Bearclaw Valley huwas

She is hungry again. A murmur of crows circling an old carcass in the distance draws her over a scentline and into a walled valley where the rocks tower for many lengths above her. The trail she follows is stale but not unused, and as she draws closer she understands why.

The remains of an elderly bison have been picked clean. Her tongue flicks to wet her nose, ears swivelling wildly as if to confirm her lonesome before she surges forward to snap a rib from the felled beast, dragging her prize to a concealment of bushes. With a frenzy known only to the starving, she begins to crush the sun-bleached surface of the bone and lap the rich marrow beneath.

Back in a jiff, She said, as she pressed a kiss to her mate's forehead. She gave him a slightly guilty smile; all five infants began to protest the moment she stood up. Auberon had to be pried from a teat, and once her mouth was empty, she began to cry out with grating bellows, twice as loud as the wolf pups. She drew in a breath and left, assuring herself that this would pass. The children would settle down, the bearcub would stop crying- and eventually, they'd all grow up like the girls had. In the meantime...Motherhood was beautiful, but it was also very difficult. 

She needed fresh air, food, and to relieve herself. She needed to stretch her legs, and she needed a little bit of 'me' time that wasn't just napping while the children did the same. She couldn't unburden herself of the guilt she felt, leaving her husband alone with five bawling children, though, and the peace that she'd hoped to find once she was out of earshot was temporary. 

Normally, the scent of an intruder might have caused a flash of anger. Instead, she felt something akin to relief- after all, she wasn't shirking her motherly duties if she was attending to her role as Regina. 

The bison carcass, stripped of the majority of its worth, had attracted a visitor. She began to approach quietly, drawn toward the scent, not wanting to cry out and spook the trespasser until she'd at least clapped eyes on them. She gathered what information she could from the stranger's odour, as she closed the distance- female, and alone. No scent of disease or infection, no scent of blood having been shed. Whoever this was, she'd made it past their sentry- and for that, was worthy of the Regina's attention.

Like a ravenous hyena, the wildling makes swift work of the rib. Her jaws are strong, teeth working to chew and chew as hunger gets the better of her, and soon she is driven to ingest both bone and marrow in a great desire to fill her empty stomach. 

Each snap of a twig makes her jump, each crunch of snow stiffens her legs as she wolfs down the meal, knowing that at any moment one of the residents here could discover her. And she would rather turn tail and flee than grovel for forgiveness. 

But the wind carries her scent deeper into the valley - a careless mistake for a young wolf - and Steltella does not notice the wolf approaching as she finishes the last of the bone and is about to slink back for more.

She could hear the crunching of bone- the stranger fed as a carrion-eater, pulling nutrients from deep within the bone. The wolves of Bearclaw Valley had eaten their share, stashed the valuable meat, and had left the bones for later use- but they were not so starving that the loss of some marrow might hinder them. 

Eventually, she caught sight of the stranger, hunched over the bones. She was tall, but the arch of her belly was high as it rose toward her sunken flanks. Each beat of a crow’s wings seems to cause her to flinch; this bird is ready to fly if need be. 

If she had not become so full of maternal hormones, she might have felt more anger. And if she did not have to worry about orphaning five infants by making one poor decision, she might have charged the intruder. 

Instead, she moved forward, chuffing for the woman’s attention, though her posture proclaimed no war might spring from their interaction. Her gaze was directed only toward the bison kill for a moment, until she looked to the swarthy stranger who might have figured by now that the land claim belonged to the woman before her.

With her belly still swollen and hairless teats swinging from side to side as she moved, she cut a figure that for one short period of her life would not be one of ferocity, but one of motherliness. 
Lightly lifted, her tail was the only indication that she boasted power, to be flexed only if absolutely necessary. The earth she walked was hers. The bones the stranger feasted on came from a hunt the Regina had led. There was no contest for who had the right to feast on the kill- and instead, a peaceful allowance made for the scavenger to sup as she needed, for the pack itself was strong.

She has made it halfway to the carcass when a chuff breaks the tension-filled silence. Immediately, she is skittering away like a bug about to be squished under the heel of a boot, pausing only when she is a comfortable distance to look back at who approaches.

The woman appears large, though Steltella is unsure if it is her swinging belly that engorges her silhouette. Her tail is not raised by much, but it is enough to make the wildling hesitant to stay long. Packs are often aggressive to lone wolves, especially mothers with pups to feed.

Her belly growls. Meerkating forwards, her front paws bounce on frosted ground as she assesses the risk, and relents when no immediate threat is made, meandering back to the kill with pinned ears and a slinking gait.

Ameline came to a halt when the long-limbed stranger bolted away from the kill, lessening the pressure momentarily. In a bid to gauge the other’s boldness, she remained where she was, observing quietly. Wordlessly, the other seemed to assess the Regina’s non-threatening posture, and approached the bones again. 

A flash of teeth was given, and a flick of her pink tongue wetted her lips in a brief but obvious warning, meant to catch the woman’s attention before she resumed her feasting. A lift of her tail asserted her claim over the bones; it would take more than slinking movements to appease the Regina enough to bargain for a meal.