Reminiscing

Azure · 11-06-2023, 10:17 PM

Azure’s fierce exterior cracked for a moment, revealing a flash of the raw pain beneath. The pack had endured losses in his absence. Who? His mind raced to Hanako and a sudden surge of nausea threatened to choke him. Bas's littermates? Did he mean they died? The questions clawed at him, a rising tide of guilt and regret that he quickly dammed. With a hardened resolve, he shoved those thoughts aside, the turmoil within reflected in his cold, crazed eyes.

"What do you want me to say, Basilisk!?" The outburst tore from his throat, raw and laden with an anger that was as much a shield as it was a weapon. He turned from his son sharply, pacing with a restless energy, the embodiment of a volcanic eruption contained within flesh and fur. "You think I didn't know my absence would have consequences!?" He slammed his bear-like paws into the sand, sending cascades of it into the wind. "I did it for myself!" Again and again his claws raked wet furrows into the beach, a futile attempt to release the festering rage that threatened to consume him. An inanimate target for the aggression he couldn't direct at Basilisk. "I've bled for every soul in this pack, sacrificed pieces of myself for the sake of everyone fucking else.!"

Azure's breaths came in heavy snorts, each exhale a cloud of heated frustration in the cool night time air. His scars - normally worn as badges of honor - now seemed like open wounds once more. "I know where my responsibilities lie. I'm the shield, I'm the sword - I'm the Warlord's Champion. But when I needed to heal, to grieve, where was my respite?" As he paced, his massive form seemed to wrestle with invisible foes, his movements betraying a conflict he couldn't articulate. His tail lashed, his muzzle wrinkled in hate, growls surged forth from the depths of his throat, each one more menacing than the last. Azure was the picture of a wolf on the brink of war, fighting for his life against the surge of feelings he could neither accept nor understand. "I was suffocating!" His one good ear lay flat against his skull as he paced, each thunderous step a deliberate effort to control the maelstrom within. "I wore the scars for others, bled for others, and when I needed to bleed for myself, there was nothing left. I had to leave, to find a way to breathe again."

Azure spun back to face his son, eyes ablaze with a fierce energy that bordered on desperation. "You think you know loss? You think you know what it is to mourn?" His laugh was harsh, a grating sound devoid of humor. "The fury inside me would have destroyed us. Destroyed everything I’ve fought so hard to protect. Trust me Bas, you may think you know me, but you don't. Nobody does. You all know my mask, and you have no idea from what carnage it protects." His voice was a low growl, a threatening promise. He stopped and stood straight, his eyes burning with a fierce light, the sand around him scarred by his claws. "Now I'm back, not for glory, not for praise, but because this is my goddamn duty! And you have the audacity to stand there and accuse me, you ungrateful whelp!"

His snarl was a dangerous thing, full of teeth and promise and beginning to crescendo into a roar. "So, what’s it going to be, son? Do you think you can shoulder the burden, bear the scars, spill the blood I have and still stand tall?" Azure’s challenge was both an inferno of rage and an unspoken plea; a father's heart beneath the armor of the alpha, confronting the son who mirrored the tumult he'd fought to contain.

"If you truly believe I have failed you, then step forward. Show me the strength of your conviction. Prove to me - prove to the blood of our blood that you are more than just talk, more than just height and heated glares. Prove that you can wield the power that comes with our name, prove that you can stand in the storm and not be broken." He stood formidable, an immovable force, daring his son to step into the ring of fury he'd drawn around them in the sand.

Azure's challenge was a gauntlet thrown down, an invitation to a clash that was as much about venting his pent-up wrath as it was about reestablishing his place in not just the Armada, but in the eyes of his heir.

"Speech"

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Thread		Forum	From	To
1.	Reminiscing	Tall Grass Plains	05:13 PM, 11-05-2023	02:25 AM, 02-13-2024

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Reminiscing

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Azure