Awash in the amber glow of the setting sun the Orchard made a perfect location for enjoying the cooler weather. Dagrún enjoyed the way the light spilled on the thin layer of freshly fallen snow they'd been graced with the night before. It all changed when the sun fully set and the moon started to crawl its way over the horizon. Dagrún stopped cold as she realized the moon that was rising was full! Shouldn't it be waning now? It seemed like the moon had been full for weeks now!

Dagrún tried to push it out of her mind as she walked through the Orchard. Winter had taken most of the leaves off the trees, leaving the bare black branches stretching up into the sky. A light breeze whispered through, gently rocking them back and forth like some sort of death rattle.

There was something particularly odd going on with this night, and the ones that had past recently. A normal yearling may be afraid at whatever omen the strange blue fireflies and streaking stars ahead might allude to, but Tyrfing was not typically one who knew fear. Besides, the only winter in his memory was equally as crazy, with giant monsters who towered above even the tallest wolves and weather patterns that he couldn't hardly remember. Maybe winters were always weird - and until someone told him otherwise, he'd continue to assume it was some sort of touch from the Gods and wander through it with curiosity. He'd caught sight of Dagrun headed out past the range and followed her as stealthily as the training hunter could manage. His faithful companion had other ideas, having nearly flown into a cluster of too-bright too-blue fireflies the hummingbird had turned tail and disappeared back into the safety of the pack lands. Dagrun seemed slightly spooked, and Fin knew immediately how to best take advantage of the situation. He slid up behind the trunk of a bare tree, hiding himself while his extra-toed paws smushed between them a ball of snow. When Dagrun wasn't looking, he tossed the thing as best as his clumsy cat paws could manage and hoped it landed in her general direction. For extra oomph, he whispered a very spooky "OoooooOOOOoooOh!" From behind the tree. "Speech" table art by nightauctor

Barenziah called to the silent boy from the clouds, a sign that something was afoot. She had just enough light of day left to see both brother and a sister take off over the border headed towards the groves of the orchard. Ysmir, still feeling like he needed to save face after losing so badly in Ashen’s tournament, followed curiously after his two siblings. Or rather, took the long way around so he could meet them there. The silent boy was quiet with vocals and fleet of foot. The light snow helped dampen the sounds of his paws as he kept a steady pace alone. The gyrfalcon was much better suited for the daylight and Krah… Well who knew where that troublemaker had gotten off to.

Ysmir was quite struck by the state of the moon as well when its light rose to bathe the dormant forest. The conundrum put the young man on edge as he slowly found his way to where he could see Fin behind a tree and Dag up ahead. Ysmir wouldn’t give his brother’s hiding spot away, besides he was far too distracted by the blue fireflies that he just noticed were dancing in the frozen forest.

None of the peculiarities that were giving the residents of Auster and Boreas pause concerned her much. Skadi just chalked them up to her Sight. She saw animals with wispy auras, flashing lights and got strange feelings pretty often so why should any of the weird things happening be any different? What did catch and hold her attention was a very sneaky looking Fin throwing snow at Dagrun. Well that just wouldn't do. Skadi sought to creep up behind him. She pounced suddenly; scooping up 'fistfuls' of snow in her claws before trying to launch herself onto her brother's back. Her goal was to reach around his head and smush the snow in his face.

"Speech"

A flash of color caught her attention and she bent her head she realized it was a small, glowing mushroom of some kind. What the heck? Just as she bent her head a snowball went whizzing right over it. She whipped her head around to glare at her brother who wandered up trying to be scary. She knew it was him, she could see the tip of one of his ears behind the tree. Dagrún scowled. "Hey Mr. Brave, I dare you to eat this mushroom!" She kept her focus on the tree he was hiding behind but out of the corner of her eye she could see Skadi approaching. She grinned as her sister pounced, hoping the small girl would get their brother good.

Though he noticed the approach of his most silent sibling, Tyrfing remained at his goal of embodying the very spookiest ghost of all. Once his snowball had been thrown he'd retreated quickly back behind the trunk, but some part of him must have shown as Dagrun very clearly was not frightened, calling him out. He poked his head back around the trunk to give to his sister a glare, jaws parting to of course accept the offered dare, when suddenly something cold was on his back, around his head and on his face. The yearling yelped, leaping up and smacking his head upon a low hanging branch which only freaked him out more. He bolted through the snow half-blind towards where Ysmir stood watching the fireflies. "IT'S GOT ME." To his brother in panic, Dagrun be damned. She'd not even warned him that a specter was upon him, and she probably wouldn't try to save him after he'd thrown her way a snowball. The yearling tripped mid-run, careening into the snow with Skadi upon his back, rolling through it and eventually coming to a stop staring up at the star-streaked sky. His head fell to the side into the snow, catching sight of his familiar sibling who had thoroughly pranked him. "Skadi, what the fuck?" Fin accused. "Not cool." He got to his paws and brushed off bits of snow from his purple pelt, giving a soft huff. "Well, I dare everyone else to take a bite at the same time." The yearling returned, more then slightly embarrassed. He should have known it wasn't a ghost - but the night was just so fucking spooky that it must have eroded his confidence subconsciously. At least this way if they all took a bite of the glowing fungus and died, they'd all die. Or if they were blessed with magical god powers, they'd all be blessed. "Speech" table art by nightauctor

It took everything Skadi had not to bust out laughing as Tyrfing took off running with her in tow. It also took everything she had to hang on as her brother's panicked movements weren't exactly smooth. He just about rattled the teeth out of her head in his haste and then suddenly Skadi's rump caught air as they tumbled to the ground. There was sky, snow, Tyrfing's heavy butt, and then sky again before she managed to break free and go rolling off in another direction.

Skadi went straight from rolling to staggering to her paws, but she didn't stay upright for long. She cackled, then parodied, "Ooh, it's got me, help me guys, help!" before falling into the snow to laugh some more. "Cool? No, not cool. Funny, though..." She bounced to her paws and sought to throw her arms around Tyrfing's neck. If successful it meant her hind paws would be dangling, but she didn't mind. It was hard to say just how grumpy Tyrfing was about the whole thing, but if he let her Skadi intended to give him a little peck on the cheek.

About the mushroom... "Looks awfully magic-y to me. You know," she said with a saucy look, "the responsible thing to do would probably to take it to Alfrun. But," Skadi peeked at Tyrfing, "But I dunno how responsible snowball throwers can really be so...my vote's we make Tyrfing eat it."

"Speech"

Ysmir held himself with much more decorum than his panicked brother as their tiny sister sprung up and clung to his back. Like some kind of adhesive. He watched them for a long moment, morbidly curious mostly. Within moments they were all gathered in the near vicinity, and the longer he was out here the less he felt like there was some grand scheme. At least Dag wasn’t in on it.

There was a strange feeling this night though, even after his rowdy siblings had begun to settle. There was something out there, and he didn’t have a clue what it was. Like something was coming. He’d never been one for premonitions, but he couldn’t put the atmosphere anywhere else. Like he was living in tension that was about to break. It wasn’t just this night. There were many leading up to this peak moment. Not that he could begin to guess, but it had something to do with the blue lights and the mists.

The boy closed the rest of the distance between himself and the gathering of young Finnvi’s as Dag dared Fin to eat the mushroom. Tyrfing wanted to make a pact, but Skadi had the desire to force it down him. Ysmir shrugged, but made quite a face as he looked towards the mushroom. He wasn’t really sure that was the most wise of decisions. Seeing their brother consume it might make for an entertaining night though.

Dagrún let out a cheer as Skadi landed on their brother. Tyrfing took off like a shot and promptly tripped, sending himself sprawling into the snow and leaving Dag to laugh loudly. She padded over to the rest of her siblings as they gathered around the mushroom. She wrinkled her nose as Tyrfing suggested they all try it. "Bleck, I don't like plants." She'd been given enough medicine to swear off eating plant material and as far as she knew a mushroom was just a weird looking plant. She looked to Ysmir who just shrugged and then to Skadi. "Agreed, Tyrfing can eat it. I know you think you're the strongest of all of us so prove it. If it's poisonous I'm sure auntie Alfrún can fix you up."

Though Tyrfing had tried to compromise the dare into a sibling-wide mushroom eating event, the others of his litter seemed very set upon it being him alone who died an agonizing death. His jaw dropped slightly - ignoring his very clingy small sibling that hung from his neck - and he wandered over to the fungus with the rest of his litter. "I don't know." To Skadi he replied, who still was trying to cast her vote for him to partake solo. He spared a pleading glance to Ysmir, praying the quiet boy's voice would miraculously return to him in time to rescue him from the cruel fate, and then Dagrun spoke once more. Mind thoroughly made up, the yearling gave a hearty nod. "You're right, I am the strongest of all of us." He gave back with all the attitude of a typical teenager. "If I pass out or some shit and and you bastards don't get me to Alfrun, our parents are going to kill you." With that, he reached over to the mushroom with one fluffy cat paw, yanked it from the ground and took a medium sized bite. (Tyrfing wasn't stupid, too small a nibble may have been too wimpy, while too large a bite would be more likely to kill him.) Terribly tasting glowing mushroom swallowed, the yearling paused and waited to see if anything would happen. "Speech" table art by nightauctor

Dagrun specified that she really did not like plants and Ysmir wondered if any of them actually enjoyed eating anything that wasn’t animal based. He guessed that berries and fruits were sometimes okay, and he’d seen that one red and white guy trying to get milk from the sheep. He hadn’t made up his mind about all of that.

What was more interesting was Tyrfing and his reaction to their insistence that he would be the only one to boast about eating such a delicacy. To Ysmir’s complete surprise, he actually agreed to it. Not that he had any fear of the threats. Fin was the one that took the dare and chomped a massive bit from the glowing fungus. Ysmir certainly wasn’t about to call his actions brave but Ysmir wasn’t about to take his life into glowing paws.

Fin swallowed and Ysmir tilted his head curiously. Ready for his brother to start glowing or fall over dead.

Skadi hummed nonchalantly and swung her dangling legs to and fro as Tyrfing carried her over to Dagrun. She may or may not have accidentally on purpose tried to kick his foreleg the whole time he walked. Twas her nature; she couldn't help it.

When he spoke of being the bravest she scoffed lightly, but only to further goad him on. In her experience that was exactly the sort of thing Tyrfing needed to get him moving. She was willing to bet he could be talked into just about anything with the right challenge to his ego. Although to be fair, given his size and confidence it wasn't like he had anything to prove. It was likely through life wolves would make assumptions about him in his favor because of that. Skadi, on the other, had no such natural help. And that was why after she watched her brother take a mediocre bite she swiped the rest of the mushroom from him, clamored to the ground and stuffed it into her mouth.

Grinning smugly around the mushroom she beamed up at him. "Come on now, it's probably just going to give us the shits, no need for the dramatics. But," Skadi swallowed the nasty blob of mushroom and took a moment to process what she'd just done. It was truly terrible. Like a slug dipped in pond scum. She refused to shudder, however. "But if I fall over dead I leave all of my goods to Skugge. He's an okay bird."

"Speech"

Dagrún

Out of the corner of your eye, you see a chipmunk scampering by. Wait - is it glowing? You also find 3 crystals. Maybe these are worth keeping…

Ysmir

You notice the full moon is brighter than you've ever seen before. You also find 1 mushroom. Maybe these are worth keeping…

Skadi

You notice the stars streaking faintly across the sky. You also find 4 crystals. Maybe these are worth keeping…