Hushed Willows but i finally think i can say

for @Nutuyikruk ! keeping suuper vague for reasons. <3

ezra, whom thought that he would become a relic of rivenwood one day, can no longer stay in a single place. not when his father and brother were still missing. not when he was so desperate to find them, to be reunited. he'd left behind his birthpack with his mother and had felt nothing for it.

the morning is clear, chilly. his fur had begun to grow coarse in preparation for the months to come, but like the filling out and growing up, ezra does not notice it.

and even if he did notice, he'd be glad for it.

his steps slow as he shrugs thru the flowing willow branches; nose and eyes and ears alert.

ref tag<3

Lynx went nowhere without telling @Muskrat a strict path in the mountains, and returned quickly each time with small prey. She would be useful- she would be useful. She would not be thrown away.

Wind cracked through the dawn.

It was the first time Nutuyikruk had felt such a cold. It was pleasant! In such an odd way. Like how she could feel her bones shiver, yet her heart was light. The chill wrapped her in something new, something pure, like it had seeped through her fur to wake her soul. There was a sharpness in the air, a bite that stung her nose and whispered against her ears, and yet it didn't hurt. It felt erasing.

She stood beneath the willow trees, their weeping branches swaying in the wind as if they danced with the sky. The mountain loomed not far, its peak kissed by the first pale light when the night broke away. The world was so still, and for a moment, she felt she was moving. Reminded for a moment that life was here, waiting for her to notice again. It crept into her chest, a fragile joy, fragile wonder. She spun in circles to catch the breeze!

"I am searching." Was she talking to her aapa? Her aaka? She did not know who, but she promised the sky she would bring home a meal again. Spinning!

the voice draws ezra closer. this time, though he is unaware of it, he is the watcher.

she speaks ... but to who? aside from ezra himself, who peers through the thick flowing boughs of a weeping willow, she appears to be alone. his breath stutters in his throat, ankh golden gaze sweeping left and right. but no one else comes.

it is just her and him.

and when he is sure of it, he steps out from the snaring boughs of the willow.

searching for vhat? asks ezra, announcing his presence to her. he leaves distance, just in case. because he trusts no one but his mother and father and brother. but she appears to be about his own age and in that, the vessel feels a sort of kinship.

An answer came.

"Birds!" Excitedly whispered out.

The bridges knife wove through the trees. Spinning in slow circles, and feeling the cold in such a gentle way. At least, it was only the start of an autumn chill, and she had only known warmth even in birth. The voice went unseen, blissfully unaware, momentarily, until the cinnamon girls blonde nose had followed the sound.

Frozen for a moment, but the earth continued moving still. The willow branches waved. Birds fluttered away in the trees with heavy flaps of their wings. Wind whistled quietly through the trees. He held a silver face, with fire for ears. Red faded out over the boys muzzle. And these golden eyes. Nutuyikruk stared quietly with her own wondrous eyes.

He did not know her. But she knew him.

A soft greeting finally managed to fumble out her mouth. "Hello."

birds, she answers. and then she is staring at him with eyes the color of a lush green meadow.

she greets him softly, her earlier excitement appearing to shy away.

or so this was how ezra chose to interpret the change.

for a long moment, the vessel stares back, feeling the familiar itch in his paws to keep moving. or maybe it was her unwavering gaze settled on him that made restless.

to him, nervousness and restlessness are of the same token.

hello, he parrots back after a longer moment spent debating. you are hunting birds? he asks, hopeful that it is the answer, thinking his mother might like a few eggs.

Nerves extended up both front feet and into her chest. There was no foam in the red boys mouth, or a gloss over either eye. Though, if there was, Nutuyikruk knew she would not have noticed it right now, and would only be stopped mindless by gold.

Birds.

A hum left the girls mouth, and then a smile formed. "Yes. Oh, I have been trying for days to catch birds and pull nests, but I think I am not good at it yet." It had seemed so easy. It was, perhaps, and she was just very dumb to hunting things not on the ground. "I think I am just slow!" She drew a step closer, and found a giddy excitement forming at a new idea.

The ridge's girl had been trying for days with so much failure, but what if? "What of you? Are you a birdhunter?" Eggs!

birds are harder to hunt than ground animals, speaks ezra, though he is far from an expert on such things. in truth, if he could omit hunting and sleep entirely it would give him more time to search for anselm and gideon. it is the obsession that drives him now, determined to believe they both still live and were out there just waiting to be found.

i vouldn't say i am any good at it, admits ezra, golden gaze shying away for a moment before it trails back to her. but i have seen meadowlarks and i they nest on the ground. ...i vould like to take some eggs back to my mother.

The boy turned head. Why, Ezra said he was not any good at it, and so maybe neither of them were very good. Maybe they could make the best of it then as some saying went, somewhere: two wrongs made a right! At least, that was how things were supposed to be.

A reality formed in one dream. It was a small one, really, and certainly one that could not be spoken aloud without embarrassment, she knew.

Finding birdeggs or otherwise any bird was something never done before. Last she had, it didn't end well. Sickly or not, the pale woman was the boy's mother, wasn't she? Anyone would feed their family. 

Nutuyikruk's tail lifted at the base just enough to begin straightening out. Even when Ezra's head shied away, the girl examined carefully, smiling just enough for a small glimmer of light to sit on her eyes. Each word was next nodded with, considering.. "Well, I can help?"

there is soft surprise at her question, lighting and stealing across ezra's expression as she asks if she can help. in his mind, it was expected. this was her hunt initially as she'd been searching birds initially.

yes, ezra replies. of course. ve look for their nests together.

a small pause is given.

i am ezra. he offers his name, figuring if they were to hunt together she at least deserved his name.

Her first mistake was almost mouthing his name as it was said. The name Ezra repeated louder in the girls mind than he himself had said it, and then it was a thundering noise when the realization struck that it was now He who gave his name now.

Ezra

"Ezra."

And of the many names lost to the girls memory, she had never once forgotten her own. "Well, my name's Nutuyikruk, but they call me Nutuyik, or-"

Simply, as all had said, even the ghosts in distant memory,
"Nutu."

Steps taken back, she offered her flank and positioned towards an open path ahead of them. A motion was made towards the sound of birdcalls. "I think there's a lot of wing flutter around. I'm sure we can find some!" 

nutu, he repeats, not unlike a parrots; choosing the easiest nickname she offers. but only because even mentally repeating her name 'nutuyikruk' he butchers it. and out of them, in his mind 'nutu' seemed to fit her better.

his ears twitch as she mentions wing flutter. he is a bit hesitant, if only because he is not a skilled hunter and he does not want to make himself look like a fool. cleverness could sometimes be mistaken for skill, when it was just using what he did know to his advantage.

but eggs were a lot easier than trying to hunt birds themselves. eggs, at least, couldn't move. but there was always the worry of hovering parents that would attack.

this vay, ezra takes the lead, summoning a take charge attitude that had become something of a security blanket in recent weeks. his steps slow as they approach the nesting ground of the meadowlarks. some birds sit on their nests but many were left unattended.

golden gaze scours the nests from afar, strategizing.

the trick is to be quick, ezra murmurs to nutu, gaze sliding to her. grab and run. and vatch out for their talons. it vill be easy at first because they do not expect it.

his gaze locks on a nest and he moves towards it. he snatches the two of the three eggs from inside it and darts back to where they'd started, gingerly setting the eggs on the grass.

Their path was made easy. 

The red boy took lead. She'd bend to it instantly and feed a greater need to learn. There came more questions of him when he got ahead. Where did he come from? That brilliant red, was it blood stain? His accent was so different and unheard. All of those questions helped her keep pace with the flame dipped tail. 

Birds gave themselves away. Their preys greatest feature was all they could use for their own advantage as wolves. The noise of their wings drew the pair to the nests, and Nutuyikruk starved for a greater taste of the Hunt. It would start with eggs. Birds. 

One day, she'd watch a titan fall.

"Okay!" Nerves told her to not mess up! A breath resided in her words. "Fast."

Ezra retrieved the first two eggs, and Nutuyikruk could hear already the screech of a male. She went for the last, trying carefully not to crush it, but her head came out to be met with diving talons. She moved carefully near Ezra in its attack. Meadowlarks flew low. Maybe he could get it!

her questions are a welcomed distracting chatter.

where did he come from? rivenwood, bad things had happened ezra tells her — a series of rather unfortunate events that he does not go into detail about — and he and his mother had left.

was the red in his fur a blood stain? no, he answers next. he was born with it, like his mother.

his accent was different. it vas how his father spoke, he admits; quieted, trying to temper the ache in his chest because he missed anselm, he missed gideon.

he wishes to return with questions of his own but by the time he'd finished answer her's they had reached the hunting grounds.

he watches her with breath that he didn't realize was baited until it stutters out from betwixt his lips as an angry meadowlark's talons reached for her. ezra's muscles are drawn taunt beneath his pelt as he moves in; impulsively, instinctively to put himself between the defensive bird and her.

he sees his opening and he lunges at the bird, remembering that he was neither small nor pudgy anymore. he was almost to his adult height and though certainly gangly with definitive youth, he's a brawler. it fights for a moment but looses beneath the power of ezra's jaws.

The snap of teeth made Nutuyikruk's head bow. The egg was rested on the grass. She waited until the shrill sound of the birds calls came to a stiff quiet, and arose with one eye prying open. Ezra stood ahead with the limp critter in his jaws.

A smile bloomed on Nutu's mouth, a laugh escaping. Excitedly, she announced to him with squinted green eyes. "You did it!" Not any good at it, no longer! And who said a small accomplishment couldn't be made a great victory?

There was better to do with it, too. She leaned closer with a nodding head. "And maybe you can bring it back to your mother." She'd not had the chance to feed her own. There must've been a pride with that- one that she hoped Ezra could have!

They could split the eggs between the two of them, and well, she could take the one and he could have the two.

When was the last time she had thus much fun? It must've been ages ago.

"And we could split the eggs? I guess they wouldn't be very much, but," it was what they had. An excuse, maybe, to have company a little longer. Don't go yet was hard to ask, but she thought maybe he could understand those words instead.

the excitement in her voice makes him grin 'round the bird corpse betwixt his jaws — though his catching of it was little more than blind luck. he hadn't strategized or anything that made him think he had any sort of actual skill at it.

he sits the bird down between them gingerly. are you sure? you can have the bird if you vant. offers ezra, lifting his gaze from their small cobbled together prizes to her face.

He smiles! She had started to think Ezra was perhaps incapable of it, and it brought out a girlish, cheeky one of her own that was bright and squished. "Woooo!" She cheered! Good for Ezra! "Now you've got at least half decent skill, right?" she let out a gentle giggle.

Maybe too loud, however, of an initial cheer, and to prevent startling the rest of the wildlife that surely had already been disturbed, Nutuyikruk quieted some.

Maybe-- it had been a poor decision, to offer to the boys mother who surely needed food too, especially someone who could have been as sick as Hex warned, but her chest suddenly puffed dumbly with air at the offer. No one had ever offered her a gift before! Did he mean it? "Ah... Okay!"

And sitting next, she questioned his homelife. Well, pack life, to be out all this way needing to feed himself and his mama.. Must have been hard! But maybe they were on a vacation. "Do you plan to keep traveling?" Away from rivenwood. Rivenwood, Ezra had said. 

"To maybe find somewhere to stay one day? Or, at least somewhere comfortable, for now? I know how it is to be far from home. Things are very different for a while. And..new," but that was obvious. Then again, maybe Ezra had been out before and things were not so new to him. 

sure, ezra agrees, finding her grins and giggles to be infectious. even if it is hard for him to find it in himself to let himself feel so lighthearted. this was fun, for sure, but the heavy atlas weight of the mission he needed to return to waited just outside this bubble.

her questions gives ezra pause. he and his mother hadn't discussed what would happen when they found anselm and gideon. surely, returning to rivenwood was out of the question as he's made it quite clear that he would not go back there. not back to that cursed forest or amadeo.

his mother could do what she wished ... but it felt like a waste for her to initiate all of this and then not stay where-ever their small family was reunited at.

vell, ezra pauses, hesitating. ve are looking for my father and brother. my father was injured and my brother vent missing ... around the same time. i'm staying vith them when ve find them. i can't speak for my mother. ezra admits quietly, peering at her thru his lashes; almost shyly.

rivenvood isn't my home, he is quick to correct. not anymore. he adds softer, this time. too many bad things have happened there. he doesn't want to get into the nitty gritty of it, doesn't want to spoil too much of what has been a fun little hunting adventure with her. vhere are you from? vhere are you staying now?

"Father and brother.." And what could be a more daring journey than traveling outside of ones home in search of your family? 

A pang shot her heart. "Yes," and just as urgent of a topic as it was, it would be responded with matching seriousness. Unable, however, to stay that way when met with soft eyes between those light lashes. Surely, he hurt deep down. Or maybe not so deep at all.

How did one begin a search like that? "I hope you find them. I'm sure they're out there somewhere waiting to be found all the same." The word family had grown into nothingness for Nutuyikruk. Maybe it wouldn't for him.

"I'm sure you're eager to go." She'd be. "I," her face stunned for a moment, and continued motion to search his face. "I was there once. My earliest memory is searching for my father. I'm not sure where I came from or why I was alone, just that- I was alive one day and looking for him. I stayed with a woman for a time at Greatwater." Her face motioned a ways away to the lake below the mountains. "I stayed just until I was old enough to walk alone for a few days, and that's when the ridge found me. Took me in and taught me most of what I know." 

If Ezra even knew who they were! Or realized who they were. "I stay with them now. They can be rough, but," well, "they're what I have. We take care of one another."