Redtail Rise XXII

@Sunday Morning was greeted with a press of nose to her cheek which left a smear of muddied blood. 

their children grew strong. and now the rise looked toward winter.

augur appeared larger than usual these days, bolstered by the snow-ready pelt that he had begun to boast. his shadow was grand but affectionate, and with him he brought a great chunk of venison.

soon she would rejoin the hunt.

Sunday Morning was always glad to see him. Time had not changed that, except make such a gladness more prominent. It filled her to the brim. She could scarcely control the happy whine that came from her, nor the sway of her tail (this reckless appendage her cubs were never harmed by... it enthralled, rather, and they were given into bouts of trying to capture it).

The days passed. When Sunday emerged, she could feel the change in the air. The seasons change was soon due. What the air might not have told in some odd, unseasonably warm days her man (and her own self) would. He appeared more impressive, though he did become grander to her by the day with each thing he provided to she and their family.

She missed the hunt. But with each passing sunrise and sunset, the time to join it again neared. Sunday Morning reached for the meat to tear away chunks of it and begin to eat. Sunday still acted as their main source of nourishment, and so did not shy away from eating all she ought to. But she looked up at Mountain Boulder and tilted her head, seeming to be look and see that he had gotten his own fill. She stood to lick away blood and gristle from his cheek when she determined that he had.

augur was content and full too. he rumbled toward her and mouthed her white cheek. the man was content. he looked forward to the hour that she would join him, and their children also.

her tongue touched his fur. the hunter leaned into her touch. he nosed her ears. he brushed the length of his great body along her own.

wolves had no words for love.

but augur had many sensations, and they were all centralized in new snow.

he growled a low note, one she might know to be mate.

Sunday Morning leaned into his ministrations as he provided them, quiet and almost sated. When he finished, she continued to consume the rest of what he had brought. In the quiet of the hour, Sunday enjoyed the slowness time granted them in this moment. She rumbled happily to feel him move alongside her, their long furs mingling.

She heard him speak, as well  as they two could. She was fluent in his language, as he was hers. She knew her name, now, a thing she had never had before him. A name she oft provided to others in rumbles.

And now, for the first time, he called her the thing that they two were to one another. She realized that it was  not something she had ever said, either, though that was surely who he was to her.  And so in turn, she crooned his name from her in its guttural, well-loved sound... and her voice next announced the same his own had, as she moved to press her own nose against his. Mountain Boulder. Mate.

she called him her name.

he would answer to both.

in the way of their kind he kissed her face over and over, ears pinned back, little whines ekeing from his throat. he was smitten with her, truly and as he had been in the first days.

and then he frisked away. augur knew they could not go far from the pups, so he would not move away from the den. he ran in small semicircles instead, inviting her with a loud bark to join him for a moment.

lost the original post so it took me a minute to get another one going!

New Snow blinked happily and matched him, kisses finding his cheek, his brow, and wherever else it might reach. Her tail beat happily behind her, and her energy and excitement seemed to grow. When he moved away, her energy became an unbound thing as she sprang after him with a wide, wolfish grin. Her tongue lolled as she moved lowly around him once, twice in a coltish way.

And then she moved toward his chest, with no intent to harm; teeth clicked against open air as she appeared to tuck and roll before him. New Snow then proceeded to 'assault' his feet in the manner of their feral children. Which, even with their milk teeth, was not an ineffective technique!

no worries! wanna fade this and have another?

she snapped for his feet! he lifted them one by one, a growling dance of pure amusement.

then he darted for her nape, worrying it in a controlled fashion with his teeth. augur barked once, bouncing from foot to foot and then lunging away.

he invited her to follow, to catch.

absolutely <3

She was easily bated. New Snow, as he made to move away, sprang up to follow after him. New Snow was able to release plenty of her pent up energy in this game of theirs, and show her enthusiasm in being with him in the same breaths. But as one of their cubs mewled, New Snow paused and looked over her shoulder.

Her gaze turned back to him as she nosed his cheek fondly, eyes bright and grateful. It would not be long before their cubs joined them in this game, she did not think! She retreated back into the whelping den to feed and clean them, and once finished with New Snow would rest while she watched them.