Jade Fern Grove ɡäbəl

Three fat turkeys were roosting in a tree which overlooked the rolling hillscape. Swiftlet had seen them settle there at dusk. He had tried for hours to persuade the birds to come down by mimicking the noises they made, but although they occasionally encouraged him by answering his clucks and purrs with calls of their own, they never budged.

Convinced the birds were there for the night, the hungry young wolf settled himself some distance away to sleep, waking before the dawn to steal close to the roost once more. He concealed himself in a thicket confident that the birds had not noticed his return. Then after a short wait, he tried his luck again with cackles and yelps.

Having heard from @Sven where Swift was last seen, Kristjan took a few days leave from Kvarsheim to track the boy down. It took the better part of a day to find a whiff of him and nearly another after that to follow the winding beelines the hunter had left behind to his current hunting grounds. Dawn was near, and he was preparing to settle down until it was lighter out, when he heard an unsettling series of noises.

Was that a wolf? Oh no! They must be choking!

Kristjan leaped up and dashed towards the bushes, crashing through the undergrowth. I’mheretohelp!

lol Kristjan

Swift felt a shiver of excitement. The birds were twitching in a way that suggested he had hit the right note and they were about to be called down out of their tree and into his mouth. His tail started to wag, but before he could school it himself there was a great cacophony all about his ears that caused him to leap to his feet. Paws thudding! Branches cracking and rustling! Someone hollering! Swift flushed out of the thicket like a startled rabbit.

The birds sent up the alarm and took to wing, flying further down the treeline. Bristling, the young wolf spun nimbly on his toes and turned to brazenly face whomever had disturbed him.

Kristjan!?

Landing roughly, Kristjan came nose to nose with a bristling fiend.

Hey… He knew those bristles!

Swift! The boys shouted at each other in unison. Were you making that terrible noise? I thought someone was dying! Kristjan snuffled all over Swift’s dark scruffy face, his concern melting into excitement as he began circling, tail up and wagging like the finger of stern nun. There didn’t seem to be anything wrong with him, in fact, the teen seemed hale as ever, and the Loðbrók was just relieved to have finally found him.

Elation swept across Swiftlet's face and right behind it swept a fleeting frown as the young wolf took offense to Kristjan's judgement on his turkey calls. But for as independent as he had always been and for as independent as he had become, he was a wolf — a social creature — and Kristjan was perhaps his only friend. He was happier to see him than he would admit to or was even aware of. 

Tongue lolling and tail wagging, Swift raised his paw to playfully bat the other boy's snout away. I was trying to talk to those turkeys, he told him, following that with a tongue-stuck-out-tease. Before they caught a whiff of your stink!

This was an incandescent joy! Everything about him radiated his happiness. Kristjan even snuffled eagerly at the black paw jammed in his face, gamesome, pushing him away.

It wasn’t lost to him that this was the first reunion he’d experienced of anyone who had left him before, but he didn’t yet know that he would cherish this moment’s memory for the rest of his life. He only basked in it now, laughing. Ómögulegt! No turkey can resist my stink – see?! he crowed, rearing up and lurching forward in an attempt to clamp his clammy armpit over Swift’s muzzle.