Wapun Meadow i'd rather join that pirate ship than gone to botany bay
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#1

venextos hunched under the frilled edges of a pine, his body concealed by a sheath of snow that hung precariously on the bent bough. around him snow-melt trickled down the rustling pines, dropping intermittently on the wolf's coarse coat. the predator sunk lower to the ground, it's gaze focused on some distant patch of snow that had drawn its attention.

in a cacophonous burst of flung snow and whipping pine the wolf launched from the damp earth and plowed through the snow, his skull plunging through the crisp layer of snow and ice with the swiftness and sound of a bludgeon. snow-powdered and rimed in white the wolf raised his head, the kicking form of a hare clutched between his jaws.

with a crunch and shake of its broad head, the hare was silent: in equal silence, the wolf turned and trotted across the white landscape. he left little in his wake, save for the occasional welt of crimson droplets that interspered across the unblemished tundra and marked his passing.
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#2
The white wolf stood on a knoll overlooking a sprawl of meadow. His eyes searched for nothing in particular: another wolf, a deer, a raven circling over potential carrion. His nose did not reach to collect the wind ā€” it delivered itself to him but held nothing of interest. He was about to turn away, to ramble towards a distant lake, when a white blur shot out from beneath a lone evergreen. Skwol's eyes narrowed in focus and watched as another wolf seized a hare previously indiscernible to him in its stillness. He felt a lump of disappointment slid into his gut.

He moved toward the kill site anyway and there he sniffed and licked at the blood and nosed around the tracks of the wolf that had hunted. He followed not because he hoped to thieve a meal or held any expectations of a share being offered to him, but because he was a wolf, and a wolf had need not only of meat but of the company of his own kind. His strides ate the ground in an efficient lope, additional speed borrowed from the path the other had carved into the cape of snow hanging across the meadow's back.

Skwol did not have trouble catching up. He woofed to announce his presence and call for the male's attention, and stood in anticipation, with a swaying tail and approachable stance.
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#3
the limp hare clutched in venextos' jaw was intended for garait - being the haler of the two, venextos had assumed hunting duties while his brother tended to his wounds. it was the way of the pack, and the way of the wolf - without each other, venextos knew they would surely die.

a sound behind him caused the male to hike his head up, his frostbitten ear pulled back in a slow motion. he kept walking, feeling the frigid wind bite between his lifted hackles. a wolf meant competition - venextos fully expected the only reason any wolf would seek out his company would be to filch the dinner held tight between his hooked teeth.

mid-stride venextos fluidly flipped in his tracks, now suddenly facing the male -- it was with dismay that he noted the wolf was nearly twice his size, rivaling even the impressive stature of his own brother. what confused venextos was the male's amicable body language - did he want his hare, or not?

venextos was not a wolf of guile and wore his confusion plainly. rather than immediately proffer the dinner he was certain he would be forced to release, he awaited skwol's move, his posture neutral despite the tension that clamped in his limbs.
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#4
"Don't want your meat," Skwol answered the male's unspoken question, taking a few tentative steps forward. He did not want to crowd the other wolf. "Iā€”" The white wolf cut himself off, ears swivelling forward and brows furrowing in thought as he caught a whiff of the other wolf's scent. There was something faintly familiar.

He tipped his blunt snout up, but the wind offered him nothing else, mostly because it had shifted to throw his companion's scent away from him. His eyes could find nothing recognizable at all, but a wolf was always to trust his nose first. It came before the eyes for a reason. Skwol hummed gruffly to himself, agitated that he could not place what he had smelled.

"I'm sorry ā€” have we met before?"
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#5
'i don't want your meat'. venextos leveled a suspicious and raking gaze across the male's countenance, searching for any sign of dishonesty on his pale face. he found none, though that did not immediately abate his wariness. garait needed this meal - if he was to heal quickly, his body required it - venextos was not unprepared to sprint headlong across the powdery snow for it if he needed to.

the male's question seemed out of place, for venextos was certain he would have remembered a wolf that towered over him. surely he would have recalled a white goliath in his travels over hill and dale. he was just thankful that so far, the wolf seemed relatively neutral.Ā  certain he had never seen the stranger before, he shook his head in a silent 'no'.

if he were at ease he might have been inclined to drop the hare in his mouth to speak -- he was not at ease, and kept it firm between his teeth. unfortunately, this did not make him pleasant or even interesting company, though his lack of conversation was not necessarily done deliberately.
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#6
The wolf indicated no to him.

It crossed his mind that he ought to take the hare if only to free up the other wolf's tongue to speak. Had he been on his own turf, secure and confident in surroundings, he may have presented that idea as a brusque remark. But he was not, and Skwol was not looking to invite trouble upon himself out here in lands unknown, in the most unforgiving of seasons.

Skwol was generally patient, but his patience only extended so far in these circumstances and to complete strangers. Unsure of what else he could do (or was willing to do) to assuage the other male's wariness, and despite his want to investigate the familiar scent further, the white wolf turned away with a parting dip of his snout. He made no haste to depart ā€” if the other wolf changed his mind about company, or made himself a threat, a plush ear was turned back to hear of it as he sauntered along.
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#7
venextos watched his newfound company, small furls of condensation beading between breaths of damp rabbit fur. he watched as the stranger moved, his head dipped in the briefest of silent bids. the displaced attalus might have returned the gesture were it not for the fact skwol's back was already upon him and the energy expended would have been lost.

he knew better than to believe the male's attention was no longer upon him, despite the plain view of the large wolf's backside. something about skwol's aspect told venextos he better not test him, and venextos had always been a man to never question the prickling of his gut. all the same he was puzzled by the male's failure to depart. most wolves were eager to quit his company.

"whufd'wan?"" 'what do you want?' the male called, the downy fold of meat between his teeth softening the articulation of his words.
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#8
He may have been prepared to catch it but not for one moment did Skwol think the male would call out after him. The white wolf stopped and angled himself to look back. His ears shifted in contemplation. He thought what he wanted had been obvious ā€” besides the hare the other assumed, which he had already indicated as not being it.

"Company," he answered. The white wolf's pride and dignity was not hinged on some facade of stone hearted toughness. Skwol shrugged and added, "been travelling for some time." Infrequent solitude had always been a welcome thing, but the long stretch of seclusion had grown old. He realized then that he needed to settle soon.

His paws could not take him far enough away to mend the damage that had been done to him.
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#9
company? venextos' expression darkened in vexed configuration. buddy, he thought with an adamant shift of his paw - he did not swing that way. his ears even cupped back in indignation - did he look like he played for the other team? he considered himself quite handsome, masculine even -- certainly he could see the attraction, but he couldn't see how skwol could possibly mistake that he was a woman's man.

unsure of how to rebuff a very swarthy male that obviously was vying for his unrequited affections, venextos considered his options. he could stay, accept this male's 'company', and possibly have his very manly self violated ... or he could ditch the rabbit, hopefully distracting this amorous male enough to make a quick get-away.

he really wanted the rabbit though, and never once considered that the male's want for company had nothing to do with his sexual proclivities. "umfm...." he started, weighing what to do. "ffiene." maybe his stellar conversational skills (lol) would off-put the male eventually before garait found out the uncomfortable position venextos had put himself in.
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#10
Had Skwol been able to read minds he would have been quite offended by the male's interpretation. He had a set idea of how things were meant to be and two males sharing such intimacy was not part of that. Fortunately for both parties, he had no clue as to the true workings of the other wolf's mind and responded only with a quirk of his brow. He believed the other wolf was simply not keen on the idea of company ā€” a loner ā€” and he was not so desperate as to force it on him even if the other wolf reluctantly agreed.

Skwol dipped his head again and wished the fellow well. "I hope the prey keeps running for you." Then he turned and loped away. He would not know on this day that this wolf travelled with the one he knew as Triva, and that was the scent he had caught.
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#11
just as soon as he had begrudgingly accepted the male's company, he lost it. he caught skwol's departing comment and watched confused as the male loped away - was it something he had (or hadn't) said?

all the same he was relieved he would not have to fend off any mano-a-mano advances, and it showed as his posture dropped. he would not make the connection for some time that this wolf was the very male that had afforded garait a kindness in sharing his meal. for that, venextos would be eternally grateful, though for now he remained ignorant to what had transpired between his brother and this stranger.

without a word the white wolf turned and departed their strange meeting ground, headed directly for his brother with the hare still clutched tight in his mouth.