Bearclaw Valley woodland spirit

stigmata continued on in his restless daze, having recently alternated from dedicating his vigilance to their nearest surroundings to a relentless scouring his homefront and its own weaknesses. this he had tried to avoid for as long as possible, but as patient as the hunter could be, some things simply required a more heavy-handed approach... he had to remind himself that everything would happen in due time; it was the only thing keeping him at bay -- keeping him busy.

catching something weaker and taking its life satisfied him more than traveling his spirit away. killing, and having that act be one in the same as providing, was almost more than a reward for stigmata: a hypercarnivore through and through. for he was always hunting; even in his sleep he hunted for something more, something unobtainable, something godlike. he was hunting now, in his own way, crouched at the bed of a thin creek, tongue dipping repetitively as he peered about himself stringently.

@Nunataq

Slowly and gradually Nunataq began to leave her childhood behind and take the first steps towards adult-hood. She still enjoyed spending most of her days romping around with the other cubs or playing on her own, but the interest in doings of adults had been planted the day she and her father had faced the two strangers. Therefore now and then she would cut away from playing and try to follow any of the adults around to see, what were they doing, and learn.

On this particular occasion she had been on following a trail left by Xan, in hopes to find him and do some guarding that particularly appealed to her. But she had got lost and confused at some point, and therefore seeing another adult from their group, was a welcome escape from solving the complex problem of disappearance at hand. She approached him in a friendly and polite manner. After all he was a lot taller than her and Laurel had taught that adults had to be respected. Therefore she did, but it was evident that the immense curiousity about this unknown person was battling heavy with the self-restraint.

Within few feet of Stigmata, the girl sat down and with her head tilted to one side, she regarded him with keen interest.

stigmata stopped disturbing the water when he caught movement in his peripheral, turning his muzzle slowly to watch the buoyant approach of a sleek, gamine child. he licked his dripping chops, regarding her with his own grizzled brand of curiosity, as she reclined politely before him. the long-limbed dragoon took this as an invitation to come closer, and his bushy tail gave an easy wag as he confidently came forward to inspect her and allow her the same of him.

he could tell immediately that she was not like the other children he had met so far in the valley. there was something palpable and irradiant to this young creature that he liked, and he knew she would be a proud, whiplash adult -- one who favored him, if he could help it. "do you have a name?" he asked, because it was not customary where he was from to have earned a first name before their first year.

Nunataq's face lit up the moment the older wolf graced her with a look. She made a little jerking movement upwards (something that can be translated as jump on the spot), while remaining seated and her tail began to wag, tapping against the ground she was sitting on. When the man came to do the customary inspection that was part of every meet-and-greet situation (and which Nuna did not particularly enjoy - be it a stranger, or even her caretaker Indra). The drawn back ears and the submissive "smile" in her lips, as well as one hind leg turned outwards, exposing part of her belly, contrasted starkly with the tense look in her eyes and the occasional ripples of frown in her expression.

Therefore, once this was done, she sprang to her feet and danced few yards away, shook her coat heftily and snorted in relief. Now - within a comfortable distance from the other - she was able to smile at him with more ease and regard with the same curious and evaluating gaze as before. It seemed that the cub was trying to decide, where should she fit this packmate in the small circle of friends she had.

as physically expressive as the girl was, stigmata was not surprised in the least when she did not respond to a verbal query for her name. he wondered if she even had one yet; though this idea he dismissed rather quickly, as he had found no indication that the wolves here held off on naming their children - a practice customary in his birthplace. he concluded that it was simply not in this child's purview or preference to interact with words, and he valued her instantly, preferred her even.

eyes passing appreciatively over her mocha mask, he waved his tail and motioned away from the water in invitation. adventure? the motion asked; and in a show of great confidence, fortitude, and self-reliance, the hunter turned away into a slinking trot - already keen on a trail - without first knowing if he would have company or not.

The best way to divert Nunataq's mind from suspicions was to do something that would pique her curiousity. And Stigmata hit the jackpot, when he turned away and either pretended to having found something or really had something on his mind. The girl let him take off and got up to follow him at a safe distance. Her eyes were fixed solely on the adult ahead, but now and then she would lean down to have a sniff here and there in order to decipher, what was the beast the wolf was tracking.

other than the swivel-tuck of a single ear, stigmata didn't otherwise acknowledge that he had a shadow loping quietly after him. he adapted rather swiftly to her presence, however, adjusting his goals from before so that he served now as both educator and seducer to the wary youth. he led her to a shelf of the woods where several scents fortuitously converged at once: a rabbit, a snake, and a skunk. the wolf motioned to the brushfall, and allowed the girl her chance to pick their course if she stood up to the task.

Around the time the thread takes place, Nunataq had very little experience in hunting. She knew, how to consume the ready-to-eat product that her caretakers either brought back from hunting and regurgitated for her - all nice and fermented - or she had had a taste of the fresh kill too. But other than that she was like a man without a sense of purpose in an excellent library. She perceived myriad of smells, but could not yet make sense of them.

Therefore - rather than rushing ahead and taking an initiative, Nuna sat down and regarded the old man inquisitively, as if waiting for him to do the job.

as she sat down, stigmata corrected her with a snort and motioned to the scents again. if she did not know how, then it was time she started learning, even if it would be the most rudimentary lesson on earth. he decided, if she responded favorably to the lesson, that he would take her on a hunt for the skunk, if only because the snake and rabbit trails went in the same direction and he couldn't be sure which of those they'd run into first going that way.

he looked at the girl with some expectancy, snuffled about the area again to demonstrate what she should do, then looked at her again - intently.

When it came to teaching Nunataq, people often made a mistake of taking the step-by-step approach. Indra had failed this way to make any sense of, why were they tracking and approaching deer, and Stigmata fell in the same pit, by trying to draw the cub's interest to something she could not yet see. The girl was a walking paradox at times - she could act on an impulse and be quite reckless, she could focus and concentrate very well, she could do stuff "no questions asked" (honors to Laurel), but the new trend nowadays was refusing to do anything, if a proper "why" was not provided.

She therefore watched the man act out - all the sniffing and snuffling, and pointed looks in her direction - with an amused glint in her eyes. She thought of him being funny, and made no effort to hide this from her expression, when she finally gave in, walked towards him and examined a spot on the ground nearby. Her movements and attitude radiated of slightly patronizing matter, as if she was giving in to an otherwise silly idea.

it took quite a bit of restraint for stigmata not to punish this child the way he might his own. such flippant behavior wouldn't be tolerated under his stead - not even from the pups with his particular brand of favor - but doing anything to this girl would have all but ensured his violent ejection from bearclaw. and he couldn't have that.

so instead of correcting her, he stood rigidly and watched with a hard sneer as he waited to see if any of the scents actually caught her true interest or if she would continue to be... well, a child! she certainly had a promise to her, but maybe she was too young yet to start achieving it.

There were many smells that passed through the mental sieve, but none of them called Nuna's interest or stood out as more extraordinary compared to the rest. Now and then she shot the dark-pelted man an inquiring look, once she sneezed and finally tired from all the energy it took to focus, she flopped down on her bum and yawned. This had been less exciting than she had expected. Her back was turned to the older packmate and she did not grace him with a look from her for a while, until she craned her head backwards (like this) to see, if he had come up with something more exciting.

though his writer couldn't be more amused and delighted by the girl's age-defined ineptitude, stigmata personally couldn't have felt more attacked. she was the epitome of hard-headed naivety and it was difficult for the embittered warhound to tolerate. "fine," he scowled, using every muscle possible not to roll his eyes at her. he decided against either trying to lead her off again or abandoning her on the spot, and instead the hound slid to the ground, watching the child moodily as he let his hip fall sideways and settled down onto an elbow.

there. now she could run off and it wouldn't be his problem. the only thing to betray his impatience was his tail, and the way it flopped every few seconds to a new spot behind him.

This is all you are going to do? Nuna's gaze seemed to ask, when she had turned her head to look backwards from a more comfortable position. With the amount of effort the man had put forward to give her information about something, the cumulative result of all this effort was rather disappointing. If he had been planning to sleep from the get-go, why the show?

But it was not Nuna, who would rack her brains much about reasons behind other people's actions. She deemed him weird and confusing, winked at him playfully and with a See you later, alligator! dashed off to do something more important.

Last one from me. Thank you!

while the girl seemed disappointed with his lack of continued effort, much as he felt about her own justifiably flippant behavior, she didn't seem to take it very hard - or personally, for that matter. stigmata watched until she was gone, then he smiled to himself and hefted up on slender limbs to continue about his own business. the child couldn't have known, and may even have found the encounter useless, but she had almost certainly distracted the wolf from his desire to pick a fight earlier in the day. she had perhaps saved him and the entire pack from a bank of early grief.