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And they were off, the Adult chasing the dovaa over the snow, the pups struggling to catch up to their mother, bouncing along behind her and calling in frustration.

Kekeovonnai waited until the adult was out of sight before he pounced, shoving the pup forward and gathering it to his chest, curling his body around it as he ducked his head into a roll. Propelled along the snow, he rolled until he 'tripped', 'unfolding' awkwardly behind a tree. He looked down at the pup in his paws. The pup looked up at him, stunned.

”Hi.” he said, amused. That had been fun! He heard sounds and burrowed them both beneath the snow, hiding himself and the pup from prying eyes...

Keke listened. Had he heard his name? It was only a whisper, filtered through the snow into a soft hiss. He held the pup still as he listened.

There! His name again!

He lifted his head, rising above the snow pile, a clump of snow gathered at the top of his head between his horns. ”Here!” he called softly, ”I'm over here!” he lowered his head so that only some of the black scales were visible, striking against the snow. ”I got the pup!” he called, blowing some snow from its nostrils.

Shenra didn't understand the thrill of being attacked. Hunting she understood. People needed to hunt. Perhaps this could be seen as hunting, just not as stealthy. She made a squeaking noise as her protector went off to participate in his part of the hunt, then dashed behind a rather large rock to get some shelter from the mad birds.

She wasn't scared of them like a sissy, it was just she had no weapons. Yeah! That was it!

Shenra looked around and saw a smallish sized rock and picked it up quickly from behind her shelter, then threw the smaller one and hoped it hit something. She didn't wanna be the one who wasn't pulling her own weight.

She heard the thump of the rock, and peeked around her shelter rock, and saw it had hit a dead bird that had already met a messy end.

Shenra shrugged as she went back to her shelter. A hit was a hit she guessed.


She heard the last cry of the vlidean and poked her head out again to make sure everything was dead before venturing out to the group, who she guessed were searching the carcasses for anything valuable.

Shenra turned to the crazy Dovva girl as she called her name. She was surprised that the warrior would ask her if she wanted the loot. Her wings popped out in surprise and went over to inspect the treasures.

Her mind filled with curiosity as she touched them. So many questions about what they could be made of or how sharp they really were. Perhaps she could use it for cutting things.... Perhaps something to help mama in the kitchen with cans? Or something to punch holes with? The possibilities were endless!

"I-I can have one?" she said turning her head in question, "A-are you sure? You all did the work, I just hid!"

501/500

“Ooo.” Keke looked down at the pup, a small clump of snow falling from his head, “You know, I think thats a good idea.” he picked the pup up by the scruff of its neck, awkwardly trying not to hurt it. “Letsh go.”

He heard a loud howl behind him, and he scrambled out of the snowdrift. “Go!” he repeated, scurrying away as fast as he could with such a burden in tow. The pup squealed slightly as it was moved, wiggling as they ran...

~~~

Keke panted, slowing as they neared the edge of the forest. “Nhleni?” he managed through a mouthful of fur. He couldn't see the Aiskala, but that could mean he had either managed to beyond him, or was behind him... or hidden. Keke looked around, the pup pawing in protest as he moved his head from side to side.

”Sure, I'm sure!” said Red, handing her one of the sharp ones. Normally, she was not nice to a weakling who cowered behind others, but hey. Cute Orderite girl. Maybe a bit young, but still cute, right?

Still... she would need to toughen up. The rock meant she had promise, so... She was going to have to see the Orderite girl climb that pillar. Just to show she was worth Red's time. Red was about to state as much when she stopped, her instinct telling her to shut the hell up and listen.

The windstorm of before grew louder, blustering fog and debris over the small group. There was something in the wind, something odd... ”Ya hear that?” she asked the group, perplexed.

Baelen was of a similar opinion to Roserynn, Laesara could see. He positively radiated annoyance.

Well, that is too bad for him. she thought uncharitably. She was looking forward to the hunt, of course, but impatience was not a virtue. She was patient - not something she shared with her father or, if she remembered correctly, her mother. Oh, he was patient when he had to be, of course, but that patience had an end. She wasn't sure if hers did.

A servant bustled nearby and she gave them a meaningful look. They nodded, understanding all too well that this was no time for dallying, making a gesture with their fingers. Soon.

Her gaze drifted to the twin dovaa behind Roserynn, and then to Aster who seemed to be enjoying his rest. If she remembered her father's explanation, he was the 'family failure', which was a terrible fate to befall anybody. Roserynn was the official heir. And what of the others? They would likely find a purpose somewhere in their distant and beautiful realm.

She tried her best to hold them all in conversation and distract the hotter headed ones, but it was difficult to do when she was admiring their horns and scales more than was probably appropriate. Dovaa were so beautiful to look at.

Roserynn's attitude, however, made it difficult and even she was relieved when the servant came to inform her father that their mounts and equipment were ready.

Her father stood up quickly – rather like water being loosed from a dam and she went off to her own mount, assigning a servant to show the dovaa to the Ayran hastar. Spares was not quite a term for them – they were high quality hastar – but it was apt enough.

She didn't worry so much about Malikai staying on his hastar – a specific animal who was very used to him by now. We've mostly solved that problem she thought, with no small degree of chagrined amusement.

She kitted herself out, got on her hastar, and the party soon rode out. She could feel the beat of the hastar's feet matching her own heart, and she knew she was excited.

Very excited.

Shenra smiled and pocketed the claws that Red had given her. She probably could find something for these, even if it was just going into her treasure box.

"Thanks!" she said beaming. Red didn't seem to crazy to her now.

As the windstorm from before became worse, Shenra popped her wings back into their tattoo form. She didn't want to be blown away. As she put her head into the wind and shielded her face from the wind, she did feel different, she felt as if the wind was growling. Something in the air made her shiver and it didn't seem as if the temperature had dropped.

"Y-yeah." Shenra said ducking behind Red. "W-what is it?"

If it were up to Roseryn, he would've set out alongside his father. So the whole 'waiting' portion of this game seemed wildly unnecessary. But thanks to laziness (he cast Aster a glance from the corner of his eye), lack of discipline (the twins were only just finishing their exuberant snow-war), and a general deficiency in training due to age (but Roseryn couldn't fault Iris for the simple fact of being four), his purpose had been better served at their side. Now, however, as the majority of the children mounted up, he perched in front of his littlest sister with a smile. "Aster will take care of you until we get back. You just relax, stay warm, drink your hot chocolate, hm?"

Iris' cheeks puffed up to four times their size, reddened by the exposure to the wind. "I wanna go with you!" She complained, tossing her arms out to tangle in his cloak. "I wanna see the creature too! It's not fair!"

"When you're older, you-"

She shrieked out her frustration, and Rose recoiled, peddling back to give Aster space to reclaim the mildly upset child. "You'd best hurry back," Soldaster complained, covering an ear with one hand as his free arm looped around his sister's middle. "She'll set off after you and be lost to Ayr forever."

It was probably supposed to be a joke, but Rose's expression suggested he was anything but amused. He decided a comment like that didn't warrant a response and instead beckoned his three remaining siblings to join him near the hastar Laesara had permitted them to use. Once they’d all claimed their beast and mounted up, Quince nudged his haster toward Rose as the small group made their way over to join with the brunt of the hunting party. “It seems unlikely that this is how most families spend their vacations,” he grumbled on a low note, giving his haster a gentle tug to stall it as they approached Lae’s group.

“Would you prefer sitting around a cabin fire and hearing the mushy tale of how our parents met on a cold snowy night just like this and fell in love with a single glance?”

“I don’t think… Did they?” Quince’s brows furrowed.

With a scoff, Rose snorted out, “Doubt it.”

“Yeah,” Lis quipped as he guided his mount closer to his brothers, his sister clinging to his waist and peeking over his shoulder. “Mother would never be so careless as to just fall for a person like that. She’s much too sensible.”

Lia piped up from her back seat, “Mother doesn’t even like him now. Seems unlikely that such a frigid chill would give anyone oozy-goozy warm feelings of eternal love.”

“I don’t think anyone likes him,” grumbled Quince.

Roseryn tried not to look overly offended as he shot, “I do!”

“That’s because you’re a daddy’s boy.”

“Yeah, daddy’s boy.”

“I’m not!” He argued.

“You are!” The three of them seemed positively delighted by this fact, and they chanted it teasingly, “Daddy’s boy, daddy’s boy.” Quince even reached across the gap between their hastar to give a stray red curl a tug (much to Roseryn’s chagrin), and earned an unapologetic swat in response.

The banter probably would’ve continued, except there came a commotion from a nearby hastar, drawing the Dovaas' attention and stares, and coaxing them into silence asthey each guided their own beasts back and away from the one the plump Orderite boy was clearly very ill-suited to manage. But dark, winged-shadows emerged over the lip of the precipice, drawing anxious knickers and head tosses and finicky hooves from the other hastar as well. And as Rose struggled to soothe the unfamiliar beast beneath him, he couldn't help but toss a dark lavender glance to the heap of Orderite on the ground. "He fell."

"Is he alright?"

"If he can't even ride, he shouldn't be out here, anyway..."

A murmur of consensus went through the group, stalled only by the harsh lash of frigid wind that kicked up a spray of snow directly at the bunch, spurred on by the magic of one of the beasts overhead. It made a sharp circle around the party, gaze fixed on the smallest, weakest, most pitiful members of the bunch before it landed. It planted itself before the group, sticking them between a small family of dragons and the waiting cliff edge. Neither were particularly welcoming. But at least they could do something about one of them.

Lia notched her knees up to her brother's hips, using him for support as she tugged her bow over her shoulder and notched an arrow. The dragons claws dusted over the snow as it moved forward, maw low and ready to snap at anything the moved. She loosed only an instant after her arrow was strung, and the arrow found its place bedded firmly in the nick of the dragon's shoulder.

It's resounding scream was accented by a drawn-out burst of air that had the Dovaa children flattening themselves against their saddles. Only once it had subsided did Quince and Rose dismount. They didn't waste time with plans or pleasantries, didn't bother to urge each other to be careful, only moved.

Rose's fingers flicked up to the clasp at his cloak, giving it a decisive snap that sent the long, dragging cloth billowing away with the wind. His footfalls made audible 'crunch'es in the snow as he ran with purpose toward the Ayrala at the forefront. Another flick of his wrist, and his rapier was unsheathed, held confidently in his hand like an extension of his own arm. The Ayrala swiped as he neared, claws out and teeth bared, its snarls high and whiny from the first shot it had taken.

Rose dipped beneath its outstretched claws, and even as he moved, Quince's broader sword swung over his head, catching the raking nails against the unforgiving steel of his blade. The red head slid under it, angled his own weapon at his adversary, and, with a barely perceptible hiss of draconic words, speared his rapier up the dragon's nostril, piercing through weak masses of cartilage that protected the creature's pitifully fleshy mind. While postively disgusting, it proved to be effective enough, and the creature vanished into orbs, leaving its two compatriots to stand alone on the ice.

As Rose gaze his weapon a flick to remove unwanted liquids clinging to his blade, Quince snorted softly, pointedly staring at the much less thick cloth that now lay bared against Roseryn's shoulders. "You're really going to regret that."