R Acting on your best behavior, turn your back on Mother Nature

[Caesarion]

Caesarion hated winter.

Of the four seasons, it was the worst one — for many reasons. The first was due to the fact that his head hurt, all the time. A throbbing migraine seemed to plague him from the obnoxious reflections that beamed off of ice and snow, even through the night. Usually, he was able to escape the triggers for his discomfort, but not in winter. Not to mention how cold it was all the time, and the lack of food compared to other seasons. It was simply the worst.

Grumbling lowly, Cae slunk through the unfamiliar forest, head low and strides calculated. He was grateful that the snow didn’t seem to be sticking all that much, meaning it would be far more tolerable for travel.

The man clicked his tongue to himself, pausing at the sound of rushing water — a river was just beyond the dense pines. Teal colored eyes stared off, as if focusing harder would somehow make him able to see through the trunks and low hanging branches. Honestly, he wasn’t sure what he was expecting or hoping to see, regardless he saw nothing but the same forest that was in every direction.

”Damn it,” he hissed to himself, picking up pace and closing in on the water source.

[Jacqueline]

On the way out of the mountains, Jacqueline and her newest companion had mild success in feeding themselves. She was still uncertain if she trusted Lincoln to really endure through thick and thin with her, but the chaotic extrovert within her was dying to claw its way out, so she was opening up fast.

They’d picked the small carcass clean, but the thought of it was still rattling around in her brain. “I feel like,” she began, veering gradually over so that they might follow the river’s shoreline further into the valley, “Bones are good, right? They stick around for a long time, they’re tasty, and they’ll keep you from starving.” Her eyes sparkled as she glanced back at Lincoln. “So you’ve probably heard of debts. Life debts, favor for a favor, and what have you. But what if we set up a system where other wolves do things for us, and we give them bones instead of having to do something back?”

Her ears cupped forward in the middle of her rambling. Up ahead was a dark silhouette headed straight toward the river—attempting to ford it, maybe?

She did not bark, nor call out about it, but her silence and intense gaze would be enough to cue in Lincoln that she’d found something interesting.

[Lincoln]

The hunt hadn't gone well on his end, and it left him with a feeling of inadequacy as they'd begun following the river. He'd even refused to eat, insisting that she take more than her fill to make up for having not put in a matching performance, but it hadn't quite felt like enough. Like he needed to apologize or, or make it up to her some other way. But he couldn't come up with anything that would suffice, so he'd spent most of the time quietly thinking of a solution.

It had, however, given her a bit of a chance to do the talking instead, and at least some amount of relief washed over him when she'd broken the silence with a comment about bones. A currency system, basically, but what it meant to him was that she hadn't judged him too much for his lackluster hunting — or at least hadn't decided to dwell on it. "You know what, yeah," he chimed in at the end. Underneath it all, it really was a great idea. He just wondered how they would obtain and transport all of those... bones. "I wonder why no one has thought of it before."

A few moments of silence had passed before he realized that, well, a few moments of silence had passed. When he turned to look at her, wondering if there was an issue, it was clear that there was at least something, and he was no rocket scientist but he sure could pick up on the cue to shut the fuck up and look. So he did, following her gaze until it landed upon a dark figure in the distance.

"Is this when we start fucking shit up?" came a soft whisper as he slowly pulled up beside her. Normally he would have made the move to introduce himself to a stranger, but something told him that he should maybe follow Jacqueline's lead if he hoped to stay in her good graces. "I bet you that guy has some bones," he finished, his voice still low but adapting a playful tone.

[Caesarion]

Caesarion walked, his head hanging lowly between his shoulders while he occasionally tested the air, the smell of river water only increasing as he traveled. When the rapids came into view, the man paused briefly, a sigh dripping from his lips beneath his breath. For the time being, he hadn’t any idea what to do next — or why he was even exploring new reaches and leaving his native valley in his wake. But, it
was far too late to turn back now, wasn’t it? The best thing was to stay close to water and find food, when hunger strikes.

Easy enough; the river already made up half of what he needed.

The moonlight cut an appealing silhouette of trees against the night sky, earning his gaze to shift as he admired them momentarily. Though, it was then he noticed the duo that quietly began to approach. A low growl rumbled, one unheard to them, just him expressing displeasures to himself. Flicking his ear, Caesarion stopped along the water’s edge, letting the duo proceed on their path. It was clear — for whatever their reasoning was — he held their interest, be it caution or curiosity.

Curtly, his head turned to face them, eyes squinting. ”Were you not taught that staring is rude?” Cae raised a brow, his expression likely not easy to read in the dim light of the night. Were the residents of this valley often awake and willing to encroach on personal space, at night?