The rainy season has returned to Auster and, with the deluge, comes the closing of the first full years of the Klein boys’ lives. With that year comes more freedom and Strix is taking full advantage of it. Stepping off the ferry that connects the island to the dam, the small boy looks around, ears flicking as he listens. Rain patters the aspen trees, making their leaves sound as if they are playing music. It is idyllic and the humidity and rain cannot dampen the boy’s spirits as he moves forward. Today he plans to help clear some of the debris that the swollen riverbeds have deposited through the land. Strix is eager to prove his helpfulness in the hopes that he will be given more reasonability.

Quickly he trots forward, sticking close to the bank, moving to where the first beaver dam is. Unfortunately, the powerful rains have washed away the once strongly built home, tossing the sticks that once made up the home up onto the grassy bank. What a mess these rains make. Strix sighs, moving toward the numerous sticks that lay scattered on the shore, picking them up and moving them into a pile. Most of them are hefty, the study branches needed to anchor the dam, it us too bad it didn’t work. Picking up a stick that is slightly bigger on one end, the boy steps back and moves to toss it on the pile but stops. The weight feels strange in his mouth but the boy swings the branch from side to side.

Strix quickly decides that it could make a good weapon. Stepping away, the boy starts to move and swinging the branch, enjoying the heft and powerful feel that his improvised weapon gives him. Now if he only had an opponent or two to try it out on.



WC: 307
Total: 307 / 1500

"Strix Klein"

Morendo lingered in the shelter of one of the trees near the beaver dams while he tried to wait out the rain before he made his way back to the island. He enjoyed coming out here to stretch his legs and listen to the different kind of birds that resided on the mainland, but the now frequent rains were putting a damper on his wandering and adventures. The rain itself did have a bit of a musical quality to it and he enjoyed finding the beats in the pattering of it against the leaves and ground, but he'd still rather be warm and dry and making his own rhythms than sitting out here in the rain. Getting wet was unavoidable unless he found a den to duck into, but for now the tree was keeping the worst of it off of him.

In the distance he spotted some movement and he watched as his brother made his way out to one of the washed away structures that had been turned into little more than a big pile of sticks. With a lack of anything else more interesting to pay attention to, Morendo watched as Strix started to pick up and move some of the sticks, clearing up the area a bit and fixing the mess the heavy rains had caused. He felt like he ought to get up and help his brother, but he didn't particularly want to. He wasn't sure why Strix had decided to do this sort of thing in the rain, but he just shrugged a little and decided his brothers were all a bit illogical—not really a revelation for him, but this was at least proof.

Then he watched from his tree cover as Strix picked up another stick and stopped before putting it down in the pile with the rest. He seemed to notice something interesting and moved away from the pile he was making and instead started swinging the stick like a sword, as if he was genuinely testing out the piece of wood to see if it could be a valuable weapon. Morendo watched him for a long moment with a raised brow before sighing softly and shaking his head with a chuckle. It didn't exactly look like his idea of a good time, swinging a stick around in the rain, but he was tired of waiting for the rain to stop and he knew if he got up to head back toward the island then Strix would see him and interacting with his brother would be unavoidable. It became a situation of if "you can't beat them join them" and finally Morendo stood and walked over to where Strix was practicing with his new "weapon". He picked up a decent looking stick from the pile and gave it a test swing before coming to stand in front of Strix in a battle ready stance, giving him a bit of a smirk around the stick in his mouth.

WC: 495
Total: 802 / 1500

"Morendo Klein"

Strix swings his newfound stick around, thoroughly enjoying himself, until his taller brother’s form separates itself from the surrounding tree line. To be fair, the boy of black and gray is the smallest of his litter and all his siblings are tall to him. However, anytime he spies a hulking shape, he immediately worries that his brothers are there to pick on him. He quickly stops his silly antics, ears flattening against his skull and his tail tucking as he watches Morendo approach, worry fills his mismatch gaze as he looks to his soft-spoken brother wondering if Ren is going to make fun of him.

Yet, Morendo surprises his smaller brother, picking up a large stick of his own and moving to test it out. Head cocks slightly but his tail untucks and gives a small wag as his brother then moves to stand in front of him, the boy’s bigger form quickly falling into a battle-ready stance. The smirk isn’t missed by Strix and he offers a twitch of his own lips in response as he lowers his center of gravity. Paws spread, moving outward until they are under his shoulders. Body lowers, the boy bending his knees while also shifting his weight slightly backward.

Ears pin back and eyes narrow as the smaller boy’s tail sticks out behind him, ready to act as a rudder when he runs. Morendo may have size and bulk on his side but Strix is determined and scrappy. Without a word, the small boy releases the energy he had stored in his legs and rockets toward his taller sibling. Rain patters down, turning the ground into mud and soaking the Klein boy’s coats. Their mother will likely tsk at them and send them to take a bath as soon as they get back to the compound but that doesn’t matter right now.

Strix races the short distance to where Ren stands, using his forward momentum to swing a powerful blow toward his brother’s front legs with his crude weapon. Paws kick up mud as he goes, splattering both of them. The thrill of fighting zips through the boy and the world falls away until it is only Morendo and him playing around with their sticks. This is so cool!


WC: 376
Total WC: 1178 / 1500


"Strix Klein"

Morendo didn't usually like spars or fighting with other wolves and he especially didn't like formal training involving those things, but this was far enough outside of that norm and used a bit of creativity so he actually found it pretty fun. With all the rain pouring around them the ground was pretty muddy so it was absolutely no surprise to him when Strix kicked off to begin their fight and mud flung everywhere from the movement, splattering mud across his forelegs in the process. He would most certainly need to bathe when they got back to the compound. When Strix went to swing the stick he was holding toward his front legs, Morendo quickly turned his head and stuck his own makeshift weapon in the way, deflecting the blow and causing the stick to glance off of it in the process.

The only real downside to the maneuver was that when he stuck his stick down in front of Strix's attempted blow, he misjudged how long his stick-sword was and he ended up jabbing the end of it into the ground in front of him. Morendo went to make another swing of his stick and was stopped short, getting jarred by the unexpected stop his movement was forced to do. He blinked with surprise—and against the rain that was pelting his face—and gave a jerk of his head to pull it free. The big downside to that maneuver, however, was the fact that a clump of mud got stuck to the end of the stick and when he pulled it free the mud went flying... and landed right onto his face. Morendo sputtered and dropped his "weapon", shaking his head to shake off the clump of mud with a huff. Maybe sticks weren't the way to go for fighting implements after all—especially not in the middle of a rain storm.

After he wiped the mud off of his face and out of his eyes with his paw, he scoffed a little at himself and shook his head. "Maybe fighting in a mud puddle is a bad idea," he muttered with a little chuckle, abandoning the makeshift battlefield in favor of heading back to the island so they could get cleaned up and dried off.

WC: 375
Total: 1553 / 1500

"Morendo Klein"