Winter Teeth [solo]

[Rebellion]

Winter sucks.

As night fell and cold became a coat of discomfort to the Draconian, Eros dar Decarabia shivered and thought about how she would rather be back at the inn, tearing into a nice roast leg and downing it with fine wine. Instead, here she was, stuck in the desolation of Scara Brae's wilderness. And a woman in discomfort is not a pleasant woman to be around.

This was true to Rose, and she stalked through the snow with a snarl on her lips. Born and raised in Dheathain, she was unused to this chaotic weather. The cold had been fine at first; she had handled cold before. But the snow storms, the winter ice, the numb skin...she hadn't been prepared for it when she had accepted the bounty at the bulletin board.

As feet clad in icy metal pounded through foot after foot of snow, she grit her teeth and told herself that she could take it, that she had been through worse that this. But to tell the truth, at the moment she could think of nothing that was worse. Every inch of her skin that was exposed screamed in protest at the biting wind, her bones feeling they were burning within the very constraints of her body. Even being cut apart felt preferable to this at the moment, and how she wished she were back within the marshy weather of her home region, where she knew the dangers and climate. There was evil, yes, but at least it was evil she was familiar with.

"Well, ain't this just peachy." Rose muttered through half frozen lips to herself, glaring through the blizzard at the dark shapes that she could only guess were more woods. "Stuck in the middle of a blizzard, of all things. How could things get worse?"

As she stared ahead of her, trying to listen for her prey above the howling wind, one of the dark shapes shifted and, with a low growl and a grunt, began to move and shuffle about. The draconian stilled, her crimson hair like tendrils of flame against the stark white of the woods, as she hissed and drew in her breath. The shape however had already taken notice of Rose's bulky form and sniffed toward her, and above the wind she could hear the whimpers of younglings arisen from their sleep by the winter cruelty.

"Oh, cthara..." Rose swore as her hand darted to the glaive she wore upon her back. "...there's no way my luck's that bad."

With a mighty bellow driven by hunger and desperation, the cave bear and mother of three cubs pounded through the wind and snow towards the armored knight like a dark juggernaut of fur and muscle. Flacks of spit flew from the beast's mouth as snow parted before it in its wake.

Yeah, her luck was that bad.

[Rebellion]

WHUMPF.

Two tons of fangs and fur collided with Rose's comparatively dainty form, and she had barely gathered her wits from the blow when her shoulder struck a tree in mid-air. She spun around, rag doll physics taking over, and the small part of her mind which was still working in the winter cold spouted the small thought that maybe it was a good thing the ground was soft from all the snow. Soft or not, her heavily armored body sailed into it, and the former dragoon's breath was completely knocked out of her.

Spots danced before her vision, and for a second complete abject terror gripped Rose. Her body wasn't responding like it should, and as she sat up and looked around, her imagination also worked against her. Her body sang as she expected the beast to come tearing out of the darkness to finish her off, to rip her limb from limb like some childhood monster story little Dheathains were told to be good. However, as she shakily used her polearm to stand, a roar of frustration from the mother cave bear caused her to realize that while the storm blinded her and dulled her other sense, the bear was likewise affected.

A plan began to knaw at her, but she had to test something first to make sure it would work. So, reaching down, she picked up a good sized rock about the diameter of her fist and bounced it in her armored hand, making an audible "CLANG! CLANG" sound that echoed even past the howling wind. A snort of recognition and hunger once again came from the beast, and looking slightly up and to the west Rose could see that it had thrown her a good distance back down the mountain side. As the bear stumbled forward, trying to find the source of the noise, Rose chucked it at where it sounded like it was and rolled to the side, the snow muffling the noise of her armor.

She was rewarded with a small THUNK and a howl of rage as her missle found its target. Maybe my luck's getting better. She thought with a smirk, then as silently as she could began to stalk the beast, her glaive poised ready in her hands.

For an eternity it seemed to the former dragoon that they continued this little game of cat and mouse, the bear swiping and tearing in its desperation, the woman dodging and hiding, bating her breath as she sought higher ground once more. Twice she came close to having her own head swiped off by the bear's paws, and twice she was glad her luck held and the bear didn't smell or sense her somehow. The game continued until, finally, she could see that the bear was more than a good ten feet below her on the hill.

Finally... Rose set her polearm, and was just about to jump when she felt something small but sharp biting at the back of her exposed calf. Looking down, she saw one of the small cave bear cubs, whimpering as it tried to bite through the muscle and skin. She was about to kill it, but as she looked at it, she saw how pathetic it looked, how weak, how hungry...and how cute. Awwwww.

And then she stabbed it in the face. Justification: with how hungry it was, it was going to die anyways.

And yet, she got an ungodly amount of satisfaction from being able to say that she had stabbed a half starving baby bear in the face. Oh yeah, she felt tough.

However, it turned out that it wasn't the smartest of decisions, for the baby's death cries alterted the mother, who trumpeted in rage at the death of one of her youngling's and turned once again to Rose.

Oh cthara.