Emberwood ghost

set after they move locations, I’ll figure out the future dating at some point

The pack had relocated.  Redd found the process strange, after so long defending a territory.  Who held the river?  Did they not seek to defend a claim?  The rise had seen herds all year round.  In the leaner seasons, other prey had been enough to see them past.  That this pack chose to wander made her feel less grounded even within their number than she had upon arrival.  They clearly had customs she’d not ever comprehended.

What was the difference then, between stranger and pack, if any could hunt beside them?  If they held no claim, then they held no borders.  This lack of order troubled her in ways she did not understand.

The forest they now resided in was unfamiliar to her.  There had been none like it near the rise.  She moved silently between the trees, her steps picking an anxious trail amongst their trunks.  The hunt would calm her, and both she and Ruckus needed additional food to rebuild what was lost.  Winter quickly approached.

sun eater was within his element, joyed in full hope to be gone from the river. it was unnatural that any should stay so long in one land, stay while the caribou roamed far and the everlasting dome of sky was there for the taking.

returning to the forest of fire trees, he saw one of the newer saatsine wending her way between the boles. at a distance he followed, drifting to the right as he refocused intent upon the moving, blowing bodies half-hidden by the foliage.

two males tangled ahead, antlers clacking in the silence of the quiet forest. sun eater stopped to watch them, though his dark ears flicked again toward the woman.

Wealda-who-was-not joined her silently.  She did not acknowledge his presence any more than he did hers, but she did not move away or seek to avoid him.  He was welcome if he wished.

There was no smaller prey.  Soon the reason was clarified in the clash of antlers through the trees.  Redd froze, listening with interest.

This was not prey the two of them could take.  She watched them with interest for a time, but she had seen such things before.  A memory, then, of observing the same with her mother.  Wealda.  The pattern ever repeated.

And now she watched him.  Did he contain the same violence?  Or was his heart that of Ulfhedinn, provider for the pack.  Nothing she had seen revealed this.  Perhaps this moment would.

for a long moment he only watched with the red-stained woman the scene that followed; body tensed in anticipation of carnage. 

blood spattered the icy ground in harsh droplets, and sun eater lunged from the trees. caribou males, still twined in awkward pair, fought fiercely to break the grasp of tines as lanzadoii descended.

a snap; flesh giving way;

punctured face for one gave freedom to another, and the saatsine man's tongue lolled as he rushed to harry the injured bull, reeling now in anguish, half-blinded.

She was mistaken.  He was both and neither in one.

Redd had no seen opportunity where he had, but the moment he moved, instinct overcame reason.  The pack hunted together.  The lone hunter would see far greater odds.

She lacked stamina still but this was no distant chase.  Their quarry was already injured.  Redd circled with intent concentration, avoiding hoof and antlers to grab hold of the neck.  Her weight did not drag it down.  She was forced to release as it bucked to clip her.

Her enjoyment was not visible but she felt it.  It had been too long since she felt the belonging of the hunt.  Unfamiliar forest, unfamiliar pack, in this moment neither mattered.  This was the thing for which she was made.

Whatever he did, she would mirror, harrying to wear the caribou down.

theirs was a dance that drove wounded caribou into forest clearing; 

where his broad paws broke the earth, hers followed. from one side she blooded the creature, while sun eater kept the swinging antlers on himself, lunging to spike the blinded side with gouting teeth.

her persistence ground away at the caribou as water upon a stone. single slate eye burned with feverish approval as his teeth struck toward jugular, claws raking the earth as a counterbalance.

caribou heaved; sun eater hung to its flesh.

No words.  For a moment, she forgot this wasn’t home.

She never forgot the deadly nature of the game.  Seemingly neither did he.  They drove it to the end before he struck, capturing life in his teeth.  Redd watched, but she was not complacent.  Her own mother had been stolen in the moment of death.  Life did not go easily.

When she saw it lift to strike, she leapt to intercept, her jaws catching and cracking shut upon the leg.  Bones crunched between her teeth.  There would be no further chase.

Still she held, dragging the legs to buckle beneath him.  This she would do as the lead finished what he had begun.

cracking bone echoed in that small clearing, punctuated by a bellow as the caribou pitched forward, held down by the cardinal-woman.

filling lungs with breath, sun eater bit deeply, swinging his head in harsh arcs to tear. blood jetted; pulsed. teeth cut, ending the caribou's life as fast as he was able before knife-ended feet slashed with any power toward his counterpart

to this end sun eater pinned the animal below him, leaning heavily into one weakened shoulder as his jaws maintained their iron lock.

Redd could feel the strength beneath her. If her hunt partner had not pinned it, she would have been dragged from where she held. She growled and, as the struggling weakened, moved to help in finishing it.

She tore into it from beneath, opening it even as it lay dying. Weak kicks were aimed but could not reach. She ignored them as it was held, shuddering, by the other. Eventually even those ceased.

Satisfied, Redd backed away, licking red from her muzzle and sliding to her belly to allow the ground to cool her as she panted. The hunger never vanished as her body sought to rebuild, but she was used to this. Patience would allow her to wait, to see how such a kill was handled.

fiercely pleased, sun eater at last released his clenched teeth. an exhale cut through the cold air; the sound of their panting mingled as sunlight strewed itself across the bloodstained earth.

in time, the caribou man rose to nose along the belly split by her successful teeth, using his own now to tug back the tough hide. steam from hot entrails struck frozen atmosphere. blood pooled as several chunks of meat disappeared into his own belly, yet he did not touch the organs.

stained muzzle swung toward the woman now, and sun eater beckoned for her to eat with him. she was hunter. in lanzadoii ways, she ate what she killed first, before the others.

She did not need further invitation. Redd descended on the kill and ate her full, savoring the warm, fresh taste with carnal ferocity. They ate in silence, and when she was done she retreated to clean the gore from her fur. There was enough for all to eat. Ruckus would have their fill.

A clever hunter and a strong leader. Were she still Wealda she would have pursued him, Redd thought, though the thought was more curiosity than real interest. Her mateship had been for life, but she presumed him to be dead now. The question now was claim, something she had little of here. Others would dominate her for rights now.

Spring was a ways away. Right now she found herself indifferent; only the season’s change would tell.

She did not seek to make conversation. If he wished to stay he was welcome, but she had little to say. Her approval she felt was not needed. He knew the strength of his kill.

<3

sun eater made no efforts to keep from watching the hunter fill her belly. skinny and recovering from a past she had not carried into saatsine land, it satisfied the caribou man to see that she ate her fill.

tsiis'askae. woman who wore red paint, softly scarlet even as tongue swept the smears from her pelt. 

sun eater held the same mild curiosity, aware by instinctual design that snow would bring spring's eventuality. already a pair took form among his wolves. he wanted sulukinak to choose grey man, though he had said nothing to this aim. 

for him, he had made no choice. he would leave that to the sun.

long howl called the others. the one-eyed stare drifted over red-painted hunter and then he was gone into the silent trees.

He called the others, as was his right.  They followed his voice, and while they might come to hers as pack, to summon would be to lift her head above his.  She had no desire to do this.  The hunt had soothed her into a place of belonging, the cog in a machine that moved all forward as one.  There was an easy peace to her presence now.

She heard him leave, and though her ears flicked around to follow him, she did not turn.  Ruckus would be here soon and would eat easier in her presence.  She would depart once her shadow was ready to follow.