Redtail Rise She can lead you to love, she can take you or leave you

By the time she made it to the borders, she could go no further. She'd eaten old berries along the way, but the pup could not feed herself, and her family had disappeared completely. Wandering had only brought her to those who mocked her, and made her feel as though she might be in danger. So she continued, but when evening began to fall, she let herself lay down and watch the golden light as it began to descend through the dying leaves. 

She had no more energy, as she'd eaten nothing she hadn't scavenged since her parents abandoned her. Her fur was matted, dirty, and didn't hide the ribs and hips that protruded beneath her thin skin. Her eyes glazed slightly as she stared toward the setting sun. 

It looked pretty. If it was the last sunset she saw, at least it looked pretty.

Something at their borders.

For a moment he wondered if a predator had left something behind in a hunt. If one of the members of the rise had even. But a closer inspection led him to see that this was a wolf.

Young, like the Rise's own.

Alone. Not a scent clung to her. Looking damn near death.

Prophet was not a man of grand compassion, but an opportunity was an opportunity.

Can you stand?

He cast a shadow over her in the setting sun, prepared to carry her if she could not move anymore.

Autumn came to her, folding itself into the form of a wolf conjured from the palette of the earth-toned season. She tilted her head back and looked up toward him. Her mouth fell open and she uttered a raspy breath. Whatever it was that he'd said, she didn't understand. She dragged her head back to where she'd had it before, so she could stare into the sunset. She didn't have the energy to do any more than what she'd just done.

if pp isn't okay let me know <3

It would have been mercy to send her elsewhere, to lay her upon the glacier perhaps.

But he felt some pang in his heart. Familiar and all encompassing. What if this had been one of his sons or daughters? Avicus' brood? Augur's children?

He was prepared to move her with his own body. Carry her somewhere safe. Where the forest and the river would meet. Shaded and protected by the bodies and heart of Redtail Rise.

Here he could care for her properly.

100% OK :)

She muttered something, more from being jostled into a carrying position than from an attempt at speaking. She was too tired to protest, too tired to insist that she be treated like a princess. Too spent to even show her disdain with a roll of her dull eyes. She instinctively became a newborn once again, completely controlled by the one who carried her. 

She felt dismay when they walked further and further from the spot where she'd been so happy to watch the gold split the tree trunks. Now, it flashed at her eyes with each tree they passed, causing her to close them and keep them closed until she was set on the earth again. 

The ground was cool, and she could hear the rush of water nearby. This was not her home- there was no snow or ice, but she could hear water. She smacked her dry lips in a quiet plea.

He had not any part in caring for the children when they had been too young to walk or talk.

Yet he imagined it a lot like this.

With his scent on her, around her, he felt okay to take the few yards towards the river. Collecting water in a bundle of river moss that had been upon one of the rocks.

Then returned with it, setting it near her muzzle.

If she proved she could still drink and eat, he could do much more to solidify her survival here.

He left, and she felt the golden sunlight reach for her once again. It was warm, though as time passed, the sun sank lower. Every day, it had begun to get colder and colder at night; now, as thin as she was, a mild frost might have been enough to still her breath. 

Autumn returned again, with fur the colour of leaves. She could smell wet earth, something...green. It touched her nose and wetted her lips. She pressed her nose against it, and from pursed lips she suckled the water from the spongy moss. It wetted her thirst, and she found herself ravenous for more water. She pressed the moss against her lips hungrily, but could squeeze no more water from it. Her throat was dry still, otherwise she might have whined a cranky note. 

She pushed the clump of moss away urgently, as though begging for him to wet it again.

She survived.

She even seemed to beg for more and he would not deny her. Prepared to refill the moss as many times without bloating her. It would do neither one of them good if he killed her by overfeeding and watering so soon, would it?

The next step would be food.

But they were not there yet.

He called upon @Augur. A grand hunter, a father.

another child at the rise, this time a girl.

otter had fit in well among them. the hunt-leader answered blood eyes with a low chuff and a butt of his head, mutual respect between rulers.

and then he turned to the little one. she was a starveling, half-clinging to life. new snow had no milk of which he knew, but augur carried meat in his belly.

he lapped at her small jaws, assessing her strength to see if she would beg in the way of wolf cubs.

Over and over he brought the clump of moss, and she sucked the water off it loudly. For a while, it felt like she couldn't get enough. But it was likely for the best that she took in only sips; if she'd had the strength, she likely would have gulped down too much water all at once and would've upset her own stomach. 

She was noisily sucking away again, and had finally begun to feel a bit more alive when her stomach began to cramp. It felt like dehydration had made her stomach shrink, and it felt as though now it was forced to expand. She whined softly and cringed. The man had called for someone, and she patiently breathed through the pain, her breaths softening as the cramp in her side passed.

She shuddered. With water in her, she now felt cold. Another wolf showed up, and licked at her muzzle. She wriggled toward him, craving warmth, and it took her a moment to realize what he was trying to cue. With an eager, albeit weak whine, she tilted her head up and licked softly at his cheek, as one much younger than her might beg for food.

Augur arrived.

They shared their brotherly greeting and Prophet moved to lay along the back of the girl. A defense against the weather, against others.

Mine. Care for.

Words that surely Augur had heard before, even if he did not speak them the sound was there. The meaning.

It was a warm and soft look that he placed upon the girl, before turning it to the hunter.

Food.

But not too much. Still he feared making her worse by over providing.

she asked and augur rewarded. his pale ears slid back; he bestowed a neat line of chewed meat on the ground in front of the girl.

keeping close to ensure she did not try to gobble it all down at once, he looked back to blood eyes. his. it was curious but not surprising when the males of the pack had been given a hand in rearing all the pups.

it was part of why the girl's acceptance came so easily.

blacktail, augur rumbled back to the berserkr. perhaps the wolf of leaves ashlar should examine her also.

As soon as she heard the gurgling in his throat she wrenched herself into a half-seated position, though she did not bother to right her hindquarters, with her back legs still splayed out to the side. The autumn man had come to warm her back, and when the meat was regurgitated before her, she snapped for it. The man gently dissuaded her from eating it all rapidly, but she growled and snarled, and bared her teeth as she chewed at whatever she could reach. She wanted all of it, but was rebuked. Small pieces she tore bit by bit, and each time she got a mouthful she rested back against the autumnal man, growling softly as she pulled the semi-digested meat apart with her teeth. 

Their words went over her head, but the choice they made settled well with Lilia. She was quite comfortable with the man who had found her, especially now that he provided warmth for her. Once she was through all the food, she looked back up to the pale man with calm eyes again, mild agitation in her expression, like a dog whose food has been taken away. She weakly stomped one foot on the ground. 

"Mowa food," She demanded, though her voice was hoarse. She hiccoughed and licked her lips, which were bloody, but still felt dry. "No," she said, decidedly, turning her head and sniffing. "Firthty." She wanted a real drink, now. Not just sips from musty moss.

He'd offer gentle clicks of teeth towards misbehavior.

But in truth all of this was a good sign. She was a fighter, pushing back against the swing of death in favor of more. Her speech was less than refined but that did not matter. The rise was not a place full of linguistic creature.

Blacktail.

He thought of giving her a name of his own, as he had done with Augur.

She could be a Seer.

Thought tucked away. If she survived the night, he would consider further.

Now he raised his body in support. Prepared to shoulder her weight towards the river if need be. So that she may have a proper drink.

last for me! <3

the child wanted no more food. he shook out his ruff and snorted at them both.

blood eyes began to guide her into the packland. augur followed. he would keep step with them as far as the river and then he would leave to seek his own mate and children.

she had the coloration of a small tawny bird he had once seen. flycatcher she would be to the silent man.

he nudged her as he would do with one of his own before he set off in a return to his family's den.

Her guardian and escort provided stability while she walked. Her legs felt like jelly, and she walked with the stumbling amble of a fresh colt. Her eyes gleamed from gaunt eye sockets at the sight of water, and when she reached it, she stepped in, and knelt down so that she wouldn’t have to stand while she drank.

The water was cold, but she felt parched. She lapped at it a bit, and then noticed the pale man had gone. She blinked up at the one who’d found her, noticing just then that his eyes were red. 

”Who you?” she asked, her brow slightly furrowed.

Prophet. Berserkr of Redtail Rise.

His tongue swept over his lips for a moment, the cool water running between his legs. It was good he had found her. Better that she fought against death rather than succumbed to it.

Do you have a name you're attached to?

Clearly no parent had bothered enough to watch over her, care for her. Had they even bothered to name her?

She frowned at his name. "Pawafff...Pawff. Paw-fat?" Whatever the Berserker was, and whatever Redtail Rise was, it all went over her head. She'd been too young to understand much about there being other packs than the one she'd been born into by the time she got lost. It took enough effort for her to manage a name that  had a letter in it that she found very difficult to pronounce. She was a bit self-conscious about it, and purposefully avoided looking at him, in case he was disappointed with how she said his name. 

"I'n Lee-Lee-A!" She said. That name she had worked on. She still enunciated every syllable, but she felt it made her name sound more important when she did. "I'n a Pintheth," She bragged, but her voice caught and she coughed a few times. She sipped a bit of water. She looked down at her reflection and frowned. 

This. Was. Not. How. A. Princess. Should. Look.

She looked like a dirty, scrawny, ugly bag of bones. 

She wailed.

Thankfully, time with Avi had exposed him to this way of speaking. Not exactly the same, but he did not balk or chide her for mispronunciations.

Supposedly she was a Princess — and he wondered if she truly had been such once upon a time, or if a tale had been lodged into her brain as a child.

Only none of that mattered, did it? She suddenly began to bawl. Wailing. Hysterical. He dreaded the sound deeply.

C'mere. He grumbled softly, aiming to scoop her up some.

You have to help me pick out a spot to stay, hm? Perhaps a distraction would cease the hysterics.

He was warm, and finally it was nice to have something that felt soft and reassuring to lean into. Her little beds of nettles and grass had only made her elbows and knees hurt. She sobbed, burying her face into his fur, until he made a suggestion. She considered it for a moment, still devastated by the way she'd looked in her reflection. Eventually, she composed herself and after rubbing her face on her forelegs to try and make herself look a bit less sorry, she nodded faintly. 

"Hmmmkay," She said. She was still sort of reluctant, and that crying had tired her out. She yawned, and nearly teetered over from her exaggerated gasp. "Thumweaw clothe?" She asked, looking up at him with eyes bleary from tiredness.

fading <3

Of course.

He agreed with a soft nod. Gently he ran his nose over her crown. Prepared to help her to the nicest place they could find for her.

Preparing himself for a reality where she may not make it long. Hoping for the reality that she would live and grow into Redtail Rise.

This would be his deeper look into fatherhood.