@Merrick
It was exactly a week now, since Nunataq had moved away from her Bearclaw family, and life was treating her well. Her corner of the hollow was not frequently visited by other pack mates, which she, oddly enough, liked it. Company was great as long as you were with people, who knew you and to whom you did not have to explain yourself or be patient with them, until they realized, what they had to do or how they had to communicate with Nuna. She was patient, when this occurred, because part of her enjoyed meeting people (and compensated the lack of attention at home), but she had grown self-sufficient too and enjoyed being in her own company even better.
Like now, when she had sprawled out right in front of her humble abode, enjoying the rare warm rays of the winter sun. Her paws and coat were dirty from a hunt and a digging session earlier in the morning and her chest, collar and muzzle that were covered in dried up blood and other inside juices told that she had been successful as well. The taste of the first victories was amazing and she prolonged the moment by sleeping and reliving the whole event in her sleep. Her feet twitched, as she ran in her dreams, now and then series of muffled barks were heard.
a week too for merrick, and he had grown reclusive, beginning to prefer his own shadow to the wolves around him. it was a large change, and after how harshly laurel had spoken to stigmata, merrick was unsure if he wanted to be near his thorny aunt. his days had become consumed with hunting small game, exploring the hollow alone, and avoiding the other wolves therein.
except for nunataq, of course. the experience of friendship between them was often the only thing that grounded merrick during these times, she and the stars. having spent many nights out-of-doors, exploring the constellations visible through wintry clouds, he was eager to find her now, to tell her what he had discovered.
the young coywolf's ears lifted as the trail of nunataq's scent led to her form, twitching in dreamscape, and he chuckled to himself, giving a soft chuff of amusement he hoped would not wake her. let the girl sleep; he would wait nearby till she had awakened.
The dream was over a little while after Merrick's quiet arrival and Nunataq awoke with a start, sprang to her feet and cast a frantic, slightly disoriented look around. She was more prone to have powernaps, where an ear and eye and some part of the sixth sense was still awake, thus giving no one a chance to sneak up on her unnoticed. However, after long and strenous days - like now, when she mostly fended for herself - her iron hard grip on her sleep patterns and schedules had begun to weaken. And many a time she would jolt up from the dreamland and experience the fear of not knowing, where she was or how.
Like now - but once her eyes settled on Merrick's familiar form, she eased up, shook her coat thoroughly to rid herself of the remaining tension and went over to greet him and have an overall sniff to find out, what he had been up to lately. While she was at odds with Indra, her brother was always welcome and in some ways he was the closest person she had in Lost Creek Hollow.
nunataq soon leapt to her paws, provoking a start from merrick; his tail drummed against the earth to tell her he was no threat. and when his sisterwolf approached, the boy crooned low in his throat, licking her jawline. she was friend and family; aside from indra, nuna was all merrick had, though he thought fondly of laurel and had come to love mona.
life was easier when you had fewer to care about, the boy decided, nosing his own way into the girl's fur. she was fragranced with tinges of blood, with earth, with experience beyond his own; it excited him, and his tongue lolled beneath a bright expression: perhaps she would take him on an excursion, too?
In the myriad of smell particles that were scattered in Merrick's coat, Nunataq did not find anything particularly interesting. It was like browsing facebook's newsfeed, stopping briefly at provoking titles, funny memes and videos, but not finding anything useful. The only difference between Nuna and that person, who is stuck with absentminded clicking and checking and does not know, how two hours pass, being that the girl knew, when to stop. She was more picky about, what she engaged herself into.
She retreated, sighed and shook her coat.
So, nothing new, eh? She cocked her head to the side, looking him briefly in the eyes and then yawning. It occurred to her that she trusted her brother just enough to show her most recent finding of her treasure hunt. Therefore she got to her feet, disappeared in her den briefly and came up again with a proud grin, holding a...
Humour me - what did Nuna find and wanted to show Merrick? :D
nunataq seemed a bit bored with the normalcy of merrick's scent, which shamed her brother for some reason. however, she was too intriguing for him to feel put out for long; he watched intently as she disappeared into her den and reappeared with a long length of something he had not scented before: the hoof and half the leg of a caribou. she had gotten it from somewhere beyond the hollow, where the herds roamed free, wild, given to the lope of their demanding herd.
merrick sniffed at it excitedly, tail lashing at his hips. a low whine broke from his throat; where had she found it? would she take him? in that moment, the girl seemed much older, much wiser — the young coywolf was in awe of her, and it shone in his copper-flame eyes.
It was easy to read awe in Nunataq's younger brother's eyes and she basked in it like a cat in sunlight. She had never lacked confidence in herself, but an occasional boost never hurt. While with other people (and cubs especially) she would have played the "game of power" by being pretty demonstrative about, what she had in her possession, showing off and gloating about, what the other person did not have, Merrick was an exception for this rule. Long time ago Indra had managed to teach the otherwise unempathic child something called conscience and treating special people better and differently. Therefore she rather willingly let go of the leg and took few steps back, encouraging her brother to inspect it and even chew, if he so desired. After all, the leg was still hers, even if someone else got to have fun with it.
she was generous. merrick carefully took the leg from her, hefting it in his jaws until he found its weight, and his tail lashed at his hips. presently, he tipped the hoof-end upward and began to explore the cloven foot, licking here and there and letting his teeth test the curvatures. it was a new thing, and it belonged to nunataq; merrick was happy to give it back whenever his sister wanted, but for now he began a full-blown exploration of the leg, his fangs scratching most satisfyingly over its surface.
When Merrick settled to inspecting one end of the leg, Nunataq lied down, dragged herself closer and did the same with the other end. There was some dried up skin and rotten fat still there that smelled just as good to her as would strawberries to a human nose (unless they hate the scent for whatever reason). She placed one paw on the leg to hold it still to do a more thorough analysis, even going so far as nibbling at some bits to devour more of the scent and finally looking up to see, if her brother had found something just as noteworthy about the object on the floor.
nunataq took up the other end; for a long moment, the two young ones investigated their respective sides of the caribou leg. merrick drank in all there was to know about the object his sister had brought, mimicking her at times. his teeth eventually found the bony spur along the back of the hoof, and he licked curiously at it, pulling away to regard nunataq with an expression that invited her to look. surely she had seen it before, but merrick was not sure of what it meant.
Merrick seemed to have found something and Nunataq went to inspect the spot. She quickly determined that it was quite uncomfortable to do the job, while the leg was in her brother's possession, therefore she picked it up gingerly and dragged it to a more open space. After two, three exploratory sniffs, and one pawing session, she plopped down on her stomach, turned her head and began to chew the bony thing with her molar. Three "nom-nom"s later and a crack, she had managed to remove it and then spat it out in the ground, paid attention to it for 2 seconds and with a heft sneeze decided that it was not worth any further research.
She left the leg lying and got play-bowed, offering something more active to do after all the intellectual effort.
nunataq took charge, and merrick watched with great interest as she separated the spur from the rest of the foot. likewise, he was bored with its tiny appearance on the ground, and quickly welcome his sister's invitation to play. they had done this before; he remembered how his sister had once taken his entire face in her mouth. she was formidable, even before adulthood, and he would keep that in mind as he snapped playfully at one of her forepaws, tail lashing behind him.
Merrick was long past the age, when his head could easily fit in Nunataq's mouth, but that did not deter to try and mouth the side of his face, then moving downards to grab hold of the loose fur on his neck. In her experience in play-fighting this was the least sensitive part of the hide to hang on to and keep the opponent at an unfavourable position. Whether the same would be true for her brother, was yet to be found out.
her sharp teeth connected in the looser part of his nape, and merrick found himself quickly snared. he struggled backward against nunataq's grip, then lunged forward, but to no avail. the boy hung awkwardly in her grasp and panted a little while he sought for a way out. it came to him; he threw himself to the ground and twisted against his sister's jaws, reaching up to paw at her muzzle.
It was true and Nunataq grinned, as Merrick struggled against her grip, while she kept a steady hold on it, careful not to bite too hard and cause him discomfort. She enjoyed rough plays, but she had learned that not all people were the same. And if you hurt them, the game was over instantly. But - though young - Merrick had not been born yesterday either. Right, when it seemed that he had given up, he came up with a clever move, pulling his sister down with his weight and twisting so that there was nothing left for her to do then to let go of him.
Excited about the turn of events, she plopped on her belly and snapped at the offending paw in her face and went on to softly mouth the fur along her brother's neck, stopping to sniff here and there and blowing and air puff, when she had finished.
his ploy worked, and merrick snickered a little as nuna clicked her teeth at his paw, his own jaws parted as his sister blew ticklish breaths against his skin. her snap did not stop him from annoyingly pawing at her a second time, a playful yawning growl rising in his throat as he licked up at whatever part of her muzzle she could reach, writhing excitedly between her forelegs.
By the time, when there was not a single unslobbered and unchewed spot of fur left on Merrick's neck and head region, and he had done the same favour for her, Nunataq got up to her feet, shook her coat, stretched and looked down inquisitively at her brother. Words were spared, when her stomach growled, and she grinned at him.
Wanna eat? There was a cache nearby that they could raid.
Fade in your next post?
<3
thoroughly damp from the playful grooming of one another, one by one, the young wolves gathered themselves to their paws. merrick enjoyed being with nunataq; he did not have to speak, something that came less and less easily to him as he spent more time alone. and he was hungry. nudging his sister's shoulder, he fell into step with her, intent on taking spoils from the cache.