Her life has settled into an easy rhythm—which she finds both relaxing and distasteful all at once.

She has never particularly loved things that are easy. She has never enjoyed letting the rest of her life fall away, leaving her with nothing but the outlines of it, the steps for which she is to follow. It leaves her feeling strangely empty, all of the fight having bled out of her day to day. There is still the pack, and she knows that it is growing. There is her children, and Risk, and she takes enjoyment in them all.

But the peace is disquieting.

Sochi leaves the Cove in the evening, slipping away in her tigress form. She wonders if perhaps she will be able to quench her thirst with the hunt. It has never failed her before, and she feels something like the tendrils of excitement stir in her belly as she pads further and further from the place she rests her head.

When she is near the forest, she almost feels like herself again,

She picks up on the scent of nearby prey and nearly twists to begin following it when she catches sight of something else—something new entirely. It is enough to cause her to pause, enough for her to lift her leg and instead turn to the other side. She moves slowly, cautiously, toward it, her feline eyes narrowing.

“What are you?” she growls into the darkness, trying to figure it out for herself.

she said a war ain't a war before both sides bleed

Sochi has seen plenty of monsters in her lifetime.

She has seen the ones that crawl along their belly on the ground. She has seen the one that have taken to the sky. She has seen the monsters of the deep and the monsters with endless rows of teeth.

She had faced off against all of them and has never once been afraid.

But this—this she has never seen before. It is not fear that she feels but she would be lying if she did not say there was some kind of trepidation. Something that skittered along the back of her neck as though telling her that there was something wrong here, that something bad was going to happen.

That she would be the one to pay the price.

He comes closer and she takes an automatic step back, more instinct than anything, her feline eyes narrowing as he rises, both equine and not. He comes closer and she tries to move away again, but he is everywhere at once, immediately, the vines and the plants pressing into her sides.

“Let me go,” she growls, trying her best to press away from the monstrous child.

She shows her teeth, hoping it will be enough to get him to back away.

she said a war ain't a war before both sides bleed