Yuura (Status: MISSING)

- Yuura's twitchiness and tendency to react without thinking stems from being conditioned by Mabwana Walijenga's Pitmasters to act immediately on reflex when presented with stimulus, or suffer great pain or injury. (Discovered by Nymphirados)
- Yuura's poor social skills stem from having nobody to interact with in a friendly manner for most of her life. (Discovered several times)

Yuura awoke in a daze the next day, her ribs agony. She refused to let her pain be known to her pride, trying to get up and go about her buisness of guarding them as usual, but was forced to remain within the confines of the densite. After snarking at Ashlan for a few minutes, she turned her attention to keeping watch over the pride's southern flank. And it was that the Kabir rogue Sargon made another appearance, with yet another body in his grip. This time though, the grief that punched her in the chest was worse - because it was Majahi, one of her first recruits and once her close friend that dragged along the ground from his jaws. Yuura cried out in anguish and collapsed by his side - in severe turmoil. He was an enemy, because he killed Phoebe. But he was still her first close friend.  She didn't know what to feel, and so she turned her anger on the messenger instead.
There was still the matter of the cub found with the body, though... Yuura was struck by how alike to Majahi she looked, and took her in, though it hurts her every times she catches sight of those blue eyes - so like her father's.

---

Sulking alone again, Yuura recieved an unexpected visitor in the form of Kahka. While initially the rogue was just checking in, she showed concern for Yuura's wounded state and found herself sticking around for a while to just talk, lend comfort and aid. The two females had a bit of a heart-to-heart, and stories were shared. Revelations were had - and Yuura felt herself grow a little closer to the mysterious femme fatale. Kahka offered to try her hand at healing Yuura, preparing a herbal mixture which she slathered over her wounds, topping them off with burdock leaves. While unamused at being ordered around, Yuura accepted Kahka's aid gratefully. She also accepted a particular herb which the rogue gave her claiming it was a nicer tasting painkiller than the willow bark Skoyro had prescribed - Which had some side effects, such as cublike behaviour and a chatty mouth...

The next few days passed in the same boring fashion - Yuura grew more and more agitated. Awakening one day within her den to the sounds of voices, the alpha was very unamused to find Hadiya conversing cheerily with a rogue. A rogue who turned out to be a massive asshole, his greeting being "Hey do you have kids? Because your hips look like it." Incensed - because the remark struck very close to a painful secret - Yuura was entirely willing to tear his head off until the wolf pup and the nimravid managed to get her to back down, as did he after she dropped a particular bombshell on them. Tapiwa, as the rogue was called, then revealed his intention had been to follow Hadiya home and bodyguard her as he was concerned about the dangerous rogues lurking around. Not impressed with this answer, it took some teeth-gritting and convincing before Yuura allowed him to linger.

An expedition away from the dens shortly after would lead Yuura to her first sighting of the looming threat, Erebos - though she did not know who he was, simply seeing a black cat who hid in bushes like a coward.

The next few days passed with little incident of note, until one night Yuura was again roused to the noise of a heavy body dragging itself through the forest, and again made Skoyro evacuate the cubs as the Varanus Priscus approached her den. This time, she attempted to communicate with the beast in-between her defensive displays, and harried it as - to her horror - it clambered right up on top of her den and made itself comfortable. An uneasy, awkward conversation followed that did not at all settle her feelings on the creature, but it thankfully departed without incident of its own accord - with a rather ominous promise that it would return.

Morning brought something of a delayed implosion - while Yuura herself was a hardened, jaded soul and very much used to killing and fighting, she had failed to consider the effects killing her former childhood friend and knowing he had a family would have on her young apprentice, Muura. Alerted to her distress, Yuura attempted to settle the mind of the female, but she was a tough case and much convincing had to be done to calm her tumultous heart. Muura expressed fear that Tsuyoi's cubs and mate would come after the pride for revenge - Yuura, gobsmacked at the fact TSUYOI of all people had CUBS took a moment to collect herself before a plan came to mind, which she shared with Muura in secrecy. After assuring her the threat would be dealt with - and that she was NOT going to lose her foster mother - the two parted ways.

An expedition in the forest would lead to another alarming discovery - a mammoth. A lone, male mammoth in musth. Crazed by hormones, the beast attempted to kill Yuura, charging at her and bellowing. The smilodon was able to evade the large herbivore's assaults, and dashed into a bush to hide from its wrath as it grew distracted. To her surprise, the bush was not unoccupied - there was a melanistic Eusmilus in there, that had been lurking and watching the scene. After exchanging some clumsy swats, the black cat tore off towards the mountains, and spurred on by an instinctual predatory drive to chase and her adrenaline, she took off in hot pursuit. On the mountain, the cat attempted to hide in the snow, and could not be drawn out despite Yuura's taunts. Eventually, the rain turned the snow to slush and he tried to flee to the swamps - Yuura was able to slash at his hindquarters, as she tried to capture him, but he escaped. She followed the blood trail to the borders of her territory, roaring a warning before turning for home.

It would be his bad luck that he met her later in the day, though, as Yuura relaxed near the river. She may have not even noticed he was there had he not immediately lunged up a tree and given himself away with the rustling. Amused, and determined to get some kind of answers as to the rogue's identity and prescence, Yuura harassed him while he hid in the tree for hours - interrogating him, taunting him, trying to spook him into jumping down. He tried first to talk her into leaving him alone, and then when that failed attempted to use a nest of velvet wasps to get her to retreat. Seeing this all as some kind of game, the smilodon did not give up and only resolved to annoy him further. It took another hour before she gave up and wandered off to bother something else, the eusmilus having fallen asleep in the tree.


It seemed fate wanted them to cross paths again though, as Yuura was driven by hunger to hunt far from her lands on the other side of the peninsula, tracking a herd of elk into the rocky scrubland in the west. Making her kill she gorged herself, clashing with a nameless rogue and disembowelling him as he tried to force her off her prize. The prescence of a bear made her nervous, and so she left the area after eating her fill - stumbling across a form slumped at the base of the tree in the savannah. A dead smilodon - gouged open, killed in suspicious circumstances. At first Yuura thought it was the bear she'd seen, but the injuries didn't match up and the animal wasn't bloody, as it should have been after such a killing. Something was amiss - but Yuura did not know what. Unbeknownst to her, the true killer was hiding in a tree directly above her - Erebos, the mysterious black cat. Yuura took a nap near his perch, and the temptation was there to kill her - but he chose to wait until she left to make his own retreat.

Woken from her doze, Yuura met the cub Raiden again, playing with a mysterious stone shard that shone a beautiful green color. She lead the cub to her kill and allowed him to eat, before escorting him back home, worried for his safety and having taken a bit of a shine to him.





The bleeding rogue, as expected, ran straight back to her master. Yuura followed the blood trail out from the grasslands, across the rocky plains and to the mountains, meeting an odd collection of individuals on the way. The panda cub Mei, the cheetah Aelur again, and a huge civet named Anthea. After exchanging some uncertain greetings, the group decided to join up and track Yuura's "ghost", as Aelur called it. The panda got distracted playing with butterflies in the meadow, but the three felines arrived at Erebos's den to find it having been hastily vacated.

Undeterred, Yuura took stock of the scents in the den - she knew all three of these. And so, she had her new target - Yachi was not a threat. But the mysterious black cat she kept running into? Perhaps he was. The trio followed his trail to his new hideout, where they confronted him. Yuura angrily pressed the interrogation, torn between killing him and learning more about his motives, but the black cat found unexpected backup in the Epicyon Azaika who had troubled Yuura at her den some days prior. Also joining the two enemies was a young dinofelis named Kisoo.

Yuura couldn't care less about the stacking odds, and engaged in a harsh debate with the black cat, before becoming certain he was Balint's killer and the mysterious poisoner. Deciding she wasn't going to get anything useful out of him, the smilodon attacked. They clashed, and in the heat of combat Yuura was struck with Erebos's envenomed claws. It took a while to kick in, but once it did the golden smilodon found her will supressed, her mind dazed - wavering on her feet, a mere thrall to the poison's effects. Erebos tried to think of something to make her do, but couldn't bring the names of any good targets to mind - so he blurted "Kill the one you love!" - which lead to a very confused Yuura staggering around searching for an indistinct figure that danced on the edge of her mind's eye. She didn't get far - the venom reacted badly within her, and she collapsed in the grasslands.

Awakening in a daze, Yuura found herself stumbling around the grasslands with no recollection of how she'd gotten there, what had happened after meeting the three strangers, or what was wrong with her. In delirium she continued to try and pursue the figure Erebos had sent her after, but she didn't know why anymore. In pain, almost blind, and unable to make any sense of the thoughts in her head, the golden smilodon may have died out there totally unable to defend herself. But it wasn't to be - Yuura was found by Ido Akumu as the snake hunted in the grasslands. While initially the bewildered smilodon was absolutely terrified of this looming reptilian monster, she was able to cling to the familiarity of her scent and voice, if nothing else.
The snake protected her for hours, until she had enough of her wits about her again to try and piece together what had happened. The snake suggested she may have been poisoned - something that seemed to stick with the cat, and so her thoughts turned to who would have been capable. It had to be the same cat who'd killed Balint, and poisoned the bear! But even though she had met Erebos and confirmed her suspicions, the Angel Trumpet's poison had essentially deleted the part of her memory containing the events leading up to and after her fateful encounter. In the end, she got nothing out of chasing the trail other than suffering.
Ido offered the sick cat a ride on her back when she expressed her desire to check the den. Despite a particularly hairy moment where the pair had to cross the river, they made it without much incident. Ido helped Yuura find some Skullcaps - her dazed, bewildered mind clinging to the thought that they might help her, like they'd helped Sargon when he was poisoned.

After consuming the herbs, Yuura had another small seizure and passed out. Ido stayed with her through the night, and mercifully she did survive. Awakening at dawn with a horrific headache and scrambled memories, she found she could think clearly again - either the skullcaps had worked, or she'd managed to sleep off the poison.


-----

Frustrated by losing a whole night's worth of memories, as well as some other, more alarming ones, Yuura took to the grasslands to try and retrace her steps. She had no luck - as chance would have it, she encountered Mei near the river, and the little bear chatted happily to her. But she couldn't give her any useful information about what had occurred on that fateful night. She hadn't seen Yuura after she was drugged, and wasn't with them for long enough while they sought her quarry. Yuura excused herself, her headache flaring again, and found somewhere to rest until it passed - the poison still lingered faintly in her system.

When her pain passed and she could think clearly again, she found it was night again. Yuura emerged from her hiding place and sought out the source of a high, shrill cry she'd heard nearby. Following her ears, she found the cheetah Aelur with a kill - just a hare, but it was the cat she was more interested in. Yuura's reeling mind managed to place Aelur as one of the people she'd encountered while hunting for her mysterious ghost. The cheetah was gobsmacked to see her alive - believing the poison would kill her. Seeing an opportunity to get back at the Epicyon she hated, Aelur tried to manipulate Yuura by telling her Azaika was the killer she'd been searching for - a lie that fell flat, as Yuura knew her ghost was a feline. The marks on Yuura's body, Balint's corpse - sharp claws. Azaika, being a kind of dog, had no such weaponry. The lie was more grandiose than that, and angered Yuura at its presumptiousness. She called the cheetah out on it, threatening to assume the worst and that the cheetah herself was an enemy.
This angered Aelur greatly, and she spat hatred for the smilodon at her - oblivious to the fact Yuura couldn't give two shits for her games - declaring her wish to see the Alpha's downfall. Yuura left for home with a last scathing reply, but the matter was only put aside for later - not abandoned. If Yuura were to catch the cheetah again, she will likely kill her rather than risk her trying to tie her puppet strings to others.

Returning home, Yuura attempted to get some rest, but was plagued by nightmares - again. These awakened her and alerted her to Muura's prescence as she returned from wherever the hell she had been in the forest. She noticed something seemed a bit off, but couldn't put her finger on what - deciding she'd been idle long enough, Yuura decided to give her another combat lesson. It was cut short, however. Muura was unsteady and unfocused, and excused herself to rush into the den. Alarmed, Yuura followed - and finally managed to get out from her that she'd eaten something and become poisoned - after she'd been sick in the woods. Understandably concerned, Yuura wracked her brain for a solution but found none, realising the type of poisoning wasn't the same and not wishing to risk giving her skullcaps like she'd eaten, just in case it reacted and killed her.
Instead, the smilodon took up a vigil beside her, offering her safety and protection, desperately hoping she'd come around herself.

---

Yuura searched again for anything that could prove key to returning her shattered memories, but even though she met some new faces and some faces she THOUGHT were new, she didn't come up with anything useful. The experience has left her somewhat confused and helpless feeling, in a sombre mood.

As luck would have it though, knowledge would come back to her in its own time - Tapiwa, the abrasive rogue (who she had forgotten about entirely) confronted her, in an attempt to "apologize" for his behavior when they first met. A confused Yuura just shrugged it off and said it was fine. When she revealed that her memory was gone, Tapiwa accidentally revealed much about Erebos to her, though he realized his mistake soon after and tried to cover it with lies. It didn't work. Yuura now knows for certain she is after a melanistic feline who uses poisons, and is not a smilodon. And that isn't a long list.

An alarming discovery was made as she moodily reclined at the den. Ghosts. Ghosts everywhere. At first, it was just Tsuyoi's phantom. He'd come back to try and unsettle her, and she'd reacted with automatic aggression. When she realised he was just a spectre however, she was ALMOST happy to see him. Because that meant she could hint at her plans for his cubs and watch him try to brush aside her threats. The angry golden smilodon took great pleasure in describing what exactly she was going to do to his mate and cubs, in an uncharacteristic display of sadism. "Blood for blood. And I demand every last drop you've shed. If you can't provide it, then your cute little 'family' will.", she told him, before he disappeared.

But then, a strange one she'd never seen before in her den. Glowing golden, he could not remember his own name, but he thought he'd been haunting the earth for millions of years. Yuura struck up a deal with him - she would help him find his killer so he could rest, if he helped her find Erebos. Though the ghost expressed vehement disbelief that the black cat was still alive - he'd known him while he was alive, millions of years ago! - she did manage to get useful information out of him before he faded away.

It was the third ghost that really shook her. As she spoke with the Golden Ghost, she could hear cubs chattering, but didn't pay it much heed. It was just Arya and someone, right? Probably Alis. But when the little orange female appeared, she wasn't with any of Yuura's orphans.
She was with the ghost of Calla. The little smilodon cub's ghost was overjoyed at finding her mother again, but Yuura was far less enthusiastic. In a sort of shock, her mind reeling, it was all she could do to not break down then and there. Her slain daughter did not seem to know what had happened, asking about her brother and sister innocently, expressing her happiness at having befriended Arya.

---

Distressed by the happenings of late, Yuura has slipped into a quiet, jumpy, uneasy state. Trying to convince herself the ghost of her dead cub was just a hallucination, she tried to go about her buisness, but she was also accosted by the ghost of Majahi the very next day. Yuura was heartbroken to hear the venom the grey male spat at her, and never did get a straight answer on why he killed Phoebe.

A stranger passed through her lands - annoyed, Yuura was quite ready to see off the female Smilodon Populator that appeared with lethal force, but she managed to persuade her to grant her shelter instead. Jin-Bei was her name, a pregnant refugee from who knew where. Curious as to her story, but not wishing to appear too friendly, Yuura simply allowed her to find a little nook to hide in, and resolved to keep a close eye on her.

Yuura was alerted to Amadahy's prescence in the forest as well. Having lost her fear of the great lizard, the smilodon leapt down to greet her quite casually. Amad informed her of the prescence of two outsiders - one of whom had the gall to mark in her territory! Infuriated by this, the pair set off to find the one that so desperately wanted to be, and met Noatuk. He attempted to sweet-talk the unimpressed female into giving him information on the very rogue she'd given shelter in her den the other day. Seeing no real reason why she should - and suspecting Noatuk to be the reason she was lost and pregnant in the first place - Yuura gave him a false lead and sent him into the swamps.

The second encounter was more eventful. Tapiwa awaited beneath a tree, quite casual and unafraid of either Yuura or her giant lizard friend Amadahy. He mentioned he wanted a way to prove himself to Yuura, in an attempt to gain her approval so he could court her pridemate Hadiya. Yuura agreed to a brawl.
The brawl went on for hours, and got quite out of hand - eventually, claws and sabers came into play, the friendly duel forgotten. Both cats put up a hell of a fight, but in the end Tapiwa won - catching Yuura off-guard with a vicious bite to the side, her legs simply gave out in exhaustion. For a moment, she truly feared for her life, and panicked trying to break free of his jaws. But even though he had a perfect opportunity, Tapiwa did not kill her. This confused Yuura - she'd lost. That meant she was weaker. The weak deserved to be eaten by the strong, right? - humbled, Yuura invited him back to her den (once she could stand) and offered him some herbs and a place to rest, refusing to tell an unimpressed Skoyro exactly what had happened.
She's earned several new scars for her failure, and the whole situation has put her in a strange mood. She has however, grudgingly given Tapiwa her blessing, seeing him as a strong opponent worthy of her pridemate.


A small surprise in the form of an American Lion cub greeted Yuura as Mei followed the smilodon back to her den. The two already acquainted expressed their confusion, and tried to calm the frightened little creature. Mei wandered off, leaving Yuura to try and coax the cub into telling her why she was all alone. Orphaned - like so many in this place. Yuura felt bad for the little cub, and offered her sanctuary within her den, along with the mass of other cubs she'd collected. As she talked with the cub, Ardia slunk off, but Yuura thought nothing of it at the time...

She was visited again by the ghost of Balint as she sulked atop her den. They talked for hours - learning more about each other. Balint offered the golden smilodon advice and tried to calm her tumultous mind a little, particularly in relation to her conflict over Hadiya and Tapiwa. Scared to hope, but grateful for his help, she agreed to at least try to speak to the two about the drama. Yuura learned a bit about Balint's past, and comforted him in turn when he told her of his long lost love. He vanished as the sun set, and Yuura found her attention drawn elsewhere.

Seeing Jin-bei had awakened from a long rest, Yuura confronted her on Noatuk's appearance. The pregnant female's fear was genuine - and so Yuura accepted her tale, if a bit uneasily due to the contents. The golden female assured her she wasn't going to just throw her to the wolves when she expressed worry, and revealed she'd sent Noatuk off on a wild goose chase into the swamps. Tapiwa, to her surprise, also announced his interest on thoroughly ruining Noatak's day if he was foolish enough to try and approach the Silvestre again.


-----


The next day brought a grisly discovery. The Bad Omen showed up again with another corpse. It was the Silvestre huntress Ardia. Yuura wanted to strike the Kabir down, but thought better of it - instead, she offered to feed him if he could tell her any information about how she'd died. She didn't learn anything except that she'd been killed by a bear in an epic struggle. Still, Yuura help up her side of the bargain as always. She managed to speak to the rogue after tempting him across the river with an elk leg, and attempted to recruit him as a spy - if somewhat alarmed by his strange mood swings.

That night, she found herself wandering the grasslands again, hoping to bump into Ashlan and warn him about the bear. She approached the den he and Calgari had been using, but didn't find them. Instead she found a rogue, by the name of Serge. At first quite suspicious, her curiosity eventually won her over and they chatted briefly, leaving on fairly neutral terms.

The next day, Karvo managed to persuade Yuura to finally take him bug-hunting. While exploring the grassy plains, Yuura tried to hunt a fox with the cub, who fled into the water before they could get much fun out of the event. When they left the canine alone to leave the lake, they were met with an alarming discovery - a short-faced bear. The arctodus that had killed Ardia! The bear charged the two cats - Karvo frozen in fear, Yuura desperately trying to avert the beast's fury away from the cub. Their saviour came from an unexpected source - the fox bravely charged the bear and drew him away from the felines, though he was injured several times as he enticed it to chase him. Yuura rushed back to the den with Karvo, leaving him in the care of his father, expressing her desire to run back and kill the bear that'd taken the life of one of her pride.
Skoyro offered her a selection of poisons to help take down the bear swiftly - Yuura, in her usual fashion, simply jammed her paws in the entire pile, smearing Belladonna, Jack 'o Lantern mushroom and Holly berries all over her claws. With this venom, she was able to kill the bear fairly easily - but did not escape completely unscathed.

Yuura laid low for the next few days to recover and protect her territory, but was startled by her slumber one morning by Hadiya and Kouden stumbling to the den, babbling nonsense and picking fights with the scenery. Utterly baffled, Yuura had no idea how to react to this, and ended up watching over them as they slept off the effects of a poison-induced trip.

In the grasslands Yuura stumbled across two odd creatures - a giant flightless bird and a saber with strange teeth. The Xenosmilus managed to provoke the Titanis into attacking him even as he clumsily tried to flirt with Yuura, and he recieved a nasty kick for his trouble before the brawl was interrupted by the random appearance of a huge Megaloceros bull, who was thoroughly unimpressed by the gathering of carnivores and chased them off. Yuura, ignored by the two aggressive beasts, settled for fleeing into the grass to stalk the bird and the xenosmilus from a safe distance. Upon seeing they seemed to be trying to make amends with eachother, she decided to show herself and get a bit of information about them as they took refuge on the riverside.

Also by the river was an odd little beast Yuura'd never seen - like a cat, but also like an otter. She watched it curiously for a while before trying to engage it in conversation. The little cub had gotten lost, and so Yuura offered to escort him home if he caught a fish for her. To her delight, he did - presenting her with a few of her favorite snacks. She allowed the little creodont to ride on her back as she ran him back to the swamps, where she saw him off safely.

The sound of thundering deer hooves alerted her to a new migration - an unfamiliar herd had moved into the peninsula, led by a massive 32-point stag. Curious, she did not hunt them - simply watching from a distance as they moved to the grasslands.
As she observed them, a strange creature crept up on her, and while at first torn between agression and curiosity, the two greeted each other hesitantly and Yuura learned that the beast was just a friendly young hyaenadon. It expressed sadness at having become separated from her pack, and Yuura saw an opportunity to gain a powerful ally - she invited Andesite to join her pride. During the conversation, the creodont Vanator returned, having come back from the swamp to explore. Yuura showed them both to her den and allowed the cub to rest there until he was comfortable traveling again.

-----

On edge and restless, Yuura found herself on another one of her wild runs, coursing through the grasslands. Her roaring attracted a stranger - the grey rogue Recon, and after an ALMOST civil greeting, things devolved to a hostile state when he unwisely attempted to make a game of teasing Yuura. Unimpressed by his flirting and far less so by his brushing against her, the savage female attacked him. Little if any blood was shed though, as the commotion attracted Amadahy and Tapiwa. Faced with two large, angry smilodon and a Megalania, Recon fled as a fourth friend of Yuura's appeared and tipped the scales upside-down in her favor.

To Yuura's amusement however, she would run into him again the next day. The male was more submissive this time, having learned his lesson somewhat - though his attitude still needed work. He proposed an alliance to Yuura, which she initially wasn't interested in at all, viewing him as probably too weak to be of use. But he managed to entice her into a duel to prove himself - and while he lost and utterly failed to impress Yuura, she decided to show a rare turn of mercy and humor him. Now that she knew she could dispatch him easily enough, she wasn't worried of his prescence, and figured it would be better to keep him close enough to watch carefully.

Yuura was called away before she could escort Recon back to the den with Skoyro - and when she finally DID follow after them, she was met with a tense scene - the Amphycon Tupac clambering over her den and antagonizing a worried Skoyro. Seeing red, Yuura immediately flew into a berserk fury and threw herself at the beardog - but was sadly unable to do more than annoy him into retreating. A strange, stilt-legged land-owl attempted to break them up and was promptly ignored.

Yuura's nerves only continued to get tenser as an investigation into the appearance of a Thylacine led to her being attacked out of the blue by a Terror Bird. The thing charge and attempted to kill the smilodon without mercy - and Yuura was almost more surprised at the fact three strangers leapt in to aid her than anything. The four cats managed to drive the titanis off, but Yuura wasn't letting them walk upon her territory so lightly, still greatly agitated by the beast's appearance. They wisely submitted rather than try to fight her - the two juveniles Furaha and Markusi, and the elderly Caeldis. Yuura posited them a choice - bow to her or get chased off permanantly. They chose to accept her offer and she escorted them back to the den.

Prowling the grasslands, Yuura met a wolf called Otsana.

The Silvestre pride went on a small "field trip" to the grasslands and met Kioo and Rhett.

Yuura accosted two "strangers" talking with Furaha on her borders - Razol and Ranger. Unimpressed and annoyed at their attitudes, Yuura gave them a stern warning, after which Ranger fled. She left for the den with Furaha in tow, planning to scold her, but was followed by Razol who expressed interest in joining her pride. Yuura considered it, and offered him a place should he meet her standards of strength - but their spar was cut short.

Annoyed at the lack of a fight, and uneasy about Ranger mentioning Razol should "come back to the swamp" with her, Yuura found herself on a walk into said swamps. A misstep found her stranded - and she nearly drowned. An unexpected saviour appeared... Erebos! To Yuura's shock, he fished her out with a length of vine and towed her to safety. After some indignant sputtering, she could not bring herself to kill him - but still took off with a threat, and a LOT of confusion.

Meanwhile, Muura was in some trouble elsewhere. When Yuura finally returned to camp, she found her adoptive daughter badly injured by the riverbank - Tupac had attacked her, then thrown her unconcious body into the river to drown. A mysterious saviour had fished her out. After investigating her and finding she had broken bones, she tried to care for her as best she could while keeping her confined to the den.

The first day of her convaelescence did not go smoothly, as Tsuyoi's ghost appeared to torment Muura. Yuura awoke from a slumber just to see him vanish.

Yuura met Razol again, and decided to make him fight Ido for her amusement and to test his strength, since the titanoboa seemed fond of the idea. After he satisfied her curiosity to his strength and bravery, she accepted him into her pride officially as a warrior.

----

Yuura bumped into a rogue called Senemora in the forest - the young female was oblivious to her prescence, so she stalked her for her own amusement. This quickly turned serious when the juvenile made a beeline for her den and attempted to steal food. Enraged, Yuura lunged at her and forced her into submission. She ended up not harming the female, but traded her some food for information and let her go with a warning.

To Yuura's surprise, Cru returned from a long abscence. While she did not remember him due to Erebos's poison, she brought him up to speed and he reminded her who he was, expressing great rage at the disasters that had happened. Worried he'd run off and get killed, Yuura tried to distract him with guard duty.

Awakening the morning after to the sound of shouting, Yuura found Kioo and Ashlan bickering with Slayer and Karvo outside her den. She didn't get the full explanation, but tried to diffuse the situation before it got even more out of hand - Slayer tried to attack Ashlan already.

After that calmed down, Yuura wandered off into the forests to investigate an odd shape and found the oddest thing - a Daeodon piglet. Torn between curiosity and feral instinct, she "played" with it for a good long while, before coming back to her senses and trying to speak to the little beast. She learned its name was Moki, but he did not seem able to speak very well.

The sound of a cub in distress froze Yuura's blood, and made her race back towards the den - to find a red-furred stranger torturing Kioo. Yuura in a blind fury threw herself at him, but only succeeded in tearing some gouges into his rump and giving him some bruises before he threw himself into the river to escape her. Her attention was drawn back to the whimpering cubs - as much as she wanted to chase him down and tear him apart, Yuura couldn't just leave Karvo and Kioo alone and injured.

While protecting the cubs her attention was drawn to the cave lioness on the other side of the river, who had been present but who Yuura had disregarded in her blind fury. It was now she began to interrogate her. She was able to talk the smilodon down with her calm manner, and took a leap of faith by swimming over to stand with her. Despite an agitated Cru showing up, she managed to remain unharmed. In fact, she even managed to score an alliance with Yuura and the permission to den with them.
After learning of her pride's plight, Fiametta offered to help the smilodon with her unique skills with that fiercest of elements - fire.

"Renshu" the Sivapanther also formed an alliance with Yuura to defend against the threat from the desert. She suggested he should fake his death, and they hatched a plot with Fiametta on how to do so.

Curiousity lead Yuura into the desert herself - out in the sweltering sands, she met two strange cubs who showed her to an oasis. They then went to the caves and got high on shrooms because why not. Yuura also tripped over another orphan, who she took home, and Muura showed up and got jealous.

-----

Yuura bumped into a rather strange creature she'd never seen before on the other side of the river - a prehistoric kangaroo called Estavan. They struck up a friendship, and agreed to be allies. Upon expressing interest in his skills making bone armor, Estavan offered to make her a set - she took the carcass of the bear that killed Ardia and presented it to him. And with it, he forged her a formidable set of armor from its hide and bones, topping off the ensemble with a yak skull from his collection to form a helm. She's very pleased with this gift, and rarely removes it.

A patrol in the forest saw her meet a small smilodon cub who reminded her painfully of one of her own dead children. Lefana as she was called, accepted Yuura's offer of shelter and now resides with the pride.

Rumors of the desert threat grew - Yuura, determined to face the danger head-on and find out as much about it as she could, journeyed back into the blistering sands. Arriving at the oasis, she saw not one but TWO melanistic Eusmilus - Erebos, and Velius. After a tense standoff, and torn between who was the biggest threat to her right now, she decided to charge Velius and gored him brutally. He tried to escape, but was too injured to flee her and she mercilessly interrogated him until he passed out from pain and bloodloss. Fiametta, watching the brutal scene, managed to persuade her to take him prisoner instead of killing him then and there. Sometime in the confusion, Erebos made his escape.

Velius awoke in the Silvestre's den as a prisoner - Yuura asked Skoyro to patch him up and he obliged, as she did not want to lose her source of information. She pressed him for knowledge for days, interrogating him ceaselessly. She gleaned much of the plot against Zian and the desert emperor's desire to take over the peninsula, but much else remains unknown.

The next few days were slow - Yuura's pride was visited by an owl trader, and Yuura bartered some meat for a rabbit pelt woven with feathers and a young wolf's ribcage for Karvo to wear. A young african lion cub - Tahkin - also followed Yuura home from the plains, and pleaded with the smilodon to take her in. Bemused, Yuura allowed her to join the pride, albeit with some grumbling from the other members.

She decided to take Karvo and Tahkin hunting the next day, teaching them how to catch and kill elk. Their first hunt was successful, though Karvo failed at tracking and Tahkin had strange ideas of how to hunt like a smilodon. Karvo wandered off while Yuura was capturing a calf for them to kill, and returned with a terror bird chick - Sadia. After some sputtering, Yuura relented and allowed the dinofelis cub to take her home with them as a new pet. Perhaps adopting the chick had been too hasty - when the cats returned, they were followed not long after by a large and belligerent terror bird named Wasp, who expressed interest in the fact they were holding a terror bird chick in the den and refused to leave without Yuura threatening his hide. The next few days though were calm and peaceful, the cubs and Yuura spending more time together and bonding.

----

Of course, it wasn't meant to last.
A Daeodon attacked the pride, driven mad by Erebos's poisons. It took the combined might of Yuura, Ashlan, Velius, Senemora and Furaha to bring it down, and everyone involved suffered some kind of injury. Yuura got off lightest with a bruise, while Senemora suffered a crippled shoulder from a bad bite and Ashlan's ribs were smashed when the beast trampled him. Yuura, Skoyro and Velius worked to try and aid the injured - while initially suspicious of the prisoner's intentions, she allowed him to pitch in and marked it down as a debt she owed him. In exchange for this act when her pride was in danger, she would later decide to set him free under her command rather than killing him when she drained the last bit of intel from him.

The stress mixed badly with her flaring emotions and the precursor to something else, and Yuura became particularly vicious for a while. Unable to control her agitation and fearing she may lash out at her pride, she chose to isolate herself for a few days. During this time, she kept mostly to the desert, investigating the growing threat. She met Temoc and some underlings working for the mysterious Sikario, and learned that they would be intruding into Lazarus very soon. Worried, she returned to her pride the next night, to warn Skoyro of the danger.


TO BE FLESHED OUT;


- Yuura returned to warn Skoyro of the thugs and found paintings everywhere, went "wtf", spoke to Skoyro and was warned of some stuff, then Wayra mistook her for a god and she was like "... ok sure whatever" and fucked off again
- Bumped into Maji, realised he was Tsuyoi's son, seriously considered killing him - ultimately decided to let him live.
- Caught Saraen from the desert, mauled them and took them prisoner. Zian was injured in the crossfire and also brought back to the Silvestre.
- Adventures in babysitting a concussed sivapanther
- Trying to teach Tahkin to fight
- Met Maji again, told him the truth about his father and that she'd killed him
- Utter chaos; panicked Saraen, freaking out Yuura, crazy Zian, terror bird chicks raising hell, everyone flips all of their shits
- Yuura goes to the desert - doesn't kill Erebos on sight (STOP THE FUCKING PRESSES)
- GIANT HELL CROCODILE ATTACK
- Yuura goes for a walk and meets a friend
- The chicks and Slayer are the deadliest group of babies ever, try to "hunt" Senemora
- Yuura squeezes the last drop of information out of Saraen - offers to take their tongue, their sight, or their life. Ends with Yuura knocking them out and cutting their tongue out.
- The hellbabies continue to be hellish, catching Cinoli in the bushes and causing Amadahy to wreck her shit in retaliation for flashing her claws at Sadia
- Yuura decides to move the pride as soon as they are able. Also decides mandatory swimming and combat lessons are in order. Arya makes her a necklace.
- Goes swimming with Jewel, bumps into Maji and then Kahka
- Lakeside chat with Ashlan, Estavan, Kahka and Maji, then Wasp and Amadahy fight. Fight is broken up by the Barinasuchus attacking Amadahy, and Estavan kicking Wasp away. Wasp and Zadkiel dissapear with Estavan, Yuura and Cara drag Amad back and try to patch her up
- Yuura bumps into Kao on patrol, Kao asks for Yuura's blessing to pursue her - Yuura mistakes him for a random rogue and attacks him
- Yuura and Muura discuss this event
- Kahka is all "wtf you could have killed him" Yuura's like "Yeah I was gonna lol u wot", descisions are made to discuss this with all four parties present
- The Silvestre take the kiddy gloves off and storm the jungle
- Bonding time with Arya and Yuura - She starts training her and they both try to figure out how swimming works. Awkwardness ensues with the neighbors.
- Rin, Saraen and Kouden happen - Yuura takes Rin home after he nearly drowns, Saraen is awkward
- Arya nearly drowns - Maji saves her, Yuura is "wtf m8"
- Confrontation on the borders of the wolves' territory after Yuura takes Arya to train, joined by Aleese and Kaisza. Kaisza joins the Silvestre.
- Ukweli gets the buisness
- Skoyro, Zian and Karvo are transferred to the new den - Zian admits to losing Yuura's stone.
- Yuura met Renn
- Necelli and that one thylacoleo cub I can't remember the name of happened, were being shits, got schooled
- Estavan gives Aleese a breakdown, Yuura spectates
- Yuura meets Dolus, tries to fakeflirt to get close enough to pounce - he doesn't fall for it
- Nekali waltzed up to the Silvestre, was promptly set about by Muura and taken prisoner
- Yuura met Dolus - She cornered him in a log, a bitter and tense conversation ensued, though Yuura was shaken somewhat by his words and allowed him to escape

----


 Maji approached Yuura as she took watch over both the main jungle dens - waiting for signs of any of the other Swamp Pride members. He accused her of killing his mother, a fact that Yuura made no attempt to deny. She had killed her, because she was a threat - she DID tell Maji she planned to wipe out his pride, she reminded him. The cub was upset at the loss of his mother, but seemed to take it strangely well - expressing more fear over what their fates would be alone than sadness at Ukweli's death. Yuura gave them a choice - wander lost in the jungle and be treated as a potential threat should they survive to adulthood, or wipe away any thoughts of revenge and become part of her pride. It wasn't much of a choice - Maji accepted, albeit grudgingly, and returned to the Silvestre den with Yuura.

... But then Muura decided to menace and threaten him - threatening to do terrible things to the little male, much to his horror. Yuura, unamused, confronted her about it after overhearing their exchange - Muura then ran off, much to Yuura's distress, declaring she was becoming too unstable to be trusted near the pride. Yuura yelled after her, but decided to stay and try and reassure Maji, thinking she would come back. But she didn't...
 Yuura tried to find Muura, running all over the peninsula in a panic - calling for her, like she'd lost her cub. She couldn't find her, and her legs gave out on the border of the jungle. Dolus found her again - and sent another venomous barb into her heart, assuring her she would destroy everything she'd fought, bled, cried and nearly died for, and Yuura believed him. He called her a monster that would destroy everything she loved. And Yuura knew it to be true...

 She decided to check the tunnels, fearing Muura could be hiding in either those or the desert. She fell from a ledge into a pit, injuring herself - and promptly had a full-on breakdown when confronted by Estavan, who tried to help her as best he could. They talked for a long time, and Estavan managed to pull her slightly out of her dip - but that promptly all went to shit when Muura appeared, tearfully explaining her reasons to a devastated Yuura, before running off and leaving her - again. Yuura then fled to the ruins of the old den, and curled herself under the burned wreckage, finally falling to exhaustion.

 Yuura met a european lion cub while sulking in the meadows. After a lot of confusion, the cub managed to get her to play - forgetting her anguish for a moment, she chased and fled from Cudjo in a game of tag which finally ended on the mountains when he had exhausted himself. The cub asked Yuura if she would let him stay with her - despite initial misgivings, she agreed.

 Feeling a tiny bit better, the smilodon then visited the caves the next day - and met an odd Mesonyx called Lath. They chatted quite amicably, but the conversation took a dark turn - she started to needle away at Yuura's mind and spirit, and tore her soul open and bleeding for the world to see. Yuura fell to pieces under her verbal probing, a shattered mess, utterly broken - Lath tried to instill some hope in her, but Yuura simply couldn't comprehend it. This was truly her lowest moment, crying on the cavern floor, wishing for death, her entire world being pulled apart around her. Lath told her that everything she'd strived to acheive was worthless, that everyone would abandon her, and that's when Yuura realised her identity had been practically destroyed. She was nothing without her pride to give her purpose - and now Lath hammered into her that she needed to leave them, or she would only continue to suffer and die.
Understandably, this caused an epic amount of distress for Yuura.

Lath left the shattered mess of a feline to pull herself back together, and that's when Erebos casually sauntered past, having watched the whole thing with a wicked grin. He casually commented on what he'd heard, and Yuura snapped. She went totally berserk - chasing after him in an attempt to tear him apart. He managed to land a swipe on her, and envenomed her with Deathstalker scorpion poison - Yuura was blinded, and reduced to stumbling madly around the cavern, chasing sounds. Aurelia made the unwise descision to try and swipe at her as Erebos fled, and so Yuura charged for her instead. However, during the chase, Aurelia led the blind Yuura over a high ledge - the smilodon, unable to see the drop, took a bad fall and suffered injury. She's now lost in the caverns, confused and wounded and utterly broken.

----

Yuura spent the next few days in a haze - her wounds were treated by an unknown benefactor while she was unconscious, and then Muura and Arya managed to find her in the cold dark depths. While she remains confused, delirious and injured, she is slowly recovering. But Yuura will never be the same.
Arya brought her food and water - Skoyro happened by and lended medical assistance, Tahkin and Karvo tried to lift her spirits. But Yuura is still battling her most ferocious enemy yet - herself. Only time will tell of the outcome.

Yuura met several strangers lurking in the tunnels and tried to keep to herself, despite the efforts of some of them... She was awoken one day though, choking for breath and gasping - Zicara, Arya and Akuma had dragged her out of a fire set by Rhydian. After the strangers were all introduced, and Yuura had stopped freaking out and having flashbacks, she decided she had to get out of this hellhole of a cave and took a trip to the forest with Arya.

While there, Yuura met a dinalaerus who was gathering flowers for his injured friend. He noticed Yuura watching and approached her, asking for her opinion on the lillies he'd gathered - Calla lillies. The sight of them brought memory and remorse to Yuura, but she halfheartedly agreed. As they conversed further though, Yuura was with growing horror lead to believe the smaller feline had met her daughter's ghost - the mysterious character having the same name, the same fur and eye color, and even the same injuries as the dead cub. Yuura begged him to take her to his Calla - on arriving, Yuura discovered it was a feline with a striking resemblance, but not her cub.
What the male told her though was worrying - a strange male smilodon had attacked her at random in the oasis. This in itself wouldn't be TOO noteworthy to Yuura... Except the description given perfectly matched that of Yuura's rogue father, Noakom.

Returning to the caves, Yuura was met by Skoyro, who tried to help her injuries a bit. She continued to lurk in the darkness with Arya and Muura for several days, biding her time and regaining her strength. One day, Erebos dragged in Rhydian's corpse and presented it to her. Yuura, baffled, did not at all know how to take this - but she accepted the gesture, however tentatively, and allowed him to leave without violence, despite her roiling mistrust of the cat - his admission that he needed her to "Stay strong" did NOTHING to assuage her suspicions. He was up to something, and it drove her nuts trying to figure out what.

As she healed, she grew more and more restless - she took another trip to the forest, and met an odd duo. Carnage the smilodon, and his bear "brother" Enyata talking by the edge of a lake. There were some tense introductions - Yuura was wary, but managed to contain herself, settling for slaking her curiosity by asking questions.

Yuura had an episode of her concussion making her confused and wound up in the desert, by the oasis. To her surprise (and ire) Erebos casually greeted her and they somehow managed to have a conversation that didn't devolve into violence, with the black cat warning her about several plots in motion. She still doesn't trust him in the slightest... But believes his information may be valid.

She continued to wander from the caverns frequently - meeting Chestnut, Aleese and Venator on one trip. She'd made a kill on an elk, the first successful hunt she'd had for weeks, and desperately scarfed the food. Chestnut was appalled by this - but approached her anyway, much to Yuura's amusement. A rather awkward conversation ensued, with Yuura teasing the bird slightly until Venator appeared with fish in tow. He presented one to Yuura much to her delight and the bird's confusion. Yuura warned Chestnut of her father and the cultists, but before much else could be said Aleese leapt from the bushes, meaning to playfully surprise her two friends. Yuura immediately reacted with aggression, slamming a paw on the earth and snarling, which freaked out Chestnut enough she made the most ungodly noise - an entelodont scream, meant to terrify predators. Everyone had a bad time and was startled. Thankfully, the chaos devolved pretty quickly into Aleese, Yuura and Chestnut discussing their ways of life and group dynamics, until Venator got bored and started climbing around on Yuura's back, chewing her armor. She excused herself to take the cub home.

Once back in the jungle, Yuura checked in with her pride after ensuring Venator reached his family safely, and warned Skoyro of the dangers. He shared that he'd seen the strange painted cats very close to the den, much to Yuura's disquiet, and a massive flying beast neither of them could identify. Yuura matched this with information Erebos had given her in the desert, the mystery deepening. She excused herself to do a border patrol.

While patrolling, she followed the scent of blood and found that Carnage and his brother Enyeto had made a kill in her territory. This didn't really impress her, though she wasn't particularly angry either. She informed them of the status of the jungle and allowed her curiosity to draw her a little closer to speak with them and question them, hoping they'd seen or heard something. They hadn't, but they offered to help her keep an eye out for trouble - surprised at their offer of help, she tentatively accepted and allowed them passage on her land.


----


Before she could return from re-marking the boundaries though and let Skoyro know of this arrangement, she decided to take a nap. She was wakened by voices - following them, she found none other than the painted felines. The armored smilodon stalked them from a distance, watching them hunt a tapir. One of them, a pale male with brightly colored paints, wandered away from the group to investigate a flower, and Yuura accosted him. To her surprise, he was quite friendly - though he seemed confused that she didn't know who he was or what his paint stood for.  Yuura tried to wheedle some information out of him, discovering that he was part of a cult that named themselves after their chosen deities, he was in charge of painting his comrades, and that they spoke the same language as Necalli.

The others soon came to investigate the smilodon once they'd heard her talking, and Yuura found herself outnumbered six to one. She tried to defuse the situation as things got a bit dubious by spouting some words in Nahuatl she'd heard Necalli say - this seemed to confuse and relax the cultists slightly, and they came closer to investigate her armor. She then said the wrong thing when asked a question, prompting a hostile response - Yuura, figuring that violence would come soon, let out a roar to stun them and a brief scuffle with no injuries on either side ensued as some of the more skittish members either ran up a tree or hid on the sidelines. Neither side seemed to understand what the hell was going on, and the jaguars were unwilling to assault Yuura after she'd demonstrated she WOULD kill them if pushed. After some more awkward talk, the situation was defused again, and Yuura sent them packing.

An unamused Yuura sulked in the jungle for a bit more - she was accosted by Karvo, who greeted her happily and told her of some unsettling happenings. He asked her to go bug hunting, which she did not technically agree to, but he decided to use her as a transportation for his bugs anyway. A noise alerted her to the prescence of another painted jaguar hauling a cargo of fruit through her jungle - Yuura reacted with immediate displeasure and hostility, challenging him on being back in her jungle - but found it was not the same as the ones she had chased away before. What's more, this one seemed markedly friendlier, andeven offered her some fermented marula fruit. Yuura initially eyed it with intense suspicion, believing it to be poison - but he managed to coax her into trying it with words and demonstrating himself how to eat them. Yuura snapped it up and found she quite liked the pleasant buzz, so asked for another. They chatted quite amicably, Yuura learning some things about the cultists as she did so and getting quite drunk from the fermented fruit. It was peaceful until Tezcatlipoca appeared again - dumping something on his brother Ome's head and telling Yuura he didn't believe she owned the jungle.
Understandably, Yuura was pissed by this, but mellowed enough by intoxication that she settled merely for firing a mushroom cap at his head after he dumped it on hers and halfheartedly threatened to bite his legs off.

The influence of the fruit made Yuura drowsy - so after Tez departed and after some more chatter, Yuura decided to try and stumble her way back home in merry spirits. By some miracle, she did not fall into a puddle and drown, and spent the rest of the next day sleeping off her hangover.

She returned to the jungle, having redoubled her patrols for fear of the cultists' influence growing. She encountered Carnage and Enyeto again - overhearing them talking as they strolled through the jungle. Yuura, baffled by such lighthearted, benign talk, stalked them for fun until Carnage suddenly "attacked" Enyeto and gave her pause. They were just playing however, and once the bear had sent his brother flying into a puddle the golden smilodon made her appearance. She tried to be a bit more friendly this time - and was relieved to find her tentative approach returned. They chatted - Yuura offering half-jokingly to teach them how to fight, amused by Carnage's sloppy charge at Enyeto. They politely declined, and returned to banter. Sprawled out on the grass, Yuura found herself suddenly assaulted! Something pounced on her, and she reacted in her typical explosive fashion, spinning and roaring, sending a reflexive blow to smash the head of whatever had attacked her... Only to find it was Ometotchtli, who had pounced on her in play. Luckily, the jaguar was agile enough to dodge her instinctive counterstrike, though Enyeto and Carnage got a fright and the bear also added in to the audio nuke by bolting upright and roaring. The jaguar apologized profusely, but found himself stonewalled by Carnage and Enyeto. He explained his prescence to an unimpressed Yuura and slunk off, feeling rather unwelcome. Carnage and Enyeto departed soon after - prompting Ometotchtli's descent from his tree to speak with her again.

Yuura was a bit less grouchy now, and they spoke for a while. Yuura found herself enthralled by Ome's tales of how things worked back where he was from, and Ome admitted he had been worried about her. Yuura tried to fend these worries off with humor - largely unsuccessfully. Another form would slink past - at first unnoticed by Yuura. It was Skoyro, accompanied by Karvo and Zian. Yuura heard him growl in passing - much to her confusion. Ometotchtli expressed his desire to leave if he was causing problems and Yuura was a little torn about this...
She decided to go after Skoyro and speak with him - to her distress, he was downright hostile. He accused her of not listening to anything he'd said, of trusting the cultists over him, of wanting to abandon the pride. This struck a nerve within Yuura and she tried to deny it all - but Skoyro revealed Yuura had ignored his roar when he tried to call her a few days ago. Confused, Yuura claimed to have simply not heard - but he did not seem to believe her. The dinofelis continued to vent at her - revealing he'd thought about leaving and taking the cubs, that he didn't trust her, that he thought she'd changed since she went into the caverns. Yuura didn't know how to explain herself to him, but tearfully tried to refute all his points - yes, she had been lead to believe abandoning her pride was probably in her best interest... But she couldn't bring herself to do it. She was torn - and only felt more betrayed by Skoyro's anger. The confrontation finally drew to a close - Skoyro seeming to realise his words had genuinely hurt her, and Yuura coming to understand how her actions could have been misinterpreted. He asked three things of her - her trust, her friendship, and her response to his calls. Yuura readily agreed, reiterating that the only reason she had not come was because she hadn't heard - she'd never failed to respond in the past!

Skoyro left for the den with the cubs - Yuura to her horror, realised Chestnut had been present the entire time, sheltering Zian and Karvo from the argument, and Ometotchtli had witnessed the whole thing from his hiding place in the tree. Yuura slumped to the earth, utterly done with everything. Ometotchtli approached again and tried to cheer her up - which seemed to work... But he departed soon to collect marula, and she too left to follow Skoyro.

----

Skoyro and Yuura didn't talk much the next day - though Yuura wanted to try and repair the rift, she didn't know how. They were alerted to the prescence of an intruder by loud calling through the jungle - a voice Yuura recognized. With Skoyro, she set off to investigate, and found Lath lost by a tree. Much surprised, Yuura greeted her and then escorted her back to relative safety at the Silvestre den, explaining where she was and to Skoyro who she was... Though she omitted what exactly Lath had done to her. She didn't want to be put through another mental breakdown again, but couldn't just leave the blind mesonyx there either, so she helped her find water to clean her muddy fur with while Skoyro hunted a Tapir. The three talked for a while, and were joined by Akumu - the deaf cub from the caverns, much to Yuura's bafflement. Skoyro explained that Muura had adopted him, which baffled her even more. He tossed leaves around on everyone in "greeting". Lath seemed to know him too, which struck her as amusing, as she had also been staying with Saraen by the sounds of it.

The beasts ate the Tapir in relative peace until a disturbance in the water caught Yuura's attention - to her horror, she beheld a leviathan the likes of which she had never seen before. The whale easily tore to pieces a massive rhino-like creature that had strayed too close to the deeper part of the water and after beginning to feed, noticed Skoyro and Yuura watching and swam over. It spoke - much to both's surprise - in a slow, ponderous voice, speaking in riddles and metaphors. It seemed to dislike the sounds of the cat's voices, and mocked their inability to 'sing' as a whale. Yuura's initial terror faded as she realised the beast was confined to the deeper channels of the jungle, and she grew quite flippant - even after the whale sent a great wave at her and Skoyro with her tail. The whale was joined by another sea monster - a massive shark. The shark seemed more aggressive, speaking in a foreign tongue and displaying its teeth at Yuura, something she reciprocated, taking it as a challenge. The whale seemed amused by this and graced them with its name - Mordukast -  though Skoyro had by then lost interest and wandered back into the den, Yuura was fascinated watching the sea creatures interact.

The whale left for deeper waters, but the shark remained - seeming quite interested in speaking to Yuura, something that intrigued her. Curious about the strange world this beast had arisen from, she asked many questions and they talked for quite some time. The shark - Malvolia - warned her of dangerous creatures that could come to her den from the sea, creatures like Ambulocetus, of which Yuura had never heard of before. Yuura noted the beast getting hungry and offered it part of a mastodon carcass, which it accepted greedily. Arya appeared, shocked by the creature's appearance, and a stray cub named Michelle happened past.

Yuura watched the sea-beasts swim around some more the next morning - confused and fascinated by them. Chestnut happened past, and Lath went for an accidental swim. The timid bird lurked on the sidelines for a time, scared of the massive sea predators and the predators in general. A voice then rang out from above the den - Tezcatlipoca, sent by Estavan, had come to collect Lath and bring her back to the labyrinth. Much to Yuura's annoyance, this was announced on top of her den - taking offence, she scaled the structure and after some bickering the two fought, leaping from root to root a good 30 feet in the air, much to the alarm of everyone below except the whale and the mesonyx, who thought the pair idiots. Much to everyone elses' confusion, Lath, Mordukast and Chestnut began to sing together to try and drown out the noise of the fight.

The fight ended when Yuura pulled a kamikaze stunt - allowing Tezcatlipoca to latch onto her paw, she grappled with him and threw both herself and the jaguar off the top of the den into some roots. She had intended to pummel him into submission once caught by vines, but the vine canopy could not stand under the weight of a large smilodon and a large jaguar, and the two plummeted. Yuura landed on top of Tez, sparing her from most of the injuries, but the jaguar was knocked out cold and suffered a broken paw as well as a concussion. Lath chewed Yuura out for the situation and Chestnut tried to help the jaguar, placing him in Yuura's bed, much to her annoyance.

Lath then kicked Yuura out of her own den to have words with the jaguar, much to Yuura's annoyance. The golden smilodon wanted to protest, but Lath's sharp tongue reminded her she would not win a verbal battle and so she left into the jungle to sulk. When Lath caught up with her, much to Yuura's relief she didn't give her another breakdown - but she DID knock it pretty firmly into her head that she had to stop being so aggressive, stop  thinking that the world was her enemy, and if she didn't stop bottling things up she would go mad. Yuura begrudgingly accepted this - Lath shared with her some knowledge of her past and wandered off into the jungle singing a haunting lullaby, which Yuura found extremely soothing.

Of course, repose didn't last because Mfuasi decided to pounce on Lath as she walked and try to play with her, causing Yuura to threaten to feed him to a nearby Malvolia.

---


Yuura went patrolling and encountered two young rogues - one of which was announcing to his brother how he couldn't wait to take over the jungle. Yuura, understandably, was only slightly amused by this and along with Muura, she sent the two smilodon packing. To Yuura's surprise, Mei heard her roar or warning and came running to greet her - she was pleased to see her friend again after so long, though she was concerned by the collection of scars the bear had accumulated. They parted after Yuura caught Mei up to the events on the peninsula and the bear offered her pride sanctuary if they should need it by the coast.

Returning to the den found Skoyro frustrated and pissy about Tezcatlipoca being in the den - he expressed a desire to break the rest of the cultist's paws, and though Yuura tried to reassure him she had everything under control, he did not seem to believe her. While trying to stop the concussed cat from running off and killing himself, an american lioness appeared - Yuura assumed she was a threat at first, but wasn't quite able to do anything about it because of a delirious jaguar trying to run away from hallucinated fire. Exasperated, she hurriedly accepted Azahira and went back to trying to bring Tez back to his senses.

Muura brought Gajeel to her a few days later, and after some trepidation she accepted him into her pride as well. A cub was also discovered - Lani - And was taken in by the Silvestre. Yuura was pleased to see Arya and Lani got along well, and as they played she decided to send Azahira and Skoyro out hunting together since the pride was growing. However, the sound of shouting maybe 20 minutes later... Revealed that instead of going out and catching food, they'd decided to stand around arguing much to Yuura's annoyance. When Yuura confronted them, Skoyro ran off - Yuura asked Azahira to watch the cubs and hurried after him.

When she found Skoyro, she was alarmed to see how agitated he was - he confessed they had been fighting over where to hunt and that he hadn't wanted to go to the grasslands because he had a crippling fear of bears. This was new to Yuura, and she tried to reassure him and calm him down a bit. He went back to the den, and Yuura decided she would do the hunting herself. While searching for prey, she came across Enyeto and Carnage. Pleased to see them, she bantered for a moment with them before announcing her intentions to hunt for her pride. They offered to help her and the three of them managed to bag some okapi. Carnage seemed to be unsettled by something, Enyeto having to comfort him, much to Yuura's bemusement. She checked in with the two and they hauled the meat back to the pride's den...

... But before she could explain the situation, Skoyro scented Enyeto and flipped every last one of his shits. Panicking, he grabbed Karvo and leapt on top of the den, cowering. Yuura tried to talk him down and convince him Enyeto was no threat - which worked for the cubs, Arya bravely snuggling right up to the massive predator - but Skoyro only grew more agitated until Yuura felt the need to climb up after him and try to bring him down herself. He seemed to be hallucinating - To her surprise, Tezcatlipoca brought up some skullcaps for them, and after feeding them to the dinofelis he was un-treed safely. Exhausted by the drama of the day though, Yuura decided to take a nap before going after Carnage and Enyeto, and accidentally slept through to the next day.

---


- Yuura oversaw a spar between Tahkin and Arya
- Skoyro went nuts, hallucinated bears, and slashed Yuura - he ran off into teh jungle, so did Yuura in delirium
- A cub stole food from the den - Skoyro went berserk and killed her
- Yuura ran off into the jungle in a panic, was found by Carnage , Arya and Tahkin - she initially snarled and spat at all of them, but Carnage was able to calm her. She started to have seizures though and Gajeel was sent to fetch some herbs... Getting lost in the process. By the time he returned, Yuura was delirious and passed out.
- Yuura awoke with Arya still nearby, having dragged herself under a log. She was still suffering, but managed to stay lucid for a little while. She and Arya were alerted to the prescence of a dire wolf puppy by it whining and howling, barking for its mother. Fearing it would bring predators, and feeling sorry for it, Yuura took her in. She named her Aster, and made to take her back to the den with Arya... But Tahkin managed to piss off a daedon enough that it charged the pride and in the ensuing combat Yuura, a dire wolf named Connor and Tezcatlipoca fought the beast to the death. Connor was hit by friendly fire from Yuura when she went berserk, and had his tail ripped off by the hell-pig. Yuura meanwhile was badly bitten on the lower back and ragdolled around, also taking a bite to the left hind leg. She will walk with a limp for the rest of her life.
- Yuura passed out from blood loss and the effects of the poison still in her system - not helped by the kick to the head the Daedon had given her as a parting gift.
- A strange beast was sighted in the jungle covered in spiders. A tense staredown ensued, with the intruder eventually walking off, presumably bored with Yuura's antics.

Yuura was visited by the ghost of her dead daughter, Leia. Distraught to see another of her dead children stuck roaming the earth, she just tried to keep her happy while she was there. She began talking to Tezcatlipoca as Yuura looked on watchfully, and the cultist handled the ghost's prescence better than Yuura did. To Yuura's horror though, she faded away into the sunlight after what felt like only a few moments. Yuura slumped to the earth, mourning her dead daughter all over again.

It was then that Tezcatlipoca approached, and mentioned he might know of a way to set a spirit to rest. Yuura eagerly jumped at this chance - desperate to help her children finally find peace, she was willing to do anything, willing to believe anything. The cultist mentioned a few things that could be done if the bones were found - but Yuura knew they couldn't be... The last option offered was thus; Kill the murderer of the children. Tear their heart out of their chest and have it weighed by the gods, while they are torn apart as cubs in punishment.
Yuura did not need any convincing - feeling like she couldn't possibly allow herself to live knowing her selfishness could keep her children stuck on earth forever, she agreed to the ritual and asked Tezcatlipoca to help her perform it... Though he did not at first know he was wanted to kill her.
Even though the manner of death was horrible and painful, Yuura was willing to submit to it, because she desperately wanted to atone, to try and make up for one of her biggest failures. She finally asked Tezcatlipoca to come away from the other pride members and when they were out of earshot of the cubs, he accused her of being the murderer, having seen the guilt in her eyes. She didn't try to deny it - instead telling him the whole story and what she had done exactly. She repeated again that she was glad to be slaughtered if it would give her children peace, but Tezcatlipoca disagreed this time, telling her a mercy killing would not be appropriate for such a ritual. He offered to look into alternatives for her, which Yuura desperately clung to. She is still willing to do anything to help her dead children... Even if it means being tortured to death.

Death wasn't to come to the physically and emotionally wounded cat tonight, though - something cried out in the rain, and Yuura recognized the noise as a frightened cub's call. She found a young female with golden fur and green eyes - unsettlingly similar in appearance to one of her daughters. Yuura, glad for a distraction, and perhaps feeling there was some reason this little creature had turned up in her den, took her inside out of the rain and fed her. She gave her the name Yarrow, for her light golden coloring and lively personality.

---

Tahkin approached Yuura - begging for forgiveness, but Yuura was in no mood to hear excuses. The lioness had known what she was doing, and in doing it nearly killed the whole pride. Yuura banished her, never to return to their territory on pain of death, and the lioness ran off crying to the mountains.
The smilodon Markusi was seen stumbling around in the jungle again - Yuura sent Skoyro after him to see if he'd accept help, but he didn't. Figuring it was his own loss, the Silvestre left him to it. Yuura was confined to the den area for the while, her wounds basically leaving her crippled while they healed. She went for a walk in the jungle to be alone for a while and was found by Skoyro - they reconciled a bit, and Yuura accepted his insistence that her poisoning had been an accident - though she warned him he could not be allowed to be a threat and she had to think of the safety of the pride as a whole. There was a brief conflict with a wolf who strayed too close to the den, but she was sent off without violence... If not a little menacing.

The next few days were pretty peaceful. Yuura befriended Carnage and Enyeto in earnest, the former opening up to her a little more.

Saraen was caught near her den - Yuura immediately suspected foul play and was quite prepared to wring answers out of them, but before they could accomplish much it seemed everyone in a mile's radius jumped in to stop her menacing Saraen. Two gracilis and Aleese, as well as a ghost - Baffled, Yuura turned her attention to the twin smilodon who eventually enraged her into trying to smack them both in the face. At their roar however, there was the brief appearance of Kumo Toka, who made it clear the smilodon were under his protection and there would be dire repercussions to harming them. Undeterred, Yuura began to argue with him about their prescence, unwilling to back down to close to her den. In the end though he managed to strongarm Yuura into an uneasy alliance, though it will likely only last as long as it takes for Yuura to find out a way to neutralize them.


- Yuura stalked Erebos and he hinted to her that an attack was coming, took about 50 years for it to sink in
- Stuff happened, Skritch was recruited into the pride
- Yuura met Neron, warned him about impending doom
- Yuura warned Skoyro of Impending Doom and also sought out Kumo Toka to warn HIM about Impending Doom and ask for help
- Visited Estavan, he tried to teach Yuura how to be a Proper Lady
- Some more stuff I can't really remember right now lol, wasn't an asshole to Tezcatlipoca, fun times with Carnage and Enyeto
- A wild Senemora appears! Yuura mistakes for prey and considers hunting. Distracted by a roar, interpreted as a challenger - turns out to be Ragnvaldr "returning" Necalli to her, much to her confusion.
- Ragn wanders off, Yuura is offended, feeds Necalli and Adowa with a crocodile.
- Yuu decides croc is a viable food source and hunts some more, but is distracted by Enyeto running around in a fluster - he reveals Carnage has gone missing. Together, they comb the entire damn peninsula and learn a bit about eachother. They eventually find him in the abandoned den to the north of the rocky mountains, where he is entertaining Calla. Calla spooks Yuura and proceeds to be adorably annoying to everyone, runs off into the jungle leading Yuura to try and catch her. Calla dissapears into the sunlight.
- Yuura hears Ragnvaldr roaring again, goes to confront him. He gives her a horse - Yuura decides to stalk him instead. She follows him to the edge of hte jungle where he keels over in a trance-like state. She considers eating him, but decides to try and drag him somewhere safer instead. He wakes up to Arya and Maji bounding over like "wut" and fucks off again after Yuura releases him. Yuura yells questions after him, and unwilling to 'lose', follows him as he passes throguh the meadow. She gets distracted by Saraen and tries to be nice - predictably, Saraen is very confused and very angry. Decides "well fuck you too lol" and wanders off after giving them a warning about Sikario.
- A visit to Estavan! Yuura tries to bring him some stuff she thinks might be kangaroo food and a crocodile pelt. They sit and talk, and Estavan encourages her to try and track down Raggy again. She did, and became so confused and annoyed at him that she tried to attack him - which only baffled her more when he did not retaliate.
- Yuura talks to some Silvestre, goes to annoy Raggy again. Tries to take him a present of meat - but he doesn't accept it, and continues to ignore her. She stalks him again until he gives up and goes to sleep in a den, where she waits. Eventually, she meets a mysterious black jaguar and then gets enraged when Rag STILL refuses to fight back when attacked. She talks some more with Xolotl the jaguar, and learns he is of Tezcatlipoca's cult but hasn't apparently come with the rest of them from their home. She chews Ragnvaldr out, but decides not to kill him because she recognizes that he, like her, is broken. She has no intention of letting this stop her from annoying him thoguh - and threatens to scruff him like a cub and take him back home with her if he doesn't stop acting like a dying swan and sleeping out in the rain and mud.
- Kaisza interrupts this strange battle of wills, Yuura returns to the jungle with her and fills her in on the looming threat. She takes a nap, then goe sto find Tezcatlipoca and warn him of the black jaguar.
- Stuff happens. Stalking Raggy becomes Yuura's favorite game.  He tells her about the sea and its creatures, then they sing a duet to a whale until they're interrupted by Azahira and Kaisza. Yuura takes them back to the den and makes them spar since they clearly have too much free time. Tezcatlipoca bluescreens when Yuura taunts him and accidentally hits a button, then Mordukast shows up and is an ass.
- Yuura decides to go and talk to Raggy again. This time she stalks him and is told about his religion. Accidental button pressing on both sides.
- Raggy and Yuura go and sing to a whale! Whale takes Yuura on a magical undersea journey to show her what a noob she is. Yuura is awestruck.
- Bonding/training time with the pride



-------

Lots of stuff happened; Yarnage fuel, training, fun times with social lessons and marula fruit, and then SIKARIO ATTACKS! Yuura leads a squad to meet the invasions head-on. 4 out of 20 invaders were killed, no defenders died. Wasp was cut up, Azahira's ribs were broken and the Nameless Bear was almost killed. Carnage announces he has to leave - Yuura freaks out

- More battles! Tlazolteotl is killed, but many of Sikario's forces are slain in return. Yuura learns of the prisoners. Saraen joing the rebellion
- Some downtime - the rebels plan, Yuura abuses Nymphirados's link with her mate to check up on Carnage's progress. Yuura is kidnapped by Quetzalcoatl and the beast demands she bow in service or be eaten. Yuura is confused as to what the hell they want from her, but agrees because she was helping the jaguars anyway. Yuura meets Carnage's little sister, Citlali, after she washes up on the beach.
- While plotting how to break out the prisoners, the unexpected arrival of a single hyenadon wearing Kouden's jadeite necklace startles everyone. Upon being captured, the creature tells them the guards have defected - after Nym confirms this by checking in with Kouden, the hyenadon is allowed to return to their squad. Ametrine's pack and Rowtag's squad join the rebellion, and bring the prisoners home with them.
- Yuura speaks with Nymphirados, seeking advice - the conversation later devolves into Yuura and Carnage trading flirty messages back and forth, much to the ghost's affront. Muura happens across her talking to what appears to be thin air - Yuura is overjoyed to see her, but things swiftly take an awful turn. Muura implodes and goes off at Yuura - and Yuura reacts badly. They are both caught up in memory and flashbacks, and Yuura attacks her adopted daughter savagely in blind fury. On coming around, she realises Muura had tried to drown herself to escape from her and fishes her out. Muura does not accept her terrified apology and passes out - Yuura rushes her to Kouden, who treats her before the golden smilodon wanders off...

Yuura spent the next day in near catatonia until she was found by Nymphirados, who attempted to ease her troubled mind. It didn't really work - Yuura spilled the secret as to why she had been reacting so explosively as of late, and was frustrated by the fact Nym seemed to think this was something that could be controlled - she did however decide to stay and try to fight... Though she kept it to herself that she had no intentions of surviving this war, deciding there was no place on this world for a vicious monster like herself.

She remained by the den - not speaking to anyone, until a ghost appeared to her - Kashmir, Muura's mother. Fearing the worst, Yuura demanded to know how she was, but the dead smilodon revealed she was ok - after furiously chewing out Yuura for attacking her daughter of course - and that she wanted to see her. Yuura reluctantly agreed to go, upon which Kouden shoved several calming herbs down her throat and oversaw their talk, realising that both Muura and Yuura were suffering from a condition he had seen before that was aggravated by the stress of the war. The two reconciled and opened up to each other about what exactly they had seen that had caused them to attack so viciously. Clinging to her desperately, Yuura vowed to fight for her as long as she was able, to kill anyone who dared hunt her, and that they would stand together as the only two broken souls who truly understood each other.

Yuura returned in slightly better spirits to speak with Tezcatlipoca and inquire about what the hell the deal was with her now and the jaguar warriors. He explained to her that she was basically a bodyguard, and told her several important things... Also suggesting that she could perhaps help guard a precious object.

She wandered away and was followed by the curious Zyvaika, who she decided to spook for fun. They casually spoke for a while, before a rustle got Yuura's attention and she turned to see that they had been watched... By none other than HER FATHER, Noakom. An overwhelmed Yuura tried to speak briefly, demanding an answer for why he had abandoned their pride, never tried to look for her or her mother and he callously replied that it was the logical thing to do and that she was a fool for trying to lead and stand up against Sikario. That she should jsut leave them to their fate too. This enraged her to the point of attacking, and the two fought viciously in a tangle of claws and teeth - Yuura's usual skill and precision thoroughly stolen by her fury, and her father proving surprisingly tough, enough to fight her on equal footing.

Zyvaika tried to intervene, bodyslamming the two cats to try and help Yuura, and they were broken up. Noakom took the chance to flee - Yuura tried to chase, but collapsed by the water's edge before she could swim after him.

When she came back to her senses, she was desolate. Heartbroken that she had failed to avenge her mother, and that he seemed so utterly uncaring about what he had done, she sat alone and unmoving for hours, lost in her dark thoughts. Nymphirados appeared again, and after some effort finally managed to get her talking. The conversation took a vicious turn, Yuura vehemenly declaring the need to cause as much pain to her father as possible. Nymph assured her that she would teach the troubled smilodon the ways of poison if she were only to ask, the ways of inflicting unspeakable agony with a single swipe.
Yuura gladly latched onto the opportunity, and between them they hatched ideas on how best to punish Noakom. Yuura hit upon the idea of using Angel Trumpet like she had once been struck with to destroy his mind and cause him terrible suffering - deciding that the most karmatic fate for him would be to make him suffer like she'd suffered, to completely destroy him and then abandon him in the desert to wander lost and confused, with no memory to guide him and no idea who he was or what he was doing. She quietly nurses her hate and anger, longing for the day when she can get revenge.

She spent the next few days quietly preparing her vengance, speaking with Nymphirados and Tezcatlipoca about how best to handle her poisons of choice, and obtained an entire Angel Trumpet bush which she is keeping by the water's edge near her den. Tez and Yuura continued to plot war ideas, the jaguar telling her about his intent to send someone after the slavemaster to cut off the supply of bodies to Sikario's army.

Yuura was interrupted trying to prepare poisons by Nymphirados, who suddenly ran off somewhere, much to Yuura's confusion. Upon following her, she found Enyeto - happy to see him and his bear allies, she was still dissapointed when he told her Carnage was not coming home yet - wrestling increasingly confused emotions. But then, Enyeto ran off too - baffled, Yuura followed...

And found that unbeknownst to his brother, Carnage HAD followed! Overjoyed, Yuura rushed him like a happy cub and tackled him, greeting him with enthusiasm and exclaiming her pleasure to see him, injured though he was. They talked, but upon returning to the den were interrupted and he excused himself to think, much to Yuura's confusion. Yuura warily tried to interact with a happy little ocelot that happened across her and Aleese with a gift of fish - she would have gladly accepted it any other time, but on-edge as she was lately she was forced to flee when she had a sudden panic attack. Fearing she would "trigger"

She took shelter under a tree root off on the other side of the jungle until the anxiety and palpitations passed - deep in worried thought, she was pulled back to reality by a voice crying out. Curiousity overwhelmed her desire to flee and be alone, and she found herself stalking what appeared to be a very distressed Carnage.

-------

- YARNAGE, interrupted by Quetz and Tez
- Plotting
- Yarnage to the MAX; finally they choke it out
- Fishing trip with Yuura, Tez and Carnage goes wrong - Yuura is mauled by a shark trying to lure fish with blood, and her tail is bitten off.
- A raven steals Yuura's tail and wears it as a scarf, scares Tanga, Citlali appears with a present from Granny Nymp
- Yuura and Carnage get yellow flowered - the inevitable happens... Forgotten onlookers are horrified
- AWKWARD CONVERSATIONS, Yuura quietly freaks out
- Yuura finds Carnage broken down and mauled on the coast - freaks out, tries to console him, then confrontation with grannyghost happens and Yuura Logic comes out in force
- Lots of stuff, no violence, however Yuura starts wandering outside Lazarus more
- Yuura bumps into Estavan - is distraught when he doesn't recognize her and tries to kill her. Yuura can't bring herself to fight seriously, and chooses to finally flee after both have been battered and cut up.
- Yuura accidentally stumbles over Carnage and Enyeto performing a ritual with sage and copal burning - Yuura freaks out, flashbacks, and tries to "save" the ghosts in her memory, resulting in much confusion and a meeting with Diana.

---

Events pass in a blur, with more combat between the rebels and Sikario's army. The rebel's army is bolstered by reinforcements from Tikalriman, courtesy of her new mate.  Yuura however becomes increasingly unstable, as shadows from her past are sighted around the peninsula...

---

After attempting to kill Tezcatlipoca, Chiuacoatl and Wasp in the grip of a flashback, Yuura becomes withdrawn and frightened. Her mind continues to crumble and break down - not helped by the fact Pavier suggests she might be pregnant. Desperate to end things before she completely loses all control of herself, she reveals a hidden weakness to Carnage and Tezcatlipoca so that if she does rampage, she can be put down easily.

Under her command, the rebel army storms the meadow while a diversion force wreaks havoc in the forest - the operation is a resounding success, with only seven losses on the side of Lazarus and fourty-five on Sikario's. Emboldened, everyone takes a moment to breathe after the chaos of late.

Yuura gets no rest, however - her ability to distinguish past from present continues to decay. Enyeto finally confirms that she is certainly pregnant, which gives her mixed emotions - as if to drive the dagger deeper, she is also haunted again by the ghost of Leia. Greatly distressed, Tezcatlipoca manages to trigger another painful flashback while the dead cub wailed for her mother, thinking she was dying. Attempts are made by Carnage and his allies to help her, soothe her - but they don't seem to be strong enough.

It wouldn't be the last episode either - Yuura's flashbacks continued to break down her mind, happening increasingly frequently as she learned of several new developments. The lions continued to loom, both physically and in her nightmares, and Yuura resorted to muzzling herself and hiding away from her pride out of fear she would hurt everyone.

It was on one such lonely wandering that she found herself near the forest, and bumped into someone while investigating the traces of the lions - Erebos! The eusmilus was shocked to see how aged and battered and haunted she looked, though he said nothing about it. Yuura considered killing him on the spot just to be on the safe side, but decided to interrogate him about the lions instead - having been told that someone named "Erebos" was looking for slaves, she naturally assumed that this eusmilus was the one who had tipped off the lions about her, as they commonly took slaves.

Erebos was NOT amused by this and began to shout furiously that he would never work with lions, spewing hatred for them in greek. Yuura didn't believe him at first, but she could feel the emotion was genuine - then, she decided to tip him off to the prescence of the painted lions, warning him to kill them on sight. Erebos let slip that the general was going to die in a few days, and Yuura hurriedly took this information back to her rebels, planning to make use of the chaos to finally crush Sikario's army.

It turned out she didn't need to - as Yuura tried to get a strike force ready, Sikario's armies withdrew on their own. Before they left though, they scorched the grasslands. Yuura didn't believe that the peninsula was truly safe again, but she brought the refugees home anyway to keep them under better guard.

---

She was finally able to relax in the coming weeks, and set about preparing for her cub's arrival. She set up a hidden den in an old whale ribcage and though the quietness of the jungle made her lonely, she was glad that she could recover from her stress. Her mental condition steadily improves, though her enemies have not been idle either...

Paranormal activity seized the peninsula - Yuura found herself hassled by ghosts repeatedly. One - a grey eusmilus that only spoke latin - kept trying to force flashbacks onto her, much to her distress, in an attempt to communicate what he wanted. Yuura did not understand much more than there was a lot of shit going on with a bunch of dead eusmiluses and her nemesis, Erebos.

An unusual sight met her around hte same time - a lone terror bird, fearlessly investigating her den. When confronted, it didn't appear aggressive or able to speak. Yuura used her experiences of trying to control the terror bird chicks to try and communicate with the feral bird, but all that ended up happening was she learned his name - Fidus - and that he was apparently a trained pet. She assumed he was an escaped slave, and decided to let him hang around. However, more terror birds showed up which were a lot less manageable - Yuura had a few hairy moments where they nearly attacked her, but it turned out that Fidus was the alpha of the pack and he remained friendly to her, which eventually swayed the pack. Yuura discovered that it was actually quite pleasant to hunt with the pack and run with the feral birds - though she still doesn't have a clue where they came from.

Yuura went into labor a few days early - retreating to her hidden den after a hunting trip with the terror birds, she gave birth to four healthy cubs and will remain there to raise them until they are old enough to be introduced to others. But something is after them already....

Even though she spent most of her days a watchful guardian of her brood, Yuura occasionally left her cub's side to feed or drink or stretch her legs. It was on one of these days that she found something... A severed head near her den. But not just any head - it was the head of Manowari, one of the figures that haunted her nightmares. Investigating it, her emotions a maelstrom, she was called out to. It turned out the raptor Lord and Tezcatlipoca had tracked down the painted lions after they captured her adopted daughter, Muura. Muura had been tortured for information, but was rescued without too much harm and both lions were disposed of. Overjoyed, Yuura thanked the raptor profusely and had a long conversation with him, learning some interesting tidbits about the aztec's motives...

Settling into a peaceful rhythm, Yuura finally allowed herself to relax as she raised her cubs for the next few months, rarely leaving them. But the world was shifting with or without her - once they were weaned, and uneasy about the prospect of looming trouble, she began to make more appearances outside of her territory and ventured further from home.

She attempted to reconcile with Muura in the caverns, but was unable to keep her composture and excused herself early.

Peace was not to last.

Months flew by and Yuura protected her pride and children as best she could - though everything changed one evening when she discovered one of her adventurous children had gone missing and had been all day. Fearing for the cub's life, Yuura traced the faint trail to the edge of the mountains, and knowing the sun would set and the rain would wash evidence away if she did not press on, she forged onwards into the mountains...

A famine and a war passed back in her territory, Yuura missing for the entirety of it. Where did she go? Something surely happened.


A worrying clue to Yuura's fate was turned up in Obice Mountains by a curious feline - her precious hare-bone necklace, a gift from her adopted daughter Arya, trampled into the earth stained crimson on the banks of a river... And besides it, something unnatural.

Further revelations in the Obice mountains have revealed the possibility that Yuura has been either killed or taken captive by intruders in the mountains who have constructed a terrible den of death and sickness for themselves in a cave system. The dissapearance of predators and prey alike in the area has been found. Creatures mutilated horribly have been found dead and in the thrall of these twisted invaders - though with the level of modification to their bodies even the living ones cannot possibly last long. Could Yuura have met with a terrible fate at their paws?

---