Beauty of the Beast

#7

**up top is what Blue looks like**

Nimble and alert, Blue dodged the incoming attack with the grace and elegance like that of the best athletes. Grasping hold of a branch, she pulled herself up into the tree, moving onto the next in the blink of an eye. Jumping through the branches, till she made it across the clearing, feet not once touching the ground.

Balthazar crashed into the tree she had previously occupied, nearly snapping the massive trunk in half due to his momentum and size. Shaking off the pain, he gathered himself and scouted the clearing for any signs of the female. Prowling slowly and carefully, sights set on his target. He let out a rumbling, warning growl, the offending shifter female was as good as dead.

"Care to elaborate on why you're attacking?" Blue's voice resonated through the clearing, her lithe form hidden in the leafy foliage.

Growling in frustration, Balthazar paced about the clearing, making sure to keep his body in front of the house at all times, couldn't let the deranged female have an opportunity to attack his Sadie. Too large in his shifted form, to go inside the house and protect Sadie there, he had no choice but to stand guard outside. It had not escaped his notice that Sadie had ventured forth into the doorway and was currently observing his growling and tense form standing guard in front of her. He didn't want to dwell on that fact for he was sure that even the very thought of her being in the same area as a possible threat was going to set him off.

"Blue, he figured out how you threatened me!" Sadie suddenly shouted, running past him and into the centre of the clearing; paying absolutely no heed to his livid form desperately trying to herd her fragile self back into the safety of the house.

"That's it?" Blue jumped down from a tree halfway across the trees lining the clearing from all sides. "And here I thought it was something important."

Snarling in outrage, Balthazar strategically placed himself in front of his human. In all the battles he'd had with Blue over the years, none were as important as this, he now had something very precious to protect. Just the thought of harm coming to Sadie was enough to make him lose control.

"Blue please, you must leave." Sadie was now pleading with the enemy, and it was eating him from the inside out. "He will kill you."

"I don't think today shall be the day he manages to kill me." Blue smiled humorlessly, "I'd rather eat myself than live to see it."

His patience was already running low, hearing Blue insult him in front of his intended mate, was just about enough to send him over the edge of his control. What really snapped his restraint was how nonchalant Blue was being regarding a very important matter. He couldn't bear to have her smug persona in the vicinity of Sadie's aura of pure innocence. Head held low to the ground, he began advancing toward Blue. An experienced fighter like her would immediately understand the maneuver for what it was, a silent declaration of all out war. Body held still, an aura of relaxation enveloping her form, she stood deceptively calm. Balthazar knew enough about her fighting style to know that this was new, he had never seen her leave herself open to attack so boldly. Something was up, what exactly he couldn't figure out, but he knew he needed to take her down as quickly as possible.

The sound of approaching footsteps resonated through the clearing, multiple shifters made their way into the clearing, no doubt looking for the source of the war cry Balthazar had unleashed prior to his attempted attack on Blue. Seeing the standoff between the two friends, a tide of whispers broke over the crowd like the waves of the ocean on the sand. Within moments the area filled up with curious shifters, some even climbing onto the trees to get a better view of the fight. The crowed thickened with each passing moment, eventually forming a large ring around the two, a fight including their acting Chieftain was always admired and a much coveted event within the tribe. Unlike other chieftains, Balthazar did not fight his tribe members for dominance or show unnecessary displays of his fighting prowess. He knew he was the most powerful shifter in the mountains, and so did the shifters in the entire world. None dared to cross his path, none other than the rebellious Blue. But she wouldn't be alive for much longer; she would be joining her ancestors in hell in a little while.