Mount Apikuni eaten alive

she cut through the overcast night. restless in a way that was becoming too much to burden others with.

one might consider it thoughtful that she took herself beyond the ridge to air out such a mood. she did not know what she considered it. selfish, perhaps, as most actions she took came to be.

somewhere down below a creature stirred.

she dared to press her course higher and higher. desired to lord over the land for but a moment in time. to taste power again like honey and berries.

yet her brain could imagine only the taste of rot and meat.

wordlessly, she expressed her frustrations into the air. a guttural churning of sounds.

Relocation gave Raiyuk plenty of reason to stretch his legs, and he was glad to have a job that fit in well with his curiosity. While his father investigated a plateau on the other side of the mountains the young hunter pushed further and further, enjoying the passing of scenery.

Scents of animals he recognized came along and drew him through the forest, to the rising paths of a mountain that made him think of Moonglow; and so he climbed without worry until a series of odd sounds made him slow, and stop, and listen.

Was some mythical beast hiding here? It was a fanciful notion the likes of which Raiyuk was not prone to, but it sprang to life for him all the same.

her sounds did not cease at once. she drew them out, she allowed herself to feel how sound rippled through her chest with grinding vibrations.

yet when she did become silent it was all at once. no wind down, no easing of the sounds.

a good eye looked for what stirred beneath moonlight. she did not bother to hide the movements of her steps now. winding and weaving, eager to descend upon whatever had caught her attention.

she had not yet realized it to be a man.

The gradient of stone through grove to embankment was steep and given an edge by the moonlight, and as the cacophony came to a sudden cease Raiyuk began to stride again up the knife's edge left in the gloaming.

There was something coming. He knew it in the prickle of hairs upon his nape. It was a feeling he had only held a few times during this short life, and Raiyuk was made wary. He was attuned to his instincts moreso as a seal hunter and trader, or so he had been raised to believe. He trusted himself; so as there came the increasing sound of approach he turned to confront whatever it was.

He certainly did not expect what he saw, flowing like molten gold along the ridge towards him. The boy wasn't entirely certain what he witnessed in the moment—and wasn't sure how to respond, caught thus by surprise.

he is a dirt-smudged man in colors. marked by scars that give her only brief pause.

she stared at him with a burning intensity that she had not given thought to. it simply was. there was no doubt that everyone benefit from her interest rather than her ire.

who are you?

close to the vale, close to the ridge.

she thinks the mountain is seeing too much life and it shudders something beneath her skin.

What he thought to be a streak of sunlight was not, in fact. He blinked and squinted and saw it was actually a wolf — a woman. The way she looked at him was almost painful to behold because it was so intense; it was like staring at the sun in the middle of summer.

Perhaps he had come to the wrong mountain? In his zeal to explore the young man may have passed a marker that he had been otherwise oblivious to; and so now he looked away from her, to the earth, glimpsing around to see if anything looked out of place in such a way. To the woman his behavior might read, 'Who, me?'

My name is Raiyuk, son of Chakliux, out of Nasamik. It was a flow of formalities, and he wasn't entirely sure why he chose that particular introduction except, that seemed natural to him. He stopped his glancing-around to affix her with an expression of curious optimism.

Who are you?