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Takes place somewhere between the ice and dark tribe.
It had been some time now since the caribou hunting expedition. The moon had risen and fallen countless times against the foggy grey sky. Fifty that Reko had seen, although Ylva had assured him it had been far, far longer than that.
The group had moved further north, and then when it became unbearable they turned east and now they were in a wayward circle to the south. They had grown close, they had become good friends. In fact Reko could hardly imagine a time living without Ylva hunting by his side or Fintan attempting to drown him for thieving. He couldn’t fathom having not been by their side as they discovered warm steam geysers in the farthest north that they dared to push to. Nor could he begin to try and picture himself in the depths of the icy caverns to the west by himself. He had gazing upon images of his reflection in the distorted icy walls that encompassed the group as they alone walked along the uncharted path hidden from view.
He valued their companionship. Their kinship. However Rajko’s mind had swerved in recent days in the direction of perhaps leaving them. Such would not be a light decision to make, and he knew that it wouldn’t be fair to leave Ylva- his beloved, his everything behind.
Only with the time having changed and the crew progressively trekking further south, the weather was warmer.
Fintan had been pushing to move further to the south, mainly in part due to his lack of natural blubber and thick fur to protect the poor guy. Even now, with the bulk of the frigid cold well out of the Rajko could clearly see that Fintan donned his foofaloo pelt coverings and woolly boots. Had Rajko not decided to tame one of the large critters Fintan wouldn’t be so lucky as to also possess a paw-knit wool scarf! Moving south made Fintan alone feel good, everyone else was in the captivity of suffering, and it very much irritated the brown b’alam.
Releasing a sigh from his lungs Rajko was presently attempting to very carefully bring up the subject of his potential parting from his closest- and only friends. He hardly expected it when he received a large whack across the face with a snowball.
"Ow!" He cried. "That hurt Ylva!"
Yellow eyes glaring pleasurably in his direction, Ylva gave a chortle of her amusement in response to Reko's pain. She rushed to bolt as fast as she could ahead of the group and with no doubts that Reko was pursuing her. "Ha, ha, you deserved it!" She called over her shoulder, thrilled with the sounds of his thumping behind her.
She loved chase. Chasing game or being chased. Running in general had warmed up to be favorite activity of hers. "Slackers don't get away on my watch!" She told him.
They were supposed to be scouting, charting up ahead what horrors, or wonders awaited the sensitive Momoka and Fintan. Ylva didn’t mind this, she instead enjoyed the idea of being the first to arrive to a new scene! She had thought Rajko felt the same way, but judging by the frown on his face maybe he was beginning to dislike the scouting job he was tasked with.
Hmm. Well if he’d rather pick berries then all he would have to do is say so!
The days were stuffy and warm and with such feelings came an expanse of solid, uncovered ground that was being softened through the touch of melting ice. Unfamiliar with such terrain Ylva was prancing around awkwardly, trying to discover a way to properly run on such easy ground to tread upon. Unlike up north where snow made even walking a challenge, here one went fast when they were trying to and went slow with a casual pace if they so desired.
With such ease and all the grace of an angry harmadillo, Ylva rushed smiling through a patch of trees that signalled the beginning of a small forest. She cast a glance over her shoulder, to see how far Reko was from catching up. But-
Reko was in front of Ylva when she turned back, his big furry massive body colliding with hers as she pounded into him, causing the duo to roll and fall onto the ground. Reko could hear Ylva laughing after his back thudded against the dirt and a small branch snapped underneath the weight of his body.
"Ugh..." He groaned. "Why do I let you convince me to play with you again?" He rubbed his head bitterly, feeling the onset of another headache threatening to seize him.
Ylva merely giggled, determined to have her soulmate smile at her at least once today. “Because I don’t complain when you come hunting with me.”
Picking herself up and off of Rajko Ylva eagerly eyed the woods they had dashed into just now. The trees were bare, winter’s touch having not yet quite receded enough to allow the leaf buds to spring out and bloom. Or it could be winter’s oncoming and the buds were dying with the onset of a chill. It was hard to tell the time of year when one’s whole travelling group got lost for half of it. The only thing that was certain was that Ylva was sweating already, and tired from chasing prey much easier in this location.
“I wonder what sort of prey lives in these woods.” She pondered aloud, expecting Rajko to offer his opinion on the matter.
When he didn’t Ylva turned to gaze at him, and attempted to decode what mystery rested beyond his expression of discontempt.
“Why do you have to be such a grump? Come on! We’re in a new place! With new fun things to look at! Can’t you at least pretend to be excited?”
“Sorry.” Rajko apologized. Thoughts of how to bring up his leaving filled his brain with a sense of dread. He couldn’t just leave Ylva behind. Though perhaps he could think of a way to convince her to go with him. Or at the very least subtly implant the idea into her brain. If he informed her of his decision to essentially abandon the group she’d probably just try beating him up to “knock some sense into him” or something. No, he had to be careful about this.
“I just… I can’t help but think we’ve gone a little too far south, you know? I mean it’s interesting and all but it’s hard to live here. We should think about heading up north again.” Rajko stood, and sauntered over to stand next to his soul-mated. “Even just a little bit, so we’re not super hot and sweaty all the time.”
“Well sweaty can be sexy.” Ylva bumped her shoulder against Rajko. He shot her an eyeroll which prompted another laugh out of the pale b’alam. “Okay, I get it. I’ll bring it up with Momo, but I don’t think Finny is going to want to hightail it out of here just yet. I mean we only arrived what, five days ago? Give him some time to enjoy the warmth hon.”
“Thanks Ylva.” Rajko smiled faintly. Maybe he didn’t need to part from the crew after all.
At that, a startling scent parted him from any further desire for conversation. It smelled… sweet, embracing and familiar but strange and undiscovered at the same time. “You smell that?” A breath of concern laced his words and then the faint detection of another b’alam’s spirit entered his mind.
“I got this.” Ylva said confidently and strode further into the depths of the woods. While the crew had never actually encountered any nasty b’alam yet (outside of each other perhaps) one always had to be prepared. They had low resources with them and if anybody else in the world was like Rajko had been when first woven, they’d sooner ambush the group than befriend them. It was best to have eyes on the enemy before they knew where you were in Ylva’s opinion. And so, off she went, trudging through the woods following the sweet scent combined with familiar spirit-smell of a Nantili somewhere in the forest.
1365 words overall.
675 words for Ylva
690 words for Rajko/Reko