[Anubis]

A E S T H E T I C       A R T

The ebony jackal-mix was not used to this type of chill in the air. Perhaps in the silence of the desert night, where the stars glistened above for all to see, but in this place he could not even see the clouds above him through the canopy of the trees. No, he certainly missed the heat of the sands, but father had told him of a place where there was nothing but white. A white that sparkled like the stars he often admired - a place where water froze into something called 'ice' that formed structures that only the mind could dream of.

Anubis was a dreamer, and promises of new, exciting lands was enough to bring him here.

Father was a king once, before he came to the desert. He often whispered stories to the jackal-mix when he was but a boy, however jackals were intuitive, cautious and they rarely missed details. Anubis noticed how his sibling, Set, was always sent to his mother instead. There was always another side to the man who played a humble, noble royal - something lurking beneath that Anubis could never quite track down. Osiris wanted something from him, wanted him to be something. Anubis, truthfully, didn't trust his father, no matter how many honeyed words Osiris tried to lure him with.

"Father," He called, announcing his presence as he came up behind the ageing male. The white wolf sat by a cliffs edge, a sea of frost-tipped trees stretched out below him. His father kept his back to him as he continued; "I have scouted the area, and we should leave. I found bloated corpses, dead from disease." Osiris stayed silent, and made no move to leave. Anubis narrowed his eyes, and took a step forward.

"This land is gripped by plague, Father."

[Osiris]

A E S T H E T I C       A R T

This was where it had happened. He remembered standing here, watching as Grimsthorpe crumbled beneath him. As barbarians raided his lands and took his peasants, and as the rest all turned tail and ran from their deity. Cortana's scream still echoed in his ears as he was thrown from this cliff. The stump that was left of his foreleg ached at the memory, and the God-King let out a low growl at the discomfort it brought him.

"Father,"

The only acknowledgement he gave his son was a swivel of one ear. Anubis was scared, Osiris could sense it - it was the first time he had left the desert and embraced the wide open world that awaited him. The white wolf had felt the same way when Asylum had fallen, when all that he knew was nothing but dust behind him. But his presence here now was in Anubis' favour, he had his father to guide him to his destiny.

"This land is gripped by plague, Father."

He turned his head finally, studying the ebony boy with one amber eye. "No need to fear, my son." A twitch of his upper lip then, pupils shrinking slightly. "People are lost when there is no one to guide them. Grimsthorpe has endured much worse than this." He sneered, guiding his gaze back out to the taiga forest that he ruled. He had waited years for this moment, for the reckoning and the rebirth of his kingdom. He would not be a coward just because everyone else was getting sick.

(IT'S WHAT THEY DESERVE, IT IS HIS WRATH).

"I have neglected this place. But we are here now, Anubis, and we will establish our kingdom once more." The other packs squabbled and fought like children, becoming more and more bold as the years went on. He would rise once again before them, a God amongst mortals, and they will learn - lest he crush them beneath his paw like the ants they were.

"This is where I was betrayed. I watched my people scatter like roaches as they dispersed into the forest, I watched these heretics abandon their King - their God. I have learnt from this, Anubis. We will make sure that never happens again. And we begin-" The three-legged wolf stands now, revealing the little grey-speckled child that he had been hiding from his son. He prodded the girl towards the jackal-mix, but he hovered dangerously close. "-By purging our land."

His lips now curled to show dirtied, yellow fangs, in an expression that couldn't be described as a grin or a sneer - it was simply a sheer display of aggression, of dominance, of madness.

"They hide in our kingdom like rats, and we will exterminate them like the pests they are. They turned their backs on their God, and now he has returned to destroy them--"

That crazed look went down to the helpless child - a parasite that he would burn along with the rest of it's filthy family.

"And we start with this one."

[Maeva]

@Frost

Lilac petals still clung to her gray dappled coat, blending in with the array of speckles. They wove within her hair, the loose remains of flower crown now drifting to the snowy dusted earth like teardrops she could not shed.

Maeva had fought — she had fought like her mama had taught her to. But what could a young child do against the wolf — the Wendigo — who knocked her dazed into the frigid ice. And so the girl laid, as quiet and still as the ice coated world around them. A soft hum, nothing more than an airy exhale of breath. The girl whispered to herself, a quiet lullaby — for her words had fallen to deaf ears of her captor.

This was not a battle of strength or words that she could win, for the white wendigo felt none of it nor heard it.

The crush of snow alerted her to the approach of another, and the gray girl’s quiet hum was silenced beneath the white wendigo’s frigid voice. She had known when he had pinned her in place and waited in baited silence. She had known, when his jaws had plucked her from the snow. Maeva had known the minute her gaze had rested upon crazed auburn.

He did not intend to let her go. She had known and had not felt afraid.

But to hear it spoken and confirmed aloud — her youth broke to the surface in that moment, soft features twisting into something distraught and angry and afraid. For there were no flowers here to grow from what they’d leave behind. There was no Sterling to learn something new from her corpse. Only ice. Only a cliff.

Maeva had never dreamed of flying, she knew she couldn’t, and there was so much left to do on the ground.

What a waste — what a waste, the frustration coiled and churned. She wanted her mama and papa.

Gaze of seafoam and plum rose to meet the dark boy’s, lilac petals falling from her loose curls, carried in the wind to drift over the cliff’s ledge. Maeva had no pretty words here. Nothing meaningful and poignant to rise above the aching pleas that desperately wished to escape her. They, too, would be nothing but a waste here. And so she said nothing. Instead, a lulling hum rose from her chest. It quivered and shook, but it was pretty all the same, for Maeva had sung so many other little things to sleep, she could do the same for herself. And perhaps they’d remember it.

This, at least, wouldn’t be a waste.

[Anubis]

A E S T H E T I C       A R T

"No need to fear, my son. People are lost when there is no one to guide them. Grimsthorpe has endured much worse than this."

Anubis couldn't help but huff in disbelief. There were plenty of places he would rather go to than one that was literally riddled with disease and sickness. Father had always considered himself more than mortal, he never kept that belief a secret. But even he had to contend with the limitations of his corporeal form, and this time Osiris did not have the merciful Isis to tend to his problems. Anubis certainly wasn't properly trained in the medical knowledge she held.

"Grimsthorpe can continue to endure, as far as I care. I do not wish to perish from something like this."

"I have neglected this place. But we are here now, Anubis, and we will establish our kingdom once more."

"We have our kingdom." Maat was their home, their life. The obsidian male couldn't help but feel something building up inside him, an anger that had gradually grown, piece by piece, over his upbringing. "Mother is still back home. Set is gone. What point is there in building something new when there is no one by our sides?" A step closer then, lip twitching as he stood up to the God before him.

"This is where I was betrayed. I watched my people scatter like roaches as they dispersed into the forest, I watched these heretics abandon their King - their God. I have learnt from this, Anubis. We will make sure that never happens again. And we begin--By purging our land."

Anubis was ready to continue arguing, but his voice got caught in his throat when the grey girl was revealed to him. He stared at tiny little Maeva with shock, his pupils shrinking in horror. This is wrong, this isnt how this was meant to go. Father was meant to just tell him stories, right? Show him a piece of history and then go back home, back to Set and Mother and-

"They hide in our kingdom like rats, and we will exterminate them like the pests they are. They turned their backs on their God, and now he has returned to destroy them--"

It's just a child, what harm could she do? Why was this necessary? Gods were supposed to be merciful, kind-

"And we start with this one."

The jackal bolted into action before he could even fathom another thought, a sprinting bullet that collided clumsily with the White King, moving them both away from the girl and closer to doom's edge. "RUN!" He barked at her, foolishly taking his eyes off of the mad God that was rambling in sheer anger. "RUN BACK TO YOUR PARENTS, DON'T LOOK B--AAH!" His sentence ended abruptly in a high pitched yelp; he heard the sound of dirty, rotting teeth scraping against gold and a sharp pain coming from his neck.

He backed away, staring at the creature that he called his Father in a mixture of terror and disgust.

(Father tried to kill him, he realises a split second afterwards)

"Stay back." He commands while he's catching his breath. "You're not going to hurt anyone, especially not a child."

He clenches his teeth, swallows heavily as the crippled veteran stalks closer.

"Father-" There is a pleading tone to his voice, a desperation for everything to just go back to normal. To be back in the desert, exploring with his brother; to not be here, coming to terms with the fact that he was now in a kill or be killed situation. He feels his heart beating in his chest, but that anger begins to seep through the fear, taking control as the ebony jackal strengthens his stance; standing boldly and dominantly. That anger strikes out at Osiris as the God King takes another step.

"I won't hesitate to remove your abhorrent filth from this world."

I will be the kind, merciful deity that you turned your back on.