the fox had been digging at one of their newer caches, looking for the remnants of recent hunts. she'd seen the auburn pelt—so like her own—at a distance, stark red-orange against the snow. had surprised it despite the vividness of her own pelt, snarling, bearing down like hellfire itself.

a chase ensued. the wind of the vixen's heels, kicking frantically as it bounded. one giant leap and Avicus surged forward;

seizing the fox's hind leg between her jaws and snapping it.

she's about to dive into the animal and have it for her own meal when she notices something strange. an alien rippling along the fox's ribs, pressing against her protruding belly. as if the vixen is bursting from within.

something not right, and her smell is off, too. pressing her ears flat against the shrieking, she methodically shatters the other three legs—taking nips here and there from the feisty fox—before calling for her pack, and for @Ashlar in particular.

if this is a sick beast, they should not eat it.

He heard the call and turned mid trot to follow it. He was fairly sure that it was his Wealda, though he was still learning the howls of his packmates. The scent of the pack wasn't even fully upon him yet, he could be forgiven for mistaking a face or a call every once in a while. 

He heard screaming, not wolven, before he saw Avicus and her captor. He approached her at a quick trot but slowed when he could see fully the screaming fox on the snowy ground. He stared at it curiously, giving space to his Wealda as he stopped on the opposite side of the mangled creature. He noticed, after a moment, that all four limbs had been broken deliberately. A swift queasiness rose in his stomach and he quickly swallowed it down, anger at himself flaring up to take it's place. To leave it alive - for what? The screaming was almost unbearable but he closed his ears and his heart to it.

After a moment, he looked up at the ruddy female. He was meant for threats, which this wasn't...as it was, he was not sure what to do. He could kill it for her, if she wanted. Part of him hoped that she would let him. "Why did you call?"

He didn't notice the smell above the screams - not yet.

Ashlar came to the call quickly, and quicker still when he heard the sounds of a creature in pain. It wasn't a wolf, but a fox, and clearly caught by Avicus from the way she stood over it.

He balked momentarily, confused. He had a sudden memory of the trip with Merrick, the way he'd been pressed to help in dispatching the coyote. Was this a test? The bard wanted to trust his friend, and did, but such things couldn't stop the turning of his stomach as he remembered where both of them came from.

He knew that it was a test he'd fail over and over again. If not gladly, at least firmly now. But she knew this too.

His body language was hesitant but he did step forward, though his ears tilted back against the sounds the poor creature made. Why hadn't she killed it yet? He knew the nature of the hunt, but to let it suffer....

The swelling of its belly was the first thing he noticed. Disease, or.... no. He moved in closer, losing his nerves some as interest took over. Something else.

Two dark shapes flanked Avicus.
The sight of this drew him as much as the call. The scent of fox came after, full-blast and pungent. He searched the air for signs of anything else and could not detect anything from the Wealda; but as Tulimaq prowled closer, he saw what had them all fixated.
They were not here for Avicus after all. He turned his greedy, lustful anger towards the foxes after that, focusing on whatever threat they may pose. His eye drifted over the shape of Ratio -- who he had not met face-to-face yet -- and took some time to study him openly.

the first to arrive is the newcomer, Ratio. she gives him a level look in response to his question, pointedly nodding toward the fox's protruding belly. wha— she begins, but then Ashlar is there, and she turns toward her healer, whose fear is dissipating slowly in favor of curiosity.

she hasn't forgotten their fox-chase together. he'd balked that day. but this is something different—bloodier, perhaps, but one in which he can render help.

whahh' wrong wi' her? Avicus asks sharply, again motioning to the ruddy abdomen.

Tulimaq arrives, and the air is full of shrieking. exasperated, she finally leans down, seizes the vixen's nape and quickly, firmly clenches her jaw, accompanied by a brief shake of her head. a snap, and the air falls silent, the animal going limp beneath her.

she'd already pierced the skin by breaking her legs—so if the thing is diseased, she's already at risk—and Avicus has tired of the noise.

The look he receives from his leader is a fair one and he gazes down at the fox at her gesture and sound, ignoring the wolf who had just arrived. If he'd used his eyes or his nose, he might not have looked so foolish. As it was, whatever embarrassment he may have suffered was quickly lessened by a quiet curiosity. Like Avicus, he assumed it was some kind of horrid sickness. In the corner of his eye, he sees the other wolf move closer and hears Avi's question. He glances toward him and takes a long pause. His attention is captured immediately by the deep chocolate fur, the golden eyes. He stares openly at the wolf, red eyes fixed, for several moments before he corrects himself and averts his gaze, shifting it instead to the other wolf who had arrived.

Ratio knew neither of these wolves...the urge to look back at the earthy male tugs at him but he resists. Instead, he meets the eyes of the male who is staring openly back at him. He feels the pull of irritation, the desire for his hackles to lift and his ears to flatten, and just as with the smaller wolf, Ratio looks away. He fixes his gaze back at the fox. Avicus has killed it, finally, and there was quiet. He is relieved but too distracted by those around him to be as invested in the creature as he had been when he'd arrived.

Ashlar couldn't help reacting when she killed the fox. It was probably right to do so quickly, but things like these would never be as the hunt to him. It was different in a way he could not give words. The song never had come to him.

He could tell what it was; there was only one thing it could be. He'd never helped with a birth but baba had spoken of how. These ones wouldn't live without their mother, though - and as kind as Ashlar was, he would never go so far as to suggest they attempt raising them.

It's.... she was pregnant. he said quietly, suddenly uncomfortable again. He could feel the eyes of this new man on him, someone he hadn't met. And then there was Tulimaq, a brooding shadow that never seemed to approve. Medicine was his arena, but death wasn't. His posture shifted subtly, but he stayed in case Avicus needed more. She'd called for him... but he felt, abruptly, out of place.

The stranger meets his gaze a moment only, then turns away. It is smart of him not to challenge Tulimaq here where he fells the most powerful. The man will take his time to investigate each new face he comes across, test them when he feels the desire, and make his own decisions. It bothers him that Avicus attracts so many men; but she has a purpose for them, and Tulimaq stows any feelings on the subject. Better to use the threat they pose as fuel, he thinks.

The target of Avicus' interest is soon dispatched. Tulimaq moves through the growing number of wolves towards her, interested in placing himself as close to her as she'll allow; that is more important than the dead fox with its full belly, he thinks. Let these newcomers see the value Avicus has placed upon Tulimaq; it is his right by rank, it is his right by will.

only Ashlar speaks again. "she was pregnant."

the stirring in the belly. not a sickness, something to enter their bellies or blood. something worse. more of her kind, digging at the caches, stealing their hard-earned prey. with their life would come Redtail's death, and she will not have it.

Tulimaq is quite near; she shifts briefly nearer, pressing a shoulder to his in their shared, secret intimacy. then she bends once more to the fox, nosing at the still-moving ribcage. . .

with such care that would please a mortician, she pries gently at the belly, piercing the skin, pulling it wide. 

careful, careful

three pale blobs of flesh soon emerge, steaming against the snow and struggling against their confines. she stares at them the way one would gawk upon an alien newly upon Earth, for a few heartbeats.

and then she looks at Ratio.

kill 'em, she orders softly.

ooc; Sorry, guys. School was vicious. I'm back in it.

Ratio does glance up as the male moves away, sees the way he stands close to Avicus and the way she does not protest. He doesn't think much of it and stubbornly refuses to look at the chocolate-wrapped wolf, even as he declares that the fox was pregnant. 

That makes sense.

Ratio doesn't know much about pregnancy. It's possible he has pups somewhere, though incredibly unlikely. Not since...well, not for a long time. He was kept out of the dens in his old pack and he's never been interested in babies. Uncomfortable, feeling weird in his skin, and no longer interested in the situation, he is about to excuse himself when Avicus gives him an order.

His red eyes do rise, then, and he stares at his leader.

Kill them? Why him? He does allow himself a brief look at the brown male - a healer, maybe? He was called upon for his knowledge. The kits will die, very slowly, without their mother. This is mercy and after a few seconds of hesitation, he nods and leans down to easily crush the spines between his jaws. They fit in his mouth completely, teeth pricing lungs and belly in his effort to target their tiny backbones. He replaces each gently from where he'd picked it up when he is done. 

Finished, he looks quietly back at Avicus. If she was testing him, she will find him obedient, no matter what she asks. "Do you want me to bury them somewhere? To get rid of them?" he asks.

Tulimaq's proximity, and the way they stood as a united authority, didn't escape Ashlar's notice either.

It set him in a strange space. Even if it had been in his nature to fight for her, he knew that he never would if it meant jeopardizing the legacy she'd built here. Tulimaq was huntmaster, warrior, and deserved the respect he had earned. Avicus was the same. They were a match from every objective, and as much as it pained him, Ashlar was genuinely glad he had joined them. As her friend, he could not be anything else.

Still, his eyes cut away, and as they did he felt the catch within his throat. It seemed he would always have reasons to doubt the things he'd finally thought certain.

There was no more need for him here. He turned silently to leave, disappearing without a word the way he'd come, but not before he noted with appreciation the way the newcomer dealt the request. He was quick and did not seem to enjoy it. Ashlar had some sympathy for that - maybe later they could talk. Right now he just wanted to be somewhere else.

They are dead.

The boy healer, turns away. Is he disturbed? How strange that someone who prescribes to using the natural world, cannot fathom to look upon it.

Tulimaq rumbles an answer for Ratio: We eat.

Why waste what was freely caught?

Ashlar again cowers from the scene, but to her satisfaction, Ratio complies. he kills the kits swiftly and efficiently, and at his question is about to snort and snap one up when Tulimaq speaks.

mmhm, Avicus agrees. one for each of them. she thinks, perversely, that she may not have let the healer dine even if he had stayed. one must have the stomach for it, after all—and she won't have the meat wasted from a belly overturning.

she takes a tiny body for herself and steps back, devouring it quickly, the tiny bones reduced to grit between her teeth.

Ratio had passed the test. she looks upon him approvingly, tongue running over her chops. puhh' thah' in a cachhe, she orders the man, jerking her chin toward the mother fox.

then, with one parting look toward Tulimaq, she leaves.

Ah, eat them.

Ratio had been empathetic to the creatures. He hadn't thought of eating them, though it made sense now. The realization didn't make them more appetizing to him. Nevertheless, he nodded at his leader, avoiding looking at the male to her side.

He took a kit after she had finished, chewed and then swallowed it quickly, taking little joy in the taste. Obediently, he picked up the mother fox and turned to head in the direction of their cache. Someone else would enjoy her meat but it was not likely to be him.