Blackfeather Woods Nobody can get a tan in the moonlight

aaaaaaand this one is for whoever didn't get the other one
@Astrid @Abraxas

The day had been a long one of winter-dwelling. Keelut was absorbed by the frosting, delighted by it's mysteries, but like everything in life even snow became boring after too long of seeing, touching, playing with it, and Keelut wanted to do no more with it. It was already nightfall when Keelut had decided this, though, and his innocent games had taken him far from home without surveillance.

The Red was still visible under the thin coating of snow, but despite the familiarity of his surroundings the sky-eyed boy didn't know where to start looking for the way back home. So he didn't. Anna hadn't been around that day, which was strange, and so the boy decided that he wanted to find her more than he wanted to get back to the boredom of the den.

The snow had intrigued the little girl perhaps more than it should have. She had almost immediately ran out outside, trampling whoever stood in her way in the process, to be the first one on which the soft, twinkling and white things would fall. When they did land on her black coat, she almost couldn't believe what she saw; the white stuff looked almost exactly like her moon-kissed freckles! She admired herself some more before finally deciding to go play instead, even though she kept it very mature and often went inside to warm and dry up. When her brothers stopped playing however, most fun had been lost, and she had went back inside - only then did she notice her dreaming brother, Keelut, was gone. He had wandered away many times, and Astrid felt it her job to bring him back every single time.

And so, she went to find him - the cold of the coming winter not bothering the moonlit kissed girl, who's eyes had almost finished transitioning - or, well, one was almost fully green, safe for a little ring of blue on the outside. Keelut! Her call went through the chilly, night air. Keeeeeelut! She yelled a little harder. NamungalikKen?!

By then he should have probably realized that Anna was not going to appear that day, but keelut was too invested into seeking her to think rationally. He'd wasted half his day figuring snow out, and the other half walking in circles, hoping that Anna would appear in the next corner. Today, for some reason, Keelut was not feeling completely giggly as it was usual.

Then her calls grew nearer and louder. This was definitely not Anna, her voice was easy to tell apart from others. This was Astrid looking for him again, as thought it was her job to keep him on a leash, but somewhere along the way it became a game of hide and seek where Astrid was the seeker, and Keelut was the winner. His coat blended with the white around him, betrayed only by his giggling -which had returned to it's uncontrollable state- and from wherever his corporeal sister's voice rang, the guileless child slithered away.

Her brother's familiar giggling reach her ears and she frowned. This was no laughing matter! Keelut was always running off, and she did not like not knowing where he was. She hated her brothers with a fiery passion, and felt like she - as their sister - was the only one with the right to make fun of them and/or hurt them. Of course, they had the right to do that to her also, but they knew what they could expect once they did that.  

Âhâkkik! She shouted, increasing her pace to perhaps catch up with him sooner or later. She followed the giggles, hoping to find his white coat in the snow.

He was definitely winning, slithering away from his sister's grasp as though he was an actual snake that fit through the smallest of passages. And the snow was on his side, acting as his very own personal cloak of invisibility. He could feel her rage increasing and hear it too. Her insults meant only that Keelut's purpose had been achieved, to piss her off, and Keelut's increasing laughter meant only that he couldn't help but enjoy withholding her suffering.

But Keelut was a dweeb, and dweebs trip over themselves, and that is exactly what Keelut did as it became harder and harder to control his laughter. A dry thud on the snow where his head landed and an "oOOFF!" announced his failure, but it was amusing to him all the same, and laughter soon caught up with him once more.

Astrid, though not as snake-like as her brother, was also moving swiftly between the trees. She knew this place better than the outside world - better than her own head, as most spiderlings did. Her ears perked every now and then to make sure she was still following him, but luckily there was little chance of his giggles echoing of walls. If they were playing this game in the tunnels - oh dear, that would've been pure hell for the star-kissed girl.

The giggling stopped for a moment, but she did not stop running. The scent trail he had left behind was more than enough for her to know exactly where her brother had landed, and sooner rather than later she found his white pelt. Why was he laughing? She jumped to his side, making sure to try and press herself onto him so he could not escape - if he were not gone just yet. Got you! She would mutter with her own twisted laugh. 

Before Keelut could even try to run away again, his sister had found him splayed in the ground, still unable to control his laughter. She'd been by his joy, it seemed, for her own laughter joined her brother's in chorus. He couldn't recall why he'd been hiding from Astrid, but he would often forget things like those easily, and still he could only laugh and enjoy his annoying sister's company.

Are you lost? he asked as though he hadn't just been running away from her, teasing his sister a bit with a coy smile and the pure intention to annoy her. That was always fun, stirring things up a bit...

It was not that she liked Keelut's presence that she was laughing - oh no, she didn't particularly like spending time with her brothers at all. It was just the victorious feeling in her gut that tickled her to the point of breaking into laughter, very much like an insane hunter finally catching that hare they had been after. She pressed her lips together tightly, stopping the high-pitched laughing as she looked at her older brother. He was so weird that it made her feel like the sane one.

No. She answered in a monotone voice, slightly accented. Are you done fleeing from your little sister? She questioned him, a hint of a smirk present on her pretty face.

Ah, she was simply crazy... Keelut, in his own accord, had decided that he hadn't been fleeing his sister for realsies in a sudden shift of mind, and that she'd actually just thrown herself to him in an unnecessarily rude display of dominance like she always did and he certainly wasn't happy at all about it. He rolled over beneath her, forcing her paws to move out of his way as he rose with a full scowl and a very angry "Why did you do that?" that verged the edges of a snarl. There was nothing in the kid's expression suggesting that this was a joke as he faced the girl, so closely he was practically breathing in her very soul. "You're going to die a horrible death, little sister," he forewarned, and a blue light sparkled in his eerie eyes before he turned around, smiled to himself and walked away from the creepy atmosphere he'd just created.

She watched him with an amused grin - even as she was forced to get off him and he snarled at her. She did not mind it - she minded little what her brothers threatened her with. She just wanted to make sure no one left her in these dark woods that they couldn't escape. She hated being left behind, even when she knew they would return, and she'd do anything to keep her family close to her at all times. It was not love - it was the fear of abandonment.

Closing her eyes at another threat, she shrugged. The kid was all bark but no bite - and even in a fight, she knew she would win. So be it then, brother. She answered as he turned and ran off again, leaving her on her own. Flinching at the site of the high, dark trees did she decide to go back to the den - perhaps to sleep or eat. Keelut could go die for all she cared.