Willow Ridge Leapin and hoppin' on a moonshadow

@Enoki - Deer have become more careless as they enter their fall feeding-frenzy.

Sometimes, @Sven went away and usually the young girl was fine with it. However, on this occasion, the bangs and crashes of her nightmare were realised as her almost colourless eyes shot open. There was something outside the den, and it was large and loud. Batty ears folded against the girl's skull as she tried to cut the sound out with her paws, small heart thundering as she sought out her everything. But he wasn't back yet. What if the monsters had got him? What if he was trapped somewhere and nobody knew where he was?

She had to go find him.

Shakily, the growing girl stood, carefully placing one paw in front of the other as she tip-toed over her sleeping pack mates. Her dark nose quivered as she approached the exit, silver lips and paling cheeks illuminated in the moonlight that washed what little hint of green there might have been clean out of her eyes. She could have been mistaken for her father in this light.

Large shadows passed between the trees, setting dark nose to quivering as she tried to place the beasts. When she realised it was only smelly deer making such a racket, tripping over branches as they moved through the Ridge she could have scolded herself for being a silly little girl. She was still trying to dismiss the dreamed up image of a pale white wolf trampled under hooves and bellowing beasts... but a child's mind was a wild place, and her brother still wasn't home.

With a grimace, she left the den and began to wander towards the southern border. Perhaps she would find him on his way back?

He would come back, wouldn't he?

@Attica

Vigilant per usual it was no surprise that the magpie huntress had opted to skip out on another night's sleep and instead trail the foraging herd of deer that caused quite the racket as they made their way through Willow Ridge territory rather than around, puzzling the woman about what had changed to cause this sudden rise in bravery lately; or stupidity she wasn't quite sure yet, that made them careless about the obvious stench of wolf surrounding them. It was that time of year again where the bucks partook in their annual rutting season, filling the air with the sounds of their bugles trying to build their harems quickly and defend their cows from challenging bulls often times too young and inexperienced to be of much threat. Now that it was reaching mid October, though, the reigning bulls were too weak from fighting their younger counterparts and spreading their seed and opted to recover from the physical toll on their bodies rather than secure their hold on the younger cows now coming into estrus and the older ones still unbred. This left the younger bucks still soaring in high testosterone levels little competition to get their own genetics passed down; something Enoki had come to learn over the years studying herds all year long, and it made her wonder if that could explain why they ignored the signs of a wolf pack. She never could quite fully understand why they did certain things.

Salmon tongue gliding over inky lips part of her contemplated the idea of taking advantage of their new seasonal attitude and going after an old straggler mid rest period or younger member that survived the spring and proved too careless for its own good, but having already ate her fill from a cache prior to deciding to follow the herd from the shadows, she instead chose to tail them in silence. The smoldering amber hue of her eyes washed out to resemble more of a pale yellow by the power of the illuminating moonlight each time her two toned frame peeled away from the trunks of the weeping willows and into the more barren spaces in between. Content just to lazily follow; the deer obviously knowing they were in no immediate danger by Enoki's lack of stealth, and keep tabs on the condition of this specific herd her head occasionally lowered to give a group of recently deposited droppings a good whiff to determine the exact health of the deer she was trailing. From a quick dissection of the aroma her nose was greeted with it was easy to tell the majority of them were in a prime state of health, hardly any sign of disease or infection present nor signs of early gestation either. Interest lost. A sigh passed over inky lips as her limbs altered steps to begin drifting away from the herd letting them graze in peace and instead head back toward the heart of the territory. Until a small smudge illuminated in a bath of moonlight caught her attention.

Halting briefly the magpie watched Attica's silhouette make its way toward the direction of the southern border, perplexed that no signs of her ivory guardian were present. @Sven never left her side so where, or better yet possibly whom had managed to melt the glue between them for the time being? Sauntering off after her, Enoki made a low chuff to alert the child to her presence before saddling up on Attica's left side, easily slowing her pace down to match that of hers. "And where do you think you're going, little one?" She questioned softly, gaze falling on her small ebony features while rising a brow curiously.

(This post was last modified: Oct 16, 2016, 04:30 AM by Enoki.)