Moonspear the twelve labours

✴       Revui did not consider that they might've been in danger. He felt fully capable of many things, and entirely safe in the middle of the range where his family ruled. The shifting darkness soon composed itself in the shape of a wolf, and the sight of Hydra among them was startling, more-so than the arrival of Arcturus or the discovery of the hollow in earnest. The boy felt himself puff and his fur spike, and with a lashing tail he calmed himself, then continued his investigation. Their older sister spoke and so Revui listened but said nothing in return; he gathered what information she was sharing, and inevitably traced his attention alongside her own to the point where he spied the claw marks. They were very old.

He crept along once again, and soon found himself squared-off against an embankment that was too small for his growing body to fit through. So, with a pause and a backward step, he looked for his brother. Arcturus was growing too but he was more athletic in build; he was slightly smaller and more streamlined, like their mother. Perhaps he could fit. Revui called to him with a deep hum, and then pressed himself in to the shadows to let his brother pass around him. It wasn't really a question of will you help me, more like an expectation—but Revui knew his brother, he knew how skeptical Arcturus was of the world. He was not as bold as the silver boy.

The wait was too much for him, though. No sooner had he called to Arcturus did the leviathan grow impatient and try to take his place, working his way along the shadows and in to the gap that posed such an issue. As soon as his body blocked the way there was a shriek — but it did not come from Revui. The sound caught in the earth just beyond where the boy was standing, and he was reversing backwards with his teeth bared.

From the depths of the hollow came another agitated, animal scream. Then, charging after him, was a silver-streaked creature of middling proportions; its brown fur looked black in the dim light, and its face was crowned with an off-yellow masking. The wolverine's claws scrambled across the soil but even though it struggled, it was making a bee-line for the startled Revui. Where the light caught upon its face, one could easily make out the grimace of its fearful defense — as well as the gossamer blue-gray of eyes which had lost their use.