Lone Star Mountain combustion

Saghani moved in the silence she had kept for many moons. Her slow-moving gait betrayed nothing of her personality. The lone wolf seemed to move with no intent at all, if one were to watch from a distance. And then she paused, lingering in one place for five whole minutes; her surroundings were an immaculate white, and she was a stain upon the canvas. Not even the evening sky matched her pitch. It was futile to try and hide, here; but she crouched instinctively nonetheless, ears perked forward only just. 

In the distance, far from her location, she heard the mountains catch the echoes of the rams clashing in its net. Sound waves moved through the gaps and Saghani noted it with much interest. Her food sources were the leavings of other predators (greater or lesser, it did not matter, she took what she could) and little else. In the throes of Winter her hunger was great; to the point that she was not thinking as clearly as she ought to, perhaps. Saghani prepared for the endeavor ahead, shifting her trail downwind and ever-upward.

Lemongrass was busy gnawing on the head of a rabbit. Her fur glistened in the snow, a light yellow that would look like a sunbeam from far away. She had left a trail of blood from where she'd killed the rabbit to the deep snow pit she'd chosen to eat it in. Her golden eyes were dull with sleepiness, and she planned to nap after this meal. She thought about the white snow, how it matched the white of the room she'd spent most of her life in before here. She didn't like it, the sterile cleanliness of it, the way it made her feel crazy with loneliness and sad beyond imagination. She got up and chased her tail a little, growling playfully to herself. Then, she sniffed around, imagining that there was someone around who could spend time with her, talk to her. She looked into the distance, imagining that someone would come for her.

Suddenly, she saw a black figure in the snow. She snarled softly, instinctively, bristling defensively as she backed up slowly. She wanted company, but she wasn't sure if she was ready, and what if they tried to take her food? Her dainty paws sank into the deep snow and she yelped as she fell into the snow and rolled around, trying to get up frantically and yelping. She howled and yipped as she flailed her legs in the air uselessly.

Saghani took some steps forward when the odor of blood came to her nostrils. It gave her another moments pause and she turned to look over her shoulder. When her eyes fell upon a flailing, falling wolf Saghani turned away. She was stupid with one idea, and that idea alone. To challenge a wolf for the scraps of a rabbit was too counterproductive. It would waste energy and time, with little reward for her efforts. The rabbit would not sustain a wolf of her stature. Saghani was a whopping one-hundred pounds when well fed and had lost much of that healthy weight in her time alone. She was still the perfect picture of a wild wolf, not yet to the point where one might simply see her as nothing but a bag of bones. 

And if she could fell a ram? Saghani could make it for some days more. The lone wolf instinctively desired to fall into a pack, but she wanted to be clear-minded. The fog of hunger was not easy to see beyond, and what she wanted to see for herself was a future where she could rise. There was no room for that in her natal pack, her mother, even despite her great age, in her prime. Her eldest brother was her successor. For all of Saghani's experience and will, it did not yet match his own. 

The dark she-wolf would let the other and their food alone. Saghani sniffed at the air briefly before continuing with her own plans.

Once Lemongrass had righted herself, she realized that the other wolf wouldn't be stealing her food. She'd never seen another wolf as black as this one, and she curiously started tailing them. She kept her stomach close to the ground, peeking over the top of the snow at the dark figure in the distance. She crawled closer and closer to the other, her eyes scanning the other's body. This wolf was muscular; Lemongrass could tell even from this distance. This was a wild wolf, a real wild wolf! She'd never dared to believe that she would ever see one up close.

Lemongrass's own body was in peak condition, but in a soft way, in a way that gave away her controlled upbringing. She'd never had to run after elk, hunt down big game, or any game at all. Her exercise was on a treadmill with a oxygen mask to her muzzle to measure her breathing. Her chasing after rabbits had hardened her body a bit, but she was still an overgrown puppy on the inside, and she wanted the company of this larger, stronger creature. She kept trailing them as sneakily as she could, which wasn't very sneakily.

She did not move very far at all before noting that she was being trailed. Saghani's ears cupped backward and caught the sound of the others body moving through the snow. Thinking that perhaps any moment the other would depart, Saghani did not stop. There was a point, however, in which her thought process shifted. An innate feeling possessed her, and she acted on it. In looking back she could see the others stalking crouch, an imperfect one but still all too easy to interpret. 

Saghani wasted no time at that. The lone wolf became a woman possessed by instinct instilled in her and moved in a stiff-legged march toward the other. This was effortless; she had cleared her own path, already, and so drew near to the other in no time. The greeting the other had earned was the lifted bottlebrush of her plume and the aggressive forward-thrust of her lobes. The cold curve of a yellowed canine was presented before she revealed the row of them in a snarling, displeased grimace. And her eyes held fast to the other, the premise of violence very much alive in them. Her own youth, the cold season, her hunger: each of these lent themselves to her patience, weighing heavy on it, and certainly not to the benefit of the pale stranger.

 She meant to do many things, here, and she would take any single one that she received from her posturing. Perhaps the other would leave her be. Or, maybe, the other would answer the unspoken question (what it was that she had been doing, thinking, following her). Best of all, the other would simply submit to Saghani's wish of keeping away so that the other could not ruin her (already) slim chances of a better than decent meal.

The young wolf was confused when the dark figure stopped, but when it turned, she realized what was happening. She immediately stood up to reveal herself before whimpering and lowering her head, laying her ears back in submission. She crawled forward a little and rolled onto her back to expose her stomach as a sign of surrender. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bother you. I just wanted t-to see you a little better," she explained nervously, wagging her tail slowly to show that she was barely a threat, as if it weren't obvious enough already. There was an innocent hopefulness in her eyes as she looked up at the older wolf. "I'm Lemongrass. Who are you?" she asked nervously.

The other reacted to a standard the inkjet woman approved of. And though the other spoke, Saghani only looked on at her. The brewing tempest subsided, and Saghani snorted loudly at the words at last. Here she was, all for the other to see. And at that thought, Saghani turned to go wanting to at last move on from this, to go to where the rams clashed. The other wolf, Lemongrass, as she had introduced herself, would only be permitted to follow her if she did so quietly. Saghani herself demonstrated this with a practiced finesse. Her footfalls could barely be heard, but then at this point Saghani was not yet stalking or in hiding. She first had to find the herd before she slowed herself with measured steps, to do what she had set out to do in the first place.

Lemongrass followed happily, relieved that she wasn't torn from throat to tail. She figured that maybe the other was mute, so she stayed quiet as well so that the other wouldn't feel pressured to speak. She froze at the sight of the elk in the distance, wagging her tail a bit in excitement but standing as still as a statue. She looked at the other wolf, wondering what the other would do in the presence of such large, majestic, delicious-looking animals. She slavered eagerly, ready to give chase. She held back every instinct, trying to tell herself that a good chase wouldn't be worth being caught under those rock-hard hooves. She decided to wait for the other wolf.

When the other froze, Saghani continued to move along. If the other was left behind it would be because she decided to, but the lone wolf had no reason to wait for the other unattached as she was. Her eyes saw the same thing Lemongrass did, and although her mouth watered as she recollected the taste she knew that these animals were not off guard and thus not unwitting. Two wolves could not take the mighty venison down, particularly because the creature(s) smelled to be in good health. 

So she did not even skip a step. Saghani licked her chops, tail still behind her. The elk observed in a bored fashion, all too aware that they at this time would not be her quarry. Even if she had decided they would be, surely the expression would still not shift. They had very little to fear this day.

Lemongrass followed the other wolf slowly, her eyes hungry and excited. Her first real hunt would definitely be a day to remember. She followed the other's lead, wanting them to succeed so that they could have a good meal, both of them. She immediately wanted to help the other, latching on emotionally since it was her first interaction with someone flesh and blood since arriving to this strange land. She wanted so badly to charge the herd, her legs were trembling, but she swallowed her impulses.

Saghani felt only a mild disappointment that the other had decided to follow her even still. It was not as though (if she succeeded) she would be able to finish the animal herself. And if she had her way there would truly be very little effort involved in this hunt, where she would have plenty of expendable energy at the finish. It simply required her to reach greater heights in this barren land, and to do so carefully. Saghani could see many a dead end, but was able to figure out the land with little difficulty. Not one mountain was ever the same as the next, each their own fingerprint in the world. But some had routes that were similar, and if you were born on this sort of landmass you kept with you a skill you would never lose completely. 

She ranged upward and did not look back once. She detected the others following only by scent and sound. As Saghani neared the next, and last, upper reach that she would climb to, her muscles coiled as she sprang upward and outward. Saghani landed, but not neatly, the snow causing her to lose traction she might normally have. Fortunately she was able to gather her bearings and once this was done, her ears perked and she froze. It sounded as though a shotgun had gone off, the way the rams slammed their horns against one another. She heard the bleats of the beasts now, too. Saghani was downwind but certainly in their sights if they looked hard enough and so she crouched, shifting her weight and licking her chops. She begged silence of the other in her mind, now. At last Saghani looked over her shoulder, eyes darkening with her unspoken command.

Lemongrass pressed herself closer to the ground, her light fur making her all but invisible in the snow. She prowled around the herd, keeping the other wolf within her sights and staying where she could smell the elk. She was excited and hungry, her belly like a hollowed out cave now. She was more than ready to pounce, but she let the other take the lead. Lemongrass was inexperienced, and she knew it. She'd seen other packs hunt as one, as a unit of muscles and fur and teeth and claws. She wanted to be like that, but she knew her own limits, and just prayed that the other was as good at this as they seemed. She looked at her partner with eager amber eyes, her tail puffy and stiff. She was ready to give chase, if only the other would give the signal.

What's wrong? Lemongrass wanted to ask, but the constant clashing and banging of the bucks battling each other gave her pause. If this got messy, the last thing she wanted to do was get caught in it. She just flicked her ear curiously.

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Her tail lashed behind her at the others perplexed look. Frustration mounted within her, but Saghani provided an example of her desire by again remaining silent. The she-wolf was nothing but stillness in the next moment, a statuesque statue if ever there was one. And then she turned back to look back over the mountain, hunkering down and loitering at its precarious edge like a gargoyle. On a ledge below the mountain goats practiced and scuffled with one another. The sport was a dangerous one and it would be a foolish thing to get in between them. 

It was at that moment a curious thing indeed happened. The horn of a ram caught and entwined with the open gap of its opponent. The result was the duo interlocking and unable to remove themselves from the other; it was then Saghani sprang forth, at the perfect, opportune moment. She let out the baying howl of the hunter to intentionally cause commotion and panic both. It was effective; the nanny goats sprang in every direction, and the bucks struggled moreso with one another but to no avail. All the while she surged forward, inexpert at this particular mountain (and stumbling once or twice in her descent) but never once losing her footing.

The nanny's made a clean getaway; and, with two of the herds protectors useless, it seemed that she would feast this (now late) evening. Try though the rams may, they were stuck together, and as they fought to escape their own predicament, they fell from the very ledge they had stood upon and tumbled downward. The sickening thud of their bodies did not fall on deaf ears; she heard well their descent from the first, and so she was wise to the fact that their necks had broken the very first moment they hit the ground. It was a merciful death, not that this would make a difference to Saghani who would have eaten them as they breathed so long as they could not lash out with their hooves or horns (which, even when downed, during a bout of adrenaline could still do damage). But in that she had nothing to fear, licking her chops and already searching for a safe passage downward. 

She had forgotten about her companion all the while, so intent on preventing her downfall and succeeding here as she had been.

Lemongrass heard the thudding of horns, until they stopped and all there was was the frustrated greetings of the two Ipanema. She followed her companion down the ridge and winced as she watched the demise of their dinner. Carefully, she picked her way down the ledge to the carcases, sniffing at the soft underbelly of one of the rams curiously. She wondered if it would be alright to eat. She'd never had something this large before today. She decided to wait for the other, looking over her shoulder at the darker wrong and whining happily, wagging her tail.

She realized that she hasn't done anything worth noting on this "hunt," but she hoped she'd earned a few mouthfuls of food before the other would drive her away. After all, who could eat all of this themselves? She looked up when she heard the cawing of crowd overhead, ready to steal their meal. She snarled and quickly dispatched one as it headed down, causing the others to leave.

The other, Lemongrass, was quick to remind Saghani of her presence. The she-wolf looked over her shoulder for an instant, licking her chops. Then she threw her head upward and called for @Tryphon so that he would know she had found a good meal for them: I am here, came the song. And then she drew possessively toward a ram, her eyes on Lemongrass. And then she began to eat. Saghani was incredibly food possessive; it had caused many issues for others in her previous pack, which had prompted her dispersal as well in knowing her mother and her brother both would unite against her. Even as a valkyrja, she was not the first heir, and her brother was a warrior in his own right. Saghani did not pretend to be perfect, but she was a prodigious fighter herself. She understood that there was room for growth elsewhere, but she could only rise to become a second in her previous pack. Saghani left on the chance that perhaps there was something greater for her waiting in the beyond. 

The raven colored woman dug in. As Lemongrass took down her own appetizer, Saghani payed it no mind. So long as the stranger did not draw too close to her as she ate the other would not be regarded in a negative light. There was no reason for Saghani to think ill of the other, not knowing much of her but for her eager nature.

Quietly shoves Tryphon in.

He was investigating a frostbitten raspberry plant when the call rose up; the wild berries were forgotten, barren as they were, and he did not waste much time. The shadow and the ghost did not spend all their time together, even in travel. It made more sense to spread themselves thinly across the mountainside until a route was discovered - or food - and then, as Saghani did, call for the other.

Tryphon caught the smell of blood, which he knew well. The other scents were confusing to him. He had never seen a sheep before nor had he eaten one, so when he came upon the scene, draped in the grayness of an oncoming night, he was perplexed. He saw the pale wolf first. She was eagerly assaulting a band of inky crows, but did not seem interested in the meal. The boy was stiff-legged and unsure until he spotted the familiar shadow woman. His ears cupped the soundless air, and his tail wagged high for a brief moment.

The boy lingered near Saghani's position, inching closer, but kept tabs on the other wolf as well. He was unsure of their relationship to one another. And while he was hungry, Tryphon knew to wait his turn. He would hold back until they had both had their fill.