Emberflame Ridge Whatever you wish for, you keep

Set some time before this thread<3

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Birds whistled. The trees were thick, and the ridge extended forward. Sunlight peered through the leaves and their shapes bent over her face and back. The warmth was almost ticklish in nature. Nutuyikruk did not stray far from porcupine ridge- Hex would not want it. She did wish to learn more of the mountain, but stayed only at other territories edges.

A young girl could only be caged so long, but with careful paths made to make sure that she could quickly get back home. Going too far would never end well.

Still clumsy in steps, Nutuyikruk was still a novice, but it was not so fragile here. Like she could really get her footing and relax in foliage cover.

Nutu was extended upwards on a tree trunk. The red boy and pale woman had bent branches to get bird dens. Clumsily swatting at a branch, she couldn't quite reach, but tried! The nest was put between so many branches, it was difficult to even aim.

it felt good to roam, and with the healer found and now sequestered sulukinak felt drawn to go far again, and often; climbing back towards the coast, she diverts up the rise and through the trees.

there is no need, now. no quest for help, no need for more knowledge; this was done only for herself, to satisfy an itch that the hunters had left her with.

she growled, seeking animal scents and rolling in the stronger ones: stoat musk, a fox path next, tempted further by deer scat - but then, noise. movement.

a child? it was hard to tell at first, but, yes. it's attention was upward-focused, so the shadow could creep closer and closer, unseen, but watching.

They made it seem easy, the way they used their paws to pull the leaves away and drop the nests. It was much harder to form coordination in her wrists that way, and put the pressure needed to not scrape down the trunk or lose grip. Frustrated, the girls nose scrunched up and wiggled.

"Birdies..!" Whether or not she was calling to the birds or just complaining about the birds and their difficult nest wasn't clear, and perhaps it was because the somber child wasn't sure herself. 

the child looks thoroughly distracted.

she's not small, but she's got room to grow. sulukinak compares what she remembers of her own siblings to this child as they play, and as she herself stalks close; she cannot remember ever being this size.

they're protesting the birds. or maybe they are hunting — but they are not very good at it. sulukinak holds zero maternal instinct, and in fact she is quite dismayed to have found such a young creature. she thinks of her uncle and the man's focus on his own son.

perhaps — ...?

hastily she lunges from her hiding place, snapping at the child and trying to grab them by the back of the neck; there is only a short distance and sulukinak can more than make up that span with the thrust of her legs, coiled beneath her as they had been.

grabbing for the girl, wanting to lift them off their feet, perhaps even throttle them in to submission with a shake; there is no telling what will transpire as a hunting instinct takes hold.

The trees sounded beautiful. The wind shifted through the leaves, and the grass blew songs along the ground. Birdsong sang out in the distance and over her head. Frogs croaked out and dragonflies spun about the air.

A moment of peace. Learning, trying, adapting. Shadow ridge would be home- it was only that it would take time, and so the girl allowed that time to come. It was difficult. No one taught her how to take these moments kindly or how to allow every emotion to be felt and acknowledged as a passing thought. I am breathing. I am seeing. I am feeling.

Teeth hit the back of her nape and ripped her off the tree.

A curdled scream hit the wind. "@Muskrat!" Fear scorched her blood and sent her into a spiral. She didn't know why aapa almost came out first. He would not come. Nor would @Hex, and still, "HELP!" Pleaded out in a birthed desperation. And 'help' tried to sprint from her lips a second time but was quieted by her heart in her throat. Help never came even once, and still she begged for it even now as if Sedna would pass her even a moments thought.

Not again. It couldn't happen again. Nutuyikruk would not live another life in a new bed again or be put to sleep by a strangers teeth. And though time ago, she would have fallen to the ground and cried for mercy, something raged in her. Not again! Not again! Her body thrashed and spun to try and free from the shadow woman that did not summon from the ridge, that was not from her home. What she was trying to make her home. 

there was a shadow, but it was not one of their own.

alert cried high and scathing for @Makono; the swamp panther wove in and out of darkness until her teeth were chips of ice seeking the ebon hide of the attacker.

she was surprised by the surge of protectiveness she felt over lynx girl; she told herself it was for the sake of the ridge, not a child, seething as she struck.

she moved like she rode a golden chariot. quick footed and alerted. if not by the child then by muskrat herself. she was quick, she was pointed.

her jaws ached for violence! ached for purpose!

if her heart had been able, it might have felt pride to see the child put up a fight. instead she is only focused on doling out a retaliation to the stranger for thinking their own could be attacked.

teeth found flesh, netting the redwhite fur as she grappled and pulled, taking the child up and away from where it had partially climbed the tree; but that was all. there was struggle that sulukinak had not expected (and why not? didn't all prey fight back in their way?) and it was a loud affair, breaking the quiet that she had cultivated. burning in her ears.

the thrashing of sulukinak ended as the girl's voice erupted, screeching for help.

then there was pain! first a flame lick along her side, which sent sulukinak spinning away hip-first; but the fire kept pace and struck at her, bit at her, and like fire curling away from its origin the shadow girl tried to bow and twist.

she had released the child by now — almost immediately when there came push-back — as the instinct towards self-preservation reversed her course. yet even as she tried to do this, a flare of sunlight streaked among the trees and —

sulukinak found herself flanked by two!

she bared her teeth and tried to keep her head bowed but ready. it was hard to turn quickly enough to fend off everything; and she was running! down the hillside, away, as fast as she could. as desperately as she tried to reach for the next step, and to lunge and to dodge and to go, there was at least one assailant keeping pace.

Nutuyikruk's head whirled at the first clasp, thrashing wildly and spinning when let go. 

Muskrat came, and Sedna did not.

Makono came, and Sedna did not.

She'd not stopped the thoughts the came crashing in waves, or the way that being grabbed had made her feel. Perhaps that had been the burning memories of her first breath given to Muskrat, or the day she had been cradled in the jaws of Zharille. Maybe it had been when her aaka had first moved her into a strangers den where she'd later hear her family fracture. Who had grabbed her that had not changed the trajectory of her life, her home? 

Whatever it was that spun out of the child was then violent, and maybe she'd owe thanks to Muskrat for the snaps that hit the wind that spun from her own mouth, her own body. And Zharille, a thanks for showing how to use them, and how to accept the feeling of something wild. Harsh memories spun a web of something new. It may have been undeserving, even, that the stranger was given not a second of calm. Nutuyikruk knew how that was.

And still there she was at the tail of the woman, taking harsh jumps to follow and sprinting, and feeling blood rush across her that was lively. The strangers tail was narrowly missed by the lynx's teeth until she could no longer keep up.

a dire ululation sprang from the eerie throat of the yellow-eyed warrior; her keening a backdrop for the flying droplets of blood pierced from that night hide by the lynx girl herself.

sacsayhuamán surely flanked, teeth flashing; muskrat kept her gait equal as long as she was able, adjusting for each ridge that rose sharp, each hillock and spread of deceptive grass; down, charging down, claws sharp and tail revolving to keep her balance.

the keening; the swamp panther's song, broken only by her snap here and there.