It wasn't the first time Chaos had spent a night hiding from sleet and icy ground in a cave. In fact, his first encounter with the mother of his children was in those exact circumstances. It might have even been this particular cave, though he wasn't absolutely certain. What he did know was that he was quite pleased to be out of the weather, even if he was still cold, and while his owls elected to remain perched on boulders immediately within the cave where there was still light he himself was in an adventurous mood and chose to wander deeper into the cavern. He could see his breath in the cool of the cave, up until he couldn't see anything at all anyway, but it was better than the sleet falling outside, that was for sure. Making sure to keep his shoulder brushing one side of the cave wall so he wouldn't unexpectedly pass another opening, he meandered further and further into the darkness. He'd been quite cheerful about it too... up until a menacing feline yowl sounded out of the darkness. Uh oh.

She hadn't meant for this to start becoming a tradition but once again Valdís found herself headed back toward Fenrir's Maw. She wasn't quite sure why it held such nostalgic appeal, especially now that she was back in a pack with Chaos as the leader. Though, the pack wasn't really Crew even if they had the same leader. Crew was something entirely different, its own entity in her mind and a closed chapter of her life. Even so, it didn't hurt sometimes to let her body wander the trails and the old perimeter of the pack lands that she felt she could walk with her eyes closed. Not that she'd ever be foolish enough to try.

She'd been on her way to the maw when a patch of black caught her attention. In the side of one of the mountains was a cave. Curious she headed towards it. This wasn't the best time to be poking into caves with bears getting ready for hibernation but she figured as long as she was alert she'd be fine. Soldering through the ice and snow she was relieved she'd missed the storm but she couldn't help but be surprised at the sheer amount of precipitation. It wasn't even winter yet!

The wind picked up as Valdís slipped inside the cave and she was grateful for the shelter. She stood still, blinking slowly as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. Rustling caught her attention and she looked up to see a pair of owls. Hey! Those were Chaos' companions. She dipped her head in greeting towards them and was about to ask if Chaos was in here when she heard a feline yowl. "Ah… I see Chaos has found trouble already, please excuse me."

(One i needed a chaos thread and two i also want skills so can I play too?)

So maybe the crypts weren't the BEST place to sleep off a hangover. Well, someone sure should have told drunken Ashmedai that YESTERDAY. He woke up, head hammering and mouth tasting like vomit. Ugh, yeah, he really needed to get a hold of himself. Or at least a hold of more alcohol.

Ash leaned against the cool, dark cavern walls- okay, maybe this was a good place to have a hangover- and slowly made his way towards the entrance. Everything was gonna be fine, he reassured himself. Then he heard the cat.

That damned cat.

No, he didn't know which cat it was and no he had never encountered this particular cat, but in his opinion, ALL cats were trouble. He hadn't met one he liked yet. He had met some cat-like wolves which were... okay... but never any actual cats.

And of course this one sounded like it was behind him. Great. Did he step on its tail? He didn't have time to find out- he needed to get. He hurried sluggishly towards the entrance, almost bypassing the other wolf completely in the darkness. When he realized it was there, his half-thinking brain said "hey, you should warn him," so Ash did.

"Hey, uh, pretty sure there's a big cat that way," he stated flatly. If this wolf wanted to walk directly into danger, he could, but Ash wasn't going to fight some cat on a hangover. Not unless he had some real backup.

Chaos' eyes searched the darkness automatically, though he knew it was a useless gesture when he couldn't even see his nose in front of his face. That cat sounded angry, though. Territorial maybe? What the hell kind of big cat claimed a mine as territory? But maybe it had just come in out of the sleet like he had, but gotten lost. Who knew how long it had been in here. It was probably hungry, and it was definitely pissed off. Killing him would satisfy both those problems as far as the critter was concerned.

Chaos, on the other hand, wasn't quite that keen to be killed or eaten, in any order. His lips peeled back from his fangs and he sent a rasping snarl back at the cat.

Faintly, behind him, he could hear Valdis' voice speaking to his owls, their faint hooting echoing towards him as well. Oh good. Backup.

He nearly jumped out of his skin, though, when a much closer, much louder, vaguely familiar voice spoke up practically in his face. He kept himself from yelping and falling back on his ass - barely - but didn't stop the sarcasm from flowing. "Oh yeah, y'think? Shit, I'd never have guessed that."

Scent and voice finally clicked, and Chaos growled out a laugh, still expecting claws in his face at any moment. "Ashmedai, you ugly lump of bear shit, is that you?"

A strange, rank scent hit him then. Not Ash's scent, but the scent of a sick, unwashed feline, and this time Chaos did yelp when a snarling cannonball hit him in the chest. The cat couldn't see him any more than he could see it, so it had underestimated where he was because of the way his voice bounced off the mine walls. That was probably what had saved him, because the cat's surprised confusion gave Chaos an instant to leap back out of reach of those deadly claws before the cat could stick any of them into him.

Judging by the size, shape, and general cussedness... "Cougar," he spat for Valdis and Ash's benefit, then scrambled back another couple steps before the cougar could pounce on his voice again.

Valdís slipped further into the crypt, picking up her pace but not moving too quickly. The last thing she needed to do was stumble and sprain something. Honestly, she wasn't too worried about Chaos. He was a skilled warrior and big enough to over power a good sized cat. She doubted it was a tiger or anything of that nature, not in this crypt. Mountain lion perhaps? They were the main cat she thought of when she thought of mountains and caves.

When she arrived Chaos was not alone. There was a large male that Chaos apparently seemed to know but she missed the introductions, only catching the words "bear shit" which was not what she wanted to hear. Spirits, she didn't want to have to deal with a bear as well as a lion. If caution was the better part of valor she'd recommend getting the heck out of there but she'd caught no signs of a bear yet.

Suddenly something flew out of the tunnel and smacked Chaos in the chest. Valdís set her defenses. This was going to be tricky in such a tight space. "Something is wrong with it… we better put it out of its misery." She didn't know what could be contracted between cats and dogs but she imagined it was very little. The cougar hissed, revealing its yellowed fangs. It's fur was matted in such a way to suggest it had been having trouble grooming, whether because of general fatigue or pain she wasn't sure but the creature clearly had a lot of fight. It yowled and then dove at her. Instinctively she pulled back, her head snaking down to grab the cat's scruff. She started shaking her head but a cat was not a wolf and those vicious claws snaked up, sinking into either side of her neck, just in front of her shoulders.

The male snarked him and Ash threw him a glittering look of a challenge that, if there were not bigger cats to skin, would be begging for the male to test him again. Excitement and arrogance pulsed just under the pain of his hangover.

Then, however, the man recognized him and Ashmedai, after some focus, recognized him in return. He didn't get the chance to reply with the cougar jumping past him at Chaos. A woman appeared behind him, stating that something was wrong with it.

"I'm just hungover, no need to off me just yet," Ash joked. "But we really should do something about this cat."

The cat attacked the woman and Ash dove after it, able to come up from behind. He grabbed it between its shoulders and yanked, hoping to pull it off of the woman in such a way that it wouldn't an able to turn on him. He grunted as well as he could at Chaos, trying to give him an in for this fight.

Valdis spoke up nearby, and Chaos' muzzle split into a vicious grin at Ash's reply and he couldn't help the booming laugh that it drew from him. "It might not be putting you out of your misery, brother, but it sure would put you out of mine, you pain in the ass." Adding somewhat more seriously to be clear, he tacked on, "But yeah we definitely need to put this cat down before it hurts someone." Like us, was what remained unsaid as the cat threw itself at Valdis. And yeah it was sexist and yeah he knew she wasn't a kid anymore and was a warrior more than capable of taking care of herself but somehow hearing that bastard tangling with Valdis made his blood boil in a way that it going after him or Ash didn't. In the dark of a deep mineshaft, though, he didn't want to simply bull his way in and risk sinking his teeth into one of his compatriots instead of the cougar, so for now he kept his head up - riskier to him as it exposed his throat to a possible freakishly lucky claw, but less so to Valdis as he kept his fangs put of play entirely. Wading into the fray, he slammed his chest into what he hoped was the cat's side, and was rewarded by a pained snarl. One feline paw flashed up still smelling of Valdis' blood to cuff him with unsheathed claws across the side of shoulder, and Chaos' reaction was too purely instinctual, based in muscle memory gained solely in one on one fights where he didn't have any allies to worry about, for his earlier forethought to keep him from snapping his jaws at the offending pain. His fangs sliced deep serrations into the limb, which did luckily belong to the cougar, and as his main dental structure hit flesh he continued to bear down with a wolf's bonecrushing jaw strength, cracking relatively thin forearm bones beneath his own cat-like teeth.

Valdís braced herself against the pain, her eyes catching the blue-eyed male lunging from behind. The moment he grabbed the cat between the shoulder blades she released her grip on it's scruff and pushed herself backwards out of the grip of the feeling. The cat yowled and thrashed when Chaos darted forward, slamming his chest into the creatures side. Valdís knew her wounds would need to be tended too but they weren't enough to knock her out of this fight. With the boys fully invested she took the defensive. Waiting and watching for an opening.

When Chaos caught the cat's left fore arm in his jaws Valdís found the opening she sought. The cat was twisting around, seeking to strike the man with its right forepaw. She lunged forward again, seizing the back of the cat's wrist, her muscles tensing as she pulled back as hard as she could. She hoped to create an opening for the cats throat as well as keeping the cat from pulling her closer to its vicious jaws.

Well this was great. Chaos had the cat's left arm and the other girl had its right. With Ash at its back, there wasn't really much room for him to move. He couldn't get around to its neck from here, so one of the others would have to. Ash's eyes darted to either wolf, deciding who would be best to reason with. He wanted to go with Chaos because of his fangs and being his brother and all, but he knew that glazed look in Chaos' eyes. On the other hand, there was the female- Chaos' mate?- who seemed to be keeping her own but lacked any type of tooth or claw advantage.

Fuck it, he had to go with the tactical advantage.

Ashmedai let go of the cat's back and quickly seized its left arm, wrapping his forelegs around it tightly and biting down. He did his best to get Chao's attention, but if his brother couldn't read what was happening, then really he had no right going into caves in the first place.

Freed from the cat's jaws Valdis was able to intervene when the cougar attempted to swat Chaos with its free paw. Caught between the two, it could lunge neither left nor right to bring its jaws into play, even if Ash hadn't also been gripping it between the shoulders. For one absurd moment Chaos had to fight down a bubble of laughter that threatened to burst out at the way the three of them were tugging at the mad cat like a bunch of pups fighting over a toy.

Then Ash had let go, and for a moment Chaos had to struggle with his balance as the cougar was suddenly able to press forward towards them, though since Chaos easily outweighed the tawny kitty he was able to brace himself and push back. Then Ash's jaws were around the cat's leg, trying to tug it from him, and Chaos had a moment of irritated bewilderment. Why hadn't he taken the opportunity to sever the beast's spine? Well, if Ash wanted to hold onto the leg instead, Chaos wasn't going to waste time playing tug-of-war and risking finding himself with the cougar's teeth in his face.

Chaos sprang back for an instant, giving Ash the chance to brace himself against the cougar's struggles. He stood poised and waiting for an opportunity, and then there it was as the cougar flailed and tried to flip onto its back to bring its hind claws into play, throwing back its head and exposing its throat for an instant as it did. Chaos dove back in, slashing at the exposed target in the manner that his long, serrated fangs were especially suited for. Not to grip, no, because that put painful strain on the lengthy teeth, but slashing and bouncing back again, a time-honored wolf trick that he was even more suited for than the generations of kin that came before him. Blood spurted beneath his tongue and across his muzzle as he bounced back away from the cat, the powerful spurt of an arterial wound, and he grinned a savage grin that would have made him look more like his mother than ever before had it not been too dark in the cave to see it.

Valdís struggled to keep the cat in check. She set her jaws and her will to hang onto the creature's muscular arm. Normally this wouldn't be a problem but her adrenaline wasn't enough to numb the pain from earlier puncture wounds. Every tensing of muscles released stabbing bolts of pain. To make matters worse she could feel her jaw starting to cramp. Valdís kept her focus on the task at hand. She'd let the boys figure out who was going to make the kill shot and soon enough someone did.

She caught Chaos' scent as he dove in and soon she caught the scent of blood. She felt the cat thrash and strain in its death throes before it weakened and grew limp. Valdís released her grip and shuffled back, resetting her defenses in case the creature got a second wind. Panting she spat fur out of her mouth, making a face as she tried to dislodge some fur that had gotten stuck to the roof of her mouth. "Bleck! What a mess. I hope that's the last of that."

It might have taken Chaos a moment, but he finally got the idea of what Ash was hinting at. It wouldn't have been as easy for him to sever the spinal chord of the cat as it was for Chaos to take the neck shot. And in his half-hungover state, he didn't really love the idea of struggling to bite through the back of some cat beast while his head was throbbing.

Eventually, the cat fell and Ash let go, spatting out some fur.

"Well, that was annoying," Ash said, glancing at his brother. "Were you hunting it, or do you make a habit of cave crawling?"

The cougar's thrashing weakened until it went limp, and the thump when it hit the cave floor was a very final sort of sound. Chaos stood a moment, his attention fixed on the bleeding form triangulated between he, Valdis, and Ash, but the cougar didn't move again. "I think we're good," he observed in response to Valdis' wish. He doubted that anything could get up from the wound he'd dealt that poor starved creature.

Satisfied, Chaos polished the blood from his fangs with one foreleg. That would make a mighty nice pelt once he skinned it out. "Hunting cougars in a cave?" Chaos asked Ash with more than a little amusement. "That's more your thing, isn't it?" He chuckled at the sexual insinuation, because Chaos is an eternal teenager. "When's the last time you were outside, brother? The weather is as nasty as your face is. I came in here to avoid the sleet and thought I'd go exploring. I didn't expect a cat to have gotten lost in here and decide that I looked delicious."