Loose ends and the weird week (pride/open)

Even with the seriousness of the situation the life and death of it all it was all Aminta could do to not giggle or outright laugh at the scene. Tibs had always been a fair-weather lion she remembered the slight chill that had settled a few weeks before his and Erick duel. He’d been wearing big fluffy hoodies as if he was in the near artic. And those fluffy slippers he wore after working out as if the merest thought of a chill was the only thing he feared. To see him attempt a grim stoicism in the face of his mortal enemy… a chill. Even warmed up the water never broke forty-five degrees which was damn near scalding in comparison to its usual. The well beneath the property ran deep enough that if one were of a mind and small enough, they could swim down through it and back up into the deepest part of the You.



She knew it was no laughing matter but even with his jaw line visibly shrinking attempting to reknit and somehow failing before their eyes. Which was so unlike the duel where bolstered and balance by Chidera he was nearly invincible. The savagery he unleashed even now a thing other spoke of. The comings and goings of the Pride that had caused them some losses earned and some unavoidable had the myth of him a thing that some of the younger lions espoused to meet and overcome. A lion so resolute no one could dim them or overtake them. Someone who according to the myth grown in the retelling could even stand against the mighty Gates and live to tell the tale. She’d overheard a circle of the boys gathered round telling Jae of the last Rex. And as males prone to dramatics and young boys they built upon the facets they admired. Big, strong, dangerous and a ladies man who was always nice enough to not seem a threat. In short a person so powerful the objet of their desires came to them as if by magic.



She’d never attempt to dampen their hope and fantasies but she’d worked very hard embodying all the virtues they admired. Which meant that she highlighted how much Pepper and Jaedon embodied all the virtues they admired and respected. How through it all over the last few years the Pride the family’s leadership was everything the myths stated they should be. All the while being very little like the physical aspects. It wasn’t as if she could change herself but as a daughter of Spartans there was a certain fierceness about her. She held the mythic within her very blood and yet Jae and to the more honest extent Pep held the very essence of the songs and poems spoken of. The true do and die legendary nature that each of the pride espoused to.



She knew that her weapons of skill were an athleticism true enough but her true skills were softer slyer. All too soon they were on the move to the Venatorious. Each of the Pride who were home all twenty-nine of the Pride old and new who were home plus the seventeen who due her actions was on their way. This was no small thing and hearing the name form their past brought present she in her heart knew this was a death hunt. This would end when he was no longer in the land of the living but she knew, hoped, and prayed he’d if even for but the smallest portion of time find his former self; the self that had stories still being told.



She knew that he would not quietly go into death. That he would try. That he would prove himself the opposite of the actions of his final weeks here with the Pride he’d helped start. The Pride he was supposed to lead with Pep as his Regina a unified front against the dark. The dark of the world and the dark of their own natures. As such she as they strolled into the Holies glanced towards what had become her and Peps tree but stepped at angle form Pep and Jae. She established an attack vector. She knew he would attack that he would rage that for one shining moment he would attempt to once more defeat Erick in all her his strength. He would seek once more to be what they hoped he was.



No sooner had they crossed into the heart of the Venatorious di the attack happen. It was fierce and a blur of action. He moved forward establishing a distance between himself and Jaedon taking the four nearest lions in a blur. The goal clear to shake their faith to break their trust. She was having none of it and neither was Ja or Pep in that same blur they were on him. He pushed at their shield threatening to take their beast to call them forward and deny them reason. Part of him knew that if died before enough of his blood met the ground the debt would still be owed. He wanted them to kill him fast and as such attempted to shock and awe.