Northstar Vale you're so dead meat

The snowstorm had come and gone, at least according to the Teekon Wilds weather app on the right-hand side of the page.  The sun had come out and it had warmed, although not considerably.  Séamus stood at the top of one of the Vale's many rolling hills, overlooking a pristine white blanket of snow which he was absolutely one hundred percent about to destroy.  He took a few tentative steps back and then jumped, rolling down the hill.  Laughter erupted from him, and it wasn't long before he was climbing up the hill to do it again.

jadeglow eyes followed the joyous trajectory of the great wolf who slipped through the snows with the greatest diversion. kukutux, shoulders shielded by a summer-phase hare-skin, paused in her search for herbs. his laughter rang out against the whited sun, and the girl found her own lips curving in an answering smile, a wave beginning in her shy plume. this was a good place, kukutux decided, that someone could find such happiness even with the scarcity of prey.

He didn't notice her there, too busy he was with the effort of climbing back up the hill.  If he would've seen her, he might have asked her to join in.  But instead he heaved himself back through the snowpath his portly body had carved on the way down and once he reached the top he pointed himself in a different direction, not even looking before he threw himself down the hill.  He skidded to a halt somewhere near the other wolf, lifted his head out of the snow and shook it from his eyes and it was then that he noticed her. 

Oh — ! he breathed, ears flattening.  Well, hello there!

"this woman greets you," kukutux murmured, turning jadestone eyes upon the earth. was he embarrassed that she had seen him? why did he act so, then, out where any might see?

there was no need for her formality. this place, these wilds, did not demand it. but he was still male, and she an unmarried woman. therefore kukutux found it difficult to break against her upbringing, and more easily did it come to the duck that she treat him with the utmost propriety.

Séamus, on the other hand, was taken aback by what he perceived to be coldness.  He blinked once, twice, before his ears took more permanent residence at the sides of his face.  And um, he stuttered, choking on his own feelings of stupidity, trying to dance around this new formality, who.. might this woman be?  

Was this some other pack-thing he didn't quite understand?  Courtfall's ranks were already difficult for him to grasp with their fancy names and their foriegn syllables.  What if there was some new ... thing ... he didn't understand too!

I'm Séamus.  He looked over his shoulder at the ditch he'd carved in the snow and took a shaky step back.  Do you want to slide down the hill with me?  It's fun.

so shocked that the man had returned her proper greeting, if not with the exact words, the girl was struck dumb for a long moment. "this woman is called kukutux," the young healer murmured quietly, unable to keep the edge of elation from her voice.

séamus. the duck would not attempt to say the name aloud until she had practiced it in private. to his invitation, at last kukutux lifted her gaze, glancing first in surprise at him, then the hill. "i have not done that before," she admitted shyly. "will you show me?"

She seemed nervous too — or maybe it was just more of that formal quietude that shook him uncomfortably so.  It was an eternity before she returned his greeting, but when she did he seemed to soften.  Her name was unlike any he'd heard before (though he could say the same about most wolves), and he wondered with the repeating syllable if he'd have an easier time with pronouncing Kukutux than he did with something like Andraste.  

When she agrees to slide down the hill with him he can't help as the elation spreads over him: first his ears raise, then his tail begins to wag.  Oh, of course, he says, bounding the few steps up the ditch his body had carved down the hill, come this way, it's easier.

sèamus was so expressive for a man, kukutux decided. the ones she had known would have seen such outward shows as unbecoming. they were stoic, though the duck remembered her father smiling at she and her siblings, more than once.

perhaps séamus had a kind heart as well. and, kukutux thought shyly, she rather liked how joy coursed over his handsome features.

she followed him through the trail he had made in the snow; blinking in soft consternation, her jadeglow eyes shifted expectantly back to her companion.