Almost everyone was sick at this point it seemed.  Kotori had got the sickness, the one that caused his mind to go haywire in all manner of weird ways.  He still had it but, it seemed to not be as bad as it once was.  The ooze was even a bit less thick than it had been prior.  Besides, he was less sick than most so no rest for the weary.  In fact, less rest than he might normally have since plenty of wolves weren’t able to do their jobs.  So much for running off and doing his own thing for the time being.

Instead, today he was walking the pack border with Briar.  Honestly, if he was going to work this was a nice way to do it.  She was the sister he best got along with and they didn’t see enough of each other.  His mind could still get flightly on keeping his thoughts straight but he had no desire to attack her and at least was paying attention to the surroundings more often than before.  

He had just been thinking of telling Briar about Iki when he caught the scent of a cat that was definitely not Splash.  Sniffing the air he glanced curiously at Briar, “Tiger?”  Stupid cat was large enough he should easily be able to see it.  He was about to grumble a complaint of how such a big cat could hide in their grass when he finally spotted it heading their way.  How could he have missed it?  There was at least one crystal peeking out of an ear.  How many predators had already gone mad from the sickness?

"Kotori Fatalis"

Briar followed the familiar border along side her brother, thinking to herself that she was glad he was more or less back to normal. Of all the forms that this strange illness had taken the one that had made their minds foggy and ooze drip from places around their face was probably the scariest. The mushrooms and crystals weren’t much better, but at least with those their minds seemed mostly normal. She thought about Artorias talking about what his mother had been like toward the end and she wondered if this had been even close to that. She did worry about her boyfriend and hoped he was doing okay, but with how busy she had been helping the pack while everyone was sick she hadn’t had time to go check on him.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Kotori mentioned a tiger, her attention snapping back to the present and her turquoise gaze lifting from the ground in front of her. Sure enough, now that she was paying attention the tiger’s scent was obvious. Silently scolding herself for not paying closer attention, she started looking for the big cat in question and soon enough spotted the striped cat that had some crystal growths growing from various parts of it. It wasn’t the first predator she had seen get too close for comfort that had been infected by this illness and she wondered how much longer they were going to have to deal with this. "Get it’s attention, I’ll sneak around behind it," she told her brother quietly, already beginning to quietly creep around behind their foe.

"Briar Fatalis"

Kotori nodded silent assent and would wait for his sister take a few strides away before he moved closer to the tiger.  Kotori started slowly, two predators trying to intimidate the other by their presence.  Kotori was mostly staring at the cat to make sure the cat kept its eyes on Kotori.  When he spotted Briar farther off so she’d be in a good position Kotori lunged in the few strides between him and the tiger.

The cat lunged in at the moment Kotori did, its front paw swiping out for Kotori’s legs.  Kotori backed up, giving up on an attack he hadn’t expected to connect anyway.  The cat leaped to get on him and Kotori backed up once more, snapping his teeth at the cat once more to keep its attention focused.  Kotori had no doubt it would get a surprise soon enough.

Once the striped cat had its first injury Kotori would work with Briar at actually dealing more damage to it.  The horned boy had no problem playing the bait to let someone else get the first strike in.  Sad to say, his sister was probably the better fighter between the two of them.  Kotori had been training a lot recently but there had been a good number of months he’d been lax with his fighting skills.

"Kotori Fatalis"

Briar made a loop behind the tiger while her brother distracted the large cat, keeping an eye on them just to make sure she didn't need to step in early. He was able to hold its attention well enough and dodged all the attacks the feline through at him which played right into their plan. It didn't take her long to get into position behind the tiger and luckily the striped predator hadn't noticed her in the process. She waited for the perfect opportunity to strike, creeping up behind it quietly while it swiped at Kotori and he snapped at the cat in return.

Right before the tiger was about to take another swing at her brother, she leapt into action and darted forward so that she was just shy of being side by side with it and then made a running leap onto the tiger's back. She was actually several inches taller than the tiger so it wasn't that difficult to jump high enough to get on top of it and once she was she hooked her feline claws into the sides of its neck and into its hips to keep her from falling off. The tiger yowled from surprise and pain, immediately starting to flail and struggle to try and throw her off. She bit hard into the back of its neck, feeling her teeth scrape against bone as she bit down to its spine. Briar tired to keep the tiger's attention and pull its head back so at the very least it couldn't bite at Kotori while he was getting his attacks in.

"Briar Fatalis"

Kotori didn’t feel like he was the sort of wolf easy to impress but his eyes twitched from the cat’s face to his sister on its back in some surprise and grinning.  Damn right that was his sister.  The tiger was doing what one might expect it would and doing its darndest to try and get his sister off its back.  Still, Kotori couldn’t just watch and let Briar have all the fun.

As soon as Briar got the cat’s neck in her mouth Kotori charged the cat from its side, slamming his horns into the tiger’s shoulder, jerking his head up so that the horns sliced through muscle and fur.  The way Briar was controlling it was making this a lot easier on Kotori than he had expected.  Sure, the tiger was trying to fight back but it had other larger problems.  With the leg injury and the weight of Briar on its back the tiger’s body wobbled.  It snarled at the air but didn’t dare raise up any of its good legs to strike out at Kotori, it would have only ended in falling over.

Kotori was about to make another attack when the beast struggled to get its head free, put to much weight on its now injured leg, and would start to fall.  Kotori waited on taking any final attack, making sure he didn’t strike his sister while the striped cat fell over.

"Kotori Fatalis"