Redtail Rise i’d like to think that mountains aren’t real

In the early light, Aventus trudged through a thin layer of fresh snow toward the rendezvous site. A pair of quails dangled by the feet from his tightly clenched jaws. His dark back was speckled with white and gathering more by the minute. In the absence of a strong wind to blow it into a gale, the falling snow was almost comforting.

Aves dropped his catch into the powder and gave himself a brisk shake before pricking his ears up and calling, @Ancelin?

despite himself, despite everything that had happened, ancelin had been looking forward to this. he wanted atreus found, and yet the prospect of this was so much of what he wanted.
ancelin moved respectfully toward his father, ignoring the kills for now to greet aventus with a deferential lick to chin.
no atreus in hand. he expected what was coming next, and yet he did not.

Aventus couldn’t help himself; he leaned a little forward into Ancelin’s gesture, drawing strength from it in a way that made him feel vulnerable and weak. He shook the feeling off, and in so doing, returned to the same stoicism that was so easily misunderstood for a lack of care.

I made a promise, he said, pushing one of the hares forward with a dark paw, and I keep it now. We will take a few days to prepare ourselves and rest, and then we go and look further for your brother. You and I.

ancelin nodded and eagerly bit into the food, offering no words until his belly was satisfied. with a little burp and a grin toward his dad's serious face, the boy sat back in the snow. "so," as fitting a start to a sentence as anything else, he decided, "do you want to like, explore? sleep? wrestle?"
he hoped to get his dad up and moving in something that wasn't a hunt or a search. aventus cared about him and yet there were so many questions ancelin had amassed, some he wasn't even sure he could ask a soul.