Shadowwyn Moor life eternal

attn @Sun Eater / @Ice Diver

Time stands still for no one. Kenai knew this phrase better than anyone as he approached a deep stream, the edges tinged with a thin layer of ice. His time with the roving clans had been fruitful, but this place offered him a chance to move on. A rebirth, if you will.

Unperturbed by the frigid temperatures, the explorer moved forward into the flow one step after the other. The key was to deepen your breathing; a moment of panic could quickly spiral into a dangerous situation. Only a small gasp as the water reached the tufts of dove-white fur that lined his belly revealed his discomfort. 

With the scents of the forest now washed from his pelt, Kenai turned his attention to the fish that called this place home. Once spooked by his presence, flashes of silver began to re-emerge to nibble at algae on the streambed. He regarded them curiously, tracking their movements with the gentle sway of his head.

again sun eater cut through the snows which had collected in shadowynn. 

when he was not chasing caribou, the chieftain was often at rest. he dragged another hide in a smear of blood across their chosen ground, throwing it into the hold of low branches.

it was water he sought now with rangy strides, though he found them arrested at the sight of another. young, palefurred, and as he drew closer, wearing eyes of robins'-egg blue.

the saatsine man stalked close. these were not his lands; he was not possessive over them, but let a hard stare warn that there should be no testing him.

sun eater plunged his own muzzle down to drink.

The snap of a distant twig did little to startle the explorer. It was probably a deer or a fox or some other creature that called this moorland home. At least, that's what Kenai told himself until the scent of caribou blood flooded his nostrils, and with it the unmistakeable musk of wolf. 

Move, you oaf! But the young man found he could not. As if his paws were iced to the streambed, only his head turned to regard the approaching shadow, gaze resting on the grisly wound where an eye once was before the stranger bent to drink. Kenai did not need to be told twice to know that this wolf was not worth messing with.

"Hi! I uh - was just taking a dip. As you do," he broke the silence awkwardly, forcing his legs to wade towards the bank.

"who you?" sun eater demanded, chin glistening with waterdrops. might as well have sport when he did not hunt; there were very few wolves who had mingled with the saatsine, and these days he oft stared the horizon for those wolves whom morwenna had left behind herself.

she was exquisite. he would want to reclaim her; no. he would never have allowed her to be charmed and taken, sun eater told himself with flagrant pride.

"you see caribou?" anyone with a comparable number of eyes was not able to fail this task. "belong sun clan. my hunters. you hunt in snow here, you run beside saatsine." sun eater had no requirement for joining, only a respect he felt he was duly owed by dint of his own strength.

The strange man did not seem to mind his clumsiness with words, nor did he move to chase Kenai away. So then why did his stomach swoop as though he himself were a stranded caribou? 

Taking a few brave steps, he regarded the wolf cautiously and shook the water from his pelt. "Kenai," he offered, wishing to know who this man was too though he could not find the words to ask. If only his mother were here; she would have known all the right things to say!

His attention was swept up with what the dark man said next. The sun clan - a roving clan? - hunted the caribou here, adding context to the bloodscent that clung to his shadowed pelt. He nodded slowly to the question before realising the weight of the offer, and quickly shook his head. "No no, I'm just passing through," Kenai turned to go, walking a few paces before his steps halted and he looked back to the Saatsine man. "Men like you move with the herds, yeah? I think I've come across your kind before."

"we hunt in all valley," sun eater revealed. there was flattery in being known, in having his hunters range so far that their name was upon the wind. "we follow."

such a comment had made the chieftain more curious than forbidding. he drew up another drink of frigid water and glanced in the direction of nearby herds.

"i am sun eater," he grunted next, stepping lazily back from the bank to find thin trails in the snow. a lamed caribou had passed here, and another followed, the pair breaking from their lines together.

he was interested then to know what had happened, single eye shifting toward kenai as if to appraise him for this hunt.

So his hunch was correct. Kenai had seen others like him too. Others that hunted the rivers and moved with the salmon each season. There had been rumours of ice walkers that followed the herds. Unfriendly, they had been called. Married to the march. 

That much was certainly true; he chuckled inwardly as Sun Eater turned to his beloved caribou. "So how many of you are there?" he pulled up beside the dark wolf to conduct his own investigation of the tracks. A little tension had eased with the prospect of a hunt and his tail wagged softly behind him. 

"She is injured," came his quiet conclusion, "the other, I'm not sure. Perhaps she is making sure she leaves." Lameness would slow the herd; he was certain the caribou knew that well enough. Turning to Sun Eater to gage his reaction, Kenai would follow his lead.