Kildeer Rest [m] rain bear

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the swooping, screaming birds called an expanse of boulder-studded snow-drifts their home.

cen panted as he cut a swathe in front of @Red Leaf. the whitefall was piled to his shoulders in places, and the keening of the wind was sharp upon them both, freed from the tightness of gathered trees.

caribou dotted the long fields. but cen was exhausted, and as the wind began to blow the snow sideways into frostwound eddies, he pushed red leaf into a high drift and covered her with his body, pulling their sleeping-skins across the natural opening of such a depression.

in the dim light, his teeth glistened in a grin as the wind howled. "hear it. sister wind is our friend. from now until forever."

im late and forgot i hadn't replied to this OOPS SORRY

he didn't know yet.
it was strange to suddenly be in such broad daylight, alone with nothing but the sea of snow-clad earth. she wonders if the flowers will be in bloom by the time she gives birth.
the wind hurts her ears, and for a moment she wonders if cen is right — if the sharadoii are weaker, if she is privileged and naive. maybe she is, in some way, given how alien her surroundings feel. she sniffles as she yanks the hide upon her shoulders up toward her face.
she is frightened by her sudden loss of footing as she tumbles onto her back, eyes blown wide as she's met with teeth mere inches away from her lips. cen, she gasps. i'm-- i do not think now is a good time. at least let me set everything up, first.

NO WORRIES u know I shall wait for ur posts <3

wind sister keened. beneath the hide, cen kissed the protesting mouth of his pretty wife. "have i already tired you, red leaf?" the caribou hunter teased, alluding to his near ceaseless enjoyment of her.

for a moment, cen was tempted by the female warmth of her body and the lovely sheen of her red eyes, but moved away slightly, lying in the drift now beside her. "the wind will blow sharp pieces of ice into your eyes and your teeth. it is better to wait for the storm to pass, and this is how we wait."

their heaviest hide over them, the pooling heat between their bodies warming the small space rapidly.

one day there would be children between them, nestled beneath hide and between the pelts of their mother and father.

in time, the wind stopped its howling. tentatively cen pulled back a corner of the skin, seeing how it had become stiff in the freezing cold. the land was bright-white and flat here, save for the multiple rock formations and piles which studded the land like blunted teeth.

pulling from their shelter, cen stretched and yawned widely, shaking out his hackles. the caribou herd was curiously nearby, tens upon tens of them, scraping through the snow here for the grass beneath. the wolf wanted one, and knew he could have one, even without a band of hunters.

"come, wife," he ordered in a lighter voice. "leave everything here. these hides are old. i will find you a new one." he did not wait; cen only watched red leaf for a moment and then began to stalk after the great herd.

he did not need to run, nor rush, nor bluff. among their number were elders who had returned to the taiga for their death. the caribou hunters needed only to find the downed antlers amid the eternal churn of clicking hooves.

have i already tired you? such a loaded question, flickered a thought, and instead of voicing it red leaf brought a tiny, withered smile to her face. the road has tired me, but never you, love. she chooses not to think about how she hates the way her name falls from his lips now.
she stays still beneath him, allows him the closeness beneath the cover of the caribou's sacrifice. she can smell the rust upon his breath. she closes her eyes and allows herself to be comforted by it, even if only for now. he is being nice. it feels as though these moments are growing fewer and farther between.
she wonders if the children she carries will know this warmth of his.
when he peels back the veil, red leaf squints beneath the brightness of the sun bouncing off of snow. she wonders — let me come with you, the girl squawks, rolling out from beneath their makeshift caravan to follow him a few paces. i am meant to learn the practices of the lanzadoii, right? let me help you hunt. she could count on one hand the amount of times she had ever done so, but perhaps it would make him happy.

their way of hunting was simple: look for the caribou lying down, strike fast, strike hard. they were usually elders or the very ill, culling themselves as the herd went down through their natal ranges. no one would stop for them nor defend them, and their own protection of self had often been weakened by their inability to eat.

cen peered through the milling legs now, grunting, "there" to red leaf as he lifted a paw to point. the mass of grass-eating bodies parted, and a bull with a broken antler and a greying beard could be seen, resting quietly in the snow.

with a daring glance toward red leaf, cen let out a shout and ran directly at that part of the herd, kicking snow and snapping teeth on the cold empty air.

his posturing worked; the caribou lowed and bleated and stampeded off deeper into the rest, and to its fringes.

cen stalked toward the old one, breath spiraling in the air. the animal's eyes rolled frantically. he struck, and blood stained the white now. "now you, wife," the caribou hunter ordered, stepping back as the herdbeast tried to rise.

it all happened so fast!
red leaf hadn't entirely expected him to say yes. the relief and brief wave of excitement soon turned to shock and doe-eyed horror as the pair close in on the herd. there were so many of them, all much more alive than she had ever seen them before.
she does as instinct tells her and begins to scope them out, watching and waiting at the heel for a good target. there are not yet calves, only pregnant mothers; those, she assumed, would be the most protected. she only notices the buck after cen points him out, and before she can do much to react, her husband is charging expertly — sending the healthy caribou scattering in waves of a frantic stampede and leaving them with the elder.
cen makes the first move. red leaf shudders as she hears the crunch of his jaws, the panicked bleating of the poor creature. it is her turn — she knows not what to do.
after a long moment of staring like a deer in a pair of headlights, red leaf makes her move; her own strike lands upon the shoulder of the great beast, teeth tearing skin as she tries to prevent it from moving to its feet. she backs away far sooner than she likely should have; she did not want to be the one to kill it.
tail tucked between her thighs, she braces herself for cen's inevitable disappointment.

red leaf's cuts were clumsy, her retreat too swift. cen scoffed and stalked past the trembling form of his young wife; he slashed only a few more times, and caught the great throat, and held it.

when the last kicking had ended, cen wiped his mouth and looked toward red leaf. he was not angry, which surprised even the man. but he was annoyed. he must teach her, this woman he had brought over the glacier from her valley.

"among lanzadoii, the men and the women butcher together. each hunter earns a part to share in the task. it is divided equally, and that way your shares are also equal."

he had circled back to the dead caribou, and now touched its face with a paw. "thank you, grandfather. your life gives us life." but in the next, his voice latched again upon red leaf;

"but that is the way of lanzadoii. and i know the ways of your people. i have seen them, lived them. so, my wife," and now he pushed her firmly toward the carcass, "if you want to be a sharadoii woman, and butcher what i have killed, then do so."

it would be long hands of time before red leaf could creep wearily to bed, the meat butchered and frozen in a hide, so that it would be easier to carry; the new skin, stretched, scraped, and ready for further curing tomorrow; the teeth and declaws and antlers piled aside, to add to her weight; the skull plucked clean; the offal taken from their camp and buried elsewhere, what of it she could not cure or eat, so that other animals would be staved off.

yes. sharadoii indeed.

cen gorged himself on dried meat, rolled himself into their hides, and went to sleep.