Ultyr had wanted to hunt in the north and she had been told to sit and wait for him. So she had, until her thinner coat wasn't keeping her as warm now. She had decided it would be okay to find someplace more sheltered than the open tundra he had left her on. Though she wasn't stupid enough to not leave him a way to track her. So that's what she did, she had rubbed her side on things as she moved to leave him a way to find her. She told herself if he didn't show up by dark though she was going to find a forest and an old fox den or something to spend the night in. Better to be safe than sorry, he'd forgive her for thinking right?

She moved along the frozen expanse, but something caught her attention. Was that a wall of bodies along what reeked of piss and decay? A pack border? What kind of monsters lived there? The scent made her stomach lurch, bile rising up and expelled upon the snow. Shit.... that was the third time today. She didn't feel sick though. But maybe she should try to find a healer one of the times Ultyr was hunting. She spit as much of the acrid taste from her mouth as she could and moved on. She hated this stench. Her stomach was definitely running out of things to empty by now though right? She kept moving.

Only to stop as she came on a crumbling rock wall. A piece of fur catching her eye. It was far enough from the wall of bodies it couldn't be part of that mess. She moved to it taking a whiff, before planting her haunches and grasping it in her paw and turning it over and over in her paw. There was that familiarity again but she couldn't place it. It was lupine in nature but who did this scent belong to? Her expression was of puzzlement as she sat there trying to figure it out. There was a splatter of blood nearby, but it didn't smell like the clump of fur. What was it about this scent, she should recognize it but the recognition wasn't there. It was grey almost like her but had a bit of pinkish tones and some what looked like streaks of black. Who did this belong to? Her eyes she felt watering, and she tried to blink the tears away, but they spilled over regardless. The fuck? Now she was crying? Over a scent and fur? Could she get any stupider? Why did this fur make her sad? She didn't recognize it, didn't know the dried blood either. Her ears pressed and she sighed a breath of her frustration.

"Things I Hear"

The hunt up northward had been marginal. The obvious pack border was a distasteful waste. The mangled and decaying bodies reminded him of his father and the trash heap he had found *himself* and his slave in.

He lugged back an alpine goat for them both and when he approached the spot he had left her he was initially confused. Wondering if he had the spot wrong at first, but that couldn't be, he was never wrong. The God-Prince Ultyr scented the ground and found that yes, he had the spot right, but she was nowhere to be seen. He narrowed his eyes, did she dare to disobey him again? A cutting wind bit into his fur as he found another place she had rubbed her fur into like a cat. Ahh... she had at least left a trail for him to follow.

A sharp scent of sick hit his nose just as he saw the little nub of her tail between the rocks.
Sick? He hadn't given her bad meat had he? He drew closer and several scents hit him at once. Spew, tears, hers, and something else. Something that hit his brain in a curious way.

"What did you find..." He rumbled taking the fur from her paw and looking closely at it. It smelled... familiar. Almost. Familiar adjacent. Had his slave finally found a clue to their quarry? He looked down and found tears in her eyes. Her body shivering, a corner of her mouth slick with some vomit.

"Hmm..." He narrowed his eyes at her.
"Clean yourself up you have sick on your cheek." He huffed as he looked at the fur again. Grey, with a hint of black. It was too dark to be who he wanted, but perhaps it could be close enough. The scent was unmistakable.

"You moved away from where I put you to find this didn't you?" He asked, looking around for the source of the fur they had found. A splatter of blood nearby.

She was so wrapped up in trying to figure out the fur and why it was familiar to her to notice Ultyr approach from behind her. She really disliked this crying for no reason thing too. Why was she crying? She didn't know the wolf the fur belonged to. "What did you find..." his voice had her turning after a small surprised jump to him. He went to take the fur from her and she readily gave it to him, a shrug of her shoulders to him. She didn't know the wolf it belonged to, but for whatever reason it had her crying and sad over the scrap of fur.

She watched as he inspected it the same way she had. He seemed to have some kind of clue. "Hmm..." Her ears pressed when he narrowed his eyes at her. Had she pissed him off by moving? "Clean yourself up you have sick on your cheek." Shit did she? She brought a paw up and wiped at her cheek before her lips. A sniffle as she tried to also rein in her emotions all at once. But then her attention was back on the fur and his face, trying to read it. Did he know why it would of even affected her so? She doubted he cared enough to tell her. "You moved away from where I put you to find this didn't you?" His question brought her to look up at his face. Shit, now he was going to get mad. Should she lie? No, if he somehow figured out she lied to him it could only make it worse. She let out a shiver then and shook her head. Sadly unable to explain that she just moved to find better cover. That her pelt was used to more tropical weather. She hadn't been running from him she felt that was obvious with the trail she had left for him to follow. She just wanted more wind blockage than she had had out in the open.

So her eye dropped back to the fur scrap. The perplexed look falling on her face once more as her tears came forth silently again. She was freaking cold, and now all this crap too. She was also making sure to breath from her mouth so she wouldn't smell the stench of that horrendous body pile.

"Things I Hear"

Her compliance easily assumed, he lifted up the fur again, higher from the other smells just so in the wind so he could catch the pure scent of it. Yesss.... Not the one he was initially looking for...but a Morningstar nonetheless...

"My girl... you have finally led me closer to what is mine..." He ignored her shivering, her passive truthful shake. His eyes locked onto the fur and then the blood. What had happened here? Which Morningstar was it? The princess? By all accounts, she had a brilliant pink coat, not this storm shine grey. Perhaps another princess? They had bred like rabbits, he barely remembered how many they had captured and how many slipped away. The crown princess had been promised to him. He was eager to claim that prize one day as well.

"Morningstar..." He mused aloud. Dropping the goat from his shoulders.

"Fill your belly my little Kitten. We have a hunt before us. What happened here?" He leered at the brush of blood over the ground. Taking a tentative sniff. A kill or an accident?

His face didn't betray him. She was just as puzzled as she was perplexed. He finally fixed it with the next few words, "My girl... you have finally led me closer to what is mine..." A blink. She did? Who was it then? It didn't smell like his lover though. Her brows cam together in confusion. Then her eye went to the blood splatter and she gave it a small sniff, Archnemes stench was heavy in it. Perhaps one of Aryn's lackeys? Or a slave taker?

She swore the scent might be even the one she had heard commotion about once. He had been the one that always wanted the favored toys. She stood though and was about to move away from the site of this confusion when he made a word come out and her body froze with shock on her face as her eye went between the fur clump and him. "Morningstar..." Wasn't that his lover's last name? Is that what he had meant? The sound of the goat hitting the ground didn't even break her shock.

She had done something useful? And it was on complete accident. Was he going to throw her away soon? Would he kill her when they found his lover? Before it had been a pipe dream, something unachievable and inconceivable that she ever find what he wanted her to. "Fill your belly my little Kitten. We have a hunt before us. What happened here?" His voice finally broke her stupor. But it was already too late. The tears that had at least stopped were now flowing again. Why the fuck did it matter to her if he found this wolf? Why did it hurt like this? Why was she crying at every little fucking thing. She knew she was feeling moody but god damn.

Then her thoughts shut down for a minute. Puking at smells, crying and the other day happy for no reason. Math she needed to do math. She was throwing her satchel down and ripping her book out in an instant flipping to a page, it really didn't matter which. The volcano drawing in her eye sight but the next thing was the pencil. She was tallying it then. How long since the hot springs? Tally after tally went down as she counted the days. Then she was dropping the pencil. More shock. She hadn't thought it would happen. That he wasn't going to get anywhere with just the three times they had lain together. She stood there staring at the paper, trying to redo the math over and over and to prove herself wrong. He said he wanted to use her to breed, but would he be pleased? Excited? Love her for it just the same as she was loving him?

"Things I Hear"

The blood was unmistakable. An Achnemes slaver, his tail twitched in intrigue. Archnemes and Judila, linked together in a battle to end the ages it seemed. He could unite them, take the judilan princess home, and have her people finally concede defeat. Archnemes would win in the end, unless his father remained at the head.

The girl was not eating. She was rummaging in her sack for something. Maybe she was settling in for a drawing session while she ate, making notes about the land. Marking the territories, but that's now what he had told her to do.

Maybe she was writing about what she thought had happened.... He huffed, disgruntled she wasn't eating. She wasn't showing any signs of having a fertile womb as yet and he was determined to try again soon. He needed her to eat. She must still be too skinny. He loomed over her shoulder to notice her marks. They didn't make sense to him. They were;t words, or pictures, just tally marks. She was counting something.

"If that's how many meals I've given you so far I can hope you'll eat this one before I'm disappointed." He grumbled. The wind bit into his fur again, It would be even colder in a few more weeks.
"Put this in your satchel and eat. Then write me what you think happened." He said offering her the tuft of fur to place in her bag.

Then he went and carved into the goat. Skinning it swiftly and shoving the appropriate organ meats to ensure her fertility. He didn't know much about fertility, just enough to know where babies come from and how they're made. Anything beyond that is all conjecture.

She stood there, counting and recounting even as he stood over her and tried to make sense of the tally marks she had made to count. Her brain was running through everything. She had even been sleeping through her nightmares lately. Things were clinking into place and his voice broke her from her shock and concentration. "If that's how many meals I've given you so far I can hope you'll eat this one before I'm disappointed." A blink. Did he not know the math? Or had his tutors not taught him? Did miss Rose not teach him about this?

"Put this in your satchel and eat. Then write me what you think happened." He was putting the fur out for her. She looked to it then to him. she took it but didn't put it away. She placed it in her book and kept thinking. How the hell could she tell him? She couldn't stay in the north if she truly was gravid, and her math wasn't wrong. She had checked at least five times. A look back to him as he shoved the liver and organs at her. He was right to want to feed her more but now she would have a greater need of it wouldn't she. She would have to make certain he knew so he would hunt daily now.

The moment he was close enough a genuine grin spread on her face. He might take it as her attacking but she had no intentions of hurting him. No she was a flash as she launched her smaller form at him and made to wrap her arms around his neck and press her face into his chest, excitement bubbling under her skin causing her tail to swing rapidly behind her. He wasn't likely to be thrown backwards and that hadn't been her intention. No she had now done two things he wanted of her and it had brought excitement to her form. She was actually useful! For once in her life she wouldn't just be trash!
"Things I Hear"

She looked at HIM and had not taken the meats. He scowled, she was not normally this ornery. Then suddenly she was launching herself at him, her emotive silent face confusing and strange as she wrapped her forelegs around him. The energy with which she embraced him barely pushed him back, but the confusing turn of events held him still. She hadn't caught the funny brain worms, had she? Her tail was moving back and forth quickly... he had only known those movements when he had escaped for a time with his lover.

"Why... are you happy...?" It didn't make sense to him. He pushed her back to look her closely in her one eye. "You don't have the brain worms do you?" He asked seriously, suddenly forcing her mouth open to look down her throat and then inspecting her ears. He stood up quickly, wondering what had suddenly come over her.

"Why... are you happy...?" His question was only answered with her excitement. She was nearly vibrating with excitement. He must not of known what she was tallying or else his intellectual mind might of connected the dots. He was then pushing her back and she was putty to his whim. A grin on her face that for once touched her eye. "You don't have the brain worms do you?" she shook her head quickly. One might equate a pregnancy to having worms but she definitely didn't have those.

Her excitement wasn't dampered as he seemed clueless. Her eye cutting to the book and a paw pointing to it before she moved again, so the book would be between them, pencil grasped as she passed it. Her tail never stopped. Had her scent changed yet she had to wonder. He sat and flipped the pages to a blank one leaving the fur tuft in the center of the previous page's spine. Pencil then coming down to scrawl a few words. I think I'm pregnant. the words wrote large enough for him to see even from his spot had he not moved as she tilted the book to his view. Blue eye on his eyes as she waited for the realization to hopefully sink in for him. Would he be happy? Proud? Love the news? Or would he hate that she had become pregnant so quickly? She herself was overjoyed. She was going to be a mom and have a family! And the father was such a kindhearted man honestly.

"Things I Hear"

He watched her suspiciously. Narrowed gaze of fire and embers trying to catch any signs she might be infected. He watched her grab her book and quickly pen the words finally.

Understanding dawned on him, but he wasn't entirely convinced. How did she know? Was it just a woman thing? Her scent had changed lately, it drove him less antsy to consume her but instead, it had started driving him to keep her closer. Hm. Good timing then. They had found the signs of a Morningstar princess just as she fell properly pregnant. His army starts with a few good servants to serve them. Good. Now to just find his lover, a few more slaves to seed and surely in a couple of seasons, he could march back to Archnemes and take back what was his. Finally! His plans were coming together!

"If you are... certain..." He replied eying her words that she thought she was pregnant, "Then you need to eat. I want strong servants or warriors from you." He shoved the organ meats into her maw and watched her chew it.

"Now. If that truly is the case..." He thought, looking up to the pool of blood and where she had found the tuft of fur. Should he look for the slavers and make them guards? Or follow the Morningstar trail? "We need a few more. Should we follow the Morningstar trail or the guards?" He asked of her, a wicked grin on his maw. He was decidedly unconcerned for his so-called progeny thus far.

His face didn't tell her whether he was happy or not but that was probably years of cleverly schooling his emotions. Her own was full of her pride at doing a good job and becoming useful. There was also the excitement of being pregnant written on her face. It was no wonder she was pregnant though with the way he had bedded her so much, not that she was complaining, he'd been a gentle man everytime except the once when he had gotten too excited.

"If you are... certain... Then you need to eat. I want strong servants or warriors from you." she was about to go back to writing a response, as he seemed uncertain that she really was pregnant, when he was shoving an organ in her mouth. She knew he would never accept her offspring with him as proper royalty but that was fine too. Would he want to keep her even after the pups were welped and weaned? Would he still love them? She hoped he would. Her teeth worked to chew the organ and her to swallow it down quickly. He really was intent on making her fat these days wasn't he?

"Now. If that truly is the case..." more doubt. Why would she lie to him? Why did he think she would? He looked to where she had found the tuft that had made her sad for some weird reason. Her own followed his. "We need a few more. Should we follow the Morningstar trail or the guards?" more? More what? More children? She supposed that would be possible in a year or so but his second part of the question had her narrowing her eye at the blood stain. That man had been disgusting. Always wanting to touch her and others when she had seen him. She could remember him holding down some and celebrating himself in them regardless of their wishes. She'd been lucky to be owned by Aryn and "off limits" for him. But with only Ultyr here...her tail went between her legs and she moved herself to press into Ultyr, seeking comfort and protection from that brute, dropping her book in the process. He had raped too many to let Lailah be comfortable with his prescience.

But Morningstar. Who the fuck were they? Would they be good? Keep their paws to themself? She'd been given the opportunity to pick, and her eye went to the tuft of hair. His answer there. The unknown was the safer option for herself. Plus if that guard was loyal to Aryn, he could turn on them and try to kill Ultyr.

"Things I Hear"

At his question, he watched her reaction to the blood. Was she frightened of the slavers? Probably, he knew the sort. He had even punished a few for trying a piece of his Angel while Ultyr wasn't looking. He had caught them in the act and swiftly ended their lives. No one touched what was his. He didn't recall this slaver's blood in particular just knew it was one of his father's cronies. Probably an easy turn to work for him.

But her gaze lingered on the fur poking out of her book. He couldn't help but grin. It was what he wanted most of all. The Morningstars had once been denied him and slipped away from his clutches except for his Angel. Now he wanted to find his Angel again, and who better to help them than a sibling?

"A star then!" He exclaimed with a sly grin, things were looking up! He put his nose to the lock of fur again. The faintest scent of orange blossom and the exotic flower of ylang ylang? He made a low sound in his throat. Ohhh this was going to be good, those were his favorites.

He sniffed along the stone to find where his girl had found the tuft. The gentle fragrance still lingered in the cold air. The tumble of stones an obvious place to cross the wall. But which way?

The scent was weaker on the north side... South it is then! It was his turn to try his game at tracking.

"Let's go." He commanded his nose to the ground. How far could she had gone? This was a little less than a day old for sure. The blood still fresh enough to show so perhaps closer to hours. The northern chill had settled into the prints obscuring the time.