Venom didn’t very often scale the mountain that held the caverns of the palace, but it didn’t seem like anyone else did either. Her tall form made her way upwards and as she went the snow became more intense and she felt the chill more keenly. The girl was not as susceptible to cold as her mother was. Maybe it was her tall form, but her thin frame didn’t help keep her insulated at all. She was prepared though, and still wore the scrap of polar bear fur over her back.

She preferred solitude these days, she was quiet in the pack but she hadn’t forgotten her training or the end goal. She was going to be Empress, and she knew it would be sooner than it felt like. Her mind raced with thoughts of the future as her violet gaze searched the peak above her. She didn’t know what she was looking for, but as the stress of her position weighed on her the girl couldn’t see how much she needed to relax.

She huffed heavily as she came to a halt, she was maybe half way to the summit and she relaxed into the snow at the base of a gentle slope. She needed to get control of the world around her, she needed to settle her emotions and she needed to focus on her future. She was the last of her siblings in the race to be ruler of the Ashen Empire and it was time to get real, but why was it so hard to focus on that goal?

wc:263

Chimera didn't particularly care for his older sister. He didn't care for any of them. When she moved away from the general pack area and headed in a direction where he'd never been, he couldn't help but follow close behind. Chimera was many things and curious was one of them. If he could learn something new about a different part of the territory, then he would do so. On soft, quiet puppy paws, the black and white child crept after his much larger, much older sibling. He tried to stay hidden, but, the higher they went, the colder it got. Soon his little teeth were chattering loudly no matter how hard he tried to make them stop. He thought about turning around and going back, but Venom dropped to the ground a moment later as if to rest. Despite his aversion to being close to family, he rushed forward and scooted close to his older sibling, enjoying what little warmth he could pull from her. His teeth still chattered and he didn't speak, but he sat beside her. "Speech"

WC-178
Total-441

She didn’t notice her brother, but she wasn’t looking for him either. She was used to a quiet patter of paws behind her in the form of Poison anyway and she thought nothing of any subtle sounds he made. Venom came to a halt and relaxed slightly long before she realized how close her young sibling really was. She didn’t often notice him following her, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t there either.

For him to suddenly come up and cling to her side she knew that he was cold. Only finding her presence when he needed something. Still, her sense of familial bonds was strong comparatively and she wouldn’t immediately swat him away. She hadn’t spent much time with her younger siblings, but they didn’t seem to want to spend much time with her either. Siren was scared of her, Inc was too quiet, and Chimera just didn’t seem to like her.

She sighed softly and moved the fur from her shoulders to his own. Venom refrained from saying anything to his detriment, surely the cold was a lesson enough. ”You wanna do something to get you warmer?” She asked quietly, avoiding his gaze as she looked around for supplies to go with her idea.

wc:208
total:649

His teeth chattered, but he said nothing. A moment later a fur was draped over him and the boy released an audible sigh. He wiggled down into the warm fur, glad that he wouldn't freeze to death. Though he lacked emotion, he did have a strange code. "Thank you," he said in his low, gritty tones. He was glad that his older sister had decided to share. Otherwise he would have been forced to run back home with his tail between his legs. When Venom asked if he wanted to do something to keep warm, the black and white child tilted his head to the side. "What do you mean?" He could barely keep his gaze on her as he waited for her to speak. There was a man sitting behind her. A big man. Grey and red with streaks under his eyes. Chimera fought to pay attention to Venom. The silent ones were just so distracting sometimes. "Speech"

WC-158
Total-807

Despite being cold the boy wasn’t a complete monster, as he sunk into the warmth the scrap could provide him he uttered a relieved sigh along with a note of thanks. Venom felt herself smiling softly in surprise as she returned the words with a quick nod of her head. When she returned a question she managed to catch his attention and in curiosity he tilted his head up at her.

He couldn’t seem to keep his gaze on her, and she was confident that had he been distracted by something dangerous, Poison would have called out. ”Do you know what sledding is?” Her first winter had been tainted by the eruption, she never got to enjoy the snow. Venom had been around his age when her father perished. She tried not to dwell on those thoughts too heavily, this was about warming him up, maybe having a little fun, and perhaps instilling a little bit of trust in her little brother.

wc:164
total:971

With the scrap of skin warming him, his teeth had stopped chattering. Again his head tilted as Venom spoke of her idea. Sledding? "What's that?" Sledding sounded like sliding. Maybe it was similar? How would they slide though? The boy cast his mismatched gaze down the hillside and frowned. He didn't think they would get very far if they tried sliding down on their bellies. The silent one pulled his lips back for a moment, baring his teeth and Chimera flattened his ears. He knew that they couldn't hurt him, but no small wolf wanted a large wolf showing them teeth. He tried to keep his attention on Venom, waiting for her explanation of sledding. "Speech"

WC-115
Total-1086

Chimera was warming slightly, or at least the skin was warding off the cold enough that the boy wasn’t chattering anymore. That alone helped Venom to feel a bit better. She didn’t ask him along with her, but now that he was beside her Venom felt the need to help care for him in the cold. They were siblings, and she knew that she should feel some kind of affection for the new pups. He didn’t know what sledding was, not that Venom expected him to. She had never been at least, but she knew what it was. Mostly from stories told by Poison. He was an odd squirrel, meditation guru and master of all things ‘fun’... it was disgusting.

She didn’t notice his reaction to the unseen, but she would answer his questions as her lilac gaze searched for materials on the mountainside. There were a couple of dead trees, large dead trees, with huge pieces of bark. The snow was thick enough… ”We make a sled, probably just a big piece of dead bark. Get on top of it at the crest of a tall hill and then slide down. We could make a race of it.” She raised her brows as she looked back to her little brother. Was he cold enough to be interested in a game? When she was young it was all business, and she wasn’t sure if she could remember a moment where she played.

wc:246
total:1332

Venom explained what sledding was. He had been close. Get on something. Slide down a hill. Easy. She wanted to turn it into a race and the boy furrowed his own brow. He was a serious child the majority of the time and didn't really play. Unless he was teasing Siren. That was playing, right? Chimera thought about his older sister's proposal for a moment and then nodded. "Okay," he said simply. He wasn't one for talking. That would change in the future, but for now his expressions were incredibly succinct.

Rising from his place, fur still upon him, the boy went looking for a suitable item to sled upon. Just as Venom had been looking at, Chimera found the big chunks of bark. There was one that was perfectly sized for a pup and he grasped the edge between his teeth, pulling it back to where he though the crest of a hill might be. Chunks of the outer bark chipped off as he was pulling, but the smoother portion that had been on the inside of the tree was still whole.

Though he was loathe to give up the warmth, Chimera took the fur and placed it on the area of his sled where he would be sitting. The child turned mismatched eyes towards his sister and was surprised to see that the silent one was no longer with her. He didn't trust them. They liked to turn up at the most inopportune times. Chi waited for Venom to get her sled together. He hoped that he would win, but he had a feeling that his heavier sibling would reach the bottom more quickly.

WC-276
Total-1608

Venom wasn’t sure if she would have taken the bait when she was so young either, the two of them were similar in obvious ways, but so different in ways unseen. The young princess was in luck today though, and her younger brother didn’t give up anymore hesitation. Venom felt her features shift into a classic Klein smirk.

He didn’t ask her for any help, which was a testament to his independance. Venom didn’t know her brother very well, but she was learning quite a bit from their interaction. She watched him for a moment as he walked off to find his sled, and she did the same. She wasn’t about to let him win the contest easily. Still, both of them would struggle, it was definitely going to be a bumpy road down.

The crown princess went to her own tree, it was dead as dead got. Carefully she removed a big chunk of the smooth bark, enough that she could fit herself on while going down the hill. Chi was waiting on her at the top, her expression hadn’t changed and she smirked lightly as she threw down her sled and looked back to her brother.

”Alright,” she started, positioning herself on the sled, crouching over the bark and crouching low to get good aerodynamics. ”Three. Two. One. GO!” She exclaimed before pushing herself off with a leg. She shot down the hill. Venom crouched on her flimsy piece of bark as she raced down the slope. She almost wrecked more than once but the amount of time it took to reach the bottom was like a flash. At the very end the uneven ground bumped her from the sled and her form went flying through the air. She tumbled to a stop, but managed to find her footing at the end.

Purple pink eyes looked up to find her brother, curious if she had managed to make it down first.

Venom placed herself beside him at the top of the slope and, after a count down, pushed off with one paw and shot downhill. Chimera pushed off a moment later, but had to kick a few times to get proper momentum. Venom, thanks to her larger weight, made it to the bottom first. Chi was only halfway down by the time she hit the bottom.

Ears tucked, the boy tried to make himself go faster. Mismatched eyes narrowed against the wind. Suddenly, right in his path was the silent one. Chimera acted on reflex, paws scraping to slow his momentum or change his course so he wouldn't hit the big wolf in front of him. The act dug the nose of the sled into the snow and the black and white pup flew through the air. He landed hard and the air was knocked from him. Sitting up, eyes wide, the boy fought for breath. When he was finally able to breath, he turned his head quickly, looking back up the slope where the wolf had been standing in his path. He was gone. It made the child angry. Lips pulled back and he growled as fiercely as a boy his age could.

Venom had plenty of time to turn her thin frame around to watch Chimera and the last leg of his descent. She had a fantastic view of what happened, but couldn’t understand any of it for a long moment. Chimera had tried to stop mid slide, he’d tried very hard to stop for no reason at all. The older girl bound towards his crumpled form where he’d been thrown, mild concern on her features. Mostly she wanted to know what she just saw.

”What in Abraxas name, Chi?” She asked as he righted himself and returned his bicolored eyes to the place his sled had buried into the ground. Then she noticed his expression. ”What was there.” Her question was framed as a statement, because there was no question that the boy was convinced he’d needed to stop for something.

Venom came to his side, asking what had happened. Of course she would. He was acting like he was rabid. Chimera knew that this was how the world would see him if he let them know that he could see the silent ones. At the moment though, he didn't really care if his sister knew or not. "A Silent One. He jumped in my path." He knew that his mother couldn't see the Silent Ones, but he didn't know if Venom could. She hadn't reacted, however, so he assumed that she couldn't.

Using one foreleg, the boy wiped a bit of snow away that was clinging to the side of his face. "I think he's one of yours." He'd come to realize that certain Silent Ones stayed near certain wolves. "He's red and grey. Dark around his blue eyes." It was the most that the boy had ever said at once other than when he was teasing Siren. With his brow furrowed, Chimera didn't even look at his sister again. He simply said, "Thanks for the fun." Leaving the scrap of skin behind, he began to make his way back towards the palace. He'd had enough for one day.