Ouroboros Spine iii. out of this home

<3

Upon scouring the mountainside, he came across a kill that had already been quite chewed apart by a lynx, but he was not a picky man. While the chill of winter's cold settled into the meat and had hardened it, with his teeth and the warmth of his breath was he able to gnaw his way and soften it enough that he could pry into the small remainder of deermeat that had been left behind. He didn't hear the lynx as it approached, but noticed it when it had settled down into a crouch not far away, eyeing him with jealous scrutiny. He paid it no regard, and didn't bother to try and chase it off. Lynxes weren't the sort of creature he felt he needed to worry about- and while it uttered an impatient growl, it didn't make any sudden movements. It knew not to tempt a wolf into a fight. 

So he gnawed through the small deer's spine, and carried the haunches back with him, toward where he knew Kukutux' lair would be. He still did not want to bother Sialuk or Kukutux if he could help it- but he would bring food with him, to share, when he passed in their direction. He was still some distance away from where he intended to be, though, when he heard a scuffling sound, and looked around- only to notice that a pile of dirt had been unearthed. 

He took a step forward, but paused when he saw a fawn-beige female emerge from the hole in the ground, which was being dug beneath and between a large boulder, and the root mass of a tree which had been felled as they leaned against one another. She shoved the earth aside, which was when he noticed her feet, which were off-colour. She went back into the den and began to dig again, but he worried that all this digging might have made her paws begin to bleed. Tentatively, he approached, and dropped the scavenged kill he'd been carrying, and cleared his throat- hoping to catch her attention without startling her too much.