I hold so many small regrets [open, joining]

[Vathmos]

[align=center][div style="text-align: justify; width: 45%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: -1px;"]They exiled her. They didn't want her anymore. Her tribe learned of her blood and they ostracized her. It hurt a small part of her heart- she felt alone and betrayed. It was her only family. She drifted place to place since then, licking her wounds and rolling in the dirt. She smelled horrible- she reeked of mud and blood. There were scabs and bites on her body from where her own tribesmen bit her. Vathmos wanted her friends back, she would settle for anyone. She felt alone and afraid. She needed to find another group, a new tribe. She couldn't stand being alone like this- she felt vulnerable and weak by herself. She had never been alone this long, it been about three weeks since they tried to kill her.

She had stopped at the border, smelling it with some amount of anxiety. Dare she cross it? If was it another hyena tribe, maybe they would accept her, but she would have to hide here too, then. Her species wasn't the kindest. Hyenas rarely interacted with other species, and if they did, it was to steal from them and kill them. Her ears dropped and her tail lowered, trying to identify what this border could be owned by. The smell of the.... her head tilted up. She wasn't sure what kind of surroundings this was, but it was disgusting and overpowering.

Vathmos' lips upturned, assuring herself that no sensible hyena would live here. Maybe she should keep looking.

[RED]

[align=center][div style="text-align:justify;width:55%;font-family:verdana;"]It didn't really matter that Vathmos smelled like dirt, because the whole place had a similar reek to it. The smell of murky, stagnant water, decaying garbage from the distant landfill, and occasionally the stench of a dead animal that got caught in the thick mud like a tar pit permeated the air throughout most of the territory.

The territory wasn't all muck and water - in fact, it seemed to have a mind of its own, flooding out all convenient paths to the border whether it had recently rained or not. Most were left to wade through or take to the treetops. Hellboy was on a familiar path, or what now remained of it, checking the border just as his peers were often tasked during this period of political unrest. It'd be rather unfortunate to stumble upon another corpse or enemy by mistake, and with him being something along the lines of six feet tall at the head without the horns, the job was usually delegated to him. Plus, he always seemed just a second too slow whenever it came down to shouting "not it" first. Just his luck, of course.

Red had begun to walk more like an awkward triped these days - his elongated, mutant hind legs kept him above water most of the time, and he didn't mind a little mud on his stone hand because he couldn't quite feel the thick goop. He kept his good hand free to grab the low-hanging branches above him should he slip, and the vestigial tail helped with balance in times like this. But then again, that was most of the time.

He sees someone at the border and picks up the pace, not because he is alarmed by the unfamiliarity of their face but because he's thankful that it isn't some Pitt member, here to cause more drama. Hell, he was almost glad he came out here, because an uneventful, slow day was worse than the name-and-business routine. At least this gave him something to do.

Red grabs a low-hanging branch overhead and carefully steps over what looks like a deep puddle. It's easy for the first second, and he's about to say something to Vathmos, but when he puts his hoof down and feels for purchase he realizes that there is no ground to stand on. It's a deeper pit, and a wider one, than he guessed. It's almost comical, the dawning shock that crosses his face as he goes down. Knowing him, more of his clanmates will appear at the border soon, and somehow all of Tanglewood will know that he faceplanted before the day was over. He reaches for something - Vathmos, maybe, or another branch that juts from the ground, but it's too late when his balance gives and a splash of swamp water douses him in mud and debris. His whip-like tail curls desperately, sending a spray of watery mud in the opposite direction.

Red staggers a little, clamoring back to his feet. He's soaked now, and equally pissed off, but he supposed this kind of shit was all a part of the job description. When he stands, he offers little more than an awkward half-wave in Vathmos' direction. Maybe she blinked and missed it. Blinked for ten seconds straight, right. You goddamn idiot. You don't belong in a place like this - he cuts off the chastising voice in the back of his head before it can grow legs and kick him in the ass.

"Fuck. Uh," Okay, talk about embarrassing. He brushes away a stray twig that tangled itself in the fur of his chest. "What's up?"

[beatae]

betrayal of your own kind was not a feeling mikolaj was foreign to. while he would rather not dwell on it as it happened decades before, it had helped warp the creature into what he was now. he could not describe exactly what that was even today, but he had learned to live with himself slowly. it was all but instinct and surviving that kept him alive. he kept himself to a strict set of rules to prevent himself from faltering.

no attachments.

do not stay in one place for longer than a year.

go hungry.

feed on the old and sick.

the last rule was why he was even in tanglewood. gradually losing himself to his hunger as if he were some newborn again. being in active civilization curbed him from making that mistake again.

keeping himself busy about the borders of tanglewood made the days go by faster. the hunger melted with the sunsets and sunrises. though, being in the area so often, it was no surprise to come upon a stranger. vathmos was just one of them today.

the creature kept a few meters behind red, watching the hyena quietly.

"SPEECH"

♡♡♡
tags

[Vathmos]

[align=center][div style="text-align: justify; width: 45%; font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt; letter-spacing: -1px;"]Vathmos isn't able to smell the approaching beast- the scent of the environment was too strong for her, overpowering with its musky odor and smelling of death. She did hear however among the bugs, the sound of something moving in the trees, and craned her neck upward, eyes searching for the source. She took a few prehensive steps away from the border, as he beast dropped down and faceplanted before her. A hyena laugh uttered from her throat out of caution. It sounded like a laugh, but it didn't mean she was laughing.
Her eyes wandered him up and down, taking in.... whatever she was looking at. Her lips cringed, showing off her teeth as her eyes continued looking him up and down. "Whowartee arruet yaowpu?" She said, Barkden rolling from her tongue and her face changing from cringe to confusion. Her head tilted, eyes squinted, and lips lowered. They speak Common, apparently.
"I'm..." she takes a moment, forming the words in her head. "I'm Vathmos...." I noetetde ar noetwin fiarmaitliya. "I... don't know where to go."

[trojan g.]

[align=center][div style="bgcolor= black; width: 500px; font-family: georgia;font-size:12px;text-align:justify"]It was unusual for Moth to go to the border of the group, scared of members of the Pitt and scared of bigger creatures such as the ones that were now before her coming to the group simply out of hunger and attacking her. But it seemed calm here, and Mikolaj was here, a face she knew and she trusted, so when she came to the border, instead of padding fully forward like Red was, the female would stop by the one she considered a friend and looking over to Red, face screwing up in confusion. Why was he so dirty? What happened?

Head turned back towards the newcomer and she would listen to the foreign tongue that came from the hyena at first, ears pinning to her head for a moment in confusion before she realized that Mikolaj spoke a different language as well, and it must be something like that, though it didn't sound like the language he spoke. When she began to speak in the same tongue the rest of the animals knew, Moth would think for a moment before speaking. "You could stay here?" She would speak, staying by Mikolaj just in case, "This place is Tanglewood, and it's our home, a-and it could be yours too. My name's Moth." She would offer a friendly smile after saying the words she had.