Whitestone Monadnock Meet me under the mistletoe

Thread for Crawbutt.

Sprawled out atop the Monadnock on one of the flatter gold-veined boulders, Morganna was making the most of the feeble winter sun. The borders had been checked, the caches were running low but there was nothing sizeable in sight and she decided she'd be better off trying her luck later that night. With a heavy sigh she had laid her head across her paws and allowed her eyes to drift closed, oblivious to the beady black, mirthful eyes that were watching her doze off from the skeletal branches of berry bushes long since picked clean of fruit.

The beating of wings was hardly acknowledged by more than a flick of an ear but when she felt something hit her head, eyes flicked open and glared fiercely, remembering the last time such a bird had... Oh. Peach eyes crossed trying to get a better look at the foliage that had been dropped on her head, ears askew and head tilted, too startled to try and shake the plant loose. For a moment she considered just leaving it in place and going back to her nap but the sound of approaching footsteps distracted her from her pretty new mistletoe hat. "@Craw." she rumbled a greeting as he drew closer. "What'd the bird drop on me?"

you have no idea how much I laughed at the premise of this whole thread, it's wonderful.

If he had been obsessed with looking north before @Wraith returned, it was nothing compared with now, in these agonising days between @Mittani's departure and his return along with so many of Craw's old beloved. A mentor, a friend, a wife and a daughter... it was dizzying. He looked at the wolves in the pack and thought about the wolves of Ritter and almost felt as though he were experiencing emotional whiplash.

It had been the presence of @Roosemooth and @Odysseia which had captured his obsession most, at first, but then @Angharad had crept back into his soul like she always had, and he yearned for her return in a way that he had forgotten he was capable of. And then he would look at Morganna and the emotional whiplash struck again, but tenfold.

Unable to know how it would work out until they returned, Craw had resigned himself to not being able to predict the future and while the surrender of control made him uneasy, he had to accept it. Everything would work out so long as he was able to keep a clear head, and he reminded himself of that in every moment that he wasn't either gazing out to the north or doing something else and pretending that he didn't just want to be watching that horizon. He couldn't become an productive lump just because his world was about to do yet another flip-flop.

It was in this moment that he was trying to distract himself from northern thoughts, and in seeking some present-day normalcy had headed straight for his partner. The crow perched in the skeletal berry bushes was given barely a thought as he approached her slumbering form, intending to just sprawl out next to her and share the brief moment of clear sky, but then it dropped from the bare branches, wing spread, and his eyes drew to the movement automatically.

The black bird swooped low over Morganna's oblivious form and then flapped away, and Craw frowned, because had it just...? Seeing the slight movement in her as she reacted to the present, a thin smirk spread across his face as he continued on, the rough, wheezing chuckle only rising in his throat once she had noticed him. "Good luck," he said, coming to stand beside the boulder so that their heads were level despite him standing and her laid out, his amused yellow eyes fixed on the droppings on her crown which was starting to slide down the side of her head. "Maybe the herds will come back to the tundra as long as you wear it."

Urgh, "Fuck th' herds." She grumbled as she rose and left her sunning rock to reach the snow covered ground. She might have thought to swipe the mess from her head but remembered what a mess it had made last time, so instead she dropped down to drag her head through the snow, a small green leaf and berries left in her wake along with the bird shit that even in the cold left an uncomfortably sticky warm feeling on her head. She was convinced the snow drag wasn't enough, but with every water source for miles frozen over she was out of options if there was anything left. Unless...

She sauntered towards @Craw in her usual way, uncharacteristic innocence all over her face, (he was sure to know something was up). As she closed in her steps got quicker, expression melting to something far more sinister and mirthful, much like the look on @Kara's face right before she dropped something slimy on an unsuspecting victims head. If he didn't react quickly she would try and force her head into its usual position underneath his jaw, and then they would see just who was laughing at who. "Don'cha wanna share th' luck?"