Broken Antler Fen spinefire

it was becoming rather hard to ignore; unbeknownst to her, it was only the early portion of restlessness; teya would not expect what was to come.
today she patrolled, young legs carrying her swiftly across the drifts.
the air was filled with an odd breeze. toward the mountains she turned, and though teya did not understand, truly something threatened the wilds.
in the early morning she paused, looking toward the fading stars as if they might issue some sort of sign.

Penn hadn't slept that night. Not because he couldn't, but because he'd been distracted. He'd returned to the territory late and upon his return, had come across the scent of a wolverine. He liked wolverines. They were big, temperamental, vicious, and deceptively quick. Excellent for some good-natured pestering, so off he'd gone in pursuit.

By morning light, though, Penn hadn't managed to find the creature. But it wasn't all a waste--he'd found its den, which worked for him. He would have to spend more time haunting it until he came across the beast, at which point he could give him a real hello.

So, it was while trudging back home to grab some sleep for the "night" that he happened across Teya's path. He spotted her across the snow, but didn't slow at first. He'd assessed early on that she was one of those quiet, boring women that were prone to be weepy and have their feelings hurt too easily. He'd never really interacted with her before so it was an unfounded judgement, but that didn't stop him from making it. He was too tired to be interested in small talk, so he moved to continue on.

It was her pause that made him hesitate. Penn looked back at her and frowned, following her gaze before looking back at her. She looked tense. It was probably nothing, but still, he found himself approaching. Stupid curiosity.

"You alright?" he asked as he stopped a few yards away from her.

she caught the tail-end of constellations flickering to their sleep as the light grew. she had counted them many a time; she knew their names.
a silver boy took her attention from the stars. teya looked at him with a vague wondering, for she had seen him but not yet known his name. and yet she had the rank of raven. anxiously she blinked, fixing him with something more approachable. "i okay," came her voice, smoky from a sleepless night.
"i teya. and you?" introductions first; they wearied the wolf to no end, but were necessary for the foundation of a successful working relationship.

Ah crap, she couldn't even talk? Penn blinked at her broken sentences, regretting already that he'd come over. At least she was easy on the eyes, otherwise he probably would've said Nevermind and been on his way. A pretty face was enough to keep him in place long enough to not be rude, though, even though he suspected he was exhausted enough that he'd have an even harder time understanding her if this turned into a real conversation.

"I'm Penn Blackthorn," he answered, offering his characteristic half smile. He looked away then in the direction she'd been staring. "Did you see something out there?" he asked, still curious about what had had her distracted a few moments ago. He took a few deep whiffs of air, searching for unusual scents. Unfortunately, the territory was still somewhat new to him, so plenty of what he smelled regularly struck him as new.

"fitting," she offered in response. penn blackthorn. she did not think she had come across the name in her travels. he was a pretty sort, though with a rangy attitude that sundance had lacked. she shook her head. "only thinking."
often she wished she was not mindful of her own muted nature. galaxies wheeled behind her eyes, but the violet lacked the words to describe them. "but," and instead of finishing the thought, she indicated the way that a nearby bush had begun to tremble. "a storm," the raven declared.

Penn followed her answer as best as he could. Apparently it had been nothing, but the Blackthorn was very aware that he was never wrong, so he suspected she just didn't want to admit to being spooked by nothing. Whatever the case, he dropped it and merely looked away, thinking he might excuse himself to go hunt down that nap.

His jaws split into a wide yawn, fogging his ears temporarily so he missed it when she began speaking again. He did hear a storm though, and cast her a curious sidelong gaze. He groaned in annoyance--he was so sick of the weather they'd been having. "God, don't let it be another snow storm," he said aloud, "I'm so done with Winter. I need some damn sunshine and heat in my life again."

teya rolled her shoulders with unsurety. "it is still a snowy time." but her eyes softened, for she too longed for spring and the newness of things. she had never before felt so settled in a place; it was beginning to perturb the bird. "if you are tired, i go ahead." an arch of her brow; she would not keep him.
but his bold silvery presence interested her, his boyish buoyancy. she sniffed toward the air. "rain." not more of the white. it would be an unpleasant and cold deluge, but the warmer water in the atmosphere promised that soon they would be free of the winter.

Penn truly didn't mind the snow. He wasn't one to favor one season over another, generally. He was more the kind to wish for what he didn't have. When it was Winter, he wanted Summer. When it was Summer again, he would long for deep snows to run in and frozen water to skate upon. He simply wasn't one to be satisfied with what he had--always wanting more, or different.

He grumbled a little over her assertion that it was still a snowy time. He knew it was true, but he still didn't want to hear it. At her suggestion he go take a nap (that's how he heard it), he merely shrugged. He was tired, but he wasn't going to go because she told him he could. He was contrary in this way, too.

"Rain works for me," he replied, a grin lighting his face, "I'll take that over more snow. Will it be a big storm? I could stand to see some lightning again."

he did not turn away, eliciting an approving nod from his counterpart. "cold rain. thunder," she told him, tail waving in a jolly arc. a protracted inhale. "ice, afterward." by which teya meant to say that the water would freeze upon the snow when nightfall arrived.
but this required far too many words, and she simply could not arrange them into a suitable fringe of sound.
quietly she pressed on, pausing to look surreptitiously at penn. "you see lightning strike stone?" she asked, wondering if he had ever seen its work on more than a tree or a shrub or; some hapless soul caught unawares.

Penn peered up at the sky with a little more interest then. He liked lightning and thunder. The bigger and louder the storm, the better. There was something soothing about watching lightning streak across the sky and listening for the rumble of thunder to crash through the air. He'd often made a game of it, trying to call when the thunder would sound after lightning struck. He remembered playing that game with @Fennec while they'd traveled together. It was easy to cheat when she couldn't actually see the lightning, not that he ever got away with it.

He glanced sidelong at Teya, curious about her question. "Stone? No," he answered, "I saw a tree once after a wicked storm that looked like it had gotten struck. Not stone, though."

teya nodded. "tree, most often," but stone — ! "— it was the top of mountain. cut off," she added with a sound effect beneath her tongue, "the forest burnt." an ugly sight, a dismal sight, and one she had not thought possible.
a low moaning in the air, the storm-keen. the raven leant into it, grinning, and in the distance, she pointed out the cluster of dark clouds to penn. "it is there, storm," she added. thunder boomed through the sky, and she jumped with a soft yelp that turned to a laugh.