so what do you think? buffalo felt he already knew the answer, but he asked it of his sister all the same, throwing out his chest proudly as he gazed at himself in the ice-licked waters of a nearby stream. the trickle itself poured down the mountainside, along the ledge where he had settled himself.

presently the boy folded his lanky form to the ground, outstretching one broad forepaw to tap-tap-tap byll insistently upon her haunch. he meant to grasp her attention, but also to annoy her, and his tongue lolled with the sudden intensity of the dangerous game.

he snatched his paw back, chortling. buffalo never felt that he was in any real danger from his sister, but he had seen the destruction she had wrought against others. in some way he was quite proud of her violent nature, her swift switches from mood to mood.

the boy rose to his feet, lip curled in a feral warning, but his eyes had softened at the sight of her. extending his muzzle, buffalo made as if to nuzzle the proud curve of her throat, tail curled over his hips in a display of affectionate dominance, his protective nature glinting in the nature of his gestures.

byll belonged to him, to him and no other. he saw her beauty grow each day; even beneath the blood, past the mad glimmer of her eyes, the girl resembled a curved pearl, and this he did not like, and so he would guard her from those would did.

he followed the click of her teeth with a low, pleased growl. supporting her weight for a broad moment, buffalo gazed down the mountainside, wondering aimlessly where the stream led. at length, he drew away from the girl and moved to the edge of the cliff-face. their trek over the mountains had left him in awe of the massive landforms, and it was a reverence not easily shaken.

do you think She will follow us? buffalo asked after the tick of a few seconds, turning to regard his sister over one bloodstained shoulder. he was speaking of clarice, the madwoman who had reared them, but he need not elaborate to byll. she would know.

he had not loved clarice as was befitting a son, but then again, She had not embraced Her children as a mother should. by turns She had coddled them, but Her love had been the smothering air of fire's smoke — in retrospect, buffalo had rather preferred Her savage nature.

nudging his sister with a wave of his plume, the boy shook his head firmly. he did not wish it. clarice's presence was not a need of his. i have you, buffalo answered simply, his words accompanied by a smile more wan than usual.

do you? came his next inquiry; surely byll did not, for she too had suffered and chafed beneath clarice's odd love and abuses.

same goes for you. don't go running off with any stupid boys. i'd have to kill them. this was said with a charming grin, but surely byll could see how serious he was, the hatred at the very idea flared in his eyes, his hackles. he had some small idea of what it was that males and females got up to in the darkness of night, and he had determined that he would never let that happen to her.

flinging himself down on the rock face again, buffalo lapped at one paw, where ice had scraped between his toes. it was a mildly irritating pain, and because of it he sought to distract himself by rising yet again and biting for byll's hip; he wanted to harass her, to play, to forget.

buffalo chuckled, touched by the innocence that still somehow lurked beneath her savage demeanour. you're right, sis, he grinned. you lead 'em to me and i'll fix 'em up right, for Sos. and for me, he added silently. it was not that he wished to possess byll in that way; his body had not yet known desire, save for a fractured and confused longing wrought by the mature bodies of the lone bitches they had come across in their travels.

he simply did not want her to know such things, or to be possessed; byll would leave him, then, to rear pups with her new mate, and buffalo would fall secondary upon the totem pole of her heart.

bumping her roughly, the boy barked once and whirled, beginning a swift and dangerous descent down the thin towpath worn by deer into the side of the mountain.

buffalo giggled, tail lashing at his hocks as he dodged, but all at once byll ended the game. aww, dammit, sis, he swore, irritation flaring in his eyes. was it not enough for the girl to simply play every so often? why must everything belong to the realm of task when it came to byll.

yet he hearkened soon enough to her gesture, and forged ahead as he had always done for their unlikely pairing, ears upthrust and body tense. if there was a creature waiting to seize some unwary fool in the gloom, it would be buffalo first attacked — he intended that byll live forever.