Blackfeather Woods a wolf hunts a mouse. the reason will make you cry

Mice were quick and mice laid more trails than a pup could follow. His efforts to unwind the network of urine-touched tunnels and holes and find the creature that had made them had failed time and time again. He had come close several times before. His teeth near missing the dancing tail of a fleeing rodent as it fled down one of its paths. The mouse could skim across the thin crust but he broke through and so was hamstrung, only to then watch his quarry disappear beneath the snow where he could not follow.

Sighing in another defeat at just such a scenario, Euron laid down beneath the bough of a squat spruce nearby the hole the mouse had darted down. There he rested with a mouth drawn tight with contemplation until he dozed off. It was hard to say how much time had passed before he was woke by the faint sound of tiny nails scuffing around.

The pup could hardly believe his eyes as they fixated unblinking on the small brown creature. The mouse was hardly a foot away. It turned and seemed to look right at him. He stiffened and held his breath. The mouse turned away again and started to groom itself. It was a triggering moment. Euron launched himself out from his cover and before he could truly process the chain of events, the mouse was twitching near death between his teeth.

Blood touched his tongue as the mouse injected one last dying squeak into the sound of bones crunching. To his ear there had never been a more pleasing symphony. He froze in place and held the dead mouse for some time, before he lowered his head and let it fall from his mouth and land between his paws, where he stood over it and stared.

The boy, ashen fur ruffling in the cold breeze, watched from a slight distance. He had come back from a hunting trip of his own, but his catch had already been buried. Neo curled his grey tail around his paws, piercing blue gaze focused on the small pup as he launched onto something hidden from sight (at least, to Neo). The older spiderling raised a brow, peeking through the vegetation in the forest. He approached then, slowly, and his paws brought him closer his eyes sought out what had been caught. He found it, then, and his gaze flicked back up to the boy. He nodded in greeting, then flicked his tail. "Well done." He spoke, voice deep as he realised the mouse was laying dead at the pup's paws.

Normally he would not initiate conversation, but his presence would likely have not been ignored for much longer. Besides, he was midly curious. He did not recognise this young wolf, and his mind drifted back to Maegi - was this, perhaps, one of her siblings?

He observed how the blood soaked and matted the mouse's fur. He observed how its skull had sunken into one side of its face; how the eye bulged from its shattered socket. The macabre sight had him transfixed such that he had not taken note of the presence of another until the other wolf was nearly to him. Euron stiffened and lowered his head over his kill. He did not recognize the stranger, and peered suspiciously at him.

"Well done."

Euron's posture relaxed a bit — he was more curious now than alarmed — but still he kept his jaw over what belonged to him. Several more moments of silent scrutiny brought saw the tension in his body slacken further. The other wolf had made no threat and did not seem intent on stealing from him.

"Thanking you!" Chirped Euron suddenly as he grabbed the mouse and sat proudly upright, allowing the dead mouse to dangle by its tail like a pendulum. The distrust in his eyes had given way to an excited twinkle. His tail thumped the ground rapidly. "S'first!" He declared through his teeth, determined not to let the mouse drop.

He had become to grow tired of giving a false name to those within the pack, and had begun to revert to calling himself Aries. For, although Neo was a name he'd taken up to hide his identity, he registered that he no longer needed to do this anymore. So what if his family found his whereabouts now? Cassiopeia hadn't cared all that much. She herself had taken a place in the Woods for a time. So perhaps when he introduced himself yet again, he would say his birth name, Aries, rather than that other name he had grown weary of. Aries felt more like him. He had adapted, no longer was he the youngster born in Teaghlaigh and moved to Moonspear - he was simply a soldier of the darkness. A dark heart he lay claim to, but he had not been oblivious to this. No, rather he welcomed it as if it was a child of his own.

The younger boy, beginning to relax his posture, still maintained his interest. Ever protective of his kill, though he could not be blamed for this - Aries himself would have guarded his in a similar way. But the Svartell child did not wish to steal the corpse of this mouse, no. The sudden chirp of the pup was unexpected but again, the energy of those younger than himself did not ever fail to startle him slightly. He gave a slight tilt of his head, a solemn nod, though his eyes sparkled a little with amusement. The childish way of speaking made the corners of his lips curl into a faint smile. "Who might you be, little one?" His deep voice inquired, still wondering if this was another child from the litter Maegi had been born into.

He snapped his muzzle upward and flung the mouse into the air, catching it square in his jaws again and giving it a few quick crunches before dropping it between his paws. There was a restless quivering in his muscles. He was interested in this new wolf but he was also enthralled by the mouse, and still wary that it might be taken from him. The young boy was not entirely sure what to do with himself, but for the time being he managed to remain in place even if he fidgeted a bit.

"I might be Euron." He answered. "I might be Jyggalag." He had two names, or rather one name with two parts, even if the first and shortest was used more commonly — a fact he shared with the gray male. "Mostly I am being Euron."

For a moment his eyes and attention were stolen by the mouse. The blood and broken body still as captivating as it had been the first time he looked upon it. He poked it with a paw, and returned the question as he looked back up. "Who might you be?"

The boy presented two answers to the proposed question - two names, one being Euron and the other being Jyggalag. For a second he studied both names within his head, as if contemplating in silence which was truly the name of this youngster (or, the first name at least, for it was likely one was another part). Aries shifted on his ashen paws for a moment, balancing his weight evenly before his cool gaze landed back onto the Spiderling. Euron it must be, he came to the conclusion.

"Pleasure to meet you, Euron." He responded with his low voice, ear flicking to remove the light dusting of snow that had gathered atop his head. Then silence ensued for a few heartbeats, as the boy's attention seemed to divert from Aries and focus instead on the corpse of the mouse. Then up drew his gaze once more, returning the previous question back to the Tyro. "....Aries." The name, this was the first time he'd spoken it for a good few months, and it almost felt foreign on his tongue. Yet something about it felt rather familiar - this was his birth name, yes.

Euron settled down to his pale stomach and extended his slender legs on either side of his mouse. His tongue slowly swiped across the rodent's spine before his eyes flicked back up to the other wolf. He was about to say something when a rustling shadow suddenly pitched on a branch nearby, sending a cascade of snow into the snow below with a quiet whumpf. It drew the boy's attention immediately. Something about the bird's dark, beady eye caused him to lower his head protectively over the mouse. Something... familiar.

Euron gasped. "That bird is being a sneak!" He could tell — it took one to know one. He threw one of his small paws over the mouse, certain that the raven was looking to take it from him. "Get to him!"

Euron never waited to see if Aries would lend him assistance with the bird or not. He quickly gathered his mouse and vaulted into the trees, looking for somewhere safe to finish playing with and eating the rodent.