it was pitch dark in the hours before dawn, an auspicious time to many - the witching hour was one name for it and perhaps there was a tinge of truth to it, but who could say when strange things would turn up, it would be on their own time - no dictation from the superstitious could change that.

The dead air in this time was unusual, an omen perhaps - as silence stretched across the territory that housed this particular band of rogues, a  shadow swept above - with nary a sound to disturb the stretching quiet.

Wings pitch as the sky they glided through - cut like someone had carved it from that very sky - curled and flapped once bracketing and slicing the open air below as the ends trailed into shadowy tendrils and white edged feathering - like a light shined through a small narrow slit.

The beast would have been invisible against the night sky - if it were not for the ghastly red scar crawling up its neck and carved out the left side of its face - a great wound inflicted by something terrible enough to leave such a horrid twisting mark, a mass of shadows and red intricate carvings that were anathema to the world around it, a forever grimace of teeth upon its left side maw - a singular red pupil in contrast to the silver iris set in black opposite to it stared out at the area below as those great wings flared outwards - a second set unfurling behind before the being touched down upon the dark night lit sands with a quiet strange to its large armoured but lithe build.

A rumbling breath hissed between teeth as silver-red glanced around - no one, not yet - the graceful wings shifting up around and back to fold neatly against him, assembling like the draping of a cape across huge armoured shoulders and obscuring most of his form from behind, a singular bladed tail shifting in the sands behind him.

Lucifer was a weary being, he'd travelled Far and he'd seen much - too much one might say, but he was not one to give up and die, to simply cease - no, no matter how world weary, lucifer had never been one to stop striving.

It was what his mother had said was one of his greatest traits

armoured claws twitched and clutched at the sands momentarily at the thought, since regaining his lost memories, these thoughts had been more frequent - and more saddening.

No he would never choose to give them up, not for anything in the world - but it was quite a shaking world view to wake up one day to remember near your entire family was dead and you had nearly been forced - puppeterred, his mind supplied - to kill them, thankfully he had not but the outcome was the same - he had lived, his family had not.

Then there was the family from his prior traveling Under his pseudonym, idly he did wonder where they had all gone - where were they now? were they alive?

Were they happy?

The great dragon shook his head, another breath forced from his lungs in a long sigh as he shifted, settling on the sands - he would wait for a patrol to find him and state his business, he had no desire to shout about it and wake the whole island when a simple quiet discussion with the next patrol would do.

One silver and one red eye tracked the low breeze that shook the tree leaves - the soothing hiss of the tropical leaves a quiet balm to the troubled soul - he'd missed this, missed simply being another in a community and not placed upon some pedestal, wanted for his worth or hunted for his half reviled parentage.

Lucifer sighed, time to wait.

The witching hour, it did something to her senses. Between the dreaded hour, argus' beasts spoke to her- convincing her to hunt. Like a long forgotten memory, she followed along with Obscuro's traits- hunting at night not to eat but to devour. Power thrummed under her paws as she crushed the other's chest, tongue comming to sweep the lingering feeling of the soul slide down the back of her throat. She had little doubt that other's had not seen the romance of this hour's effects on her. Leaving their bodies sprawled open in the jungle until the wildlife dealt with it. Blood stained her maw, her claws and made the color of her eyes only shine more brightly within the starless- lightless eve of dawn.

It was only during the lingering thrum of power, high clearing her senses- sweeping them through the entirety of the clan, that she felt the hush but persistent darkness. So like the wyrm that she glimpsed between worlds- that cooed at her. She felt the mark of the diviner's creation on her shoulder now. Scarless and without a mark- it seared it's presence to the forefront of her mind. The hints of familiarity in it's presence as the presence clawed into her senses. Dark red eyes constricting in the night as her breath stuttered. She knew- she knew him.

It was similar to Killula, in a sense- except it wasn't. This beast was not a person to be trifled with, he did not interest her as much as he frightened her. She remembers her brief time within the riverside, the dark scales- innocent eyes blinking up at her- she had forged the time when he came to realize who she was. She mostly preyed that he wasn't looking for her. It would do her no good to move now- THe typhoon really was such a lovely place. She just got promoted too.

Still, she was brave, if not stupid. And following along the lingering trace of Lucifer. If nothing else, she knew him well enough not to flee into the night at first sight. He was not a Harbinger of death as he liked to play to be. At least not now- not yet. He waited by the border- patient even, she wasn't sure other's would be able to look past the embodiment of darkness standing on the border though.

"You know, I left mostly to escape my mistakes, why is it that they seem to follow me?" She wined lowly, entirely serious but, not expecting an answer as much as she was trying to explain a little before he went for her throat. Ruby eyes locked on the glowing red scar along his maw, and she rubbed at the gaping hole in her chest at the sight. He was large and monstrous, just as she remembered. If only in a different body. She felt a pang of envy, misplaced as it may be. No matter how powerful, how thunderous and while her own power was, the ability to shift- to become a beast that could fly and hurtle fire so naturally as a dragon eluded her. She had no doubt that it would continue to do so if only to spite her.

As much as she would like to rant in tandem with her problems, she held her tongue before Lucifer. Dark eyes lit with the past high of bloodlust and now trepidation. As much as Argus would like to run- to flee this clan there was little doubt that he would follow. If not to demand the answers that he was so insistent on getting before then to just pester her. Remind her that Hecate chose wrong because hecate was dead- they all were. everyone was dead and he was the reminder. He was one of the few that she wished would stay dead if only to escape him.

He was her father in law afterall.

oh he knew the familiar presence he'd sensed here, had felt it respond when likely it detected him - watched and waited as it grew closer and the inevitable - ah, white furred where once was midnight, Hm.

They had not parted on the best of terms - he had lacked all his memories, reborn as he was and had only event,y remembered the trauma of losing his children then - perhaps if he had regained all his memories that age old suspicion and paranoia would not have so caused his younger self then to blame this one.

But as was always, it was hard to look past what true damage was caused - even for a timeless entity.

His silver eye closed - the red could not, forever did it stare from that hideous marring scar, like snarling rictus it was caught in - and the great beast of dark heaved a tired sigh, wings of pure dark dotted by stars unfurling halfway in a brief reflective movement - he had expected that response and perhaps his non aggression would be confusing at first.

But he was so tired

Instead his eye opened and he regarded her with an unreadable look "I couldn't tel, you why, seeing as my own seem to haunt my own footsteps" at least they were only ghosts now, or so he hoped, this world didn't need his father inflicted upon it - his silver white eye blinked and he inclined his head "what name do you go by now?" better to ask it than to drag old ghosts out with older names.

Of course then another appeared and the dark ascendant's attention turned to them whilst whisper - Obscuro - whatever she wished to name herself took time to answer - the dragon shifted, clawed hands eating into the dark moonlit sands as he settled and nodded his head "well met Khaol" he rumbled to the Panther, smooth low drawl a cadence in the quiet evening "Lucifer Grimm - as for why? Simply seeking a home, your name kept coming up in this area and so I sought you out" indeed, he'd quiet like a place to rest, for too long had he decided to distance himself from others since leaving riverside, choosing to simply wander the skies.

It wasn't that Argus had an issue with Lucifer- it was more that he had an issue wither her. She was observant, even when she first met him, she saw the power he held and the power he would easily wield if someone had hurt anything precious to him. Turns out- Argus had done more than kill one of his children- but two. At least from what lessa told him before she dipped out with smoke on her fur.

It wasn't that Argus made a habit of hurting her clanmates. But Argus was well aware that Kanito's disappearance would affect the Grimm, her failure as a parent was marked not only by her son's pale fur stained with red but the slow withdrawal of everything she so carefully built for herself. Her mate, her kids. The first of many to fall. The mark in the spiral down.

Argus sometimes wonders if he has what it took to kill her. Sometimes she had toyed with the thought of indulging his revenge- let him rage against her until she is smeared into the sand of the desert before. But she still hung on to hope, even as she raged and feared, the beast still had hope then. Time changes things, and she has long forgotten her first mate, lucifer's daughter. Had settled with others and mourned them all.

Yes, time was a bitter thing to her now. It mocked her like everything else.

"Argus." The wolf didn't comment on his earlier comment, taking it without flinching unsure if it was a jibe at her or something more simple. "Welcome home, Lucifer Grimm. Maybe this time it'll be under... better terms. "

The dark beast inclined his head to her - Argus now - and hummed solemnly "indeed" perhaps this might be a chance to start over, only time would tell - as it was he was well aware difficult ground would have to be covered but with all he'd regained he felt the weight of those many many centuries and untold eras, he could hold a legendary grudge, true, but there were times where he didn't wish to.

Still the dragon's wings twitched as he moved to stand "is there anything else I should be aware of? Or do I get led back to your camp?" it would be nice to have a home again.

/ugh short