Snow Day

Moving to the north had not been his first choice, but not that he had gotten settled into his new phone within the caves that Armada claimed as their own and now that he had gotten his new forge up and running he was starting to see the benefits of it. It certainly put him a lot closer to the mountains where it was easier to mine for the metals and gemstones he needed for his work which was a bonus and he liked the secluded den that he had within the caves that had plenty of storage for his materials and projects. The only thing he didn't really like was the cold and the fact that it was so out of the way that he hardly had any chance or opportunity to meet any women outside of the pack—which really was laughable even to himself. He hadn't gone out to try and meet anyone in so long with the one rare exception of the earthen hued woman that he had a fling with at that carnival. Maybe it was just time for him to accept that his lustful renegade days were over. It made him question who he really was. Joining a pack, settling down, keeping a stable gig... What had be become?

He scoffed and chuckled at himself and his train of thought while he wandered out into the frozen north. He had a cloak made from a grizzly bear pelt draped around him to keep in some extra heat, but it was still way colder than he was used to. At least the mountains that they now inhabited blocked a lot of the wind which helped quite a bit. Out here on the tundras there wasn't much to protect him from the icy winds. He squinted against the bright light reflecting off of the snow as well. He started to question why he had even come out here other than his own desire to get to know the new lands he was living in, but at some point he found himself in what looked like a dried up riverbed that was oddly pale. At first he thought it was just all the snow that had covered everything or maybe a layer of ice over the dirt and rock, but as he got closer to one of the sides of this natural dip in the land he realized that the gleam off of the rock wasn't a trick of the light. His brows lifted in surprise and his paw lifted to trace over a vein of gold that ran through the marble, his jaw hanging open as his mind already began to reel with all the possibilities and things he could create from this massive amount of marble and gold!

Ruga chuckled and looked around and admired all the rock that was just ripe for the taking around here and silently kicked himself for not bringing his tools out with him. He started digging away a drift of snow away from the wall of the former river bed so he could get a better look, but as he was doing that he noticed the swooping shape the pile of snow had landed in. He looked at it with a tip of his head, examining the sculptural shape it was creating on its own. He smirked to himself as he thought about how long it would take to sculpt something even half way as good as this from marble. Snow wasn't a permanent thing of course and could easily be knocked over and would be gone on a particularly sunny day, but maybe that was the beauty of it. He shook his head, wondering where all this philosophical bullshit had suddenly come from, but the more he looked at his accidental sculpture the more he wanted to add to it. Well... at least no one else was out here to judge him for it.

He walked over to another large snow drift and started shoveling over snow to where his other pile had been gathered, getting a large amount of it all together into one spot. Packing it together, he started building up a base and then working it higher. His paws were freezing cold and aching by the time he was half way through the sculpture, but a little grin tugged at his lips. It was actually a lot of fun—though he would staunchly deny this ever happened if someone asked him about it. It got difficult to form the branches of the tree he was making, but after searching around he found some icicles to help give some extra support and managed to make it work. By the time he was satisfied it was well into the afternoon and there was now a bare tree made of snow and ice standing in the middle of the wash. He stood back and looked at it for a little while, grinning to himself before shaking his head and turning to head back home.

WC: 834

"Ruga Amanto"