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In the dark, Tyfu was one of the least and most visible lionesses in the entire pride. The matte black of her fur made her little more than a shadow against the darkness, a background against which her toxicly green markings seemed to glow.

"You look worried," a soft sneer came out of that darkness as Tyfu came near to the other lioness. "Plotting against the King, are you?"

The Guard didn't actually suspect Aysu of being part of any conspiracy...but at the same time, she knew the Huntress was an ideal candidate. Her gossipy habits of old made it clear that Aysu generally knew what was going on, not too long after it happened, and she knew much of the pride by face and name.

Here and now, it was simply an excuse to torment the other lioness.

The dark lioness laughed out loud. It was an incongruously joyous sound, which made the fact of it even worse. Tyfu was genuinely amused by the other female's words.

"The King? Worried about you? Oh Aysu, how could anyone worry about you?" What had sounded genuinely entertained had begun slanting towards sinisterly threatening as the black lioness continued to speak.

"After all, you're all talk and no action. A gossip, but you'd never raise your own paw against someone." As if that taunt wasn't enough, Tyfu tossed her head a little.

"If I had so disagreed with my children's stances," she told the older lioness with a smirk, referring to those low class offspring who'd become Royal Guards, "I'd've punished them soundly. But you just stood there and took it!" Mirth had returned to Tyfu's voice. But her smile never once reached her cold, golden eyes.

Tyfu laughed again. Truly, it was hilarious how Aysu's narrow view of the world limited her thoughts. Not to mention the implication of who had fathered her cubs. She wasn't about to share that information with the world, but the Huntress seemed to not understand the basics.

For Tyfu it had never been power over the pride. She simply enjoyed tormenting those who would give the most satisfaction. And if she wielded no power or influence beyond that, it was her own choice. Let others rule. She had little patience for mediating and serving the people.

"I do not, and will not control my children," she informed the misguided lioness. "It is simply a matter of teaching them to desire the right results," Tyfu explained, eyes glittering cruelly. She thought about ignoring the other jab, but decided that would cause more problems than it would solve.

"Are you attempting to imply something about my litter's father?" she asked, voice dangerously soft. "I've said this before. I have no reason to share his name with the pride as a whole. I don't believe you were ever forced to do so, and I see no point. They are my children, to raise as I see fit and he will have no say in the matter. Assuming he even knows about them."

The last was a lie, but it was a safe one. There was no way for a rogue male to know he'd fathered cubs unless if the mother informed him or he chose to return to the lioness and found out the hard way. It was important to at least maintain the story that a passing rogue had been responsible.

Perspective was everything. Aysu might think that Tyfu was going to raise little monsters - and she was right - but the lighter lioness' assumption that the Guard would want anything else for her offspring was somewhat mistaken. Tyfu's belief was that children were what you made them to be, and if the model you provided was a monster, that was exactly what you'd get.

And precisely what she wanted. Though that was for the future.

The dark lioness sighed. "I think you overstep yourself Aysu. I'm bored of your righteousness, and you should probably leave before things get worse." She glanced up from her affected pose. "Then again," and the sting was back in Tyfu's voice, "you can't ever seem to leave well enough alone, can you? Now, what was it that happened with your brother again?"

Sure, it might not have been Aysu's fault, from what the Guard had heard, but it sure sounded as if she'd been right on the peripheral of the events that had gotten her brother summarily kicked out of the pride. Frankly, Tyfu regretted the fact that a lion who had the gumption to half-kill another over a slight was no longer around. She rather thought the somewhat infamous Yareha Afaer would have made things more interesting around here.

Tyfu shrugged languidly. "If that's what you think, you're welcome to it," leaving the unspoken fact that she could and would hold Aysu's family against her if it suited her purposes.

"Obviously, anyone with actual guts in your family has left the pride. Leaving just those who don't mind things as they are, and those who are too nostalgic and foolish to give up hope that the "good old days" will return," the black lioness continued scornfully, beginning to walk in Aysu's direction, but on a course that would pass her, instead of going towards her face.

"Why, the only way to prove that your blood is thicker than water," Tyfu said as she came up alongside the lighter lioness, holding up a paw as if to study the limb, "is to shed it." With that, she unsheathed her claws and ran them down Aysu's flank in a sudden savage rake.

"Why look," she offered her bloodstained claws for the other lioness' perusal, "you do bleed red!" The false surprise in her voice didn't fool anyone.

Tyfu laughed again, taking a quick step back to avoid being forced to the ground by Aysu's charge. Her opposing foreleg came up to block, and the black lioness extended the rest of her claws.

The Huntress might not be a trained fighter, but she clearly had some experience, and Tyfu appreciated that her opponent wasn't a complete failure. It seemed the night wasn't going to be a complete loss after all.

Not even a hiss of pain escaped Tyfu's mouth as the Huntress' claws sank into her other leg. She gave a mental shrug and moved the leg that had previously been a block into an attack, looking to gouge her opponent's neck.

For the first time that night, her smile reached her eyes. She genuinely looked forward to what Aysu did next.