Dragoncrest Cliffs they will have you convinced bullets are a full meal

@Wildfire! please. :)

Since they’d been freed from the cavern for more than a few minutes because of the cold, Arlo has taken up to tend to the borders with the instructions to double their duty. Their numbers have gotten smaller since they’d arrived and their ship has tightened for rounds to keep their home safe. With two females now pregnant, he knows the seriousness of keeping those on the outside where they belong.
 
Most of the time he has his brother to accompany him but this afternoon he takes the northern portion of the borders alone to mark any stale spots. There has been little activity—the most having been Kitsch from a few days prior, south in the fields—and he wonders if there are packs close enough to really cause them much of a bother. Nonetheless, he remains steadfast and pisses where he needs to and rubs his face and shoulder on trees to fill the gaps along the way.

She was officially midway through her pregnancy and it showed. Wildfire could spend hours plopped on her haunches, staring at the small swell of her belly, but there was food to eat and naps to sleep. She did a lot of that (eating and napping), primarily in or near the hollow tree. She maintained a relatively low profile, enjoying long spells of peace, quiet and solitude, though she made exceptions for Thuringwethil, of course, and also her fellow expectant mother, Portia.

Wildfire was on her way back from just such a visit, headed toward the tree with a rabbit stuffed in her mouth and a long afternoon nap on the agenda after lunch, when the pungent smell of urine wafted in her direction. Curious despite herself, the Bandrona dropped the kill off at the tree and then trotted toward the borders. She soon found herself crossing paths with the familiar face of one of the Kru, a pale-furred male called Arlo.

"Hello," she called out to him, stopping a few meters away. An idea struck her and she voiced it in the very next breath. "Hey, I could use hand with something if you have a few minutes? I'll repay you with half a fresh rabbit," Wildfire offered with a twitch of her lips and another of her tail.

She’s noticed well before her approach. It helps that she stands out against the snow like a sore thumb with her fiery melt and slight trail of blood from the fresh kill. It takes her a little bit before she sees him in the distance, his pale creamy fur giving him the benefit to blend in. He hasn’t spent a lot of time with the woman outside the cavern—inside, she seemed to have other things to do—but they’d brought in the seal from the freezing weather during their stint of cold and helped feed the pack for days.
 
When she asks for help, Arlo bobs his head as he closes the distance between them. “What do you need?” he asks, his posture low in her presence.

Wildfire made note of his instantaneous submission and dutiful reply. She appreciated them, even if neither one was secretly necessary. She favored him with a nod and a small smile which turned a little sheepish. She was a small game hunter—a masterful one, at that—but she didn't want to put her pregnancy at risk. Besides, this was also an excuse to get to know Arlo a little better.

"There's a badger living somewhere near this den I've chosen. It's been lurking around a lot and I don't want it endangering my pups when they get here. Would you help me get rid of it?"

Arlo blinks a few times in response to the request. He didn’t really know what he’d been expecting when she’s asked for help but he’d already mentally agreed to doing the work and saying no to one of his leaders—and Heda’s mate—isn’t something that’ll come out of his mouth. He opens his mouth to say something about why she’d chosen a den outside of the cavern but he snaps it shut when he notices the swell in her belly that gives him enough he needs to know. “I can help,” he says after a pause. He glances their surroundings quickly and then takes a few steps to close the distance, letting Wildfire lead the way to the pest invading her home.

He seemed a little taken aback by her request, though Wildfire didn't bother fretting about it. She simply offered him a smile and bob of her head when he reiterated his willingness to assist. Wildfire then spun on a heel, pausing to gesture for him to follow before she set off away from the borders, deeper into the sanctum of the redwood forest.

When they arrived in front of the hollow tree, Wildfire sniffed in a slow circle, trying to locate the badger's scent. She hadn't seen it in a day or two, yet she knew it frequently came too close for comfort. Licking her lips, the Bandrona lifted her head and looked inquisitively at Arlo, wondering if he would rather handle it entirely himself or have her come along to help.

Wildfire doesn’t say anything else before she turns and beckons him along. Dutifully, the boy follows behind as he tries to remember if he knows what a badger is. It doesn’t seem familiar, or strike anything in his mind to give him a clue, so he continues behind her hoping she might explain more of the situation that’ll give him a good idea of how he can get rid of the pest at hand. If it’s hanging around a fallen tree, perhaps it’s something similar to a beaver, but until he comes across more, he remains at a loss.
 
She stops near a fallen tree and gives him a look he isn’t sure how to read, causing him to hesitate a few seconds before he lowers his nose to the ground as well. It is strongly of the pregnant woman and Heda, but he isn’t sure what he’s trying to scent out. Something putrid fills his nose once he’s a little further down the side of the log that picks his head from the ground to search the length of the trunk before glancing over his shoulder at the bandrona. Is that it?

He looked back at her, his own expression a little inscrutable. "I can help," she decided aloud, unaware that she was belatedly parroting him. "Track it, anyway," Wildfire continued, spinning and lowering her snout again to pinpoint the scent. "I'll probably have you do the heavy lifting once we find it, if that's all right." She blinked over at Arlo again, then resumed her search until she struck the trail. She twitched her tail invitingly, hoping to summon the Kru to follow her.

The odor led them away from the tree, in the direction of a nearby stream. There was a small hillock leading down to it. Wildfire began to trot down the decline, only to make an about face when she realized the scent was thickest here. There was a dugout in the raised ground: a burrow. "I think this is it," she muttered to her companion, pricking her over-sized ears to listen for any sounds from inside.

i, too, do not know how to hunt badgers so.. lmao

Arlo frowns when it turns out the scent he’d caught on to hadn’t been that of the badger. His ears fell and his tail sweeps apologetically behind him a few times while he tries to brush it off. He corrects his direction and follows after her, picking up the smell she’s following until it leads to a burrow. He stares down at it for a few seconds before he begins to paw at it, slowly turning into a dig at the hardened earth. It takes a little more effort with the ground still cold but he works away while also shoving his head through every so often to determine how much work he’s accomplished. Eventually, he finds something angry that shrieks at him, clawing and biting at him once he gets close enough.
 
After a few failed attempts, and certainly not without a few battle wounds on his face and legs, the badger hangs lifelessly between his jaws.

Bite it until it's dead! *claps*

She could hear a scuffling coming from inside the burrow. The badger was definitely in there. Wildfire backpedaled, exchanging a quick glance with Arlo and then observing as he began digging at the hole in the hillock. He widened it enough to gain access to the creature hiding inside, though it wasn't easy access. Although he came away the victor, the Bandrona winced at the tooth and claw marks on his face and forelegs.

"Thank you," she was quick to say, making no move toward the badger. He could eat it himself or cache it. "Do you want me to help you clean those? You're bleeding," Wildfire said, indicating the oozing cuts. None of them looked particularly terrible, though she did think to add, "Or we can go see Portia."

Arlo finally drops the badger with a thud on the ground as she says thank you. With a smile and a few shakes of his tail, he dips his head, happy to help, but she offers to clean up the wounds that litter the front half of his body that he shakes his head no to. “I’ve had worse,” he announce with a slight puff of his chest. He’s been in battle. A little badger is nothing!  “Though… I didn’t really know what a badger was, heh,” he offers a little awkwardly as his tail becomes still and he looks down at the culprit that has been pestering the pack for a while.

"Really?" was the word that fell out of her mouth before Wildfire could stop it, in response to both statements. With a self-deprecating laugh and shake of her head, she added, "I guess you're lucky 'cause they're really ornery. That's why I didn't want this guy lurking around my den." She glanced down at the freshly slain badger, ears folding back a little when her chestnut eyes traced over those fearsome claws.

Glancing back up at Arlo, Wildfire said, "Thanks again for your help. You sure you don't want me to...?" She gestured at his cuts, then remembered to ask, "When have you had worse?" There was probably a story there and the Bandrona certainly wouldn't mind learning more about her pack mate.

When Arlo looks down at the badger, he doesn’t question that something relatively small could be such a pest. They had their own problem animals and he can only imagine why Wildfire wouldn’t want this thing near her den. He wrinkles his nose and brushes it off, shaking his head at the second attempt to clean his wounds. They sting but they aren’t enough to bother him anymore than they already are and he can clean them up later.

“There is always a fight for land, for our home and where we hunt,” he explains as if it is an ordinary and daily occurrence. He’s torn somewhere between missing it and feeling content, though without the endless conflict, he feels a little on edge. When will it happen and will they even be ready? Or have fallen into a pit that leaves them weakened? “A pack tried moving in to take our land. They were strong but they were not as prepared as they’d thought. Trigeda is much bigger and our alliance with a neighbor kept them from being forced out.” His lips purse but he licks his lips quickly to hide it. “I hadn’t been very old when it happened but I was still fighting, pretty torn up afterward.”

If she couldn't tend him, she could at least feed him. "C'mon," she said, motioning for him to follow as she began trotting back toward the tree, "I've got that rabbit for you." Wildfire lapsed into silence then as Arlo regaled her with a tale about a battle in his youth. It was not a tradition she particularly liked—she couldn't help but think of her own unborn offspring being thrown into wars—but if he came from the same roots as Thuringwethil, then she knew it was all very commonplace.

"You'll make a great mercenary," she observed. She didn't know for certain he was pursuing such a trade, yet it seemed rather obvious. "We're lucky to have you." As the words left her mouth, they arrived in front of the redwood tree and Wildfire quickly snatched up the rabbit. Instead of splitting it in half, she smiled as she laid the whole thing at Arlo's feet.

Thank you for the thread! :)

He is about to object the rabbit but Wildfire turns on her heals and the next thing he knows one is placed at his feet. He looks down at it for a few seconds and offers her a smile before he steps forward and gives her a gentle lick beneath her chin and a wave of his tail. Even if he doesn’t quite feel in place among Drageda, each da is easier than the next. Wildfire’s openness to them, to him especially, causes him to shift a little in his spot and feel just that much more comfortable. “Thank you,” he tells her, stepping back and investigating the rabbit a little more before glancing up. “If you need anything else, just find me,” he offers before he scoops up the kill and takes his leave.