Meadowlark Prairie red lights

The boy was itching for a fight, and he couldn't have one on the mountain. Not a real one, anyway. Not a battle of life-or-death, with bones breaking to his bite, or the sweet flow of blood from the throats of his enemies. Then again, Revui didn't have any enemies either — no targets that were worth hunting down. But he couldn't stay on the mountain for much longer; he felt the need to roam, and departed from the mountainside before first light.

The early hours were spent investigating the bends of the Bramblewood nearby his father's claim; there were many scents among the trees, branching away to the north, but he had little interest in any of them. His path took him east until there was nothingness around him. Nothing but grass, sprawling hills, and the arcing shapes of swallows whisking across the endless green. He watched the birds for a while; sometimes he felt the desire to chase them, but after failing a few times to keep up, Revui merely observed. He would never be fast enough to catch one of them, and he knew it.

Hunger drove them from the valley and to the mountains, but they were too strenuous a climb for a beast as brawny as she. It took no time at all for the lumbering menace to find their way beyond the mountain range — a valley facilitated her move, and she left a wake of trampled earth to mark her passage. They tread nearer to a canyon of red clay spires (lion's head), but was soon deterred. Too much dust; it smelled of emptiness and earth with no indication of food, and she was growing desperately hungry. Stone became grassland, became meadow, and then prairie — and in the middle, distantly, the giant spotted something glinting and silver.

she wasn't giving up on Revui. at least that's what she stubbornly thought. she'd try to make him smile. that's all she really wanted out of this. a smile. to see that he wasn't a grumpybutt after all. just a very guarded butt. okay, she should drop the 'butt' part cause it was mean. brimming with a surge of energy as she trailed after his scent, the newest Moonspearian wanted to socialize more with the older one. er, older only in 'been around before her'. not age. she didn't think he was older than her. hmm.

"Revuuuuui!" she called out, losing track of him as she bent down to sniff at some wild berries. maybe Moonspear wanted some of these... they didn't look poisonous. she assumed they were blackberries. well, they were. obviously. duh. when he didn't answer, when he failed to appear, she got a bit concerned. rounding the proverbial bend, she saw a massive figure coming near him. "ooooh..." Bee didn't know what to do. 

she fell silent, a surge of fear shaking her little booties. that was obviously a bear. a big, big, very big bear. Revui didn't seem to have noticed it. "Revui, watch out!" she called from her spot, unwilling to let him deal with this alone. maybe if the bear saw two wolves, it'd leave him alone?

He was often transfixed on the concept of death; more importantly, his role in the ruination of others. The enemies of Moonspear would learn to fear him, to loathe him, but most of all respect him and his might. But for now, he was watching the birds. These tiny creatures, useless by all accounts, that played in the meadow without a care; a part of him might have been jealous of their freedom, as if he were chained to Moonspear and unable to feel the same way. Revui knew better. He could go anywhere, do anything, as his adventure to the west had proven. Yet still he watched them dance, twist, careen by him and away — Revui, watch out!

The boy was jarred away from his observation. The voice of that incessantly happy newcomer spilled forth, cutting through whatever fog had descended upon him, and while he didn't want to be forced to interact, he could not ignore the note of panic in her voice — yet as he turned, he saw the white giant. It looked like a small mountain as it lumbered along; equipped with a jagged hump that reminded him of Moonspear's own peaks, it was the largest living thing he had ever seen, and it was coming straight for him.

It was rare that Revui feel afraid; rarer still that he give in to such a foolish reaction. Yet the closer the giant got, the less sure he felt - and his limbs felt like lead. Revui couldn't move, and stared, looking more like a frightened child than a warrior.

She could hear a rising dissonance as she approached the silver thing, but did not raise her head, did not show any sign of curiosity or nervousness; what did the great white beast have to be nervous about? In all their lonely years, no creature had risen in defiance of her will. None could confront her innate power, and should she wish it, Kilalurak would smite down any enemy. The sound carried on no longer than it had to — yet the silver shape did not appear to hear it. It did not move, not until another sound boldly burst forth - and then the shape became a wolf, and Kilalurak paused.

Her great round head finally lifted; first to align with her shoulders, then a touch higher, as if it took effort to show interest at all. Her dark eyes fixed on the terror in the wolf. She took no pleasure in it - in fact, the beast did little else but watch, and then as she grew bored her body turned away. It was best not to intervene in the lives of wolves. They were tiny in her eyes, merely specks of dust, and she knew better than to agitate them.

The bear continued to stride along but no longer paid any heed to the wolves; whether she was close to them or not, it was evident she was not going to act against them. Merely passing through... or so it seemed.

Bee would try to jerk her out of her fear, try to move to help. she ended up giving an odd little jerk, a murmur escaping her that wasn't known what she said. maybe a whimper. either way, she felt the urge to jump over to the boy. fear slowly dimmed in favor of trying to protect her packmate. she moved swiftly, trying to stand in the way of Revui - he looked terrified! - and the bear. but before she could even utter a snarl, said bear was turning away. 

oh. okay then. n...no! wait! "bear!" she burst out, darting in front of the creature boldly. "miss bear!" she hopped lightly to get their attention. her eyes shot back to where the berry bush was. there was no eating of wolves, especially Moonspearian wolves, when she was around. "there's a lovely patch of blackberries over there!" her tongue rolled from her mouth, panting half happy and half nervous as heck. even if the bear was going away without a fuss, Bee wasn't going to let her go gobble someone else up. nope.

"I just, um, thought you looked hungry" she added meekly.

Every inch of his body was rigid with fear; yet his mind was screaming at him, telling him to run at the bear and rip its face off, or run off to safety, or -- just to do something; he thought of how awful it would be to die to those teeth, those giant teeth, those mighty claws. To defeat something as giant as this mountainous creature was one of the last things on his mind, but still it sparked a thought in him. It didn't matter - he could do nothing. Frozen. A target.

And then the bear turned away. Revui didn't know what to make of that; he heard the familiar voice of Bee, saw her mottled figure dart between the two of them --- following the bear; standing before them, and finally Revui could move again. He didn't know what to do, didn't really hear the words she was saying, but the bear was moving off ---- like magic.

The fuck was this?

But a part of Revui, the warrior, the guardian, that deeply-knotted feral core of him, that saw Bee as a member of the pack in danger. And even in his fear Revui could not ignore the urge to get her away, to save her. She transformed in his mind's eye - no longer Bee the Incessant Conversationalist; for a moment he saw Speedy, her shoulder torn and bleeding from his own teeth — it wasn't right. He wouldn't let more harm come to her.

The next thing he knew, he was throwing himself in to a full-tilt charge at the bear, a roar booming from his chest as he careened towards it, smacking Bee aside so that he could aim true — straight for the behemoth's mighty skull.

When one wolf slunk from elsewhere and paraded themselves before her, she initially did not know how to respond. The sight of it made her nervous in the way that all interactions made her nervous: was this friend, food, or merely unworthy? It had been many years since a wolf felt so bold as to speak to her - long enough that she nearly did not decrypt the language; such strange creatures, wolves. If this one had merely assailed her, she would know what to expect. Instead there were words, and slowly, understanding. But it took her too long. The moment the brawny beast connected the sounds of the wolf with the scent of akpik, it was too late.

The other — the petrified one, frozen like stone before her, the mighty ice flow, either lost their mind or gained a spine. Either way, they came racing straight at her - pushing aside the dark wolf, plunging face-first towards her with a sound that was far more familiar than their strange language. This made sense; this was how wolves were designed to act. To foolishly lose their heads when something terrified them. They were like children. Had she not been so distracted by the enticing scent of food, perhaps she would have reacted with more ferocity.

Kilalurak did next to nothing but duck her head a bit; the wolf slammed in to her skull with surprising accuracy and enough force to cause her to wince, yet all she needed was to deflect, and she was hastily retreating once more — this time lunging away from the silverback; this was not worth the calories lost, though both wolves would have satisfied her hunger to some degree.

As she made her trundling escape through the meadow, she vowed to repay this particular wolf one day.

"Revui, what - ?" are you doing died on her lips. she felt herself be flung aside, too fragile and small to carry bulk enough to ground herself. she ended up tripping over her own feet and falling to the side. blue eyes would widen in horror as the fellow Moonspearian charged the bear. no. no no no...! the bear was just hungry why was he going to hurt her? didn't he know if you hurt a hungry animal, it'd be more violent? it would feel trapped. it was already sad; it didn't need to hurt too. 

"no! stop!" Bee called out as Revui made an impact with the bear. the great beast only lowered its head, taking the blow before veering off to walk quickly away. she took the opportunity to rise to all fours, panting heavily from her own push. her packmate was so dang lucky that the bear hadn't made a meal out of him. she was almost fuming. almost. marching over to him, she'd watch the bear go out of the corner of her eye. "it wasn't going to hurt us" but you gave it a damn good reason to she also let this die on her lips.

"it was... listening to me. if she ate the berries now, she wouldn't eat anyone later" Bee added with a pout. why didn't he listen to what she had been saying to the bear? did he just ignore her? did he think she couldn't handle herself? if the bear really wanted to harm them, it would have used the whole force of its bulk to charge from the start. it would have attacked right away. but she didn't expect Revui to understand. her head lowered, frowning at him. "but um, thanks for trying to protect me."

All he could think about was the taste of blood on his lips; he was not so lucky, and felt his face collide with the thick skull of the ursine, and then -- he was tossed aside. Flicked. Nothing but an ant to the powerful entity before him; they were godlike with their indifference, and to be pushed aside so easily was -- well, to be honest, insulting. But he went down with a grunt. Had this been a cartoon he would've been crowned with chirping yellow birds. Instead, he had Bee.

And like it or not, she was berating him for his choice. The earth rumbled with the departure of the bear, and soon enough it was a safe distance from the two of them — but there had been no bloodshed. He had done nothing.

If she ate the berries now, she wouldn't eat anyone later, he heard Bee protesting; her logic was unsound but then, so was Revui's. He knew better than to think a beast such as that would be satisfied with a few plants. But at the same time he could not shake the feeling that she was right to some degree. If it had wanted to hurt them, it would've easily done so. He watched it's hunched back shrink as it retreated, and soon enough the dizzying sensation of his impact had abated.

— thanks for trying to protect me. Said Bee.
You're an idiot, said Revui.

He did not feel the need to explain how stupid it was for her to dive in front of the bear to begin with, but the pointed look he gave her might've said as much; he was at fault too of course. A sore loser, and with an aching body that would only feel worse later. But in the princelings mind, it was her fault this had happened — every last bit of it could've been avoided if she'd just shut her stupid mouth. The boy stood up; too quickly, but he didn't give Bee the satisfaction of seeing him weakened, and powered through a wave of his fresh concussion. Then, he turned and headed towards home.

"you're an idiot."

Bee stifled a sob, feeling the tears sting her eyes quickly. she was such a fool to think... that she could be friends with him. but she did not look away from his face. wanted him to see the hurt he had caused in her own selfish way. "I only wanted to help..." which was true. she had jumped in front of him after warning him. she had seen the disinterested way the bear had looked then, saw it perfectly clear. the bear wasn't going to attack unless provoked. Revui was just lucky it had a mind to do such a thing; a smaller bear was easily aggressive without the bulk of that beast snapping him in two. 

she wasn't going to lord it over him that she was right. she wasn't even sure she was. it didn't feel like a win. "you're an idiot." it echoed over and over in her head. she bit back a strangled noise threatening to come out. Bee refused to cry in front of him despite her clear hurt. "oh" she replied simply and miserably enough before a fire was lit in her eyes. "I'm an idiot for jumping in front of you, trying to protect you. I thought maybe cause you hate me so much you wouldn't miss me if I died. that Moonspear wouldn't miss me if I died trying to protect my packmate. because I'm such a useless lump, aren't I?" 

she gave a little huff, turning in the other direction. "fine! I'm done trying to be your friend" such a lie, she wanted it so much "and I'm done with you" it hurt to think "I won't bother you anymore if I'm such a burden." her steps walked until they ran, carrying her away from Revui and the direction of Moonspear. good riddance. but before she exited, there was a distinctive sob on the wind.