Sunset Valley Run by and lie to a dragon

There'd been a bit of a break in the snow.  Or at least, not as much as she'd been expecting.  It made for fine travel for the now-yearling.  She'd set off perhaps a little earlier than most, but damned if she was going to stay.  Future lied ahead, past was behind, and that was just about all she cared about.

The ground dipped down before her, and after a bit of surveying from a distance, Treason set off across it at a jog, watching for movement, whether it be prey or wolf.  A snack would be nice, but perhaps it would be a good idea to investigate who was on the other side of that vast forest she'd exited from.  So far, these lands didn't seem particularly well-traveled, which she wasn't sure was a good or a bad thing.

For now, it seemed good.  She went up the crest of a smaller hill and there on the other side was as small herd of deer at the foot of the slopes.

the north spoke and garait listened to its words. he and venextos had ranged farther than the maplewood where they had entered the taiga — now they roved at a lope, felling what kills there were to be found. a glacier found its way past them — garait's curiosity was aroused but the pair did not cease their explorations.
in the cold air, the warm scent of prey drifted. chuffing to the lithe attalus, garait set off at a trot, the burn of his muscles as he climbed the thick ridges a welcome heat in a body warmed through by his thick pelt.
he cast his seafoam eyes over the herd at the same moment movement caught his eyes — a wolf to his right, their own gaze fixed on the deer below. the massive gaul ran his tongue over his lips, seeking to glean her attention while attempting not to alert the ruminants of their presence.

A greyish blob she had initially thought was a rock had a flicker of motion in the perimeter of her vision.  Her gaze turned that way.  Oh, it was another wolf? Curious. Walking right over to them seemed likely to alert the deer, so for now she just bobbed her head slightly.

Hunting with someone she'd never even spoken with before made this whole thing sound likely to end in failure, but such was the cost of being a predator.  Hunts failed, life moved on.  It wasn't usually the end of the world.  Treason was so recently out of a pack that even if this time it didn't end with a kill, there was always more time.

If the other wolf had been there slightly longer than her, perhaps he'd spotted a good target among the small herd.  Or had they arrived at about the same time? She didn't know.  Either way, she canted her head, looked back to the deer, then back to him.  It was just about the only way she could think of asking, 'So should I make the first move or will you?'  As long as anyone who took part got a share to eat in the end, she honestly didn't give a damn what the plan was.  Hunting wasn't fun, it was just survival to her.

thankfully, she noticed him, and garait read the question in her striking eyes. she was more slimly built than he, though with visible power — the wolfess would be faster. therefore he lowered his broad head and gestured that she descend the ridge toward the deer. garait would follow. 
he and venextos hunted in such a way often; his brother, being the slender of the pair, his runner's-body prepared for the quickening it would take to bring down a creature. he offered her deference as he waited; then, as she presumably made to approach their quarry, let his large paws carry him down the stone after her.

I totally just ctrl R-ed my 3/4 done post into oblivion

For once in her not-too-long life so far, Treason wasn't eager to take the lead.  It was likely merely due to her inexperience in the grand scheme of things, and it would likely pass with time.  For now, though, she was to make the first move, and that would be to turn away from him and head the few paces back up the crest of the hill and disappear on to the other side of it.

Treason wanted a more advantageous position that would give her a higher chance of shooing the deer towards him, and she reappeared farther down and crept down the slope again, using her new position to study the herd a bit more.  Her primarily snowy coloration did give her a bit of an advantage when the white stuff held the ground and she'd use it to its fullest.  The herd seemed to have a few younger members -- yearlings, judging by the points on one of the bucks, which unfortunately wouldn't be losing their antlers for a little while longer -- so those seemed like the best bet.

She adjusted her angle, then picked up the pace.  The downhill allowed her to pick up speed with ease, but she kept it under control since she didn't know what was farther beneath the snow.  All she could see was unfamiliar land.  A few paces at top speed and the deer had definitely noticed, they took off away from her, scattering in a few directions as she moved in to try to split a few younger members towards the hill -- if only the damned hooved beasts would cooperate.

sooo sorry about the wait D: and omfg i hate that i have done it so many times

she departed abruptly, and garait shot her a sharp glance of surprise. however, he did not think she had left, and this was confirmed when he spotted her form not far beyond the herd. seeing now her tactic, the large gaul moved along the rise, aligning himself in the path of their hoofed quarry.
a yearling would be best — the man braced himself and set his seafoam eyes on the third deer leaping toward him. letting his primal self surge to the fore, garait lunged forward, snapping heavy jaws at the flailing forelegs. the beast leapt aside, though not unscathed, foreleg trailing blood, and the wolf whirled to follow. he could only hope his smaller counterpart would overtake them both.

I dunno if we wanna roll to see if the final attacks or whatever actually get the deer down or whether you wanna just wing it? :D

Their target was selected, wounded, but the chase would continue.  As the deer veered away from him, she was able to cut the corner, closing the distance rapidly.  The downhill had also been beneficial for this, her not great acceleration being given a boost from the great law of gravity.  Soon she was close enough to nip at its heels, at its flank, but she was just shy of having a good grip on the animal.

Treason flung herself forward, and this time she was able to sink her fangs into a small patch of fur near its hip.  She tried to put on the breaks, to drag it to the ground, but her grip and her weight were not as mighty as they might be in a year from now, when she was fully an adult and not just barely out of her awkward teens.  With a final yank, the square of hide she'd latched on to pulled free in her mouth, a small snack for the hungry but not a meal. She fell slightly behind from her failure, needing to rebuild her momentum.  As the deer swerved away from her, that might put it in the grasp of the other wolf again.

i'm cool with winging it! <3

she matched him, in both speed and ferocity — garait was impressed in spite of himself. blood flecked the snow where her teeth had given the beast no quarter; the agony drove it sideways and into the crush of his own jaws. here he caught the straining body high on the shoulder, and dragged backward with all the strength of his thick forebody, locking his large paws against the ground.
the deer continued to struggle, but its time of running had slipped away. garait growled as blood began to trickle down his throat, moving with the dangerous thrashing of the ruminant but refusing to release his grasp. perhaps if the she-wolf could worry it, he could find its throat. or perhaps he would allow her that, young as she was.

For fans of ungulates, it wasn't looking too good.  The pace slowed due to muscle of the canine variety.  He'd gotten a good grip, unlike her, and it was now at least partially up to her to help bring this to a conclusion. 

The wild-eyed creature saw her approach, trying to pull away, but away from her was into him.  There wasn't really anywhere to go.  She timed her attack for when it had just made another pull, where it's weight had just shifted towards the ground again and it'd have a hard time kicking at her.  Treason dove for a fairly low part of the neck, curved fangs seeking the large veins and arteries buried beneath the flesh, sinking into the muscle.  She shifted her weight downwards as well, trying to pull the creature onto its knees so they'd be safe -- to rip and tear in the same motion and cause blood to start to pool on the snow.

She hadn't grabbed the exact right spot, but it was fairly close.  She could feel the animal's weight start to give under the pressure of the pair of them, but it seemed like she hadn't done as much damage to the circulatory system as her elders might have -- there was blood running into her mouth and not an insignificant amount, it would just take longer than it might otherwise to die solely of blood loss.  She was young and hadn't often had the chance to perfect the skill.  There were plenty of years for her to hone her techniques as long as the world treated her well.

One thing was clear, though, she wasn't keen on letting go either.

powerplay of the deer! <3

the girl made a valiant attempt at the crucial hold, weaking the animal further with a hot splash of blood against the snow. but garait knew so long as the creature lived, it could inflict wounds upon the hunters. releasing his own hold, the gaul lunged for a higher position on the wide straining throat, above the girl's own tenacious grip.
his jaws closed satisfyingly in its windpipe, and garait dragged it forward to wait out its death, shifting his muscular body so that he could glance down with a rare and fleeting expression of pride at the she-wolf.
with the combined efforts of the pair, the hart met its end; the brennus let go his grip and spat downy fur into the snow. "good," he muttered in his thick accent. "you eat before," garait went on to offer, quite generous for his upbringing, but unaware his tones sounded more like a command than an invitation.

She only released her grip when he did, nodding in agreement.  She probably wouldn't have another good meal like this until she had a pack again, so it'd be best if she ate as much as she could.  Speaking of which --

At his command-offer she momentarily canted her head.  There was more than enough for both of them, but...  Well, ok, if he insisted, she wasn't gonna delay too long and let him change his mind.  She did watch him out of the corner of her eye at first, just in case.  Treason moved to the deer's stomach, starting to yank out tufts of fur to reach the skin beneath.   Soon her fangs sliced open the belly, innards starting to spill across the snow.  She was, as any predator was keen to do, aiming for the liver and heart, pulling intestines out of the way to do so.  It did give her face a quite gory look as she came up to give him a glance, head tilting the other way. There is plenty.  Or at least, there was plenty as long as he didn't try to go after the internal organs while she was.

Either way, bribing her by offering her the first cuts of meat was one way to land in her favor.  However his build, his mannerisms, those were familiar to her, like the land she'd left a while ago.  That on its own was enough for her to regard him in a positive light.

Despite the fact his words suggested he wasn't from around here (or Treason had traveled a lot farther than she thought), she did hope that there were more like him in the area -- she liked the familiar, she liked what she understood.  If she'd been any other wolf with a bit more social skills, she probably would try to talk him in to coming with her or letting her tag along if he had a goal in mind, but she had no idea where to even start with that.  It was unfortunate for her.

this is a crappy phone post D:

garait settled the massive bulk of himself down nearby. he licked his jaws as the girl proceeded, but made no move to renege on his word, instead turning his seafoam gaze toward the mountains yet unexplored.
garait turned at the sound of her voice, drinking in the sight of her bloodstained pelt. women who wore blood; he missed them and their drumbeat hearts. the girl he gave a wry twist of his lips, some brief, secret amusement.
”is custom,” he grunted after a moment, turning his gaze to hers. garait was a stoic beast and not much given to humour, but a pastime of his had always been the shock of others. ”custom where ... i am from,” the gaul went on, perfectly somber in delivery, ”that if man give kill to woman, woman be his for the night.”

Treason was lacking in humor at the best of times.  Combine that with a deadpan delivery and she was assuming he was serious, but that didn't mean she had to take him seriously.  This custom of his seemed like a joke in itself.  It might be because as barely a yearling she didn't come with the hormonal baggage an older wolf might (and thus was pretty deadset on thinking pairing off was probably overrated), but also likely because it was so different from how she was raised.

Instead, she thought about it for a mment, tilted her head, and quipped, Good thing I'd helped, then.   And then she went back to digging for other delectable innards.  If he was claiming that the whole thing was his, it might mean he had other issues that were kind of screwed up in comparison to her upbringing.  If he didn't think that women could claim part of the kill, despite their effort, well... So much for her daydreams.  There were certain things that were just plainly incompatible with her ego.  She'd be a bit wary if he did come closer, now, but wasn't entirely rescinding her earlier comment.

Later on there'd always be others that reminded her of the good things of home, right?

wrap up after another round? <3

garait gave a slow, broad grin at her retort — he could not be sure he had gotten beneath her skin, but he chuckled a few notes of deep laughter all the same. rolling to one ashen side in the snow, the man lifted his seafoam gaze to the brumous skies and inspected them for any sign of a storm. "often, woman also choose man in same way," he added, and this time his voice held a note of melancholy admiration. "woman of triva strong as man, sometimes stronger."
ach; now was not the time for such unseemly emotion, especially before such a young wolfess. he did not come closer, but hunger sparked garait to pass a tongue over his lips. he would not approach the kill until she had finished, however.

Sounds good to me. :D

That did seem to smooth Treason's feathers a bit.  She'd rather assume the worst and be surprised when that wasn't the case.  It also had a tendency to remove the certain amount of finesse that others put into their words so she didn't just take them at face value -- she was too much of a blunt instrument to work out when someone was just trying to be fancy.

She looked him over once more while she was up for air.  She'd miss these familiar sorts, archetypes she understood, but from what little she knew of the world, they weren't as common as she wished.  However they choose, Dokugas always pick their equals in the end.  The emotion behind it was unclear, even to her.  The only certain thing was Treason was always likely to think she was likely to bloom into one of the finest examples of wolf-kind out there, it would just take a bit more time.  Sure, maybe not the most beautiful, but definitely the most efficient hunting, killing, and fighting machine.  Again, ego.

She'd extracted most of the liver and heart, and her final selection for her first serving of deer was to rip off as much muscle as she could from the deer's inner thigh, carrying it a few strides away to finish off so he could take a place at the carcass.  Combining comparative anatomy and the jokes from an anatomy teacher, it should at least partially include a muscle that gets turned into filet mignon when extracted from cows, so it should be rather tasty.  She settled down in the snow with her prize.

There'd still be plenty left even after he ate his fill, so for now she was happy to finish off what she'd taken and digest a bit before continuing to stuff herself silly.  This was an opportunity that she didn't know when would come again as a lone wolf.  She'd be a fool to leave before every bone was picked or something bigger, stronger, and scarier than another wolf came along to scare her off.

<3

garait gave the girl a long look with something akin to amusement at its edges. he said nothing as she finished her meal, carrying off a choice bit of meat. it was a strategic move, one designed to fill her belly and make the most of his offer, or so he thought. the gaul lapped at his jaws and gathered himself to his paws, moving toward the kill.
when he too had gorged, and ripped from the carcass his delicacy — the swinging haunch — garait too settled prone in the snow and stripped the bone with a quiet delight, opting to remain in the company of the silent, fierce girl until their time together came to its natural end.

If he comes back ever they should meet again!

She finished off what meat she'd taken.  As he ate, she took the time to clean up a little bit, though she was going to go for another serving sometime not long after.  Her face became a pale shade of pink as she rolled around in the snow, waiting for her turn again to gorge herself.  For a section of her life that should be fraught with danger, this moment here was peaceful.  She would have been happy to rest around the carcass for ages, but that wasn't the smartest thing to do.  Winter would last a while longer and being alone through it wasn't high on her list of things to do.  For now, though, this was good.

Soon all that was left were the most unappetizing of scraps and bones for the birds at last left to have their fill as the wolves melted back into the wilderness.