Stone Circle adstringo

their closest neighbor was kvarsheim. from icarus he had received a report. now the eagle went to see for himself, unaffiliated with mereo.

two ducks lay upon the earth, a lucky catch in the early morning.

germanicus tilted back his head and called respectfully for an audience.

she knew this man.

her posture was like that of a tired woman leaning upon her own hip. yet she still came closer and only briefly eyed the food at the border.

hallo,

but she said no more now. inclined to let him speak.

the child leader.

"last time we met was beneath unfortunate circumstances." the eagle pressed the ducks forward.

"i would like to begin again. "i am germanicus, friend to riverclan."

riverclan.

she held fiercely to her love for them and yet it did not automatically expand to him. even as he came bearing gifts and a softer voice than the forest.

still, she softened on her own some too. not inclined to cause a fuss for a man who came with food in the late winter early spring.

bjarna. kvarsheim.

a gesture towards herself, a gesture towards the land.

now she took a harder look at the ducks he offered forward before she looked back to his face.

trade?

"trade." bjarna.

"i am a ranger and a tactician by trade." the latter no longer mattered. "perhaps you need a message carried or hunting arranged around your lands, my lady," the man suggested to the girl.

how young she was, to have come to leadership. but makono too was young.

oh if only she had known what ranger meant!

instead she could only soften further by mention of hunting. it would be good if riverclan and kvarsheim both found themselves with a bounty from this man.

hunting.

she decided with a soft nod.

you teach?

the eagle nodded. "i will teach you."

he dug a swift cache and stored the ducks there, then looked back at bjarna. "is there a sort of prey upon which you are most focused?" he asked the young leader.

"deer will be difficult with only two of us, but i will show you how to track them for another time."

deer.

she smiled wryly. as if knowing the difficulty, for how frequently she sought them! and yet still she yearned to be big enough, strong enough, fast enough. things frequently dreamed off.

come,

and she meant to lead him now along kvarsheim where the lands were not hugged so tightly by valley and glade. where the lands opened and the signs of passing herds would be spotted.

in silence did the eagle follow easily at her side, storing the details around her homeland for later reference.

the sprawl of the terrain widened. he paused at once, gesturing to hoofmarks in the melting drifts. "late spring is when they will drop their fawns," he told kvarsheim's leader. "the herds will be more vulnerable then."

he spoke more words she did not understand.

yet she knew she must ask. even if it might mark her further as a small, learning child. more than the future móðir of her home.

ah, her throat cleared softly with the little sound. vuhlen-ble? the word, chopped and clumsy.

she looked to him and hoped to find kindness.

and she would find it in entirety. "it means they are more open to being hunted. their focus will be on their children, and their children's newness will weaken the herd's ability to protect itself as they do now."

how again had she become leader? was it a tragedy of sorts as the one which marked akashingo?

he would never ask. instead, the eagle showed bjarna four prints, one lighter than the other. "a male. and hurt in the left foreleg. see how it tries to put no weight upon that foot?"

open hunted. weak.

she understood now (mostly) and offered a little nod. then looked to the tracks as he suggested.

how odd that it nearly seemed to walk upon three legs instead of four. this must be the vulnerable that the man had explained.

vuhlen-ble. she said softly.

and even if the word was still clumsy, she trusted him to understand just as he had before.

"vulnerable. yes." she was quick. he favored her with a warmed look and pressed on.

the ground was churned here by many feet. "female," he said, pointing to a splatter of yellow where urine stained the snow. "two males. more females. a young one."

each hoofmark had its own description. at length, germanicus glanced to bjarna to see that she listened.

females.

males.

young.

she sniffed each thing that she could. looked at each track that could be spotted. it seemed this was the way of things. a proper hunter might assess every thing before they reached the herd. instead of bjarna merely hoping the picking would be good when she arrived.

she hid a sense of shame behind her wrinkled features. only nodded softly in acknowledgement.

at last, germanicus showed bjarna the herd.

they were a good distance away, standing upon a rise. two males, five females, two yearlings of unknown sex.

the antlered stags glanced toward the wolves.

one stomped, snorting inaudibly; breath rose in a steaming plume.

and she watched those ones the most.

large antlers proved dangerous and tempting all at once.

she thought of the love for bones she had as a child. still it held tight to her here too. yet these beasts would not give them up so easily.

want.

she decided with a soft childish voice, but she made no move. she knew that not even the both of them could take stags.

"one day," he told her.

another stamping.

germanicus turned away, meaning to lead bjarna with him. "we will need at least two others, besides ourselves," he explained. "three for perfect luck."

fade? <3

she followed.

how funny to follow another in her own place, her own home.

yet she respected the experience he held within him.

two. three.

her head nodded softly with mild understanding. grateful for the knowledge he had brought with him to kvarsheim, that he would leave with her so that she too could sprinkle it about.