†


_{Warning: This plot/story is fairly dark so if you are easily offended, best sit this one out. Includes violence, character death and minor violence towards children. All were kept as brief as possible.}

1.
Acquisition

Fresh rain had fallen. The entire forest was all but silent in the dusk, now was the time for settling deer to sleep and the dwindling light to diminish completely. Slowly the sounds became just the distant sounds of night-time insects and the solitary hooting of a lone owl.

A young doe picked her way through the silence with carefully chosen hoof-steps and kept an eye fixed on the surroundings as she did so. There was an air of urgency about her, and rightly so, since the young female’s stomach was bloated in the very obvious signs of late pregnancy.

She’d been visiting the same spot deep in the birch forest where the plants had created a thicket-like structure. Her constant presence there hadn’t gone unnoticed but this particular night she had waited until the pain was almost unbearable before making the journey in the dimly lit forest, hoping that would be enough to shield her from prying eyes.

Nestled in her hiding place, thoughts of others were consumed and forgotten once she began, which was a terrible mistake on her part as she was unaware she had gained an audience.

The large stag was curled behind the base of the tree, his head resting on the ground and his legs invisible under his frame. Deep red eyes fixed on what little he could see through the tangle of plants but his blond and black-furred ears remained strained forward for her breath and grunts.

Alabaster had come to this same spot more frequently than she had. The large number of births in the forest had triggered his predatory side and nothing was easier to pick off than an unguarded newborn. She’d been just so clumsy about everything from the very start it was almost a mercy killing for such a naive little girl.

The lammergeier remained where he was, in silence, and watched.

_______

Two long hours passed, seemingly blurring into one and other as she coddled her precious newborns and made sure their every whim was attended to. Clean, fed and content, the doe finally turned her attention from the babies and poked her head out of the thicket.

A solitary owl hooted somewhere in the distance, a low cough and idle chatter from some still awake deer in the distance. Nothing concerning. With a gentle sigh escaping her lips she gave another look to her brood and then slowly slid out of the “den”. Stretching herself in every manner until she was content.

Starting a slow careful walk, since her rear pained her, she moved down towards the pond in a loping gait until the water glittered into view before her. Sighing in relief as if she was expecting it to be gone, the doe urged herself forth until her tidy little hooves met the muddy bank and she slowly eased herself into the cool water.

A minute shiver as she extended her head, letting the water brush over her chin and lips as she drank, and paused a moment to watch her dark brown curls billowing outwards in the water making a fine white-toothed smile shine out of her tanned face in a brief moment of childish glee.

She couldn’t waste that much time however, she had important business to attend to. With her body suitably cleaner and her spirit refreshed the young female waded back towards the shore with the grace of a waterbird.

_______

Back at her thicket her three tiny bundles were but a ball of dark brown fuzz, content and sleeping they did not lift their heads to the sound of another breaking twigs as his long and larger frame forced his way in.

Alabaster's head descended on them slowly, and he paused to sniff deeply and with much consideration. They smelt like the doe and it made him feel rather sick somewhere deep in his gut but he shoved the emotions away. One of the babies, the little male, lifted his head in response with a curious sound, their mother was back but did not smell like herself?

Their noses bumped, before the larger moved upwards and then without a single noise of warning his mouth opened and he lunged forth, grasping the infant by the back of its neck and swinging his own head backwards, lifting it into the air.

Shaking the tiny body back and forth without a single noise it was a miracle that the young males neck didn’t snap as the lammergeier was intending, instead his loud and frantic screeches made the adult pause.

The little boy was screaming, before it descended into desperate sobbing mewls and Alabaster couldn’t move. His red eyes remained wide and focused on nothing. It was like a hot liquid was spreading from his stomach across his body and it made him feel sick and disgusted at the same time.

He couldn’t kill the child.

Instead his instincts told him to do something completely foreign.

Lowering his head and dropping the infant back upon its mewling sibling (they were both as equally distressed by the disturbance) the large white male immediately licked and soothed the bloody wounds he’d caused. It felt good, like he was undoing a thing so damaging to his own mental or physical being, like pulling a thorn from his skin.

Immediately he moved to the female and licked her face and head until her mewling calmed down (despite every one that left their mouths causing the wave of disgustingly fluid warmth through his slender body).

The stag knew what he wanted now. After a few moments of tucking the still slightly unhappy babies back into their pile he withdrew from the thicket and turned, staring in the direction the doe left in.

_______

She was drying herself, her head turned across her strangely marked back as she groomed herself back into position and wondered if she had time to go and feed before returning to her offspring. She was a first time mother of course and she did not know just how much she should listen to her instincts or her head.

Alabaster approached slowly, calmly, with purpose. His face showed little emotion as he drew closer and addressed her with what he considered to be a bright and airy tone;

“Nice night hm?”

She startled at his voice, whisking her head around and fixing him with a worried, ironically doe-eyed stare before an anxious grin came upon her dainty little features;

“Oh, Y-yes sir, it is?”

“It’s late to be out, after a drink Miss... ?” He trailed off purposely so that she would fill the gap with her name, as he came closer to the water and stopped a meter or so away from her, hooves together and head aloft.

“Aziza” She replied brightly, Alabaster had to fight to hide the sneer, her name meant precious and that would probably have explained her naive little behaviour as she moved closer to sniff at the larger male seemingly without worry.

“Beautiful name, you been here long Aziza?” brushing off the option to give her his name. It didn’t matter, it was irrelevant.

“Not long, I heard it was safe here, safer than my homeland. My husband will be joining me next month.”

“You two alone together?” the lammergeier inquired whilst glancing down at his hooves idly, trying to look not that interested. She neglected to mention her babies and the smell of them had obviously been washed from her body, he wondered if she actually had a brain in her air-head then.

“Yes sir, we don’t have a herd here. I was thinking of returning to my homeland after a while.” She sniffed him again, this time a little closer, and was now so close that her big glossy eyes had to look up to meet his. She was so beautiful too, what a pity.

“Did you name your children?”

“Wh-what?” she said quietly, backing up just slightly and giving him a curious yet anxious stare. She was obviously a little tenser now, that he was hinting that he knew what she had been doing and since she hadn’t mentioned it or presented them to this strange male she was getting frightened.

“The three little creatures you had up in the thick grasses. Two boys and a girl right? Did you name them?”

“I- I don’t know ho-“ her voice died down as she backed up more, her eyes wider and her ears pressed forth to show her alarm and the male couldn’t hide the nasty little sneer that lit up his face as he turned to her.

A moment, before the male threw himself forth on his hooves and lashed out, she gave a shrill scream but it was cut short as his teeth met around midway of her neck and the force of which pushed her over. They landed in a tangle in the shallow water. Never once did the doe stop bleating no matter where he kicked or bit at her, until he finally landed a grip under her jaw, sharp teeth at her throat and silenced her for good.

Without a moment’s hesitation he kept his grip and dragged her out of the water and shuffled up the bank, past the ominous glare of the twin statues, as if they were appalled about what they had just witnessed but looked on with silent, stony faces.

Alabaster knew he didn’t have long, so he only partially ate the body and left the rest in the shallow bowl beside the outcropping of rocks. He didn’t bother fully hiding the corpse but it wasn’t exactly in full view. Besides, the stench of blood and death masked his musk on her body. He had more important things to tend to.

_______

The three babies were curled together in a warm ball of brown, they’d been away from their mother for almost two and a half hours and were growing increasingly hungry and cold. At the mere sound of his presence as the lammergeier pushed his way into the small den and stared down at them.

The ball started mewling and wriggling abruptly, tiny murky eyes peering up at him and Alabaster couldn’t hide the momentary smirk that despite the male having speckles of blood upon the back of his neck he still craved attention enough to squirm towards the predator. This emotion lingered.

He couldn’t help or understand the feeling, he was not a doe and was not a particularly caring creature yet they stirred the irrational desire to protect and more importantly, stop the whimpering again. Alabaster ducked his head and swiped his tongue over the heads of them both in turn, which ever was making the loudest sound at the time.

They couldn’t stay here though, pretty soon they’d need milk and he needed to take them from this suspicious area. The act of moving them though seemed difficult. He nosed them over and over but they could only manage a wobbly stance before promptly falling back on top of each other or too far forwards. He had no time for this.

With the utmost care the stag mouthed the little male’s neck again, and assured himself that it was possible to pick him up. Letting go he nudged the female into her wobbly stance and awkwardly pushed his head under her. Caught between his antlers she gave a mewl of surprise and probably fear as the lammergeier mouthed her brother a third time and retracted into a standing position with them.

The little female’s hooves hung down into his face and her tail tickled at his nose, but he didn’t have time to stop and readjust her. He was thankful the boy had tucked his legs in like a fox cub would (the only animal Alabaster had witnessed this with) but as he turned he noticed the third baby.

It lay on its side, its chest barely moving and its eyes remained shut. It had been under the other two siblings and was undoubtedly the runt; small and fragile and hardly moving. He considered taking it with him, and probably eating it since its grip on life seemed to be fading by the minute. But that would mean having to try and scoop it onto his head also and he just didn’t have the time.

Without another word the white warlord left the thicket in quick yet careful strides. Heading towards the den he assumed a certain little grey ashen stag would be residing in. He needed to meet his new children, after all.


_{This is a group plot, Characters belong to their respective owners. Anything read here except for the characters belongs to me, Jacklo.
If you would like to be involved in this plot, you may contact me on skype, we have a few positions open still c;
Also no art because I got really sick of my skills ahaha, tried to keep it brief/not boring.
HERE IS WHERE THE LINK TO THE RP WILL GO.}