Redtail Rise Lithium

backdated like a week or so

Lycabas had always been content to feed off the work of others, and he was big enough to chase smaller hunters from their prey, which all-in-all made his hunting skills subpar at best. He was an excellent tracker – his nose honed to find flesh and blood – but his execution rate of capturing something that was still alive was at about thirty percent (on a good day). He had lost weight since taking on the task given to him by the red queen; still, he thought it would be worth it.

He toted the head of a ram with him now, carrying it by a single curved horn. The other horn was broken, snapped in its fall from Nova Peak and lost to the snows. It was the original kill of an eagle, or some other large raptor, but Lycabas had gotten to it within moments, and dragged it as far west as he could.

Eventually, he ate through the neck and took its bashed-in head as evidence of his success. Its body had been left somewhere between the rise’s borders and the mountain it came from, buried in the snow to temporarily save it from other predators. The heavy-footed boy hurried the rest of the way to the realm of the hunters and deposited the sheep’s head at their nearest doorstep.

He called for @Avicus, then sat panting, exhausted and anxiously awaiting her arrival.

the boy has returned; she recalls his voice in his call. she summons fortitude against her growing nausea to move down the slopes, meeting him at the border and staring curiously, skeptically, at his offering.

all? Avicus muses, lips curled downward in a frown. no more?

it's just a ram's head, and while she supposes they can bash its skull and eat its brains and other related meats, it's not nearly enough for a pack. she wonders how he could have thought this was sufficient—

unless it's indicative of something else.

her eyes narrow, scanning his face.

They’ll never accept this.

I’ll probably get called lazy or weak for not bringing the whole thing… Probably get flayed for not killing the thing myself.

Maybe they won’t notice… Maybe it won’t matter…

This is such a drag.

Lycabas’ thoughts fell quiet as the red huntress approached. He sat up a little taller, and placed a large forepaw on the ram’s head, pushing it forward as she came to stand before him.

What does that face mean? Is she sick or does she hate it?

Of course, she wasn’t satisfied with only the head. There’s more, he answered quickly. The rest of it. It was too heavy to drag through the snow. I buried it as well as I could, a few miles back.

more. she nods slowly, and looks at him.

leadh me, she commands, pointing her muzzle toward his previous tracks. she needs proof—otherwise, this boy has just brought her a skull and she can't do anything with it.

they've children to feed, soon.

her teeth are clenched tight together, despite her placid expression. perhaps her taut jaw betrays it.

The red queen didn’t need to tell him twice.

Lycabas turned on his heel and plowed back the way he had come, deepening his own tracks and widening the path through the snow, making it easier for the tight-jawed she-wolf to follow. He wondered about her expression.

Is she mad at me?

The silence that yawned between them as they traveled did not bother him, but Lycabas was curious about other things as well. Why did your pack travel so far to get here? I’ve never seen so many wolves go that distance before.

she trots along and only ceases her pace when he speaks, glancing toward him with first a confused expression, then understanding.

we were at war, Avicus explains, her face grave. findh'ing one who hadh kill' our own. and. . . no. it didn't matter to describe the rest. she leaves it at that.

she turns and looks toward the Rise. our home, she continues. before an' now.

she looks at Lycabas and eases a bit. your kill? Avicus queries, nodding toward the path in front of them.

The scarlet huntress explained, after a beat of bafflement, that her pack was only returning where they belonged. They had been at war, avenging a death, and…

What is she holding back?

Lycabas was not brave enough to ask. He turned his iceblue eyes from her face. It’s not much further, he answered, holding his tongue for the rest of their journey. She seemed eager only for the meat he offered, and the boy feared that if he did not provide her with the ram quickly, that she would take her pound of flesh from his own hide in retribution.

He picked up his pace thereafter, only lifting his head when a murder of crows upon a mound of snow could be seen ahead. There! he called, turning his trot into a lumbering gallop, straight for the winged crowd trying to unearth his poorly concealed kill.

she takes off after him, feeling the excitement of fresh meat hum through her blood, and joins him in digging. eventually, his quarry emerges from the ice and she stares at it for a moment, then gives him a nod of approval.

goodh, Avicus says. 'hhank you. help me bring ihh' back?

before she takes the frozen flesh in her jaws, she pauses and adds, you can join our pack.

just in case he thought they were taking from him without giving.

she's keen for meat, but she's even keener for more hunters to pad their supply. and the boy has proven he's able to provide. he'd even returned, when others would not!

The crows fled in a flurry of dark wings and white powder, circling above in an ominous halo as the two wolves pulled the headless ram from its shallow grave. The red queen looked the body over, and Lycabas held his breath.

What am I doing? This was a bad idea. She’s going to know I didn’t kill this thing myself…

But before he could blurt out the truth as the imaginary tension got to be too much for him, she praised him, thanked him. Requested his help.

The boy’s stiffness melted with relief, his thick tail wagging in tentative strokes, his broad head nodding in obedience. This had been enough to garner him an invitation to the rise. Thank you, he said, a calm washing over him.

He grabbed the meaty shoulder of the frosted corpse and they both started to haul it back to his new home.

foot by foot, they drag the kill back over Redtail's borders. she directs them to their nearest deep cache—no.

instead, she lifts her muzzle and calls to the pack—@Prophet, @Augur, @Masquerade, @Redd, @Relic, @Lilia, @Augur, @New Snow, @Ancelin.

they will feast now upon the frozen carcass, and welcome the new young man.

her welcome to him is in her voice; she lets it color her howl, and once it fades away, she gives him a warm look, and bades him eat first, nodding toward the meat. eat, she directs.

join if you want but not required!

probably my only post :3

Lilia was hungry; always hungry. And she'd been patrolling when she'd noticed the scent of Lycabas and Avicus on the borders, leading away. She'd been tempted to follow after them- but instead simply lurked in the area. The skull was an indication of something he'd found; likely only a portion of a full meal, she hoped. She continued to rove along slowly. If he did anything stupid, or disappointed Avicus somehow, she didn't want to be on the receiving end of that spite, as she'd been the one to meet him at the borders first. 

He'd saved her skin on the mountain, not so long ago as well. He'd earned some of her respect. So she hoped he had found something to bring back as an offering, and a show of his skills, so she too might get a bit of clout for her recruiting skills. 

She wound her way back toward the border when she heard Avicus call out, summoning the pack in for a meal. She slunk first to Avicus' side, uttering a chattering of her teeth and a lick to her jawline as a greeting, before she pulled away and moved toward Lycabas, uttering a fond, congratulatory growl.

Once back at the rise, the red queen called for her pack, inviting them to feast and to welcome him. Indigo eyes turned to him, shining with a light he had not seen in them before. She urged him to eat first, and the colossal starveling needn’t be told twice.

There was pride in this moment, even if Lycabas did not know how to express it. His tail wagged naturally, basking in the glow of his new leader’s approval, and of Lilia’s, as she was next to arrive. He turned a bloody, appreciative mouth to them both, cheeks full of cold innards, and he scooted over to make room for them at the ram’s opened belly.

a new man.

augur's tail was high as he came to attend red woman's call. food was welcome.

he deferred to his alpha female with a low rumble but did not look toward the ram.

his yellow eyes instead studied the stranger, and he strode close to offer his scent and take that of the other.

pale. travelworn. muscular. skyfall eyes.

the color of his fur reminded augur of the transition between winter's snow and spring's muddying melt.

and so he became blue drift.

augur left off his investigating and joined lilia with a rumble, cutting a great swathe of meat.

he would carry it to new snow if she did not arrive.