Snowforest Taiga [feast] dandelion wishes

inkalorë stared at the carcass sitting a few yards ahead of them as if the beast was alive and huffing out threats of a grisly death. they couldn't put their fear to words; it was just there, and nothing they did seemed to help. which sucked, because the star-child was rather hungry.
they weren't always afraid of caribou, or any dead animal for that matter. whatever was wrong, it had something to do with the feast. the gilded nuiruk shifted anxiously from paw to paw, staring at the meat and feeling hungrier by the moment. if only they could shake this stupid fear...

shikoba had found time to enjoy the festivities, though as sivullik, she also takes it upon herself to check up on the voices of the village. while she would rather engross her time with inutsuk or the moon woman solely, the responsibility for her job must come first before anything.

thankfully, she's feeling sociable today and sees one of the offspring from Moonglow sitting alone, hungrily looking towards the carcass before themselves. one of the star children from the morning dove, the one she held closely. shikoba feels rather curious about this one's antics and decides to step in.

a chuff to greet them, and a nose reaches to brush against their shoulder. "afraid to eat?" she asks, her voice laced with a bit of concern, hopefully, the child feels they can share what has been harvested by the efforts of the pack. did they feel bad for not being able to help and thus they wish to not eat? that would make the most sense to the older woman, but shikoba's assumption would appear to be wrong in the case of inkaloré.

shikoba was not a wolf inkalorë knew well, but they knew her enough to recognize her as she drew close. enough that the sight of her immediately inspired worry; would their mother hear of this? that would only give her more to worry about, which inkalorë was quite determined to avoid.
n-no! ink stammered out, though it wasn't very convincing. i'm just... i'm not hungry. oh no. now they were lying! their ears flattened and they looked away guiltily, knowing lying was bad. now mom would really be upset, and it was all their fault.

they stammer, searching for an answer to satisfy the question of the warrior woman before settling on something that does not come across as truthful. shikoba wonders if her children would be special like inkaloré, or perhaps have the same mannerisms. but the thought is pushed away as she offers the child a side smile and a soft bump of her nose to their shoulder.

"if not hungry, then why stare?" she asks him gently. shikoba does not exactly feel the need to force out the truest answer from them, but talking is always better than nothing. besides, with shikoba feeling a bit more protective of loté after the situation with adrastus, she feels just as protective of her first litter. "shikoba just wants inkaloré to eat if hungry. need meat to grow strong."

kids who don't eat complain about it later, so shikoba would rather avoid that possible situation if it comes up. while nothing goes to waste within Moonglow, she would rather ink eat something fresh rather than something dried and stored away for months. cache food and dried meats can only satisfy the tongue for so long.

predictably, the golden child crumbled under further questioning. the combination of guilt and fear was simply too much for inkalorë. i guess i am hungry, they admitted quietly, ears still pinned back. they tried to look at shikoba again, not wanting to be rude, but they couldn't do it. it's just... i don't know. or did they? sharing with strangers is scary. and there it was; the true reason for all this anxiety. anticlimactic, as with most things about the star-child.

when they respond, shikoba does her best to stifle a little laugh. she forgets how peculiar children can be with certain things and decides it would probably come off as insulting if she did laugh. instead, she just leans her shoulder against the golden child for a moment to think of a good answer without making them hate her.

"strangers can be scary," she says softly, "some are nice, and some can be mean. it depends on wolf we meet." shikoba looks over her body for a moment, over the healing bruises and gnashes of the tartok man who challenged her with little reason and little explanation. "shikoba met stranger not nice days ago. he challenged sivullik." her eyes return back on the body of the child. "but shikoba not afraid of strangers, even after attack."

"ink will learn how to pick good stranger from bad. but ink should focus on not being scared wth not Moonglow wolves. many others live outside our spine." hopefully the star child would want to explore more of what the world had to offer, but until then, shikoba would be happy to keep them warm and fed for now.