Shadewood i’ve worked a lot of nowhere gigs

a cold spell had descended through the keep, and most of the forest was quiet save for the shambling tread of koro toro. 

he had learned long ago that cold kept things slow — and many woodland grouse were nearly immobile once true cold seeped in. finding them was the challenging part - for they were a silent bird in extreme temperatures, and often so very well concealed. 

a few hours later, koro toro returned, walking in the same snowprints he had left. in his jaws a dispatched grouse hung, one long wing trailing and leaving fans of twirling groves in the snow.

Cry hadn’t told Gwen yet, but he had found an egg- 
or well, no. He had watched an egg fall out of a tree. It had come plummeting down from jarring heights and Cry had initially thought it was one of the usual drop offs of snow from atop the canopy above them that insulated the forest so well. But no, it had sunk into the pile of snow beneath the tree’s gnarl below, and curiosity pulled to Cry, only to push him to the dropped white ball. Nosing it, he found the scent that of bird, and was more perplexed than anything. 

Digging it out, the Keep’s Watcher watched it roll softly into the grasses. And it was then that he realized...
it was an egg. 
Shit. Then that meant time was crucial. 

Picking up the quickly cooling turkey he had found enjoying itself too much in the warmer helms of the Risana Lagoon’s edge, he deftly clipped away the birds opening to its breast bone, chewed and ingested some of the meat and bone that would be in the way, and rolled the egg in with a bloody snout.

He then rushed to @Kukutux’s den, praying the mysterious woman was home, flying past the trail Koro Toro would happen to be on later that day.  After explaining the situation of there being a bird egg within the turkey carcass, and pleading for the gentle mannered woman to not eat the egg, and that she could do whatever she pleases with turkey, he then left her to her craft while he went noisily searching for any other unfortunate fallen eggs.

That would be when he backtracked, and wound up in Koro Toro’s sight.

a shiver rent koro toro's spine as a gust of cold crawled its way between his fur. briefly rattled by the sensation, he dropped the grouse -- and as he picked it up, he caught the sight of cry drifting towards him.

straightening up, (well, as well as one with his affliction could straighten up.. his spine tilted, his haunches leaned at a drunken angle) koro toro regarded his leader with a tired gaze. he wondered what the male was up to, for his step was one of a wolf on a mission, perhaps of terrible importance.

Cry felt watched, and it was less than a turned head that proved him correct. The older male he had recruited earlier, albeit a bit forceably, watched him as he came back to the gist of the trail he had been on before. Trying not to seem excited about an egg, Cry pulled in his voice and tried to rearrange it to be a bit to his more regular relaxed tones. 

”Good day, Koro. How are you?”

"it's koro toro." came the quick reply, ruffled as a grouse's underfluffies to be called simply koro -- it was like calling cry ry or kukutux utux -- he felt a faint ripple of annoyance stir his hackles to be addressed with half of his name missing, nevermind that cry had been perfectly well-intentioned and may have simply tried to be casual in his addressment of the eyjolfur.

nevertheless, koro toro was affronted - something that came easily to the beast, though he quickly exhaled a sigh as if dramatically unleasing his tension and forgetting all about this unfortunate slight on cry's part -- he was, after all, a graceful wolf to be so forgiving. "what are you doing? you look.. excited."

The rebuff had left an amused smile tickling Cry’s heart, and it showed on the end brim of ebony lips. This man had the manners of a entitled grandfather! But that was Koro’s charm to Cry, how easily the elder could become indignant. Or well, excuse me, 

Koro Toro.

”Pardon, friend.” Cry kept in the exhale that would have been a laugh should he have been undisciplined enough to release it. But targeting to keep Koro from having another go at moving too much, he kept it in. “There was an egg I had watched fall from a nest into a snow bluff underneath a tree- I’ve taken to keeping it. Or rather, I’d given it to miss Kukutux to be warmed and hatched under her care.” The thought of the gentle and soft spoken blonde had pulled a nagging incline from Cry’s mind, but he held it at bay while trying to keep the tidings between he and the seeming elder pleasant.

”Wondering what it will become.”

pardon friend was enough to elicit a grim smile from koro toro, which measured with neither warmth nor kindness. it seemed to settle and hang off of his lips in the same way that bemused smile settled on cry's -- perhaps it was a mockery of the other male's expression.

he looked rather nonplussed to be told of an egg. glancing from the leader to where he presumed the leader had come from, koro toro's brows knitted together. "become? why not make it become dinner." he saw little use of nursing a wildling bird - they ate much, demanded much, and he had seen many a mother bird dead on the ground, exhausted by the perpetual hunger of her brood. no thanks, effort was not really his style.

"Because I watch for the future rather than the past." It was almost prophetic how he spoke the response, something that was secret enough to befall the place between them in a confusing hush. But again, Cry remained great to the bittering elder, ebbing a almost knowing smile to the aging agouti. As much as he hated witholding things, he felt better if Koro would see this happening rather than him explaining. It would ruin the suspense, the purpose, the specialty!

"What have you been up to? I haven't seen you in quite some time." The ex-assassin cut the subject off with a completely new path of topic, his curt dismissal in aim to reaffirm his standing on reealing nothing of his growing pet. "Have you met the others? There are quite  few of us, now."Glacials scanned across the crunching grasses of their dormant jungle home as he paced a bit, examining here and scratching up a few blades of the sleeping greenery gently. 

cry's logic made exactly zero sense to koro toro, and he wore such disdain for the male's softness clearly on his features. nevermind that cry was the reason that he was still alive, nevermind that he likely owed the male some sort of debt. in his eyes, nursing a fledgeling that simply ought to be eaten was a fool's errand.. unless, cry was just fattening up the little bird for a luxurious later meal.

he didn't think that was the case, though, and was about to sniff dismissively when cry asked him of his whereabouts. instantly, koro toro felt as if he was somehow being called out for being reclusive -- and wanting no part in being rinsed over what he felt was a great injustice (he was a CATCH, GOD DAMN IT), koro toro gave a fickle smile and shrugged his narrow shoulders. "just been busy." he answered cryptically, not wanting to give cry the upperhand (as an aside, god was KT being a punk). "i suppose i ought ot go meet some of these exciting new people, like, right now." his tone was flippant, and he rose determinedly to his feet. in a perfect world he would have stormed off and swept the room with his departure -- but he was rickety, weak koro toro -- and instead, he rose shakily and stutteringly started to march away.