Oak Tree Bend flesh & bone

For @Sahalie! Mid-morning

Winter had hit the bend with full force. The snow had piled high and the wind nipped incessantly at the wolves' fur to remind them of the chill. Although the temptation to stay bundled up with his nose tucked securely into his tail was strong, Serach's restlessness had gotten the better of him. With a yawn, Serach leaned forward, breaking the cocoon of snow that had surrounded him during the night. Hoisting himself to his feet, he shook himself from side to side, clearing his fur from the snow flurries that had collected there. With one last wistful glance behind him, the young adult spared only a moment urinate on a nearby tree trunk before leaving his naptime spot behind, setting off towards the creek for a drink and a spot of adventure.

The creek was a small one, and had long-since frozen over completely. Gone were the days when getting a drink meant the quick dip of the head to the creek's surface. With a grunt, Serach reared up into the air for a moment before slamming his front legs into the ice that had collected along the shallows next to the bank. The ice cracked beneath him and he felt himself momentarily stumble as his left paw fell through into the icy cold water below. Withdrawing it from the hole, he bent his head and lapped up his prize.

As he did so, the wind shifted in direction and the boy lifted his head and narrowed his eyes as he stared upriver. He had smelled beaver. Just the thought sent his stomach rumbling and he grinned as he abandoned his drinking hole and began to walk upstream, his head bent to the ground as he attempted to sniff out the beasts. He found them a few miles up, or at least, a sign of them - a dam. He didn't see any of the furry beasts, but the smell was strong here and so he assumed that they were there.

Tilting his head back, he howled, calling for Sahalie to join him. She was old enough now that she would make a good companion for hunting a beaver, and besides, it was an opportunity for Serach to pull his weight in trying to teach the youngest member of the Bend how to hunt.

The voice was familiar but the content was not. While Serach was a familiar enough face in her life, he had addressed her directly maybe once or twice but never called for her. She gulped, her mind reeling back to that time she had spied on Serach's reunion with Fenru — a relation she was still unsure of in a grander sense. But that had been months ago. If Serach had known then he probably wouldn't have postponed the confrontation by several months, even in light of all the things that had happened since Fenru's returned that could have gotten in the way: going to Hearthwood River, Drift missing, Anna's death...

Maybe he just wanted to get to know her.

The optimism in her stride carried Sahalie quickly to her pale packmate. He was standing beside a part of the river that had been clogged with a mess of sticks. Dams, she reminded herself. Someone — probably Spieden, though the voice elluded her— told her that edible creatures live in the sticks. Somehow. It all sounded sort of like nonsense to the young girl, who was used to animals living in burrows in the ground. Wouldn't the water be too cold anything now? The fish had been frozen into the streams for months now.

"Hey!" she chuffed brightly, aiming a swift lick for the underside of her superior's chin, "What's up?"

(This post was last modified: Jan 22, 2016, 07:50 PM by Sahalie.)

Lowering his head back down, Serach began to investigate around the base of the dam while he waited for Sahalie. The creek was not very wide, and could easily be crossed in 3 or 4 strides by an adult wolf. The bulk of the dam was built closer to the western side of the creek, rather than in the center of the water. Long sticks and branches had been knocked over, spanning the length of the creek with a bigger grouping at the western end. Sniffing at the base, Serach's tail wagged eagerly behind him. The furry beasts were home.

But he smelled something else to, and as he looked up and turned around, he saw Sahalie coming towards him. With a grin, he stepped towards her, pressing his nose to her forehead in greeting. "Thanks for coming," he returned, his lips upturned in a wolfish smile. "I thought we could maybe have some fun with some of our neighbors," he explained, pulling away from her to gesture at the dam behind him. "Have you ever seen a beaver before?" Almost fully grown now, Sahalie had begun to participate in the pack's hunts. But with a childhood as interrupted as her's had been, he didn't want to assume too much.

Maybe she had been wrong to assume that Serach was the quiet, sorta sullen type that the rest of the pack seemed to be. After all, they didn't really know each other... though, in fairness to her own logic, their lack of communication had been what tipped the scales towards her current assumption. Plus all the things she had learned indirectly about his past from her father, when she had learned about Corinna and Ice. But he had been so animated with Fenru, and he seemed sort of similarly excited in the present as he spoke of fun. Maybe he really liked these beavers, maybe she was wrong about him.

Her rump wiggled in excitement. "Idunno, I don't think so."  Nothing came to mind, really. Her ignorance had never bothered her before and it didn't bother her now. She was very excited to learn. Especially if the learning did not coincide with any of Spieden's creepy stories. "Do they really live in there?" she quipped, leaning forward to better inspect the pile of sticks set into the ice. Despite the sort of raised structure, the pile didn't much resemble a den. She assumed that they lived under the sticks, but where? How deep? With all the ice was it even possible to get to get to them? Her gaze turned back up to Serach expectantly, looking at him if he were some brilliant thing that had all the answers. He knew what beavers were, after all. That was surely worth something.

Serach watched with interest as Sahalie moved to investigate the dam closer, sniffing at the sticks closest to them. She hadn't ever seen a beaver before, and while he had figured as much, he wasn't quite sure how to explain what they were. A puzzled expression on his face, he didn't answer her question immediately as he tried to think of a good way to explain them. "They're kind of like rabbits, but a lot bigger and stronger. They've got longer tails too, that are big and flat. Kind of like a paw," he picked up his left forepaw and slapped it on the ground to demonstrate. "They can use it to hit things, so watch out for it." He instructed, for the first time concerned that maybe this wasn't the best idea. But the scent of the furry beasts were strong in his nose, and even if they came away without a meal, it was worth the trouble to get to show Sahalie something new. 

He moved past her, closer to the dam. Testing the sturdiness of the structure with his forepaws, he pressed down. The sticks creaked and the smaller ones snapped, but the structure held. Carefully, he pushed back on his hind legs and jumped up onto the dam, sending the smaller pieces of wood sliding down the sides. "And yeah, they live in these things. They find all the sticks and branches they can and drag them over to the water. See how it goes all the way across?" he gestured with his head towards the dam. "This part where I'm standing," he put a paw down on the roof of the lodge for emphasis, "is where they live. It's kind of like a den, but under a bunch of sticks. If we start digging, we should be able to scare them out." Lowering his head, he began to pull at some of the sticks with his teeth, doing his best to maintain his balance on the stick pile as he did so.

Her eyes bulged as she listened to his description, trying to piece all the information together. Rabbits were easy enough to picture since she saw them regularly. If they had to be bigger and stronger, then she supposed she would bump them up to the size of a deer or something — the next biggest thing she could think of — and gave them hulking shoulder muscles like a bear. But a big flat tail like a paw? She had no idea what to do with this bit, but watched dutifully as Serach thwacked his forepaw on the ground, nodding. She looked at her own paw, trying to imagine it getting crushed by a log or something and ending up all smooshed like a lily pad. She was not quite sure how a big flat tail would be better to hit things with, but did not think Serach was a liar. Sahalie nodded again. 

And then, just after telling her to be careful, her packmate wandered out onto the sticks. Her mouth hung open. Serach was not a big wolf, by any means, but she had not thought that a bunch of twigs would have supported him. Sure, several of them bent and snapped, but the general structure was completely unharmed. He said that they lived in here like a den, but why couldn't they just live in a real den like everybody else? Beavers were crazy! She noticed now that there were even some bigger sticks in the mix that were really more of logs. And there were teeth marks in them. "Serach do they bite the twigs? How strong are they to get a log all the way out in the river!"

Suddenly she was not so sure about the whole endeavor. If they could bring down a whole log they could easily snap up her whole paw and she'd be done for it. Serach did not seem so concerned though, since he was already snapping at some of the smaller branches in the way of the meat of the den. Not wanting to look like a coward — especially since he had made such a point of inviting her out here — Sahalie awkwardly picked her way out into the middle of the dam and began tugging at a branch near Serach.

(This post was last modified: Jan 30, 2016, 09:26 PM by Sahalie.)

The youth's tail was eagerly waving behind him as he attended to the task at hand. His paws made quick work of the loose twigs and branches, and he tugged and pulled with his teeth at the larger ones to get them to move. Beavers were excellent craftsmen, though, and if anything, Serach's antics were more annoying than they were permanently damaging. Lifting his head as Sahalie spoke up, her question filled with both curiosity and panic, Serach looked over at her. Dropping the stick that was still in his mouth, he smiled at her attempting to be reassuring. "Yeah, yeah they do," he admitted, feeling foolish for having left out that particular aspect of the beavers. "They've got bigger teeth than any rabbit or deer does, but ours are stronger. We're faster too, so we can run away if we have to." He added, hoping that the assurance that they could always run if they needed to would help sooth Sahalie's nerves.

If she was still nervous, she didn't let it scare her away. Serach watched with pride as she picked her way across the water atop the dam and began to bite and dig at the sticks. He watched her for a moment before bending back to his own task when his ears perked up. SQUEEAAAKKKKKK It was like the squeak of a mouse, but deeper and louder. Whirling his head, he was able to look just in time to see a brown head dip below the water, north of the dam and the lodge where Sahalie and he were standing. "Sahalie!" he called, his eyes still scanning the water for more movement of the beaver. There was at least one, but likely others just lurking beneath the surface. "Come here. Be careful and watch the water. They've heard us." Standing alert and ready, he waited - ready to pounce should one of the rodents attempt to impede Sahalie's path.

/leaving you as the beaver hunting expert

His first description had made it hard to gauge how big and strong they were, as nearly anything could have been bigger than a rabbit. But it was reassuring to hear that her teeth would prove to be even greater weapon's than the chompers of the beavers, and that she'd be able to get away from them easily. All these assurances, however, were not enough to prevent her from straightening like she had been struck by lightning at the strange sound that gurgled from the water. Instantly she was reminded of the death cries of mice or rabbits before their necks were broken, but as the animal was much bigger the sound had a greater amplitude to it. It sounded freaky, eerie.

Serach beckoned her, and she stood with one paw in the air, ready to take a step when she was distracted by a sudden smacking sound. She saw a great splash off where her packmate had seen the beaver. Open-mouthed, the girl's eyes drifted to Serach. And then she heard the thwack again. "What is it doing, Serach" her voice hushed even though she was not sure that the water rodents could hear her. Trying to make quick work of closing the distance between herself and the pale man she was not as careful as she could have been, snapping many sticks in the process.

Tries to remember how to Serach.

He could hear their growling and squeaking in his ears, loud and angry. It was matched in volume by the anxious beating of his heart as he nervously looked from side to side of the dam looking for one of the beavers to make an appearance. Sahalie was scared, and he couldn't blame her. For all of his confident talk, Serach had gotten them way over their heads. But he had to be strong for her, so he took a deep breath and tried to sooth her. "They know we're here, and didn't appreciate us messing with their home. They're just trying to scare us," he told her, trying to make his voice reassuring.

As she began to move towards him, more and more sticks began to snap, some falling into the water. The angry squeaking got louder, and out of the corner of his eye, Serach saw two brown heads emerge from the water alongside the dam. Snapping his teeth at Sahalie, a large beaver began to climb the dam ahead of her, cutting her off from Serach. The other beaver made a beeline towards the lodge where Serach was standing. "Watch out!" Serach yelled.

Leaping down from the lodge onto the dam, the wolf sent a flurry of sticks flying into the water. But he paid it no mind. Rushing forward, he charged the beaver. The beaver's tail swiped to the side, smacking the side of Serach's shoulder and neck, but the pair made contact and fell together into the water leaving the path clear for Sahalie.

Beaver 1 tried to stop Sahalie from crossing the dam. Serach lunged at the beaver, and both of them fell into the water. Beaver 2 is currently climbing the lodge.

(This post was last modified: Mar 26, 2016, 02:21 PM by Serach.)

/tries to speak english

From where she was, Sahalie could not smell the subtle unease rising off of her pack mate. Instead she latched on to the halfhearted confidence in his voice, desperately trying to ignore any quality that might raise flags. Sahalie did feel a twinge of guilt for destroying their home, but shoved it aside: they were just prey, right? Wolves were at the top of the natural heirarchy, they had a right to do what they wanted and she shouldn't let the beavers upset her. Serach wasn't scared, he couldn't be: he was a big tall adult that did adult things on the regular. He probably had fought a bear, and he had fought that moose. As big as he had described the beavers to be, it seemed highly unlikely that Serach's mettle could be rattled out of him so easily. At least, she tried to tell herself that.

Her eyes had been so engrossed in clinging to Serach that, until a twig snapped nearby, rattling the structure on which she stood, the girl had not even noticed that one of the beavers had risen out of the water and come directly at her. Her eyes bulged when she saw the wet, round blob and its flattened paw. It all seemed much more menacing that Serach had described. Her imagination had given her the impression that beavers were large and sort of comical, but somehow, even though they were smaller in real life, they seemed twice and menacing. Their eyes were dark and beady and they had two teeth jutting out of their face like small mountains, far longer than any rabbit's. Sahalie backed up a few paces at Serach's command, but found a bundle of sticks poking out of the dam at her back that prevented her from scooting any farther. This was an awkward place to maneuver in, and her head swept left and right desperately.

Crunching sticks foretold her savior's arrival. Serach simple appeared, and she watched with horror as the big, flat paw flipped up to clock him in the neck. And then, if things weren't bad enough, the beaver and wolf tumbled as a pair into the dark water. "Serach!" But he did not appear immediately out of the water, and now that he was gone she no longer wanted to spend a single second on the pile of sticks. Haltingly and clumsily she picked her way back to the shoreline, hoping for him to appear again and give her some sort of direction. In the corner of her eye she could see a second beaver climbing about on top of the lodge, and she wondered if Serach intended for her to go after it. But honestly, she was not sure what to do.