In Dire Straits

Deadline: October 24th
Participation: those who participated in the war but are rankles, also if you want to welcome them home you are more than welcomed to do that too
Who: Everyone, all ranks, all ages
When: Takes place after the war, so many misfits that came with them to Alteron can join too

If you were in the war and you had a thread, could you please post it with your posts? It’ll help me with the rewards!

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She’d explained why they’d leave, why they had left, and why they were coming home.

She explained that they had done well, her volunteers, and she’d hoped they’d had fun in her own little way.

She told them they’d won with all the pride of a mother witnessing her child’s first achievements and that had been true. They came. They devoured. They left. Marking that isle with flesh and blood and making a name for themselves in the realm of the powers-that-were. She’d been serious when she’d started her games. Eager to prove her worth to the collective and in return they had performed admirably.

So, once they’d trekked home with the scent of smoke in their pelts and their bones torn from the unfortunate (among other little rewards they’d gained) she allowed bid them to come to her. She was not that selfish, to leave them without purpose in the new world order.

One tightly bound to her, of course.

“Oy,” She wuffed, to call them. She’d allowed them some much needed rest and to put away their hoards, but now, at the court of the log, stretched out as she fiddled with the pirate-won rosary around her neck, she thought it only proper to bless them.

“Come’ere ‘n look at these scoundrels.” she wheezed, right before she gave a snort that peeled off into good-natured laughter.

She was in a great mood, a bit of havoc would cause that every time.

“All of my brave friends do line up, please, and tell me what you’ve done ‘n iffin you remember, who you’d dunit to.”

So, she can put them to work appropriately.

The first to approach was her granddaughter, a child born of Atlas and Orc, nearly grown. She’d give a roll of her shoulders, a shrug of playful attitude, before she cast her gaze out toward some other figures, ones that began to hobble closer.

“Why, I reckon’ they are right ‘ere.” She drawled, right before she lifted a paw and pointed toward Sarissa, “ ‘n right ‘ere too.”

Then she pointed to herself, “I, of course, am a Lady.”

The worst sort, to be honest, but it doesn’t stop her from barking out a laugh at her own assessment. A Lady. A Dragon. A Lord. It didn’t matter what she was called in the end, so long as she remained the one in power.

So, she settled in to listen to Sarissa speak, curious as to the accomplishments of a youth, but not all that worried. She’d made sure to allow their parental figures to make the decision on whether they made their children march. So long as they remained alive, all was well, and that seemed to be the case.

So, the child and her sister, the one with the strange expressions—Azuhel would never forget some of the looks she’d received when she’d found her on the border—had wandered away from their designated space? She’d give a slight ‘tsk’ at that but otherwise didn’t interrupt. They seemed well enough—

But her jolly expression faltered at the idea, the very thought that a creature within her possession had been near one of them, the great three. Nostrils flared and she gave a tilted head, patient as she waited for the child to finish her thoughts, as she watched Orc grow leery in the background at his daughters misplacement. Perhaps, she didn’t realize just how dangerous those folk had been. Perhaps, they were to young to understand the real reasons they had marched against them. Maybe, she’d have some time to explain.

“Interestin’,” she started, one paw over the other as she tried to collect her thoughts, as she pushed past the haunting screech of barreling bodies and the phantom scent of burning flesh. Alteron had not been privy to the nature of the valley, but she had.

Changing that perception seemed… important now.

“The wolves we consumed. Their lives that we snuffed. All for very good reason,” she murmured, “we don’t tend to march without purpose. We conquer. We control. This time, Sarissa, we marched for a friend against a common enemy, which is why I asked our wolves if they would like to join. Those wolves, the horrid filthy creatures think themselves better than you, than all of us.”

She gave Sarissa a solemn look, “I’m surprised you’re alive. They, those lesser gods, were known to tear into flesh and scatter bone. They are different than us. They lack a certain… substance. A rightness.”

She chuckled wistfully, the irony of her lecture not lost upon her, “Pretty though she may be, she could have taken you, tore off your little cute legs and kept your eyes. Monsters, the lot of them. Most of them deserve to be burned… such a shame you weren’t big enough to do it.”

“Maybe, one day, I’ll tell the whole lot of you the story of their… wickedness.” She snapped her teeth a bit, tested the word on her tongue, before she shook her head, “But for now maybe we can put that wayward energy of yours to purpose. Since, you are alive, spared by a pretty muddy wretch, eh? You’ll report to Shatter now, as one of her officers and keep us all safe, won’t you?”

Shatter could sort out what sect the girl was best for, but Azuhel already had an idea of it.

Then Anzu arrived, barely functional—why hadn’t this girl been attended to on the way home?

She spoke of the monsters while Azuhel frowned. She hoped that this… vision, would be enough to get it into Sarissa that she’d been incredibly lucky.

“You,” her voice is soft, almost motherly, if not for the… oddness of her accented tone, “to the Alchemist. Get patched up and then stay there and learn how to patch up others.”

And yourself, Azuhel wearily thought, so you don’t spill blood all over her empire.

Then the last one arrived, as red and unwashed as the others, but crimson coating had never bothered her so long as it didn’t drip drip drip. They spoke of others but not themselves.

“I see.” Bastion, the boy, Cuff’s bastard. Well, he had already been given purpose after the raids… or maybe that was the other one, Zach?

And Lynx… Well…

“And you?”

What had this wolf done?