Walk | Talk | Think Curled up within the den, Anais continued to sleep. It was not because she had over exerted herself the day before - it had been a rather average day overall - and neither was it because she had stayed up too late either. If anything, it was only a rare moment of laziness, her exuberant antics at last catching up with her and giving her a needed moment of down time. And she had been doing more lately. The epidemic had her running around fetching meals for her sick family and pack mates, worrying over their recovery, and the arrival of the cure had given her a sudden boost to revert to old ways and explore as well as begin to devote herself to a new study in hunting. Rarely, even when she had the time to rest, did she take advantage of it to do so, so perhaps a little sleeping in was overdue. With the other children already up and attacking the day head on, she had the place to herself, and she took advantage of the space and quiet now. Her gold-grey side rose and fell softly with each quiet breath, yellow-gold eyes shut to the world. No adventures accompanied her in sleep this time, a dreamless slumber holding her gently within its grasp. Her paws were tucked close, her body curved in toward itself loosely, comfortable and content, and she did not fidget or twitch. Eventually she would have to rise - someone was bound to find her and get her up eventually - but not realizing that she overslept, still lost to the waking world, she continued to sleep, to rest, and, for once, be still.

Nako shook his body to free of the water that clung to his pelt, ending the movements with the?shake of his left hind leg. The snow was gone. The sickness was gone. His brother and mother no longer sick and the yearling was eager for some sort of activity after winter. Though he loved the season of snow and cold, especially in the mountains, he disliked the hunger and inactivity that resulted during it's course. All of that was diminished now, young and inexperienced prey abundant and one never went to sleep hungry.

The sickness though. The time during which it hard occurred was around when prey had been especially hard to find. His brother, his sister, and himself had a hard time keeping everyone fed. But they survived and their stomaches were full. Nako's paws carried himself up the hill by the lake towards his family's den, intending to see if Kailos was roused and absent and off with a parent.

Pelt still damp, Nako ducked inside of a den and noted that their was no sign of the youngest pup. Only Anais, sleeping soundly. Odd. In all of his time as a half sibling, he had never seen Anais have the morning to herself. Perhaps she had overslept? A possibility. The young female had always been an excitable wolf, off adventuring without care, and sometimes caution, while she was absent. He could distinctly remember a time where she had asked for him cover for her while she was off getting their banished father to give her a Talutah mark way back when they lived in Seracia. "Anais, wake up." Nako reached out and nosed his sister, a nip given against the side of her neck to wake her.

Walk | Talk | Think She heard her name spoken as if across a distance, and for a moment she was convinced she was entering a dream. Someone was calling her and she needed to find them, but all through her sleep she had seen nothing, heard nothing, until now. Where did she go? Where should she look? Where she slept, her brow furrowed and her body shifted a little, curling just a bit more tightly inward. It took the nudge and nip to finally break her from her sleep, and she wriggled more resistantly, even lifted a paw to swipe gently at the air where Nako had touched her. She had been sleeping so good! Why did she need to be woken up? Drawing in a quick breath, she let her bright gold eyes flicker open once sleepily as she began to stretch, and then widen in surprise. Morning? Already? Goodness, how long had she slept! A disappointed groan slid from her muzzle as she closed her eyes again and covered her face with her paws, blocking out the light and hiding her frown from view. "How late is it?" she mumbled, though she already had an idea. How silly that she had managed to waste a perfectly good morning. Though, honestly, it had been kind of nice to sleep longer than normal, if only this once. "I didn't mean to sleep in." She finally drew her paws away from her face, yawned, and rolled to her stomach, giving a small shake of her head to further clear it. Anais blinked somewhat blearily at the den's entrance, out into the daylight, and then over toward her brother, a sudden curiosity crossing her mind. "What are you doing here?" Did he often come back to the den like this? She was always so busy following one adventure or another that she was not certain she could say.

Nako leaned back away from Anais's paw before returning to peer at his half-sister with mild fascination. This was not the Anais he knew. Sleeping in and such. Every time he'd seen her it was always roaming around and poking about the pack territory and lands around it. Always before he got up she was out and about. But as his sister gave a stretch Nako nudged her shoulder with an amused smile as she covered her eyes with a few mumbled words. "It's early afternoon." He answered, one good ear having to strain too hear what she said.

"I was just making sure that Kailos was up. Was going to show him around the lake. But I instead found you." Nako tapped between her ears with a damp paw and grinned. "You wanna go do something together? Your always running about and I've been busy with father teaching me and Jakart. I can't remember the last time we've done anything together." A hazy memory surface. Of a time in Seracia when their family was whole and he had tackled and raced his sibling to pride filled parents. That was a winter ago, and for Nako it had been an eternity. A rather sad thought he hadn't really gotten to know his sisters both ears pinned back as a scowl chiseled itself across his muzzle for a fraction of a second, as if he had blinked. "Do you sometimes think of earlier days? When we were all together." It was a rather sudden question. He knew that. And rather foolish. Anais was always happy. She never let such thought bring her down and weigh upon her mind. Seemingly untroubled and happy all the time.

Walk | Talk | Think Early afternoon! She could not believe she had let so much time go to waste. It was so unlike her, so disappointing, that she groaned again, ears even falling back to rest against her head. Never again, she promised herself. There were far too many things out there - places to see, people to meet, work to do for training as a hunter - for her to allow herself to lazily spend her time sleeping when she could function perfectly well on the normal amount of sleep she tended to get. Her brother informed her of his actual plans in being here, still sounding amused at her misfortune as he lifted a paw and touched her head. Anais's ears rose and then splayed slightly, feeling the dampness still within the fur of his paw transfer to her head, and she quirked a brow at him. "Looks like you've already been there," she answered with laughter in her voice, giving her head a little shake before bringing her own paw over it to rub the sensation away. Kailos seemed to have missed out on some lake exploration already. To her surprise, Nako opened the door for a day for themselves, and Anais's yellow-gold eyes brightened. He was right. They rarely got time to spend together anymore, not the way they once had, and certainly it was overdue. Somehow she had always assumed him too serious, too focused on training - on growing up in general - to pay attention to her tendency to play and wander rather than work on her maturity. Maybe she had been wrong about him this whole time. "Really?" she asked, a touch of disbelief within her tone though already her tail was beginning to wag excitedly. "Yeah, of course!" she answered readily, "That sounds really fun." She could see the subtle change that happened on his face, as soft and quiet as it had been. He paused thoughtfully, his expression shifted minutely, and suddenly he was asking about earlier days, days when they were pups, when they had been less busy and had only each other to play with. Her look softened, her smile nearly faltering but holding its place. "I do," she said quietly, sensing that he did not reflect on them with the same sort of happiness that she did but with a longing for days past. She got to her paws and stepped over to him, pressing her cheek reassuringly against his shoulder. "I miss them too, sometimes," she admitted, "but I miss you guys most of all." Today, however, they were going to fix that, and maybe later, she hoped, they could get Jak in on the fun too. Drawing back, she offered him one of her warm smiles, her tail beginning to wag again. "So what should we do?" she asked, excitement slowly returning to her. Too much time had passed since she had had a moment like this with her brother, and there seemed so much that she was clueless about. What all had he learned since their move, where had he gone, who had he met? Too many questions, too many options, buzzed through her mind. "Anything I haven't done yet?" Always the adventurous type, she was ready to try anything, to learn anything new, that Nako could think of. "Or maybe you can tell me what Dad's been teaching you guys?" she asked, sure that alone would have been very exciting all on its own.

He could see the shock in her eyes at his mentioning of the time. The fire in her eyes was burning brighter by the second. Energy. Curiously. Already in a manner of moments Anais was back to her excited wiggly self. Nako sighed at his sister. "Ya. I did go in for a few moments. And I do want a day, or at least a morning with you." Kailos and Jakart were off doing whatever. They're parents were around the packlands doing their duties, Bane waiting to be called to teach as an Eir and his half-mother hunting. But Nako and Anais. They would have to make their own fun as they had done in the past a winter ago when his siblings were allowed out of the den. His thoughts turned to the moment when he had ambushed Anais and have a fun race over to their parents.

The press of her cheek against his shoulder brought him away from his thoughts and to the current moment. It was good to hear that she also missed the younger days, but he felt his heart swell when she told him that she missed being with her brothers. His sister inquired as to what they would do for the day. And to be honest, he didn't know. "Well, we've already had a race to our parents," The yearling began with a coy grin. "but we never exactly finished it by ourselves didn't we?"?Nako gave a knowing smile and looked at his sister with visible amusement in his eyes. "He's taught us how to kill others. But I'm sure you don't want me to practice that on you." Nako gave a predatory grin motioned with a head jerk for them to get out of the den.

Walk | Talk | Think It surprised her that Nako's train of thought had brought him back so far into their childhood, though at the mention of the memory she began to laugh. She did remember that day, when they had first been learning what the world was like beyond the den. They had been so small then, Nako just a bit bigger than both she and Jakart, and yet he had stuck close to them and played all the same, careless of the fact they were younger and less experienced in the sort of things he could already do. And she, of course, had simply been eager to get out of the den. "We didn't, did we?" she echoed thoughtfully, still smiling brightly to herself as she thought of it. No, their Dad had intervened, cutting their race short before a winner could have been declared though it had obviously been Nako. "I bet I could win this time," Anais added, feigning a confidence that she did not completely possess. A little healthy competition was still fun even now. Her brother went on to explain what it was he and Jakart had been doing of late, what all their training was entailing, and shock caused her expression to blank. Kill? That was certainly more serious than she would have expected. Sparring she would have understood, strength building and other sorts of training as well, but just killing? She had been poorly misinformed. But as Nako joked - at least she assumed he was joking about demonstrating on her - she managed to smile again, murmuring through a chuckle that just slightly bordered on nervous, "You wouldn't do that." Would he? Either way, she was already doing as he had gestured, walking past him to step out of their den into the early afternoon light and letting her eyes adjust as she turned back around to face him. "How do you even practice killing? Isn't that dangerous?"

Nako wagged his tail at his sister chortle, a hum of happiness bubbling up in the yearlings chest. "I bet you could too." They sure had a few months of happiness when they were young before their father was banished. That had been a hard day. Their mother came in, and well, he didn't remember much after that. The running he did outside of their den, falling to his belly in the forest and weeping. As with his siblings, he had never got to say goodbye, the last time he had seen him was when Bane had bumped him awake on his way out. The father had gone up the entrance to the den, his sire peaking and giving a reassuring smile one last time before leaving. And for the better part of a year, he was gone.

Anais looked a bit confused and slightly anxious at his statement. "Me and Jak are practicing defensive killing only. Keep moving. Go for the face. That sort of thing." The grey yearling spoke as she came up after him. "We're doing it as few times as possible to. So when a situation like that does come up we're not relying on muscle memory so we don't stop before the bite. Keep going and go for the eyes, ears, throat, tail. Otherwise our mind might think its a practice and not follow through. And well, we would be open to a counter attack by the individual." Nako took off a few bounds towards the lake, mulling over what he had just said. He turned back. "Did that all make sense?"

Walk | Talk | Think She was glad Nako was so willing to tell her these things. What would her father think if she suddenly asked him about everything that he had taught her brothers? What would her mother think if she knew her daughter was nosing into things like defensive killing? She doubted she would have taken well to it, and was already logging everything that she was being told away into a safe place where she would be less likely to spill her knowledge in front of her proper, excitable mother. The less she knew, the better. Not everything made perfect sense - she was far from even moderately experienced regarding everything he said - but a sudden correlation seemed to help draw it all together. "It's kind of like hunting, isn't it?" she asked, thinking back to how she herself had taken down small game before. You found the weak spot, exploited it, and ended the creature quickly. "Only...it's on us instead. Not on food." Anais traveled after him, quick and on his heels as he led them closer to the lake, following without even giving much thought to it. She thought she was right, or at least close. But how did you do that? How could you attack someone with the intent to take their life? It worried her, made her unsure, but neither of her brothers had ever needed to use their knowledge yet. And she hoped it would stay that way. But because the thought had already wormed its way into her mind, she asked anyway, "Do you think you'll ever have to use what you've been taught?"

Nako led his half sister at a slow amble towards the lake. His deaf ear flicked at her question regarding hunting. Except on wolves. The grey male pinned his ears at that question. Not once had he ever thought of it like that. What his father had taught him, it was in a sense like taking down prey. But this prey would be a wolf. With fangs and claws and techniques and experience. Suddenly Nako didn't feel so comfortable in teaching Anais, giving a worried glance back at his sister. Uncertainty suddenly plagued the young adult's mind. But his sister in all her curiousness would need an answer, Nako mulling over the words in his head before he spoke.?"Yes... dad says that he hopes we never have to... but if the times comes and we must, it is his wish that our thoughts won't linger on who's life we've taken and that we continue on."

They arrived by the shore, mismatched eyes staring out over the still lake water. It was strangely just him and his sister around. But he had gotten to thinking about what questions Anais could ask further. And he didn't want he going to Bane about this one. There were some things that should never be asked to a warrior.?"Dad, has never said how many wolves he's killed in the battles of what is now the ashlands, but it was enough for him to dwell on it for a long time afterwards before he came here." Nako signed. He honestly didn't know what to do all of a sudden and his demeanor certainly reflected that. A paw gingerly stepped into the lake to test the firmness of the bottom. Sandy and firm, toes wriggling to let the grit sift around. "So. Do you still want to know what it's like to mime killing?" A tone seeped into those words. Firm with a hint of bitterness. There had been things Bane had told him and his brother. Things that he hoped Anais never had to hear or let alone act out by necessity.

Walk | Talk | Think Anais fell silent after Nako had answered her question, thoughtfully considering what he said. She was with their father. She hoped neither of her brothers would ever need to use the knowledge that her father had given them, that no situation in their lives ever came to life or death. Even she, with all her adventuring and wandering about, had never come across someone that she felt threatened by, that made her wary of being in their company for any given period of time, but despite all that she knew they were out there. It was only a matter of where, and it was her wish that they might continue to stay and venture into only the safe places for the rest of their days. At last they came upon the lakeside, but rather than stare outward over it, the grey-gold girl kept her gaze shifted on her brother, sensing a new seriousness that had stolen across him during their walk. Was it the conversation? Had he said something he should have kept to himself? It eased her mind when he spoke again, knowing that he would not close up from her and keep whatever information it was that he thought she should know hidden from her, though the topic was no less somber. There Dad had had to kill before? Startling as it was to hear, it explained a lot. He did have so many scars, aside from the one both she and Nako shared with him upon his shoulder. And he did seem knowledgeable even during play acts of fighting. How childish that she thought they might all have only been earned in training or simple, nonlethal fights! She could see more clearly now the uncertainty, the unease, about Nako as he offered yet again to teach her, but now she was less certain that she wanted to know. It seemed to settle so ill over him, she could only imagine it might be worse for her since she was not a fighter and unused to everything that came with the territory. "It's okay, you don't have to show me," she answered quietly, stepping close so that she could bump her cheek against his shoulder affectionately. She did not want him getting upset because she asked too many questions, especially if they made him this uncomfortable. "We can do something else instead." She smiled as she made the offer, casting a quick, sidelong glance at the lake before her tail began to wag excitedly. "Bet I can catch a fish before you can." Fun seemed a good remedy for the heavy feelings that had settled over them. She only hoped her brother might take the bait and go along with it.

Nako sat, the lake water barely covering the tail curled around a leg. The day he had planned had turned somewhat sour in his attempts to rouse his younger sister from sleeping in. Must be a blue moon thing for Anais. All she did was go, go, go. Everyday. But all Nako and his brother did was train, train, train. Push themselves further and strain their bodies to physical ruin so that all they could do by the end of the day was crawl into the den on quaking legs. And with sour thoughts reflecting on how he had failed to start up something for them to do that wasn't so serious in it's methods and application made the grey wolf give a defeated sigh. The mood had been killed by his words, his choice of activity having dragged down Anais's permanently cheerful mood by his current attitude.

Anais denied his offer to given her a quick lesson. then he saw it staring back at him as she pressed her cheek against his scarred shoulder. The matching mark was on her shoulder. Their father had carved it into his flesh, before Anais was born, after being snatched away from his real mother, a rather pale female who was but hazy memories by this point in his life.?"I remember when you first came up to me and asked if I could keep a secret. Then you were going off to see dad. You came back with a scar." He stared into Anais's eyes for a moment, single functioning ear listening, seeing her tail start a lazy wagging motion. "I bet you can to, I'll spash my way down the shore and you catch them." Nako dashed down the shore a ways away from his sister, the lake sloshing at his ankles. With a cheery yip the yearling began to serpentine down to his sibling; intent now set on making this day enjoyable for her.

Walk | Talk | Think The girl's golden eyes peered up into her brother's face with curiosity as he began to speak of a day in their past, realization slowly dawning across her face as her smile began to grow. She knew this story. She had made this story in fact, and had the scar upon her shoulder as proof of it. With a grin, she glanced at the marking upon her shoulder, so often forgotten but always present. It had been a rather impulsive venture in getting it, riddled with traps where she could have been found out or denied. But her father's heritage was a weighty thing for him and he had accepted her request to be a part of it just as he and Nako were. "I was almost sure he wouldn't do it too," she answered quietly, almost in thought. It had hurt like hell, but after the fact she was glad she had gone through with it. It made her feel that much closer with her family. Nako appeared to agree with her statement, which naturally brought about a delighted chuckle, and at his suggestion of assisting her in that first catch her expression brightened excitedly. "Let's do it!" She turned there within the shallows and watched as her elder sibling raced of down the lakeside, getting a bit of distance between them so that they had room to work with. Her tail wagging, she waited for him to get set into place before moving a bit deeper into the water, allowing it to slosh up against her legs. Ready when you are, she thought, giving a silent nod as he started off running back toward her. Water splashed in his wake, but she was sure she caught a bit of a splash that preceded his progress, and her gaze pinpointed on it, maneuvering herself slowly through the water as she waited. Just a little further... She pounced, leaping for the splash with her jaws parted and was rewarded with the feeling of the fish squirming between her teeth. Straightening, Anais drew her muzzle from the water, shaking her head as it ran down her face and the rest of her from the splash she had created in her attempted catch, and grinned around her prize. A noise of triumph sounded from her smiling face, muffled around the fish that she carried, and with her catch in her jaws she padded out of the lake to the shoreline, dripping water as she went.

Nako may have been deaf in one ear but he heard Anais's remark about their father giving her the mark the day she went to see him. Thinking about what to say as he stood across from her.?"Ah but even the females of our fathers pack wore the mark. No reason not to give it to you for you are his daughter." The grey male called back as he then started to run towards his sister when she nodded. He wondered if this would even work. If his trek across the bank had made all the salmon swim away into the depths. But no. The fish had relocated back into the shallows, their silvery scales betraying them as Nako corralled them towards Anais.

His sister leaped and dunked her head, a sizable salmon returning with her clenched jaws. Such precision! Nako didn't hear the sound of success she voiced past her writhing catch, still intent on running down his own meal. A lost cause the young adult pursued a dozen or so more bounds through the water before giving up. He strode out of the water and shook his pelt off, heading up to Anais is playful bounds, stopping right in front of her, rump in the air and tail wagging. A thin whine left his maw, one of his crow feathers intruding upon his vision. Nako nipped at the feather with a snort and sat in front of Anais and waited for her to share.

Walk | Talk | Think The fish still wriggled and squirmed in her grasp as she made it to the shoreline, keeping her grip upon it firm to ensure that it was not lost. Fishing was not always as easy as she had made it seem, and even for a second she had thought she would be unsuccessful with her lunge for the water-bound creature. By luck alone she had managed to catch it, and now that she had it she had no intention of making a silly mistake and letting it go. Making sure she was well away from the water, far enough that it might not splash back in and swim away to safety, Anais set the fish down and placed a paw over it, holding it in place so that she could glance upward and smile at her brother with a bright grin that was no longer hidden by her catch. He too was after his own fish but luck did not seem to be with him this time. He gave up after a few more leaps and came back toward her, soaked in lake water and with nothing to show for it. Anais could not remember exactly how many times she had walked out of the lake the very same way during her mother's lessons and wondered vaguely when it was that she had picked up the skill at all. Somewhere during her inattention the fish had stopped its wriggling, and letting her paw up she glanced down at her catch thoughtfully before coming to a decision. She stepped aside to put the fish between them and gave it a nudge, offering it to Nako before backing away a few steps to show she meant to give it to him. Surely fish were a rarity for her brothers, particularly since they spent more time with their father than they did their fisher mom. And he did really look like he wanted a bite of it. Tail wagging, Anais danced about a bit on her paws, hoping he would accept her offer rather than turn it down.

Nako stared down at the twitching salmon, it's fight for the water it was being denied admirable but nevertheless futile. Anais had fulfilled her role in catching the fish but as for the young male he had no luck in pursuing the salmon in what was their element. It's gaping mouth eventually stopped and Nako eyed it with a hunger akin to dining upon the sweetest of meats of a regular kill. Moose. Deer. Mountian goat if the prey was on flat enough ground. The liver, heart, a thick hunch. But fish. Fish was a delicacy that him and his brothers rarely, if ever, had. Only their father had received some from mother a few times when the nearby waters provided.

Oh! And his sweet sister, nosing the fish in a gesture for him to take it. Nako beamed and wagged his tail, taking a step forward to claim the gift. Her antsy paw steps wouldn't deny his showing of affection, Nako stepping over the fish and giving a quick kiss on the side of her check. Blushing furiously, the young male quickly turned and picked up the salmon before retreating a few paces away. Eager jaws ripped up most of the scaled hide to dig into the pink flesh underneath. Satisfied that the catch was almost evenly eaten, and that his sister wouldn't go unchained or unrewarded, Nako gab Ed up the remnants.?Strings of rubbery flesh hung like bloody streamers as he placed it at Anais's paws. "Thanks An-ye." It had been forever since he'd used his pup nickname for his sister, but he loved her all the more from using it.

Walk | Talk | Think A chuckle escaped the girl as her brother leaned in to kiss her cheek, surprised at his sudden show of affection but delighted to have earned it. Obviously he was grateful for her generosity in sharing the fish, and she was glad to do it. It was not often that she got to do things for her siblings - far too often they were all off doing their own thing and too tired by the time they finally caught up with each other to do more than give a couple mumbled words before sleep. This, in every sense, was a rare treat, and she hoped somehow they could manage to make more time for it later. With Nako finally claiming his fish, the grey-gold girl reclined and seated herself there at the lakeside, casting another glance at the waters next to her with a smile. Were there still more fish close by, maybe even more that she could catch with little effort? Nako approached again, drawing her attention back over to him and the half eaten fish in his jaws. For a second she was puzzled - was he not hungry after all? - but rather than leave it unfinished he set the leftovers before her and offered his thanks for her catch. She smiled brightly and wagged her tail at his use of her childhood nickname, surprised he even still remembered it, and happily set about finishing up what remained of the fish her brother had saved just for her to share.