Ab Initio Mundi

The fall of thick and heavy snow made it hard for Elias to justify beginning Imp training as early on as he would have liked. His own birthing had been in the dense coverage of a jungle, far away from any possibility of snow. The mountains held an entirely different climate than what he was used to in his upbringing, and being a man of tradition made these changes slightly.. frustrating.

He hadn't been around the den for the past week, unlike how he had been during their infancy. He had been hunting, setting up his traps in the rock garden.. and keeping his eyes on the other dens in the mountains, ensuring no other unwelcome inhabitants were lurking in them nearby. During the night he had cleared an infestation of coyotes, devoured most of two and left the inner organs of them as intact as he could provide, as the tender tissue was perfect for young teeth to chew through. Now, just before the sunrise, he made his way back home.

His face was a sloppy mess, covered in gore and blood as his teeth did the best he could to hold on to the casserole of coyote organs held inside his mouth. Intestines fell from either side, though he could not drop his clutch and rearrange.. so he simply let them trail and break off as he worked the best he could to bring the rest home for his children.

The snowfall was light today, though prolonged exposure to the cold would still have to be something Elias was observant of in these imps. Just at the mouth of the den, he dropped the meal he had planned for them. A light wind carried the aroma of copper and iron into the den as Elias released a demanding bark to gain the attention of any that were deep in slumber. His thick neck twisted as he looked behind him, over the smoke of the volcano resting beneath them and toward the east. The sun's rays were starting to light up the sky, though its face was still masked by the horizon. Perfect.