The Queen's Luna

Chapter 5

"Enna... Enna?" A voice says.

"Mmm..." I respond aloud.

“You must wake. We slept through the late afternoon and most of the night. Rana is bound to be worried about us now,” Sage says.

I startle to being wide awake, fully managing to take over from Sage instead of being merged or letting her have control. I pick up our basket and boun out of the courtyards and down one of the lesser known pathat that take us nearly straight down into the Southern Mountains and then from there it’s a good ten mile run until we reach  Brida’s Glacier Lake where the Frost Berries are certain to be in bloom.

“Enna, we need to eat something. We used a decent amount of energy to get up to the palace yesterday and then your magic kind of went wild with the emotions that were being felt.” 

I slow enough to set our basket down in the brush by the trail that will take us through the forest back home, versus going back up and then down the mountain sides. I scent the air before letting Sage take over again. Her mouth waters and our predator instincts take over at the scent of a herd of caribou in some southern fields nearby.

“Caribou?’

“Caribou,” I agree.

We take off full speed, weaving though and dodging trees as we fly downhill towards the field where the scent is getting even more strong. We don’t even need to slow down to stalk our prey because we are two, if not three times faster than anything at any given point.

Sage burst through the trees and into the clearing with an abundant amount of mature caribou. They bolt and the adrenaline sets in as we chase after a larger one before pouncing in its back, grabbing it by the neck and using our body weight as an anchor as we roll off to the left while still holding onto the bull.

The bull flips over us as we adjust our grip to secure the next perfectly in our jaws in order to get a clean kill. With one bite, using a fraction of our jaw strength, the neck snaps instantly and the bull is dead beneath us.

Ripping into the flank, it doesn’t take us long to devour the warm meat of a recently living meal. Blood coats our muzzle, front paws, and has splattered onto our white chest, but we don’t mind. Caribou is one of our favorites.

Sage licks at our paws before spying a fox staring hungrily in the distance. She growls and we glare at it. Spittle drips from our lips as we guard out kill and the remainder of our meal. After the critter scurries off, we flip it over and devour the rest of the remaining flank before feeling fully satisfied.

I nearly purr, “I call next kill.”

Sage crunches into a femur as we close the distance between us and the lake.

“We will not need to eat again until, likely, tomorrow late afternoon. Depending on the activities, that is,” She retorts.

I can tell that we are both currently resisting the urge to chase after another, larger bull and kill it just for sport... Now, if we were closer to the cottage, killing one for sport would be fine. Then, I could skin it, cook it, and use the body like it is supposed to be when killed for sport. We would have food for weeks to come.

Sage goes right up to the edge of the water so that she can clench our thirst. The nearly freezing water feels amazing as it travels down our throat and into our stomach. 

I grin to myself, “So, would you like to bath us? Or, should I do it.”

I can feel our hackles rise and Sage rolls her eyes, “You know how I feel about that word and especially in water this cold. I know that we are a Winter Wolf, but where’s the hot spring?”

I nod to myself with a smile, “Do you need more water, or am I good to take us back to two legs?”

“Two legs is perfect. Don’t mind me. I’ll just be in the furthest recesses staying away from the dirty lake water that makes us smell like wet do,” She grumbles before releasing control to me.

I shift us back in a matter of mere seconds. I close my eyes and stretch out my arms, enjoying the morning sun beating down on my naked body once again. Upon opening my eyes, I realize that there the caribou blood is all the way up to my shoulder and I am more than certain that it is definitely all in the hair that is surrounding my face.

I cave and dive right into the water. It encases me in it’s serenity and I relish the quiet as water floods the insides of my ears.