and a partridge in a pear tree - treespasser

[wormwood.]

i was born, on the highway, in a train wreck

with a heart, that was beating, out of my chest

On some level, in the back of his mind, Aurum knew that what he was doing was pretty morally questionable. After all, it didn't seem as if Astiar had control of – or any, really – his mental facilities, and if the lion had been in a better place, he might've hesitated in his attack, or been reminded of Ament. However, none of these things were true right now. Not only had the Tanglewood just finished a war with the Pitt, but this was the bastard that had kidnapped his son, which meant he felt no sympathy for the unthinking but dragon as his teeth found purchase, crunching against carapace in a satisfying way. He really should've known the creature wouldn't like fire, considering the fact that the dragon was here for trees, which hardly thrived under fiery conditions. As lava spewed forth from his mouth and seared against Astiar's hard outsides and soft insides, the guardsman felt a grin of triumph spread over his face, his tail lashing as he dug down harder. However, Astiar seemed to realize that something was very very wrong, and began to flail wildly, throwing Aurum from his purchase. The lion barely managed to avoid colliding with the ground by giving a few strong flaps of his wings, his breath coming out in large pants as he focused one narrowed eye on the cicada beast. Lava was still flowing in thick droplets from his mouth and roasting the ground, making itself known with gruesome sizzling bubbles. Aurum's one good eye was still full of fury, stood protectively in front of his son and the rest of the Tanglewood territory behind him. Even if this hadn't involved a personal grudge with the involvement of Roy's kidnapping, Aurum still would've been pissed off by a Pittian walking onto the territory and thinking he could just go freely bulldozing down whatever trees he wanted.

As Astiar began to chatter and shout, screeching in submission, Aurum didn't feel any sort of satisfaction. Deep down he knew that the creature couldn't truly understand his orders, so he decided that he would have to drive Astiar back with actions instead. With lava still pouring out, Aurum rushed forward, swiping his sharp claws at Astiar's front and spitting lava at his feet to attempt to move him backward. He pointedly tried to shove the male back towards the Pitt's territory in order to make his point known, shouting as his wings stood up to make him seem larger, "Away! Away, you horrible giant beast! Go back to where you belong!" He didn't want to kill Astiar, not so soon after he had already done the gruesome action of killing Kydobi, but that didn't mean he wouldn't if he needed to. His ability to sympathize with any Pittians had melted away many weeks ago, hell, many months ago, when he had been betrayed over and over again by his attempts to think that perhaps they could be people. It was the reason that he didn't feel that much remorse over killing Kydobi – he still believed what he had done was right, even if it had been vicious and messy. This was just as vicious and messy, but it didn't have to end the same way, nor did Aurum particularly want his son to have to witness his father killing someone. It had already been bad enough to have others at the raid to witness him killing Kydobi, or when he had almost killed Roman and had to deal with Moth being so nearby, right on the verge of witnessing her big brother acting upon his ruthless urges. It was honestly pretty damn lucky for Astiar that Aurum wasn't stuck inside his hellhound form anymore, since if he had been, there would've been absolutely no impulse control to stop him from immediately going for vital organs to attack.

Perhaps one day there would be a time where Aurum could interact with Pittians without some type of anger immediately gripping him coldly, but that certainly wouldn't be a day anytime soon. Despite the fact that Goldie was now in charge, the guardsman didn't believe for a second that they would suddenly become a bunch of goody two shoes who never hurt anyone. Besides, even if that did happen, Aurum was fairly sure he could never forgive someone who had kidnapped his son, the young tiger meaning more to him than anyone else in the world. Even if Astiar hadn't had the mental capacity to necessarily deal with what he had done, he had still done it, and it wasn't as if the cicada dragon could apologize for it, given his inability to truly speak. Nowadays, the lion could really see why Leroy had gotten so pissed off about Draekon back in the day, considering that the two situations were quite similar, and Aurum was forced to look at it from a new perspective – not that he felt any sympathy for the Draekon side of things anymore, considering what had happened with that.

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