come little children

Once he had been let free, Sköll glared as he watched his brother and sister make a feast of the woodchuck. It really should have been a meal perfect for one or a light meal for two; and, by the time Sköll was finally allowed a bite, he made sure he consumed what he could - at the very least, it was actually rather thoughtful that both Asriel and Morganna left him the entire neck and some internal organs. The second-born originally had plans to throw a fit if he had been left with only the skeleton to extract bone marrow from.

When their mother called them in, the prince's pale eyes lit up in a flash of lightning and his ears were filled with a roar of thunder. By the look on her face and what he could catch in the sternness of her bark, it was time to go. Eyeing both of his siblings with hooded eyes, he hastily lifted the woodchuck in his bloodied jowls and ran to catch up with Elettra. As Morganna had practically eaten all of his favorite parts of their kill and Asriel had made certain to lap up all the prime portions of the rodent, it felt only right to Sköll that he be allowed to enjoy and keep whatever was left (the pelt that still hung from it, the tail, the skull, spine, and the intestine).

He was soaked to the bone, after having been silently told to patiently wait his turn, but with his prey's cadaver in his jowls and the promise of hours of entertainment to come (there was no doubt in his mind that his siblings might, at one point of another, try to wrestle the coarse brown pelt away from him when he was through with eating), he really could have cared less. Following after Elettra, he scampered along with his head held down and his drenched tail held out behind him in a horizontal line. The lesson had been successful; and, with a bit more experience to refer back to, Sköll was determined to be prepared the next time around.

i'm a dreamer, i'm a man

i'm doing whatever i can to make the bad things go away

Though he'd given the meal to Morganna and he deferred to her, it wasn't because their relationship was one forged on physical strength- no, it was founded on the fact that Asriel believed that women were powerful in their own way, with a strength of character and wit which couldn't be over-ridden by a show of strength. Thus why he and his sister ate together, with Skoll simpering in the background. Asriel, though, was not an uncharitable soul, and took his fill without selfishly consuming the rest of it once Morganna finished. His stomach wasn't even full, and he could have easily inhaled the rest of the woodchuck but he didn't. Skoll had shown him respect- or, if nothing else, he'd at least acknowledged that his brother was stronger, and this had pleased Asriel greatly.

When his mother spoke, he lifted his handsome head and flicked some of the water off one ear. The rain had continued to fall while he'd been eating and had begun to intensify. Leaving Skoll to deal with the rest of the kill he leaned over and licked Morganna's cheek once more before he stood up obediently and picked up a trot, following his mother back to the den, quite pleased with the way things had gone. Not only had he been an integral part in a hunt, he'd also established himself over Skoll- there really wasn't a better way to end the day than go back to the den and watch the thunderstorm rage on across the land from the comfort of their home.

Avatars by Allie <3