Snow Beasts (Graln)

[Larina]

Spring 27, 511 AV Stupid Taldera with its stupid dire beasts! Larina was in trouble. Her stilt-like legs hurdled through piles of freezing snow, but she hardly felt normal sting of the cold. The blood rushing in her veins burned hot with unadulterated fear and kept the clinging frost at bay. Her mouth was agape as it panted frantically for breath, each exhale sending misty warmth through the air. The rhythmic beat of her paws against the ground was set at twice her normal speed. A faint humming rang in her ears: a constant reminder of her panic. She was being chased. It was supposed to be a normal trip for the girl. Check her traps. Scout out the area. Hunt a little, if she was so inclined. And then jog back to the Warrens. It was basic. Easy. Larina knew full well that the Talderan wilderness could be an extremely dangerous one and had usually taken pains to ensure her safety whenever she left the city gates. But maybe she had become complacent with routine. Maybe she had slipped up. Maybe she just got unlucky. Whatever the reasons, Larina had some sort of feral creature hot on her tail after her blood. And to as if add insult, she didn’t even know what it was. This is shameful! All of her fear and running. Didn’t she used to be a guardian? A grand protector that daily put her life as risk in epic battles out of loyalty to her master? Larina’s breakneck pace slowed at the thought. And just look at what she had become! A scared little pup who would rather run away than face an opponent. How humiliating. Her canter reduced to a complete halt and Larina planted her feet into the ground. Enough! She spun her head around at the unknown pursuer who chased her, hardening her nerves. It was time to buck up and regain her former pride. A surge of courage pulsed through her frame and made her fur bristle. Narrow golden eyes swept the trees behind her. The whatsit hunting her through the forest was about to get an unpleasant surprise. Whether it was a dire beast or a hell spawn of another world, Larina would hold her ground. From the woods to her rear, the Kelvic heard the lumbering of a giant creature. Paws thundered through the forest, not merely padding on the snow, but beating it down with the force of the animal’s weight. The cracking noise of splintered wood echoed more loudly than Larina thought was ever possible, and she briefly wondered whether or not the beast had just bowled through an entire tree. Shyke, it sounded huge. …Pride be damned! I’d rather live, thank you very much! And so, off she went. The zig-zag of her hectic flight leaving an obvious trail in the powder. The little spell of bravery she plucked up vanishing as though it had never been there in the first place. Cowardly? Probably, a little bit, yes. But Larina was also not an idiot. She knew full well when she was outclassed, and this was definitely one of those times. Given the option of life or grizzly, bloody, horrible death via mauling, the girl hoped that most people would choose the former. Even if it meant retreat.

[Graln]

Leaving the annoying comfort of Avanthal in search of food was indeed one of lengthier trips the bear took every once in a while. His empty stomach kept ringing at him slowly, but constantly. His strong jaws were flooded with saliva with each passing step that led further into the Reaches, or nature’s playground as Graln had called it. It was terribly wrong to go out hunting alone in the opinion of most, but then again he was unlike them, incapable of becoming prey. The Kelvic had always hunted at the same place, approximately at the same time. Beasts around his hunting grounds already knew all too well when he was coming and where should they hide. That was quite alright, he enjoyed the challenge; after all he was born to surpass it. Sniffing the snow slowly, he was trying to find his scent among many that lingered on the ground. Strangely enough, he found no trace of any territorial marks using his nostrils which kept flaring up every time he thought he caught onto something. This was the place, he remembered it well; but the smell of his urine was gone, and with it the boundary of his hunting ground. Instead of his own markings, he was now sniffing someone else’s and even while he could not figure out who was behind this treachery, the large paw marks around the sprayed tree indicated towards another bear. The tracks themselves were roughly the same size as Graln’s, but they did differ in depth which indicated that whatever had passed through his territory was much lighter than him. The promise of a large prey he still had scores to settle with was enough to motivate him into following the subtle yet present scent that oozed from the marker and into the nearby patch of trees. As Graln had rushed into the trees, the scent got much thicker, pointing that the one responsible was close by. Saliva floated around his gums, dripping onto the snow as he ran. His stamina was not what it used to be with the recently past winter so his breathing was getting heavier with each next exhale he made. Just as Graln was about to go into full charge towards his target, a small animal ran almost right in front of him. The lack of awareness that led the small critter right past him without even as much as a flinch mixed with the enticing smell of cowardice only made him more certain; what ran out next would be the offender he was looking for. There was only one thing the young bear could think about as he lunged forward at the appearing usurper; would he ever kill an offending polar bear himself, or should he just injure him gravely and leave him bleeding as an example? Maybe he would never even harm the bear, but only chase him away and rid him of any prey; it was for his mother to know and for him to figure out. The jump he made out of the bushes lacked any and all subtlety, lunging forward for the neck of the stranger. His teeth made contact with a bunch of ruffled fur along the neck quickly, and as the eyes fixated on details now; it was clearly visible that this was no polar bear. The fur he had a firm hold on was only a shade or two darker than that of dirt; he had never seen bears such oddly colored before. Roars mixed with groans escaped the mouth of his enemy, and even while he thought he could understand some of them that told him to stop, he didn’t; it was against his nature. The mud colored bear was strong, too strong for Graln to break his neck with a mere bite and he struggled too much for the polar bear to rip off a chunk of his meat. Still, he was nowhere near strong enough to break away from the deadly lock he was now under. The breathing got shallow and more irregular than before, the body was growing limp and the bear’s life force was slowly leaving him. Still, his white counterpart did not stop until the usurper was dead. Somehow killing another bear caused Graln to lose his hunger, but he was still angry as he roared for everyone to hear. “This is my territory, do not linger upon it!” was what his roars meant, but he had doubts whether anyone could understand them or not.

[Larina]

The guttural cries of an animal in pain sent a surge of adrenaline through Larina’s body. She skid to a halt in the forest, sending a spray of white powder into the air. The dog snapped her head back towards her unknown pursuer, her heart pounding at her ribcage to get free. The terrible crunch of mammoth paws in the snow had been replaced by grating roars from a beast whose fate was now worse than hers. The sounds from an unseen struggle boomed through the woods; each tear of fur, snap of jaws, and groan of agony was caught in the Kelvic’s white ears until the noise all died out. And then the smell hit her - that toxic blend of salt tinged with rust. Her fur bristled instinctively, and Larina gave a few steps backwards as the scent of blood overwhelmed her. What just happened? For a moment, all the girl could hear was the ragged gasps of her own breath. Her body was completely tense and motionless save for the occasional twitch of her tail. The silence was broken by the fearsome thunder of a bear, its roars even more magnified than the painful cries before. All at once Larina realized her horrible intrusion. She had stumbled onto the scene of a turf war between two giants, and the dominant beast had staked his claim to this slice of woods through the death of the loser. Larina knew full well that the roars of the championing bear were not ones of hospitality or friendliness. No, no. They were far from it. That’s my cue to leave. Alright…Come on now. Move. Run. Do something! As much as she wanted to bolt through the snow and put distance between her body and the paws of the bear, Larina could not seem to move her legs. They stood rigid, her claws buried into the permafrost and refusing to budge. Something was wrong, or at least it was awry. The girl felt an itching in the back of her mind as she worked overtime to unearth the root of the problem. It was the roars of the bear. They were just…off somehow. While all animals have the capacity for speech and Kelvics can understand words of their feral brethren, Larina still could not comprehend the bellows of any bear clan. But, this speech was different. Tempered in a way that distinctly set it apart from the harsh growls of purely wild creatures. Its tones were measured with a certain lilt that was vaguely reminiscent of the language born from Avanthal. But that was impossible. It’s a bear, not a human. And yet, there was no denying that the roar was, in fact, shaded with humanity. …Kelvic? Well, either that or a bear who took elocution lessons. Larina briefly imagined a giant polar bear pouring over dusty old textbooks with a pair of tiny spectacles dangling from his nose. He’d read off a line of script and then try to repeat off the sentence in his rumbling bear-speak. She fought the urge to snicker, but then snapped back to reality. This is not the time! So, the bear was a Kelvic. Her kin. And it is quite possible that the beast just saved her life. Could that have been…intentional? That might explain why the bear chose to risk its life against another furred titan, and it also made sense in that the bear was not hunting her down now. Certainly, her paw prints through the snow would be incredibly easy to follow, and yet she heard no stampede towards her. It must have known that she, too, was Kelvic. This revelation filled her with extreme gratitude and relief. Not only was she safe from the oppressor which had chased her, but Larina had been saved by one of her own! Turning of her heel, the wolf set off back down her winding trail to find the heroic bear and properly thank them for coming to her aid. The smell of blood and sweat grew stronger with her every step, and it was not long until she spotted the grizzly scene in the distance. Larina’s movements came to a standstill. It wasn’t just any bear who had intervened, but a colossal polar bear stood above a heap of crimson stained fur lying in the snow. She hesitated. The poor girl had always been a bit flustered by these denizens of winter. But there was no backing out now, and she called ahead in her own rattling growl, “Allo there, friend!”

[Graln]

OOCGraln indeed can’t understand what is Larina saying, so I guess transforming would be a good idea should he succeed in pinning her to the ground. It was fair to say that Graln was a bit cranky for killing the weaker bear, but he still didn’t pity the loser. The beast was dumb enough to come onto his turf, pee over his own boundaries and even stomp over his own steps; all of that made him no better than mindless prey that ran around the snowy plains. And then there it was, the small animal was dumb enough to approach him and give off a slight growl. Was he being challenged again? And by an animal that seemed so weak that a simple snow leopard could kill it? As surreal it seemed, it appeared to be true. The already angry bear launched himself off the snow and ran for the fox. If Larina did not move with extreme agility she would get pinned down to the ground by one of the humongous paws. While Graln did want to eat this prey, he wanted to scare it as well. He would roar in the small animal’s face, wanting to feel that same smell of cowardice that she was reeking with not so long ago. It would prove him that he is indeed still king of these ground and that there was not a sight more terrifying than him. He wanted to feel the rush of blood to the head as the prey struggled for its life. He could feel the smell of blood from his breath and it only got his stomach growling. For a mere moment he thought he had sensed a human smell on Larina’s fur, but he disregarded it completely; after all, he had no trouble eating other people’s pets.

[Larina]

He didn’t know. Maybe he was still on a high from the rush from his recent kill. Or maybe he didn’t have senses quite attuned as hers. Or maybe he simply didn’t care. But one way or the other, the polar bear did not recognize the Larina as his Kelvic kin and therefore treated her as an intruder. The russet-colored wolf stiffened up as the beast propelled his giant body towards her. Speed she had. Her thin frame and long, dark legs were built for agility, and this was the trait that Larina most relied on in both hunting and fighting. Lacking raw power and foreign magic, it was the one true saving grace she held above other creatures. But in the fraction of a second she had to bolt away from the white-furred freight train hurdling her way, she remained unmoved. An intentional action, of course, and one that came with severe consequences. Larina tried her best to remain calm as the bear’s mammoth paw swept through the air, which was no minor feat for a naturally skittish creature like she was, but she knew that any pulse of fear would only fuel the animals’ aggression. She understood that feeling all too well. The wolf grit her teeth as the blow collided with her chest, heaving her frame into the air and lifting her two front paws completely off the cold snow. In that instant, glittering pinpoints of something like light danced across her body. The soft radiance of the girl’s Djed merged and flickered on her fur as it immediately morphed into white skin, and before she had even hit the ground, Larina had shifted her form into that of a human. A heavy, dull crunch rang through the woods as her back hit the snow and she was thrown into the freezing powder. The polar bear’s strike had landed with full force on her chest and was now threatening to crack her sternum as the beast pinned her to the frost. Larina gave an unintentional gasp as the air from her lungs had been pushed out, and her ribs groaned with pain when the bear pressed his weight against her thin frame. A small spasm of fear twitched through her body as the girl briefly considered the notion that she had been wrong about this creature, and that he was, in fact, a wild thing. No Kelvic blood in him at all. A cold killer in the tundra, now with fresh prey. Before the beast could land another blow, Larina’s arm sprang to life. She shot it upwards and buried it in the snowy fur around the neck of the polar bear. Her fingered gripped a fold of skin around his throat. There was no way she could even attempt to strangle or even hurt him from her rather dire position, but this movement would certainly catch his attention and perhaps give her a moment to growl, “Be still, you brute!”

[Graln]

OOCI'm sorry for the enormous wait, do tell me if you wish to terminate the thread. Graln’s eyes narrowed as the light flashed before him, only to be widened again at the sight of his prey. A Kelvic, no, wait that could not be, could it? Saliva still dripped from his jaws, gods he was hungry, but he couldn’t really think of a good thing to do. Moving off the stupid fox, he just stared at her confused. Should he still eat her? Instead of devouring her, the bear satisfied himself with sniffing the air around her. She smelled almost like a human and a clean one at that; Graln liked clean people. He couldn’t see a mark from the goddess anywhere on her, so he raised his paws to tell her she should shift back quickly. Trying to show her what to do, he started waving his front legs through the air as if he was shuffling something. Stupid creature, did she want to die of frostbite? The bear didn’t want to growl, it would only chase the silly critter away and he was fairly certain she would die should she venture too far on her own. Regardless of what she would do, he would still respond the same, gesturing with his head that she should follow him. Stopping next to the dead bear, Graln would start tearing pieces of his fur off; so he could get to the meat. If the girl had the least of brains she would figure out she needed to eat, shifting took a lot of energy.