Duskfire Glacier I no longer recognize your face.

Scrape. 

Scrape.

Scrape.

The sound was steady, rhythmic - enough so that Tapeesa was able to lose herself in it. Nothing mattered except the continuous scrape of her paws in the dirt. The smell of it was rich, dark. It promised bounty and life and smelled of spring - a silly notion given that it would be growing ever colder in the coming months. 

Thoughts of nanuk and the pack faded, leaving only the burn of her muscles and the concentration needed to dig the furrows. 

It was near sunset, around the time the other members would be waking. The tundrian had been unable to sleep today, even with the assistance of her psychoactive mushrooms. She'd given the drugs up - her attempts weren't working and she disliked the sluggish way they made her feel. The berserker was working the last of them out of her system - finding that when she attempted to slumber she was caught in dark and frightening dreams.

The evening found her atop the glacier, deep in the forest near the fields of flowers. She'd been working for some time - if the dirt that had discolored her pelt was any indication - and was about halfway done digging the furrows she needed. When she was done, they would stretch across the clearing and she would have a plot of dirt just waiting to be transformed into a garden.

The girl could wander a little farther now without being encouraged back to the rendezvous. At nearly three months of age, the whelp was afforded some more freedoms... though she was still under the watchful eye of her family, and did not actively seek to avoid any of them. In fact, her course was clear as she roused from her restful morning. Although her interest had been in something else to start with, the noise summoned Tunerk and kept her interest longer than a dull, dying scent could.

Her tail waved when she saw her packmate digging. Dirt flung around her, down a wayward path that Tunerk avoided. When she arrived, Tunerk charged at Uki playfully, tail waving in wild arcs as her eyes sought to find just what treat the other might be burying. Sos attempted to hide all manners of things from her in this way, but dirt was no deterrent. What Tunerk wanted, Tunerk doggedly went for. 

But her snout could not smell anything novel, not yet—her gaze turned to Uki, a playful gleam present there. Tunerk, of course, did not know that Uki was hiding nothing from her, or from anyone... simply building a garden. Maybe she would learn—

This second, though, Tunerk was lost in her (noisy) investigation, having determined that that was, in fact, what Uki was up to. It was a good hiding spot, but Tunerk had found it (much to her obvious pleasure).

Tapeesa was so immersed in her task that she didn't notice the little one barreling into her until she was already upon her. Of course, the pup was not nearly big enough to knock the berserker over or even budge her. The child crowded close, sniffing for whatever she assumed Uki was burying.

The tundrian laughed, a sound like icicles chiming in the wind, as the child forced herself into her proximity. With the heavy weight of her depression dragging her down recently, the girl welcomed the presence of a cute pup to distract her for a time. 

"I'm afraid I don't have anything for you, child," she murmured sweetly in the northern tongue, her feathery tail waving gently at her hocks. The spearwife was unsure if the children were of an age to understand speech or if they knew the northern tongue, nonetheless her voice made an appearance for the girl. She moved, allowing Tunerk to investigate the turned dirt as she would. 

Once Tunerk had discovered there was nothing to be found in the furrows, Uki lowered into a play bow - yipping lightly with hopes of enticing the nutara into play.

Tunerk found Uki's words to be true, and her disappointment was evident. No bones, no corpse, no feathers... lifting her head away from the ground and turning her muzzle in the direction of the woman she had come to know as atsa, as well, the heavyset cub reclined onto her haunches. 

Why do you dig? If you do not have anything to hide? Tunerk had thought that was the entire point of digging. She shared atsa's Northern tongue as she spoke, her own voice reminiscent to the quiet that came with falling snow. Burying afterward had been something she had neglected to do, and many of her trinkets had been robbed... but it taught her a lesson. To complete a cache, you must not only dig, but bury it, hide it. Tunerk could see nothing...

But the body language of her atsa distracted Tunerk from the topic at hand. Won over, Tunerk let out a low boof and mimicked the movement, forelegs splayed as they smacked the terrain before she rose to harass Uki with nips she attempted to land, and her body weight she sought to throw around.

Tunerk was dissapointed when her efforts yielded no prize - causing the tundrian to suppress an amused smile. "To make something," she explained in soft tones. "I will bury some seeds in the dirt and in a few weeks, plants will be growing here," the spearwife lowered her nose to the soil, where nothing flourished. She would make something beautiful with this dirt.

When her bow seemed to distract Tunerk from her disappointment, Anaktok grinned - smacking the ground with a forepaw as the child charged her. She lowered to the ground, so that she was closer to the pup's level, her head tipped back as Tunerk nipped her. Her lips were peeled back, her jaws open in mock attack as she pretended to defend herself against the ferocity of the young girl's assault.

Tunerk was given pause at this lesson, rapt by the words. Seeds grew plants. She had never left a bone in the earth long enough for it to grow a plant, whatever that was, but maybe—just maybe—a plant meant more bones. Animals, she understood, produced bones... but could... could this also produce bones? Are bones seeds? Would they grow plants? Can bones be plants? Came her rapidfire inquiries. None of her other family members had brought plants to her attention, yet. And so she had no idea what, exactly, a plant was... at least by name. She had seen plenty, especially on their journey here, but had never asked what they were.

And then, they were playing. This had the whole of her attention, and as Uki catered to her stature, Tunerk was relentless in her harassment of the adult. The patience her elder exhibited aided in her ability to learn, and Tunerk spun to stand over her and grab at a shoulder. In these moments Tunerk would learn how much pressure to apply, and how much not to—her youth caused her to not think much about this in the moment, though harming her relative was the furthest thing from her mind. If the woman yelped, Tunerk would release and withdraw, but up until then she would test and see what areas were best to grip and grab.

The conversation is lost to play, though surely at some point she'll have to explain that bones don't grow plants. Uki allows a mock growl to fall from her lips, though the slight grin bellies any intimidation, pawing at the girl gently as she spins - taking Uki's shoulder in her mouth. The tiny teeth are sharp but not unbearable.

Tupilaq falls onto her side, a slender paw waving through the air to paw at the pup.

Uki's weight gives, though unbeknownst to Tunerk it was due to her playing along rather than her own strength. Perhaps someday, when she grows into her stature, she truly would be capable of such a feat—but she had yet to reach her full height, or weight. There are indications that she will be a large woman, though at present she only grown up to  most wolves shoulders. It was not so with her mother, or the larger wolves of the pack such as Uki. 

Still, Tunerk does not know or understand logistics. When Uki fell, Tunerk adjusted herself to fully stand over her, and Uki's paw brushed against her face. For the moment, Tunerk simply stood there, tail wagging as she rested.

Her paw reaches, brushing the child's face gently. She'd never be foolish enough to hurt one of Shivali's babes - the woman is frightening in her ire - even if she was capable of harming a child. The paw falls to the ground with a small thud as Tunerk remained over the 'defeated' berserker.

Tapeesa rises to her feet after a moment, shaking out her dirtied coat. She turns moonlight eyes on the nutara curiously. "Would you like to help me make a garden?" Perhaps she was interested in nature as Uki was, though of course she could refuse.