Bramblepoint the graveyard, the turnaround, it changed in you somehow

 @Kotake

she sat over the small thing with a paw held out, as if fearful of touching it. it was a bird she had never seen before, with vacant and reflectionless eyes and its wings splayed outwards in a fan amongst the briars and earth. for some reason she felt it an insult to see the dirt embrace it, as if it belonged only among the shifting strands of cotton-white cirrus with its back against a byzantine and endless sky.

it was so little against the dark earth she was afraid the ground might swallow it -- black pinion feathers and fragile, delicately curled little limbs all. it may have been a finch, but whatever it was it was no longer -- with a sigh indra left the gnarled place it had fallen and continued down the broad swath of naked stalks and winter-worn brambles.

Bringing to present day with permission.

The white wolf strayed from his companions in search of something for them to eat. Skwol had a keen nose. His tracking capabilities had been lionized back at the Broken Fang and that admiration was not out of place. He had picked up on the dead bird as he passed by it some several wolf lengths away. Branches and twigs rose across his muzzle and skimmed over his ears (they were laid back against his skull protectively), as he nosed through the briar. He found the bird and his head bent so that he could sniff at it, his warm breath shifting the feathers before he plied his nose to the fresh tracks nearby.

The bird had smelled fine to him — unfortunate that it was that it had died. It was not much for a hungry wolf but it was good meat and bone nonetheless, and he wondered why it had been left behind. Skwol cast his gaze in the direction the tracks lead, before he looked to the finch again. He admired the percher's plumage and tiny grasping claws and simmered in quiet respect, before he gingerly gathered it in his mouth and loped forward to find the wolf that had been here before him.

Seeing her red pelt ahead, he woofed to alert her to his imminent approach.

He laid the bird down and asked with a slight cock of his head,

"why did you not take this?"

the sound of footfall commenced behind her and indra pulled a singular ear back, turning around slowly to face whatever was approaching her. her posture fell as she was met by the immense sight of a wolf far taller than she; carefully the girl rotated to face him in full, though her body language was diminutive as she assessed him.

he clutched the felled bird in his mouth, and indra peered at it sadly before returning her gaze to his magnetizing yellow eyes. she was wary, but all the same she offered a soft and brief smile. "it seemed too pretty." she explained, aware it would sound preposterous to a true predator, as this wolf clearly was.

"Mmm, it is a pretty bird..." he murmured in agreement.

It was true that Skwol was a true predator, possessed of a stature and physique befitting one. He had been crafted in balance, molded for that efficient and lethal combination of speed, strength and endurance, the epitome of what nature intended the wolf to be. He was near to his instincts and had been a difficult, wild child, but he had been raised by ways that were not so feral, that embraced the sentience and intelligence that his species had developed. Skwol had been taught respect and appreciation. He had been made a steward of nature and a guardian of natural order.

The white wolf dipped his great head to nudge the bird toward her. "It is sad that it has died. But it's death should not be wasted," he said. "You found it first. You should benefit from it." He looked to her, his expression soft and curious as his tail swayed gently.

she awaited ridicule, but none came. her expression went from guarded to somewhat surprised, as the wolf seemed to understand the ridiculous concept that had forbidden her to eat it. indra had expected derision, even coldness -- yet skwol showed her neither. slowly, her features softened, and she looked from the wolf to the spot in the snow where the bird had left a gentle imprint.

she smiled then, drawing her eyes partially shut in a humble, almost flattered expression. she thought it incredibly kind of the wolf and wished more were like him -- never once did indra think this could be some ploy, or a trick. the gentle sway of his tail by his hocks, and the soft warmth of his gaze upon her -- indra did not believe these things could be fabricated.

"it is yours, i never touched it." she declined, though she was fully aware of the keen protest in her stomach. "you're kind to offer. i'm indra."

"Skwol," he recriprocated. He did not insist that she eat the bird — it was simply not his custom to do so on trivial matters. Instead he took the bird in his mouth, as gingerly as he had carried it to her, and out of respect for her compassion, he turned away for a moment to consume it. It was difficult to eat such a small thing as neatly and as appreciably as he ate larger game (one savoring bite at a time). The best he could do was take it in a single swallow, after a couple quick snaps to position it properly and break its carcass. He turned back to Indra just as his tongue made its final pass around his mouth to gather any stray feathers. There were none. His snout was clean.

His warm gaze was contemplative as he looked to the red girl again. He wondered if she came from a similar background to him but he had his doubts. If she had, he reasoned she would have given him her more proper name; but that was a thought he had to swallow as quickly and as wholly as he swallowed the bird, less the mood of his memories appear on his face.

"Not everyone looks so kindly on prey," he commented with a small smile as he settled to his haunches, hoping she was receptive to company for a while.

it touched indra's heart to see the male take such precautions to avoid upsetting her -- while normally she would have averted her gaze, she found she did not have to. skwol had already thoughtfully done the work for her. a kind gesture she would not overlook.

when he turned back to her she offered him a warmer smile than before. "not everyone does what you did, either." she rejoined, flicking her eyes to the spot he had consumed his prey in explanation. "thanks. some find it silly."

He continued to favor her with a warm smile at length before he answered her quietly.

"I know."

Briefly, his ears leaned back, and his eyes shifted downward but it seemed his attention went elsewhere, to some far place beyond the snow in front of them. He felt compelled again to open up to her for it was so rare to find a soul like hers, like his, and there was a comfort in being understood that could not be found anywhere else. His heart thumped an out of place beat. How he missed his home.

"Respect for others and for one's prey is not so uncommon where I am from," he offered, lifting his eyes back to her face to search it for some indication that maybe she was from one of the tribes. Perhaps she, like him again, had a reason not to offer a more proper name. "You remind me of that place."

a pause in the conversation lulled between them, but indra didn't mind. she looked to him once, carefully, just to make sure he had not fallen silent because of something he had seen. his expression looked distant and indra was content to mind her own business until he spoke again.

at length the pale wolf returned, at least emotionally -- indra swept her amber gaze to him in interest as he spoke. he spoke of home -- indra wondered if all wolves in that place were like him; gentle, intelligent, and respectful. the wolves of this valley sharply contrasted his winsome demeanor and she disliked many of them for it.

"i would like a place like that." she murmured, imagining a life far outside of this cold valley. "but if it was so perfect, why are you here?" she wanted to hear more of this place, though she worried that delving into a stranger's past might be unkind.

It was a question he did not want to answer. Skwol preferred to be close to others, both physically and emotionally, but he had always been a private wolf and never readily opened up to others, especially not to strangers. He was selective about his confidants. But since coming to these wilds he had been compelled several times — loneliness, an innate need to belong and to be with other wolves was, no doubt, the driving force behind that subtle change in attitude. He yearned for closeness.

It was aquestion he could not answer, either. He could not tell Indra that his home had been the sort of place worthy of the most hopeful dreams but that he had brought ruin to that. That he left believing that doing so was best for his family. Even if he had been inclined to tell her, the explanation would have caught in his throat and lodged there like a stubborn bit of meat too big to swallow. He answered instead with, "no place is perfect," which was true but unspecific.

"It was beautiful but like so many before me I felt the need to set out on my own." Dispersion was common among wolves his age and wanderlust was particularly prevalent in his family's blood as their ancestors were nomads. It had always been his intent to leave... but not for the reason that he did. He had intented to steal his mate-to-be away, to claim a territory that neighbored his father's, and to raise a family there. But things change.

"Why are you here?"

indra truthfully had not meant to strike a chord; a certain pall of guiltiness shrouded her features as she recognized the vague pushback from the male. she bit her lip and averted her gaze, feeling awful for it. skwol's words somewhat reassured her, if only because she could detect no umbrage in his voice.

he left his answer somewhat vague, which indra did not mind. she nodded in understanding. she had felt that way too -- and like him, had come to the sad reality that true perfection was unattainable. as was happiness, she added in grim afterthought.

he turned the subject to her; she shifted - she wished to answer truthfully and in the most forthright manner as possible, but it would be a long, terrible, and sad story -- certainly not one fit for casual exchange with a new acquaintance. "luck, i guess." she answered wryly - though whether it was good or bad luck, she could not say. "i have my sister, laurel -- and her friend, xan -- so i guess i am not too unlucky. we're settling in bear claw valley, do you know where that is?" she motioned behind them, where the blue mountains cut coldly into the sky. there, she implied with a motion of her snout.

Skwol nodded his head. Luck had its claws in everything.

"Bearclaw valley?" He echoed, following Indra's gesture to the mountains behind them. He did not know the names of any of the mountains, forests, rivers or valleys in this region and made a casual note of it. Sooner or later he would have to make a decision on where to settle. "I know almost nothing about these lands," he said. "I was born a fair travel's north of here on a mountain known as the Broken Fang."

"It's new is it? The pack?" Skwol returned his gaze to Indra.

like skwol, indra's internal guide to territories was incomplete. most of her knowledge was fragmented, a jumbled assortment of passing regions and territories -- she knew the lay of the land for the most part, but not the names in which it had been assigned. she nodded understandingly, and considered what a place like broken fang must have been like.

the name conjured a sense of a bleak landscape, arid even -- an assumption for indra, but an imagery of blustery cold and a brown, defeated landscape came to mind. she had always had a vivid imagination and even now it was carried away.

"mmmhmm. i think it's pretty new. we aren't fully established yet, but there's a couple of us." mentally she counted up to four -- though she did not know soon the member base would swell to over that number. "and a bear, hence the name." she added with a grin. she had not been eager to meet 'arthur', but apparently the forest was habituated by none other than him.

There was a bear. "Of course," Skwol smiled. He thought no further on her comment than that — it would have surprised him to learn that the bear was considered an ally to the wolves and not merely another denizen of the land from which it drew its name.

"I hope it all works out for you," he said, genuinely wishing her and her pack well even as he felt his heart start to sink. If he looked down he half expected to see it land between his paws. The white wolf tried not to dwell on what was supposed to have been, to live in the present and not in the past or the future. It was something his parents were good at it. Something he was still learning. But each time he was reminded of where he thought he would be compared to where he was now his inner wounds cracked open and bled.

Skwol stood up. "I should be going. Perhaps our trails will cross again." He dipped his head and turned away. He would depart if she did not stop him.

indra smiled as he wished her well, but something about his expression troubled her. she caught it just enough to know something was wrong, but could not summon a name for whatever melancholy thing it was that scarcely flitted to his face. like something out of her peripheral vision, it was there, but gone when she focused her entire attention on it.

she was sorry to hear he was planning to leave, but understood - she hoped their paths might intersect in the future, and as he mentioned the possibility her tail bobbed hopefully. "i hope so." she rejoined, meaning it. "goodbye.. and good luck."  she called back, watching him until he faded from view.