Redtail Rise XIX

augur called for @Sunday Morning. he wanted to lead new snow through the rise, and take her to the place where he had found the large bison pelvis. 

his golden eyes waited to see the shine of her white fur. the hunter was finding contentment in himself and in the rise. he wanted to become hunt leader. but perhaps he would not rush. after all, soon new snow would grow round and turn to finding a den. 

he had seen it in red woman. the time was coming.

but for now they would explore and they would hunt. when she came, augur greeted her with tiny licks to her cheeks and forehead.

Sunday Morning answered his call with one of her own. She had not yet sequestered herself away from rest of the pack, but her searching had begun. It was this that had occupied her attention before he had called, but Sunday had not found anything that felt right. Not yet, anyway. Sunday turned to head in the direction Mountain Boulder had summoned her from, before she found his trail to follow. Her pace quickened, excited to see her man of stone.

When he came into her line of sight, Sunday Morning paused, forelegs spreading and ears splaying down upon her head as excitement tore through her. This elated feeling always seemed to ignite within her at the sight of him, and she bolted in his direction with  a wolfish grin. Stopping short of him, Sunday Morning accepted his greeting and returned it with eager licks and eager whines.

He would see she had grown rounder. It certainly slowed her down in some areas, but her spirits remained high. She bumped her hip against his own as the Blod settled at his side, bright gaze scanning their surroundings.

his yellow eyes did catch this quickly. augur snuffled at her underbelly with great fondness. his cheek found the new rich swell of her flanks and he rumbled with fierce long sweeps of his tail. protective though not possessive. he paraded kisses over new snow's face once more.

the clawan growled and set off for the burned place. his gait was easy and casual. augur was quite content here, alert but relaxed to know that many eyes were watching the pups and the land.

the bison bones stood high. augur sniffed at them and then turned his eyes toward her. what did she make of them? he thought briefly of buffalo hunter and the goodness of their fight with the bull. he wanted it again.

His sounds filled her ears and her heart with it. Sunday Morning had always been a happy she-wolf, but with Mountain Boulder she found herself happiest. The faces of her family became more distant by the day, though she would remember them always with great fondness.

Sunday Morning followed her man easily with the pace he set. More and more she learned how he moved, and was intuitively able to fall into step with him as he guided their path. Before long, they came across what he intended to show her. He sniffed at the great bones that had been left behind, and Sunday Morning approached to do the same. She marked its faded yellow hue, teeth marks left behind by smaller predators that had known this place before her. Perhaps before him.

She circled it with interest, nose working actively. She paused at a certain point, licking at the bone to sample. Old though they were, they did not seem tested by very many fangs. But this old bone tasted as good as any other. She thought to gnaw at them for a moment, but first looked around them with a curious look to her features. She darted a few feet away and peered to the right, then the left. And pressed her nose to the earth to sniff for other bones this beast or its ilk might have left behind. Sunday looked to Mountain Boulder, wondering if he knew of any. While it did not feel wrong to her to chew on those bones, Sunday Morning would not mind one she could carry with her to worry away at when she could not visit this place.

she wanted something more. augur was happy to oblige. he sniffed at the surface one last time, offering a reverent lap of his tongue, and then he set off at an easy trot.

there were bones here, for it was a graveyard of many animals. long ago the orange flower had burned. and what it left behind was multi-faceted. he sniffed through the tufts of fur left by living creatures. he added his own markings.

and at last he found a heavy femur, its marrow long blackened but its surface a good and unscarred gleaming.

he chuffed to new snow, calling her closer with an affectionate blink of his hawk-yellow eyes.

There was some evidence of the what had happened long ago. Some of the wood that she saw within the forest was quite visibly scarred and beyond repair; hard to believe that the orange flower did not have talons or claws, the way the burnmarks cut and slash into the mighty trunks belly. But there had been much regrowth, the earth still cumbersome and fertile for this places rebirth.

Birds nearby flit to catch some of the furs the wind sent rolling. Sunday watched them for a beat, ear cupping toward her man when he chuffed to her. And when she looked to him, Sunday Morning knew he had found some prize. Her eyes warmed with the same affection as she moseyed toward him, thanking him with several sweeping kisses and waves of her tail.

She settled some of her weight onto her hinds as she began to excavate what part of it was beneath the earth thanks to time or perhaps some storm. Not much work to be done there, most of it exposed, and once she finished Sunday Morning moved to claim it between her teeth. But she looked back to the pelvis, and then Mountain Boulder, a questioning note coming forth. What did he make of it?

her small paws dug. his massive ones joined her. and for a while there was only the sound of their excavation and the birdsong twittering overhead in the hot air.

something primal here, something evocative of man stirring dirt into den for woman. he reached to push his earth-stained muzzle against the side of new snow's ear, leaving a faint mahogany print.

when the femur was mostly exposed, augur stepped down into the little hollow and wrestled the bone out, up onto flatter ground where new snow could investigate it.

he stood close, kicking clods of earth from his paws, ears perked as he swept the horizon for danger.

Her tail waved when he joined her. He lent much of his strength, seeing what she could not exert in her current state. Again, gratitude gripped her as they toiled away together. She saw his strength-limned limbs break away the areas she had not, and the more that they worked the freer the object of her desire became. One of them, in any event. Her man was the other, perhaps the very first. He then marked her once again, the first time in the blood of the creature they had hunted side by side, and now in the earth that they two had dug together.

These things, these gestures, meant much to her. Gifts of blood, gifts of earth. To wear them, and share with him these things.

He went down into the small hollow. Sunday Morning shimmied backward, lowering on her belly and shifting the earth where she must to aid him. Her gaze turned to him in the earth, looking at the thing he had built in the process. Once again, Sunday Morning felt pride.

Mountain Boulder came out with the prize in tow, and she stood, tongue lolling as she circled him.

But Sunday Morning paused in her reach for the bone. First leaned against him, and pawed affectionately at his shoulder. Her own mark of earthen clay was left upon him, the shape of her own paw crude there, and the corners of her eye crinkled with amusement to see it. Mountain Boulder had left many marks upon on her, ones not immediately visible to the eye. But if one looked closely enough, the most significant of them was obvious in the way that she looked at him, and him alone. Her tail waved as she moved to nose his cheek and swipe her tongue against his muzzle.

And now, as he kept watch, Sunday Morning nosed the thing time had left them. It was in perfect condition to chew, and Sunday relayed as much with a pleased exhale. She took it into her mouth, looking 'round at their surroundings in search of the perfect chewing place. For now, she deemed it to be the little hollow they had built. Sunday Morning slunk into it, but emerged so that she was half-in, half-out. One paw splayed and weighed down the left end of it as Sunday began to work on the right.

augur did not understand mateship. he did not comprehend sentiment.

but he did recognize that having new snow near provided him with a contentment in himself that he had only discovered. he liked this. she taught him new things, such as an appreciation for that which seemed small and without use.

his jaws often used for breaking great bones now were bathed by his tongue. he lay down beside the hollow, propping himself on one elbow. a breeze played over his grey hackles and he yawned.

but he kept himself alert. 

in time augur rolled to playfully snap for the bone, pretending that he would drag it up out of the impression toward his own forepaws!

Sunday Morning was glad to chew away at this bone. It strengthened her own jaws, and did much to keep her own teeth clean. It also brought joy to her, which was easy to see in the brightness of her eyes. Her man rested before her, and Sunday Morning felt at ease. Her long days alone were no longer a part of her, body fuller and mind rested. Mountain Boulder brought her safety, and had given her a home with him.

When he moved, Sunday's eyes snapped to him. Sunday Morning's lips wrinkled slightly, a long rumble trickling forth from the back of her throat. But her eyes were bright and her ears were pricked, and Sunday Morning then released a sneezing sound, so that he would know for certain her noises and actions were in jest. Sunday let out another rumble then, muzzle now poised and pointed over the bone as she snapped at the air above it when he made his playful bid. Sunday's rear shifted up and to the right, readying herself to give chase should he think to snatch it.

new snow spoke in a way that was only for them.

his tongue lolled. he growled playfully and bit at the air, tail thumping dully against the earth.

she lifted to run. he sent his teeth toward the bone. dust and leaves fell from his coat as he rolled over.

augur prepared himself to give chase. a great bark would vibrate the very earth beneath her paws before he bounded after!

The crunching of leaves as he shifted upon them caused her ear to twitch, but did not deter if. If anything, it hastened her step. He was on the move! Bone in tow, she playfully rrrrr'd around it as she bounded away from his reach. Sunday heard him, felt him, and her tail waved wildly behind her as she dared a look over her shoulder at him.

It might cause her failure in her getaway, but Sunday Morning defined success in this moment differently. She would be glad to be captured by the Rise's best hunter, his own prize. But for now, she kept out of his reach with another leap in the opposite direction.

<3 wanna fade? i can start another!

she was nimble even in pregnancy, dancing just out of reach. he was hard-pressed to keep up with her, but did so devotedly.

augur brushed one flank and nipped the other, chuffing softly as he cantered alongside new snow upon her chosen path.

the hunter was content and delighted.

perfect!

She would not be so deft for long. Sunday Morning breathed a little heavier even then. But these games with him she would never give up for as long as she could play them. It was more difficult to remain out of his reach than she remembered, but she managed for a short time at least. 

Sunday grinned at him once that time ended, pressing her muzzle against the bottom of his own with a wag of her tail. Prize still in tow, Sunday Morning took him to the place where she would bury it so that he, too, could have it when he liked.