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Solvtorn tended to think of himself as a tortured artist. It wasn’t that he was tortured by muses or their absence. That would have been much too simple. Instead, he was tortured by people. The very people his art was supposed to be extolling, in fact. They were always making these stupid snide remarks about him having flowers in his blood and s**t like that. Solv had learned to ignore them, for the most part. He really had no idea what to do about Gunnar though.

Gunnar was from old blood and his family was mostly terrifying. Thorgrim was, well, very grim. And Gaved was just…Gods. He was a murder waiting to happen. And Runa was nearly as bad, though at least she was smaller. Solv preferred to avoid the lot of them, but Gunnar was making this an impossible task by hanging around and being wherever Solv was. It was really unpleasant because Solv knew the odds:

Where Gunnar went, eventually Gaved would follow, and where Gaved went life quickly became unpleasant for people like Solv.

Lately Gaved had grown bored of taunting Gunnar. His brother was defending himself well now, and Gaved hadn’t managed to catch him under the influence of catnip and humiliate him in quite a while. Gaved had, quite reluctantly, decided to give Gunnar a break for a while. He would wait, and go after his brother when Gunnar least expected it.

Gunnar’s associates were another matter. Gaved would just love to torment some of Gunnar’s friends. When he noticed his brother hanging around the notoriously feeble bard, Gaved was thrilled. Solvtorn. A male that had decided to remain Freeborn. A male that SANG. Gaved was leery of even proper songs about battle and death and so forth, so he hadn’t listened to Solvtorn, but he was certain the flower-blooded lion sang about daisy chains and flower crowns.

And there he was. Solvtorn, in all his sissy glory. Alone. A grin split Gaved’s face, a toothy, joyous, utterly vicious grin. He sauntered towards the bard, his tail lashing. “Well hello, little bard. I hear you’re my brother’s sweet little thing. His new squeeze.” He laughed.

"I agree," Solv said. "Your family is not my business. I would be just as happy if all of you would stay away from me."

He did not fail to see the unsheathed claws or observe that he was being stalked. After all, Solv was not a fighter but he was also not stupid. He could hunt if he had to, and he knew what stalking looked like. He really ought to just shut his mouth and start groveling, but he was too proud to grovel. In his entire life he had done it twice and only half of the time had it been to any noteworthy effect.

"I want nothing to do with any of you. I just compose songs. Only your father has done anything remotely worthy of song, and to be honest I would not really consider anything he's done all that worth of being memorialized. Certainly spawning you and your brother does him no credit."

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!

People didn’t usually go out of their way to enrage Gaved. The dark-furred reaver was more than capable of working himself into a frenzy without help. Oh, he sometimes traded jibes with other reavers during a duel, but no one had ever insulted or taunted him quite like this. Gaved saw red for a moment, the sheer intensity of his fury freezing him in place.

How dare the bard speak to him so?

Gaved drew in a deep breath, forcing his rage down to a manageable level. It wouldn’t do to tear the bard into wet red ribbons, no matter how much he wanted to. No. “You. You insult my family?” Gaved hissed. His muscles trembled as he fought the desire to leap on Solvtorn and rip him apart. “You’re Freeborn. A bard. Hardly even a lion.” He grimaced. “I’ll fix that for you, b*****d. Turn you into a pretty little lioness.” Without waiting a second further, Gaved leapt forward and slashed at Solvtorn, claws extended. He didn’t care where his blow landed, as long as it was somewhere vulnerable and preferably painful.

Whether or not Gaved was aiming for Solv's tongue, it was more luck than anything else that kept the foolish bard from losing it. His mouth had snapped shut at the insult Gaved had just spoken against the lawspeakers. In the back of his mind, Solv hoped someday to be invited to study with a lawspeaker and then join their number, and insults against them were almost more difficult to bear than those directed against himself.

"Aouu!" Solv whimpered despite himself as Gaved's next blow drove him partially to the ground. He staggered sideways and spent a moment admiring the sparkling lights that twinkled around the edges of his vision.

"I am...a bard!" he grated out. There was blood in his mouth. He must have bitten his tongue and not even noticed because of how much it hurt being struck on the head.

"I can make sure your family knows nothing but shame and humiliation. You will be remembered forever as a coward and every foul thing I can ascribe to your name, I will." This threat might have been more effective if his tongue wasn't swelling up and giving him something like a lisp.

When Gaved got angry—really, truly angry—he fought stupid. He was fighting stupid now. His next blow seemed to daze the bard, which was pleasant, but not as nice as it would have been to smash Solv’s face into the ground. Forcing himself to calm, Gaved held off while the staggering bard collected himself. He held his paw to his mouth, idly sucking the bard’s blood from his claws while Solv whined at him.

The rage tried to return when the fool bard resumed his threats, but Gaved crushed it back down. Solvtorn was provoking him entirely too much. If he lost control and went after the bard again, Gaved thought he might kill the stupid beast. Then he would have to deal with the fallout, which would be irritating at the least. He still looked furious—hell, he was furious—but he forced himself to smile at Solvtorn.

“If you do, little bard, I’ll finish tearing out your tongue,” he said coolly, noting the blood on Solv’s teeth. “That’s your weapon, isn’t it?” He favored Solv with an unpleasant grin that showed every one of his teeth. “A mute coward. Oh, you’ll love it, won’t you?” Gaved laughed, turning to go. If he didn’t leave soon, now, the anger would take over and he would be unable to keep himself from attacking Solv again. “Oh, and stay away from my brother, or I’ll kill you both,” Gaved said casually, tossing Solv a glare over his shoulder.