Moonsong Glacier i wanna get down lower than atlantis

mayb @Merrick ? <3

another pack bit the dust. val, if he possessed a shred of guilt, showed nothing for it.

he headed in the direction he believed was north, mapping his progress against the rise and set of the sun. sometimes he corrected his course midday, realizing he'd gone adrift as the sun waned -- other times, he was certain he was headed due north.

he didn't remember the terrain being this hilly when he left the sea, and it was his eventual goal to return home. he'd gone hunting for a spell and returned to the redsands empty --with not a scratch of the saints to be seen.

well, as the expression went... easy come, easy go. val continued his slow-but-steady trek, eyes trained on the distant hills which were limned by sunset gold.

Hunting was so dull.

But god was she hungry. She was lying on her stomach in bushes, waiting patiently for food to come by. A bird perhaps? She waited for what felt like an eternity and in the beginning she had been careful to not touch the ground with her stomach, but quickly found that it was an impossible task. Too hard! She was almost falling asleep when she finally heard a rustle. She perked her ears and her eyes didn't even see what was coming. She was on a small hill slopping down on a path made by animals, hoping that something delicious would turn up.

And something came.

She set off, jumped down the small slope and with a wild snarl she tried landing directly on top of whatever had come by and bite down on it. Hard. She snarled as teeth would try and get a hold of flesh and fur and she shook her head violently.

It took her few seconds to realize she had jumped another wolf. The sheer surprise made her release her grab and jump off with a surprised yelp. "You are not food!" Well duh! She looked at the older male. He was good looking too, well damned her luck! She bit her lip in embarrassment, she should have apologized, but was too baffled to say a word. That and apologies didn't exactly come natural to the former princess. She looked sheepishly at him and finally found the way to speak.

"I was hunting." Not exactly the best way to start a sentence. "For food." Not - you. She took a proper look at him. Well okay maybe she was hunting for him after all.

at some point, val got the sensation he was being watched. he couldn't say why: it wasn't as if there were eyes anywhere he could see, and he wasn't exactly traveling through a spooky forest or swamp.

still. maybe it was the absence of evening bird chatter, or the missing wind. something was telling him -- in the best way it knew how -- that something or someone besides him was here.

along his back a chill climbed upwards, his guardhairs prickling.

that something came before val knew it -- he was abruptly bludgeoned overhead, a weight across his spine he had never felt before. val screamed in terror, an insurgence of instinct compelling him to drop his shoulder and flee from whatever predator assailed him --

he didn't even catch the you are not food! of his pursuer -- val flew up the hills like they were licked in flames. he did not slow until he realized no footsteps pursued him: only then did he turn back down the foothills, peering at the creature that had put the fear of god in his heart.

a child.

it was a fucking child.

val's eyes narrowed, his heart still hammering in rhythmic gallop. "what -- and i can't stress this enough -- the fuck bro?!"

The male screamed in terror, so much in fact that Makatza for a moment wondered who was being the child around here. He ran off some distance before returning and looking at her with a look she couldn't tell what was supposed to mean. She kept her posture, though was also trying pretty hard to not laugh at him.

"what -- and i can't stress this enough -- the fuck bro?!" The entire expression and posture of Makatza changed.

Hello, and welcome back bitch.

"Excuse me." Her tailed waved dangerously behind her as it rose in a manner that was supposed to tell him that she didn't appreciate the way he spoke to her. "I am not a bro." She was a fucking lady.

"You may address me as a lady. And nothing else." She looked at him with a dangerous expression that warned him that she might jump him again if he wasn't careful. She didn't like being talked to like some kind of. Bro. Who even said stuff like that? Her initial liking to the guy was gone at the blink of an eye.

What a fucking asshole.

first she pounced on him like he was a rack of haunch meat at the market -- then she got all uppity when he came back. val's brows hiked up in incredulity -- this one was clearly coco loco, and he was having none of it.

the stiff demeanor and cold glint in her gaze wasn't enough dissuade that old snake of a tongue from rearing its ugly head in val: call him many things, but he was raleska's daughter even if he didn't know it. throwing shade came as naturally to him as drinking riverwater or peeing outside. he might generally be an affable sort, but he wasn't a doormat and he certainly wasn't going to told what to do by a stranger.

'sides -- she was like, literally half his age. "you don't look like a lady to me, bro." val quipped back, already turning to leave this loonbird. the figurative middle finger that was his candlestick upright tail was just the cherry on top.

"you don't look like a lady to me, bro."

He made one mistake though. He turned his back on her.

Makatza jumped again, aiming for his left hind leg. She would bite down as hard as she could with his back turned, and she would pull with her entire weight backward to make him stumble and BLEED. No one, and she meant no one, was going to turn their back on her. Or call her bro, twice.

His stupid tail had been lifted as to say "fuck you." and she hated it. If she had made him stumble and fall she would bite for it. She would chimp like a gator onto his tail, and pull on it as hard as she could then begin to shake back and forth to really maim and break it. She didn't want it to fall off, oh no that was just a clean cut.

She wanted him to hurt.

Just like he hurt her feelings.

She spoke no words as she attacked, she just did. She didn't want to warn him or tell him he was an idiot, but she was certainly going to prove to him that turning his back on someone pissed, was a poor choice of action.

val had a lot to learn in life. like for one, don't pick stupid fights.

and for two, don't turn your back on the people you just pissed off.

he heard rather than saw what came next. instinctively he scooted forward, but too late -- the girl's teeth wrapped around his hock, scraping fur from delicate skin and sending a hot-iron lace of pain up his leg. "HEY!" val bellowed as he yanked his leg away, already swinging around with teeth.

before, he was just being a little flippant -- but now he was royally pissed off. this stranger was coco-fucking-loco, and while val couldn't really afford to risk an all out fight on account of being alone in the wilderness, he wasn't going to be a doormat either.

he dove as he contorted around, teeth aiming for retribution in the square of her flank. if she swung her head towards him, she'd receive a battalion of fangs -- val was many things, but push him over the edge and he always fought back.

luckily for both, the skirmish ended there. either val had been intimidating enough to keep her from advancing, or she’d a reunion with her senses. either way val was not taking chances. still pressed, and definitely salty, val stalked away with a single ear turned back. it would be some time before his hackles and nerves settled.