Whilst Quetzalcoatl would have much preferred her breakfast to be warm and steaming from being freshly gutted, the meat relatively pliable it was frozen and hard but it was better than nothing; and sometimes even Queens had to eat food that was usually reserved for the slaves. Her women ate fresh as she did but the men they were served the morsels. They were never starved, nor never hungry for the simple fact that to have them at any less then tip top shape the would cease to become useful. They were the laborers of the pack, the heavy lifters and she would not have her, nor any of the women to whom she gave permission to breed wanted to be impregnated by a malnourished male. The mating process was disgusting to the Rise Queen as it was, subjecting herself to be below a man in the physical sense but as that was the only way of things she had not had any sort of choice. Given that, she did not want something malnourished nor weak to perform the duty and did not expect her loyal and beloved women to suffer it either. She shivered at the thought with evident disgust as she finished off her meal, and buried the remains though loosely in the case that a scavenger came 'round and decided to take what was left. She did not mind the remains to be taken, she would not be returning to them.
The sound of footfalls was heard even over the steady drip of melting snow, tell tale in the sopping wet bracken that squelched under foot. Quetzalcoatl recognized Manauia immediately as the Huntress broke through the shadows of the trees, nearing her. The Huntress' body went into immediate submission, though for the time being Quetzalcoatl was busy attempting to identify her scent, familiar though foreign to her. Tezcacoatl's scent was mixed upon Manauia's own enough to let the Queen know that the Huntress was still with her son but the absence of the other Guardwomen's scents did not fail to escape Quetzalcoatl's notice.
“Manauia, my dear Huntress,” Quetzalcoatl returned the woman's greeting softly, peaceable and calm despite that there was a war of emotions raging through her. Worry, confusion and a smattering of anger all in one. Still, Quetzalcoal was a Queen and royalty did not lose their heads in an uncontrolled fit. She had learned from the very best after all, for though Quetzalcoatl's own mother had no patience for men nor insubordination, primarly, she had unnerving patience in almost all else. These lessons were strict and undeniably harsh but useful, Quetzalcoatl saw now though she could not see it as a child. “What has become of your sisters?” Though she was burning to inquire about Tezcacoatl, hungry for even a small tidbit of information on her son there were other, more pressing matters. Tezcacoatl, for the moment, was safe Quetzalcoatl assumed but she worried for the missing Guard. She might have been suffering disappointment that her elite had not managed to stay together, nor accomplish the task she had required of them but her concern was much more pressing.