Cleanse Your Hands, You Sinners

Inferno had been intently patrolling the pack lands when the raiders had gone off, making sure if anyone took advantage of the absences to show up looking for trouble, they'd find it, so the time passed quickly enough. She'd continue to stand guard once the raiders were back, too, so they'd be able to get rest before needing to do anything. She'd hunted as she'd patrolled, so there was a cache of smaller mammals waiting for the raiders as well.

She spotted the group returning, and moved swiftly to be waiting as the crossed the waters, but didn't say anything. The mood was definitely... unpleasant. She swept her gaze over the bedraggled wolves quietly, not drawing attention to herself in what was clearly a murderous tension, but her expression tightened on seeing the pups coming in with the adults - the injuries made it clear that the pups hadn't simply gone out to meet the returning adults, but had participated. There had been children at the raid?

She was left standing on the beach in silence as the raiders moved further onto the island to treat wounds. Her paws flexed absently, driving dull claws into the dirt over and over as her mismatched gaze drifted over the water, though inside she was still. Very still. Darkness swirled in her chest, threatening to bubble out her mouth in a snarl that she froze before it could emerge. Children. Children subjected to the blood and pain and terror of true battle. Yes, yes, she and her siblings had lived that life as pups, had been pushed beyond what a child should ever need to experience. She could look back on her own puphood indifferently, but there was something broken in her and always had been. No one else should ever go through that.

She dragged in a deep breath through her nose as Gilgamesh's voice rang out from further inland, pulling the blood-scent into her head and chest, letting it feed the darkness with a promise that pressed her teeth together hard. A meeting. Very well. She let the call pull her from the beach obediently to stalk into the group around Gil. Let the meeting distract her, because now wasn't the time for her to deal with the problem so the pups would no longer in danger. The pack needed to rest and she needed to protect them while they did, and she needed to know more, to formulate the strategy. She stood at the edges of the group, too restless and tense to sit. Her usual observant quiet was sharp-tinged with intensity and violence like the flame of her coat, but no one here knew her well enough to even notice her, let alone know the difference in how she held herself.