ooc: Considering Etern is my character and he's being set inactive, I'm using him a bit in this post. Vereux couldn't believe it, maybe he was just hallucinating like the others, no, Etern was definitely right in front of him. "You are sick Vereux, at your weakest point. What I said was true, I am betraying the armada name because those bastards of family do not deserve a throne in their clutches. And after I am done with you, that sister that you oh so love is next. That way it will be easy to get rid of sendoa and Isardis." The blue man would growl towards the yearling. Vereux wasn't as sick as the others, just hot and irritable and even now his bubbling emotion grew with his bleeding eyes. He growled at his uncle, how dare he, how dare he even think that he deserved to be within the armada family. "Silence you fool, you will not lay a paw on athena, or my father. I should skin you alive for saying and thinking such things!" Vereux snapped at him, as the other raised his hackles to pounce at Vereux. Vereux quickly saw an opening, this man was clearly mentally ill, but he was in no mood for it. Athena meant the world to him, she was his everyone. After everyone left him alone, she had returned and shown him the outmost of affection. He loved her like Isardis loved Sendoa. And that was not a lie. Vereux teeth came to rest upon Etern's scruff, but the blue man snapped at his own chest. Stumbling backwards he snapped again this time at Etern's neck he left exposed. Once his weight slammed into him, Vereux started to tear into his throat until the man was gurgling in his own blood. "Damnit, you stupid boy! I wanted revenge for being left behind!" he gurgled with his last breath. As Vereux raised his head, hoping someone hadn't stumbled upon their commotion to assume that he was culprit of betrayal. Their snarls and howls probably would have drawn someone's attention. Speech,

Finding Vereux's scent anywhere besides Eris's den was not only surprising, but a tad bit alarming. She not only wanted to keep him from infecting anyone else, but she didn't want him to make himself more ill by being out in the frigid winter exerting himself. She immediately abandoned the patrol she had been on to track him down, her silvery paws kicking up snow as she ran. It wouldn't take her long to find him, but as she drew closer she was surprised to catch Etern's scent along with his. It was the strong scent of blood that really made worry sink into her gut. Athena skidded to a stop several feet from her brother, arriving just as he was releasing Etern's throat. Her gaze widened with shock and confusion, not quite believing what she was seeing. She didn't know quite what to believe. Of course, it was obvious that her brother had killed their uncle, but why? "Vereux... What have you done? What happened? she said softly as she padded toward him, finding it hard to take her eyes off Etern's form. She refused to believe that he would do this without a valid reason, she only hoped it was a good one. Speech Thought Others

The boys maw twisted in a disgusted manner, he had killed someone for the first time and it had been a member of the Ramada family. When Athena discovered him a bloody eye twitched. His green eye turned toward her as a paw shaking pulled itself of the body of etern on the base of his neck. A traitor did not deserve respect not when they had threatened the most important thing in his life. Fighting through the heated pain of his disease he took in a deep breath shaking his head. "I want you to trust my words Athena, he was a traitor, he was going to kill me then try to pry the throne from your paws. I couldn't let him hurt you or soil fathers name. We just got the throne back after our mother ran away, I couldn't just have him kill you." he said clearly. Would she not believe him because of this disease? He kept his distance to avoid infecting her. "I.... I love you Athena, like Isradis loves sendoa, I want to be beside you always. I want us to be together, and I've never been so sure about anything in my life. " Vereux mused out, looking straight at the women intensely. Well at his sister at least. "Athena armada I want you, to be my mate" Now might have been the worst time to tell her. But to be honest he didn't know if he was going to live through this dampened disease. Or even if she would believe him as he spewed words of loving her over his uncles dead body. But he hoped, he prayed to the gods if any of them existed. Speech,

Of all the things her brother could have told her as a reason for his actions. It was hard to believe Etern was a traitor, but at the same time it wasn't. She wanted to believe all of her family members would care for her like she did them, but she knew that was sometimes not the case. Besides that, she wanted to believe her brothers words. But could she? She knew the illness had been messing with wolves minds. But, he never seemed to get the worst of the illness... It was a hard debate, but she knew in the end she would put her brother above anyone else. And, in the end, he had protected her with his life and had taken a life to defend her, how could she be ungrateful of that? He went on talking and Athena could only look at him in stunned silence. Love? Mate? She blinked, shocked and unable to speak. Was this something his sickened brain had thought up? Or was this something that had been brewing? Did... Did she feel she same? Of course Vereux held a special place in her heart, above Genesis, above their mother, even above their father. She had thought this was simply because of the time they had spent together, because he was her brother, because of the dedication he had given to her. Of course she loved him, but did she love him? "Vereux..." she said softly, trying to sort out her emotions and her thoughts. She liked logic. Things that made sense, had a cause and effect, things she could control. This wasn't one of them. And yet... "I love you too, Vereux," she heard herself saying. And she did. Dearly. Intensely even. But could she really believe what he was saying? He needed to be cured. If he still felt the same once he was better, well, that would be a different story. "Please go clean up and get back to Eris's den... Please, just do that for me, and stay there. I worry about you wandering around out here like this." she said with a sigh, turning her gaze to their uncle's dead body. "I'll take care of him. We'll... We'll talk later, okay?" Speech Thought

What the hell was he thinking? Was this really the time to be doing this, while standing over the lifeless body of his very own uncle. His eye would widen, and he would shake his head drops of blood falling from his eye because of the disease. The boy knew that this wouldn't be possible to believe, but he knew for certain he was not delirious like the others. He was just, pissed off, unbelievably pissed off at everyone and himself. A deep growl tore into his throat, but then a sigh followed. His emerald eye would pull itself on Athena he looked confused but serious at the same time. "You're right, I'm sorry, I sprung this on you at the wrong time." he grumbled a little before starting towards Eris' den, of course he'd wash up before he got there. "Just....be careful. I touched him and I don't know what I'd do if you got sick..... you mean everything to me." he shut his eye opened it again and flicked his tail off towards the den. Shaking his head and calling himself profound names in the back of his head. Speech,

Athena watched silently as he growled and shook his head, taking his apology with only a flick of her ears as acknowledgment. She managed to give him a nod in agreement to be careful before he turned and stalked away. She sighed when he had finally disappeared into the trees. "I'm sorry too," she whispered to herself. Sometimes she wished she could do things without over analyzing their reasons or their affects, but that wasn't who she was. Maybe by the time they had finally found the cure she would have her emotions in order. At least, she hoped that was the case. She turned her attention back to Etern's body. She hadn't been particularly close to him, but he was still family so his death was a hard one to take. Traitorous or not. She stood there in silence for several moments before she finally forced herself to move. She went to one of the near by pines before beginning to dig at its base. It took a while, but she finally felt like she had opened up a large enough hole for the male to fit in. With a sigh she shook some of the dirt from her fur and padded back over to him, carefully grasping the male's scruff to drag him over to the grave she had dug. She tried her best to touch as little of him as possible, keeping her brother's words in mind. Once he was buried she sighed and looked at the earthen mound in the middle of a field of snow. Soon enough the dirt would settle, snow would cover the patch, and Etern would be a memory. In her heart she knew she had already forgiven Vereux for what he had done, but what would the rest of the family think? Would they find out? She hoped maybe everyone would just think he ran off as many of their family had before, hoped this whole incident would just blow away in the wind. She turned away, heading to wash off the dirt and traces of blood from her pelt and to mull over everything that had just happened. Speech Thought