Sentinel Stones — [P] Lost and Found

The mountains here were strange, far stranger he thought than those he'd glimpsed further north. Even blanketed by snow, the little cat found that they looked like fangs jutting up from the earth, like the jaw of some great beast had been split and buried across the land. Delta shuddered at the thought, tearing his gaze away from the strange orange stone and looking instead at the tangled, naked branches hanging above the river. He'd seen a few round little birds bobbing up and down there earlier, something he'd hoped to be a sign of spring's approach, but to his disappointment they'd left shortly after he'd come to watch. Disappointing.

Initially, Delta had welcomed the winter. The snow had been novel and fun to bat at, and he'd even dragged himself out onto the bank to roll around in it if he was sure no predators were lurking nearby. A majority of the rivers had frozen over as well, meaning Delta didn't have to worry about anything hunting him from above the water. Things had been cold and dark and safe, he could let his guard down and follow the currents where he pleased. Food was not an issue either, with the fish slow and sluggish from the winter chill--it had been perfect. At least, at first it had.

Delta had left the ocean because he was alone. In the freshwater, even if he didn't speak to the creatures he saw prowling the banks, he could stick his head above the water and know he wasn't alone. He'd met so many interesting faces in his short time following the rivers, he didn't realize how much he'd miss it once the ice kept him from surfacing again. 

Here in the west, the river widened and quickened to flow out into the open ocean, breaking the ice into thick chunks which bobbed in the brackish water for which Delta was named after. Finally able to poke his head above the water again, he sprayed the water from his nostrils and sucked in a breath of salty, cold air and stared out into the snowy hills. It was a pretty sight, even with the strange mountains jutting up around him. He opened his mouth and exhaled just to watch his breath cloud in the frigid air, stretching out his lungs after weeks of breathing nothing but water.

 

   
 

 

    Cinders
 

 

   
It seemed a rarity these days that Cinders was not hunting, in no small part because she hunted such small game, and while another pup might conclude that surviving on their own was not feasible.....that pup would not be Cinders. Skulking through the lands, often sticking to tree lines, for every day she survived alone she would get stronger....and so long as she got stronger she would survive and her families memory would live on.

For something like that.....Cinders could afford to be a little stubborn.

Perseverance pays off, even in the chill of winter, as Cinders manages to snatch a squirrel willing to brave the frozen grounds. She's merciless in seizing upon it, leaping upon it with her considerable weight as her jaws clamp down on it's neck, and if not for some splashing nearby she would have dug into her hard won meal right then and there. Instead she pads over to the river, watching the sight of what emerges curiously, because in her young life she's never seen a thing like that before!

    "Speech"
 

Movement caught his attention along the bank, and the little cat's gaze snapped beneath the boughs of a spindly, naked tree where standing stark against the ivory snow was a tiny, dark figure creeping towards the water. A momentary fear flashed through his heart as his nostrils flared, catching the scent of preyblood before he spotted the scrawny squirrel laying limp where the figure had recently pounced. He nearly didn't recognize the little shape as a wolf, catching her scent along the faint breeze as he squinted and adjusted his eyes to the darkness of her scruffy pelt with visible surprise. It was another kit, like the one he'd seen previous further east! Unlike the last however, this was a considerably smaller one, lacking the marbled patterns and wings that the first he'd met had.

Thoughts of the previous kit he'd met sent a pang of guilt through him; Delta could only hope she was alright, wherever she was now. Would this kit simply vanish like she had? Where they some sort of trial from Tsillah? Where were were these wolf kits coming from? He swallowed thickly, a familiar fear creeping over him as he cast his gaze up and down the snowy banks for any sight of predators. Despite the strange circumstances, he couldn't just leave the poor thing--it was the dead of winter and she still had kitten-fluff behind her ears!

"Kit?" Delta hesitantly garbled out, voice hoarse from disuse as he forced the remaining water from his throat, "ah--are you al--alright?" cautiously, still wary that this may be some sort of cruel trap, Delta made his way closer to the bank with only his head sticking above the inky water. As he grew closer he noticed just how thin the little kit was, and how their scruffy pelt parted with worrying scars. Pity flooded his gaze at the sight, but he stopped his approach where ice clustered in the river's shallows and left a narrow strip between himself and the land. He wouldn't leave the water yet, hooking his claws into the edge of the ice so he could float safely several taillengths away from the kit and speak easier. Again, he looked up and down the banks, partly in fear of any ambush and partly due to the strange coincidence of finding yet another kit away from its family. Were they nearby, perhaps?

"Is your mother near?"