"You're such a shit that you can't even confront me like a man, huh," Molaki spat, his ears pinned flat to his skull. He had bared his teeth before the white wolf had a moment to show his intentions.
He didn't need to. Both Saba and Molaki could scent him. He was livid, and hateful.
Asta, of course, couldn't, but she knew something was wrong with this one. Molaki and her new friend were acting far too alarmed, Saba holding her with a vice grip as they backed up.
"What the fuck is happening," Asta asked with bated breath.
"That's his father - his real father," Saba hissed in her ear, then realizing after todays events of meeting Lena, Asta would probably need a larger explanation. "He is not a nice man."
It was like time stood still for Asta as she digested this. How? How could Molaki's biological father be unkind? Hera was sent from the Idols, as far as the doe was concerned. She had no indication that Hera was pressured to mate, though now she realized she was just speculating on that one. Was it true? That Molaki's father was some monster? And with all these Tri laws and meetings, how was he allowed to stay?
[My only son, my best chance of a good heir, had his balls cut off by a pretty witch] The massive white wolf snarled, snapping its jaws.
Molaki was about to yell obscenities at him, but shut his mouth. Asta, and even Saba, didn't know what his idiot father was saying. He didn't need to put the pieces of the puzzle together for them. Quickly, he shifted, melting into a wolf that was nearly identical.
If it was possible, Molaki's wolf was even brighter white, nary a grey hair on his pelt, and he was clearly younger. It wasn't a bad thing in this regard; he wasn't so young that he was lean and lanky. Rather, he was reaching his prime; his coat was glossy, his fathers instead rather dulling. Molaki started to pace, slowly, his muscles taunt, ready to pounce at the offender if he made a move.
[You're just jealous you never found your True Mate] Molaki growled back, spitting. [Not that the Idols would hate a female enough to fate her to a narcissist.]
The elder wolf snorted in disgust.
[I can't talk you out of being the laughing stock of Lyko, can I]
Molaki barked. [Bitter freak.]
Saba wasn't a fool. She was considering her exists, just like Asta was, except she knew Lyko like the back of her hand. She could take the deer back home, where they were very close, but depending on the elder wolf's intentions, she might just be trapping her. Saba felt she could take him, but she also figured Asta might panic and break her skull on a door. She wasn't really sure what went on in between her ears when she got scared, but she had seen wild deer in action, and saw the same glossed expression that was starting to form behind Asta's eyes.
The other option, the one she chose, was to start to back her down towards the town square, where everyone would see what was happening.
But as they creeped backwards as the two wolves postured and insulted each other, Asta whimpered, digging her fingers into Saba's arm.
"What?"
"E-Erest."
It took a second for Saba to register what she meant. Erest? Why would that - oh shit. Right. Saba wasn't on the hunt that brought Asta to Lyko, as it wasn't that practical for the mountain lions to try and pack hunt, so the dynamics were fuzzy to her, but Molaki had filled his friends in on the events. How Erest was the one who was leading and wanted to kill her. How he was one of the most frustrated with the Tri meeting and outcome.
Saba didn't see him right away, but she spun around to see the grey wolf, also in his beast, padding towards them from the town square.
Saba pinned her ears at him, baring her teeth and hissing aggressively. Erest had lost the benefit of the doubt from the stories she heard.
The lioness' assessment was not incorrect. As he was spitting warning growls and hisses at the Second, there was an eruption of snarls behind them from the two family members who had launched themselves at each other. Saba had been overlooked as an official Second, but she was a fellow warrior, hunter, and a confidant to nearly all of them, except for Erest. She was sure she could also take him in a battle, and she wasn't about to regard his status as a Second in this moment.
It happened in a flash. The low warning growls in the brush behind them turned into an all out snarling attack, one body slamming onto the forest floor heavily nearly immediately.
Asta was still in the slow motion internally. One ear was flicked towards Molaki, the other at Erest, and an eye on Saba, who suddenly released her grip around Asta's waist. The doe knew what that meant. Just as Saba leaned towards the left, shifting into her lion, Asta threw herself right, hitting the dirt with fleet footed hooves.
To Saba's horror, Erest didn't lunge for her, but rather the doe, but just like the first time he met the Shadow, he only got the hind end of her, almost tripping her up and skinning her hip, but a lithe mountain lion was on top of him before he could try and get a better grip.
The tawny cougar didn't hold back, sinking her superior canines into the grey wolf, who beat back a yelp, instead snarling while he tried to twist her off of him.
Asta did what she knew how to do; she ran. She didn't know where she should run to, or if she would even be safe. The look that was seen as panic from the predators was just the far off stare of her trying to weigh her options, so before the first hoof fell, she knew who she needed to find.
She WANTED Prim and Hera, but she had no idea where to find them. But she knew where Lena was. She knew the elder didn't hate her.
The doe traveled as fast as her legs would carry her, which brought her into the courtyard faster than Saba or Molaki probably expected. People leapt out of her way, some surprised, some growling and bursting into their beasts themselves, not able to tell it was the one lone deer allowed in the village.
A few even trailed behind her at a wary lope, to see what the hell her intentions were, but it became clear when the deer reached the tailors tent, falling out of her beast still in a run.
"What the hell?!" Lena got of from her stool to meet her, Asta falling into her arms in a panic.
"They're being attacked," Asta panted.
"Lak?"
"Saba and Molaki," she gasped.