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Post by Forte on Nov 6, 2011 0:00:37 GMT -5
At the height of the tundra's short summer there was no night and the land was bursting with life compared to the other times of the year. Tiny white wildflowers dotted the grass and red moss that covered the ground, and between these stunted plants, small animals scuffled and squeaked. Lemmings, hares, arctic foxes, owls, falcons, snow geese, guillemots, partridges. The huge caribou herd was also around, and all of these creatures had nests and were raising young.
Nunavik sat on the small rise in which she had dug her den and saw all of this and rejoiced in it. She owned this tundra and its impossible prosperity in the face of the coldest winters and shortest summers brought joy to her heart.
Nunavik stood, stretched, and shook out her still-thick mane of winter fur before setting off at a swift trot toward the cliffs where the seabirds would soon begin to launch themselves off the cliffs. They were such easy, plentiful meals that Nuna took no lament in the dash of the rabbit for his hole at the sight of her. In this fat summer, she could afford to lose that rabbit.
She arrived after only a few minutes and was surprised to see a few baby birds already in the air. Her heart soared and, caught up in the fruitfulness of summer, she sped up to a full run, her tongue lolling out of her mouth and a grin on her face.
As she neared the cliffs she noticed a few owls and falcon in the air and arctic foxes on the ground, obviously waiting for the same thing she was. This did not displease Nuna; healthy animals made for a healthy territory and Nuna liked to own healthy land. She did not chase away the fox. There was plenty to go around. Instead she immediately began chasing each bird she saw that made its first flight to the sea. Most made it to the water, but soon she noticed one waddling across the plain with a fox racing straight toward it. Nuna burst into a run toward the bird, keeping her eyes on the fox, staring it down. It noticed her and fear rose in its heart, but it continued toward the helpless bird, thinking that it just might get there first. Nunavik's legs were longer, though, and as she got nearer she let out a fierce barking noise which immediately turned the fox away. Nuna slowed to a proud trot and picked the bird up and shook it hard, quickly, breaking its neck before she lay down there in the middle of the plain and began plucking its feather contentedly, taking her sweet time.
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Post by kitty on Nov 6, 2011 22:55:03 GMT -5
The large black wolf wandered throughout the barren tundra. He normally wasn't one to wander this far north, but the extreme sense of death had drawn him here. The summer had brought the tundra to life, and predators had come out to take advantage of the new chicks finally leaving their nests. At first, he kept his distance, but the scent of death drew him to the bottom of the cliff, where many arctic foxes were gathered. A small rumble arose inside Thanatos' stomach and he decided to snack on one of the young birds.
He focused his energy on one bird that was mid-flight, and used his magic. The bird immediately fell to the ground in from of his feet. The intensity of Thanatos' powers caused the poor bird's heart to speed up and eventually just stop. He picked the bird up in his mouth and continued to walk along the base of the cliff. Eventually, he found the main source of the extreme death scent. A young female Arctic Wold was removing the feathers from a recent kill. He approached her, boney wings slightly touching the ground, and spoke in his loud and deep voice. "Who are you?"
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Post by Forte on Nov 6, 2011 23:29:20 GMT -5
Being intent on preparing her kill, Nunavik didn't notice the black wolf until he began to approach her. She stay laying on the ground in a relaxed position and watched him come for a few moments, looking for signs of aggression, and when she decided that he showed none she returned to her bird and waited for him.
Soon he was before her and she noticed the strange bony structures protruding from his shoulder blades, nothing the likes of which she had ever seen before. She had known or known of wolves with magic or strange colors but this was something totally new. But Nuna tended to welcome, or at least accept new things. She waited a moment before answering him, pondering his inquiry. That's a good question, she thought. She spat out a mouthful of feathers before answering. "In the past when asked that question the asker has always expected to hear my name, so I will assume that's what you want to know. My name is Nunavik." She paused, thinking again. "However, in case you were wondering about myself as a person--hang on," she cut herself off, as she had just noticed another chick whose projected path across the sky did not reach the sea, but instead ended just a few dozen yards from where the two wolves were. Nunavik leapt to her feet and tore after the bird, quickly catching and killing it, and returned to the dark stranger, where she again lay down and returned to her first kill "You're welcome to this one," she offered with a twitch of her head toward the freshly-killed prey. "There's plenty to go around. Anyway, as I was saying, if you were wondering about who I am as opposed to just my name, I'll do my best to answer that too. I was born here on the tundra and raised here and am the last of my pack, who all died a few years ago. No one else ever comes around so all this time I've been able to keep my family's territory. On which you now stand." She looked him directly in the eye to get her point across. She owned the land he stood on and the only reason she didn't try to chase him off was that she was lonely and had been for some time. That, and she needed friends to help her hunt larger game in the coming winter. Perhaps this strange wolf would join her.
"Cool wing things, by the way," she added before taking another mouthful of feathers.
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Post by kitty on Nov 8, 2011 17:50:44 GMT -5
Thanatos looked the younger wolf over from head to toe. She was smaller than him, but not by very much. And she seemed.. normal. A normal wolf was something that he had not seen in many years. He lowered his haunches to the ground and cocked his head to the side slightly while he listened to her explain herself. Nunavik... He allowed the name to run through his mind as the wolf continued to explain herself. Thanatos watched as she broke away and quickly hunted the chick down. After she had finished speaking, he spoke, "That's a rather strange manner of hunting. Why, might I ask, don't you just use magic. Surely you must have some sort of magic in order to keep your territory from being swiped right from under your feet. He made a swiping motion with his right fore-paw and allowed a sly grin to sweep across his face. The large black wolf shifted his weight to the side slightly, into a more relaxed position. "Oh, thank you for the compliment, I guess," he added. He watched as the younger wolf continued her meal and allowed his tail to swish from side to side along the ground.
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Post by Forte on Nov 8, 2011 19:52:17 GMT -5
The stranger's question took Nunavik by surprise. She didn't think her hunting strategy was strange at all. "As a matter of fact," she replied, "that's the only way I was taught to hunt. Not everyone in my pack had magic, and those who did, had different kinds, so everyone had to develop their own techniques...It was hard to coordinate hunts when you didn't fully understand each others' magic. More often than not no one used magic while hunting, so I got used to going without it. We had a big pack so it wasn't really that difficult..." She trailed off, her mind swarming with memories of her lost family. The grief that so often consumed her when she was alone began to creep up on her, and she pushed it away before it could show on her face. She continued. "You're right, though, I do have some magic. I can manipulate the earth, to an extent. And I don't mean, like, controlling dirt or rock, I mean the landscape as a whole, large features of the earth. Usually when I want to get to the other side of a lake I create a path of ice rather than go around. Well, I guess that would be manipulating water...but still, that sort of thing. Moving hills. And on the other subject, I think the reason I haven't been driven out yet is because no one really wants to live here. Food gets pretty scarce. I've been further south, and there's more prey, so I guess everyone is attracted south. But I could never leave my home." She looked around affectionately at the lonely, considerate tundra. "There's something about this place that's hard not to love."
((Sorry about the big paragraph >_< I tend to write in those and it feels awkward breaking it up.))
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