Misery was still proud of himself for how well his first trap had worked.  However, he had learned an important lesson about how much work building traps could be.  Misery spent time finding the perfect deep patch of snow even as he tried to think up the best way to use it.   He found a tree that was weighed down with the snow, its beauty hidden from his sights for now.  Some of its roots were above the soil and had helped to create a good-sized hole in the ground.  Misery slowly stepped towards the hole, testing each step until he felt the earth want to give away deeper beneath him.  Stepping back a few strides he howled out, calling for Wendigo.  Wendigo was fun and sure to be up for a game.  This would be called ‘scare mom’ Speech:"Life is but a game "

It took Wendigo quite awhile to reach his brother. There were just too many good things between him and Misery! A particularly good pile of snow called to him early in the answering and he'd stopped to make a snow puppy. About halfway through the shaping of the head it occurred to him that Misery had called. His curiosity had been renewed so after kicking the head to bits he'd gone bounding after Misery again. Then a robin had peeped at him and that he couldn't simply let pass so of course he'd paused to peep back at it.

After winning the peeping contest he'd waded through a very distracting army of squirrels, funny shaped rocks and birds but finally - finally!! - Wendigo found his brother. He bounded up to the smaller boy and skidded to a stop in front of him. The white blaze down Misery's nose was suddenly very interesting and Wendigo leaned in to look at it. He zoned out for a second, fascinated by the bright white surrounded by black, and then came to abruptly with a hard blink. His eyes went to Misery's and then Wendigo quickly lifted a paw and sought to poke his brother's nose. "Boop. What do you want?"

Misery had laid patiently waiting for a while well aware by now Wendi was easily distracted.  A while passed and he hopped back in the hole, dug for a few moments then grew bored of it and climbed back out.  The boy then proceeded to roll in the snow, twisting about for some enjoyment.  Then once again back to laying and waiting.   Finally, there came Wendigo.  Misery sat up then scrunched up his nose when his brother was there staring at it and apparently earning himself a boop.  Misery smirked, whacking at his brother’s own nose with a paw. “Hey, Wendigo,” using the pups' names cause they had names now!  “See that fine hole I made right there,” glancing over at the hole and even waving a paw to make sure there was no doubt what he was talking about. “I had a great idea for a fun game and when I thought of games you were the first one I thought to play it with!” Yup, Wendigo was special, a partner in crime, mostly because Misery could expect a yes from Wendigo when fun was mentioned. “So what we can do Wendi is you’ll hop in that hole and then I’ll cover you up with snow and just your head showing!  You’ll have to tell me what it feels like later.” Cold, it would probably feel cold and a bit hard to move around he would imagine but would Wendigo bother thinking too far into it versus just going to experience it?  “Anyway, once all that is done I’ll call mom, and when she comes you play dead.  I can help you make it look good if you need tips.  Mom’s sure to love it.”  Misery beamed happily watching to see If Wendigo was ready to do his part. Speech:"Want to play? "

Wendigo's eyes followed every wave of Misery's paw and managed, somehow, by the end of the waving to fix on the hole like they were supposed to. He dropped to his elbows and put his nose in to get a closer look. For good measure he reached in and patted at the sides. Good and deep, solid snow sides...yep, good hole. It had the Wendigo seal of approval. He nodded cheerfully and enthused, "Oh yes, that is a very nice hole. Very nice indeed!" And he liked the plan too. It sounded like a lot of fun. Their mom would be so surprised!

Without further ado he hopped into the hole and made himself comfortable. "How's this?" he asked before going limp and doing his best dead animal impression. By his estimate it was pretty good; it felt good anyway. He let his eyes roll back in his head and his tongue hang out in the snow - which was super cold by the way, but worth it - and he held his breath so the little white air puffs wouldn't give him away.

He perked back up almost immediately and beamed up at Misery. "Pretty good, right? I could be a good dead body." Wendigo began to drum his paws on the edge of the hole impatiently. Between the talking and the demonstration they'd wasted far too much time on talking. It was time to get to burying; he wanted to play dead now. "Come on, let's go!"

Misery watched with bright-eyed pleasure as Wendigo approved of his hole.  He almost told him about an earlier use of a hole but then decided to keep the focus on this hole and this game.  Wendigo was too easy to distract!  Once Wendy was in the hole Misery walked up, circling the hole and grinning broadly when Wendigo showed his dead expression. “That’s really good! Best dead wolf I ever saw.” Admittedly Misery hadn’t seen one yet but that was beside the point.  Misery started kicking snow back into the hole.  Working his way around the edges, his rump end facing Wendigo as he used his hind legs to kick the snow in place.  “Too bad I couldn’t get us any blood to color up the snow around the hole.  That would have made it even more real.”  Misery wouldn’t ask Wendigo to hurt himself but, mentioning the blood he wondered if Wendigo might just do it for the fun of the prank. Misery was making sure to work fast on getting the snow all around his brother, the sooner he couldn’t easily move the more confident he could be Wendigo wouldn’t be distracted and rush off to do something else instead.   “This whole thing is up to you to pull off ya know!  I’m setting it all up but if mom falls for it or not is all on you keeping up that great act.” With that in mind, he wasn’t waiting on a response, even as he worked to pat down some of the snow to keep it looking normal he howled for mom with a note of terror in the call.  Help, Wendigo needed help.  The tone was made as panicked as he could eke out and the message as limited as possible.  A message with little information meant no need to get into a detailed lie to be caught in.  “Be ready! We only get one shot."  Another howl of concern for mom to hurry was let out.  That should do it! Speech:"Lets Play! "

Wendigo shook his head in disappointment when Misery mentioned the game would be better with blood. "Awww! You're right," he said sadly. "Blood woulda made it more fun for sure." It was too late now to get any. Mom probably would have been suspicious if he held a cup under breakfast this morning anyway. Ohh! But he had an idea! As Misery started to fill in the hole, Wendigo twisted around and began to pluck chunks of loose fur from his coat and spit them around the edges of the hole. For whatever reason he had a lot of it; may as well put it to good use.

The plucking was over with before Misery finished burying so Wendigo had just enough time to get bored. He inched his paws up through the freshly tossed snow so he could drum on the edge of the hole again. When he realized that hampered the burying he put them down and let out a heavy, snow scattering sigh. Misery was so slow! This was taking forever. He was gonna get old and die for real before this was done.

To pass the time he started biting at the snow whenever it was flung close to his face. "Rawr!" Chomp. "Rawr!" Chomp chomp. "Rawr!" Misery spoke again and Wendigo piped down long enough to listen. "I know, I got this," he crowed between wild bites. "I'll be good and dead, promise!"

Okay finally it was time! Wendigo slumped down and let his eyes roll back in his head with a dramatic "bluuuh" which was definitely the sort of noise a dead thing made as it died. He'd save sticking his tongue out for when their mom was close. Otherwise it might freeze and fall off, which sounded gross!

Misery’s mouth opened in a joyous grin when Wendigo thought to pluck some of his fur out. “good touch!”  Oh man, mom would freak out!  No blood but this was just about as good.  Another cautious check made, a few more patting down of the snow before glancing about the area.  “Wish I knew which direction mom would come from.” “Hey, how about this? I’ll just expose a small bit of your neck, we scratch at it enough to get off a bit more fur and a little blood?”  Would Wendigo agree to injure himself for this?  This was Wendigo which meant it was entirely possible, at least Misery would bet on it.  There was a back part of his mind whispering this might be going a little far, but it was a small voice that was easy to ignore.  If Wendio agreed then it surely wasn’t to far.  At least he was asking instead of just doing it? Misery raised his head up, ears straining to make sure mom wouldn’t sneak up on them and ruin the game.  It was dark admittedly but since they were only out in the dark it didn’t seem that bad for keeping an eye.  Even more than his eyes his nose and ears strained for any little sound of mom or anyone else heading their way. Speech:"Want to play? "

((Keeping if there's any blood vauge since they could have put some around the hole before she arrived still ;) ))

Trouble One and Trouble Two were unaccounted for... which was never a good sign. So when she heard Misery's call, well she damn near had a heart attack. She had never heard any of her children call with that level of desperation, and as she loped off towards the nook, her mind was filled with images of her son being swept away by the river than ran through the nook, she hadn't given her children any swimming lessons yet, hoping to wait for the warming of spring to avoid the risk of hypothermia, but she was suddenly scared she'd put it off too long and one of her precious bundles was going to be swept away. What she arrived on was not that. Recluse wasn't sure the last time she'd screamed, as a pup surely when her cursed aunt had come to give them a visit probably. But when she spotted the limp head of her son, Wendigo, she screamed.   "Speech"

Wendigo was hard at work being a good dead thing when Misery suggested he scratch up his neck a little because blood would make it better. This idea yanked Wendigo out of his 'be a good dead thing'  and threw him into the arms of his wild imagination. A little scratch and some blood was no good. He could do it better. He coul- OH he had a grand idea! Wendigo sat bolt upright as though electrocuted and began to wiggle frantically against his snowy constraints. "No, no, no I have a better idea! A great idea! I'll be right back, okay? So fast you won't even know I'm gone! I can beat mom, I can-" The sound of an approach froze him. That was mom. Too late now. Wendigo dropped to the ground in a dead slump. He was so excited. This was gonna be good! She was gonna be so surprised and it was gonna be so funny! Wendigo took a deep breath and held it as Recluse came onto the scene. Keeping his face still was so hard. He was so excited his heart felt like he was going to burst of his chest! It took everything the patchwork prince had not to lay there giggling to himself, but he'd promised his brother he could be a great dead thing and he was going to do his best! And then she screamed which was not a reaction he'd considered at all. What he'd been expecting, he had no idea, but somehow it wasn't that. His joy was instantly crushed and Wendigo sat upright with a startled scream. She screamed, he screamed, there was a lot of screaming even to his ears. If he could have backpedaled he would have run off or tripped over his tail but since he was buried up to his neck there was nothing to be done except scream back.

Mom made a pretty good time getting to them!  She sure was running fast when Misery first spotted her and looked pretty worried.  That was the point after all right, a playful scare?  Mom would understand.  Misery was sure to keep a worried look on his face as she spotted him but soon her eyes were fully locked on Wendigo and Misery was able to look thrilled at the great reaction. She screamed then Wendigo screamed and the whole thing was quite a sight!  Misery waited a moment for the screams to die enough to be heard without having to yell above the screams.  “Hi mom!  Gotcha good, right?” Yup, he was perfectly pleased and made no attempt to hide it.  Mom would get it!  “Snow is really amazing isn’t it.”   The notion of going to dig Wendigo out now came to mind but there was no harm in waiting a little longer, right? This was the best way ever to keep Wendigo still for any length of time. Speech:"Want to play? "

Her boys were going to be the death of her. The scream wasn't long-lived, mostly it was just a brief moment of pure panic when her brain jumped to the wrong conclusion but once she had a moment to really process the scene before her she realized that her thrill of panic was unwarranted. But her heart was still hammering in her chest so hard she could feel it and she realized she'd scared her own son, and without really thinking about it she immediately moved forward to push her nose into Wendigo's head, gently licking him as she fought back the panicked tears that were still fighting to break free. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you." She cooed softly to her son. Misery spoke and she took a deep breath, fighting the urge to snap and glare at her son, but when she turned to look at him, settling onto her stomach so she was right in front of her snow trapped child, she was still visibly unhappy. "Snow is amazing." She said sighing. "But you scared me, and not in a way that's funny." She looked at Wendigo, licking at his skull again, making sure he was calming down. "I was scared something bad had happened to you," then she looked at Misery, "both of you. You both mean so much to me and it's very scary for me to think something could hurt you, or take you away from me, and there are things in this world that could do that and I don't really like the idea of joking about that." "Speech"