Sleeping Dragon friday night lights

@Hvitserk

They didn't travel far anymore. They mostly stayed in the southern valleys, below the puppies they'd met when they first got there. She considered often enough to go back and visit them but they were bigger and older now and might not see them much beyond what they established that one night. A friendship, perhaps short lived, but she didn't previously expect to go there again.

They were going to reduce the amount that they played their game now that they were in a place neither of them knew that well. One more time, he convinced her, and he promised to stay in areas they knew.

That was four days ago.

She traced back for miles as she searched for him, trying to follow a trail he left behind, but as she neared the mountain she knew well enough, she began to get worried. Had he gone to visit them, or hide there once more? They had promised one another to stay somewhere nearby but this seemed like a stretch, even for Mars. She bites her lip as she nears, looking up the mountain and finding the wedge of rock that leads to the geyser field. There had been enough brush for her to hide, if she needed to, but she kept close to the wall as the day began to fade into night as she searched for her brother once more.

It wasn’t often that the geyser field was visited, his interest in it having lasted for only a short while. That night, however, he’d been drawn to it during a time when he couldn’t find sleep. His sister was away, having gone off with the adults to a place that he knew nothing about, and the worry he felt for her well-being had kept him up. It gnawed at his insides and made his stomach do flips, his movements having become fidgety as the wait for her return began. They’d ventured into the geyser field once during an adventure, which might have been what had—subconsciously—drawn him towards it again; the memory that he shared with her there was freshened up the closer to it he became. It made him feel almost as if it were that same night with the raccoons, even though it so clearly was not. All the while that he walked, he hoped that she was doing alright, and that nothing terrible had happened to her.

Shortly after having started his trek through the field, he’d caught sight of a shadow moving. Curious, he’d lowered himself, getting ready to spring forward, only to pull back at the last second upon realizing who the shadow was. Hvit had grown since the two had last seen one another, but that hadn’t made him feel anymore inclined to attack than he’d felt back during their initial meeting. The siblings had all found a way to be friendly with one another, and that was something he remembered, as well as what had kept him from giving chase. The boy had, instead, taken a few steps in Twix’s direction, only to stop before reaching her so that he could offer a wag of his tail. He’d then glanced around, but was unable to see her brother nearby. Of course, he assumed that he was only hiding from her again, and so the boy tilted his head when he’d looked back to her, silently questioning the other raccoon’s whereabouts.

Twix is wrapped up in her own doings that she doesn't notice the approach. She's focused on looking for her brother, hopping along a trail that isn't any newer than when they'd been her last. He isn't here, she decides, but it's short lived as she expresses an audible gasp and nearly topples over backwards.

She catches herself, righting her balance once more, before she's able to address anything that just happened.

First, the girl notes the absence of the wolf's sister. One is better than two, at least, but he had been the fat puppy to smother her brother.

Of course, he's probably two sizes bigger now.

"Um," she stammers, her own head tilting in slight confusion. "I'm looking for my brother again... it's been four days now. It's never been this long and he said he'd stay in places we'd been to so it would be easy to find him but I.. I can't find him!"

It surprises her how quickly she becomes hysterical when the boy hadn't even asked a question. A single look had been all he offered and she trips over her own words in grief, tears bubbling behind her eyes, and she stumbles forward in sudden, scared desperation.

The raccoon nearly fell over, and he’d taken a step back out of surprise. Still, nothing was said, but he continued to watch her. It was interesting to observe her movements, for they were different from that of a wolf’s, but she’d ended up stopping and speaking instead. Just as he’d suspected, her brother had gone into hiding. He’d been missing for a while, which seemed concerning, but he hoped for the best anyways. Perhaps he’d gotten lost, or had been following Twix and hiding in new locations the entire time. There were numerous positive possibilities, and so he veered away from the negatives.

As she stumbled forward, his own body had moved towards her without hesitation. Should she not right herself at the last second, he’d situate himself so that he could catch her, and then support her body with his own. Hvit didn’t know what it was like to lose a sibling, but imagined that it must not feel nice. “I’ll help,” he told her, wanting to reunite the two. If he ever lost one of his sisters, he didn’t know what he’d do. So, even though Freyja—who usually did all of the tracking—was not currently around, he’d offered assistance. It couldn’t be that hard to find a raccoon, right?

When he surges forward, her fingers grip into his fur without a second thought. There isn't much weight to her to pull him down but she cringes when she realizes what she's done, freezing mid-fall to slowly push herself back up and away from him just in case. Her eyes, filled with tears, look up at him as he offers to help. She can't recall him speaking at all last time but she doesn't dwell on it for long, nodding her head a few times frantically.

Twix doesn't know the little differences between them, assuming his eyesight is no different than her own at night, so she spins around and shuffles back the way she'd came.

"I saw him last... I don't know. Near a lake but it was far from here," she muses though she's gone over this a hundred times, at least, but wolves had a good sense of smell, right? Surely he remembers what her brother smells like, since he's smushed him, and she hesitates a step forward. What if that's what he wanted this whole time? He peers back at him over her shoulder, then attempts to brush the paranoia from her mind. If she can find Mars, she can keep him safe, and between the two of them she's sure she can ward off any other danger.

A soft tug at his fur had been felt when she’d grabbed hold, but it’d not been enough to cause any real damage. It was hardly felt—and he probably wouldn’t have minded even if it had been—and so he’d wondered if he’d even felt anything at all. If the pull had been real, or if he’d only imagined it. By the time he’d craned his neck to look towards her, though, she’d already distanced herself. It confused him, as he’d thought that they were getting along well. Were they not friends? Granted, they’d met only once before, but during that time he’d trapped her brother in order to keep him from running off to hide again. To him, that had meant that they were friends, since he’d helped her out. Pushing passed the thought, he focused back on her and the predicament she was facing. Her brother was missing, and so he needed to be found.

Moments later and she’d turned away from him, her form blending into the darkness. She was seen well enough for him to follow after her, but he kept as close as possible just in case. If too much space were to find its way between them, he didn’t know if he’d be able to find her again, so avoiding that risk altogether was ideal. She spoke of a lake that was far away, which he knew nothing about. The farthest that he’d ever gone was right outside of the borders, and there’d been no lakes to see out there—from what he remembered, anyways. Since he could rely neither on his eyes nor his mind, that left his nose. Without hesitation, he’d closed the distance between them and ran his muzzle through her fur, inhaling as he did so to better recall the scent of a raccoon. He hoped, then, that his nose would not fail him. That he’d be able to find Mars in no time at all, and maybe try to get him to stop playing the hiding game. “Show me,” the boy voiced, referring to where her brother had last been seen. “Good place to start.” He believed so, anyways.

Between where Hvitserk encourages her where to start and leaving the wolf territory, she'd been mostly quiet. She'd already thought of all the bad things that might have happened to her brother and can only seem to come up with, like, two good things and even then she will likely kill her brother so it won't even matter. Occasionally, she looks over her shoulder to make sure he's there and soon he's by her side. She's compelled to reach over and grip his shoulder but she keeps her hands to herself and leads them into territory she isn't aware he can't go.

"What's your name?" she asks, realizing she'd never gotten it though they had rushed out in a hurry. Perhaps if they'd stayed, things might have turned out differently, but they could have very well been for the worse.

She doesn't think on it long before she bites her lip and pursues their path a little quicker. They pass through open terrain and to a large bolder wher eshe leads him a small path that ends at a pond. A far cry from a lake, but a body of water nonetheless, and it'd had been the last place she'd seen him on their final round.

It hadn’t taken long before they were leaving the territory, which Hvit was hesitant about doing. He knew better than to venture into areas that he knew nothing about, as well as that he was supposed to stay with the pack, but he’d left anyways. He was helping someone out, though, so surely no one would mind that he’d taken a small trip… hopefully. Shaking his head, the thoughts were dismissed as best as they could be, but not entirely. He was well aware that no one could ever know about his little search and rescue mission, lest he wanted to get into trouble. So, he kept quiet on the way out, and would be extra silent on the way back in whenever it came to that.

Hvit enjoyed the silence of their journey whilst it’d lasted. Though he enjoyed quiet time, he wasn’t really bothered by the question that had ended it. If she wanted his name, then that meant they were becoming friends, right? “Hvitserk,” he’d replied, glancing towards her as he spoke. There was a high possibility that she was the first one to have heard the name come from his own mouth, rather than from another’s, considering that introductions weren’t exactly his favourite thing. Like with anything that involved speaking, he’d much rather leave someone else to do it for him, rather than do so by himself.

When they entered the foreign territory, he’d stopped a short ways off from the pond. Knowing that the water would likely throw off his sense of smell, he’d started sniffing around a distance away from it. On several occasions, he’d stopped and sniffed Twix again, reminding himself of what sort of scent he was searching for, and then went right back to work. After a short while, he’d caught wind of something and—after nudging his companion so that she’d follow—took off in the direction whence it’d originated. In the near distance, a lump on the ground was spotted, and so he’d slowed to a trot as his approach was made. As he stopped and inspected it, it was noted that something wasn’t quite right, especially since it wasn’t moving in any way; not even the sides could be seen rising and falling, which led him to believe that it was dead. Tilting his head, he’d wait for Twix to check things out, not knowing whether or not it was her brother.

Perhaps at another time, she might have picked over his name, but she commits it to memory and returns her focus to their path. Twix doesn’t go too far from the wolf, making sure he’s within eyesight, as she continues her search. Maybe he had come back to where they started, giving up on being found. That much made sense, right?

“Mars?” she whisper-shouts, cupping her hands across her nose to spread her voice. She doesn’t want to bring too much attention should there be something lurking in the dark but held back that their search can’t go without a little shouting. 

Twix sighs, putting her hand against a tree nearby as she scans back for Hvitserk. She finds him approaching and nudging her, not having paid attention at first to where he’d been, but she follows closely behind until he slows to a stop. “Mars?” she calls out, her voice scarcely a croak, as she sees the shadowed body. She half runs, half stumbles forward, hitting the ground on all fours as her hands pat the body down. She shakes him, touches him everywhere, but there isn’t an ounce of warmth left. 

“Wake up!” she screams closer to his face, her hands gripping the fur along his collar and shaking him. Blood pooled in his mouth drips out the side and she finally sees the blood covering her fingers, glancing to see the gash nearly severing him. Her throat constricts and she falls over his form, sobbing into his damp fur as she tries to piece him back together.

In the back of his head, Hvitserk had known the raccoon that he’d found to be dead. It hadn’t moved nor breathed since he had first seen it, so, despite his lack of further investigation, he’d known. There had been some part of his mind that had insisted it wasn’t Mars, though. That he must have stumbled across an entirely different creature, and that Twix would confirm just as much the moment she approached—but she hadn’t. She had confirmed the opposite, in fact, that the worst of fates had befallen her previously missing brother. The boy didn’t know what to do as he watched her do so, either. He had seen plenty of dead animals before, but always had they been a meal, not a member of his family. To lose someone that was close to him, he couldn’t even fathom how it might feel.

Creeping closer, the boy lowered his head down towards the living raccoon and offered her a gentle nudge, careful not to touch her brother. “S’okay,” he said, unable to form any other words. What was he supposed to say? Do? He’d learned many things since he was born, some on his own and some with the help of others, but never had anyone pulled him aside and explained how to go about dealing with a death. If he were to kill someone, he knew what would come after that, but for someone to die naturally? He just didn’t know. Never had he attended a funeral or seen the stages of grief, consoled someone or buried a body. Whilst he had the capacity to understand that something had to be done, he didn’t have the experience to know exactly what that something could be.

“I’ll help,” the boy told her, but gave no specifics. Whatever she wanted him to do, whatever had to be done, he would help her. Even if by helping her he’d have to find out what had happened to Mars and who had done it, he’d keep at it until the answers she wanted were found. Hvit had easily forgotten all about how he wasn’t supposed to leave the mountain, and was willing, now, to venture as far as he might to make his friend happy again.

Twix clings to the lifeless body, turning his stiff head—or trying too—and cradling her brother’s face. She wants to scream and shake and throw him around but she remains still, knowing none of those will give her any relief. If they hadn’t been playing this stupid game, if she’d just been able to find him, they’d be together again. A whimper lodges in her throat and cracks her voice, a hoarse cry escaping her lips. It is only when Hvitserk nudges her that she jerks, hissing into the nook of her brother’s shoulder, before turning around to swat him away.

“Help what?” she cries, turning back over to bury herself alongside her brother’s body. There isn’t an ounce of heat left. How long had he suffered, if at all? Did he cry and call for her? Her mouth opens for an inaudible cry and her body violently heaves in a fit tears.

The nudge was greeted by a sound he’d never heard before, which was followed by a waving of her arm. She’d managed to hit him on the nose, which had sent him backwards as he attempted to put some distance between their bodies. Hvitserk was unaware of what he had done to be forced onto the receiving end of her outburst, having thought himself to have done something nice. His lack of experience with familial deaths left him without enough of details to fully understand what was happening. He didn’t know that she was grieving, for he hadn’t a clue as to what grief even was, and especially not how it worked; the effects that it had on the mind could possibly be something that he never understood, either.

As she turned back towards her brother, the child watched, feeling both a need to help and uncomfortable at the same time. He’d approached her again after her body had heaved, preparing himself for whatever she might throw at him next. He would take it if he had to, allow for her to work out her frustrations and sorrow in whichever way suited her the best. His nose sought to touch her back as a whimper sounded from his throat. Though he didn’t say anything, he wanted to make it clear that he would help with whatever she needed done. She need only tell him what to do, and he’d do it without question or hesitation. All Hvit wanted was to be able to help his friend and make her happy again.

so u don't think you're going crazy, i changed the thread title

There has to be some way she can pull her brother back together, or go back in time to rewind all of this. She can find him sooner, or not do the game at all, but she’d been too eager to please him and make him happy. Maybe, if she waits her long enough, the humans will find them and take them back to where they used to live and they can fix all of this. A sob wracks her body and a smear of tears and blood coat the fur on her face.

When Hvitserk touches her again, she flinches and tightens her grip on her brother. What did he want, to eat him? Because he’s a big dumb wolf that eats little things? She’d tried to convey they weren’t prey but who knows what information they picked up since then. Her ears twitched upon her head as she shifts, trying to block out the information running through her head, but the need to protect her brother only rises. Her fur bristles but she does not lash back out at him, slowly turning her head to look at him.

Twix opens her mouth to say something but she quickly snaps it shut when she notes how distressed he seems. Her brows knit together and she slowly releases her brother and moves to use all four feet to support her before she plops down with her back against the deceased. She doesn’t say anything. She wipes at her face with the back of her hand and sniffles while she’s slumped to the ground.

The loss she’d experienced the very moment her brother had been found was a feeling that the boy couldn’t recognize and, hopefully, never would. He could neither relate to nor feel for her since he wasn’t quite sure how to do so. All he could do was be there for her, and so that was what he’d opted to do. For as long as she’d needed him to remain there with her, Hvitserk would have stayed, offering to her as much comfort as she might have needed. He’d then assist in the burial of her brother and, after a shared farewell, return to the pack whilst his friend was left to deal with her grief.