Broken Antler Fen tossed in a cell to feast with the fleas

“I don’t usually get out this way to do much hunting,” he explained to @Keres as they reached the fen. The sun had hit its highest point in the day, already beginning to wane. It was warm but not too terribly so, and the mountains stood not far off from their line of sight. Dirge moved lightly across the terrain, long since dried since the flooding rains had left their part of the world.

“The elk herds have been moving again, first along our borders and then along the mountain. I’ve managed to track them this far but I’m hoping we might be able to lay eyes on them finally. Maybe get a decent head count,” and maybe come back another time with more able bodies to try and drive them back towards the mountains, but that may have been hoping for a bit much. He tore his gaze away from the horizon then, peering to his sister and seeking her thoughts.

Now that the world had wrung itself out, Keres found the terrain to be much more palatable, not to mention easy to traverse. It was a thing that pleased her, just as being with her littermate in this moment pleased her. Do they often migrate out of these lands when Winter falls? She asked, moving in step beside the larger wolf.

With so many mouths to feed, I might almost suggest sending out a tracker more frequently to track their movements. Especially if your Winters are anything like your rainy seasons. Brutal, harsh, and unforgiving, Winter could make or break a pack, even one as longstanding as the Spear.

Maybe even herd them closer to home again. Unaware she was echoing Dirge's thoughts, Keres glanced at him, plaintive and curious. She didn't mind making suggestions, though she was careful not to step on toes; her brother was the Alpha, after all.

“That’s usually the plan,” he mentioned as she brushed over herding them closer. “We’re generally well prepared for winter, so long as you don’t mind eating meat that’s a little dry and tough. Between Osiris and Atlas and myself, the caches are usually decent. Hydra and her sisters hunt quite a bit too,” he went on to explain, almost reassuringly. They had managed through famine and harsh winters before, and would do so again. Of that, he was confident.

Still, winter was never a time to be complacent. He never had been regarding it.

“The herds do tend to migrate a bit, but there are some that stick around that don’t move on. I’d imagine some of the passes to the south get snowed in; it’s a longer trek to the forests on the other side of Moonspear when winter comes too.” Earthquakes had already made it a longer trek when the most prevalent pass had been blocked off, but they had found ways to work around that too. Benefits of being accomplished mountaineers and nothing more.

As they climbed a small rise, he paused to survey, looking for signs of where the herd had gone on.

“A few days ago I came out here with Atlas, while they were still close to our claim. We did get a decent head count on them then but I’m curious if others have been picking through them. There’s a bull with them, at least one that I saw. Plenty of points on his antlers, but they didn’t seem sharp.” They could still do a lot of damage, however. “If we pick up their trail again, we can make a plan, just like old times.”

A smile graced him.

Yes, because our plans always worked out so fabulously. A jest, a smile, and a laugh, Keres gave a gentle shove of her shoulder against Dirge's own.

So we leave the bull be so that he can keep the herd together through the winter. Assuming no other pack went after him, which brought up a new question. Besides Neverwinter Forest, An ironic name, given what she was bringing up. Who else do we have to contend with during Winter? Allies or not, everyone was the opposition when winter fell.

Maybe all of their plans had never gone according to plan back in the day; he chuckled at the thought, a brief snippet of memory that wasn’t all bad or all good. It came to pass though as they moved along in their conversation, and his thoughts turned to talk of their neighbors. This too required some recollection—how long had it been since he himself had taken stock of all that was nearby? The answer blanched his mood a touch; it had been too long.

“Neverwinter is possibly our biggest contender in the winter,” he affirmed first, “but for the most part it’s vagrants we have to keep an eye on. I believe there’s still a pack along the river somewhere our in the prairies, but…” he trailed, tossing his head gently this way and that. “I don’t worry about them.” No point in it, out of sight and out of mind and all. The two packs rarely had interaction to the best of his knowledge.

“For the most part Moonspear does not have a lot of competition and when we do, we all come to a mutual agreement that is favorable to us,” he remarked then with a thin-lipped smirk. They had numbers and knowledge of the land on their side, and they had outlasted the majority of their neighbors thus far.

It was pleasing to hear that Moonspear didn't have any direct threats, even when the cold and snow moved in. That's good to hear. She had heard of how long the pack of her family had lived upon the mountain and had no doubts that their reign would continue; this surity only doubled upon Dirge's answer. At the same time, Keres was not a wolf that enjoyed the unknown; she preferred to know where they stood with others, especially if forging a friendly bond with them would keep her family safe through even the toughest of times.

Is there anyone that serves as a liason between the Spear and other packs? The Valkyrie asked, her focus half on his answer and half on the prey they now tracked.

“Hydra, mostly,” he said with a shrug. “I dabble on occasion where need be, but for the most part she has the drive and prowess to play liaison.” She had been born into it from what he knew, ever present when her parents did their dealings with neighbors and wayfarers alike. Though Charon he had never seen as a diplomat; Amekaze was the wolf he always thought handled such things with more finesse and grace than her speckled counterpart.

It was very much the same way between he and Hydra, only he did not think that his arrogance and ambition had consumed him. Content with being a listening ear and a guiding force, it had always been wiser for him to play his cards much closer to the chest than any other. So far, that had worked out in his favor, as he had both approval of his subordinates and retained their trust as much as he did his wife.

“I’ve come to discover that I don’t care much for the politics,” he admitted then to Keres, his gaze distant on some point along their path. “But it does beat the alternative of acting like warmongers rattling out of caves and clicking our teeth together when things turn sour.”

Hydra. The valkyrie was not surprised in the least. Her brother had wooed a strong woman into the place beside him (or, perhaps, the other way around), but no wolf could handle everything, and she was determined to help in some form or fashion. Surely, she would figure out how she could assist at some point but, until then, Keres had no problem becoming a jack of all trades. He was right though. Politics were much preferrable to bloodletting and the like; with as long standing as the Spear was, Keres was sure that they were adept at both.

Nose wiggling, the silver woman noticed they were much closer than they had been before. They would get their headcount soon enough, it seemed.

Her assessment of Moonspear would have been correct—but their conversation dwindled as the scent of the herd picked up. They were indeed close; Dirge’s words had faded off to the call of the bull elk somewhere just outside their line of sight. He may have easily been over the next small rise of terrain, and that thought alone drew him to bring them both to a gentle halt before it.

“You go left, I’ll go right,” he said, much more business-like than he had been before. “We’ll make a quick count and meet back here in a bit—sound good?” Not that he anticipated her declining the suggestion. As long as they didn’t get too spotted or otherwise engage the herd, Dirge thought this would go off without a hitch.

Dirge's instruction was acknowledged with a nod and a gentle bump of her shoulder to his before peeling away so that she could see to her task. Split up, the two wolves would be stick out much less, able to take stock of the herd's size without drawing too much attention. This would be a boon to them, not looking to startle their prey, especially not when the herd was guarded by at least one bull.

No, two.

She spotted him as she slunk through the undergrowth, freezing when his ears twitched and head turned this way. Quickly, her eyes scanned the male's head, counting six or so points to the rack that crowned his head, body pressing low to the ground as she waited. What felt like an eternity was only moments, and soon enough, Keres was moving again, though she was careful to skirt the buck now.

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He was a creature born for this sort of season, when the foliage wilted severely and lost its colorful pelage. Leaf litter may have been the only thing that would have given him away, but the soft crunch of it beneath his feet tied in with the ambient din. He had hunted for years and while he may not have claimed a particular mastery over it, he did possess the skill to move near silently as he blended in against the autumnal backdrop.

His gaze darted from elk to elk, also aware that there was at least another set of antlers in their midst. Two was a lowball amount; elk herds often had their share of either gender and were often large in size, but this one was not nearly as large as he would have hoped. Disappointment creased his features; this was yet another splinter group that had more than likely been chased and picked through already.

Of course, it didn’t deter him from making his own assessments of the herd as time passed. While the majority were healthy, he knew there were those that had suffered in their trials and trails through, or around the mountains, from wherever they had come. For all he knew, this one could have only arced up towards Moonspear from the south, found that the valleys and mountains here were full of predators, and then left.

He snaked through a narrow passage between old stones and wood on the last leg of his circling, having wove a path that left him satisfied with what he had seen. But he did not immediately find Keres near where they had parted and so he reclined to his haunches to wait; his gilded gaze shifting between the herd as they slowly roamed, and watching for the silvery head of his sister.

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Dirge did not wait long, the silver sister sidling up next to him soon enough after she had wound her way around the herd and then doubled back. Now a safe way from the bucks, especially the one she had come so close to startling, Keres stretched her form into a downward dog pose, before shifting to stretch out her back legs as well so that some of the tension that had built would leave her body.

Not too bad, She offered, shaking herself out. Only saw one other bull. A few sick or limping too. All in all, not too sizeable of a group. Not as big as some of the herds she had seen, that was for sure. Should we bother running these ones back toward the Spear? Keres asked, looking to her brother, ears cupping to catch his response.

“Might be worth giving them a push,” he said, “though I would prefer to do it with another in our party.” The two of them were likely capable enough to section off a portion of the herd and funnel them, but Dirge did not like the idea of divvying them further. If they regrouped too soon, he knew they would move on swiftly to evade the wolves further.

As his gaze swept out to survey the loitering herd once more, he pondered who else they could rally that may have been nearby. Osiris came to mind, as did Atlas. There was of course always the option of summoning Hydra out to them too, or one of her sisters. While he did enjoy the thought of mustering one of his elder children to come, he wondered if he could sway Hydra to drop her plans.

“We could head back a bit and see if Hydra can help,” he offered then. “Unless you’ve a better suggestion.”

Where Keres waas confident in their ability to manage the herd, she also knew the value of rallying another able body to their cause; her head bobbled wordlessly in agreement to returning to find Hydra, one last look given to the herd before turning to make their way back, waiting until they were close enough to call the Queen to their aid.

Fade