Redtail Rise Oh, she takes care of herself

In her spare time, Lilia had begun making herself very familiar with the boundaries of the pack. Now that she felt confident leaving them, she thought she ought to mark and defend them as well. Should she come upon any foes in her journey, she could fend them off, and surely that would give her another notch to add to her meagre collection. 

Tracks were easy enough to see in the snow. Canines were easy to pick out, and rabbits too. She roved along, sniffing scent markings and taking note of tracks that crossed over the borders, going in one direction or another- until she noticed that there was a set of tracks that seemed to wind its way within sight, but never came too close to the borders. She chose to go and investigate them. 

The footprints had no clawmarks, but were larger than her own feet. Not by too much, but the footprint had toepads that were more rounded in shape. She growled, and began to prowl along the new set of tracks the wandered parallel to the borders, picking up her pace so that she might hopefully overtake the creature and punish it for traipsing so close to their grounds.

she was flycatcher to him, the girl that blood eyes had brought home and made a daughter.

she fit well into the rise. she wore the scent of the other young creatures and had taken instruction from red woman. 

he found the scent of her prey. her trail mingled with it. augur followed until he discovered flycatcher in pursuit.

he smoothly joined her hunt, wondering what she might do with the lead if she kept it.

With the footprints making for an obvious trail, Lilia had little issue pursuing the tracks, hoping she might catch up and even catch the creature in her view. Would she be able to fight it? She wasn't sure. It didn't have canine feet, and the feet it had were bigger than hers, in the snow at least. Whatever it was, it didn't belong in this area. Not on her borders, not on her lands. 

She whipped her head to cast a startled glance over her shoulder when she realized someone was approaching her. For a moment, she felt her heartbeat rise- and in the second it took for her to pick out Augur's profile, she wondered if it wasn't the creature she was tracking, looping around to come after her. The sight of the benevolent provider made her growl affectionately, waving her tail to welcome him to her hunt. 

With renewed confidence, she moved onwards again, buoyed by the presence of her new companion who, surely, would be bigger than the bobcat they tracked.

bobcat, his son's namesake.

augur bristled in response. but flycatcher was not too young to know the dangers which lurked always. there would be children in the coming year. this animal could kill pups as easily as mice.

he snorted at the girl. cats should not be hunted alone. but it was not a true scolding. augur kept pace, lowering his muzzle to investigate the trail of the creature. 

he was reminded of how he and blood eyes had followed the bear tracks. flycatcher might earn a new name today with the ferocity she already showed.

He made a sound at her, and she turned an ear toward him, catching a bit of sternness in his eye. Well, that was all well and good- she didn't know what he wanted, because he didn't really speak much. Besides- Prophet was her guardian. She'd caught this scent first, and she was going to follow it- he could either go with her, or find his own things to do. He seemed to want to join her, so she gave him a nod; a modest show of appreciation, before she began to pick up her pace. 

The scent was getting stronger. A small patch of yellow in the snow announced that the cat had passed by not long ago at all. She scowled as she sniffed it, appalled by the scent of feline urine. She panted a couple times, and offered Augur a bark- a solemn oath to him that they would take the creature down, before she began to lope down the clear set of tracks.

Its pawprints wove this way and that- and changed, when the cat's tracks crossed the tracks of a rabbit. The snow was cast aside by their frantic scrabbling, and Lilia slowed her pace. Ahead, just visible through the evergreen nettles of a spruce, was a medium sized bobcat, hovering over its fresh kill. She glanced to Augur- and motioned that he might go in one direction and she in the other...Discreetly, if they flanked the cat while it ate, they'd have a better chance of ambushing it.

she was already a hunter.

augur followed and kept close. his eyes searched the foliage. and yet he was curious for a different reason.

why had blood eyes brought her? did he intend to group her with more of his children in the spring?

he gave a look to the little huntress as she directed him, but the largeness of his frame was graceful. he went where directed. 

augur became part of the shadows. when flycatcher moved so would he.

She watched the creature, hardly aware that Augur was a shadow behind her. It didn't surprise her that he was so stealthy; the stony man had a quiet nature, but he had an assuredness to his actions that led her to believe that like her guardian, Augur was an integral part of the pack. He was a bit less coarse in his nurturing than Prophet was- even his mannerisms were a bit gentler, in Lilia's eyes. But the sharp-tongued Lilia was thriving in the red-eyed man's care regardless. He fostered her confidence, giving the orphan the reason to have ambition. 

The ivory man weaved in one direction, and Lilia in the other. She paused when she lost sight of him, only to notice the movement of what could have simply been a drift of snow. His hackles. He disguised his frame expertly; breaking up his silhouette seemed to be the easiest way for him to shirk her gaze. So, she attempted to do the same- so if the wild cat looked up, it wouldn't immediately notice the outline of a wolf, but an extension of a tree's shadow. 

The cat crouched, pulling its kill in toward itself. Lilia did her best to strangle the growl that clawed at her throat. Lilia saw the opportunity, and silently took a few steps forward, crouched, and lunged toward the bobcat, crossing the snowy expanse with long strides, sending snow spraying behind her in icy waves.

PP the bobcat any way u want! he's due to get roughed up lol

he watched her move with an eloquent step.

she was one of them even if she had not been born to the rise. he would question it no longer.

when flycatcher moved, augur followed. his great legs soon matched her speed. his massive jaws aimed to rip the cat backward from its kill, and hard down into the snow.

but the gait that the girl had used, the snow flying from beneath her hard heels: flycatcher became wolverine that day.

<3

With her gaze fixed on the bobcat, all she could see of Augur in her peripheral vision was a great snowcap tumbling from a high mountain boulder- and directly toward the cat as well. The cat crouched in fear- looking at one canine, and then shifting as it took notice of the other. It hunched, cornered, and hissed. Lilia couldn't hear the sound of it over the blood rushing in her ears but she saw the teeth that were bared, and the flex of those long, tufted ears. 

The cat was yanked away from its kill. Its yowling voice now screeching at full volume, a banshee's yell if she'd ever heard one, but it didn't stall Lilia. In a moment she was at his side, and grabbed on to the cat near its haunches. It twisted out of her grip, and she felt its hind paws push and rake at her shoulders, leaving deep, parallel cuts like epaulettes in her fur. 

The next time it kicked out, she waited for its legs to be stretched out- and then lunged for its soft underbelly.

lilia grabbed for it.

blood welled along her shoulders. augur was angered by this. a flailing paw caught his own cheek, but he saw the fearless girl's teeth flash for the soft belly.

he himself ground hard heavy jaws into the back of the bobcat's neck, holding it immobile for the disembowlement and seeking the spine under long growls.

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Claws reached for her as she sought to get a grip. Augur bent the cat back. The huge, fluffy feet which pushed at her got bitten with snaps intended to break bone and make the cat's claws useless so he could not gouge her once more. Fresh blood spilled across the snow, and came in short waves as she broke past the tawny fur of its underbelly. She reached in, burying her muzzle in the soft, cables of entrails and grabbed onto something warm and slippery. 

She pulled it- and backed up, bringing a long string of intestines with her. There, she squeezed her jaws shut har enough to sever the organ while she was in the cat's view, though its eyes would have already begun to fade. She looked top Augur and gave him a nod. Signalling for him to end the cat's suffering.

she was fearless, this wolverine girl.

augur's heavy jaws made short, sharp work of the cat. when it was limp he stepped back, tongue lolling.

his eyes were filled with pride in the child that prophet had brought home to them.

augur let go the body and licked the bloody snow. wolverine would take first piece if she wanted the entrails. else he would help her scatter them now, a warning.

The intestines spilled warmth into her mouth, and down the fur of her chest, pattering softly into the snow. In an instant, the bobcat was defeated, and went still. 

He stepped back, and she moved forward to investigate. She was reminded, then, of the deer pelt she had found with Prophet, and how she had claimed it for her bed. This, too, she wanted. 

”I’m gonna thkin it. I wan it-th coat. You want it-th inthidth?”

augur looked at the cat then at wolverine.

he felt she meant to trade, and nodded.

the man sat back in the snow for now but he would move to help the girl skin if she needed his aid.

otherwise he would keep watch for those others who might have been drawn by the scent of blood.

He obeyed her wishes, and sat back so that she could strip the feline of its pelt. Still warm and limp, the cat was manageable now, though Lilia was unpracticed and her handiwork was rough at best. She clipped through the skin where she could, and tugged at it so that she could remove at least the majority the spotted pelt that covered its back and sides, leaving the legs, neck and tail as they were. In the pelt she left punctures and holes where she tugged a bit too firmly, but she was not at all bothered by the jaggedness of the pelt she was left with. 

This was just the first of many. She could hone her skill with time- even if this one rotted away in her den from having not been stripped of the lingering fats and oils, it was a token of her success. She would bear the marks on her shoulders beneath her own fur- those would be a more permanent trophy. 

As promised, when she finished she relinquished the stiffening corpse to Augur. The taste of its blood was less pleasant than that of prey game, but she felt satisfied having tasted it nonetheless.

cool to fade! <3

wolverine worked.

augur felt a wolfish pride for her surging in his chest, this child who had come to them in sickness and starvation and had transformed into something as feral as any one of the redtail wolves.

when she offered the body he took it, tasting the musky blood and heavy taste of the meat. he would move back toward the innerlands now, looking back for a moment to see if wolverine would follow or come in her own time.

back to the rise core.