The days and time he spent with Dusk had only gotten more consistent and common ever since his conversation with Artorias. He thought about the warnings that the Lord of Cinder gave him often, almost as if he was trying to keep himself from getting too swept up in the love sickness of it all and letting himself be blinded to the reality of things, but none of it slowed his visits or his attempts to spend even more time with her. He found reasons to do little daily things like patrols with her and planned outings and dates as often as she would allow.

That brought them out to the near by falls just as the sun was setting and everything around them was cast in a warm sunset glow. By the time they reached the highest peak at the top of the falls he could find the sky was starting to darken and the stars were starting to peek through. It was still very warm even at night here in Auster, but at least with the sun gone it wasn't quite as hot as it was during the day. He sighed contently as he settled on his haunches near the edge of the water, glancing over at Dusk with a little grin. He had started to say something to her while fiddling with the buckle on his chest to remove the harness holding his dagger when a sound of something shifting in the foliage behind them caught his attention.

His ear flicked toward the noise and quickly his head followed suit to look and just visually confirm that nothing was there. However, instead of it being the wind or perhaps a small prey animal of some kind he spotted a wolf peeking through the branches at them. With a frown he got up and turned toward the intruder, eyes narrowing. "What do you want?" he questioned sternly, hoping that would be enough to get their audience to take a hint and get lost. Instead, a large male coated with shades of gray and brown stepped out of the brush with a low growl, his right shoulder, leg, and the side of his neck riddled with scars. Two more wolves followed closely behind him, clearly there to be his backup. Sitri heard him mutter something about coming for the girl and revenge, but he wasn't going to let the brute finish. He grabbed his dagger from the sheath at his side and quickly charged forward with a snarl of his own, slicing across the brute's left shoulder with a swing of his head.

"Dusk & Sitri"

Spending time with Sitri was so easy. Now that they'd made their way over the 'I like you' hump, being around him just felt natural. It felt right. Wherever he wanted to go, she would go. Today their wanderings led them to Cedar Falls. She'd been here many times but was happy to be here with the red brute for the first time. They made their way up the falls and the dark lady padded out into the water, taking a drink of the cool liquid. She was looking out over the edge of the falls when Sitri's voice sounded behind her and the words weren't for her.

Dusk turned, exiting the water quickly and making her way towards where Sitri stood. The dying light of day illuminated the trio of wolves just enough for her to recognize one of them. An instant growl pulled from Dusk and she set her defenses. She had matching scars on her neck and shoulder thanks to this bastard and his kin. Dusk hadn't heard why they were here, but she could imagine. Lifting her prehensile tail, she shook Whisper into place, fully prepared to lop the heads off of the bastards before her. Sitri beat her to the punch, however. Instantly his dagger was in his maw and blood was flowing. Dusk was impressed, proud and... slightly turned on? What was that? It felt nice to be protected for once rather than protecting.

"Dusk & Sitri"

Even though the male that had emerged from the shadowed darkness of the surrounding bushes had been ready for a fight, it seemed like he hadn't expected him to act so quickly so he had a slight element of surprise on his side. The blade of his dagger sliced across the brute's shoulder, sending him reeling backward with a loud snarl. Sitri's lavender and blue gaze immediately began to dart between the two other wolves that had come with the first, assuming that they would jump in to back up their leader while he recovered. That assumption proved to be correct as one of them immediately tried to dart in toward his side. Sitri reared back, bracing his hind legs with his claws gripping into the dirt to make sure he had enough leverage to not get knocked backward in the process, and he twisted to slam his front paws down onto the top of the second wolf's shoulder, pushing him back and making him lose his balance and eventually trip over his own paws to fall down onto his side.

While Sitri was focused on the second male the third moved in on his other side and just as he was landing back on his feet he felt sharp fangs cut into his left foreleg around his elbow. He growled and snarled in response at the shooting pain that radiated from the bite, but he wasted no time spinning his dagger around between his teeth so that the point of the blade was now directed toward his opponent and with a hard downward swing he drove that point into the side of the brute's neck. The pressure around his leg released immediately and he heard a choking, gurgling sound that told him he must have hit the male's windpipe. Well, he supposed that meant one of the opponents was dealt with at least. He pulled the blade free just in time to see the lead male running past him, focused solely on Dusk. He had zero doubts that Dusk could handle herself just fine, but he still didn't want to take any chances so he quickly turned back to the male he had pushed over to try and finish him off quickly so he could go help Dusk with the revenge driven brute.

WC: 384
Total: 1058 / 1500

"Dusk & Sitri"

Well, she'd been content leaving Sitri to fend off the brutes, but plans had changed. The very first spill of the red mans blood had Dusk moving forward. Just in time, too. One of the wolves darted past Sitri and was coming right for her. Dusk could see the fury in his eyes. He was intent on killing her. Well... that wasn't going to happen.

The midnight woman sidestepped, moving back across the falls and putting distance between herself and Sitri. She kept him in view, but she needed to be sure that he was far enough away to not be accidentally injured by her. Couldn't have another Thorn incident, now could she? As the man rushed towards her, Dusk lifted her long, prehensile tail, shaking Whisper loose and prepping for a strike. The man apparently either remembered or had been told about the weapon because he tried to stay well out of range. He underestimated the Carpathians abilities.

Dusk feigned a strike with her tail, swinging it forward so that the brute jumped away. As soon as the strike seemed finished, he rushed towards her once more, thinking that he'd found her blind spot. Little did he know, Dusk was making a full circle, spinning in place thanks to the momentum of her heavy weapon and tail. The blades cut into the brutes flesh and he yelped, falling to the ground and clutching his face. When she stopped, still holding her tail aloft and ready, Dusk noted that she'd sliced right through the wolfs left eye and the corner of his mouth. Blood poured from his wounds as he thrashed about on the ground, attempting to regain his footing.

WC-280
Total-1338

"Dusk & Sitri"

Sitri spun to face the second of the ambush leader's backup just as he was getting back to his paws, rolling the ache out of the shoulder he had slammed into. He wasn't about to give this guy time to recover though and charged forward to launch another attack, ignoring the pain in his foreleg long enough to take out this threat. He dodged to the side to avoid the other male's lunging attack and in one more rebounding leap he got himself into close quarters with the wolf with a hard stab of his dagger into the brute's side right behind his shoulder. He felt the blade scrape against the man's ribs on the way into the flesh there and as he yanked the blade up and out to widen the gash he knew he had punctured into the wolf's lung. That was more than enough to make their attacker stagger back as Sitri drew out his blade and shoved him away again. He probably would have finished the wolf off, but he knew he wouldn't last long regardless and he was far more concerned about getting to Dusk and the last attacker.

When he turned around toward where Dusk was fending off her attacker, Sitri was met with the sight of the brute's eye and parts of his face sliced open, the man clutching his face and falling to the ground. He had seen Whisper's handiwork before, but every time he was impressed and slightly frightened by just how sharp those blades in Dusk's tail were. By now Sitri had put together the context clues to understand that this man had been one of the ones to attack Dusk in the woods the day he found her in the tree burrow and now he had come with backup expecting to finish the job. Clearly his plan hadn't gone the way he had hoped. Sitri was half tempted to just leave him to suffer, but at the same time he didn't want this brute to try anything like this again so it was best to cut this off at the source. Before he could attempt to get back on his feet, Sitri walked over to him and waited a moment for an opening among the brute's thrashing to drive his dagger through the male's chest and into his heart, holding the blade there until he finally stopped moving.

Pulling the blade free, Sitri stepped back and turned to Dusk, setting the dagger on the grass for a moment since he didn't want to put it back in its scabbard covered in blood. "Are you okay?" was his immediate concern as he moved toward her, looking across her body to make sure there was no blood or wounds to be found. Luckily it seemed like the only blood on her was the blood of the now dead attacker on her tail so he was able to breathe a small sigh of relief. Considering there was three would be assassins and the worst either of them faired was a bite around his elbow he felt like that was more than a success.

WC: 521
Total: 1859 / 1500

"Dusk & Sitri"