[SpringsSong]

Tali was sick of this.

She felt like she had reached the end of her rope, to be honest.  Seth was really the only one that was still around consistently enough to hear her soft cries in the night, and he was there to dry her tears from time to time, but she knew that she could not rely on him, or Aeragorn, or Tasera (who seemed to have escaped her D'ni calling for the time being), or any of her numerous children for too long.

She had to be strong.

She was still a Darkpaw.  All of the children of her bloodline were Darkpaw.  That would never change; not so long as she was alive and kicking.  No matter how many more scars she would obtain, no matter how hard she had to fight for a spit of land to try and establish the pack on; as long as Taliña Lanwë had breath in her body, she would make sure that her pack had a place to live.

She would fight no matter what.

She had fled the pack's grounds in Idalani; this time, for the last time.  It was time for Darkpaw to start again, and if Darkpaw was going to start over, then they were going to start over somewhere different.  She was in her human form for now, her dress seeming too elegant for rain forest travel, but it was evident that she cared not.  The brown feather that was tucked behind her right ear stood out against her black and blue hair, but she didn't mind it.  The feather, like the bandana she wore on her forearm, were important to her, and she would never let them disappear.

"This will do," she said as she came to a clearing where a cave stood, nodding.  "This will do nicely."

[90.8]

[SpringsSong]

The dark-skinned male hadn't been following the female too closely, but once he had noticed her (which, considering her attire, it would have been near impossible for her to escape any sort of attention), he had kept a safe distance behind her and was following as close as he dared.  He was curious about why someone wearing any sort of dress would dare enter the rain forest--and his eyes had not been blind to the bandana on her arm or the feather in her hair.

If one thing could be said about this man, it was that he was mysterious beyond mystery.  Some had seen him in his Lucain form, but that was only a few people--those that were lucky enough to see him in more than just a fleeting glimpse.  He was rarely in the same place for too long, so people couldn't see that it was him if they noticed him.

When he saw her stop, he was curious.  He heard her speak, and then, he was ever more curious--and confused.  He didn't understand what was happening; why she was stopping in this clearing, nor why she was walking around it, examining every little rock.  It did not, however, take him all that long to realize that, when she said, "this will do nicely" she was talking about this place as some sort of camp.

Without so much as a second thought, he shifted into his Lucain form, his icy-blue eyes piercing through the foliage as he crept closer to her.

[9.0]

[SpringsSong]

Taliña gave a slight nod of approval as she looked around the site again, pacing about it for a few moments before she turned her attentions to the cave there.  Her eyes were alight with a grin as she quickly gathered some berries and took a bowl out of the backpack she had with her, mixing the dark-pigmented berries until they created a dye.  Carefully, Taliña let her right hand turn into a paw and dipped her paw into the dye and pressed it against the rock.  When she pulled it back, there was a neat, almost-black pawprint with extended claws left in its place.

"There," she said, giving a slight nod as she took fully to her Lucain form, picking up the bowl in her maw and carrying it to the river that was not even forty paces from the cave.  "The first mark of Darkpaw is upon the cave.  Now, all that remains to be seen is if Seth, Nâtha, and Tasera will come and leave their marks on the cave as well."

Here, however, is when Tali became accutely aware that she was not alone.  An unfamiliar scent had reached her nose, and she could only snarl one thing in her mind as it registered: another male Lucain.  He was hiding in the brush, no doubt; waiting to strike at her and doubtless waiting to claim that she was infringing on his territory.  She had checked for scent markers; if there were any, then they were so old that they had faded.

"I know you're there," she snarled in a commanding voice.

[91.0]

[SpringsSong]

Ah, so this female was no mere show-Lucain.  In fact, she was actually starting to appear as quite the alpha female to Lóran.  Some would argue a little too much like an alpha female, but he figured that this portion of the female; this commanding air and this overconfidence, as he saw it.  All females had their breaking points, the way he figured it.

Then she spoke.

She must have a really accute sense of smell if she's already picked up on my scent, he thought to himself as he remained pressed low to the ground, his only response to her comment a low snarl.  However, as he did this, he weighed the consequences of his actions in his mind.  If he appeared as a threat to this female, then she could easily take him on and make him regret his actions.  Just because she was a female didn't mean she couldn't fight, and he could recognize the feather tucked behind her ear as that of a Wood Garudor.

Some sort of trophy, no doubt, he thought to himself as he slowly rose to his feet, his pelt sparkling like a pitch-black sky with no clouds, but slightly marred by the sharp, purple Dweller.  His wingblades were a soft gray color, and his eyes were a piercing blue...

...just like hers.

"You're not exactly subtle yourself, milady," he said in a clipped voice.  "Wearing a necklace with that kind of a gemstone that catches light so beautifully, wearing a sundress, and that feather... not to mention your war colors.  You'd think that those were things you'd be afraid to lose in a rain forest."

[9.2]

[SpringsSong]

"Not subtle, my good sir?  Honestly, who do you think you are?" she snapped, glaring at the male.  "And what does it matter to you how I dress?  I don't normally come out to a rain forest, nor am I often in that form," she added quickly, a glare coming to her face.  She was proud to be a Lucain; she had no need to have a human form consistently.  In fact, almost none in her family had human forms, because they preferred to live in the style of what they truly were, which was why she was out here and not back at her home.

However, when he pointed out all of her war trophies, she could only answer him with a pointed glare.

"I'll have you know that these things are rather important to me," she said shortly.  "The bandana represents where I stood, even if it was not the side I fought on... the feather was a trophy of sorts... and the necklace; well... the necklace I've had for a while.  I've... never taken it off since I was given it.  It's that important to me."

As she said this, her mind flashed to her three children from the Lucain who had given her this necklace.  How would they take to this all?  She knew that Seth, Nâtha, and Zîra would follow her loyally, but... to what end?

[91.4]

[SpringsSong]

Lóran could see that the female was definitely attached to the necklace the most out of all of the things which he saw on her.  He shrugged simply as he said, "It matters not to me where those things came from, female."

He spat the term "female" as though the fact that she was a girl and claiming a territory for her pack was simply unheard of.  In his mind, that was something only fit for the alpha male of a pack to do, and she was definitely not a male, though it was overwhelmingly clear that she was indeed the alpha type.

"Listen, princess.  Why don't you go home where all of your maids can take care of your precious war-damaged self?  It's clear you've never recovered from the trauma it caused you.  This is why females should never fight."

[9.4]

[SpringsSong]

"I'll not have you tell me whether or not females should fight or not, sir," Tali spat in a warning voice, her hackles raised as she crouched, making to pounce at him.  "You know nothing of war.  I can tell just by looking at you.  You don't know the meaning of fighting for something you believe in."

As she said this, she leapt at the male, a snarl departing from her maw as she did so.  With her claws flailing wildly, she hoped to hit him in a few crucial spots to show that she was not afraid to let her full fury out.

[91.6]

[SpringsSong]

Well, now.  This was something that Lóran had not been expecting.

In fact, it could be said that the star-pelted Lucain was quite taken aback by the sudden attack from the Ringed female.  In fact, he was so taken aback that he couldn't even bring himself to attack her back; at least, not right off the bat.  After the initial shock of being attacked by the female, he whirled around and bit down on her leg as hard as he could.

"I'll teach you to attack me unawares," Lóran spat as he tried to rip her bandana off.

[9.6]

[SpringsSong]

Taliña let out an angered roar; in fact, one that almost didn't sound like it belonged to a Lucain.  In fact, it most certainly didn't belong to a Lucain.  As she struggled against the male trying to rip her bandana off, something odd was taking root within the female.  The first thing she noticed was feeling like something was ripping her wingblades off, and then, she felt like there was something spreading from them.

Something...like wings.

"You do not touch my bandana!" Tali roared in a rage, scratching at the male, not yet realizing that she had changed forms entirely.  It would only be after she had launched herself in the air and saw, out of the corner of her eyes, the beating webbed wings that she would realize that she was no longer a Lucain, but a Paragon.

[91.8]
Tali's forms will use the same post count, since she can switch between them at will.

[SpringsSong]

Lóran almost couldn't believe his eyes when he saw the female's wingblades contort and form themselves into spines for wings.  Then, of course, there was her actual transformation from a Lucain with three tails into a Paragon with only one tail.  Her claws were still downright scary, even though she was still not much larger than when she had been a Lucain mere seconds before.

"Please--put me down!  I did not mean to offend you!  I'm just not used to a female being able to fight as well as I can!  Just... please!  Put me down and let's talk through this like sensible beings!"

[9.8]