Duskfire Glacier autumns hunt

Her brothers companion had at last earned some of Tunerk's attention. And, over the last few days, it was surely tired of her. Tunerk did not recognize within herself any real desire to hurt the creature, but now and then her instinct beckoned she heed its comfortable proximity.

Always to no avail, though.

Her furs could no longer be blamed. The tawny hue she carried had been shed with Summers end, and now she was as white-furred as her relatives. For the while, the color was pure, though black guardhairs were beginning to grow. By Winters arrival, the fullness of her fur would reveal her seasonal canvas. Now, though, she blended well with her aunts and her uncles... and most importantly (...in this moment...) the snow.

Her hindquarters shifted as she watched the avian. Though she did not know it, it watched her, too. Tunerk thought she was being discreet, though still had plenty to learn... and so, by the time she charged for the animal, it had taken wing. Tunerk was quick to slow to a trot, unable to withhold a disappointed huff before placing her snout against the earth. She thought she may have detected a far more easy target (at least to find), and her tail waved as she darted in the direction it seemed this trail would lead her.

It would not be a surprise if she did not come across her intended quarry, @Sos, as she was hardly an expert... for now.

Taggak never really seemed to mind Tunerk’s playful nature, or the obsessive way that she would stalk him. It was something that had been noticed by the young shaman, but never commented on. Sos was incredibly protective of his sister; he sought only to ensure that she was safe and tended to. The young bear also knew his familiar to be capable of taking care of himself. The bird had managed to escape many things in his life. It was one of the many things that Sos admired about the dark-winged avian. Once, the wolf had been concerned when his companion would fly away. His stress would increase the longer that Taggak was gone. As he had grown, he had found a way to survive on his own and to trust in the capabilities of the raven.

On that day in particular, the young bear was prowling outside of his normal terrain with a slow step and watchful eyes. The fel coloration in his gaze was so contrasting to the dark mask that had formed over his head, that there were times it caused him to appear as a specter. Sos could not see himself, however, and so he continued his trek with his head low and his nostrils flared in hopes of catching the scent of his next meal. Just as he thought he had managed to separate the scent of wolf from that of rabbit, he heard the beating of wings overhead and quickly turned his attention to the dark raven that cawed from up above. Someone was coming; Sos turned around to catch the pale coloration of Tunerk as she moved to close distance between them.

Meeting her with a flagging tail and a soft smile, the boy stopped his pace and turned so that he could face her as she came to him. They had grown a considerable amount in the time it had taken to travel from the forest to the glacier. Their coats had taken on a thicker appearance, as well as having changed color. Tunerk, who was once cloaked in beige and muddled browns, was encased in a pristine shade of snowy white. Sos, who had been a pallid ghost of a child, had found that ink had spilled along his skull and back to grant him a shadowed cape. There were still many changes to come in the next few months, and time could only be kind to them.

“Tunerk, were you hunting Taggak?” the young bear asked of his sister once she had neared him. The smile on his features was knowing and loving, no matter her attempt at his familiar’s life.

Her brothers counterpart cawed from above, alerting him of her presence. She had not been trying to hide in any case, and so when he turned to see her, she reacted in kind. It seemed her nose had guided her properly, and she was pleased by both this and her brothers presence in equal measure. Her long-legged strides enabled her to close the distance between them swiftly, and Tunerk nosed his thick-furred shoulder.

She responded to his inquiry without missing a beat: Yes, came her shameless answer. One day I will catch him. But for you, I won't hurt him, she comforted, tail still swaying. She knew her brother was fond of the raven, and it would not come to harm from her fang. Her deep blue eyes shifted from him to the landscape as a frigid breeze came. Have you caught anything, yet? Her lack of success disappointed her greatly. She had an ambition to be as great as a hunter as their mother, and as of late had been practicing to better herself.

The touch of her against his shoulder was familiar. He lingered in the moment where her scent was still fresh at his side and the frigid wind accompanied it from over the glacier. It only ever lasted a second or two, but Sos reveled in it and felt that it was powerful. He often wondered if this was because of how close he was to Tunerk, or if he could feel it in his interactions with others - those outside their realm of existence. He had discovered that his bond with the wolves in his family was a strong one. Even still, there were days that he felt a longing to return to the forest so that he might check on his father. The young bear had never met him, but he knew that they shared something primal and he wanted to know it as well as he knew the shared blood of his other family members. There was something to be said for that kind of a bond.

The bear’s ears swiveled atop his crown as Tunerk made mention that she would catch Taggak one day. Sos narrowed his eyes at her slowly, holding his expression with the hint of a smile on the ink of his lips before he turned his attention back to his familiar in the sky. “He is quick. You will have to be quicker,” he instructed her with something of an encouragement behind his words. Sos knew that he had to trust Taggak to fend for himself, or he did not have a good bond with the dark-winged creature. Trust was paramount to any substantial relationship, he was learning. He trusted Tunerk and he trusted their mother, as well as their other family members within the pack.

It was then that the subject changed to the premise of a hunt. Sos was quick to pull his attention from the bird and focus his sights back on the pallid young girl. “No, nothing yet. I thought I could smell rabbit, but that left with the wind,” Sos replied to her in a tone that was soft, but not disappointed. They were still young to be able to hunt on their own. The thought was exhilarating for him, but he knew that it would take time before they became proficient. Even then, Tunerk seemed to have found a nose for tracking; she had excelled past him in that regard. Sos’ talents were a little strange in comparison. He was quick to know when the skies would flood with grey storm clouds, and he could feel the wind before it swept across their glacial claim. He was a shaman of the earth and she was a formidable hunter in the making. They would surely make a formidable duo.

Tunerk had a vague sense of the things that he did. She was learning more of their culture and the Otherworld as the days went on, but only now was she beginning to grasp it. She could feel Things, but did not know what to define these Things as. Perhaps they were spirits. Tunerk felt it most when she was near her brother, though it was an inexplicable thing to her. He could name it—she was simply aware of it. It was not like the feeling that someone was watching you; it brought her no unease.

His squint was met with a playful nip to his whiskers, though whether or not she struck a single one of them would depend on his attempt at evasion. Her attempt was halfhearted at best, and utterly lackadaisacal at worst. Tunerk had noted his encouragement, after all. It was this she took to heart and what meant the most to the cub. I am faster than you, she teased, strutting forward with a wolfish grin. Whether that was true or not was to be determined, but she had meant to incite him to a race.

There was an ancient knowledge inside of him; something that couldn’t be explained away with simple words. Where his sister could feel certain happenings in the universe, he simply knew them. It was as though they were written within the marrow of his bones and had existed there before he was even a thought, let alone a breathing being. Something in the stars had aligned for him to exist the way that he did. Sos, perhaps, did not know the answer to that. Still, he believed it to be true. The great spirits of the world around them had converged into a single body and granted him the gift of their ancient wisdom. He was not going to squander it, or take it for granted. The young bear felt himself growing with each and every day, with much approval from those around him. To know that Tunerk felt similar things would have been something of a relief, but there would have been a portion of him that felt cheated. Sos was young still and he did not know all the power that he possessed, or all that his sister carried within her. In time, he would realize that they did not share all things.

A smirk passed along his whiskers as she nipped playfully toward him. The young bear felt the hair along his neck bristle teasingly before they were forced flat. It was evident that she was trying to lure him into a race, but Sos was willing. He shared the same affinity for the thrill of a run as she did. Bowing his torso toward the earth and gleaming at her with youthful, pointed canines, the young bear flagged his tail and drew his brows upward. “Are you sure?” the coal-touched pup inquired with a mischievous wink. Without warning, the bear leapt from his position and darted away from her. The burning within his youthful limbs was enough to exhilarate him for hours, but he could not help but to turn his head back over his shoulder to see if she should catch up.

The moment Tunerk sucked in a breath to respond, she missed the revealing flex of muscle that would have foretold what she was about to witness: his headstart. Tunerk stood there stupidly for a moment, not believing her own eyes, before she belatedly reacted and gave chase. Her cross expression revealed how she felt about it all, but it was not long at all before her expression gave way to sheer joy.

Their uneven proportions would not assist them this day, and so the playing field was utterly even. They both bore significant weight for cubs their age, having fed heartily once they were given stability, and though eventually Tunerk would be made for the chase, as it stood, her figure was simply made for growing into itself. Despite those circumstances, Tunerk showed promise in her capability to catch up at all; his looking back had done her that favor, else there might have been no contest at all.

Her competitive drive was not felt during feeding, as with most wolves; she was content to let Sos and Aningan have their choice pickings, though sometimes for the fun of it provoked her brothers (also because some days, she was hungrier than normal). But as she ran, it presented itself—her strides seemed to grow longer, the amount of time her paws were against the earth less and less as she finally arrived beside the bear. The fire in her muscles felt wonderful, and her jowls were split in a wolfish grin as her tongue slapped against her cheek to release pent up heat.

All that she knew here was happiness, and a boundless sort of freedom. As she threw herself into a full-fledged gallop, Tunerk felt as though she were flying.

The earth seemed to whisper to him with each beat of his paws against it. It urged him forward – on, Sos, on – and encouraged him to release all things that held him back so that he could prevail. Above, the great crow Taggak cried his watchful words. The bear knew that he was safe so long as he had his familiar there; he knew that he could accomplish anything when he was surrounded by natural life. In this, Sos had great power. It could not be said that everyone felt the way that he did about the earth and the living things that sprouted from it. Something ancient seemed to dwell in the pit of his spirit, and it had given him a great deal of strength. Surely, age would only increase the power of that ancient thing. Knowledge would grant him more than he could ever imagine, but if he was true to himself and the stirrings within his gut... he would be indomitable.

Once the fel-light green of his eyes caught sight of Tunerk, he knew that she was closing the space between them. Sos slowed his gait so that she might do so at a faster rate. There was a modicum of competitive nature in him, but it wasn't nearly as prominent as the need to protect those he cared for. Only if his loved ones were harmed would the bear unleash his true power, and that day would be a terrible one indeed. Instead of pushing himself to beat her, he wished to run beside her. They were both sharp in their own ways. Sos wanted to share the space with Tunerk so that she would feel it too.

The children ran. Their youthful limbs carried them across the glacier pack and deep into the heart of their claimed territory. Only when the burning in his limbs became too much for him did Sos slow his place and turn to look at his sister. Surely, it would not harm him if he were to allow her to take the lead and win. She would have felt powerful and he knew that he would have rather her felt impressive for her feat than to wind himself and cause a potential injury. The bear was tired of running, after all. He wanted only to search for signs of something to hunt so that he could quell the burning in the pit of his stomach. With that, the shaman fell from a sprint to a canter and then to a slow trot. His ears were drawn tall atop his crown and his eyes searched the terrain.