Sequoia Coast mango

attn: @Sorcerer <3

the sea here was sluggish with ice.

his body ached, but he had built a shelter near a small copse of twisted trees for the silent woman.

well, he had helped her to build it, anyway. and he would add to it.

for now wolf dreamer walked stiffly into the cloud of blowing snow which bordered the long open plain of still-frozen tundra, tasting the tracks of the caribou.

and Wolf yawned in his head, spiked teeth glimmering.

eat.

The injured wolf and the one who tended him were gone when at last he decided to circle back. This was disappointing in one way but not in another; a dead wolf was none too fun and not even good eating. The Coyotl took his time inspecting the site before he turned his nose into the wind and went his way once more.

Sorcerer recognized that masculine scent when he crossed it. From there it was an easy choice to deviate from the line he travelled. He was heading no where and to no one. So he sought the wolf; the one who had not succumbed to the scavengers who had coveted him.

He was not far for swift feet, but winter's breath obscured the landscape and the red coyote was much closer than he intended to draw when he spied the wolf tracking caribou. Sorcerer instinctively angled himself for a quick retreat, taking the opportunity to appreciate the other animal's fur while he watched for any twitch of aggression.

Unappreciable from a distance and while crumpled on the ground, the wolf's appearance was one of beautiful contrast.

the instinct of watching eyes pressed upon wolf dreamer, and he turned his black eyes to see the scarlet coyote standing stark against the backdrop of ice.

for a long moment, he only gazed.

as a young creature, he had been given little opportunity to cultivate dislike or hatred of coyotes or even foxes, whom he saw as the same sort of smaller being.

thus he did not react with anger when he saw the stranger, only a placid, long look which eventually turned back toward the caribou.

"Wolf says we are brothers," the dreamer called across the piled drifts upon the flattened clearing.

Unexpected and welcome, the stranger's response lifted the coyote's brows and excited him. But to whom did he refer? Did this wolf have faith in a higher power or was he speaking of himself? Sorcerer would make no guess, hoping not to scare away another interesting prospect.

Coyotl says the same and believes we have much to learn from one another.

He drew closer in the manner of a searching robin: a few steps and a pause, a few steps and a pause. Watchful.

This wolf was even prettier closer up. His fur a rich, warm, and deep earthen color. Not the void of blackness suggested from a distance.

had he ever seen a coyote so close?

wolf dreamer stared openly at the creature before him, wonder clear upon his hazing face.

they admired one another.

"who is coyotl?" wolf dreamer asked, moving not a hair upon his pelt. the other was free to rest with him.

dancing fox came to his mind. "there is a woman with me. she is almost ready to give birth. this coyotl, he seems wise." a small smile twitched his mouth. "perhaps he can tell me what is to be done. i am only a man."

Old souls were hard to come by. This one was a rare being.

I and many others. He answered, taking a seat but never resting his guard. Not once had he ever given his trust to a wolf, but he had long wondered at the possibility of meeting one who could change that. Coyotl is all my kind — all those who walk now and all those who walked before — and Coyotl is also the first one. Who showed us how we are meant to be.

The wolf had laid a banquet of possibilities at his paws. Tempted by an old ambition and a long-dormant dream, he was conflicted. What he wanted from this encounter was no longer as clear as it had been when first he had turned on the trail of that scent. 

Mn. Sorcerer gently shook his head. That is all you need to be. That is what any wolf-mother will want you to be. The cubs will come and you will know what to do, and if you do not she will tell you. Listen when she does.

Coyotl.

wolf dreamer listened. even as his eagerness grew, the man focused upon keeping his limbs still. he felt they had reached an equilibrium, his kind and that of Coyotl.

the other creature then miraged into the entity of which he spoke, and wolf dreamer exhaled to steady his delight.

worry returned to the obsidian eyes.

"i will be anything she wants me to be. and i'll listen any way she needs. but birth, i — i think who i was before was responsible for making life. but i've never seen it ... become life, Coyotl."

he was scared for a moment, deeply frightened.

"there's — does — do you ever see threads? threads of light, all around someone, rising up into the sky? is there anything your kind know of these things?" he asked, heart thudding a galloping pound.