Blackberry Fields the trapeze swinger

@Hrun

This "Ruins of Wildwood" was a very frustrating, up and down place. One minute things would be going, okay more or less: Maugrim and Hrun would find a fallen birds nest and slurp the eggs, or an abandoned, half eaten kill; and then next the brothers would hit a dead end, stub their toe, or something generally annoying. They had resolved to make it out of the forest, and yet the close-knit trees and overgrown shrubbery stretched on for way longer than they could have anticipated or ever wanted. Nearly a whole day passed before finally, exhausted and bursting through one last tangle of weakling branches, Maugrim was let loose into an endless-looking field. He breathed a sigh of relief, and their luck turned back upwards.

The blanket of snow that yawned before him was mostly unperturbed, with a couple of animal trails here and there. There were bigger mounds in the snow that looked like it might be covering bushes. They could easily be avoided. It was just nice to see the sky open above him, even though it was just another boundless swath of grey. Everything about this realm seemed so vast, very empty, and sort of sad.

"Thank gopher," He breathed, "If I spent another minute in that thicket I think my paws would just turn into thorn."

Hrun felt that, for the past day, he’d gotten stuck every few steps he made. There was a lot of vine-snapping. Thankfully, the cold made anything that attempted to take hold of Hrun easy to break through with a firm push or a snap between his jaws. His frustration with this place bubbled beneath his fur and skin, but he had consigned himself to put his faith in Maugrim, wherever that led the duo. Today though, thankfully, that had put them out of the Thicket of Secrets.

Hrun, too, escaped the thicket, but not without hitchhikers. One very stubborn vine had grabbed hold of him, the thorns matting and tangling into the fur on his haunches. He had managed to pull the vine free of whatever awful place it came from, but the thing stuck firmly in Hrun’s fur. He grasped an end in his jaw and gave a gentle pull. Nothing. Had the wine been traveling with them for a while? Had Maugrim failed to notice, or maybe worse, failed to inform him that he had this thing trailing behind him like some sort of ratty, sad tail?

“I think I have become a thorn..” Hrun mumbled to himself, walking in a tight circle as his pulling got more and more firm. “And that whatever secrets that thicket had did not want us leaving it alone,” the vine snapped! He was happy, at first, but then his brows furrowed as he glared at what was left — it had not been pulled out, only made shorter. His fur still tightly clung to the thorns of the vine. Hrun tried to grab it, but failed, and thus began the wolf spinning in circles as he tried to grab what little was left of the vine. At first, he walked slowly, steadily gaining speed each second he failed to grab the vine that was just past his grip.

It was a silly sight, Hrun running in circles, chasing an imaginary second tail. He got faster and faster until, at last, his front teeth gripped it. Stopping so suddenly threw him off balance, which caused him to roughly barrel into Maugrim.

You smell the remains of an elk nearby. Enjoy your feast! +10 Health

Hrun had been carrying that fine with him for a day, and it was Maugrim's most cherished form of entertainment. He had even given it a name. Ludtwig. Get it?

Ludtwig was a wonderful opportunity to practice his poker face. The first couple of hours it took him everything not to break out laughing as it caused his brother to catch on one thing after another. In fact, it made his going quite a bit worse than it should have been. At one point Hrun was dragging nearly the whole forest behind him before they dove through a small alcove in the woods and most of it was shaken away. A crying shame, that was. Occasionally Maugrim would pace ahead for a few moments of tittering laugher, a deep deep breath, and then he wiped all of the glee away before Hrun came into view.

But now Hrun was aware that he was giving the forest a free ride and, for a moment, Maugrim was worried that the fun was up. He let out a rueful, full chested shout of laughter at the lighter twin's mumbling. "It liked some of us more than others," he sneered with sparkling eyes as poor Hrun snapped the vine off but failed to take it all out. Then he began to spin and spin and spin. Good goose—

His eyes had only closed for a single moment in a blink when he felt the full force of his brother's body crashing against him. The young wolf rolled over on the ground howling with laughter. "Come....aha. cm'ere you idiot. I'll" He wheezed "I'll hahahahelp you!" But Maugrim had not the feet to stand.

(This post was last modified: Jan 17, 2021, 11:35 PM by Maugrim.)

When Maugrim started laughing, a realization came over Hrun. His brother had known there was something attached to him. Maugrim had chosen not to tell him, which is what all the weird, half-laughing had been all about. Although his twin’s antics had only been going on for a day, it somehow felt like it had been going on for weeks.

On the ground, grumbling, angry, frustrated, embarrassed, being called an idiot (in the loving way that siblings did, anyways), Hrun could only glare at his brother. It didn’t take long for the ill feelings to fall away. Maugrim’s laughter was contagious and Hrun’s own steely look faltered, his lip trembled, and finally he let out a laugh of his own. He gave his brother a half-friendly, half-frustrated shove before finally he placed his paws firmly on the ground and got up.

He turned to look at his matted fur, at the small bit of the secret forest that had decided to find home in the tangles of his coat. “Alright, before we get rid of it, what did you name it?”

For a brief moment they both rolled in the snow giggling like cubs. Though he was not so fond of the snow the cold and the carefree was a balm to his stressed out soul. Roaming around as an untethered loner, as fun as it was to sleep under the stars, pick their own direction, and say whatever they damned well pleased was not without consequences. Mainly, it impacted his personality and his mind. He felt paranoid and skittish—particularly after being attacked by that old lady and her daughter. But now they could just laugh and it all seemed to fall away.

Awkwardly, he pushed himself to his feet and slithered over to his brother's rump. Delicately parting his lips to flea-bite the tangled branch, he heard Hrun's question and his posture went rigid. The only thing he could bring himself to move at first were his eyes, darting back and forth. By imperceptible degrees his dark head lowered. "Ludtwig..." he basically whispered.

It was not that Maugrim feared Hrun. He just could only manage so much as the rest of his energy went to holding back laughter. Lightly, his ribs twitched and he bared his teeth. Don't do it.