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"Rose, remember that Guard duty is yours tonight; that means no slacking off, no drinking, and because you're the priestess's daughter you're exempt from your duties."

"Yeah yeah yeah, I've heard it all before. Now which one of you pelts has my bow. I've got Guard duty tonight." She mocked as her body lurched up from her seated position around the camp-fire. Her eyes scanned the immediate area before she wandered off back towards her tent.

"Guard duty... brilliant. Here I am, the one being guarded, and yet here I also am defending their worthless hides. What kind of sick joke is that.." Rose hissed aloud as she swatted her tent's slightly parted entrance flap aside, ducking her head beneath the apex of the structure before scanning once again for her bow. "Perfect. There you are, CM." She whispered in a now hushed tone, a small smirk crossing her charcoal lips.

An almost imperceptible hissing sound trailed off into silence inside the tent as Rose's hand wrapped around the bow's tailored grip, the sound akin to that of water hitting fresh coals as her other hand grasped at the strap of her back quiver, slinging it over her shoulder before having the strap settle across her scantily clad bosom. The bow was a gift - from her mother no less - but its origins were shrouded in mystery. The bow was said to have been found by their native clan deep inside the depths of a nearby temple - its origins or creation unknown. The bow was also said to have been made by their clan, using the tools found inside the temple. No one could tell her what the real story was because it seemed as though everyone believed the next person's version to be absolutely true - whilst also believing their own version to also be true all the same. One thing the clan always agreed on though is that the bow would never belong to anyone that it did not want to belong to. CM - getting its namesake from gilded lettering on the lower limb - was an extremely fickle weapon to behold.

Rose lifted herself from her hunched position before turning around, almost colliding with one of her hyaenidae bodyguards.

"Watch where you're going, girly; wouldn't want anything to happen to you whilst we're out here. I wouldn't see a single gold coin otherwise." He taunted as a wry smirk crossed his chestnut and walnut features.

"Well if that's the case, you'd better learn how to do your job then - and fast, by the looks of things." She retorted before passing the rude male.

"Watch your mouth, dog. Just because your mother wants to see you home safe, doesn't mean you'll be arriving home with a smile."

"And here I was thinking I was going to be entertained and well fed on our little jaunt through the countryside. Out of my way, beast: I've an actual job to do." She sneered before turning her head away - just as her arm was grasped at the bicep.

"A Priestess's daughter, coddled from birth, clutching an old stick and string and a dagger of stone, thinks she can do our work? Let's just wait and see what happens tonight now, shall we?" He threatened in rhetoric before tossing her arm away from him, laughing raucously as he walked away from her.

"What could he have meant by that?" She thought. "They're here to see me home aren't they? To get me back to my dear sweet mother... right?"

Rose pondered that question as she trod through the dying autumn leaves and twigs, her wolven ears snapping this way and that as the various sounds underfoot echoed off of thick elms and oaks around her. Let's just wait and see what happens tonight, shall we? The thought was cyclical and inescapable; they were here to guide her home... but did they have other things in mind?

The camp being nestled within a semicircular halfmoon recess in the ground made it hidden, but not easily defendable in case of a bandit attack. Nonetheless, upon reaching the crest of the short cliff-face that overlooked the recess, Rose took a seat upon a felled log before readying an arrow upon CM, unsheathing her flintstone dagger too for good measure - just to be on the safe side. Rose had done guardwork in her time outside the grand longhouse of her clan before, daring to venture to a neighbouring village under the guise of a mercenary - just to break up the mundane day to day of being royal blood; she could defend herself, but tonight would be a different story.

Rose's eyes became heavy over time as a full moon passed overhead, its brilliant white light bathing the surrounding area in a soft feigned-daylight glow. She always loved to sneak out on nights like these, nights where she could pad through the meadows and forests surrounding the enclave without lamp or torchlight, just her and her thoughts alone, with the moon's gentle and showering light guiding her way. She took a soft slow inhale before exhaling in a similar way, finding herself almost as relaxed as she would be in the volcanic rock pools near the southern coast. Her thoughts were void, yet her eyes were alive - glittering and glinting with moon-beams and star-shine as something in her peripherals caught her attention; ascending the hill appeared to be a humanoid shape, too bulky to be the bandits of the northern regions. Realisation hit her like an arrow.

Rose's thighs and calves engaged by instinct, pushing her from the rested log, propelling her at least fifteen feet back before she darted under the cover of oaken canopies with bow in hand.

"Rather late for a night stroll, donkey..." She thought to herself as the blacks of her eyes turned to daggers. But as she crouched against the trunk of the tree she found shelter against - bow drawn fully - the scatter of leaves behind her brought another realisation to mind: her dagger was on her lap where she was sitting.

"A mere she-wolf like you, hoping to do our work? A dog acting now as a would-be assassin? You should really take stock of both yourself and your equipment, Rose." The voice warned before the sound of breaking leaves and sticks became louder and louder.

"And what of you, Guard? How exactly is sneaking - trying to, at most really - within the realms of your job description." She hissed as she sprang back, somersaulting over herself to take hold of her lost dagger before landing right against her assailant's company - a pair of thick arms surrounding her ribcage and her abdomen, their strength disarming her of both of her weapons.

"I was told to bring you home safely, but... these are dangerous woods Rose, there's no telling what animals could have gotten to you first." He said as he continued onwards, coming closer and closer, until his fur and facial features came to light by the moon's grace. "Though I'm sure this was a worry that would have sat in the back of your dear old mother's and father's mind anyway. A shame really, I don't think your pitiful tribe will recover from this loss. Oh well."

Rose felt those arms wrap around her all the more as the moon's light caught the reflective sheen of formed steel, but in that steel, the moon started to redshift: A blood moon was starting to take hold.

"Oh, they'll suffer a loss alright... but men... can be... REPLACED."

No matter how strong the hyena holding her thought he was, his arms began to shake, and his strength began to waver as the she-wolves arms pushed out against them. Rose's once emerald eyes begin to turn orange before shifting red - just like the moon above.

"Sir, I... there's nothing I can do! She's-"

The distinct sound of leather and flesh tearing and bones crunching and snapping began to fill the air as a low rumble echoed off the thick trunks surrounding the few souls. The lead guard had brought a pair of men with him, having them hidden nearby, but since the moon began to shift, they were nowhere to be seen.

"Men! To arms!" He shouted now to himself, with conviction in his voice to portray his allies' numbers; but as a rush of black fur approached him, a flash of onyx black claws coming cleaving across, that conviction soon turned to pure fear, before...

As the sun began to rise, its beams of light greeted the inhabitants of the wolven enclave as they left their homes - beginning their days as they began them usually. Most of them stopped though, at least, the ones that resided along the thoroughfare from the main gate along to the grand longhouse. Whispers began to scatter across the street from gathering crowds, like the snowflakes that softly fell from the clouds above, some coming to rest on rooftops and veiled canid heads, others coming to rest upon a singular trail of blood that had soaked into the dirt pathway; this trail followed a single soul like a deathly wedding dress's train, a soul with a coat of darkness, adorned with bloody crescent moon markings that weren't there before. Their unsheathed claws dripped droplets of crimson life energy either side of their wake and they made their way up the path and steps to meet a single family stunned fully to silence - their shuddering breaths showing them not to be statues as she approached.

"We have been betrayed, mother, father. Those who were sent to retrieve me tried to murder me... but something... got to them... first."

Her words trailed off as sunlight hit Rose's condensed breath, her fathers arms outstretched, catching Rose's weakened form as her mother's hands rose to cover her mouth.

"Are you bleeding Rose? Are you hurt?" He asked - he begged - clutching her closely as blood soaked into his clothing.

"Heh heh heh... not... my... blood." She said as a scrap of hyena fur - as well as her consciousness - finally slipped from her grasp.