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Lead-filled were the footfalls of the Titaness; heavy, splaying deep into the earth that began to sulk beneath the constant rain. Deliberately leaving her trail of evidence. She wanted them to know she prowled here, and unsatisfied this sufficed, Maeve would bathe the already sodden tree trunks with her own scent, every now and then throwing the length of her tail half-heartedly skyward, it bowing under the weight and length, and giving each a small spritz of her perfume. 

Drenched as she was, her vision would not be obscured by the untiring rains, and there ahead she spotted the skewbald wolf. As quickly as they were apparent, she slipped to the ground, predacious. The short cat detoured into the longer grasses, hiding herself and watching the wolf's movements with a scrupulous eye.

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She should have stayed tucked away in the den, all snug and warm when the light rain had started to drizzle from the sky. Hindsight was 20/20, after all. She had slipped from the den with restless legs, a sensation of anxiety curdling in her belly. The Grove gave her comfort, it's beauty and it's warmth was part of their home. Perhaps once she had walked a little, she might lose the restlessness she felt and could nap, the taste of her berry snack on her tongue.

Keres' back grew lightly wet with the drizzle, tail tucked neatly against her flank as she moved. She would have missed it had it not been fresh, fresh and mixed with the rain and embedded in the bark. Had it been many other things, the rain would have washed it away. This was... hard to wash away. The scent of feline, forced against the bark and in the air, fresh and putrid. Keres swallowed as she stilled, ears splaying to cup her skull as she looked around nervously, the image of distress. ^^

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Her eyes couldn't deny her the uncertain wolf up ahead, watching them slowly anticipate they were not alone, seeing the anxiety shimmer in those pretty sky eyes. Maeve brushed against the undergrowth, crawling through the grasses agonisingly slow, moving while her body thrummed with vibrations as she emitted low-pitched grumbles and hisses. The rattling of trees and cascading rains would disorientate them, distracting where her calls goaded from. 

Her voice would be an echo of hallucination had it not been for the detection of her scent-marking. The growls thickened and lengthened, building into a crescendo before she fell into a hush, temporarily gauging whether the wolf was to engage in either fight or flight with her taunts.

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The sounds of the feline hit her like a wave of cold water, making her shiver and quake. They were mixed with the sounds of the trees and leaves, making Keres wholly unaware of where their actual location was. Her baby blue gaze lifted to the canopies, her throat bobbing as she swallowed before another rustle made her jump, gaze quickly going to the left as she tried to find the source. 

It didn't help that suddenly, the world hushed aside from the breeze. No longer did the intimidating sounds touch her ears and Keres nearly whimpered; that was worse. She scuffed her paw upon the Earth as she swallowed, making herself look even smaller by shrinking away from the world. "H-hello," the little maiden called carefully, "are you... are you all right?" Keres called, still not sure where she was supposed to be looking.

Keres couldn't stand the thought that came to mind then, the possibility of it ending here and she wouldn't see Sindre again. She would have snuggled into his larger frame longer had she known her life would end today, she would have... Gods, she would have forgone her terror and her anxiety and told him that he was her most favourite creature to have ever walked the earth and her heart beat in desire for his own. Oh, he would feel guilt for this, wouldn't he? He would blame himself for not being at her side and Keres felt awful then, worry for him and how he would likely let himself spiral with guilt.

Oh, oh she couldn't die here! ^^

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She kept quiet, lulling the impulse to resume her goads, of her wrath and loathing for the mutts that seemed to be on the increase, as of late, in areas she assumed to be her home. Eyes utterly homed in and focused upon her decided prey, she could spot their weakness, and the rain couldn't distract her from the untold fear either. 

Maeve cared little for their words portraying to be the white flag of surrender.
Her tail was irritable, jostling behind her restlessly, and she felt her abdomen coil in, rearing inwards ready to propel forward. 

She let the quiet linger, awaiting for that precise moment the wolf would sweep their head in the opposite direction as they sought out the antagoniser. And when they did-- she took her victorious moment. 

Lunging forth amidst the grasses, she was the personification of fury. Her mouth was agape, lips peeled back with the preparation of success. Her ears flattened deep into the sides of her round, bull-head. Everything roared with anger as she was quick to engage side-on with the wolf's right side, launching herself out of the depths of the pasture and across the lost girl's face, she wanted to leave her sting on them. 

Colliding with the wolf, she would aim to puncture their cheek, clamping down hard, searing her teeth into her plump flesh. With their teeth away from her, and her clinging on with claws wrapped around their shoulder and neck, she would wrestle them to the ground, trying to place her weight into them so that she would prevail on top.

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She hadn't seen them coming. Despite trying to scope out the source within the foliage, Keres had failed and now she was paying for it. Pain engulfed her as the feline did, teeth breaking through fur and skin to embed themselves without hesitation and thick legs clutched around Keres' neck and shoulders, claws digging into her. Her scream was loud and it hurt her throat as it left her, a sound of terror and pain in one. The maiden's legs were like jelly, her body fearful as she buckled beneath the felines weight.

Keres went down, wrestled beneath the body of the feline and she knew she was stuck, stuck on how to act. Fear clutched at her, causing her to be frozen beneath the mass of feline warmth that only served to chill her to the bone. Her skin stung painfully from the way teeth and claws alike drew blood, opening her skin so easily. She sobbed then, the sound stuck in her throat moments before but it released as she saw a familiar eye in her mind. Sindre.

She was going to die here and he was going to be left alone, likely to find her corpse once he came searching for her when she did not return home as she always did. Would he find her, half eaten? Or would he not find her at all, the feline taking her prize with her, wherever she called home. "Please," she wobbled, knowing that struggling too much with teeth in her cheek would only make it worse, so she tried to use her hind legs to encourage the feline off. That was something, wasn't it?

That was a little fight.

He could be proud of her for that, couldn't he?

She didn't care how pathetic it sounded to beg, she would do anything to get back to him alive.

Keres couldn't help the memories that plagued her then, breaking through her pain and her fear. She had been like this before, trapped beneath someone who sought to cause her pain. They had done it over and over, in payment for any time her siblings might have stepped out of line. Payment for her breathing wrong. Or just to remind her that she truly had no control over her own body, her life. That had been before Sindre, of course, yet it unlocked those memories with a sledgehammer.

She cried, nearly writhing beneath the beast.^^

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They tumbled, with the feline sucked and latched onto her victim. She felt that rush of succeeding, knowing she gained the upper hand before the wolf was able to muster a counter-attack. These mutts were always so inferior, so pathetic with their thought processes, and that is why she believed they did not deserve to live around her so long as her cold, obnoxious heart drummed in her chest. And this one was the embodiment of the most piteous and feeble - beneath her, trembling, quaking with fear. 

Their hind legs missing her body, another reason these hounds were lesser than she, they had zero to no flexibility. It was when they spoke, did Maeve unlatch from the now oozing punctured marks that would undoubtedly tattoo the side of their face for a few months. In one smooth motion of pulling her fangs from the flesh, she filled her lungs with air and with quick succession exhaled a hiss that broke off with a pitch-perfect growl menacingly into the wolf's lobe, hoping to implant that terrifying and haunting creature that would forever echo within their mind for the rest of their lives. 

Maeve knew where one lived, another lurked, or several as she had witnessed in her previous years, and therefore rarely would she slaughter. She only desires to inflict mental scarring as well as temporary wounds to instil a fear of the feline. So should she want to stake her claim in the woods nearby or step upon a fresh kill, they would scarper at the sight of the heralding halos along her grey body. 

With that, she started to move away from the frozen wolf, slapping her paw with extended claws upon their face to keep them down, scraping agonisingly slowly across their muzzle and cheek while backing away slowly, releasing them. They were blooded and bruised on their face, and Maeve was done with them and their whimpering.

Backed away and behind the wolf, her body was low to the ground, her tail whipping aggressively behind her, and her ears still flapped and merged at the top of her skull. She was ready if they were to fight back, but what she longed for was to see them flee and turn tail from her sight.

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When their teeth slid from her flesh, the touch of air was cold and warm all at once. Keres shivered beneath them, the only thing keeping her from feeling the full extent of the earth-shaking pain was her adrenaline coursing through her veins. Beneath the vicious feline did the maiden lay, kept at bay by pain and terror. Their claws kissed her painfully, caressing her flesh with the promise of remembrance. Keres couldn't see properly, her tears blurring her vision as she quivered and found @Sindre's name dropping from her lips like a prayer.

She was sorry, so very sorry -- she shouldn't have gotten so confident. She wouldn't have been here, feline food, had she been more careful.

Keres whimpered and her teeth chattered as she quivered, their growl hissing in her ear purposefully and she shrunk against the grass, wishing the ground would open up and swallow them both whole. The threat was there, the promise too and Keres couldn't help but cry, the pain in her cheek rough and stinging. She could smell the sharp tang of her own blood, engulfed within her nostrils as well as the threatening scent of the feline. It all but drowned her.

She hadn't anticipated it, their paw coming to slap down on her already punctured cheek with the touch of pad and claw all at once. The maiden couldn't help but scream, short and pained as she slapped her own paws against the ground in shock and hurt. Their claw scraped down her cheek and muzzle, slicing the flesh in it's wake and she felt the way the blood trickled from the opening. The feline moved from her, releasing her from her torture as she hunkered down on the grass and watched her.

Keres gathered herself on shaking limbs, blood and tears mixing into one as she felt something kick in. It was her fight or flight and for the first time, Keres felt herself get pulled into action. Despite the way she couldn't see from tears and the way her throat opened and closed in faux suffocation, she stumbled away. She scrambled and stumbled, fighting to keep her balance as the shock of it began to wear off. All she could do was run aimlessly from the feline and hope to the gods she didn't seek a chase. ^^

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