The Warlord returned home, and that feeling of being home started to slowly creep in when he saw his mountain on the horizon. It was a little while longer Before he was close enough to see the woods, and taste the pack scent on his tongue. He was glad to be home. He raises his head, howling for Ignita even as he crossed the scent markers.

He didn't care if she was busy, he knew she would come. He made his way into the Col, and Larimar called for his attention. Frowning, he followed after the Wyrm as she led him to his old Den. Was something wrong with Spider? He called out his kids name as he climbed the ascend and made his way into the den. His call was met with silence. His companion led him into the room he had shared with Hazel. He ignored the fading scents as his eyes lingered on a slip of paper.

He folded it over to the reading side with a single claw.

*Dad,
I’ve gone away for a little while. Strai thinks I should spend some time with him and Delphi, and…I agree with them. I think we both need some space to clear our heads, and I can’t get that at home right now. Please don’t be mad, and please don’t think I’m leaving the pack. Armada is my home, and I’ll always come back.

I love you. Take care of yourself.
- Spider

And it was here where Ignita would find him. Resting on the floor, the note displayed before him.

Ignita was sitting at the edge of the training room with some charcoal and paper. Sketching the movements of some of the warriors. She would draw out their muscle groups when she caught a glimpse, of how they stood or launched braced. How they opened their paws and mouths in their attacks. She could see how they braced themselves for oncoming attacks, how they knew where their attacker was going to land a hit and it looked instinctive!

She noticed how the smaller warriors took advantage of their size and practiced their quickness, their agility was unmatched!

Suddenly a howl Ignita had been waiting days for lifted into the sky! She winked a farewell at Wylan, her constant companion, and packed her things quickly to bolt to his call! She ran around the hill, through the edges of the market, and came out into the Col. Looking back and forth for a sign of him she caught Idalia's motions to head up to the old Warlords quarters. She was somewhat taken aback but headed that way nonetheless. She hadn't wanted to bother Spider, and she had barely seen him around, but she had tried to give him his space when he was nearby.

She bounded up the steps quickly and fluttered her eyes as she caught the scent of him. She followed it to his old room and noticed him in the middle of the floor looking at something.
"My-" She froze as she caught the signature at the bottom of the letter in front of him. She planted a quick kiss on the side of his head and rapidly read the letter with her head pressed against his.

"Ohhh...nooo... Ohno." She sighed, landing her rump heavily on the floor next to him, pressing her face into his neck, trying to stem the mixture of happy and despairing tears.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"

He caught the scent of her and heard the sound of her paws as she padded lightly into the room. But he didn't glance up, no matter how much he wanted to drink in the sight of her. He held the paper down with a claw, careful not to rip the parchment. He didn't stop Ignita when she pressed her head against his and read the note. He barely felt her kiss to his cheek. Everything felt odd, muted. He could feel the blood rushing past his ears. 


“I need to…” he stopped, paused, and took a soft breath. No. No, he wouldn't chase Spider down. They were an adult now, about to hit their second birthday. He'd had a gift crafted for them in the Hallows. He'd leave in their room. “One week. They get one week, and then I'm coming for them.” He growled. He needed to know those he cared about were safe. 


He turned to Ignite finally, capturing her with a paw to her shoulder and pulling her onto his lap. “You wouldn't get a week. You wouldn't get five minutes.” He snarled warningly at her, gripping his teeth to her neck. He didn't break the skin, just a warning nip.

As soon as he started to get up she put a paw on his arm to stay him, but she didn't need to, he had already paused his motion to go after Spider. Hopefully, a week is all they'd need, though she doubted it. The line on her lips was straight as she looked up at him, with pleading eyes. She didn't know what she was pleading for.

When she finally did get his gaze it wasn't for long! He snarled and she let out a light oop sound as she was pulled into his lap. She couldn't help but weakly giggle as his teeth gripped through her fur.

"Oh yes, what was it? You'd flay me alive if I thought about running?" She breathed out a half-hearted laugh, still heavy with the feeling of guilt that Spider had left. It was her fault. Even so, she couldn't help the rush and titillating tingles of his teeth against her skin.

"Where might I run to my Love?" She purred against his teeth. She had waited so long to call him that.

"Speech"

He held her against him, feeling the warmth of her fur against his and the scent of her surrounded him. Something wild inside of him soothed for the first time since he had walked out the pack just a scattering of days before. He had her back, and he had lost Spider. Just once, couldn't he gain what he wanted without losing something else? He buried his nose in the fur at the back of her head, blocking off his senses to everything else. Just Ignita, that’s all he wanted the world to be for a moment. He had missed her.

“It’s a distinct possibility” he said raspily a moment later when he raised his muzzle to breathe. “I’d start with the legs, and make my way up to your back.” He said slowly, brushing a paw up her foreleg to her shoulder. He couldn’t think about Spider just then. Not if he wanted to give them room to grow. But Ignita, Ignita was before him, and it was so easy to drown himself in her. “I don’t know, and I don’t care.” He told her. “Dont.”


"Basilisk & Ignita"

His nose was in her fur and she pressed so completely into him that she could feel the rabid beast of pain within him soothed. She ran a slender golden paw into his rich black fur and coiled her claws into the thickness of it. Her back arched as his paw made it up to her shoulder. She drew in a heady breath of him. They were now in the same room where their lusts were born. When they didn't know what was happening and had to restrain themselves that deeply cold cold night. Now nothing could hold them back from each other.

She pushed her way up to his cheek and pressed her muzzle as close to his ear as she could reach.
"Never." She whispered. She loved it here too much, she loved the people of Armada, loved the mountains, the beach, the forest, the things she was able to do. She loved him. Wholly and completely.

"Welcome home, my Love..." She ran a dulled claw through his fur over his shoulder and up his neck. Her lips met his. How she missed him.

"Ignita"

A rumbly growl started in his chest, and climbed into his throat when he scented her growing need, and felt the press of her muzzle against the side of his head. Not in warning, but in desire. Distance made the heart grow… more possessive. He leaned into her touch, and pulled her against him again. Leaning back, so she rested against his stomach, and he half lay against the cave floor. He pressed his paws into her sides, and nuzzled against her neck.

“I told you I would take you anyway I wanted, anywhere I wanted until I filled you with puppies.” He reminded her with a teasing snarl, nipping her coat with a gentle pull of his fangs. Until she had puppies, while she had puppies, after she had puppies… He would talk of her training once they sated their desperate need for each other. He returned her kiss, sliding his tongue along her muzzle. He couldn’t bring himself to care whose den this used to be. There was only Ignita, the taste of her lips, and the warmth of her fur.

"Basilisk & Ignita"

She chuckled more heartily this time as their minds intermingled on their growing desire and he brought her up to sit on his stomach. She felt his paws on her sides and felt his growing need against her. She pressed his nuzzle on her neck, pushing fervently against his head.

A giggle against his fur as he reminded her of his threatening promise. "Not full yet I think." She murmured into his lips, her breath hitched as his tongue slid over her muzzle. She tenderly nipped at his lip and snaked her tongue to glide over his front teeth. Ready to consume him. Unbidden she felt her hips tighten for him, shifting against him.

"I missed you. I missed you so much." She said quietly at first then louder. Her paws sought a purchase on his chest, for her claws to dig in and give her anchor. She had felt free but also so lost while he was gone.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

His need was a reckless thing, and her clear invitation only incited him further. He had no words for how much he had missed her in his absence, or how afraid that need had made him. She was a glaring weakness in his life, and the only way he could control that was to control her. And she was so easy to control… 


He dragged his teeth through her coat, moulding her body against his, growling as he saught to own and claim her. His Ignita, his once slave and now love. He pulled himself into her, and made love to her with all of his being. Making up for lost time.

The words ceased between them, the absence had only made her need for him more intense. How the rush to have him between her legs felt like her own ownership of him, but more the feeling he had over her was the need to be wanted. He wanted her, he wanted to be near her! She was who he called first when he came home!

She arched her back and gasped for him as they made love. A union of needs and wants and lusts. She pulled at his fur as they rocked. She knew the minute he got home he would take her, she wanted it, but she didn't want to be filled quite yet. She wanted that modicum of control over herself and her status. The status of their children, fake as a status may be, or his promises they wouldn't be royalty if she wasn't named his consort. This game of push and pull... She liked it more than she thought she would. It gave her an inkling of power she had never experienced before. How could she wrap him around her finger the way he had her wrapped around his?

"Speech"

He groaned her name, losing himself in the pull of her, her own noises and claws in his coat told her that every emotion and need was a two way street. He clawed at her own fur, driving deeper. Both into her, and into the sensations. Lost until he was spent and lay panting beneath her. He buried his head in her coat and breathed her in, before he kissed her cheek. “You, my dear Ignita, were all I could think about the moment I walked out these borders.”  Marry me, marry me, marry me. but he forced the words down. His secret, And he wasn't ready to spill.


“How will I ever get anything done when your absence drives me wild?” He sighed softly and brushed a paw down the scar on one side of her face. The one he had driven into her skin. He felt the slightly raised skin beneath his sensitive paw pad. “Don't ever leave me, Ignita.”

Losing themselves in each other was a dance from ancient times. She pulled and passionately groaned as he went deeper. Unrestrained she'd whine to him for more until they were both spent.

She hummed against his chest as he kissed her cheek. She slowly opened and blinked at him as he told her how he missed her. She sighed in agreement.

She felt his paw over the raised mark on her cheek and turned subtly away so he could better see the mark and feel it. Her golden eyes looked away with a soft gentle gleam, a little guilt, a little regret shadowed over her gaze—a branding of a sort, the branding of his claim over her in a way.

He spoke and she chuckled at his admission. She was about to retort that they couldn't get anything done because they barely kept themselves off each other when they were together, but she paused as he admitted his greatest fear. She sighed and pushed into his paw that held her scar so tenderly. It was his greatest vulnerability she knew already, and it would be utterly cruel to hold it as a weapon over him. She wasn't cruel.

"Never. We will be like the sun and the sky, never one without the other, the rain and the clouds, fire and heat." She vowed poetically, then painted her tongue over his chest.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

He laughed huskily at her gentle words, and gentle touch. He nipped her ear with his teeth, Still breathing her. Confirming that she was here, and they were together again. “Careful, little Bird. Or you'll set off round two, and round three, and…” he gleamed a grin at her. “And we have things to do.” He finished. They would have all night to remind each other what they felt like. 


He sat up slowly, still cupping Ignita to his chest. “Walk me through everything that's been going on while I was gone.” He instructed her. It fell just shy of an order as he put her gently back on her paws. He gave her rump a fond swat. “I need to check on the borders, walk with me and talk. Once the borders are done, you, my dear Lover have a test to complete.” was she ready?

She giggled at his response. Yes, they had plenty to do now, and hopefully, they can focus long enough on such things to get them done!
She smiled as he held her to his chest while he shifted and gently placed her down. She flashed him a playful glare as he swatted her rump, and smiled. She got the game now.

"Oh, yes, one of your tests!" She replied lifting her brows. She briefly frowned at the letter, discarded on the floor. They'll need to talk more about that... later. She trotted easily beside him as they left the den and sauntered back down the steps. "The usual business of course. Market, blacksmithing, deliveries, classes, Wylan was very good and never let me have a moment to myself!" She huffed softly, not entirely too pleased with a constant escort but also not complaining too loudly. She continued to talk as they started around the borders, "Wylan helped me quite a bit in figuring out meditation! I've been taking the time to practice a few times a day, just like you said!" She beamed.

"Ignita"

He walked them out into the Col, and to the closest border where the Col ended. He nodded to the guard on duty and continued on, swinging back through the Col and passing the market entrance. The sounds inside indicated everything was as it should be and he kept walking. Letting the familiarity of pack and home fall over him. He listened to Ignita speak, and grinned at her commentary on Wylan. Good to know the boy would do as he asked.


“We'll be putting that to the test” he warned her, voice perhaps a little lighter than it should be considering how important this was to her.


He swung them through the woods, but everything was quiet and as it should be. “Are you ready, Ignita?”

She had to admit, she hadn't spent a lot of time in the forest. She would forage for branches and wood to feed the fires of the col but beyond that, she hadn't lingered long under the canopy. Walking beside him through the Col and then the forest felt... empowering, for some reason now more than it had before. Her head was higher, for one thing, she kept his pace comfortably. It was almost like he was parading her around for all to see, together, openly.

She tilted her head at him and looked at him sideways. Usually, he gave her no warning. This must be his test then. She nodded curtly and said, "Alright. I'm Ready." She replied, waiting for his instruction, anticipating anything from him.

"Ignita"

He gave her a nod, taking her word that she had prepared and took her into the Market. It was a busy day, with wolves moving, talking, Shuffling through the spaces. He took her to the heart of the space, mindless of the wolves around him. They moved out of the way of the colossal Warlord. He turned on Ignita, and in a flash of amusement he kissed her then and there, in the middle of the space. Yeah, he was a dirty fighter. He knew that would stick in her mind. He broke apart from her, and the bold claim over her he had made in front of guards and guests. 


“Sit” he ordered her, watching the golden wolf before him. “Empty your mind, react to nothing around you. No matter how tempting." He waited until Ignita had closed her eyes and then he nodded towards the plant he had seeded into the crowd. The wolf trotted forward, and boldy proclaimed “I have discovered the secret to harvesting bioluminesce! The first wolf to answer my riddle will gain the secret. Any takers? You? No? How about you?” The wolf said as he walked through the crowd. “Last chance! If there's no takers I'll take my secrets elsewhere…”

Oh? Not here in the forest then... He led her away from the forest, back to the Col, and then into the market. A sly grin creased her golden maw as he brought her to the center of the market, the others parting around him like the sea. She had practiced here in the market just this morning, was that- Her thoughts were immediately broken by his kiss, which made her heart skip. Here? Out here? Right in the middle of-! Oh! he was throwing her off! What a sand flea! She was startled, to say the least, and she quickly looked around. Paraded was certainly a theme.

He ordered her to sit. She narrowed her eyes at him for a moment and then took a deep breath. She placed her hindquarters on the ground, sweeping her tail close to her hip and heel. She at least knew what he meant now by emptying her mind. Meditate, don't be distracted, and pull herself into the flow. React to nothing around her, no matter how tempting... She brought her mind to the space she had made for it, a place where she could push away the distractions around her.

The sounds dropped away, and the hustle and bustle began to ebb and flow in a disconnected fog she felt no attachment to. Her body relaxed, and her facial expression melted into a serene calm. A voice threatened to break through the muffled voices, loud and clear. A voice... of fascinating promises... But she had a command from Her Warlord, react to nothing, follow his word above all.

Her breath slowed further, and the fur around her shoulders smoothed even as the seller drew closer. She silently and inwardly acknowledged their promises, and if it was true then she could figure it out, then she let the idea of the seller go, clearing her mind of the distraction.

"Ignita"

Basilisk may enter her threads without warning.

Basilisk watched in wonder, knowing this was a temptation that a fully aware Ignita would never be able to let slip away. “Going once… going twice…” the trader said and then laughed and Basilisk grinned back at the man. “Congrats, Ignita!” The stranger to her said, and trotted away. Basilisk leaned forward and kissed her again, pressing his lips against hers, and pulling her into his chest. He had stopped caring some time ago about who saw. Only Ignita mattered. Ignita and Spider… he pushed the thought away and pulled his lips from hers. “Congratulations, my love. One step closer, two steps left.” He told her. She could do this, she had proved that to him, to herself, to the wolves around them. She was capable.


He brushed his paw against her shoulder, and led her back out of the busy market place. “How are your defences progressing?” He asked her, voice tender and flush with success.

She refused to react until she felt his lips upon hers. She returned the kiss with fervor and smiled against his teeth as he pulled her in!

"Well good, because you're a sand flea for that!" She retorted in a playful tone. She refused to look at anyone else in the market, her golden eyes were only on him, softly slowly blinking and drinking him in. If he wanted to show the world their love, so be it. She was glad she didn't have to hide it anymore. She could still feel the prying eyes on her back and was thankful he led her out of the market now bustling with whispers. If he didn't care, neither should she.

She couldn't wipe the smile off her face. Even tho the next question was not quite what she was prepared for.
"Heh, Well... Not as well yet. I'm still trying to get the hang of it." She ducked her head a little sheepishly as they walked. She certainly wasn't ready for that test yet.

"How was the journey to the Hallows? Was the business... dire?" She asked curiously, veering away from the subject of tests, for now, still glowing under her victory.

"Basilisk" || "Iggy"