The young wolf was only just learning what it meant to be an Abraxas. To be an offspring of the ruling class of the Empire, and to be a child of Gods. It was a lot for any young mind to take in, so naturally, she absorbed the information and changed it into something useful. Being a Goddess must mean being a force of nature, something that would be in battles, fighting for what was hers, right? Today, that meant fighting the Grapevines of Doom that wrestled about an old, exhausted aspen, twisting this way and that around its great limb, choking it. There was a holiness to the old creature, that indicated it was losing the battle. A Goddess of the Risen Empire might just decide to step up and do something about that. Which was why she had a large dollop of vines in her mouth, steady growls lisping through her full cheeks as she pulled and tucked, making a ruckus as she pulled off one piece of vine only to realise so many more where wound about the tree. She rose up on her back feet, swiping her claws down the vines with a battle cry. She wasn’t far from the den, and therefore wasn’t breaking any rules that would disappoint her parents - that was something that she had clicked onto quite quickly, with the way her mother spoke of being an Abraxas with pride, and their busy father spoke of leadership. She didn’t ever want to disappoint them, for an expression that indicated she was letting them down to ever cross their faces. She had decided she would fight for what was hers, just like she would fight for this tree, she would fight for her parents pride, as well. "Speech"

Art by pimsri

Barking furiously Pyrrhic chased after a small grey squirrel. The lithe little creature bounced off the base of a tree in the hopes of confusing him and then leaped onto the trunk of another. In seconds it was out of reach and blending into the shadows above. Were it not for the angry chattering that emanated from the treetop Pyrrhic wouldn't have known a squirrel was up there. He glared up after it then spun around and kicked dirt at the tree. "Yeah, you's better run! This is Abrassass territrory!" For good measure he squatted beside the tree and peed on one of its exposed roots. Satisfied that the intruder had been dealt with appropriately, the boy strutted away. His dad (in an effort to teach him about territory, boundaries and the patrols he went on throughout the day) had told him that the densite and a large swath around it was their family's territory. Together they'd marked out a border and before he'd left that morning to patrol his dad had told him he needed to defend his territory from intruders. Malleus had thought it a game to keep the boy occupied, but Pyrrhic had taken it to heart. Since then not so much as a sparrow had been allowed to linger inside the circle. His sister's growls brought him at a run. He was supposed to defend everything and that meant his mom and siblings too. If something was after one of them he'd make them sorry! Pyrrhic screeched onto the scene and made a beeline for his sister. His attention was immediately captured by the vine she was clawing at. In his mind's eye it morphed into a monster's tentacle. His mouth fell open as he followed it up the tree. The monster was huge! Felicity needed his help! With a fearsome battle cry Pyrrhic pounced on a different segment of the vine Felicity was working on. He pried a piece off the tree and then began to shake and twist it in the hopes of breaking it off entirely. Together they'd vanquish this beast!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The vines she tore free tangled at her feet, threatening to trip her, and limiting her range of attack on the ones that still clung firmly to the tree. It was tiring work, and she wasn’t certain she was making the kind of progress she had expected. She wouldn’t give up, she could never let herself do such a thing, but she was considering a temporary retreat and revaluation of attack. Before it came to that, a great battle roar emanated beside her. She didn’t need to turn to know that reinforcements had arrived, and Pyr, who already stood taller than she did, was backing her up. She let loose her own cry, reinvigorated by Pyr’s appearance, and fought with renewed energy. They tore at the veins that had the audacity to do anything but what they wanted of them, and shredded them until they were nothing but a scrap pile beneath their paws. A little wobbly by the quickly-expended energy, the young pup let her forepaws fall back to the earth and shook out her coat, panting happily as she turned to her brother. "That was sooo cool! We showed that monster who was boss” she applauded her heroic brother She pranced a little backwards to see their handiwork, her claws stained with green-goo beneath the nails, and cheeks rosy from the effort. She was still prancing as she turned her attention back to her brother. “We could take on the world, and nothing could stand against us!” she wanted to find more monsters to defeat with Pyr "Speech"

The battle was difficult and long, but at last it was over and the pair emerged tired, unscathed and of course, victorious. Pyrrhic eyed the pile of mangled vines proudly. "We sure did!" he crowed before lifting a hind foot to scratch at his side. His coat was sticky with sap and clumped in places where the green goop had tangled with bits of debris and fur. With bark, twigs and leaves stuck to him all over, Pyrr looked positively feral. An outside observer might have questioned how a well kept child got to be so filthy dirty, but the boy had a knack for it and no amount of diligence kept him clean. He too dropped back to survey their handy work. “We could take on the world, and nothing could stand against us!” Pyrrhic nodded smugly. They were the very, very best. "We're a great team! Hey," he said slyly as an idea struck him. "Wanna fight more bad guys?" He dropped his voice to a whisper and then leaned in close to Felicity. "I know where a bad intruder lives."

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pyrrhic agreed with her as he stretched at the goo that had splattered his side. She turned and looked at him properly, and suppressed a giggle. He looked positively messy. Mum was going to have a hard time getting him clean again, and he was going to hate every second of her fussing. She wondered if she could sneak in and watch, it would be hilarious. She pulled her mind from those thoughts, for the moment they were warriors, and things like baths didn’t exist right now in their world. “The very best!” she agreed happily at her brother, but he ended his sentence with a hay, and a sidelong look. She turned to him expectantly, he always had the very best ideas when he used that voice. “Do I ever!” she agreed, a little too loudly considering he was whispering, and she quickly dropped her voice to match, conspiratorially and curious. “A bad intruder?” she wondered, she needed some Intel so they could fit more efficiently. What did Pyr know? Whatever it was, it was definitely juicy, and was going to be fun. "Speech"

"A bad intruder?" Pyrrhic nodded vigorously. He then leaned back and fixed his sister with a conspiratorial look. He wouldn't make this offer to just anybody. The intruder was bad - really bad. He needed a partner who was strong and brave, and who wouldn't bail because the challenge was dangerous. And boy, was this gonna be dangerous! "Yeah, I'll show you," he whispered back enthusiastically before bounding off. The bad intruder didn't live too from where they were now. Its burrow was literally just a hop, skip and jump away. "There," he said finally as he pointed towards a large hole in the ground. He'd seen the creature once before at a distance when he'd been out walking with his dad. Malleus had called the long-faced, salt n' pepper creature a "bad jerk" or something like that. Pyrrhic had been unimpressed. Although it was as wide as two pups put together, the creature was very short. It had ridiculously tiny legs that made him think he could run circles around it. Still, his father had been very serious when he'd told him to leave it alone. BUT, he'd told him that when he was still quite little. Pyrrhic, in his mind, was almost a grown up now. His dad had even given him the job of guarding the densite so it made sense that he was now big and strong enough to take on the bad jerk. Pyrrhic peeked into the burrow before looking up at his sister. He whispered, "What should we do?"

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Pyrrhic didn’t give her any more information then that, saying he would show her and bounding away. Not to be left behind, she quickly followed suit, mind racing about what he intended to show her. It was going to be good, of that she had no doubt. Excited to face battle beside her brother again, she growled softly beneath her breath, before she caught herself and fell silent. Pyr was being quiet, so she adopted his manner and kept quiet herself. Her brother directed her towards a den, it was kinda small, but the two of them could squeeze into it if they wanted. She sniffed around the edges, curious, and fought a sneeze, tucking her nose under her paw to muffle the sound. “What is is?” she whispered back, she didn’t recognise the scent at all, wasn’t that awesome? it was a new breed of bad guy, and she was so keen to take it on. “Does the den have only one entrance?” she asked next, already considering their approach. “We could wait it out and pounce on it the second it comes out of its den, or we could crawl in there after it. It might be hard to fight in that space tho” she admitted, squinting at the den a little dubiously. Of course, if Pyr suggested they go in there, she would jump in, claws out, ready to fight. "Speech"

"It's a bad jerk," he whispered back. Wait...no, that wasn't right. His dad had pronounced the name differently. Pyrrhic's brow furrowed as he tried to form the word correctly. "No, a bad, umhm, bad..jer. A badger!" he hissed triumphantly. That was it! His dad had called the mean little monster a badger! Pyrrhic considered his sister's propositions. Waiting didn't sound like any fun- maybe the badger was asleep and won't wake up until evening. They'd be waiting all day! As for crawling in after it, Felly was right, it probably would be hard to fight. He frowned, then conceded, "Yeah, I think it would be hard to fight too..." An idea struck him suddenly and he brightened. "What if we bury it instead? Then it will be stuck down there." That seemed like a fitting punishment for trespassing.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fel couldn’t help the slight giggle that escaped her lips. “I ‘unno what a Badger is, but your probably right, It’s a bad jerk” she agreed preferring her brothers more amusing name for the creature, then their fathers classification. The two siblings conferred about the best way of dealing with the bad jerk, and Fel’s eyes light up at her brothers suggestion. ”Yeah Py, thats a great idea!” she agreed. She was already looking around her for the best way of doing this, and any kind of inspiration that would make their idea even better. Then, in a fight of deviousness she would add. “We could mix in some burs and thorns with the dirt, so if it tries to dig its way out, the ground will bite it!” she had had some dealings with burs already so far, annoying little things that stuck to her coat and pricked when she tried to pull them out. "Speech"

Felicity was full of good ideas, it seemed. Pyrrhic nodded enthusiastically. He didn't like burrs either, they got tangled in his fur and stabbed his tongue whenever he tried to bite them out. Hopefully the badger hated them as much as he did. "Yeah, let's do that!" Spying a thorny vine nearby, Pyrrhic seized it -carefully - and tore it free. He then set about lowering the curling, spiny vine into the badger's den. His thinking was that if he laid this big long piece right down the middle of the tunnel the badger would inevitably step on it. The boy crouched down and shimmied closer, determined to push the vine down the tunnel as far as he could, when he locked eyes with the tunnel's owner whose glowering gaze seemed to shine in the darkness. Uh oh. Pyrrhic dropped the vine and gasped, "Felly! It's-" His words turned into an alarmed yelp as the badger charged and he was forced to backpedal.

The two, apparently vicious little kids, would fall to their work with relish. Fal took her cue from her brother, and tore off another of the branches on the vine he had found. At least in the grapevine, vine’s where an easy thing to come by.

Of course, now Pyr was in the way, sticking his little body into the hole so he could get his spikes into a decent spot. She wasn’t expecting Pyr to suddenly jerk in surprise, and her own thorns fell from her mouth as she glanced at her brother. What was wrong?

He yelled out to her, and then suddenly he was back peddling. Fel grabbed a mouthful of rump fur and helped to jank her brother backwards, and out of the hole. Already a growl was growling in her throat, her fur bristling with rage. How dare it! It didn’t matter that the two had been Sabotaging its den. To Fel, it only mattered that it had threatened her brother.