Redtail Rise Empty the pockets of the innocent victim

The hunter sought @Avicus.

He wore the white wolf's scent, his blood; he was streaked with other things too, unmentionable. Strutting as a rooster might across the rise. Baying for her, possessed by the rogue's lustful spirit.

Tulimaq rounded upon her scent and called again, impatient.

you get post #400!

she's interrupted from cache-digging by the insistent cries of her Ulfhedinn, and it only takes a little while upon meeting with him to realize that the blood he wore is not of prey but of foe.

or his own. . .

whahh' happenedh? Avicus demands, eyes raking over his disheveled form. she gives a brief but insistent call for @Ashlar, trying to determine how badly he is hurt. because if all of it is his blood—

no, she smells it on him, the angry reek of a stranger. she looks toward the border, lips rippling upward in a snarl.

Ooh! Grats!!

She came quickly, a bolt of red against the frosted hillside. Tulimaq moved closer to her as she questioned, as she called; grunting lowly with derision when he realized she had called the healer to them.

There was a man that wanted to fuck you. He's dead now. There was blood across Tulimaq's face, wounds still seeping along his shoulders, but he was fine. The other man had it worse.

Lifting his head triumphantly, he let out a rumble of pleasure. Tulimaq had it in his head, he had earned more of a right to Avicus than anyone. The possessive look upon his face was proof enough to what he saw in her.

As it happened, Ashlar was on the borders at the moment, marking the trees and wondering what he might try that night. He hadn't explored the northern edge, and maybe he could find something worth hunting there.

Avicus' call brought him running. He didn't hear much of what they had already said, but the man's stance brought him up short. He was covered in blood but some instinct told Ashlar not to approach too close.

He kept silent, off to the side of both of them, looking at the man's wounds. Baba had taught him how to treat and clean them, but his ears tipped back. He wanted to insist but didn't know how.

she squints at him. fugckh. . .me? the words come slowly. 'fuck' sounds like 'fight,' but Tulimaq would have used the latter word if he meant that. she wonders if it is similar, though.

before she can ask more, Ashlar arrives and is looking the man over, though at a distance. you hurhh'? Avicus barks, stepping in to keep things moving. lehh' healer help, if you needh.

she begins to walk, gesturing for the two to follow. 'hhhsow me where, she tells her Ulfhedinn, insistent. her steps come fast and light upon the snow.

The girl doesn't understand. He doesn't expect such obliviousness, and feels his ego take a small hit. The offered healing earns a glare from Tulimaq to Ashlar with the remnants of hostility and oh-so-recent murder lending a primitive, dangerous edge.

Tulimaq strides after Avicus with all the haughty bearing of an expectant king lion, puffed up and bloodied after chasing out a would-be usurper.

He came here to bed you, girl. Not serve anyone but himself. A throaty grunt erupts from the warrior as he makes his way around her after, showing her the way to the body.

The white wolf had a chance to be more to the rise, but it mattered little now.

There were mixed messages here, but Avicus's words were stronger for him. They reinforced the desire to help, and combined, those two things overcame the warning in Tulimaq's eyes. He followed after stubbornly, trailing them as they went to the body.

Your shoulders. I'll help you. He said, the words coming out firm despite the slight tremble he felt. His job was to make sure that everyone here was healthy and fit in order to best do their own jobs. If any infection spread, things would be worse. Gannet had stressed the need for early inspection before nearly anything else would be done.

the carnage is easy to spot from afar, a splash of crimson against the snow. she still hadn't understood Tulimaq and snaps toward his flank, urging him to stay back. lehh' healer look ah' you, she commands, and then moves up toward the body, staring dispassionately down at the ragged remnants of flesh.

he'd been big, but lanky. white as a blizzard, and body just as cold. the innards, too, were cooling in the winter air.

while Ashlar tends to Tulimaq, Avicus seizes hold of a bit of intestine and slowly pulls it free, dragging it to the edge of the border. she spreads the organ across the territory line, and then returns to the body, continuing to strew body parts like gruesome markers against the outside world.

it's a warning.

trespass, or be ripped apart.

she feels an absurd desire to dine upon his body, but no—he better serves as a message, instead.

I misread "he better serves as a message" as "his butter" and choked.

The little boy hurried after them and Tulimaq turned to bare his teeth, even reach and snap, without any actual intention of grabbing Ashlar to harm him; but it is a close call. Avicus is snapping too, at Tulimaq which aids in cutting through his bullshit.

Fine. He relents.

He stops and glares at the boy and then at Avicus but she is turned away, looking firstly at the body, then grabbing at whatever pieces she can. The snow is streaked with reds more vibrant than her.

He had been here before. Calling. Trying to lure women, or find you. Probably been hunting the area a while. Tulimaq explained this while Ashlar tended to him, muscles rippling on occasion as a reaction to the annoyance of the boy being so close.

Tulimaq rumbles but no longer goes for Ashlar. He watches the goings-on between the wealda and the entrails with a vague fascination. She is some bestial thing and he appreciates that, to a point.

Guess he thought to come back here and try again to impress you with that puny dick of his. Tulimaq's crackling laugh was short-lived. His eyes followed Avicus' hips as she worked. Ain't gonna be fathering any bastards now.

Ashlar didn't run directly into the warning snaps, but he didn't let them deter him either. His own jaw was set stubbornly, though his ears and tail were both down, his nerves on high alert.

The blood in the air only made it worse. He couldn't look at what Avicus was doing. It didn't matter if the man was already dead... there was something wrong in it, the same callous disregard of the coyote impaled upon a spire. Remembering it made Ashlar's stomach turn, and he focused harder, complete attention on cleaning the man's shoulder wounds.

All the while he was tensed and ready to take a snap from the impatient warrior. The moment never came. As gently, but also as thoroughly, as he could, Ashlar ensured that there was no dirt or grime collected within the freshly torn area. He didn't have anything here, but later he'd bring the man something to apply to it. It might come down to another argument, but Ashlar knew he needed to learn to enforce his role here. Even if only in the ways he was able - perseverance and quiet insistence.

When he was done, he still couldn't look. He would avoid this place, if only to avoid the image of another wolf's insides strewn like cast-off leaves on the snow.

nothing Tulimaq was saying made sense. her mind is solely for the distribution of matter across the border, and she undergoes the task with singular-minded vigor.

once she's done, she returns to the pair, eyes cutting into the both of them.

behh'her? she asks, brow raised. 

that is Ashlar's job, to keep her warriors and hunters in top shape. she cannot have any of them succumb to the fate she's witnessed.

He thought she was primitive like his people, but maybe it went deeper than that. She was too young to have had a season of her own and Tulimaq had assumed as much. He was frustrated with trying to make her understand by now, and did not speak again about it.

One day she'd understand. Maybe then she'd thank him or something.

The boy tended to him and when he finished, Tulimaq briskly moved off. He grunted in response to Avicus' inquiry; either too annoyed to answer now or merely petulant, disinterested in giving the boy any positive reinforcement.

He wasn't much of a fighter. Gave him the option though. He kicked at a piece of garbage still lodged in the pile of wolf parts, chuckling to himself, and then glanced to Avicus again.

I'll patrol again. He might've had brothers.

It's clean, but it needs more. I'll come back. It was clear that Ashlar would have to track Tulimaq down but he would find him.

He began to run over the lessons again, silently remembering the things he had found so far. There were a few things for wounds. These weren't deep, so only needed the guards against poison setting in.

He couldn't meet Avicus' face with his gaze, not with the blood still there on her muzzle and chest. He gave a small, awkward nod and then set off to where he'd stashed his things, eager to be away.

Ashlar leaves and she rounds upon Tulimaq, eyes blazing. 

fugck. . .bed. . .'hhell me whah' you mean.

she can't take the risk of more enemies. her body is taut, ready to strike. she feels the danger, but in a different fashion.

she stares at her Ulfhedinn, demanding answers.

Ashlar departed. Tulimaq hardly noticed, as it was the red girl who drew his eye now, turned his ear. The way she pieced things together was almost amusing to Tulimaq — but he was grimacing again.

He hadn't thought the wealda would be so ignorant to this part of the world. That nobody had given her the talk wasn't much of a stretch, if her parents were anything like her; but Tulimaq was resistant to being the one to coach her.

I've told you. He wearily answered.

Still, she asked pointedly for clarification. He could have put aside words and shown her but, she was too young for it. It wasn't worth the threat of expulsion, if he were to mount her here and now.

Its how each of us are made. Your father fucked your mother, and now we have you. That was as specific as he'd get about it. He would have taken your womb, made you a mother, and left. All for the pleasure of it.

The warrior chuckled lowly and sat down, regarding the girl carefully. Perhaps I should have let him. You could have been a mother to fierce warriors.

he explains, and her face changes. understanding. and then—

i will be, Avicus spits, ears folding back. she doesn't appreciate the humor; it comes a little close to treason for her liking. to let such a man enter their home, take her, fu—

she snorts, sending twin cascades of steam into the air, and stalks a short distance away, nearer the corpse. stares at it, dispassionately.

Tulimaq had defended an intruder. he is worthy.

good, she says, and glances toward him, gaze gimlet. well dhhone.

the atmosphere is thick and heady with blood. she returns to her Ulfhedinn and gives him a nip on the shoulder on her way past him, deeper into the territory. nothing cruel, but hard enough to remind him who he serves.

she wonders if he will want to 'fuck' her, too—and if she'll let him.