Shadewood but we go where we want to

shadewood wolves AW <3 hunting thread 5/5

Valuable.

A word that often lingered, teased, hung like a scrap of fish above a cat's sleek head - just out of reach from the slavering jaws that hungered below. She was not valuable, she was useless. The snow empress' skull was thick with spilling secrets, mysteries that she feared even to speak of to her king, to her wonderously shadowed knight. The one who kept her heart; he had secrets too, did he not? Sometimes she wondered if he would ever trust her enough to release the sigh of exasperation and allow her to help shoulder whatever weight he bore - but perhaps she was simply a hypocrite.

You're pathetic...
Stupid.
Ugly.
Disgusting--

--gasping for breath. A pool of air billowed from her lips, lingering in the air as a cloud of frost. Her nostrils flared, and ivory legs kicked back into motion, gaze wandering the lush trail ahead of her vision - the scents had drawn her, along with the distinct desire to be worth something. No matter the sweet words that fell from Cry's tongue, there was something amiss in her head, something that might never feel right - all she could do was try. Even if she failed. Again and again, one big mistake... So she sought the source of the smells, eyes lowering to examine the cracked footprint in the snow, delicately preserved in crystals of glacial white.

She just wanted to feel as though she meant something, as though she was working just as hard as anyone else to get this group thriving on the life of the shadewood - so she'd awoken at dawn and braced the chill to go and locate the prime hunting spots of the forest, desperately hoping it would be of some use.

With more enthusiasm than he typically had, he freed himself from his den he carefully shared with Gwen after noticing she was gone. Shaking free his pelt, the assassin brought out the full girth of his timber and artic mixed pelt of pure darkness, and he camoflaged with the shadows of their forest once again.

Low and masterful of tracking, the Phantom stalked the Ghost's trail until it heated up much more clearly in his nares than it had prior. She was near, and he wouldn't exactly walk up on her so boisterously; she was a fragile thing, and needed her space. So releasing the full jaunt of his walk, he kept forward through the trees, following the scent as it greeted him, until finally he called out that delectable name.

"Gwen?"

The burrows were near, that much was evident - a small pile of scattered droppings were dotted around near the bushes, and the number of pawprints carved into the blanket of white grew increasingly numerous. The white queen lowered her muzzle, embracing the polar gasp of ice that settled around the tip of her nose, melting at a hot breath and dissolving into the mass of glacial beryl--

--"Gwen?"

She started, hackles prickling, but her muscles relaxed as he came into her sight. Cry, who blended into the night with a wispy silence, like a plume of smoke - for now, she could see him clearly amongst the white: a stark silhouette of black against a backdrop of snow, but she knew all too well his talents at remaining entirely hidden, masked from view. "Cry," she whispered aloud, a soft smile gracing her features and any lingering misery vanishing like the sun behind the clouds. It was so easy to hide it.

"You should have stayed in the den, I could have brought you breakfast in bed." her smile grew into a half grin, gaze glimmering in his direction.

Damn it all, just look at her. A personal angel sent directly for him, a girl so perfect that he simply couldn’t leave her.

Unable to hide anything behind his dealings with her, his thoughts came aloud. “It’s awful being away from you - even if it is for food.” Putting a softened melting blue gaze on his Empress, he felt almost shy all over again. Almost as if everything in him had scrunched up as he looked upon her face, contracting and only to expand rigidly enough as he admitted that she was just too good for him. 

“If I assist you, may we take it back to bed, together?” The Phantom asked, hope sprinkling little crystals of light in his usually apathetic gaze.

Something in the luminescence of his gaze had her heart thrum an extra few beats in her chest, skipping and turning in her stomach - in those icy depths, sometimes, just sometimes, she could witness a softening, a warmth that constrasted so greatly against the cold of his eyes, and she savoured every second of it.

He was her home.

"You should have stayed, but i'm glad you followed," came the gentle hum of her voice, whispering onto the waves of the sky. His words were met with a grin, and her silk crown tipped lightly to the side - studying him, almost. Tracing the edges of his jaws, the darkness of his visage and revelling in the tingles of hope that blessed her heart. "You think I'd say no?" she said at last, a sweet tenderness rippling to the surface of her gaze, laced with something akin to desire.

"-There are rabbit burrows near here. We can go and catch a couple of those." With that, she waved a plush tail of ivory at him, dancing off into the undergrowth in pursuit of the mingling scents.

A ribbon of the softest sheet danced around his auds as she tutted his decision. As much as he wish he could be content being away from her side, he never ceased following her. From times she had taken her swift baths in the chilled lagoon to the times she had fallen away to nap near the base of a comforting elm, he was always there, watching. The times he knew he could only sleep well was when the occasions came by that he had her in his arms, or she was tucked behind him as he slept before the door of their den. There was no cease to this affair, and while his prior occupation of being heartless was swiftly and dangerously being replaced, his capability of killing hadn’t. And the Void forbid anyone had laid even a single thought of negativity towards Gwen or Phex. 

Caught so so deeply in his oath to protect his family, Cry hadn’t managed his priority of listening properly enough. His subconscious however filled in the blanks for him as he resurfaced to the present, and as though he had never zoned out, the Guardian shrugged, something jesting in his words as he replied. “As much as I shadow you, you might have to demand default proximity order of me.” 

The Winter Queen was back on topics of hunting, and his own banner swished as he considered the woman a mind reader. How’d she know he was famished?

”Right behind you,” he promised as always, ducking his own athletic body low to catch whatever scents she might have missed. In all reality, he wasn’t expecting to come across anything that she hadn’t- she was becoming exceptional at tracking down food.

Much of the life within the keep had survived the bitterness of winter, and plants curled their green tendrils around the bases of looming trees, frozen but alive - ribbons of colour amongst the blinding white. Gwen's body hung low to the snow, feeling the ice tickle her belly; they were close to the burrows, and she'd been aiming to track them regardless of her shadow king's presence. It gave her a burst of energy at his arrival, though, spreading new warmth through her muscles to melt through the chill.

A rustle.

Ivory ears cupped forward, nose twitching as she stilled - she was listening to the sounds, breathing in the scents that flooded her senses; a couple of rabbits lingered outside holes in the earth (where even the snow had been pushed aside to make way for the living), and the ice queen was observing every shift of their paws, every flick of their swift ears: rabbits made good prey, but they could be fast and could better hide in the undergrowth, or leap into the safety of a small den. The easiest kills were made with a rush of quick paws and a snap of eager fangs. But one had to be wary of timing, else they might end up with only dirt under their claws.

Gwen tipped cerulean eyes toward Cry, gesturing with her head - when she moved, she expected him to do the same, bursting from their cover to grab a rabbit's body before they realised what was occuring... when she was sure he understood, she turned back toward the shuffling bodies and waited for only a few silent heartbeats.

Then she sprung.

Moving with more slow ease than a python, he watched the fae slither slowly forward towards an upturned yet tucked away mound, one with a barely visible hole, slightly flecked with droppings but screaming through his nose that several rabbits lived here. Atleast a small family of them. He was going home wait atleast 3, he determined.

However, Gwen had already spotted the family who had freed themselves to bask in the morning glean of light and opportunistic time to bond above the burrows. Even more crouched to the frosty floor, Cry kept just as frozen as his surroundings while they soundlessly moved closer. Just as one rabbit had bent to clean himself, floppy stick ears scooting out as he groomed himself, Cry too had thrown himself forward.

A rush of panic sent the rabbits scurrying away, darting toward the dark safety of their homes and scattering up a polar spray of ice - they were not all fast enough. Gwen felt wind smooth her nape, the hot blood rush over her tongue, and her jaws quickly snapped the neck of her prey before she leapt toward another burrow; she aimed to block this one, and those who were fretfully speeding toward it would be stuck between herself and Cry, if he positioned himself there - if not, she'd simply catch whichever she could as they fled.

In truth, the one aspect of hunting smaller prey that she disliked was having to wait before thanking them for their sacrifice; the sacrifice that would allow her and her family to survive in the bitterness of the season, but there was simply no time between catching one and darting toward another. The empress would softly press her cold nose to the furred heads of the deceased once the chase had faltered.

Hopefully Cry was having luck, too.

He remained quite near the burrow's entrance, and upon seeing Gwen flare into dangerous action, he threw himself forward as well, but to block the small entering. Immediately he crushed one who he hadn't been able to block prematurely with his fully body as he laid across in a tense prone. There was one who'd hopped over him in a panic, and the drive that had his mind captive forced him to visually follow the ivory blur and snap with deadly maws. He hadn't grabbed the neck as he had been miliseconds too late for such accurate grappling, but as the leap had crescented, time slowed as he snagged a foot of the prey. It only resumed to regular pace, perhaps even speeding up as with a whip of his neck, he snatched the rabbit back down, sending it slaming into the ground. Standing with a hind limb stepping on the somehow still alive rabbit who was beneath him with a crushing paw, he threw a hyperfocused gaze arround searching for any more who hadn't gone too far. 

Was that another one hiding on the end of that bush?

The hunt was over almost as soon as it had begun.

Rabbits were panicked and scattered in their escapes, and it was their clumsiness that lent the wolves an extra boost - at her paws lay not one, but two bodies, and her lithe figure gave up the spot guarding a burrow entrance to leap after one last rabbit before they had disappeared into the safety of their homes. The empress almost lost her footing on a particularly slippery section of the frozen earth, though, and her jaws missed the prey by inches - her shoulder, while sliding, collided with the body and she let out a short bark to alert Cry: the rabbit was skidding toward him (her force had knocked it over), and if he was swift, he would likely be able to catch it as it attempted feebly to climb to its feet.

After bitter spray had settled to the pearly floor, from betwixt smooth lips came a short huff of laughter, finally steadying herself on the hidden ice.

He was always attuned to what Gwen was doing, and he watched, no, he felt the situation play out, and immediately he was there. The urge to collect, to kill, to have. All of it strung him as a bungee cord would and he pounced from his position to hers where the deliberation needed him to be. He hadn’t even thought to drop the rabbit he had from his maws before he landed a heavy body on the rolling one. Forelimbs connected with a spine, and louder than his own pursuit, a snap was heard. 

Only after the 3 rabbits he had gotten were under his belt did he turn to look at the beautiful Gwen. She had made this miracle happen. It was true...

she really was a master huntress.

wanna close up some threads so gonna start fading this out, but feel free to throw another post on if you like <3

The snowbird drew herself back up from the ice, steadying her limbs and casting her gaze toward the bodies that lay between the pair - they'd succeeded despite the tempermental weather, and she was satisfied to descry that they'd be eating well for days to come; it felt good to have some sort of purpose, and Gwen could hand the praise only to the shadow king. He had made this possible.

Leathery nose touching each limp corpse in turn, the empress wove around and gave her quiet thanks to the fallen rabbits - they would provide strength and life to the wolves, something she could only be grateful for. Then, when all was done, she affectionately bumped against Cry's shoulder, picking up her prizes and seeking to locate a cache in which to bury them. The monochrome pair would only require one or two to feast upon now, the rest would be saved.

This morning had certainly been a productive one.

I take forever <3

She had done it. She had damn near endured the entire Family had a bite to eat just by one simple hunt. He would certainly have to keep his eye on her progress, as it was clear her Mastery of this trade was coming soon enough. 

Giving a gentle kiss in return to her light bump, he tried to contain his resounding love for this talented woman as they packed up and moved back through the main heart of their harbor.