He usually wasn't very willing to take the pups out on a patrol, especially not along the Rock Garden border that butted up against so many other packs, but he didn't intend on going past the shoreline today and he had his niece with them so he felt a bit more at ease with the situation than he normally would. Besides, Kintsugi absolutely refused to let him go without her today and he had a terrible time telling her no. At first it was just him, his daughter, and Fiametta, but where there was a crowd there was a party so when Daemon spotted them on their way off of the island he just had to tag along. Well, an impromptu family outing hadn't been his plan for today, but who was he to say no?

They followed the shoreline from where the land bridge connected with the mainland, walking along the rocky beach toward the edge of their territory. The thought had crossed his mind that they might be within swimming distance at this point of their territory to the Syndicate's lands so he wanted to get a better visual of it–though that was a bit hard to do when his attention was constantly being torn between the landscape he was trying to scout out and the two young wolves bounding ahead of them. He was just distracted enough to not notice the huge walrus pulling itself onto the shore in their path until the pups were already heading right for its blubbery side. "Kids! Stay away from that!" he warned, but the walrus was already turning their way with a swing of its long tusks, making him curse under his breath as he hurried forward to catch up with them.

"Deimos Mendacium"

Fia had known that the wolves in Elysium were on edge with the surrounding packs and while she wasn't too acquainted with the situation she was certainly annoyed at the least that she couldn't hunt east of their home anymore. The thicket hosted a lot of small game, the cliffs barely anything. She wanted something big. She'd be in for a surprise today.

She had went out with Deimos as a sort of patrol as he checked out the borders nearly sharing with the neighboring packs. His daughter was here, fine. But when her nephew had thrown himself into the mix... what the fuck was she supposed to do with this thing. She already wasn't that great with kids. She probably could be if she tried, but she was struggling to find how she felt about Saracyn and Avacyn's children. It was much different than a relationship she could have with Deimos'.

She walked pretty silently alongside the group, sober because she wasn't an idiot. Her eyes scanned around the perimeters but also drug along the ground for most of the trip. Deimos was here too so she wasn't on high alert. That changed once He was yelling out at the kids. Fia sprung into action quickly, rounding the massive creature with a vicious snarl and taking stance. Her eyes tagged around for the kids but for Deimos as well, they would be the ones who had to take the bulk of the task. The little ones would need to stay out of the way but who was she kidding, they were Mendaciums and she remembered how she was at that age.

"Fiametta"

Oh boy, a patrol! Daemon loved anything that got him off the island, especially if there was even the slightest risk of danger. The boy had no fear and approached the world with an attitude that many would call reckless, but he called it strength. Mendaciums weren't afraid of anything! Daemon hadn't exactly been invited on this little outing so much as he had invited himself along, but oh well, they weren't going to get rid of him now, so he was here to stay! Besides, Kintsugi was here too, and if she was allowed to go then they could all just deal with him tagging along as well.

Walking the rocky shoreline of the northeastern coast, Daemon was actually doing a terrible job of patrolling and being more interested in the rest of the world than looking for enemies. So when a giant fat walrus began to sidle up onto the shore, Daemon almost walked into it. Deimos called out for them to be careful, but by then it was too late, a swing of tusks just barely missing the boy. Dae yipped in surprise and leaped out of the way, doing a really cool action roll (that was actually more just tumbling across the beach) and getting to his paws to face off against the walrus. That lack of fear raised its head again as Daemon snarled at the marine mammal, his facial marking glowing brighter in response to his increased heart rate. The fight was on!

"Daemon Mendacium"

Her father always got to go off of the island and go do cool sounding things and she wanted in on them! That's why when he mentioned that he was on his way out to do a patrol of the western border she did all but attach herself to him to make sure she got to go too. Luckily her mother wasn't home to make sure it didn't happen and she finally convinced her father to let her go. After meeting up with her cousin Fiametta they started out toward the mainland–only to be caught by Daemon who promptly invited himself along. She didn't nessicarily enjoy having to share the attention with someone else, but if any of her cousins was going to join in she supposed Daemon was the best option. At least he didn't say weird things like Fever.

Kintsugi pranced delicately behind Daemon, paying more attention to practicing her form and matching how graceful her mother was than anything else. That kept her from noticing the huge, blubbery walrus until it was practically in her face, watching as Daemon walked right into it. She skidded to a stop, the blue star-like flecks in her fur flaring brighter as her heart rate spiked and her eyes went wide as she tipped her head back to be able to look up at this thing. As Daemon rolled away, Kintsugi jumped to the side, skittering on the pebbly shore of the beach a bit as she tried to maintain her footing. She felt something swish past her tail, just clipping the end of it, and when she looked back she realized it was the walrus' massive tusks that had been swung her way that she barely avoided. She spun around and planted herself next to Daemon with a similar snarl. A walrus wasn't going to scare them off! Not on their own turf!

"Kintsugi Mendacium"

Deimos charged up to the giant walrus just as the pups were dodging out of the way. He wanted to tell them both to get out of here, but he had a feeling that they wouldn't listen to him anyway. If there was something that was universally true about Mendacium pups it was that they were all too headstrong for their own good–not that he had any room to talk. He got himself into plenty of trouble when he was their age, as his mother would constantly remind him of. Instead, he just focused on driving this beast back toward the water as quickly as he could. Maybe between himself and Fia they could at least prove that they were more trouble than they were worth to put up with. Snarling and growling with his hackles raised, Deimos put himself between the walrus and the pups, rearing up to slash the large, bear-like claws on his front paws across the end of the walrus' snout. That made the blubbery predator rear back with a roar shaking its head and swinging its tusks wildly in response. Deimos jumped back out of the way, just narrowly missing those tusks as they swung past his nose.

"Deimos Mendacium"

Gods she wished the kids would have gotten out of the way... now she had to work around them. Kintsugi at least seemed to be evading the large creature, Daemon looked like he was ready to take it on. Perhaps admirable to Fia's standards of kids... but what a dumb little idiot.

Fia watched Deimos as he took the lead, swatting the Walrus with his large bear paws and Fia would follow suit. She leaped forward to land both of her extended claws into what would be considered the shoulder of the creature. It was more difficult than she anticipated, the beast with thick and slick. But she still got some ground in it. The walrus thrashed it's head back up, probably getting lost in the commotion of the wolves surrounding it. Who could it take down first or would it try to run away?

"Fiametta"

Kintsugi was by his side as soon as the walrus rounded on them, its angry wail piercing the quiet winter air. Both pups were all fangs bared and growls resonating. They were Mendaciums and this was their world; they wouldn't back down from an ornery old walrus! The crimson and violet pup scrabbled back to his paws and got back into the fight while Deimos went for the walrus with his giant bear paws swinging wildly at its face and chest. Aunt Fia was getting in on the fight too, trying to grapple with the blubbery beast, but to no avail. That gave Daemon an idea.

Bright blue eyes following the walrus' massive body down to its less fleshy, vulnerable flippers, the pup grinned with wicked intent and charged forward into the fray again. Leave it to a pup to believe themselves invincible, and leave it to Daemon to be a problem. While the walrus was distracted, Daemon ran up and bit down on its flipper, his tiny needle-like puppy teeth sinking easier into the thin, less thickened skin there. He might not have been doing much for the fight, but he was a part of it nonetheless.

"Daemon Mendacium"

Kintsugi continued to growl and snarl at the massive walrus while her dad jumped in front of her and Daemon and swiped his claws at the beast's snout, fully believing that she was being an excellent distraction at the very least that let her father score that hit. Fia jumped into the fight too, the two adults clearly going to work doing what they did best to drive back the angry walrus. Just as she was looking for some way to help, she saw Daemon move away from her side to run in toward the walrus. At first she thought she should try to stop him so they wouldn't be in the way, but then she realized he was heading right for the blubbery animal's flipper. Even though she couldn't always say her cousin was smart, she had to admit that was a pretty good move! They didn't really have much hope breaking through the blubber if even the adults struggled to do so, but the flipper was much thinner and they could actually get their teeth around it. Well, she wasn't going to let him have all the fun! She darted around past her father's leg to join in beside Daemon, clamping her needly puppy teeth around the flipper shortly after him.

"Kintsugi Mendacium"

Just as he was dodging the retaliating walrus, he saw Fia running in from the side and noticed how her claws had hardly damaged the animal when she aimed for a spot where the blubber was thicker. It was something that he had assumed would be true, but it was still a surprise to see just how much the thick layer of skin and fat protected it. Regardless, he felt like they were making themselves a nuisance which he could just hope would be enough to make it go back into the ocean and find another beach to loiter on. But, of course, before he could continue doing that he saw a bit of movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced down just in time to see Daemon running at the walrus' flipper with Darika shortly behind him. "Kids! Don't-"

But before he could even finish his scolding both of the pups had chomped down on the walrus' flipper. Even though he was furious that they kept putting themselves in danger and wished that they would just stay out of the fight, a little part of him was proud of them for the ingenuity and thought to go for a part of their opponent that they could actually do damage on. However, that pride quickly went away as the annoyed and furious walrus roared and lifted its big flipper, dragging the pups up with the movement. It swung the flipper in a hard flicking motion, tossing both of the pups off and tossing them down along the shore line, both of them tumbling across the sandy, rocky beach.

He'd need to go check on them, but first he refocused on the walrus with a deep snarl, snapping at the walrus' snout neck, pushing it back toward the water and refusing to back off with each inch of ground he gained. Between his own efforts and Fiametta's help eventually they would get the Walrus to turn back, and he growled at the edge of the cold water long enough to make sure it wouldn't come back onto the beach as soon as they turned away.

"Deimos Mendacium"

These kids... Fia tried her best to focus only on the threat at hand, but she couldn't help but worry about the Mendacium children out of obligation as their family member. The Walrus would soon whip them across the beach with it's large flipper, sliding it's massive body around in an effort to evade the wolves attacking it. The beast let out a wail fia had never heard before, Deimos moving to push it back into the water.

As stupid as Fia thought the kids were for jumping into harms way, they had the right idea. Fia had already lost her grip on the Walrus long ago, assessing the situation from the start again as the kids were thrown and Deimos was ready to send it back to sea. Fia would jump forward again, taking a hard bite down into it's flipper where the kids had gnawed. Ripping a chuck of it's flipper, the beast was ready to start running for the hills, or the waves in this matter.

~After all was said and done, Fia would give the young ones a "Good going, kids." Not so felt from the heart, but at least not so uninviting. She meant it, they had strong wills fit for their blood.

"Fiametta"

Deimos' call fell on deaf ears as Daemon was already going for the walrus' exposed flippers, wanting to do his part and refusing to be dead weight. He was a Mendacium prince, dammit! He could fight! Snarling and biting at the flipper with all his might, he suddenly became aware of Kintsugi with him in his assault, a little bit of pride swelling in his chest. If Sugi had joined him, then he must've had a good idea! Or so he thought, until his world abruptly and violently began to shift. Suddenly Daemon's paws were no longer on the ground and the boy was dangling in midair. Uh oh...

Before he could fully understand what was happening and do anything to save himself, Daemon felt a surge of momentum flinging him, and then he was airborne. The boy yelped in surprise as he went flying through the air, propelled by the angry walrus flicking him away like swatting a bothersome fly. Tiny paws kicked in the air, and what was probably only a few seconds felt like ages as he was tossed and came crashing down to the beach. His body smacked against the pebbly shore, tumbling a bit before coming to a stop. And then he felt the weight of Kintsugi crash down on top of his belly, knocking the breath from his lungs with a pained ooof! Well, that sucked...

Daemon lay on the beach for a moment just staring up at the cloudy gray sky, his head spinning, back and torso aching, gasping for breath. Fortunately, puppies were bouncy, so he wasn't hurt more than just some bumps and likely a good bruise or two. "Did we kill it...?" he wheezed out when the adults came to collect them, blue eyes looking for Deimos and Fia's approval.

"Daemon Mendacium"