Well you've needed my protection

@Vedetta, but any others also welcome. Set just west of Skelmir's Pass

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 As the winter had begun to fade, things for the aging male had grown close to desperate. He had only just managed to keep what little weight on that he had before this madness. His hunting had ended in failure more than not, and there were many more days where he felt hungry than when he felt satisfied with a meal.
 Long had he tried to keep out of sight and out of the minds of the pack wolves who frequented the area. He stayed nearby to scavenge off of whatever leftovers they might leave for the local vulture creatures. Taikon was now counted among them.
 Idly, within the dried brush of a meadow, the wolf chewed on an old bone. He had attempted for hours to break into the marrow, but the carrion he had plucked it from was wasted and dry. The bone was no longer supple and carried no nutrients. He gnawed anyway, knowing that it was a lost cause, not wanting to move from his comfortable place in the grass.
 He was not well-hidden. No more than a patch of long, bent grass obscured the view of him. It was grass from the previous year; it was dead and long bent and damaged from the heavy snowfall that had only just melted in the past day.

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The woman walked through the area, sniffing around for something to eat. Spying something in the distance, she bolted towards it, not the best in the way that she attacked it. For the most part, she kind of just threw her body at it face first, wrapping her jaws around the vole. However, she didn't stop very well and ended up toppling herself over before she landed squarely on her butt. Blinking for a moment, she looked around, realizing that the vole was still in her mouth! She did it!

She moved slowly through the land, a small vole in her mouth as she walked. She was so proud that she caught the vole that she refused to let it go. It was already dead, but it hung by the tail in her mouth. As she walked though, she saw a creature laying in the grass, who seemed to be chewing on an old bone. Cocking her head to the side, she walked in front of him, trying to speak with the vole still in her mouth. 

"Hut are oo uoin?" She paused for a moment before spitting out the vole at her feet before sitting down, now speaking freely. "Whatcha doing?" She smiled slightly, reaching out to sniff the bone that he was chewing on as she wondered if it was a toy. Was this something important? Oh! Maybe it was a collection item! She should start collecting these things as well!

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 The animal that sauntered toward him was unexpected.
 At first, he took it to be a young wolf. It was so small that it couldn't have been older than four months. Yet as the creature drew closer, confident and bold and goofy, Taikon realized that it was a young coyote. Blinking as she blabbered a sentence with a vole in her mouth, he opened his jaws to speak and nothing came out. She asked it again after dropping the mouthful, curious apparently about the bone.
 He stayed where he was, worried about frightening her off if he stood. With ease he shoved the bone with his nose to her while she sniffed it, offering it to this little stranger without qualm. “I was trying to break into the marrow, but it's all dried up I think.” As he pushed the bone with his nose, Taikon peered up at the youngster.
 She was an odd one. Her coat was entirely white, something he had never seen in her kind before. She had strangely pale eyes, hinting at a red tone that made him feel almost unnerved.
 Stretching out his front feet, the wolf pushed up from his forelegs to raise his back and hind end up. Then, suddenly, he was standing over her, and she was surprisingly small under him. “You on your own out here?” He asked, taking a step back as he dipped his head. He realized only after he said it that it sounded creepy as shit.

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She was even more curious as to why he was messing with a bone. When he talked about the marrow, she had to think for a moment to think about what that could be she realized that was the part inside the bone. Wait, did that mean he was hungry? Why would one go through all the effort to eat the marrow when they could eat meat instead? Before she could process that more though, he stood up. She wasn't scared of him, though it would probably be better for her survival if she was. Looking up at him with wide eyes, she smiled softly at how much larger than her she was. 

Hearing his words, she cocked her head to the side slightly before answering. "Well... yeah. I'm not really sure how I got here honestly. I woke up here a little bit ago without mama or my brothers." She glanced down at the bone he was gnawing on before reaching down and nosing the vole towards him. Looking up at him, she offered him a goofy, lopsided smile.

"If you're tryna eat marrow then you must be hungry. It isn't much, but all I have is this." She gestured to the vole on the ground by his feet. "Can you believe I caught it all on my own! I may have crashed into the ground slightly at the same time... but hey, at least I somehow caught it in my mouth!" Her nose was still a little sore from the fall, but she would survive!

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 Her lack of discretion was a bit worrying to him. She'd come up with no issue whatsoever, appearing to have no fear or sense of "stranger danger," even after his weird question. Taikon wondered how long she'd been without parents, and how old coyotes were supposed to be when they left the nest.
 She spoke of waking up without knowledge of where she was — her story was so similar to his and Irura's that it fascinated him. Evidently, this was something that happened often in this forsaken place. He wondered if, like him, she had also died in the world she knew.
 As the young coyote pushed the vole closer to him, he smiled in calm collection, bending down to sniff at the catch as he listened to her story. “That's very impressive,” he assured her, nodding in strong approval of this action. He didn't feel right taking the vole from her, but she seemed content to merely gnaw on the old bone. “You're very kind,” he answered, and despite his trepidation, swallowed the catch whole. “I'm Taikon. Looks like you're my little guardian angel come to rescue me,” he winked at her. Her movements reminded him very much of Cella, only much smaller and sweeter. She didn't know the danger in the world yet. She didn't know that another wolf might have killed her where she stood for no other reason than her species.

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The young child had zero concept of danger, to the point where she would likely jump into a pit of lava because it was 'pretty'. Happy with the bone she now had, she seemed to care little about the food and instead just wanted something to play with. Hearing his words, she began wagging her tail, very proud of herself and loving the attention she was getting. She looked up at him with her pale pink eyes, cocking her head to the side slightly as she watched him eat the mouse. 

Was that how adults ate things? Did they just swallow food whole? Did that mean she could do that as well? She never remembered her mother doing that but maybe mama didn't know how to eat correctly. Oooh! Did that mean she could swallow a deer whole?! Now she was determined to try it.

As he spoke, she brought herself out of her thoughts, cocking her head to the side with a goofy grin. "If I'm your guardian angel what does that make you?" She thought for a moment, thinking back to @Caiatl who she met earlier. "If the fluffy pidgin is my mama, does that make you my papa?" She seemed visibly happy that she was creating her family again!

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 Her smile was broad and infectious. Every little thing she did made him feel brighter and strangely stronger. A softness was held in his gaze that was normally distrusting of anything new. She reminded him of the family he had never had, the one taken from him long ago. She reminded him of his lost youth and the promises he had never been able to keep.
 He didn't know what she meant by "fluffy pidgeon," but assumed that she had met another in her lonely little travels. Almost immediately, Taikon felt a strong desire to protect her from the brutality of the world. Afterlife, purgatory, or not, he knew there were beasts here who would seek to harm her, and that was not something he was not willing to let happen.
 Like Irura before, this guardianship was quick. Irura, however, had been an adult and fully capable of taking care of herself. This diminutive little coyote was not, though she had caught the vole and he had not.
 He smiled. “Well I can't rightly be your papa if I don't even know your name, silly,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her and keeping his head low so that his gaze was even with hers. “Who's this pigeon?”

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The young girl moved to stand up, the bone still hanging out of her mouth, her tongue flopping out as well. One really had to wonder what went on inside this girls head. The answer was quite simply actually: not much. 

Regardless of his answer, she had already considered him her papa. Moving closer to him, she would begin to wonder around his feet, nuzzling up against him lovingly. Hearing his question about her name, she would open her mouth to answer, the bone falling onto the ground, quickly forgotten. "My name is Vedetta!" She seemed very proud of her own name. "Oh, the pigeon is my mama. She's a 'wise hunter with wings'." She said, remembering what the woman called herself though not knowing that she was an 'owl'. "Her name is Caiatl! And she's really nice." 

Looking around, the young girl held a frown as if she just realized mama wasn't around. She wondered where she went. Oh, did this new mama abandon her too? A small wave of fear cross her form as she yelled out loudly. "MAMA?!" She hoped that she wasn't left by her mother a second time. But at least this time she had a papa! 

After yelling for her mama in hopes that she would show, she moved to cuddle into her papa, looking up at him. "You'll never abandon me, right papa?"

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 Taikon was ill-prepared for the sudden way she stood up and promptly wormed her way around him. By accident, he froze and held his breath. The hair along his neck stood on end for the sheer sake of shock. She was so comfortable around someone she knew nothing about, and that was rather frightening.
 He relaxed as soon as she dropped the bone and told him her name. “Vedetta,” he parroted, grinning. “That's pretty!”
 The girl launched into the story about the pigeon. Taikon guessed that it was either a falcon or an eagle given her description of the animal as a "hunter," as pigeons didn't hunt anything except bugs and seeds to his knowledge. “I see,” he answered, watching as Vedetta looked all about for this mama bird.
 You'll never abandon me, right papa?
 The words prompted a vision from a forgotten past. A girl asked him if he would leave her like the others did. Then, she herself was gone. She'd had a name like a plant or herb. Taikon blinked, scrunching his brow for a moment in confusion.
 After a moment, his calm smile returned to his greying features. “Of course not,” he reassured her, stepping to her side in warm confirmation. If he could help it, he would play this role she asked for, for better or worse. “Let's see if we can find you something else to eat,” he suggested, hoping to distract her from the missing bird.

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^^The best thing about being a fluffy pigeon was that she had no limit of where she could go, but she usually tended to the vast open fields of the plains - it was the perfect buffet! So many rodents for her to nibble on. Though today, Caiatl was curious about the rodents of the mountains and had taken a detour back home with the pup weasel in tow.

She’d just made her kill, settling on a branch of a tree and devouring her kill when suddenly, there arose such the clatter of a scream of a voice that she knew. A voice that was fear ridden and immediately, Caiatl swallowed the rest of her vole, and went to the sky - hoping that she’d not be too late to save the weasel that she’d literally just adopted.

She screamed, in a demonic fashion - typical for her species - though instead of landing an attack on the larger canine, Caiatl came to rest on a tree nearby, swiveling her head towards the weasel and the big guy.

“Has this guy troubled you in some way? Do I need to call reinforcements?”

^^
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She smiled happily as he nuzzled against her, showing her love which was something she thought she left behind when she woke up here. As he talked about her name being pretty, the woman wore a large grin, wagging her tail rapidly. If one thought her little tail couldn't wag any harder, it somehow did as he stated he would never leave her. 

She opened her mouth to say something else when a familiar bird came flying down, asking her if her papa had troubled her. With her tongue hanging out of her mouth, she bounded towards her. "Mama!" She would attempt to get closer to the bird in hopes of nuzzling her, her tail wagging still. However, she just ended up jumping up and down by the base of the tree. "I thought I was abandoned again. But you didn't leave me!" No, she just had a tendency of wondering off. 

She turned to look at the wolf, shaking her head happily. "No, he's my papa now! Mama, meet Papa. Papa, meet Mama." It was only right that she did proper introductions. And with her introductions, she gave zero explanation.

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 With excellent timing, the bird in question screeched, swooping down to the branch of a tree. Taikon whipped around to look at the animal. It was an owl, most commonly known as a barn owl. Curiously, the raptor was awake during the day. He had never seen this before and did not know of the animals to do this. Sniffing at the feathered hunter, he logged this information away.
 He frowned as the owl asked if he had bothered the coyote. Evidently, the creature had been roped into a similar situation, asked by the coyote to be something like a parental figure. Taikon found all of this odd, but apparently the girl's original parents didn't bother to warn her against other wild animals.
 Vedetta sort of explained the situation, which left Taikon to chuckle and flick an ear sideways nervously. “I'm Taikon,” he dipped his head to the raptor respectfully. Normally, he bowed in greeting to new people, but he did not know how the bird would react to such an action. “Caiatl, I presume. It looks like we're in a similar uh...” He looked briefly down at the girl, who was excitedly waving her tail. “Situation.” He shrugged, unsure what to make of all this, but finding it necessary to roll with for the girl's sake.

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^^It was not often that the barn owl - er, fluffy pigeon was awake during the day, but alas, even if she’d been sleeping, that cry of fear that had been directed towards her would have woken her. As the weasel pup started jumping up and down at the base of a tree, Caiatl decided to put her out of her misery by flying down to the ground, once Tai - Papa proved that he was not a threat to either of them.


“I am offended you think of little of me.. ” Caiatl swivled her head dramatically, and pretended to be crying, making all sorts of noises as she turned away. “Only in death, will I abandon you, my dear.”

And then she’d turn her head back around and perk up at her child’s father - did that make him her boyfriend? Could an owl and a wolf even be lovers? She would have to ask Err.

“Hello, Papa Taikon. Nice to meet you.” Woah, that felt weird. “I am glad to see that our child has.. family; other family than me, that is. Now I can rest easier. Will you be accompying us to the Walkers of the Night? Or has the babe decided you are a good enough hunter to teach her?”

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She didn't really listen to the interaction between her parents, smiling widely at her mama. As the bird swooped down where she could reach her, the small child giggled before running over to begin licking the bird. She wasn't entirely.... gentle with it either, not understanding feathers and how to take care of them. She just licked the bird like one would lick another furred creature. "Now I know my family will never leave me!" She seemed very happy in that fact. 

As the two adults talked, the young girl moved to pick up the bone from earlier, gathering it and placing it down. Once that was done, the girl ran off, though this time not far enough to be out of sight. Instead, she searched for another bone, finding one off in the distance and bringing back to place it with the other one. She seemed very proud of her collection, now content with searching the immediate area for more bones.

One couldn't really say why she was collecting bones, but it made the child happy and for once, kept her from wondering off. At least at the moment, the two adults could talk without worry that the girl would run off like she did before.

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 He might have felt warmth, but Taikon did not trust anything that had just happened. He expected in some weird way that all of this was a setup to trap him, so he remained wary. He certainly felt uncomfortable with the use of the term "our child" from Caiatl. Somehow this all felt like a game that the two were playing at. The wolf was not strictly sure what he had signed himself up for. Nothing was clear.
 As they spoke, the young coyote ran about, doing her own thing, running to collect a bone she'd probably spotted earlier in the grass.
 But Taikon had other worries to attend to, namely the sharpness of the words "Walkers of the Night," at which the male's hair stood on end and he stiffened quite strongly.
 It was an old memory that threatened him. He remembered the old forest, dark and with air that choked at the lungs. He remembered the tree, the one that caused illness if you drew too close to it. He remembered that he and the pack that stayed there were not the first to do so. The Nightwalkers were infamous. They had done far worse than he even knew, for few people he spoke to were willing to tell him the horrors they had witnessed.
 “We are not going there,” he answered firmly. “Those people are evil. They will kill her.” The bluntness of his reaction was unintentional, but he would not stand by as the owl led the girl to her death. That would not do. “I am a fair hunter, normally, I'm happy to show her. We can manage all together,” he said, nodding with a thinly veiled smile.
 Though he had grown thin and hunting had become difficult in this new land, he was sure that if they could find a way to do this together, the girl would be fine. He could protect her, and, hopefully the owl did not have some ulterior motive to drive Vedetta to ruin.

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^^Evil. The barn owl wasn’t sure if she knew the term, but she definitely knew the feeling that Taikon was giving off; the ugly tension that was in the words as he spoke those four words. They will kill her. Caiatl swiveled her head to take a glance at the baben as she was so happy that her family - the three of them - would not leave her, despite having a conversation that was very heavy.

Attention back on the wolf, Caiatl flapped her wings in response, as owls didn’t quite have the neck structure to nod or to show agreement, though now she wondered if Err knew that they were evil. Perhaps so. Perhaps he didn’t care.

“Then it is decided. We will manage this together.”

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The girl really didn't understand what was going on, even though she was about six months old already. Things that something her age could typically understand, she did not. Though she really didn't have a reason for it, at least not one that she understood. Maybe she was dropped on her head at a baby, or maybe she was just born this way. No one could really tell. Vedetta herself didn't really know that anything was wrong with her, that was just how she acted and had always been and probably always would. 

As the adults spoke of deep and important things, she was off gathering things. At this time, she had about three more bones in her mouth, some gross or still have meat hanging off of them. However, she didn't seem to care, mud smeared all across her albino white fur. Placing her new collection of bones in front of her parents, she smiled up at them, very proud of her hoard of exactly four bones! 

Her attention moved quickly as she saw something off in the distance from the corner of her eye. It was something flying around and it was rather beautiful. She didn't know it was a butterfly and began running over to it. Wide pink eyes watched how it moved, her head cocked to the side as she studied it. It was different than how mama flew which made her wonder if she could fly! No, that was a stupid thought, of course she couldn't fly. She was too big!

Running back over to her parents, she plopped herself down on the ground, quite tired now after running around. "Is there where we are going to stay?"

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 Being a poor judge at bird body language, he took Caiatl's response as sheer aloof nonchalance. Evidently, he would be forced to be the brains of this strange group despite the legendary wisdom of owls. Perhaps her kind was simply less aware. Perhaps she was a young owl and did not understand the danger of the world, not unlike their young adoptee.
 In the mean time, Vedetta had been busy finding bones, no doubt scattered from an old nearby carcass. Such items were common in places where pack wolves came, which make Taikon slightly uncomfortable. He could neither smell nor see any sign from them, however.
 The owl mother agreed, and Taikon nodded with intent decision just as the white coyote flopped down to the ground before them.
 “I'm not sure just yet, but there may be shelter near the hills to the south,” he answered truthfully, recalling the dark woods beside the heights that twisted like a maze. Surely, there were places there that could be good to hide a coyote, even one as snowy white as Vedetta. Beside the mountain, they were less likely to be ambushed from behind. “Let's make for that way and explore,” he suggested. Briefly, he nosed the top of the girl's head as she lay, and then decidedly took a few steps forward.

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