Winter had settled like a quiet killer, a blanket of frost some days and flurries of snow the next, the sun hardly visibly these bleary days especially as she trekked further and further towards the mountains, mind making up the dark devils that snapped at her heels, but god they felt so real.

The overcast sky offered nothing but gray, as the salt soaked air was carried on a cold winter's breeze, nostrils flared and the dark woman stiffened, shaking away the cold as if it were nothing. "The ocean must be close." The stoic woman mumbled, wine colored eyes glancing upwards as she broke through the treeline and spied the mountains that bordered the lands to the left.

A long stretch of frosted over plains was before her, and she eyed it with well placed caution before stepping forward. Tall grass yellowed by the cold season swayed in the wind like a golden sea, with each step an odd feeling of familiarity swirled around her, like this place should mean something to her, but that couldn't be possible. Nif would brush the thought off completely, just her mind playing tricks.

Snowflakes began to fall, and if it wasn't silent before it was definitely silent now, besides the wind pushing over the tall grass. She pause when she came to a fairly open spot of exposed earth, Niflheim would sit alone. Raising a paw to one of her bound pieces of fur, batting at it until out dropped a tiny baby tooth. His tooth, wine colored eyes looked carefully upon the tiny little thing, the off-white color, the jagged needle like shape.

Expelling vapors into the air, the woman clenched her eyes shut, paw moving to cradle the tooth. "It should have been me. Why wasn't it me?" Ears pulled back and she tried to steady her breathing to keep the sob that was fighting its way out to be heard.

It was night when you died, my firefly.

   There's something about the season of autumn that fascinated her to no end. How the days were beginning to shorten and the skies began to shift. How dusk was laden with the fading gold of the sun long after it had fallen beneath the horizon. Something about the shift in temperature from the heat she was familiar with to a comfortable not-quite-cold but not-quite-warm. In between. In a way, she preferred it to the scorching summer. It was a relief from the temperatures but a warning as well. A warning for her to prepare for the upcoming winter.

   She was still so small, her ribs still poking out from beneath her russet and cream fur. Nor was she a fantastic hunter, especially when she wasn't even a healthy weight and still below it. Her survival through the cold months was not guaranteed by any means. She would have to fight to see summer again or fall to the winter cold. But she couldn't start that fight without preparing during autumn times.

   Admittedly, she was doing better. She could hunt decently, even if she sometimes spent a few days with an empty stomach. Thanks to her small size, she could easily find a den to take cover in. A large fox den or maybe taking cover under a log. Whatever worked and suited her needs, she would take, no matter how shabby or stinky the makeshift den might be. Her goal was survival, not comfort. Perhaps that could be her goal one day in the future when she was more comfortable in her own skin and was perhaps even more relaxed around others. But that was far away. Right now, she had to focus on the present.

   Said present was her heading in the direction of a somewhat familiar forest. She spent most of her time on the open prairie, hunting what small creatures she could and honing her skills. She didn't know how long her source of food would be as generous as it had been so she had to scope out new terrain. The forest was one she was decently familiar with, having been in it on a few occasions when the weather in the fields got too harsh for her to be without much cover.

   What she saw had astounded Ifyla so much that her steps faltered until she came to a stop, gazing up into the boughs of the trees with an awed expression on her face. She had never seen the leaves change, she had never seen anything so lovely as the golds and reds, so generously scattered against fading greens and warm browns. The forest floor was laden with leaves of the same color, pushed aside as she walked along with dazzled eyes the color of a leaf that fell and landed right on the end of her delicate snout.

   If she were honest, Ifyla didn't expect to sneeze so hard that she landed on her rump, leaf litter fluttering in the air at the force as she began to giggle, the delicate noise of amusement eventually elevating to a full-blown laugh as she began to play amongst the fallen leaves.

 
To see him, one might think he was dead. They way he lay silent, still, lifeless, in the shallow waters of a tidepool. His wounds were still fresh, blood trickling slowly into the water, tinging it before dissipating. Salt from sea water burned in the cuts but it seemed a haze; a feeling far off in his mind. What was dream? What was reality? The two merged into a hazy middle ground where the pain of what he knew was far greater than the gash in his side.

Stoneclaw had fallen.

Humans had run them off and looking back, he realized what a fool he had been to think it was a good idea to set up in a human settlement. The creatures had proved to be migratory. He should have known they'd return and by the size of the village he should have known that they would come with numbers far greater than the remnants of the pride. Stoneclaw had fallen and it was his fault. All that work, rising in the ranks from a nobody to a Warrior. A Warrior Chief. A King. For what? To lay injured and possibly dying in a tidepool, the remnants of a once great empire scattered to the wind?

Perhaps he deserved what was coming for him.

Nexys drifted into sleep, seagulls circling overhead, lulled away by ocean waves on soft sand and the warmth of the sun.

The commotion dwindled. The healers were left to tend to the oozing, mangled mess of an eye. The grey prince had laid down his cards of feigned diplomacy, but his mind seethed behind that curtain of stoicism. She did this. How would he prove it? When the victim was blind? Through scent? They all smelled of Gemini. Her voice? Perhaps, but he'd need to find her first.

Smoke out the rat. He smiled. He's done it before with ants, but using water. Flood them out.

He follows the winding river through the purple trees until they faded in the distance, and what he believes is the fading remnants of Shuck's scent. He sees the mountains, high and tall like Gemini's and shrouded with the same ancient mystery. He notices the velocity of the water begin to shift to a much faster, dangerous current. He wondered how long it would take for the surging water to fill Shuck's little airways before she'd explode from too much water. He smiles again. FLOOD HER OUT.

The trail led him to something... else. His aggravation is obvious through the constant ticking of his eye and neck, but he persists. It wasn't Shuck's scent he had, instead a different outsider who was adopted by Gemini. He always thought his mother's kingdom was too trusting.

" Orphans weren't invited to this party. What're you doing here. "

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Rosalind would offer an intimate nuzzle in greeting, pulling away gingerly to address her worries."Luna, the princess? Do you know her? She found me here, Cassian. She questioned me. I'm not sure what she thinks, but she's... she's definitely suspicious. What will happen?" Her soft voice trailed, as she began to feel silly for rambling and evoking a state of emotional strain during the precious time she had with Cassian.

"I'm sorry, it's ridiculous and so unlike me to worry. But, gosh she was quite stubborn and determined." Not to mention annoying. Cassian had never mentioned Luna before, wondering if she was bad-mouthing a companion of his.


@ilunga  

r o s a l i n d


@Bloody