Sanguine Cove domesticated beyond recognition

Not eligible for RE points anymore but still really wanted to use her Halloween prompt: Somehow a deceased deer's skeleton has remained fully intact and upright, it's both intriguing and frightening all at once. @Eclypse only.

A storm had blown over the mountain's peaks, coating everything in ice and snow. Driving winds and frozen precipitation now past, it still was far from pleasant outside of the den. Cold, wet, with no breaks in the cloud cover to give even a moment of warmth. Magg had a job to do though, and damned if she would be deterred by something as routine as winter. She was a mountain wolf, after all.

Stalking her home's forests, she took the opportunity to browse some of the denser points of vegetation for signs of intrusion or other dangers. The yearling left her scent behind on branches both evergreen and barren, pawing at the bark of stouter trees and lifting a leg here and there. All of it mundane, thoughts corralled and focused on the work at hand and the cold pressing in around her, until...

She pushed through a thicket and was met with the sight of standing skeleton. Towering and glistening with ice. Is that what held it? Had the creature died caught? Magg found where it's eyes had once been, now deeply gaping sockets, and her dark mouth pressed into a thin line.

"... hey, Seph," she whispered.

While she still has some growing left in her, by this stage she was large enough to walk around the territory confidently and with ease. No longer a baby that toddled around under watchful gaze. Although she imagined her mother and father would still watch her closely after her briefest of time away.

Maybe that was why she stuck close to familiar scents, like the cologne of Magg on markers. Eclypse did not overlap her own scent with them but instead used them to track.

The thickest of the scent seemed to slow though and soft words moved on an icy breeze. Not that she had managed to hear what had actually been said.

Instead she only pushed ahead, worried and interested in what might have made her older sister pause her work. Whatever she had expected had not been that. Tall and all bones, the skeleton of a deer upright as if it might begin to walk any moment now. Her gut clenched at the thought.

"Magg...?"

Nervous energy radiated around herself in that moment.

I AM NOBLE TOO, OH LORD OF WOLVES

sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴍʏ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍʏ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ

There was a crunching of snow from behind that made Magg jump, her younger sister speaking her name. She blinked over her shoulder at the girl, perpetually unsure of how to act around her. She wanted to be close, but... E made her think about Mona a lot. Too much. She kept waiting for the betrayal and conflict to come. Smaller but worse, what if she got attached but couldn't keep her safe? What if she was forced to find out how Sephrina's older brothers had felt?

She gave herself a shake, as though to rid herself of the snow accumulating upon her back, but really it was to try and stop her skin from crawling. To get the train of thought to shift. Magg plastered on a smile, tried to make it encouraging.

"It's alright. Watcha doing out here?"

"Nothing."

Which was maybe the only time that would be honest truth. She had wandered without purpose, only knowing to stay close to the scents she knew instead of those she didn't.

"What's, um, what's...wrong with it? How'd it do that?" Her nose jutted out towards the skeleton draped in ice. Upright as if it might threaten to charge at any moment. Perhaps that was why she lingered back still, prepared to hide herself behind her guardian of a sibling. Magg was, in her eyes, the same as an adult at this point.

Which meant surely she was as safe with her sister as her parents, right?

I AM NOBLE TOO, OH LORD OF WOLVES

sᴛᴀʀʟɪɢʜᴛ ᴡᴀs ᴍʏ ᴍᴏᴛʜᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴍʏ ғᴀᴛʜᴇʀ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇ ᴅᴀʀᴋ

Nothing. Magg kind of wished that would have kept her closer to the den and out of her path. The thought caused a bit of guilt, encouraging her to continue with the mask of a loving older sibling. Her brown eyes flicked to the corpse at Eclypse's words.

"I don't know," she answered honestly, thoughtfulness in her tone. She had of course been wondering the same, found a spell here and tried to lean into its arms. Once it had been disturbed though, and with an unnerved little sister watching, she could look upon it a bit differently. She knew what would definitely dispel the tension it seemed to emanate.

Magg strode forward and gave it a hefty shove by throwing her shoulder into its chest. She had hoped for it to collapse, but the corpse was more solid that she expected. Still it gave, toppling over into the brush that crackled and clinked with broken branches and ice.

"There. Fixed."

She gave Eclypse a toothy grin over a tawny shoulder.