Gilded Bay Till Valhalla

Promised one-round scavenging thread for Firebirds. Participation optional, food is guaranteed, however. :) @Finley , @Elwood , @Eljay , @Niamh , Towhee , @Sugar Glider , @Chanel , @Weejay , @Penn , @Fennec , Avery and Bronco.

With the promise of a snowstorm later in the day, Wraen had felt a little conflicted about leaving Sunmote Copse behind. However, hunger is a very powerful motivator and it had been two or three days, since she had eaten anything more than a meager mouse and gnawed on a bone that had nothing useful left on it, but gave her jaws something to do and tricked her empty belly. The winter was beginning to take it's toll on the Firebirds' members and it pained the Sovereign to see them become thin right before her eyes and having nothing in her power to prevent it. Children were even harder to watch. With two having disappeared without a trace and another possibly dead, she was in no way ready to face a demise of another one.

Therefore she headed towards the coast, a lonely, dark figure crossing snow covered meadows and forests. Barren of smells and tracks left by the large game, silence, where the small game had feasted and run around. A sterile, empty world and the famished hunter in the middle of it. The oceanside greeted her with strong gusts of cold winds and the odd crackling-creaking music the water made, when it hit the almost solid cap of ice that had formed, where the water was more shallow. Wraen did not even attempt to cross the Coconut grove - the fallen trees and debris now were covered by snow, the surface was uneven and slippery and there were spaces, where paws would get entrapped or one could easily fall. 

Further along the coast, up the cliffs and then down again. Same nothing everywhere. Feeling very disappointed about this she almost did not turn to have a look in the Gilded Bay had it not been for loud sea-gulls and crows screeching and circling around something. There - washed ashore, frozen almost solid lied the dead body of a sea-lion. It was impossible to tell, how long had it been there, though it had to be some time, because here and there the sharp beaks and claws of the scavenging birds had left their marks. Wraen wasted no time here. She clawed, chewed and tore the bits and pieces of frozen meat - no easy task, as you can easily imagine. Again - hunger is a powerful motivator. By the time the snowstorm hit, the she-wolf's belly was happily ruminating on the meal, while the hunter, huddled up to the corpse. She did not dare it to leave it for the fear of it disappearing it. 

The thought was irrational, of course, and early next morning after another meal, she left it to run back home as fast as she could, gather all that she could find and guide them back to the bay, where the feast, surrounded by the scavenger birds was still waiting for them. "Eat all and leave nothing behind," she told those, who were with her.

There was no telling Penn twice to get his tail and gear and get himself out to the Coast. The boy was hungry as crap and, now that he had been thoroughly chomped by the wanderlust bug, he was all about taking a trip to go grab himself some eats. Finley, however, was a different story. Much as his mother needed to eat, she knew that it was far more risky for her to travel so far than it was for her to stay put and potentially starve. So, she had kissed them all good bye and sent them on their way, knowing Penn at least would bring something back for her if only to show off for them all.

Penn also didn't need telling twice to eat everything he could and leave nothing behind. His eyes were on the birds first and foremost though, and it was them he attempted to eat before he turned his attention to the far easier meal in the ice. He didn't know what sort of monster beast this was that they ate, but he hardly cared as the frigid flesh sated some of the ache in his belly. Like a good boy, he did indeed set a scrap or two aside to take back to Fin. More than likely, the scraps set aside for her by someone else in his family would be far more generous than he had the capacity to give, but she would never judge. He was starving, and for at least one moment, he was busy actually feeling better for however long it would last.

Fennec too followed.  The terrain was oddly familiar beneath her paws... it felt like before, her journey with a stranger.  This time she was surrounded by a pack, but the hunger was the same.  She refused to complain, but it gnawed at her stomach. 

Wraen said there was food out here, though.  She stuck close to Towhee (assuming she'd come) and made her way forward, coming up on the food shortly.  She couldn't see it or smell it from back, but as soon as she heard Penn surge towards it, she took a few hesitant steps.

The cold of it meant it smelled and felt weird, and she pulled back sharply with a shocked face. Hunger was a strong motivator, though, so she began to gnaw with a dubious gusto.

Sugar hung back toward the rear of the caravan, keeping a watchful eye on Towhee. Fen walked at her mother's side, the two of them keeping up with the group despite the former's blindness and the latter's healing injuries. After a while, the young caregiver gave up on babysitting them, instead turning her attention to their strange surroundings. She fell further and further back, though Sugar made sure not to let the gang out of her sight.

They were just a bunch of dots in the distance when Sugar stopped to inspect some strange spoor on the frozen ground. For reasons unknown, she thought of Crow and felt a pang in her breast. Everyone else seemed to accept his absence, almost as if it had been inevitable, but though Sugar wasn't deeply bonded to him (like she was to Avery), she felt the loss deeply. She felt her breath hitch in her chest, her throat tighten, an ache forming as she did her best not to let the tears slip free.

Eventually, she gathered herself, but Sugar realized she could no longer see her cohorts. Dropping her nose to the ground, her black eyes searched for their prints in the snow, as well as their scent. Before she could locate either one, a strong and frigid wind blew against her with such force that it pushed Sugar sideways. Instinctively, she crouched and turned her back to its fierce teeth. Still it battered her, smelling strange (like salt) before its bitter cold robbed her of her sense of smell entirely.

There was nothing for it, so Sugar desperately sought out the nearest cover and dove beneath it, shivering terribly as she waited for the gale to settle.

Towhee wasn't one for field trips, yet she decided to take the opportunity to distract herself for a little while. Besides, Fennec wanted to go and she found she couldn't bear such a separation. She didn't mention that to Fen, though Towhee lingered closely beside her daughter—nearly a yearling, now—as they made the trek north with their pack mates.

Towhee didn't say much as they plodded along, her mind drifting elsewhere. Today, she thought of another loss she'd suffered: X. She still didn't know what had become of the hawk, though she became more certain every day that X had been killed in the landslide, improbable as it seemed. Why else would she simply vanish?

She glanced over her shoulder at Sugar, who had fallen back from the group, but Towhee didn't slow or stop. She faced forward again, thinking of her little sister's recent, macabre discovery. But that hawk hadn't been X. A sigh escaped her as she caught herself and tried to push the dreary thoughts away and focus on the venture at hand.

Soon they were approaching the seaboard, where gulls circled, their noisiness unheard by Towhee. It wasn't long before the pack's general attention shifted to a carcass on the beach. Pushing aside an errant thought about Screech that drifted through her head, Towhee picked her way toward the dead sea lion along with the others. She didn't hear the Sovereign's command but she fell upon the food alongside everyone else, ignoring the clotted lard that soon coated her entire mouth as she burrowed through a layer of blubber to get to the proper flesh underneath.

When she stepped back a while later, licking her oily chops, Towhee idly scanned the group. She couldn't help but notice Sugar was missing. The former Kilonova combed the beach with her shrewd orange eyes, turning in a slow circle, yet there was no sign of the littlest Blackthorn. She opened her mouth to get someone's attention when a brutally frigid gust of wind blasted against her, rendering her momentarily insensate.

"The snow's coming," Towhee surmised, though she was no meteorologist. She tried to catch Wraen's eye in particular. "We need to find Sugar and get back." Without waiting an answer from the hunting party, Towhee turned and trotted inland, her steps deliberate as she kept her eyes and nose peeled for any sign of the wayward Sugar.

Avery had stayed behind with Finley, but Elwood had been eager to follow along with Wraen and the rest of the small group in order to feast. It was a long journey for the older wolf, and the bitter cold didn't help the stiffness of his joints, but he kept a decent pace with the others, happy to see that Towhee and Fennec had joined them, along with two of his own children.

The meal was immensely satisfying, although it was something he had never tasted before. It felt strange to not attempt to bring any of the remains back home, but the trek was too far and he listened to his Sovereign's command to eat his fill. By the time he finished, he stepped back alongside Towhee and his gaze swept his surroundings, falling on Penn and -- Sugar? Where was Sugar? His goddaughter seemed to notice the girl's absence at the same time, and he, too, circled as he glanced around for her. She was nowhere to be seen.

As Towhee indicated, the weather was beginning to turn, so he wasted no time following her with his heart in his throat as they scouted for Sugar on their way back.