Shoot it, shoot it out cause they want it, want it now, now

He’d been finishing off a new hut when the distant voice came, and his paws halted, long digits resting on the stone he’d just laid over the heating channel as he processed the meaning of the voice’s summons. A wolf who knew nothing of his pack, not even the name. If Aerie had been a full pack and their neighbors still, he’d have been wondering if they meant Eligos.

He snorted softly, head shaking as he slipped from his armor and made his way to one of the streams, washing mud and dirt from his coat and shaking dry while Sädir and Lunira stretched, limbering themselves up.

Still, there was one thing to do before he responded to the call.

He called Valhalla together, first. To those who answered in time, he stated quickly, but firmly, “If you come to observe this fight, do not start any fights on the side-lines. If you are attacked, you may defend yourselves, naturally. Valhalla doesn’t start crass shit-talking and side brawls when their leader is in the fight to keep our home.

“Remain poised, remain calm. Remain united. Do not hurl insults, and ignore any who verbally insult you, myself, or Valhalla. They’re small creatures not worth your notice if they feel the need to insult us. If you react, you give them the attention they wanted.

“If anyone who isn’t standing in front of me right now joins you on the way, relay this message to them. This is an order. Those who do not wish to attend, keep the pups safe here at home. If they insist on observing and you can't keep them corralled... they may come, but ensure they remain on their best behavior and keep them between yourselves and the rest of the spectators. If anyone tries to harm or take them, maim the offender.”

He waited long enough to ensure the message had struck home before he turned and broke into a brisk, businesslike trot, conserving energy and letting the travel warm his limbs and stretch his muscles as he retreated into a sort of moving meditation, centering himself and not responding to any who came with him.

Lyr drifted above in the air, unusually quiet and solemn, and even Sädir, trailing along Ardyn’s left hip, was as stern as Lunira, who shadowed Ardyn’s right hip, metallic coat glittering coldly. It would be their first serious fight as a team, at least against another wolf.

He left his armor behind, neatly folded next to the hut he’d been called away from. Even his bracers were crossed neatly on the pile. His beads, bells, and feathers had been removed and arrayed tidily with the armor, and he paused long enough to rake his claws over a tree, sharpening and cleansing them of any loose nail shreds. His long mane and tail flowed free and loose, flickering with fiery light, blazing gold where the friction was strongest.

His void-black coat rippled with flame over a powerful, trim-waisted figure, and his angular, light-motif-painted features were cold, nearly blank. The mismatched, fire and ice gradated eyes were frigid, especially as they found his challenger as he sought to come to a halt about ten feet away from her, face to face, tail flowing level with his spine, paws having fallen into a natural, balanced stance. He took no notice of any other observers, though he was aware of them in his surroundings. They weren’t important. This wolf was.

A coal-black woman, painted in white stripes, her underbelly, toes under-tail, and rump the most dipped. Green eyes glittered from around a fringe of white mane sprouting from her forehead, and he made mental note of the feature.

His eyes took a quick, shrewdly clinical sweep of her frame, noting that she was scarred, and a mother. The scarring on one shoulder was recent, at least from a season or so ago. Healed, but visible.

He took note of the companions that joined her, before locking eyes and remarking coldly, but softly enough for only her to hear him, “As a mother, I’d think you’d seek a more peaceful way to found your new home that won’t pose future threats to your family. Your children will see you come home battered and bloodied, and you will be tearing down the home of other innocent children should you win here. Bear that in mind, Lady.”

He flowed forward with a powerful bound, pushing off from his hind paws, hind claws flexing out of their sheaths and digging into the soil for traction as Ardyn sought to close the distance between himself and Bellamy swiftly as the last words left his lips, not bothering to hear if she responded with any words of her own.

Lunira sought to angle around Bellamy’s right side, not attacking yet but seeking a moment and an opening in which to do so and keeping an eye on the woman’s companions.

Sädir scampered to copy the snow leopard, seeking to circle around Bellamy’s left side, though taking note and holding back, though he taunted the companions with a low growl, thick mountain lion tail swishing, almost with excitement. If anyone asked later, it was definitely not nerves.

Lyr, however, sought to circle in the air a few feet above the two wolves, waiting and watching. For all three companions, timing would be of the utmost importance. Whether it was to attack the wolf or her two companions, they needed to be ready.

Ardyn’s head lowered level with his shoulders, chin tucking to guard his throat from the slightly shorter opponent’s reach as his lips pulled back slightly in a silent snarl, wrinkling his features as his eyes narrowed into slits and his ears flicked back to flatten along his wavy scruff, hackles rising into a fluffy barrier anywhere where his mane wasn’t long enough to impede the rise of fur.

He sought to come at Bellamy face to face, angled slightly to Bellamy’s left – his own right – and scrunching the left side of his neck and shoulder together to guard his vitals with wrinkled hide and fur as he sought to jut his right shoulder forward and down slightly and plant the hard, bony point of his left shoulder into Bellamy’s left shoulder and left pectoral muscle, right at the groove where shoulder and pectoral joined.

He hoped to knock the wind from her lungs and stagger her off balance with the impact at the least or dislocate Bellamy's left scapula from its socket in her left humerus, and perhaps end this unnecessary altercation early.

Simultaneously, Ardyn tipped his head sharply to his own right, muzzle aiming to his left, and sought to lash out at the left side of Bellamy's face with his parted jaws, hoping to sink the sharp tip of his left saber into Bellamy’s left eye, aiming to blind her left eye with a savage puncture wound.

His weight shifted swiftly to his other three limbs, tail flicking out for added balance as Ardyn snapped up his right foreleg up and sought to slam his left front paw down on Bellamy’s left front paw, seeking to hold nothing back and crush the small bones of her toes into fractured pieces and possibly to pin her left front paw to the ground beneath his own left forepaw.

He kept his senses alert to the fact that she had her companions, but his primary focus was the wolf he needed to crush in order to protect his family and pack.

He would never be so brutal to an opponent in other circumstances, but this woman threatened more than just himself, and so far as he knew, Valhalla had done nothing to deserve being shaken to the very foundation.

Ardyn Adravendi vs Bellamy for Pack Challenge [Defending]

Round: One of Six
Height: 45"
Build: Medium

OOC Notes: 10 feet apart starting distance agreed to by Beau. I'm rusty, so we'll see how this goes.