Dawnlark Plains forge dust

uktark—faust beneath the skin—moved through it with a predator’s certainty and a man’s frustration simmering under the pelt. blackfell’s lost daughter was nowhere. every track he’d found ended in wind-churned drifts or vanished into stone where scent could not cling. he had failed to bring his brother what he sought.
so he turned back to the one thing that grounded him:
his @Moondancer.
her trail was lighter, laced with frost-bright notes, easy for him to follow even through winter’s hush. he tracked her through a stand of firs, through the bend where the snow broke clean over a fallen log, through the hollow where she had paused long enough for her breath to warm the air.
he carried a kill between his jaws—
a heavy-tailed rodent, fat on stored roots, snapped clean behind the skull. not the elk she preferred to chase, but enough to keep her fed while they searched together.
the cold gathered in the fur along his back as he stepped into the clearing where her scent deepened, fresh as new snowfall. his dark shape broke through the trees, steam curling from his muzzle as he dropped the kill at his feet.
his ears pricked.
his gaze swept the white expanse.
where was she?
faust rumbled low in his chest—
a sound meant for her alone.
just presence.
just shadow seeking moon.
he nudged the kill into better view and lifted his head, breath fogging.
he had not found the child.
but maybe she had.

love love love

---

---

Her tracks were light upon snow, and yet he had followed anyway. She moved ahead of him, most of the time, exploring her freedom, uncaged and yet, still absolutely loyal to her shadowman. There was no doubt that she would always find herself by his side once more, and so, when the rumbling sound fell upon her ears, she answered—as she always would.
The moondancer approached, now. A warmth glimmered within her gaze, but it was tempered with the darkness of disappointment, of a sadness for the lost girl. She closed the space between them quickly, pressing herself into his pelt with a breath released, wordlessly expressing her contentment. She looked to the prey that he offered and smiled. Yes, it was not her usual, but she was grateful all the same. Such smile did not last long, however.
No girl, she murmured, frowning, now. We find her, soon, but... not yet, and it was with this that she shook her head, brows drawing together. A deep frustration settled into the grooves of her chiselled face, still thin with a long hunger that had yet to be fully sated. So sad for her, came her low tones. Her eyes flicked up to the man. Her man. So sad for her mother.
She could only imagine the pain that the woman would be experiencing. The moondancer knew that if she had lost her daughter in such a way, the world would blaze in raging fury in response. She would burn the world down, if it meant finding her child once more. A dream, however. Mere fantasy.
She was yet to voice such... desires.

he lowered his head, brushing her temple with the heavy line of his jaw—rough, quiet comfort, the closest he came to apology. her frustration simmered; he felt it in the tight set of her breath, in the way her ribs fluttered beneath her thinness. even hungry, she held strength in her stance, a stubborn heart refusing to yield.
soon, he rumbled, a vow shaped more by bone than tongue. we find.
his gaze flicked across the snow, imagining small tracks swallowed by wind, imagining blackfell’s lone stare, imagining the grief of a mother torn from her child. her words echoed a truth he did not speak but knew all the same—
the world should burn for such a loss.
he looked back to moondancer, studying the fierce quiet in her face, the storm tucked behind her gentleness. his voice stayed low, meant only for her.
a mother’s pain… is deep.
a beat, breath thick with frost.
we mend what we can.
he nudged the kill closer to her paws—
an offering, a grounding, a reminder that while they hunted ghosts, he would keep her fed, warm, safe.
his shadow fell over her as he stepped closer, not to cage, but to shelter.
rest, he murmured, gravel-soft. then search again.