Redtail Rise Life and death

before Phoenix!

The death of Red Woman was a blow to the Rise, but with the strength of the pack it would not be a fatal one. Something rose within her, not too unfamiliar now. It caused her to be a little more snappy, and yet even still she could not bear to be too far from her man. 

There would be familiar signs for him to observe—she artfully kept both near and far. Her own aching spirit kept her closer, but when he investigated and tested her she would show her teeth: not now! 

She darted after him now, a little more playful today than two days prior—when they had first lost Red Woman. It was not this on her mind, then, as the scent of her began its change. She prowled after @Mountain Boulder who was never too far, either. 

Existence was a cycle. There had been death, and now, there would be life.

mountain boulder came to new snow, subdued.

he oftened visited where red woman had been killed. he licked the earth. he whined, rubbing his shoulders along the cold grass to gather what remained of her scent.

with her death, his last tie to the rise was gone.

but he did not communicate this. he turned to mouth her cheeks, to inhale the good scent of her ruff.

in this all, they had one another.

Mountain Boulder had been her first tie to the Rise. Then, Red Woman. 

But it was the Red Woman’s cubs, as well as her own, that had tethered her for a time. Now that they were grown, New Snow knew she and he could go anywhere. But it was for these children that now she remained. Her love for them was a great and powerful thing. And she felt loyalty to them each. 

She did not think that Mountain Boulder felt differently. Even with their travels New Snow had not come to that thought. 

As he mouthed at her fur, New Snow gave happy rumbles of contentedness. She flung a foreleg around him and pressed her nose to his own, a gentle show and reaffirmation of their bond. 

Her ears flattened against her crown as she sniffed at him. Red Woman was there still. New Snow whined softly, here with him to share all things—even this terrible sadness.

and it was a great sadness.

mountain boulder hung his head in her embrace and then stepped back to sing out and out and out, endlessly in long notes.

he poured his pain into the sky.

New Snow held him for a moment before he withdrew, and listened to his keening dirge. Her sadness for him grew, and elevated also her own feelings on the matter. She tilted her head back and sang with him. 

Their breaths mingled in smoky tendrils, swirling and rising with their notes this cold winter day. New Snow did not ponder where one went when one died—she knew only that Red Woman was dead, and that her hunters crouch would never be seen again. The pain of it would linger for some time. 

But hearing the voice of her man with her own, New Snow knew neither of them would need to carry this loss alone. When at last her own song had ended, she pressed her head against his shoulder and let out a sigh. 

The sky had grown dark, they had been singing for so long. Had others joined them? She did not know. But now she felt very tired, and she nosed her man toward the rendezvous so that he would lead them there.

their sorrow spent, mountain boulder turned into the comfort offered by new snow and rose.

he forged ahead and broke the drifts for her; he looked back from time to time to see that she followed.

red woman remained heavily upon his mind.