Chade jogged along inwardly debating where he wanted to hunt today.  If Swift was with him there would have likely been a debate and they would have gone to firefly lake or the polar sound.  He enjoyed hunting up the mountain but Swift hated it up there in the cold.  She had stayed in their den on the island this time clearly dismayed at the snow on the ground.  Chade couldn’t imagine living with such a thin coat.  Certainly, he’d made his cat a good number of fur pelts to curl up in.  Maybe he needed to make her a cape or coat of some sort?

Last year Chade and Ry had been dealing with the constant darkness and all the glowing rocks and mushrooms.  This year the long dark hadn’t returned and other than firefly lake he rarely saw the funny glowing bugs.  So, this is what a normal winter was like.  There was a thin layer of snow that could not hide all the grass but it did add a crispness to the grass blades and the rocks had a thin layer of white peppered across their tops.

Spotting the form of the golden and grey wolf who had recently joined the pack Chade turned his path to head toward him.  He knew the wolf’s name but really not a whole lot more than that.  “Hey,” Chade called out in a friendly greeting.  

"Chade"

Arcturus wandered out toward the rock garden with Pan tucked into his mane while he began trying to track down some prey to bring back today. It was pretty mild out for a winter day, but everything was still frosted and dusted with snow. He had gotten lucky finding those pronghorn out here with Ricin not that long ago so maybe he’d get lucky again and wouldn’t have to go tracking through Boreas for anything. He knew hunting with a partner was always easier, but he hadn’t seen Vanille yet today and he didn’t want to double back to the island now to go looking for his mother. Surely he’d manage alright on his own. It certainly wasn’t the first time he had hunted on his own, after all.

Just as he was thinking all of this though, a voice called over to him and he turned his head, spotting the other half of the blue-hued brothers walking toward him. Maybe he wouldn’t have to hunt alone after all! "Hey,” he replied in turn and felt Pan peek up over the top of his head to look at the approaching young man curiously. As Chade reached where he was standing he added, "I was just trying to pick up on a trail for some prey… Do you want to hunt with me?”

"Arcturus Indarra"

“Perfect,” Chade agreed easily.  Stopping alongside Arc he spotted Pan inside the dense fur and gave the funny-looking creature a curious gaze before looking back at Arc.  “I was planning to do some hunting myself.  Was in the process of deciding what I was searching for.”

Chade looked farther west towards the mountain range, waving a paw at it, “That’s my favorite spot to hunt.  Not the easiest, or even the biggest prizes, but it is the most fun.” Chade looked at the other boy grinning, “So, if we want big game we could try to find some reindeer.”

“How much hunting experience do you have by the way? We can go for smaller safer things if you prefer.  The Dall sheep in the mountains are my favorite prey but that’s mostly because of how dangerous it is chasing and fighting up there.  One wrong step and, well, splat.  Oh, and lots of polar bears like it up there.  I like that part also.” Chade had spent too much time as a kid wishing to feel safe.  Now that he could stay safe it seemed he wanted to search for danger.  Hunting was the necessity, killing bears was fun and satisfying.  

Chade was hoping he’d just met a friend who also enjoyed a bit of fun in more dangerous settings but if he hadn’t it would still be nice to have a hunting partner for the day to day.  Maybe Arc had other things he enjoyed doing that Chade would consider fun?  The blue wolf hadn’t thought about it much before but a friend around his age suddenly seemed a really nice thing to try for.  


"Chade"

Arcturus was glad to hear that Chade was already in the mood to hunt anyway. That made his efforts to find a hunting partner way easier. He glanced off toward the mountain range as he listened to Chade's explanation of how that was his favorite place to hunt because it was the most fun. Arc chuckled at that, looking back to Chade while he asked about how much experience he had in hunting and made a couple of suggestions of what they could go after—along with the warning about the polar bears they'd find up there and how he liked that part of it as well. Pan gave his ear a little tug of warning, but he flicked his ear and waved him off. He certainly didn't need to be warned about how dangerous polar bears were. He chuckled a little all the same and tried to match his new acquaintance's energy. It wasn't that all of that didn't sound like a fun challenge, he just had his own reservations that were a barrier on their own.

"I'm pretty comfortable with whatever kind of hunting you want to do. If you want to go up into the mountains if you want," he replied with a little chuckle. He didn't want to come off as weak or anything to his fellow hunter and he knew that living this close to the north that it was pretty inevitable for him to run into the massive white bears at some point. He just had to remember that he was far bigger than he had been back then, more skilled, more experienced. "Those Dall Sheep sound like a good time. Why don't we go after those?" That at least seemed easier for the two of them to manage than the reindeer so he figured he might as well face his fears sooner rather than later.

"Arcturus Indarra"