Chinook Coulee [TfT] Beaver Tooth

Tit for Tat, This or That

It looks like one of the fearsome beavers from downriver has lost one of its teeth! Nearly two inches long and pearly white, this tooth must have felled some mighty trees in its day. Now it lies discarded on the banks of the shallow Coulee.

 

Things within the Bend were…hectic to say the least with not one, not two, but five pups and three mothers to take care of. They’d all been pulling their weight as best as they could have been, but as of late their vast territory had felt increasingly cramped. It was as if all the trees were closing in on him, like he was suffocating and he couldn’t stand it. He needed out, and with what was left of the dying afternoon light he decided to take that chance for a little bit. Kino was a boy of the night anyhow, preferring to be out and about at the cooler hours of darkness. He’d be back by morning at the very least, with food to store in the cache he resolved.

Nature flew by as the large boy’s long legs ate away at the ground, paws thudding quickly as he ran. He relished in the quick pace of his heart beat, the wind blowing across his summer pelt, and the long draw of his breaths as he went. Then, like stepping out of water onto dry land he burst over the borders of the Bend and felt the weight lift from his shoulders temporarily. It wasn’t that he didn’t like his new home, it was that the Lagina child was never really meant to be tied down. Even when everything had been alright in his life, when Minka had been alive, he’d always been one for exploring. Testing boundaries little by little, pushing them and going past them from time to time, eager to see what was out there and even beyond that. He grew bored of the same thing, of the same land and of the same day to day rituals. If he had to walk the same path around the border again, he might scream.

He ran for was likely a good mile or two before slowing, maw open in a pant and sweat glistening on his pelt but a relaxed aura about him. His topaz gaze took in his new surroundings, brows rising in surprise at what a relative beauty it seemed he had stumbled across. A thick mist sprawled across the waters in the distance, but from his view all he could see was a glistening creek. Vegetation grew in abundance along its edges and within its waters he could see the flashing of fish scales. How sad it was that he had never been taught to fish, or else he would have been more than willing to make a good hunt of the various trout that swam in its confines.

Venturing to the bank, he had been just about to wade into the creek for a refreshing dip when something else caught his eye. It didn’t look to be a rock, it was much too flat for that, but it almost reminded him of…a tooth? His brows creased in confusion as he stared at it, flipping it over with a paw for closer inspection. What the hell kind of animal had a tooth like that, and did he even want to know?

omg i am so sorry this took so long to get to

"Whatcha lookin at?"

With none of the pomp and circumstance of the adults, the girl slid down the muddy banks towards her friend, trotting to his side easily. Sahalie was never sure if she was looking for Alastor or not, but often found these days that their paths crossed regardless. His silver fur might have blended with the mists easily, but somehow his scent stood out to her. Through the trees a glittering paleness had caught her eye, and when she peered through a bush she had seen her friend stooping over something. At first she had assumed he had caught a fish or something of the sort, until she realized she had never known her friend to fish. Perhaps he didn't know? Quietly, the dark girl had crept closer but discovered whatever Alastor was looking at was small enough that she could not simply lurk about like some creep and still figure it out. And thus she was awkwardly skittering down through the loose rocks towards him.

Stooping down, she recognized the strange white chip instantly. "Oh! It's a beaver tooth!" The terrifying memory of attempting to hunt the massive rabbit-things with @Serach had burned the image of their glittering, hard, long fangs into her the backs of her retina. This one looked far longer than any of the real life teeth she had seen in the beaver's mouth, and was left to conclude that this came from a massive—possibly wolf sized—beaver (because she did not know that a large portion of the tooth was still inside the beaver's skull).


"I'll fight you for it," she laughed, nudging her friend's shoulder as if she hadn't said something extremely confrontational. The girl had never actually fought for anything, or had any real serious confrontation in her life besides telling Naira to "go away" in the meanest words she could muster (also known as "You're not wanted here.") And perhaps with the cubs that had sprouted like weeds it was time to learn.