Redtail Rise i'm gonna be the very best

The boy hadn't done much since he'd been found. He'd slept a lot, and eaten when food was dropped off for him (a kind way of saying vomited); and when he had the wherewithal to mingle with the other wolves of the rise, he most often trailed after @Augur rather than the other children.

On more than one occasion he'd been picked up and placed back among them, and had learned not to stray too far in the long-run.

It became a little game to Requiem. He wanted to see how far he could get before Augur discovered him; it helped the boy to learn where the limits were, and anyway he was not so bold as to venture far from where they kept him. He hadn't forgotten about the bird or his terrifying flight — but it did feel far-removed from the present moment, and so little Requiem was unafraid.

He stood on a piece of stone that looked almost like a stage, trying to catch a glimpse of Augur through the trees — or any of the passing bodies, as he stared out at a very active patrol route where anyone could appear.

Whilst slinking around the rise, doing her best to avoid being detected, Masquerade made a discovery. The faint smell of meat drew her toward the foot of a Douglas fir. She nosed through the usual detritus found on forest floors—dead leaves, mostly, fragrant with autumn damp—and then clawed at the soil underneath until she revealed an array of small corpses.

Excited by her find, she dragged the topmost carcass out of the shallow. The rabbit was long dead and quite stiff, so she plucked it up by its ears and began to carry it awkwardly in the direction of the rendezvous site. Unaware that she’d just undearthed an established stockpile, Masquerade intended to show Avicus what she’d found.

She slowed her step as she approached the clearing’s fringe. Even though she wanted to share her findings with the pack’s Wealda, Masquerade was never keen to be seen until she chose to reveal herself. She let the rabbit drop gently from her mouth and crept forward through the brush, pausing when she spotted the newcomer perched on a stone shelf.

The sound of movement caught in his too-big ears and so Requiem spent his time searching the tree line for whatever could be causing it. He didn't see the red-capped child at any point. His presumption that it was either an adult or a dangerous thief-bird like before, kept him from making up his mind on what to do.

Of course he was partially correct on both accounts: the emergence of a red face proved that it was a wolf of some variety; he did not yet know they'd pilfered a cache to find their rabbit, which would make them a thief. He wanted very much to investigate but something kept him from acting on the impulse.

Requiem ducked down and away from the face as it appeared, his little tongue flicking across his lips in a show of appeasement that was so basal he didn't even know he was doing it, and his tail tucked neatly to his belly, at the same time that he tried to reach out and say hello with a sniff; he was all wriggles, undecided on what to do.

Although she rarely if ever spoke, Masquerade often listened. She had heard about the new litter born to the pack, for instance, and she also knew another puppy had appeared from the wilderness sometime beforehand. This was her first time seeing any of the new additions. He didn’t look anything like Sunday Morning, so Masque deduced this must be their young interloper.

Despite her estranged relationship with her own cousins and her reticence around most adults, she strode toward the smaller Bearn with a tentative smile on her face. Her approach did not exactly exude confidence, though it was gentle and inquisitive. Her head and tail remained about even with her spine, the latter wriggling in an unspoken but very clear declaration of friendliness as she came to a halt beneath his rocky perch.

The pilfered rabbit remained discarded behind her, momentarily forgotten in the presence of this welcome distraction.

He crouched low and scooted to the edge of the stone slab so that he could look at her, chin against the rock and paws on either side of his face. As Requiem squirmed closer he leaned his face as near to her as he dared while sniffling, except he didn't have the best measure of his own size, so he ended up putting himself too far over and as a result, rolled.

He did half of a somersault but managed to catch himself with his front feet planted, leading him to being in two places at once: his bum stuck on the ledge, and his stubby legs propping him up closer to the red-faced child's level. His excited wriggling stopped for a few seconds when he'd realized what had happened, and then was too distracted trying to fix himself to pay attention to Masquerade.

A little more wriggling later, and he'd plopped his rear-end down. In the end he stood beside (or maybe in-front-of) the other bearn with a bewildered expression on his face.

He craned downward, prompting Masquerade to close the gap by reaching upward so they could sniff noses. His sudden movement made her tense automatically, eyes widening a little as the boy started to topple off his perch. Masque made an abortive movement as if intending to help, though there wasn’t much she could do but spot him as he slithered the rest of the way off the stony platform.

Now that they were on even ground, Masque noted that he was about the same size as Ancelin and Atreus. She frowned fleetingly at the thought of her cousins, then refocused on the young boy in front of her. There was a slightly bewildered look on his face that triggered an empathetic response within the older Bearn.

Tentatively, she reached out to sniff noses again. She abruptly remembered the rabbit as she did so, turning her head to look at it. Facing the other pup again, she motioned for him to follow her as she slunk back toward the long dead rabbit, so stiff with rigor mortis its legs stuck out at peculiar angles.

She came to stand over it, facing her cohort. Masque’s tail flicked invitingly as she bent down to nose at the aged meat.

Back home with his siblings, Requiem had never needed to involve himself with others. His family had always been very self-suffiscient in ways that he lacked. They would initiate games and Requiem would sit on the sidelines often enough, content to watch rather than engage, and be lost to his own whims. It was different here - there was nobody he really knew or felt comfortable with. This concept was in its infancy (that of strangers, of socialization and connection) and so he recieved the red-faced child well enough, but was reluctant to follow afterward.

It took a little bit of thought before Requiem chose to follow after them. There was a sizable gap between the two as the boy found his footing and meandered along, stopping when they stopped, then carefully tawdling closer to inspect what they had led him to look at. Between them now was the very stiff-legged rabbit.

The other child's attention was more focused on the rabbit than on Reqiuem. The boy found that to be appealing; it also gave him context clues that they might be hungry and trying to eat, so he sank back upon his haunches and kept his eyes away from them, as he had learned not to fuss over meals (lest he be harassed by his siblings) and he would wait there, oblivious to the stranger's real intention.

Moving slowly, the darker pup joined her beside the carcass. Masquerade shot him a brief smile, then promptly slung her belly down onto the ground, slithering her forelegs around the stiffened remains. Her eyes stayed fixed on Requieum for a moment before her eyelids hooded them as Masque began to work her teeth into the toughened flesh.

Her fangs pierced the dried hide after she sawed them back and forth a few times. A moment later, she gnawed her way through to the innards. They did not spill forth like a fresh kill might. They more or less oozed, the rabbit’s viscera having congealed over time. There was a bit of a rancid smell, though the Bearn understood instinctively that it wasn’t bad enough to warrant any hesitation. Her stomach would be able to handle it.

She chewed on a few of those choice morsels, then pointedly pinched the intestines with her incisors and hoisted herself back to her feet. Pulling gently, Masquerade fully eviscerated the long-dead lapin, dragging the offal over to Requiem. She dropped the entrails at his small feet and nosed at them, tail waving.

He listened at first to the sounds of the red-faced girl working, and that intrigued him enough to look over. He then watched as she opened up the carcass of the rabbit and then wide-eyed, saw the way things shifted and spilled. Requiem wasn't at all bothered by the sight of it - and was in fact urged on by the smell, which to his nubile senses was much more intense than in truth.

The girl dragged some pieces over to him and did not otherwise damage them, or try to reach for them after. Requiem was surprised by this generosity and his muzzle cracked in a wolfish smile, while his tail-tip gave a little thump to the earth. He wriggled where he sat, excited, until finally catching on that Red Face wasn't baiting him for a wrestle or about to pounce upon the entrails herself.

He dove nose-first in to the pile and began to eat, making happy humming noises as he took apart the offal and devoured it.

She returned his smile, tipping her head to emphasize the invitation to eat. When he took it a moment later, her smile grew and she withdrew a yard or two, taking a seat. Masquerade simply sat and watched him, feeling an odd sense of fulfillment for having provided sustenance for somebody, particularly someone so young.

She had forgotten her original intention to share her find with Avicus. When she heard footfalls approaching—heavyset, surely belonging to an adult—Masque stiffened. As much as she was enjoying this interaction, she realized she didn’t feel up to engaging with any of the rise’s seniority at the moment.

She tried to catch the smaller pup’s eye in a quick farewell, though whether or not she succeeded, the gray Bearn quickly melted back into the nearby tree line and disappeared.

He was distracted enough with the food, it consistency which shifted as he tore in to it, and the flavor. As a result Reki didn't notice when the red-faced wolf wandered off until it was too late. He let out a little burp, and then lay in the mess leftover by the entrails with a hopeful expression - as if they might return if he waited patiently. When they didn't, he pouted to himself and tawdled off the way he had arrived.