Dead Empress Backwater smile like you mean it

Archer Valle

Clover dug faster than them, but that was probably because she was bigger. That, and Archer was starting to slow down due to his focus on how much his toes burned. Fortunately it didn't take long for the muted smell of their frozen stores to meet his nose. He stood back and stared as Clover pulled the food out and dropped it. "Why was it so deep?" he asked incredulously. They'd never had to work so hard to get their food! Wasn't the point of keeping stores to make sure they had easy snacks when they were hungry? Why should they bother if they could spend the same amount of time hunting and get fresh food instead of frozen?

Archer is very haggard and thin; it is obvious he is not doing well.

Eros wasn't expecting much, especially the longer time dragged on. So when finally something changed, and that something was Clover pulling up food, the young boy was stunned. He fell back onto his haunches, clearly winded by all the effort. His thoughts mirrored those of his brother's - this was not worth it! Still, when she tossed the food their way, he scrambled back up onto his paws in order to dig in.

"Thank youuu!"

He tore with his small teeth, pulling away bites chunk by tiny, frozen chunk. While he worked to consume the meat, he also tipped his ears toward his sibling and other mother, curious too about what the answer would be.

She glanced momentarily at the sky above, a corner of her mouth downturned in almost a frown. But not quite. Clover could only guess as to why the snows were so deep, but either way it meant they would be expending far more energy digging them out than normal

"I'm not sure," she finally said, looking down at the two boys, barely holding back a chuckle as Eros began to dig voraciously into the frozen morsel. "Perhaps it has been too cold for the snows to melt, and so it hardened into a more ice-like structure overnight."

The thought to seek out Viorel and Vayko was already on the forefront of her mind, as she figured it would be up to them to decide on what to do next. Continue with the current caches, or make new ones until all the snow melted away. Maybe they'd even have another solution.

"I'll help you two dig out something else to eat if you're still hungry, but then we should probably go find your father and uncle and let them know about this situation." She put more emphasis on the 'we' part, wanting to let them know that she thought they should be included in at least bringing up the topic to the two leaders. After all, they had been the ones to initially let her know there was a problem.

Archer Valle

Archer listened keenly for Clover's explanation. She wasn't his mother but she was a mother, which meant she still had to know everything, right? He was gravely disappointed, but at least she did have an idea. The youngest Valle boy shrugged and wedged his way in next to his brother to gnaw at the frozen food. He wished it was fresh, but it was still better than nothing.

He glanced up at Clover's offer, then shrugged. "I think I'm okay for now; what do you think, Eros?" He knew his brother was usually much hungrier than he.

Archer is very haggard and thin; it is obvious he is not doing well.

Eros continued to gnaw, peach eyes blinking up at Clover as she spoke. It mostly went over his head, however, and the only thing he was likely to glean from the event was that sometimes you had to dig forever to get back to your food in the Winter. Given the problem was solved, he wasn't so worried about the details.

What do you think, Eros?

Well the boy could certainly stand to eat plenty more, but the thought of delivering important news to his father was far more appealing in the moment. Grinning widely Eros jumped back onto his feet and licked his lips, nodding his head.

"I wanna go tell Da'!" he exclaimed, and was off before another word could be said, energy renewed.

Archer seemed disappointed at her lack of a definite answer, but it didn't seem to put him off gnawing at the frozen morsel. The two boys finished it off quickly, and she would have been more than happy to help dig up another, but Eros sped off at the very mention of telling Viorel and Vayko about the situation.

Clover chuckled softly at his quickly disappearing form, giving a quick glance to Archer before taking off after the other boy. Hopefully either Viorel or Vayko would have some ideas on how to move forward with the food situation, and what to do with the currently hard-to-get food caches.

She pondered on what she would say to them as she quickly followed Eros' trail, hoping the two of them wouldn't be out too far. This was a situation better dealt with sooner than later.

FADE

(This post was last modified: May 30, 2022, 02:51 PM by Clover.)