Ignita walked into her den, cautiously. The last time she had entered she nearly got eaten by a damn tiger. She almost half expected it to be sleeping on her drafty bed. Thankfully it was empty, the hole in the side of the room to the back passage was half tumbled and gaping. Idalia was curled around her neck and making distrustful noises.

"I know, Ida, it's fine, the hole outside was blocked up, there shouldn't be anything else in there." Still, she was nervous and it was dark back there. She grabbed a torch after she made a fire at the hearth. Already with the hole outside blocked, the den maintained its warmth much easier. She threw the torch through the hole and saw it land on the other side. She hushed Ida for a moment and listened carefully.

She heard nothing on the other side yet. Confident it was empty she slipped through the opening with a basket of mortar to stop up the holes in the feature wall of her den. Once on the other side she picked up the torch and swayed it around in the darkness. Still nothing.

Convinced she was safe she set to work slapping the mortar on the back of the wall, it was a mess of tumbled rocks and ancient dripping calcite.

While she worked by the light of the torch, she had a lot to think about.

"Speech"

Basilisk left Ollie and went looking for his Little Bird. The new mixture of herbs secured in a small bag around his side. His falcon suggested he try her den, so he padded across the Col with a soft growl. As he approached, her scent did indeed indicate a freshness and he frowned as he stepped inside without knocking. He didn't see her in the den, so he kept going. His expression a brewing storm cloud as he stepped into the dark. She stood out stark and obviously against the dark. The light from her touch sparking against her coat. He growled softly before he stalked closer.  "What did I tell you about coming in here until this was fixed?” He demanded. He had mentioned that to her, right? He vividly remembered intending to.

He stepped into the light of her torch, and didn't stop until his nose angled down and brushed against the fur behind her ears. “We were going to work on this together.” He whispered, pressing his paws down on hers and tugging her into a sitting position.

She heard movement within and froze, she could tell by his steps he wasn't in the best of moods. She could feel him practically storm through the opening of the wall. He growled softly, lurking in the darkness.

"What did I tell you..." She shrank down, she didn't remember him telling her. She thought the opening at the end was all fixed, there would be no danger surely?

She glanced as he emerged from the shadows like a titanic wraith, a nightmare as the torch caught only the vibrant blues of his coat and storm shadowed eyes. She was struck with both fear and the undeniable pull to please him. Her emotions tangled together as he brushed the fur behind her ears and she drew in a sharp breath in response. Clay in his paws as he pressed her down to sit. Should she resist? Could she even try? Would he like that?

"We... we still can." She was grasping for her mind again, "I didn't realize... you seemed busy..." Warm malleable clay, maybe it would please him more if she flowed like water for him?

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

Hmm… he hadn't seen her brain scattered before. His clever little Bird. He kissed an ear, clipping his teeth across it as he turned his attention to the wall and her smattering of mortar across it. “Never too busy for you.” He said, a grin in his voice. It wasn't entirely true, though he did try to find time for her. They worked closely together, her rank demanded it.

He sighed, and moved back slightly, giving her a little space. He shouldn't… take advantage, until they figured a few more things out. “I spoke to Olllie. He has a few different herbs for you to try, since the last batch seemed to affect you. I want you to try them.” Not exactly a command, not exactly a question. Somewhere in between.

She couldn't help the closing of her eyes and the thrill in her far as he kissed her. A vigorous tremble ran down her spine as she felt his teeth on her ear.
How soon was too soon to begin again? Could her body take it?

He shifted back, and she was able to pull in a steadying breath and find her mind again. He knew just how to distract her now. How easy she was for him. She perked her ears at what he was saying,

"These herbs seem important to you, what are you hoping they'll do?" She asked. With the way he was talking about then and the time she took them... Oh, they probably were a contraceptive... Made sense, but... Maybe she would've liked to know before she drank it. She moved to head back to the den and start a pot of the tea. Test to see if her stomach could take it.

"What did Ollie say?" She asked.

"Speech"

He tilted his head at her. His clever little Iggy didn't realise? “Wait, you just took the tea without knowing what it was?” He asked her, a little amazed. He sighed softly and caught her before she could get too far. He pressed his head against hers. “I guess I have to be careful with you, Little Bird. Fetching me the moon indeed…” How far would her obedience go?


He released her and followed her back to her den where she would apparently obediently take the herbs again without necessarily waiting for an answer. He watched her work for a moment. “It's a contraceptive. Ollie said a lot of things, and we need to talk about them.” he told her, handing over the herbs for her to add to the tea. “He's worried about the differences in size for a couple of reasons. We will have to be careful next time. You need to let me know if it hurts. Promise me that, Little Bird. He also said we aren't to have children before he talks to an expert. Children…” he stared at the fire of her little hearth. “It's so easy to mess up their lives. Our parents did.’ He shook his head, and looked at Iggy. “have you considered children?”

Yes, she had taken it when he gave it. It was the essence of thier relationship now wasn't it? She had to trust him with her life, now her body was entirely his as well. If he wanted to feed her poison he could live with the consequences of her discomfort or expiry. Hmm... Felt rather bold to think that, nearly rebellious.

She was pulled back to him and a sound escaped her from the effort of which he brought her to him, they pressed their heads together. Perhaps if she didn't crave his every touch she would have protested.

When they were back in the den she set the water over the fire and stoked the coals back to life. She nodded as he told her about his talk with Ollie. She took the herbs and placed them in the pot. They certainly smelled different than the last batch.

She looked at him as he wanted her to promise him when he hurt her. Hurt her? Why would she ever promise something like that. He wouldn't stop, it wasn't her place to bring up complaints when he smacked her, took her from within, chose to put her in the middle of his relationship with Hazel, with Spider... How could she say she was in pain and he was the cause?

She looked back to the fire without saying a thing, just flicked her ear when he introduced the topic of children. Her heart leaped to her throat as he then posed the very question one would ask of their mate, a life partner.

She turned back to him and blinked, surprised. Had she ever considered children? Yes... Once or twice...

"Not... Especially..." She was a terrible liar, she shifted uncomfortably. She could deal with hiding the truth from Spider, but if they outright asked her she wouldn't be able to hide anything from them.

"I never thought I'd..." Be attractive enough, get that far, capable, given the choice, "I don't think I'd be a good mother." She said turning away again. But he'd be a good father. If he deemed children from her would be his and not chattel to own and do as he wished with. She didn't have the best upbringing herself. A confusing queen non-mother, strangers always around her in her childhood. The servants barely humoring her as a precocious child.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

She didn't promise. He watched her stir in the herbs and hold her silence. His tail flicked behind him, annoyed. “Promise me, Little Bird. And I'll give you this present I picked up at the market” He patted the bag around his shoulder and eyed her, light amusement in his eyes. 

But as he asked her about children, he could see the discomfort in the way she squirmed. He stepped silently closer. Close enough that he could reach out paw and place it lightly over hers. “Do you really think that?” He knew he would make a mess of them his best example was his parents, and they were proud, vain, cruel people.

“Children raise all sorts of thoughts…” he said softly, patting the paw he held. “Who you would have them with. What Their status would be…” he glanced up at iggy again. “I would expect you to be honest with me. To tell me what you're thinking. In return I would do the same.” Perhaps then he would share some of the thoughts rattling around his brain.

"Speech"

Her attention was piqued as he mentioned a gift, her ears and her gaze focusing on him again in expectant interest. Damn! She scowled, and turned back to the pot. How he could unwind her so!

He came closer. How a massive male as him could move so silently when her own claws clicked over the stones was a wonder. The steady rhythm of her heart fluttered just so as he laid a paw lightly over hers. Encompassing it, swallowing it with his pads, and yet so soft and gentle.

She looked up at him, his gaze soft and earnest. Hers were worried, and maybe a bit rebellious. Did their coupling awaken something new in her or reawoke something she had long since put to sleep?

She then stared back into the fire, the tea boiling. Her mind roiling. She didn't know what she was thinking. She was always thinking. Thinking thinking and thinking. Her mind never stopped.

With one paw she poured the hot tea into a cup. And set the kettle off the fire. The leaves swirled about the cup as it cooled. She kept her paw under his but she remained reticent for a bit longer.

She instead leaned into him, hoping it would help loosen her tongue and open up for him.

She would fetch the moon for him.
She would take the tea for him.
She would let him consume her body and soul.
She would let him fill her belly with seed if he desired it.
But to bare the thoughts she held secret, the last bastion of her being?
She might as well.

"Why..." Her throat closed as if her body was the gate, holding the last shred of rebellion for her.
She sighed. Pushing through it, her heart thrumming as she pushed through the sieve that was physically placed between her mind and mouth.

She shifted gears then, maybe adjust toward what she could say. She buried her face into his dark ink fur. The warmth soothing, his smell of the caverns, woodland, smoke from the fire that's lit the Col, and the thrilling pull of the musk that was only his filled her nose.

"I cannot..." She pulled away finally, her words coming and she would not muffle them into his fur as they already came with great effort.

"That is a promise I cannot make. You know that. It's not my place to complain when you hurt me, whether in correction or to fill me." She glared into the fire, finding strength in the flames, "I would be agreeable to carry what is ours, but only if you promised to raise them as young royalty and not chattel to be traded and used. I would want them raised better than us." Her words were tempered, as if honed in a forge. Her tone was not one she had used with him before, it carried a heavy weight to it. If he traded her children would she terminate her pregnancies? Her own tone she had not used for herself either. It was a new fire within her, one she did not even know she had until just now.

She leaned into him, soft and little against him. It knotted something in his chest as he looked at her. Something fierce and protective. How many times had he told her that she mattered? That she meant more than the wolves of her last home had treated her? But he had been all words. He hadn't PROVEN it to her. Her words proved that he had failed to honour the meaning behind his own. He pulled back, giving her a little space. He looked at her with eyes both longing and afraid. “I release you.” The words tasted like ash on his tongue. Bitter, and burnt. The end of something. The start of something. “I release you.” He said it again with a little more strength. “You can choose to go back to the life you were living before I found you. Or to take a true rank within this pack.”


His eyes were steady on her, burning the image of her onto his soul, because he was afraid. “It would be my preference that you take the rank of consort. To be my mate, and to be a power within this pack. To be an authoritative figure, as I had intended you to be with your quick and reliable mind. Before I had…” in for a penny, in for a pound. “Before I had fallen in love with you.” Regardless of her choice, her children would never be slaves. Chattel to be traded.

He pulled back and looked with something akin to true fear in his eyes. His words made her blood run suddenly cold within her. All the way down to her feet.
She mouthed a quiet what and he said it again stronger this time.

Go back to... A true rank... He was...
The shock reverberated through her system making her weak enough she crumpled to the floor, her limbs giving way underneath her.

He went on... Consort, mate, authority... She had never dreamed, never thought... Her head suddenly became very heavy as it swam with his news.

"Nnn...no." she whispered. It was test, it had to be, she could never be free, she wouldn't know what to do with herself if she was free!

He can't free her! What if she ran away, or got hurt or someone took her away? She wanted only to be next to him, covered by him, directed by him. To fetch him the moon and pull her around.

Fell in love... She pulled her dizzying head up on her neck to look him in the eyes.

"Holy mother of the sun, you're serious...." She barely said audibly.

She fainted.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

He opened his mouth to say… something. He wasn't sure what, except he saw her body started to crumble. “Ig!” He yelped and leaped forward, catching her head before it touched the ground. He pulled her to him, cradling her for a moment. He breathed quickly, what had happened? Had she been concealing an injury? She would, too, foolish little twit. He frantically started checking her body, and came up empty. A new thought filled him. What if this was his fault? What if their coupling had damaged something inside of her. Ollie's words had unlocked a new fear.


He picked her up, cradling her to his chest with one paw and leapt Into an awkward run. Racing through the col on three legs, cursing Ollie and his distant den with the scarce breath he had left. He opened his mouth before he reached the tree house. “OLLIE!” He bellowed with every inch of authority he had.

Ollie was just coming back from checking on the sleeping beehives. So far so good, the little huddle of bees were doing well to keep themselves warm until the brood in spring could appear. His conversation with Bas slipping in and out of his thoughts as he wondered what the future held for the Armada.

Suddenly a roar from the Warlord shook him to his bones as he was three steps away from the door of the tree house. Oh fuck, did the herbs cause an even worse reaction?

He bounded over the side of the stairs, leaping over the railing to meet Basilisk on the ground. He made another leap on the way down off a nearby tree to keep himself from breaking a leg on the ground.

Bas was holding the limp slave as he rushed toward him!
He dove for his kit in the den and pulled it out.

"Tell me what happened." He said as he placed his ear against ignitas pale chast after Bas laid her down. Her skin tone was paler than normal.

"Speech"

His healer arrived with all haste. Leaping out of the tree even as Bas arrived. He put Iggy down gently on the grass and took a step back. Giving Ollie room to work. He paced. It was the only way he could avoid harassing the boy. He stalked three short steps and turned, repeating the movement. Like a caged tiger. His skin felt hot and uncomfortable, and it took all of his effort not to bellow again. “We were talking.” He said, barely keeping the growl from his voice. “And she just collapsed.” He hadn't noticed anything wrong. How had he not noticed? He was so aware of her. When she walked in the room, he felt as if he could anticipate every step she would make.

“Did I do this?” He demanded of his healer, knowing their last conversation would be close to both their thoughts.

Her heart was beating, she was pale, even a little clammy.
He flicked his gaze up at Bas, pacing back and forth.

"Did she take any of the herbs?" He didn't think the herbs he had given would make her react like this.

She was breathing, her paws were cold. She wasn't bleeding from anywhere, mild bruises along her hips, her back and shoulder. He examined every inch of her body.

A thought occured to him. "did you say anything particularly shocking?" He asked and looked up at the Warlord. He looked like he was going to punch the mountain if she didn't rouse soon. He had feeling she would come to in a few more moments.

"Speech"

He shook his head. “She hadn't taken them yet. We'll need another batch, those are likely burnt by now. He looked around for a companion he could send, and ordered them to remove the tea from the fire. He didn't want Iggys den to burn down while they were gone.


He watched Ollie put his hands on Iggy. Inspecting every inch of her. He stilled his pacing entirely. Watching the boy from a predatory stance. too close. He was too close to her. “I… well. Yes” he said, glad the other wolf had been sworn to silence. He still watched him, but his voice was careful and measured. “I told her I loved her.”

Yep, she had only fainted. Already he could see the color coming back under her pale fur. She fainted because Bas had told her he loved her? Was that so shocking to elicit this response in her? Was the thought of kids too much? The idea that they shouldn't have kids effect her in this way?

Bas looked like he was about to kill him. Ollie was hardly cowed by the idea. He nodded as she took in a deep breath, a sure sign she was coming back soon. He was an expert at the whole fainting thing and how they felt.

"Don't worry, she's just fainted. She'll be a little weak for an hour. She's pretty hardy so I doubt she'll need to recover for days like I sometimes did. She's already coming back." He couldn't help but smirk as Bas hovered over him.

He bowed out, taking his leave as she came back to life. He had a feeling Bas would take her right back to where they were talking.

"Speech"

She felt the cold snow through her fur, and her face was blasted with light. A stark difference from the warm den where she swore she had just been.

She blinked warily, the image of Ollie's face shimmered and blearily came to appear above her and suddenly he was gone, then Bas appeared instead.

She made to get up, swearing she had only just blinked a moment before. Her head swam. Her legs felt weak and wobbly.

"What... What happen-?" She asked just as the memory came rushing back and laid her back down to her knees. Three words had brought her to her knees, and four more knocked her out. She had just started to get comfortable with her life and situation and there he went tearing it all apart again. He changed everything! Again! Without her consent! Granted those kinds of changes typically come like a whirlwind. She just didn't know what to expect now.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

Seeing Ollie was about to take his leave and bail, Basilisk paused him in order to snag a small bundle of food from the pocket he had seen the boy grab them from before. He let collie go after that, seeing there was nothing more Ollie could do. Fainted. She had fainted. But why?


Ollie was right, she was coming to. He wanted to scoop her up and cradle her to his chest. But he didn't know where they stood. She had fainted. Why??


He hovered above hee, not quite touching and shoved the food towards her. “Eat.” He said, his voice a rough growl. “You fainted, and I carried you to Oleander.” He was staring at her, wondering if she would do it again. “Why, Iggy?” He said, his voice much softer.

Her breath rattled her ribs as he shoved food into her paws. Obediently she picked up a morsel and barely nibbled it, not feeling like this would help her body from swimming away from her mind.

"I just need to breathe." She replied quietly, her lids heavy. She gathered in her new surroundings, they were at the edge of the woods. She had no idea how long she was out. She nibbled the food a bit more, gaining her strength and her breath.

Until her breathing was steady and deep without shaking she turned back to Basilisk. "Shall we continue this in private?" She asked, looking up at him. His face made her melt, his concern palpable.

"I think... I just...got so overwhelmed. It's... a lot Bas. It's... huge. This type of change... was a lot at once." She said, wearily gathering her feet up from under her. Wrapping her head around what everything meant all at once took her some time. She had known he loved her, and with every step she took back to the den, she knew... She loved him too. She couldn't imagine her life without him, answering his calls, working for the Armada, sleeping in his arms, seeing him every day... She had no idea her life would lead her to this.

She didn't want to force him to reveal her to the pack before he felt the pack was ready. Some of them probably didn't even know Hazel had left yet. She didn't want her presence to leave a bad taste in their mouths. Least of all... Spiders.

If she was going to be consort... wow... that was quite the title...

"I'm not leaving the Armada." She said, hoping he'd follow her back inside the den.

"I'm not leaving you."

"Speech"