big guy ain't'cha

It was far too late in the spring for it to be this wintry still. He'd been born and raised in Auster so all Boreas seasons seemed odd to him yet, but he'd been here enough years to know that the continued cold was not right. The cold had seemed to settle into his already painful joints with an unceasing ache and sharpened the bite of the gashes on his brow where new horns had emerged so violently, but movement helped keep his painful joints somewhat less painful than not moving, and he'd finally made it a point to make a trip outside of pack borders despite the odd weather. A long journey would do his aches and pains good and he'd perhaps be able to discover more about what was going on. Considering his own recent mishaps, maybe the whole land had somehow been cursed as well, with some sort of malicious everlasting winter. If it lasted into summer, he might well consider moving Aerie back to Auster, if perhaps temporarily.

A strange smell reached him, one that was like and yet unlike a wolf. Not quite so close as a dog or coyote, nor quite so far as the maned wolves he'd seen on the southern continent, but... something wolf-like. He paused cautiously, glancing around for whatever strange creature it could be. Unbeknownst to him, though, he'd been moving past a birthing den with a new nursing mother within, a young female dire (extra dire on the side) wolf with a premature litter. The female's mate was young as well, and nervous with a responsibility beyond his years. They were alone, without a pack, and the presence of another predator near their young made them suspicious and paranoid. When Eligos paused with caution to look around, the male took that as furtive skulking, and leaped.

The only thing Eligos knew about any of this occurred all at once when a heavy weight crashed into him and sent him rolling, and he was suddenly in the midst of a snarling, slashing, rolling battle as he and his unknown assailant flailed and rolled in a heap through the frozen underbrush and heaped junk. Luck and his opponent's nervous inexperience saved him from immediate death in the jaws of another predator, but Eligos was shocked to find that the other creature was well larger than him despite his own unusual size, and was hard pressed to keep the snapping jaws from his own throat, let alone land a blow hard enough to drive off or kill it himself. He could only hope that either some good Samaritan happened to be in the area, or Kida and Cypher miraculously caught up to him today instead of tomorrow. Even as large as this wolf beast was, surely it would back down when confronted by more than one opponent. He just needed to hope to the Fallen God that someone happened along and was drawn in by the noise of the battle. He'd already had cause to be grateful he was wearing his armor, and the surface showed fresh scores where the wolf creature's teeth and dull claws had gouged at its surface.

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