Skeletal Hill taste the butane

"Oh, oh, oh oh." Leander chanted with each step, pulling his long legs up with exaggeration as he tried—and failed—to keep his paws from getting stuck in the slush. "Yuck." Finding a large, snowy hill that hadn't yet melted, the boy sought refuge, climbing up the drift, and wildly shook off each of his paws in turn in an effort to keep the sludge from clinging to their undersides. It wasn't like he was normally all prim and proper, but it kept squelching in between his toes, and it was so deep.

Satisfied enough with his work, Leander's watery gaze flickered around the horizon, looking for the next patch of snow he could beeline to, when he noticed it. Just there, below the hill.. there were bones? Interesting. He took a step closer, and felt a shift, and a crrrrunnncchhhh underpaw. Blinking, the yearling looked down between his forelimbs at the skull he had just uncovered. "Oh." Blinking again, and taking his time to actually look around, he noted that not only were there bones below the hill, but the hill.. seemed to be made of bones. Great. Wonderful. Totally normal.

His body reacted before he could, raising his hackles, and sending a shiver up his spine. NO! It wasn't normal! Dark pupils widened as the panic began to flare in his stomach. "Oh no. Nope. No." Turning wildly, and feeling the sickening crackle of remains beneath his mud-caked paws, Leander made an attempt at backing down the partially snow-covered hill, only to misjudge the stability of said bone-pile, and find himself tumbling the rest of the way down.

Never had he been so happy to feel the mud between his toes, and against his sides, but he had to get out of here, and fast! Making a break for it, the boy sped off in a panic, completely unaware of his surroundings.

You said you'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are too

Landen had been heading north. Leith had told him the Surge used to be up that way, so of course he went looking fort eh kingdom his parents had before they were forced out by the coyotes… what he hadn’t been expecting was to stumble upon a bone hill of all things. He whined softly, though it appeared he wasn’t the only one around… he heard a voice, and it sounded familiar. Of course he placed it shorty after. Leander? “Leander?” He asked aloud, confusion in his tone before he saw his brother bolting away from the bone pile. He followed after him.

“Leander slow down, will ya?” He called out again. He was a scaredy cat, of that there was no doubt, but he would argue that his brother was worse. What was he even doing here? What if something had happened to mom and dad and his brother had come to find him? He could feel the anxiety bubbling in his chest as he instantly catastrophized the situation. It didn’t occur to him that perhaps his brother merely set out on his own, or maybe followed himself and Legolas and Leith… no, that could not be at all.

Upon hearing his name, the boy nearly jumped out of his skin. 'Oh Gods! It's here, and it knows my name!' He picked up the pace, which wasn't particularly easy, given that he was already stumbling and slipping over the slushy terrain. It wasn't until the second time the voice called out to him that he realized, "Oh."

The boy skidded to a halt, and flipped himself around as ocean-hued eyes searched the horizon. He found Landen's tawny form with ease, and panted out a breath. Relief washed over him, starting from his stomach and blossoming outward, until his knees stopped wobbling. "Landen, you have no idea how happy I am to see you, but we have to go!" Any distance that they could put between themselves and that massive pile of bones would be good. "There is a mountain over there made of bones." He stressed the syllables, hoping that his brother would understand the gravity of the situation. "And I don't think whatever made it is going to be happy to find us here." Or actually, it probably would be, but Leander had no intentions of being added to the pile.

You said you'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are too

He saw his brother just start to run faster and he was trying to bolt after him but damn it his brother was fast, not that he was shocked. Landen had always been the nervous sort, but Leander could be an absolute basket case sometimes. He skidded to a halt, seeming to realize that Landen wasn’t a threat, but his brother. Landen himself eased to a halt with a pant as he caught his breathe, his maw hanging open and his tongue hanging out as he let out an exasperated sigh, collapsing dramatically on the ground. “Calm down Leander… the bones are old.” He assured his brother quickly.

Landen had been around the area for awhile. “Chances are they’re left over from th‘yotes. Ah haven’t seen’r smelled anything since Ah got here n’ Ah’ve been where a long while.” He assured him, nipping lightly at his ear to try and put him at ease. “Ah’ll protect us if there is anythin’… me n’ Leith. He’s ‘round ‘ere somewhere… Leggy too.” It seemed many of the Stark children had made their return to these lands, and Landen was glad that he was not the only one of his kin to make the voyage.

Leander watched his brother fall dramatically to the ground, and perhaps if he hadn't been in such a panic, he might have good-heartedly nudged Landen up, or playfully crashed on top of him, but even a few steps closer to that bone pile were a few steps too close for him.

As Landen reassured him, Leander found a nervous laugh forcing it's way up and out of his chest. "Oh." Maybe he'd be less hasty in the future, but at least his survival instincts were top notch. "I didn't really stick around long enough to check." He let out another pant, and closed the distance between them, before allowing his frame to drop haphazardly to the ground.

He accepted his brother's nip by pushing his head under Landen's muzzle. They hadn't been apart long, but boy had missed his family. At the mention of their other brothers, Leander's tail began to flicker, digging a trench in the snow-covered ground behind him. "Well, at least if the 'yotes or whatever made that pile come back, it's Leith they'll need protecting from." An easy smile found it's way onto his maw, starkly contrasting the terror that had been there only moments before he'd run into his brother.

You said you'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are too

He watched his brother react, and Landen couldn’t help the faintest snort of amusement that slipped out before he could rein it back in. He pushed his way to his paws and gave his brother’s shoulder a playful nudge. “Ah promise not e’reythin is out ta get ya.” He promised with a lighter tone filtering the air. “Ah figured. Ya looked like yer had just seen a ghost.” He teased lightly as he nipped at his littermate’s ear. “Come on. Ah’ll show ya ta where Ah’ve been crashin’. I smelt some rabbits earlier so maybe we can even get a snack.” He said as he motioned with his head.

He snickered at the comment with a nod. “Th’real reason th’yotes are long gone is ‘cause Leith swept in like a tornado n’ blew them all away.” He agreed, because if anyone was chaotic enough to scare away an entire army of scavengers, it was one Leith Stark. “No idea where he gets it from… Mama n’ Papa are nothin’ like ‘im.” It had always puzzled him, because for the most part the Stark siblings seemed to take after their parents, but there also seemed to be an exception in every litter, from his rapping older sister to Leith to the outlier in their own agegroup too.

Leander's nose crinkled playfully at his brother's nudge, but the advice was lost on him. Of course not everything was out to get him. Just some things were.. like scary wolf-eating beasts who left their victims in massive bone piles. His skin tingled at the mention of ghosts. Honestly, he was lucky that he hadn't seen one, what with all of the creatures that had been killed and stored there. "You would have been scared too, if you walked up a hill and realized it was bones." Probably.. maybe.. Regardless, Lea would rather look silly, then look like lunch in someone else's stomach.

His tail flashed wildly from side to side at the prospect of seeing his brother's new 'pad', and the promise of a snack. Running for your life was hard work, and his stomach seemed to agree. "Yes, please!"

A laugh tumbled up from his chest as he imagined Leith both literally and figuratively blowing the coyotes away. "I still say mom n' dad found him under a bush somewhere..." There was a mischievous glint to his water-toned eyes as he spoke, knowing full well that Leith was definitely related to them.

You said you'll never be forgiven 'til your boys are too

Landen simply raised a brow with amusement on his features as he tried to defend why he had been so spooked. “Ya right, Ah probably woulda been.” He conceded, though deep down he knew he probably would have noticed that it was bones before he started to walk on the hill… in fact, he had before which was why he hadn’t been fazed and had been able to offer his brother a logical explanation. His brother seemed eager and his tail wagged as he made a motion with his head to guide him along. It was nice to have family around.

Leith was great, but there was a part of Landen that wasn’t entirely sure he was actually related to them. He was just so different from mom and dad that he had to be adopted, right? It was something that troubled the young intellectual to this day. He snorted at his brother’s words. “Nah, he wouldn’t stay still under a bush.” He countered as he considered it. “Ah say they found ‘im as a pup tryin’ ta fight mother nature.” That sounded like a very Lee thing to do, after all. Their brother was a wild child. “At least we’re never bored when he’s ‘round.”

Leander nodded, feeling satisfied that his brother understood why he had been frightened at first, and that Landen definitely didn't think he was some kind of baby for having such a reaction. It was a perfectly normal, sane response to not realizing that a hill was made of bones, and then upon realizing such, it was also perfectly normal to get the heck out of dodge.

Landen's take on the circumstances of Leith's birth caused Leander's smile to widen. "Yer right." It really was nice to have family around. "I bet Leith would've won if mom n' dad hadn't picked him up." As for his brother's next statement, that was definitely true. Life with Leith was never dull. "Now.. about that snack..?" As if on cue, his stomach let out an audible growl.