Cut Rock River Monsters!

Cut Rock River, foxes have raided your main caches.
@Kisla @Naia @Lachesis @Karpos @Bastet @Adsila @Orren @Karina

Aleksei frowned as he followed his nose, sniffing the air in a comically exaggerated way. It was strange—the Baranski son could have sworn he recognised it. The faintest echo of a memory tickled his senses. His father, a pelt. His dad brought his siblings and mother pelts in order to line the den when they were tiny, so surely this scent was safe. He could see no reason as to why it wouldn't be! If it reminded him of Maksim, his parent, then surely it would not be dangerous.

Trotting after it, lowering his nose to the cedar needle littered floor, the youngster snuffled ever closer to the source. Finally, he spied a figure with the first half of its body shoved into a hole. Grinning, Aleksei dashed towards it. It had to be his dad! But … something wasn't quite right. The first born son skidded to a halt and tilted his head.

Alarm bells rang out in his head. This thing was too small, too skinny to be his dad. It had a big bushy tail and smelt nothing like his pa. The boy's ears fell back against his skull, tentatively taking a step closer. “Dad?” Aleksei called out, hoping that he hadn't made a horrible mistake. The creature stopped its wriggling, pulled itself from the hole and stared the young wolf straight in the eye. The Cut Rock River cub froze.

It had a narrow snout, pointy teeth sunk into a snowshoe's hide. Its eyes were bright and wide. A fox had raided the main cache and now was eyeing up another potential meal—a fresher one. Alek flinched as the vermin dropped its stolen food, licking its lips hungrily. Why, Mr. Fox certainly felt his luck was changing.

It stepped towards him; Aleksei stepped back. He trembled and swallowed before instinct screamed at him to run away. It was only when the boy swore he saw more than one pair of beady, evil eyes that his paws finally understood. He clumsily scampered into the underbrush of the Cedarwood, a single fox bounding after him. “Muuuum! Daaaaad!” He ran, oh by the stars above, how he ran! He'd never moved his legs so fast in his entire life.

Thankfully, he had a head start on the fox, and Aleksei shot into a crevice between two large boulders, cowering and pressing himself as far back as he possibly could.

Let the roots & soil drink of me
Whispering leaves & pointing branches will tell them where I'm lying

we must accept finite disappointment,

karpos slayer

but never lose infinite hope...

He hadn't been far from the caches with his catch of the day when he heard a yelp for help. His ears perked up and his chin rose as he looked around like a cautious muskrat for the source. It was one of the pups! He would dart towards the voice as he heard a call for Maksim and Kisla leave the child's lips. He noticed that Aleksei's scent was mixed with that of a red-tailed parasite. He narrowed his eyes as he pushed full blast towards them and as he got closer, the faster he was determined to move. He narrowed his eyes at the crevice that the boy was hiding in and snarled at the fox, watching it as he backed away before it rushed towards Karpos.

"Aleksei, go find your family." He would command as he launched himself back at the fox. That fox had not just gone after one of the pups that he was always going to protect, but he had noticed the traces of food left by the beast. The beast had stolen their food and now it was going to pay. It launched at Karpos' shoulder and that was when the yearling made his move to bite at the lower neck of the creature, aiming to tear at it. His eyes would remain narrowed in determination as he gave a growl out that had been growing within his throat since he first caught the scent. How was this going to play out for them both?

(This post was last modified: Sep 13, 2014, 10:15 PM by Karpos.)

There is a moose carcass that has been scavenged by coyotes nearby. +15 Health

Karina is safe at the den, but she's worried because she heard Aleksei's cry for help.

Karina was always nervous when Aleksei was away. She wasn’t worried exactly—her big brother knew how to take care of himself. It was just like an itch she couldn’t reach. She wanted to look over her shoulder and have her brother there, ready to take on the world with her. Together the two of them could do anything, but by herself... well, what could she do? The one time she had gone farther than a wolf’s length from the den, a tree had attacked her. That put a stop to her wandering away by herself. She didn’t usually let Aleksei run off either, but he had said something or other about ‘smelling Dad’ and Karina had thought he would only be gone a minute. It had been many minutes now, and the pup was starting to wonder how long she should wait before calling her mother. She imagined that the very second she told Kisla, her brother would be back and be furious with her for telling on him. Karina began to whine anxiously to herself, but fell abruptly silent when a different sound met her ears.

It was Aleksei, and he was calling for help. Karina started to bark hysterically, dashing into the den for her mother. ”Mom! Aleksei needs help! Orren, Mom!” The little pup felt like she couldn’t breathe, and she ran back out into the fresh air. ”Dad?” she called out, her panicked mind wanting her father even though she didn’t know where he was. Karina thought she heard snarling off in the distance, and her ears flattened as she shrank to the ground. If it were her in trouble she knew Aleksei would have charged off into the woods to save her, but for some reason she couldn’t seem to pick her trembling body up off the ground.

Kisla had managed to find a moment of solitude – a slice of heaven that was not often found, but welcomed when the opportunity did arise. Yet no sooner did it seem that she had lied down and closed her eyes, a panicked shout seemed to lull her from the state of half sleep she had been lured to. Jerking upward, Kisla paused, feeling her throat clench as she waited, unable to decipher if it had been a dream or not – yet no sooner did Karina cry out that Aleksei needed help, the pale tawny she-wolf jerked upright, her paws practically tripping over themselves as she shot out of the den and past her daughter, only vaguely aware that the girl might follow her. Her boy needed her.

Long limbs drew her to the sounds, her nose quivering as she tried to decipher anything – it was the scent of blood that shuddered her heart, and within moments, the desperate mother came upon the scene. Flustered, her gaze swept to catch the dark form of Karpos assaulting another – not Aleksei, but a fox.

Her bright green eyes did not see her son though, and with her gut clenching, she spun, the words almost catching in her throat as she screamed for him. “Aleksei?!” Her tone lifted shrilly in to the air — the tone only a terrified mother could hold. Behind her, she could hear the snarls emitting from her pack mate’s throat, and while a part of her panicked for the well-being of Karpos and the position he was in, her entire focus was simply placed on the well-being of her child, and her absolute need to find him.

sparking up my heart