White Fir Notch To go gliding

OOC: @Ryker @Lucia - time for puppy fun! Backdated to 1/2.

1/2/2017
Weather:
5° F, -15° C
Partly Sunny
1:38 PM

The sudden scarcity of food had not yet done much to keep the children from playing most of the day. If anything, they probably needed it as a distraction from the seriousness of the adults and the frustration of not being able to catch much of anything to make it better. Not to mention the annoying feeling of being hungry more and more lately. The snow was getting deeper, but not so deep that Aleris had to bounce and dive across its surface when it was powdery and loose. Lucia sometimes had to she'd noticed, hilariously. Not right now though, as the trio romped through the mixed woods of their home; chasing and tackling each other into being “it” and throwing plenty of banter around. Ryker had been downed by his elder sister early on with a good pounce into the white flakes, only to catch the slightly more mired Lucia in a clearing where the snow was deeper, who then managed to again tag Eris when they were back among the trees and the shallower footing. Her tail had been the target, and the little black pup had somehow outmaneuvered her older counterpart when Aleris chose to, predictably, retaliate by whirling on her.

Now the big mottled pup was on the hunt again, her face plastered with an open grin and tongue lolling. The game was leading them down towards the banks of the springs, as all three galloped across the flatter ground and thicker trees. One thing she had always counted on was Ryker stumbling over or running into something, but luck was apparently on the boy's side for now, and Lucia could only be caught when she tired out in an area like this. As they charged on, the fatigue and the hunger began to get to the firstborn Lieris. She was panting pretty hard, the warm breath from her lungs easily visible in great, shredded puffs against the frigid air. They'd all swung just close enough to the water to see its surface between the trees, and it was this peculiar sight that gave the girl an excuse to end her pursuit for just a moment and investigate. The Springs looked like it was... missing.

Sides heaving, the pup slowed to a gentle lope and then a swift trot, light green eyes fixated on the strangeness that was the lake's new coating. For weeks she'd seen weird hard edges appearing and vanishing just along the banks. They were remarkably cold and fragile, though not nearly as cold as the water, and fun to goof around with and smash. Adults had called it “ice,” and it only came around when the white flakes replaced the rain and everything turned chilly, which was now. She'd been told that one day it would cover the whole lake, and as cool as that had sounded, the image in her mind was nothing like the sight before her now. There was snowy ground where water should have been!

"Guys!" She called into the forest behind her; voice breathless and shocked. "Guys look at the lake! It's gone!"

(This post was last modified: Jan 04, 2017, 06:25 AM by Aleris.)

Despite the cold, Ryker was enjoying the day with his sisters with a simple game of tag. It was keeping him warm and it was making him not realise just how deadly winter could be. Like his sisters, he hadn't  quite realised yet just how the cold and snow could effect the food and such within their territory. It hasn't gone entirely unnoticed of course, that the adults were bringing back less food whenever they would hunt and the caches were getting lower as the days went by.


But as he was dashing through the snow, to avoid Aleris and being tagged it by her, he hears her voice float in the air, making his ears perk up. The lake was gone? How was that possible? It was a large thing of water-no way it could just be gone. Was Aleris just making a joke so she could draw her siblings out of the forest and tag whoever came out first? It was something she would do but at the same time, Ryker had been noticing smaller creeks has been getting hard as well and difficult to drink from.

Deciding to be cautious, Ryker snuck to the edge of the forest, peeking out from behind a tree to see Aleris standing near the edge of the lake. It certainly did look odd, Ryker saw with a frown so he stepped forward and towards his sister.

Going to stand next to her, he reached out a paw and poked the ice, half expecting it to sag under his weight, like it had done so often before.

but it didn't. it stayed solid and it felt slippery underneath his paw. He glanced wide eyed at Aleris.

"Is this what the adults mean when they call it ice?" Ryker voiced outloud, wonder seeping in his voice, wanting some sort of confirmation of what was happening.

(This post was last modified: Jan 04, 2017, 08:22 AM by Ryker.)

Lucia found that it wasn't easiest to not get tagged when she kept whoever was currently 'it' directly within sight. While the sometimes difficult-to-maneuver snow often proved an obstacle, she was slowly but surely learning how to navigate the different consistencies, and she'd always had the upperhand when it came to agility on both of her siblings. As long as she saw them coming, it was likely that she could doge away. So when Aleris was suddenly distracted, pace slowing and all, Lucia took great and immediate notice.

Her smile dissipated and her ears perked, brows knitting with confusion. She'd stopped moving altogether, while Ryker was still bounding around ahead of them and to the left. Cautiously, as Aleris headed for the spring, the runt followed at a distance. She heard her sister's exclamations before she saw the waterscape for herself, and her heart jumped into her throat.

What did she mean, gone?!

In a flurry she charged forward, past her sister to where the bank should have been.

"R-, right here, right?!" she asked, lifting a hesitant paw that was poised to test the place where she knew there should be water. Ryker was quicker for once, though, and her gold eyes watched him as her extremity continued to hang suspended in the air.

His paws scraped away snow and revealed glassy ice, and she wasn't sure if she was happy about it or not. That meant the lake still existed, but it wasn't the same like this. How long would it be solid? Not that swimming had proven very fun in the cold, but...

With a frown etched deeply across her boxy muzzle, she punched her own paw down through the dusty snow to feel the ice. Her pad caught then slipped, and she scowled for a moment before trying the other paw.

"This is stupid. I don't like it," she grumped.

There is a deer that was killed by a lynx nearby. +10 Health