Wolf RPG

He came upon the ulax with a dead rabbit as an offering, still warm and barely glass-eyed. He came to check on the remaining child of Lote, who now was kept with Kukutux' brood; but as he came to the entrance of the ulaq where the children slept, he found that one child — @Kausiut — was awake at the entrance.

He placed the rabbit down and licked his lips to rid the taste from them, sinking to his haunches, trying not to intimidate the young one. Are you protecting your family? That is good! Kigipigak praised, his voice much too loud (which was normal for him, but maybe too much for the child), and forced a smile.

The longer he looked at the child, the less he wanted to. It was distorted in the oddest of ways; not properly formed, missing pieces. Kigipigak looked down to the rabbit that he had brought and felt regret for taking the time to bring it all the way here, to waste it on a creature like this. But he did not speak these thoughts; it was not his choice, as Kukutux was the issumatar of the village, and her values were different.

Kausiut was very much unaware of, how people viewed her. She did not know that she looked different from the most puppies. She had no idea that other individuals had thoughts of any kind. She did not pick up social cues. Did not attempt to anaylize, try to guess, what people had in mind. Her world was based on simple rules, unburdened by the complexity of emotions, assumptions, prejudices and, whatever else lies at the bottom of the Pandora box of vices. 

She wagged her tail in excitement for the unexpected gift and she pulled herself to her feet to inspect the fur of the dead animal and taste the stains of fresh blood around its muzzle. Kau liked, what she saw and was about to dig in, when she froze, craned her neck back and gave a long and intense stare at the man towering above her. The puppy was eerily still, the pupil of that one working eye had dilated to the point that the eye appeared pitch black. Lips pulled back, revealing a row of needle-sharp teeth and creating a vicious sneer. A quiet growl rumbled from the depths of her throat. 

And then - as quickly as it had happened - she snapped out of it and attacked the rabbit, pulling at the skin and shaking her head.

The child soon took notice of the gift, leaping for it, with a strange look upon their face. Kigipigak was strongly tempted to pull the cub off of the rabbit and look for one of their siblings. It didn't sit right with him that good food would be wasted on someone with such obvious deformity; but he held back on that, choosing instead to watch as the child pulled apart the rabbit to the best of their ability. It was a little bit horrifying.

As ferocious as Kausiut looked and acted, in the end she was still a small puppy and even a rabbit was too much of a big kill for her to conquer. Her jaws were not yet that strong to puncture the skin and get to the tasty bits. Instead she had a full mouth of fur, that tickled her throat and stuck to her palate and tongue. She stepped back, scrunched her nose and coughed the hair out. With little success to fully free her oral cavity, but she ignored it and went back to work. 

The puppy fought for good 15 - 20 minutes, a focus that long is rather unusual for a kid that young. She had got very little in terms of red meat, more than enough of intestinal content (turned out that bellies were far more easier targets than necks and backs) and, feeling somewhat tired, she settled down to chew on an ear. While in this position, she finally grew aware that the uncle, who had brought the gift, was still there, watching her in disgust and fear. She did not pick up these two emotions, when she looked up to meet his gaze and offered him a toothy grin and happy, albeit tired wag of her tail. The stuff had been and still was good.

The child was relentless.

Soon enought he hare had been eviscerated. Innards were strewn like confetti and garland across the earth. Thankfully they were small morsels of soft meats, not something large like a deer carcass; Kigipigak thought of how much worse it could have been.

This could have been a teachable moment, too. He did not know if it was his place to stop the child, or to make it known that this was a waste of good meats. If this behavior happened after a pack hunt - say, at a carcass much larger, an elk - Kausiut would have been in trouble.

However, Kigipigak was no parent. He did not know what to do with children at all. He stood there and watched, repulsed, until the child looked as if they'd tired of their toying, and with a frown, looked for any adult who could help him in cleaning up the mess.

The man did not do anything interesting just stare back at Kausiut, who did not like this after a minute or so. Still looking at him, she let her head rest on the remains, telling the other that this was hers ans she had no intentions to share. It occurred that these measures might not be enough, therefore she pulled herself to her feet, regarded the mess, left from the hare, picked it up by a foot and began to drag it across the whole plot to a place, where she had dug a hole earlier that week. Though there was not too much of the hare left, the task was by no means easy to accomplish. She worked diligently, stopping time from time to stare at the silent boring man, to make sure that he did not move out of his spot and advance upon her.

One important aspect of any wolf's life, beyond the ever-present importance of food, was food storage. It appeared to Kigipigak that this child was intent on playing with her food to the point of ruination; but then she began to tug at the remains and take them further away. He followed her at a distance.

A part of him knew to keep his eyes peeled for danger because she was a cub, but another part — the Tartok half which had been raised in such a biased manner — told him to lessen his worry. That it would be fortuitous for a hawk to swoop down and take this strange child away, or that a coyote could skulk through and Kigipigak might pause before chasing it.

The girl was taking the mess, as it wasn't a hare any longer, to a hole she had dug earlier. It looked quite shallow. Not nearly suitable enough for a cache, but close enough. Kigipigak was intrigued. It surprised him that this one-eyed, club-footed child would have the intrinsic desire to bury the remains.

He crept along slowly and then stopped to sit and watch, still utterly undecided about this cub. She was wrong in so many ways.

It was not very obvious and Kigipigak did not realize this, but personality-wise they were very much alike. Had their roles been reversed, Kausiut's opinion of the man would have been pretty much the same. Puppies were of no use, unless you yourself were one. 

The longer Kau worked, the less she liked the man's presence. He seemed to completely ignore, how pointed looks levelled up to glares of pure distaste. Other puppies were usually quick to pick up this not-so-subtle message of "bugger off so that I cannot hear you breathing" - this man proved that size, physical strength and owning useful resources aside, adults were dumb. 

She stopped digging, straightened herself, frowned at him and then huff-barked something that could  mean either "Hell with you!" or something very rude as well, picked the remnants and ran to the edge of the randevouz's site, where she toppled down the slope, skin and innards still in her jaws, and took off to a more secret site to hide her treasure. More importantly - away from the guy.