do a fighting prompt in the dark xD I'll give permission to powerplay Viper to get the gears rolling in this one! Walk "Talk" Think

Sleep wasn’t something that had been easy to come by since she arrived in Boreas and then within the confines of the Ashen pack. It wasn’t necessarily an issue with her new living arrangements since the life of a slave was one that she was familiar and comfortable with, but after growing up in the large, crowded den of the lower class sleeping in more solitary situations had been a hard thing to adjust to. There was also the difficulty she faced with the near constant nightmares she went through on a nearly nightly basis. The memories from the attack on her old pack had slowly pieced themselves back together as she recovered from her injuries and now they replayed steadily through her dreams and startled her awake frequently. Usually she would lay there and force herself to go back to sleep, but tonight she just couldn’t do it. She laid there and stared at the walls of the den for what felt like ages before finally giving up on it and slipping out into the open. She wasn’t sure where she would go, but her paws carried her back to the spot where she had first found herself when her legs had finally given out from her sprint away from her ravened homeland - and where Venom had found her half dead. It had been a good bit of time since that day and her wounds had mostly healed by now. They were covered in fresh, tender scar tissue and some were visible through her fur where it hadn’t fully grown back just yet. With any luck they would mostly be hidden in the thicker fur of her scruff and neck once it was all said and done, but she wasn’t really one to care too much about vanity. They were scars of a war and she wouldn’t be ashamed of that. The land was dark and the moon and stars offered little light to see by. She at least remembered all of the mud and gunk she had worked through the last time she had gone blindly running into the swampland so this time around she was much more careful. Moving slowly over uneven tree branches and watching where she placed her paws carefully, she avoided any suspicious looking dirt that could possibly turn out to be quick sand. As she walked by one of the larger trees with wide roots poking out of the ground here and there, a wolf seemingly jumped toward her out of no where and it startled her enough to lash out in instinct. She jumped back at first to give herself enough space to fall into her defensive stance, making sure to give herself a secure footing on this soft ground as she pivoted to looked at her opponent with a snarl. Her nightmare riddled mind combined with the obscurity of the dark was immediately convinced that this was one of the wolves that had attacked her old pack and had come to find her to finish the job and once that idea planned in her mind it was hard for her to be convinced other wise. Without a second thought she leapt forward toward the other woman in an attempt to wrap her forelegs around the charcoal and red marked wolf, wanting to grab ahold of her scruff in an attempt to over power her. They were fairly similar in height and build so it was an unfortunately even match. Now she could only hope that her many hours of practicing and fighting would pay off to give her the upper hand. "Speech"

Viper was taken very much by surprise as she was bombarded by another wolf, the encounter immediately turning into a physical altercation and Viper especially wasn't easy to back down from a violent outburst. She wrapped her front legs around the woman as she had, wanting to thrash her around and try to put her off balance to fall into the soft and wet ground below them but their similarity in size was hard for her to find her ground while she was used to fighting larger wolves opposed to smaller or those her own size. The moonlight through the treetops gave them little light to work on and Viper wouldn't be aware when the woman went to grab her at her scruff near her healing maim just above her withers. She let out a nasty snarl as the ghost pain from being near the healing scar shook through her bones. She twisted her body around and aimed to take a heavy bite at the bottom of the woman's rib cage centered at the side of her body. Mostly she was acting out of rage and almost defense as she was a mostly seasoned warrior but a new one at that and had a new experience with her maim. She wasn't able to see the woman's healing scars herself from the little to no light and also her thicker fur attempting to hide them, not that she was looking for weak points even. But Viper's on top of her withers was much more noticeable due to it's larger size and probably from the view of the stranger. She didn't know why the woman attacked her but wasn't one to ask questions. Typically she acted as if everything was a fun game and wasn't offended by hardly anything. Now however, she was completely lashing out from pure anger and protection. If she had any friends they would surely know this wasn't like her at all and probably would have been caught up in the middle trying to pull her off of the opponent. Word Count: 1,309 Walk "Talk" Think

Dalila found purchase on the other woman's neck as her teeth gripped tightly to her scruff and their forelegs wrapped around one another in a similar attempt to gain the upper hand. The fact that they were so evenly matched only gave her more evidence to solidify the falsehood that this woman was one of the assassins from the packs that had attacked her in her previous life. They had been highly skilled and had easily been able to go toe to toe with her in their ambush. It was thin evidence, but her foggy mind couldn't tell the difference between what was real and what was fake at this point. As the woman thrashed around in an attempt to knock her over, she just held on tighter - determined that if she went down at least the other woman was going to go with her. The loud snarl she got from gripping onto her scruff caught her attention, and as they shifted under a shaft of moonlight, she saw the fairly fresh wound that was surely the cause of the reaction. Before she could really think too much about whether that was another sign that she had recently been in battle as she had or perhaps feel some kind of sympathy, Dalila felt her opponent twist in her grasp and felt a sharp pain in her side as the woman landed a solid bite near her ribs. The sudden jolt of pain shot through her and it made her release the woman's scruff as she instinctively retreated with a loud snarl. She scrambled back from the stranger, untangling herself from the fight before the other wolf could land any more attacks. She ignored her bleeding side for now in order to keep her bright blue gaze locked on her opponent - never wanting to turn her attention away in a fight for even a moment. The stinging pain gave her a moment of clarity and she suddenly realized that the woman's scent didn't match or carry any of the pack scents that had been burned into her memory during the battle. It made her stop and freeze in place, staring down the other wolf uncertainly in the darkness. The pieces slowly began to put themselves together and she realized with a bit of shame that she had made a mistake and had been the instigator in this fight. The darkness and lack of sleep had played tricks on her mind. She kept her defenses up just in case the other woman didn't accept her apology and attacked her again instead, but she spoke up to try and stop this before they caused each other any more damage than they already had. "Wait! I'm.. I'm sorry, you're... you're not who I thought you were." WC: 1773 "Speech"

The woman would let Viper go and back away, her defenses still in place to protect herself if Viper went in for another attack. Viper herself was extremely confused and though she was normally inclined to continue a battle, she would notice as the woman's stature changed and she was no longer in an offensive nature. Viper would back up a couple steps, keeping her eyes on the woman as if she would still come out and attack her as she had done for no reason. And her back paws were greeted by a root in the sludge of the swamplands, She'd lose her balance immediately, her stomach coming to hit the swamp water with a splash. She wasn't quite worried about the woman anymore, and she also wasn't worried about the mud and sludge that was covering her body though not easy to see in the dark. "What the heck lady!" She yelled only slightly. She'd raise to stand again, the swamp juices pouring off of her stomach and sides. "Why you got to attack me in the middle of the night? I didn't do nothing!" Her voice was full of more surprise than anger but she certainly wasn't a pleasant creature. She'd shake her body and the sludge was no longer pouring in streams off of her, but there wouldn't be a clear sign of the filth and damage done in their quick battle until morning. Walk "Talk" Think

She saw the woman back into a tree root that sent her tumbling to the ground and she almost jumped forward to help, but after what she had done she was afraid that she might be read wrong and cause more harm than good. Her ears flicked back at the response she got even though she knew it was more than justified and she was really a bit surprised that there wasn't more anger in the woman's tone than there was. "I know! I know, I'm sorry, I just..." She sighed heavily and let herself relax a bit, standing up straight out of her defensive stance now that she was at least fairly certain that the wolf across from her wasn't going to lash out and retaliate. "I haven't been sleeping well and you hopped down from that tree branch and in the dark I thought for sure you were one of the wolves I've been running from. I'm sorry, it was really an honest mistake." Dalila didn't even mind the bite that she had gotten out of the ordeal. It felt like justified pay back for her mistake and it wasn't so deep that it cause her many problems after letting it heal for a few days. If this was what her sleepless nights were going to do to her then she really needed to find a better solution. Perhaps there was someone in the pack that would know something about herbs that might help her to sleep a little better until she finally worked those memories out of her mind. She wouldn't be any good to Venom in this state, that was for sure. Giving a little shake of her head, turned to go back to the pack, giving the stranger one last apology before slipping away into the dark before she had to explain herself any more. She made a new rule for herself that she wouldn't leave the pack lands at night any longer until she got herself back under control. - exit - "Speech"

Viper's eyes narrowed as she side-eyed the woman. She herself could understand hiding and worry about being caught by someone, but she wouldn't have any leniency toward the matter. She wasn't quite the understanding type and typically held grudges toward others. Or at least she didn't get along with most others and she didn't see the problem with that. The woman had some mental issues as Viper had, but not the same. She wouldn't think themselves similar other than their size and perhaps their appearance only under the faint moonlight. Appearance being the outline of a wolf that was. Viper wouldn't pay any mind to her apology or retreat. She was awfully annoyed the woman just went up and attacked her. She shook one of her hind legs as the drying muck bothered her but not the fact that she was dirty. She did think to herself that she probably wouldn't go out and wander in the night, especially under tree lines that obscured her view for the moonlight. With that, she too would turn back the way she came. Time to find a place to call it a night. She would worry about what had happened to her in the morning. -Exit Viper- Walk "Talk" Think