dark mists are cloaking what the eyes can see

Mist lingered along the ground of the mangroves. The sun had yet to break but already the horizon was lightening. As always, Éldi was up and about procuring breakfast. Well, that had been the plan but one distraction after another led him well out of his way into a lovely mangrove forest. He loved the way the water caressed the roots of the trees and found the process of walking along the roots to be good practice for ones balance.

He was maneuvering around a particularly large tree when rustling and chattering caught his attention. Éldi looked up and was stunned into silence. The tree appeared to be alive! It's leaves rustled, the branches shifted and thousands of eyes appeared to the be peeking through the leaves. His fur stood straight on end. What had he just run into? He swiftly tipped back his head and called for Valkyrie, hoping she was still in ear shot. Surely he'd know what this was. The sudden noise of the howl sent the birds scattering. Thousands of them burst forth from the tree and into the sky.

Upon hearing her friend's call Valkyrie dropped the deer haunch she'd been carrying and took off running towards Eldi. The alarm in his voice worried her and so she ran flat out, hoping that by the time she got there she won't be too late. She was ready for a fight, ready and willing to jump into the fray without question, she was...

Not prepared for a tree.

Valkyrie's ears slicked back and her eyes narrowed as she approached. She eyed the tree, then Eldi, then the tree again. Because his attention was fixed on the tree, she decided to leave it there. "Eldi?"

The birds moved together like a sentient mass, swarming through the sky before they began to shrink into the distance. He blinked rapidly as he realized Valkyrie arrived and he turned to face her, grinning sheepishly. "Oh, sorry Valkyrie.  I didn't realize the tree was full of birds. It was like the tree had hundreds of eyes and was looking right at me. I thought it might've been a spirit or a monster." Gods, how embarrassing! He wanted to crawl under a bush and die.

A call rang out and he looked up into the sky to see a familiar dark form come swooping down out of the sky. "Askr!" The raven did not reply. In his beak he held a rabbit skin, the corners pulled neatly together to hold in whatever it was that the bird was carrying.  The bird landed with a thud, clearly exhausted from traveling with such a burden. Éldi pranced over to him. "What do you have there, Askr?  Oh, Askr, you remember Valkyrie, right?"

The bird bowed his head deeply in greeting. "Of course! Éldi has enthralled me with the many stories of your great battles. I could scarcely forget. As to what I have here, it is an assortment of odds and ends. Mostly items to teach Éldi here how to make snares." Éldi stuck his nose into the rabbit skin and started rooting around in it. He was ready to get started!

Valkyrie narrowed her eyes at Eldi as he sheepishly gave his explanation for his strange behavior. After a beat she smirked and shook her head before tsking at him playfully and saying, "Well I'm glad it was nothing. Thought I was going to have to rescue you from an angry bear or something." Honestly she would take a tree full of birds over an angry bear any day.

 

She looked up as he did when the raven's cry rang out. That's right, he'd recently taken up company with a raven. Valkyrie dipped her head in greeting to the bird and smiled as it mentioned being told stories about her. Her grinned widened as it mentioned snares. "Snares, hm? You know I've recently learned how to make spears and I must say even though I haven't mastered them yet I prefer them to snares already."

""

dark mists are cloaking what the eyes can see

Éldi chuckled at the mention of rescuing him from a bear. "Speaking of bears, I've fought two bears already since coming here. Not sure if it is a sign or just a bad winter." The frequent battles with other predators had taught him much but he was anxious for a moment of peace to focus on his hunting. As soon as they had their band together he could go back to fighting other wolves.

He glanced at Valkyrie surprised she'd already used snares but he let it slide. Some days it seemed like he was perpetually behind in everything but his mother had always been busy and there was only so much he could pester her about. His father, of course, was a non-factor. "What is a spear?" The raven cleared his throat. "A sharp stick. Let's not get distracted, Éldi. Now you'll probably need my help with this one." The bird found wolves to be creatures lacking in precision. He pulled out some twine he'd stolen from an old human dwelling and carefully set it beneath his claws. "Ok, we're going to need a couple sticks a little less wide than the width of your wrist let's say. And a rock. We're going to build a drowning snare."

Éldi grinned apologetically at Valkyrie. Askr had been absolutely insistant. He looked around and spied a rock that wasn't too far off though it looked like he was going to have to do some digging to get it completely dislodged. Setting himself to the task he began to dig, kicking up mud as he worked his way around the rock, occasionally leaning his body against it to loosen it further with his weight. The shape was workable, he felt he should be able to move it chunkily from it's resting spot closer to the river to make a drowning snare. They'd have to move farther up shore though to an area where a fallen tree had created a steeper embankment.