Ouroboros Spine Qallupilluit

She returned from a hunt with a brace of hares hanging from her teeth; fat, white, swinging to the tempo of her stride.

One rabbit was more intact than the other. Tulukiri was headed for the ulax to see if anyone wished for the skins, and after she would find a place for the meat - although the ground was nice and frozen now, which would make it difficult.

The air was crisp, strong with evergreen and the rich smell of coagulated blood.

Moonglow came with many new scents, and Skeetch was kept thoroughly busy tracking both the resident prey animals and her packmates, though she left trails when they became hot enough to create a greeting. She was too busy hyperfixating on smelling all the smells, before she had to rein herself in and be social again. Being social wasn't a trial, and she wasn't an introvert by any means- but she had particular times for particular habits, and she'd cross the boundary from hobby/interest to social when she felt like it. 

Fortunately for her, sometimes things worked out differently. And while she intended to simply spend the day thoroughly investigating the area near Kukutux's Ulaq she snapped to attention when the scent of blood caught her notice. She was drawn closer, lured, and eventually caught sight of a blonde packmate approaching from the distance. In her mouth dangled limp, white-furred rabbits. Skeetch watched the stranger come into view, assessing her scent. It was one she'd crossed already, making her a packmate. Young, feminine, communal- a sociable creature, she estimated. Not one who lingered on the outskirts. 

She flicked her tongue over her lips, and watched the stranger with amicable curiosity in her mismatched gaze, waving her tail. Like a beggar, she hoped for an offering of food- or in the very least, the chance to exchange scents, and become familiar with one another.

Tulukiri felt eyes upon her. She turned her own and cast a wide arc with her head, like a dowsing rod, until she spotted the dark figure with the shining tendril of saliva dripping from one corner of their lip; but it was their gaze that stuck with her. She stared a moment and then recognized a pain in her neck from the weight of the rabbits, so she partly bowed, and let both bodies drop.

Her lips were cold and tasted of blood as she licked them, and gave the stranger a small chuff of greeting. She sought the cleaner of the rabbits and hoisted it again, but left the other behind, in case the stranger might want it.

Once sighted, Skeetch wriggled like a pup being greeted by an adult with a belly full of food to share. Her task of rooting scents in the area was long forgotten now; the pretty blonde girl was going to be her first fast friend here. 

She stepped forward when the rabbits were dropped- ushered by the want to help out. When one rabbit was left she swooped in deftly to pick it up, and bounded to the hare-catcher’s side with a bounce in her step and a fond grin on her face.

Maybe she'd give up trying to find someone to gift this second rabbit to; she was hungry after the hunt, and the thought of tearing in to the rabbit swinging from her teeth was almost too hard to ignore. Within moments of picking it up again the other wolf was there, set upon the smaller of the two, and they then marched together along the path.

Tulukiri was amused by the sight of someone mirroring her. Weren't they hungry? Maybe they didn't want to make a mess of the ground there. Whatever. After some walking - to detour away from the ulax and set themselves off the obvious path that channeled through the area - Tulukiri began to dig. She placed the fat rabbit down on a mound of snow and turned to look at the stranger.

You can eat that y'know. Or do you usually play with your food?

Skeetch didn't really know where they were going, but she didn't mind, either. If the fair one hadn't wanted her company, she might've tried to outpace the dark mosquito, or she might have shown displeasure with raised hackles. So she went on merrily, having come to the conclusion that she was more or less being invited wherever it was that Tulukiri wanted to go. 

The ended up going along a well-worn trail, one where Tulukiri had chosen to stop and stash the other rabbit she had. Skeetch too began to dig, though she looked up when Tulukiri spoke. Of course she was hungry- she would have eaten the rabbit right when it was left, but now that she was being social, she wanted to be polite too. She didn't want to become known as the beggar of Moonglow. 

She tilted her head to the side, tail waving. "Wanna play?" She asked. That seemed a suitable compromise. "Here.....Catch!" She said. She leaned to the side, snatched up the hare and with a toss of her head, sent it flying into the air in a high arc.

The stranger didn't answer her. What happened next was baffling.

She picked up the rabbit and then threw it; the ringing of her voice, commanding that Tulukiri catch it was lost while Tulukiri stared blankly at the dead rabbit going up and over, and then hitting the dirt rather hard, without any attempt to do what was asked.

Her jaw hinged. For a moment there was stillness and confusion while Tulukiri stared at her hard-won kill having been thrown in the dirt. Then she looked to the stranger with her brow slowly pinching and she proclaimed, What the fuck was that?

Skeetch's tail waved and her grin broadened as she watched the rabbit fly through the air, hitting the top of its arc before it descended and landed with a thud on the ground. Her packmate hadn't even flinched or tried to move to catch it. Instead, she turned to look at Skeetch as though she'd sprouted a second head, and the confusion was mutual. She gave the woman an incredulous frown, sketched out by a wolf who would not even budge a muscle to play a game of catch. 

Maybe she just hadn't learned. 

Skeetch moved toward the rabbit, keeping one ear flicked in Tulukiri's direction, sensing that she'd done something wrong somehow. "Look. I throw, you catch. Got it?" She asked. She reached down, and whipped the rabbit back up in the air- this time, sending it in an arc that would put Tulukiri straight in the path of its descent.

It was a game? It was unlike any game Tulukiri had ever played before. The games she'd grown up with were bloody, bruising, and all about snapping teeth or baiting large creatures in to a frenzy - not playing with something important like food, as if it were still alive and worth the effort.

The other wolf grabbed for the body again and threw it, and this time Tulukiri kept her eyes trained upon it. She tensed as it went up and lunged as it dropped, snagging it by the bulk of its body and sinking her teeth in to it with more voracity than she'd meant to; thus ruining the skin, so it would not be worth salvaging after.

Fluids leaked from the punctured body of the thing and Tulukiri plopped it down upon the earth, licking the flavors off of herself.