Kildeer Rest figure out yer next move boss

the rock formations which dotted the open land threw eerie shadows that blended with twilight. as far as colt was concerned, the taiga belonged to the gang, though he'd yet to run in with the lot on the rise. he was a survivor, after all, colt briggs was.
he sniffed the air. his blood-drop eyes shifted toward @Indra III, slight in the evening next to him. "whatcha smell, red?" she was becoming a fine hunter. but the night had pitfalls into which any wolf could stumble. better to be safe than sorry.

This place was cold and rough. It was getting colder, too. As they picked their way across the irregular terrain Indra kept her head down, sometimes sheltering alongside Colt until he inevitably took notice. In the evening the air was brisk and Indra couldn't warm up at all, which put her in a poor mood.

Smells like ass, she contended.
She was standing very near to Colt's hip, as if heeled there. She knew he asked after something else — it was her job now to scout, track, and hunt; but she was distracted by the combined ache of her muscles, her empty belly, and the increasing cold.

she was cold. he saw she wasn't suited for the taiga life but she'd have to toughen regardless. still he did not pull away, letting her shelter there like an addled sparrow. "aye. yer right. what's under the ass smell?" he demanded in a joking tone.
this time he did step away, deeper into the territory. he examined a splash of wolf-urine high on a rock formation, wrinkling his nose in distaste to find that they were not alone here.

There's something almost sour here. She answered with her nose down among some stones.

He had gone to inspect the high ground. She, the lower. Along her route were long, rough gouge-marks in the dirt, and scat partially exposed beneath another patch of it, as if once buried. It was an odd smell she had never tasted before. It made her nervous.

Indra ducked and rolled on one shoulder to gather the scent. It would be easier to show off that way; plus, if it made her nervous, maybe it would make the strangers they encountered think twice. She wore the cat scent as she climbed after Colt.

colt snorted breath over the smell that indra now carried. the heat of it ruffled her scarlet fur. "now yew smell like ass," the rogue hooted. "d'ya know what that is?" he asked.
the shadow of a wolf crossed several feet away. colt stopped, teeth flashing with a warning growl. he pushed ahead of red, centering her along his hip once more.
but there was no threat. the stranger ran on. briggs relaxed. he flexed his toes against his rocky perch. "seems t'be fuck all here," he declared, red eyes flicking to indra. "let's keep movin.'"

He inspected her, sort of. His insult was easily dismissed as a poor jest and Indra gave a small chuff to feign amusement, when really she felt nothing. She was about to say no, when movement caught in the corner of her eye.

She squared towards the stranger; by the time she'd focused upon them, Colt was standing at the forefront and bristling. The stranger took one look and high-tailed it.

Should we chase 'em? She asked as she loped behind Colt, then around him, to stand half-cocked and ready to sic em, even though the stranger had vanished.

colt chuckled. "shore, if'n yew wanna be tired an' more hungry than yew are now. keep your strength, red, don't go wastin' it when there's no point."
they needed food. and he wanted a woman, deprived of that since sakhmet's husband had come home. longer than usual. it was making colt peevish. 
"a meal. then a nap. then we're gettin' gone." he started the eternal hunt for small game.

He dismissed the idea of giving chase.

Indra frowned for a second and then with a tsk, turned back to the hunt. She took one step and stretched, and then another, trying to diffuse the tension that had arisen upon sighting the stranger in the first place.

Colt moved along to scour the earth for signs of game. Indra watched him a second and then followed, rounding closer to an old tree standing with a narrow trunk nearby. It had to be old; it was extremely tall and weathered.

There were no signs among its lower reaches of anything except a few owl pellets in the grass, one which Indra grabbed to crunch curiously between her teeth; a few seconds later she spat it out and gagged.

colt pulled his attention from indra and set it on the hunt. he remembered all the things that sadey had shouted and said, and oh it rankled him.
but now was not the time to consider those things.
there was the oily scent of mink on the wind. colt set off at a slink, ears flicking to hear the click of indra's teeth, her spitting. he wished she'd quiet down. his crimson eyes watched the tiny bit of movement at the far treeline.

Most of what she'd crunched had been bones. Some kind of rodent, she thought. Her tongue was littered with bits of splintered bone and fur, and some feathers, so maybe not all of it was terrestrial; but it was awful, and Indra sputtered around a bit as she tried to cleanse her tongue.

After a few mouthfuls of grass to correct her palate, she realized Colt was somewhere else. He'd drawn away, after a scent or something.

The girl kept low and quieted after that, snaking along to find whatever he'd already begun to stalk. They were nearing the trees and Indra eyed him every few steps, looking for a clue or a cue to run.

he moved closer and closer, ignoring red even as he felt her glances. the long little animal had not noticed them yet, and one route of escape was blocked by yet another pile of stone.
he swerved around this, flicking ragged tail to gesture indra the other way.
they would catch it between them. colt's eyes flickered to the young hunter. now.

she saw the creature as it twitched, moving almost like a snake at first, but then it set to burrowing or rummaging the undergrowth along the tree-line like some kind of rodent; it must have been something like that then, a rodent. it didn't matter either way - it was food.

colt moved one way and with one look, indra knew it was her chance to move in. she sprang forth with her body laying low but the rest of her churning, looking all the more like a coyote than a wolf. when she was close enough she snapped her teeth (even if the worm-rat was not within reach); it would either fall to her bite or it would retreat from it, and in to colt's.

red's teeth flashed. she was feral. and she drew first blood. "good," colt grunted. the dead animal was not enough to feed them both. his eyes flared toward her. eat. he would find something else for himself. she had brought food that day, and it was the gang's way to only share what was available.
colt licked his lips and turned back to the cold wind. there were no scents there. his belly clenched uncomfortably but he would not show this to indra.

good.
his praise was not supremely rare, but rare enough that this single word brought more spirit to indra than the kill. she held the lopsided body aloft and carried it with her now.
when he turned away she knew it was to let her eat, and so she stripped the thing to pieces and filled her belly with it, ruining the pelt; leaving the head and the feet for the scavengers.
why aren't we huntin' with the others?
the quiet man, the screeching harlot.

"dangerous to be all in one place fer long," colt grunted. as much as his belly wanted to be filled, there weren't pickings of any kind around here. his step became languid, slipping back into a swagger rather than a hunt. 
"'sides, don't think sadey really cares for yew." she'd said the opposite; he knew she cared. but colt was not about to let his longtime sort-of friend fill indra's head with any thoughts that would take her away from him.
"yer gonna have t'give her time."

His response this time was adequate. She need not question it.
As for Sadey, Indra had already written her off. She scoffed around her carried prize and grumbled, Dn munch caeh whah zhe dinks.
And that was that.
Indra felt zero desire to prove herself to the loud woman and saw no reason to try, because she had Colt.

colt drew up, and hard. "now listen here, indra-red." his eyes blazed, but not with anger. "sadey's saved my hide more times'n i care t'recount. reno too. we kin hunt an' live just fine, yew an' i. but it'll be hard. an' fer what, when we got a gang?"
his eyes did not leave her face. "we kin belong t'each other, red. but we're also part of them, at least till spring."

When he confronted her she flinched and shrank smaller, hesitating with the expectation that she had erred with her comment. Maybe he would strike her.
When he didn't she was slow to move on.
The loud woman meant something to Colt. That was the lesson here. The gang was important somehow; she would learn what he meant in time.
A careful nod and slick-back of her ears showed she understood and deferred to his opinion.

can fade w ur post or fade here! <3

colt enjoyed her concession. "all right. let's get the fuck outta here." briggs cared nothing for the openness of this land. he wanted the forest and the shadows. 
so he set off in the direction of where he'd last seen sadey and reno, sauntering walk becoming a canter as the long darkness grew.