If there is no sight or scent of the pack that hunts her, that puts Mosaic squarely back at the beginning of her day. She walks in silence down the beach to collect her crab, and then in silence drags it to the new still-empty neighborhood she spent her morning and her afternoon constructing.

Now the walls come down instead of going up. Her angry sighs fill the air, wordless frustrations echoing off of rocks and down hills as her fists slam repeatedly into the mountain shards that bore her soul and all her best efforts. Her skin is scraped and bleeding; the slick coating on her hands is soothing as she continues to tear down the rough base. The sound of a storm, the feeling of an earthquake. The roar of a ferocious animal, the smell of sweat. And brine. And crab.

She sits among the ruins, in a fortress built of failure and a lack of foresight, breaking apart this final crab and cataloging its bounties for the Goddess of the Hunt. Now she is still. Occasionally, the crunching of a shell, the scratching of a pen. The dull swoosh of Ember's tail as she watches, and the excited patter of her breathing, contrasted with Mosaic's own slow, meditative puffs. 

If there is no sight or scent of the pack that hunts her, there is no need to seek them out. The existence of a ship changed everything. Everything. These ugly houses were pointless now, but the stone had many better uses. Material for ramps, for one. Leverage for another. And...

The rock whistles as it leaves her hand, and shatters with a thunder like a cannon when it hits the armor plating of a Silver Diver. Underneath that noise a softer one; the wheeze of a wolf whose air was suddenly stolen from her, and the snapping of a rib. 

Stealth and guile, patience and planning. A perfect hunt, a battle one before it's even fought. All of it ruined by the hubris of the commander, of the one who wanted to put Mosaic in chains before asking for her help. Mosaic rises from her throne of rubble and stomps her foot clean through the pile, kicking up all manner of pebbles, bricks, and boulders. Her back twists, her leg slides backward.

Her kick shatters the heavens. Her volley is artillery. Her fists rend the sky itself and her claws crack the ground. Steam hisses off her skin, so hot that even her sweat is a weapon. She laughs, and cracks her neck.

"You know, I'm insulted. Is this all you sent to capture me? Where are the rest of you? I guess you thought you were being clever, trying to capture me and Beri in the same breath. Idiots."

When she surges, she is the ocean. Onrushing tides, and heavy inevitability. She holds out her arm and clotheslines one unfortunate would-be ambusher, then spins around to catch her before she can hit the ground. They sweep low against the battlefield like a pair of dancers posing to awe the crowd. Mosaic's face splits in a wide grin that's too full of fangs to be beautiful, and she tilts the wolfgirl's face by her chin until their lips are a whisper away from touching.

"Silly girl," she purrs, "Foolish little puppies. Didn't my sister teach you any better? Maybe you do it on purpose. Your little lot just [i]loooooves[/i] their spankings, isn't that right? Would you like to be sent home tonight raw and naked? Would that make your little heart happy?"

Fingers strong enough to crush armor into powders push and prod the girl's head, lifting it up and pushing it down again in a forced nod. Mosaic smiles, and her mismatched eyes gleam with the promise of delights for a pack of failures. Her tongue slides across her lips in invitation. Her breath is hot against the other girl's face. Her hand slides through a war braid and grips the back of her skull.

Mosaic sneers, and twists around with the force of a tornado, tossing the Ceronian girl into a pile of five of her companions. She stomps her foot and the ground shakes, burying them from the shoulders down in an avalanche of former housing. She tosses her head back and howls with laughter.

"Next time, remember! Taking me is the same as taking Beri! So don't you dare send less than the entire pack at me ever again! Not that it'll make a difference! Ha!"

[Overcome with Hope: 6, 1, 4: 10. Ember, tell us how the brave knight fights her pack and wins hard enough to let Mosaic have her way with the rest of them]