Shadowwyn Moor life eternal

attn @Sun Eater / @Ice Diver

Time stands still for no one. Kenai knew this phrase better than anyone as he approached a deep stream, the edges tinged with a thin layer of ice. His time with the roving clans had been fruitful, but this place offered him a chance to move on. A rebirth, if you will.

Unperturbed by the frigid temperatures, the explorer moved forward into the flow one step after the other. The key was to deepen your breathing; a moment of panic could quickly spiral into a dangerous situation. Only a small gasp as the water reached the tufts of dove-white fur that lined his belly revealed his discomfort. 

With the scents of the forest now washed from his pelt, Kenai turned his attention to the fish that called this place home. Once spooked by his presence, flashes of silver began to re-emerge to nibble at algae on the streambed. He regarded them curiously, tracking their movements with the gentle sway of his head.

again sun eater cut through the snows which had collected in shadowynn. 

when he was not chasing caribou, the chieftain was often at rest. he dragged another hide in a smear of blood across their chosen ground, throwing it into the hold of low branches.

it was water he sought now with rangy strides, though he found them arrested at the sight of another. young, palefurred, and as he drew closer, wearing eyes of robins'-egg blue.

the saatsine man stalked close. these were not his lands; he was not possessive over them, but let a hard stare warn that there should be no testing him.

sun eater plunged his own muzzle down to drink.

The snap of a distant twig did little to startle the explorer. It was probably a deer or a fox or some other creature that called this moorland home. At least, that's what Kenai told himself until the scent of caribou blood flooded his nostrils, and with it the unmistakeable musk of wolf. 

Move, you oaf! But the young man found he could not. As if his paws were iced to the streambed, only his head turned to regard the approaching shadow, gaze resting on the grisly wound where an eye once was before the stranger bent to drink. Kenai did not need to be told twice to know that this wolf was not worth messing with.

"Hi! I uh - was just taking a dip. As you do," he broke the silence awkwardly, forcing his legs to wade towards the bank.

"who you?" sun eater demanded, chin glistening with waterdrops. might as well have sport when he did not hunt; there were very few wolves who had mingled with the saatsine, and these days he oft stared the horizon for those wolves whom morwenna had left behind herself.

she was exquisite. he would want to reclaim her; no. he would never have allowed her to be charmed and taken, sun eater told himself with flagrant pride.

"you see caribou?" anyone with a comparable number of eyes was not able to fail this task. "belong sun clan. my hunters. you hunt in snow here, you run beside saatsine." sun eater had no requirement for joining, only a respect he felt he was duly owed by dint of his own strength.

The strange man did not seem to mind his clumsiness with words, nor did he move to chase Kenai away. So then why did his stomach swoop as though he himself were a stranded caribou? 

Taking a few brave steps, he regarded the wolf cautiously and shook the water from his pelt. "Kenai," he offered, wishing to know who this man was too though he could not find the words to ask. If only his mother were here; she would have known all the right things to say!

His attention was swept up with what the dark man said next. The sun clan - a roving clan? - hunted the caribou here, adding context to the bloodscent that clung to his shadowed pelt. He nodded slowly to the question before realising the weight of the offer, and quickly shook his head. "No no, I'm just passing through," Kenai turned to go, walking a few paces before his steps halted and he looked back to the Saatsine man. "Men like you move with the herds, yeah? I think I've come across your kind before."

"we hunt in all valley," sun eater revealed. there was flattery in being known, in having his hunters range so far that their name was upon the wind. "we follow."

such a comment had made the chieftain more curious than forbidding. he drew up another drink of frigid water and glanced in the direction of nearby herds.

"i am sun eater," he grunted next, stepping lazily back from the bank to find thin trails in the snow. a lamed caribou had passed here, and another followed, the pair breaking from their lines together.

he was interested then to know what had happened, single eye shifting toward kenai as if to appraise him for this hunt.

So his hunch was correct. Kenai had seen others like him too. Others that hunted the rivers and moved with the salmon each season. There had been rumours of ice walkers that followed the herds. Unfriendly, they had been called. Married to the march. 

That much was certainly true; he chuckled inwardly as Sun Eater turned to his beloved caribou. "So how many of you are there?" he pulled up beside the dark wolf to conduct his own investigation of the tracks. A little tension had eased with the prospect of a hunt and his tail wagged softly behind him. 

"She is injured," came his quiet conclusion, "the other, I'm not sure. Perhaps she is making sure she leaves." Lameness would slow the herd; he was certain the caribou knew that well enough. Turning to Sun Eater to gage his reaction, Kenai would follow his lead.

"many." innate mistrust roused by what he felt to be pointed questioning, sun eater's brief goodwill flickered. as he did not wish to state an image of weakness, there would be no glance for swiftcurrent warriors.

"maybe — mother and daughter. i see it in father and son also," the hunter declared, setting off with rangy lope beside the line of broken snow. "not want to die. not want to see die. die together," he laughed instead, though it carried a note of admiration.

caribou were fierce and resilient. they were not foolish creatures; they knew when to work beside a wolf and when to defend. 

in time he found dark blood in the drifts, exploring it in a detailed way with nostrils and taste.

Sun Eater's brief reply did not dissuade him as he only wished to make idle conversation, and his interest quickly returned to the hunt at hand. It did not matter to Kenai how many ran with Saatsine, and the man's answer was enough to satisfy his curiosity. There were enough of them to hunt the caribou, and that was all that mattered.

His next comment stirred a strange sense of pity within him as he quickly moved to keep up with the man, ears pinning slightly at Sun Eater's laugh. "You might be right," he offered his own awkward chuckle. While the clanman saw admiration and opportunity, Kenai was only reminded painfully of his own mother's passing. "But we can only kill one." There was a bitter irony in the other's words that the explorer found almost unnerving.

The blood in the snow was fresh and thick, its expanse indicating some sort of severe laceration. While Sun Eater inspected the earth, Kenai turned to the trail which had begun to zigzag erratically. They were not far now.

"saatsine wolves kill many," sun eater corrected proudly. "kill strongest. other will weaken. watch. wait. then kill again. two," holding up a paw as if he bartered. "we are stronger. wolf have what caribou not have."

a great wound had been torn in one. the other man's observation coupled with a clear grasp of tracking pleased sun eater to watch. he moved to kenai's side as their passage continued.

"you run alone," came his own claim, quiet as the path freshened and he found the odor of agonized caribou on the near wind.

Saatsine had an intriguing method of hunting that Kenai was unfamiliar with. While the salmon runners paid no mind to the strength of their fish and caught whatever their teeth could snag, most clans targeted the weaker prey. It was enough to satisfy them and he wondered curiously what benefit Sun Eater saw in downing both caribou bar the obvious. 

"What's the deal with hunting two?" The dark man's presence was strong and reliable and while Kenai was not opposed to the extra kill, he was curious to discover his view.

A rustle in the brush up ahead and the explorer's ears pricked, eggshell gaze following the bloodied drag-marks across the open moor to a thin clump of trees. Sun Eater's voice was hushed as they neared and Kenai kept his own low and unassuming as he replied. "Not always. My mother and I travelled together until she died." A lump began to form in his throat and he swallowed it bitterly.

sun eater swept away the question to narrow that single eye at kenai. so. the man before him had once been a boy following a dying mother. such things were not unheard of, though the man's cold curiosity wanted to know where his pack had been.

for now, the caribou. one of the animals had collapsed once, staggering back to its feet, but he understood it was not long for this world. "saatsine hunt all through valley. we kill many. only strongest caribou will give babies in warm time. only best meat for caribou hunters."

a joyous culling that he did not find wasteful. for every body the saatsine did not fully consume, they offered that flesh to ravens and foxes and those starving of their own kind, lone wolves. lone mothers. a collective sharing he could not articulate.

"kill with me." his breath plumed in the cold air. "become saatsine. never hungry again." but the chieftain did not wait; he was loping already, pushing through the trees to find the dark figure of the caribou limping ahead of he and kenai.

Kenai's curiosity was once again dismissed. A younger him would have been butthurt, but loneliness and maturity had taught him not to dwell on the small things and to focus on what was in front of him - like the caribou.

Only the subtle droop of his ears betrayed his discomfort as Sun Eater ploughed on with the proudness of a leader that the pale explorer thought he had seen many times before. This time felt no different to any other, and Kenai found himself shaking his head routinely in response to the dark man's invitation. "It's not really my thing - settling down with a pack. Even if you're more of the roving type-" His words had barely left his lips before he realised Sun Eater was already gone to the wind. Guess there was no backing out now. 

He trailed the man swiftly, wincing at every branch scrape against soft skin. While he excelled at tracking, Kenai was very much a novice when it came to large prey. "So uh - how'd you normally do this?" he hissed to Sun Eater, though his focus remained on the beast's injured back leg. She was slow and the trees would make her slower; the explorer with his lithe frame could easily weave ahead and block her path.

not all were for the ways of a group. sun eater was not certain he thought of his clan as pack any longer; they were a ranging band which had its own minds. yet he did not argue; kenai did not need to be pressed.

"one hurt. one whole. kill second. then get first." the wounded would flee while the enraged caribou who had set themselves as guardian stood to fight. it was the practice of ruminants and one exploited by the saatsine.

without waiting, the lanzadoii man launched himself through snow-laden branches toward the pair of antlered creatures, snapping with a savage growl as he forced them into a shambling run.

and when the uninjured creature rounded hard upon the chieftain, he was ready, darting aside.

as he had done with morwenna, sun eater attempted to keep his tall body between the caribou and kenai.