The pasture in early morning hours allowed the moonlighter time to hunt. His nimble frame was perched atop a stable boulder while his eyes scoured the grass sprouting through snow for signs of small rodents and prey. It did not take long for the halfling to sight a plump vole; it was attempting to feverishly dig a way through the remnants of snow and bury itself in earth. Tadec stiffened his limbs and took two small steps down the large rock until he sat near the sloped base. A hungry glint found his fiery gaze; his tongue extended to run along the dark hairs of his muzzle.
With an arch to his back and a practiced leap, the coywolf landed on top of the rodent and sunk his teeth in its neck. Lifting his skull upward, the thief searched for signs of approaching others. He would not put it past the wolves of the terrain to seek his catch. Tadec was, after all, smaller in size than most of their kind. He lacked the muscle of his lupine ancestors, but where he failed in musculature, he made up for in tact.
A chuff stirred him from his thought and the smoky creature turned sharply to face the creature who had summoned him. Immediately, the thief felt his limbs relax with a better sense of ease. The face and scent of the other were familiar, though he had never managed to get a name from the wolfdog. The tip of his tail twitched excitedly as he bowed his skull toward the cold earth and slunk toward her on outstretched and wiry limbs. The burning of his eyes sought her figure for a moment and he realized that she was with a litter; soon to be born, by the looks of it.
Tossing the vole so that it would land at her paws, the rawboned little halfling motioned with a bob of his skull to the kill. If she was feeding youth that was growing inside of her, she would surely need all the sustenance that she could get. Tadec felt that he was capable of catching another, should he find himself starved at a later time. With a shriveled smile, the half-coyote looked from the vole to her before urging her to, “eat?”
The cadaverous crow was pleased that she would accept his offering; she swept it between her teeth and made swift work of the small morsel. The thief’s tail twitched pleasantly behind him, jittering between his hocks as it wavered from side to side. After she had finished, the mum woman moved toward him and pressed her nose to the underside of his chin. Tadec shuddered at the scent of the large white Alpha that was so delicately intertwined with her own aroma. A quiet little humming murmur was elicited from the back of his throat and he flattened his lengthy ears to his skull, wiggling his rear to show that he was pleased she had enjoyed the treat. Knowing his place within their pack, the moonlighter extended his muzzle and aimed to nudge beneath her muzzle in a friendly manor.
The soft rolling of her tongue against the narrow bridge of his muzzle was welcome, and he chirped softly to her before catching the scent of the wounds against her sides. He pulled away from her touch and moved slowly to peer at the deep markings on her side. Wide-eyed and fearful, his burning gaze darted from her face to the lacerations and he reached out tentatively to touch against it with the cold wet of his nose. Wolves were savage creatures, so he was not entirely surprised that she would carry marks on her frame. Tadec wondered if it had been the large white Alpha of their land; he had not given the impression of a patient creature. With a careful whine, he looked to her and frowned.
It was then that she attempted to pull a song from him. He watched her face with a wide-eyed and intent stare. The cant of her skull and the questioning tone in her voice was enough for him to know that she was looking for a song. With a curling little smirk, Tadec lifted his head and parted his lips to create a yip from the back of his throat that lilted out into the air in a high melody. He then looked at her with a questioning glance, tail fluttering behind him.
Tadec was far from the healing sort; he had always had his hand in other specialties and could never focus well enough on learning herbs to be of much use there. It was a skill that was to be admired in others, but he was not interested in Reigi for the possibility of curing her, merely understanding what had happened to cause such foul wounds. The weaknesses of those around him had always been a perplexing and intriguing thing to imagine; Tadec found that he – himself – was a fragile hound and could easily have been overcome by brute force. Still, the thief was quick as a whip and cracked just as sharply.
At his song, the woman seemed to unfold into rolls of spilling silk and pleasure. Her eyes danced, and he continued to chirp for her until she spoke, casting Tadec into a state of stunned silence. The smoky creature did not believe she could speak at all. “Hain,” he told her the word in his natural tongue. If she should want him to do it again, she could request in a language that he understood. The Hedgerow that he used to speak to the others was difficult for him, and he much preferred the language of his birth.
The female echoed him, and the moonlighter’s slender muzzle crinkled in a smile that seemed to travel down the length of his slender frame and caused his hind quarters to shimmy. With a spark in his gaze, he reared his head back and yipped wildly into the sky. It felt as though his voice would drift away, lost against a stretch of fading grey and charcoal. While Tadec did not know that the female didn’t understand his manner of speaking, he had imagined that she was requesting another song from him. When his cries faded, the spindly moonlighter dropped his torso to the earth and his tail waved behind him. A playfulness sparked in his gaze and he yapped once before the length of his limbs carried him around in a swift circle and he turned from her to chase the landscape, a quiet invitation to follow was left for her to take or leave.