Porcupine Ridge And someday

Nutiykruk pounced down before @Muskrat's figure, daring.

"Teach me what you do as a raider!"

No sibling to dig claws into, the ridge woman would bear the wrath of the girls energy. Stalking, circling, and whipping up a full smile with Muskrat at the center of it all. Her tail wiggled in a wild manner. No match, and yet convinced that she could take the woman on in a scrap. If it was all bluff of a challenge, Nutuyikruk wasn't sure herself yet, but it sure felt fun trying to enclose Muskrat in a kill circle!

"aha!" muskrat shouted, whirling to strike warrior's poses as lynx girl circled her. "first i watch a camp for long hours. maybe days. count fighters. see who leader. see where patrols go and where they come."

"then," she went on, pretending to snap the air near nutu yikruk's small face, "i come back. gather warriors. we strike weak place on camp. not taking things. steal meat," she added, demonstrating how to dig up a cache. "but we take — wolves. children first. can be made raiders. if more men, take women. if more women, capture men. important no one follows."

she lunged low then, intending to trip nutu in a controlled way. "kill who try kill us. hurt first. wound leader. break them. that way we come again, they run and not fight."

Muskrat spun like a fighter.

The girls tail lashed about. She urged, she urged! To hear about what the raiders did. What they'd do! A tease drew out. "Oh?" Circling, prowling. They'd start with headcounts. Learn positions, who seemed the most in charge for where and when. Like dirty snakes. That was what they were. A dirty muskrat and a wild lynx! "Then what?!"

The mountain lynx drew too close and was sent stumbling back at an air bite that dared by her nose. A grumble of air whisked out the throat, a smile etched out above it that was riddled with nerves. Nerves that would make her try again!

They weren't meant to take their belongings? How did that work? Meats made sense. They'd always need to eat.

It was the next statements that near tripped Nutuyikruk before the ridge's woman did. They would not be there for their belongings. Muskrat's honesty with their neighbors was bitten in half at the line of truth. They'd be there for them.
Breathy, "In an out then. Quickly." 

When Muskrat demonstrated digging up stores, a shallow move was taken by Nutuyikruk to lunge and pin her down! Her front legs were suddenly taken out and she got a mouthful of dirt long before she could've reached a mouthful of fur. Groaning painfully through an aching laugh, "Ow!" Dammit! "How do we make sure no one follows us?"

"one go this way, ah! one another. more, other ways. not leave raid together," muskrat explained, amused by nutu's own delight at their antics. "quick. not long. best raids are just pawful of minutes." it was the reason for so long a watch, for the longevity of searching for warriors and entries into the chosen land.

she plucked nutuyikruk up by her nape, standing the girl on her feet before dodging sideways. "raiders must be fast. if wounded in raid, nutu, not run down." hurt animals ran into hollows and valleys, were caught in such shadows, and killed. those intelligent raced into the mountains or the swamps themselves, straining dire moments of dripping blood in exchange for more safety among stone spires and vined trees.

she leapt into a run, laughing; "qatiy!" muskrat clawed her way up the near-vertical slope. "pretend you raiding, hunting wolf who run away."

Animals who ran were killed. She had been the wolf to a rabbit and heard the crackle of bone. Where was the line when the hunter became the hunted? Pulled up, awkwardly following the line of Muskrat's fast-moving feet while Nutu's back legs struggled with coordination. Clumsy, not good enough yet, not quick enough yet. Strong enough to kick and what good were they when they couldn't move right yet? She'd learn. "I will not run down to be run down." She would fight if she could not go up. A promise, and it would not turn into an empty one, no matter how much it rattled her nerves. In a good way? It felt good.

She'd never felt this good.

Qatiy! Qatiy!

Up! The mountain girl stood straight and soon fell into a sprint to follow. It was not a real hunt, but it raced the heart like it could've been. Out of breath already because she had lost it in laughter, but already she started to pace that same breath and truly breathe.

Sprinting, jumping over the slope by scratching up the dirt and stumbling to the top. Chasing!

Breathy, quiet-- elated, "I'll get you."

lynx girl turned the hunt into a chant, and muskrat paused in awe to hear that one's instinctual call to power. it renewed her wondering into who nutu yikruk had been before, from what people she had come.

in time she would learn to be quieter. muskrat delved into the stygian shift and stopped, waiting behind a fallen pair of old pines for the lynx girl to find her or to pass the shadows, searching upward.

The mountains rang the drums of running feet. Poor footing left for hurting pads, but as the months grew on, their squishy exterior had started to harden. The body adapted from soft lavender fields to needled mountains. 

She whisked forward and shot overhead of dropped pines, but for a moment as her legs left the ground, felt that ring of something misaligned as the scent of Muskrat grew strangely strong. But what?

in strength she grew, and now in speed. stealth was the lesson for today, along with one in tactics. from nutu yikruk's unfamiliarity with these stone paths told muskrat more of the girl's past; she had been raised in a place lower.

still the warrior held, scarcely breathing as she anticipated the lynx child's next movement.

Touching the ground, she lunged forward and beyond the path of where the woman's scent had stopped. More faint, and within the next moments, entirely gone. 

She'd gone the other way. Nutuyikruk spun.

It was just hard to center it all correctly. There were so many wind blown scents, and she was- and she was focusing too much on them.

Straight ahead were glowing eyes, and the shade charged the sentinel.

But what she'd not asked herself next was: what would happen upon close range?

Aimed to pin, but- injury?

aha! and here she was, muskrat bubbling with laughter, a cauldron of yellow eyes which leapt backwards.

but the girl's paws fell upon her shoulders, and sentinel collapsed, a faux cry upon her lips!

now she encouraged nutu into a true attack, grappling carefully with the youth as she proceeded this training.