It was dawn and the sun was astonishingly bright. A low fog had descended on the rich lands around the Sunspire Mountains, making the great crags of Thunder Dome look even more imposing as they protruded from blankets of ethereal mist. But the morning sun glowed like a spotlight, unabashed. Noctura surveyed it all with quiet admiration. He had tentatively taken up residence in the land, under the guidance of a young female who had faith that he could learn to control his instinctive aggression and become a useful part of her peaceful new tribe.
Noctura had been so endeared by Asterr’s articulate and romanticised beliefs that he had taken her on her word and had turned from staunch loner to aspiring packwolf in the space of an hour. But that didn’t mean he had taken to it like a duck to water. On the contrary, he was more like a shark in desert. He had not sought out his packmates or done anything you would expect from a collaborator, but had instead spent his time roaming and exploring, answering only to Asterr.
This morning he was following his nose. A family of rabbits was hibernating just below the roots of a willow tree just off Thunder Dome, and Noctura was in the process of massacring them. They barely had time to squeak in their sleep. But a few seconds after the huge wolf began his feast, he paused suddenly, standing up straight, blood
drip drip dripping gorily from his dark maw.
He had just realised: what kind of packwolf didn’t bring food home to share?
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Dawn found the lone she wolf already on the move. She rarely slept past the first waking cries and chirrups of the morning choir, finding she too could catch herself an unsuspecting
worm if clever enough, and Indigo was no exception. Yet to find her own early feast--she was feeling confident for something bigger than the unfortunate vole--the large she wolf's thick paws carried her into a peculiar territory where some trees stood blackened by lightening strike and others stood stark white.
A dark dome loomed in the distance, her background to this odd playground of grey shades, snow, and the occasional evergreen untouched by nature's wrath. With the sun dappling and filtering through treeline onto her back, Indigo picked her way through the thicket, her nose keen to pick up the faint traces of deer in the area, but it was the scent of fresh blood that had her stomach roiling with hunger.
She abandoned her first task for the time being, choosing to investigate. A free meal was every loner's wish, and if the recent kill belonged to some lesser predator, Indigo would have no problem stealing it for herself. Unfortunately, said free meal looked like it belonged to a hulking stranger. Her lips instinctively pulled back in distaste, but that was the hunger speaking, she emerged from the shadows then, a soft chuff breathed into the cold air. He was about fifty yards off still, but plenty close to hear her gentle call.
The division between mind and body when it came to Noctura was profound. He had been hungry, and so had moved in for the kill, that was all. Now that his hunger had started to be satisfied, instinct had taken a brief, tiny step down, at least to leave a little bit of room for a little bit of thought. He was part of a pack now... and he was big and strong, an immaculate hunter. So now that he thought about it, it was strikingly selfish to eat without saving some for his packmates.
There were three dead rabbits left. Well, two and a half. He would take them to Asterr for her breakfast or else ask her what she'd like him to do with them.
But no sooner had he finished this thought than he sensed another wolf behind him. Her chuff was innocuous, but her presence was not. She looked strong, capable, and there were no signs that she was from Thunder Dome. The only reason why he didn't attack was that she hadn't taken an aggressive stance. But the intelligent and spiritual Noctura reverted right back to a wild animal, all thoughts vanished, and he bared his blood-covered fangs, silver eyes staring into hers and thunderous growls rising from his throat. He had made these kills. The food was his.
If humanity was on the cards, it was up to the orange-eyed stranger to bring it forward.
Indigo remained neutral, regarding the stranger as his scent came to her beneath the heavy metallic stink of blood. Her mouth still watered, last night's meal having already burned off from her system. His physique reminded her of her brothers and father and there was oddly something comforting in that memory, though it didn't stay for long. The stranger took to baring his fangs at her and issued a deep warning growl. She licked her lips instinctively out of deference, a natural response when she'd not been expecting aggression, but the female's demeanor changed in a flash. Too much time spent alone had left her rather feral, it had been awhile since she had the opportunity to benefit from a social experience, and she was quick to match the male's threatening display.
Lips curled back over her own bared fangs, pale and yellowed slightly from age. Her thick coat bristled with alarm and her ears stood erect, but she made no movement towards the other, simply standing stiff legged in place. Indigo's growl was low pitched and guttural but she did not push for volume, her's was simply a warning, she would fight if charged. Her gaze however, averted from the stranger's. She was not challenging the hunter for his meal, but only asserting her own dominance as a lone she wolf, displaying her strength and bravery without immediate and brash action. The male had no reason to share his meal with her after all, and a part of her understood his immediate reaction, but the survivalist in her wasn't about to back down and show weakness or leave tuck-tailed like a cowed pup.
Somewhere in the wild darkness of his aggressive mind, there was a spark. A spark of something other than instinct. It was like a very faint voice calling out to him — it was trying to soothe him. Trying to remind him that there was such a thing as thinking things through, talking things out; treating the person before him as if she were indeed a person, with personality and opinion and the potential to unsheathe her fangs.
But that voice was nothing compared to his savage instinct, and it was stifled quickly. This stranger had approached him while he was eating, and she wasn't leaving. The only reason why Noctura didn't outright attack her now was that he had to guard his food — there was a possibility she had a companion in the undergrowth downwind who would leap out and grab the rabbits once he was distracted.
The female's growl was more clever than his — hers had tact and messaging. Noctura's was simply violent, very deep and loud, a mindless storm.