July 16, 2001
The white cold is almost over, but not quite. Lonewolf goes out to hunt by himself, but doesn't get far before Snowspear catches up with him.
The grimmest white cold in countless turns of the seasons was slowly giving way for the coming new green. Soon there would be more animals to hunt and more food to eat. But so far, the elves in Rushwater Holt were still hungry.
Snowspear stretched her body as she awoke with a content smile on her face. The weather outside was still cold but it had been a hot day between the furs. She rolled over to embrace her lovemate, only to realise that he wasn't there. She sat up and looked around. When she couldn't find him, she sent, **Where are you, Lonewolf?**
Lonewolf picked up a sending. It was almost out of range, so he couldn't quite make it out. He turned Fire Eye around and headed back towards the holt. Not all the way though, just far enough to make sure he was within sending range.
**Where are you, Lonewolf?** Snowspear asked again.
**I thought that you might be hungry, so I've gone hunting.**
**Alone?**
**I didn't want to wake you.**
**Would you mind if I were to join you?**
**Not at all, my love. But you'd better hurry. I think I just spotted our next meal.**
**I'm on my way.**
Lonewolf was too restless and too hungry to wait for his lovemate. He readied his bow and took aim at the ravvit he had spotted. It sat absolutely still, thinking that its white pelt would make it invisible in the melting snow. Lonewolf's arrow flew true and hit its mark. 'That takes care of Snowspear's growling stomach, and my own,' Lonewolf thought. 'But I can't go back to the holt with nothing for the others.'
With the ravvit in one hand and his bow in the other, Lonewolf mounted Fire Eye and continued. Before long Snowspear caught up with him.
"I see that you've started without me," she said.
"I'm sorry, my bee sweet. I couldn't wait."
"You'd better not let anyone hear you calling me that," Snowspear said, looking at him with mischievous eyes. "My little love bundle," she added. They both laughed.
The hunt continued. The night was almost over when they found some tracks. **A deer,** Snowspear sent. **A big one.**
**It limps,** added Lonewolf, pointing at a pattern in the tracks. **It drags the right hind leg a bit.**
They followed the tracks, and soon they caught up with the deer. Lonewolf had been right, it was limping. Snowspear looked at Lonewolf.
**Would you mind if I...?** she sent.
**Not at all. Be my guest.**
Snowspear had no problem laying down her prey. The kill was swift and almost graceful. As Lonewolf watched her, he realised that right then, at the moment of the kill, she was truly Hunt. When her spear sunk into the tender flesh of her prey, nothing else existed for her. Not the forest around her, not the melting snow on the ground, not even her lovemate, standing just a few wolf lengths away. When the kill was made, Snowspear threw her head back and howled, and then she became herself again.
Snowspear left her spear deep in the deer's flesh and walked over to Lonewolf. She put her arms around him. **Thank you, my love. I needed that,** she sent.
**To see if I've slowed you down?**
**I don't know. I just know that I needed it.**
Suddenly Lonewolf broke free of her embrace and pulled her behind him. Confused at first, Snowspear needed a moment to realise why. A snowcat was approaching the newly killed deer. A single word came into Snowspear's mind when she saw her spear on the other side of the snowcat. "Stupid!" she thought.
Lonewolf had two thoughts in his head at that moment. The first one was rational and curious. 'What is a snowcat doing down here in the forest, so close to the season of new green?' His other thought was not so rational. 'That meat is meant for my tribe. I'll make sure they get it, or die trying.' Something inside him snapped and roaring, he charged the cat.
Snowspear watched with bewildered amazement as her lovemate turned into a wolf and charged the snowcat with his bare hands. The cat moved with unbelievable speed and grace. It struck Lonewolf in mid air, ripping his face open with its claws. Snowspear rushed to her lovemate's aid, screaming at the top of her lungs, "Use your sword, Lonewolf!" Lonewolf drew his sword and literally threw himself after the snowcat that now aimed for Snowspear.
The cat leapt, meaning to kill. Snowspear stopped, waited and tried to ignore the cat's front paws on her chest, pushing her back. She grabbed hold of the snowcat's head with both her hands and managed to keep its teeth away from her neck as the weight of the cat forced her to the ground. As she felt the sharp claws tare the skin on her chest, she realised that she had just bought herself a few heartbeats worth of time.
Even a few heartbeats was a couple more than Lonewolf needed to reach them and strike a killing blow with his sword. Before the snowcat even realised that it was dead, Lonewolf grabbed it and pulled it away from Snowspear. He sunk his teeth through its thick fur and deep into its neck. He tore the cat's throat with his teeth and then, with both his own and the cat's blood running down his chin, he howled.
As his pulse slowed down and he slowly turned into an elf again, Lonewolf saw the shocked expression on Snowspear's face. At first he thought that she had been lethally wounded and that she had just realised that she was dying but he didn't have to wait long before she gave him the real reason.
"By the lost dwelling of The High Ones," she whispered. "You're even more wolf than Halfkin." Her voice was low and she spoke slowly. "I know that I'm not the only hunter in the tribe that feels like a wolf at the time of the kill but I have never seen, or even heard of anyone who actually turns completely into a wolf, like you just did." She looked at him with a mix of admiration, curiosity and something else. If she had been anyone else, Lonewolf would have called it fear. "Until now," she added.
On the way back to the holt, Fire Eye carried the deer and Roottail carried the snowcat. Snowspear had the ravvit in her left hand and her right arm around Lonewolf's shoulders.
**How bad are you hurt?** Lonewolf asked her.
**Not so bad, but it hurts a lot. How about you?**
**Just a scratch.**
"Just a scratch!? Half your face is gone!"
Lonewolf looked at her, attempting a smile but failed.
"The darn cat just tore my skin. You make it sound like it took my head off," he said.
"It almost looks like it."
**I'll worry about it once I know that you are all right.**
As they approached the holt, Snowspear took her arm away from Lonewolf's shoulders.
**Are you still afraid that someone might think that you're growing soft because of me?** Lonewolf asked.
**It's not that,** Snowspear replied. **It's just that I'm the Hunt Leader.**
**So?**
**I am the Hunt Leader for a reason.**
She paused, trying to figure out how to say what she was going to say. **The Hunt follows me because they can depend on me. They know that I will always be there to back them up if they need it. They follow me because they know that they can lean on me.**
**Like I said, so?**
**How would it look to them, if I walk into the holt leaning on you?**
Lonewolf shook his head and said something to himself that Snowspear couldn't hear.
**Excuse me?** she sent.
"Nothing."
"Yeah, right."
Lonewolf opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted. **By the Mad One's spear!** Silverblade's sending echoed in their minds before they realised that she had seen the state they were in. **What has happened? How bad are you hurt?**
Without waiting for an answer she continued to openly send. **Purehaven! You're needed. We're just outside Snowspear's and my den.**
**I'm coming,** came the healer's quick reply.
**Who's hurt?** asked the Chieftess.
**I am,** answered Snowspear. **Not very bad, but still I'd like for Purehaven to have a look at it.** She looked at her lovemate's face. **And Lonewolf got a scratch, too.**
"You call that a scratch?" asked Purehaven when he arrived. He walked straight up to Lonewolf.
**Take care of Snowspear first,** Lonewolf told the healer in a private sending. **My wound is only skin deep.**
Later, in Lonewolf's den, Snowspear caressed her lovemate's newly healed face. **Why won't you let Purehaven fix that old scar for you, my love?**
**It's a reminder,** came Lonewolf's short answer.
**Will you ever tell me how you got it?**
Lonewolf sighed. "I don't think so," he said after a while.
**Are you two up there?**
**Yes, we're here, Chieftess,** answered Snowspear.
**I need to talk to the two of you.**
**Come right up,** sent Lonewolf.
"So, how are you?" asked Wildstar as she came in through the entrance.
"We're just fine," said Lonewolf. "What was it you wanted to talk about?"
"Your little adventure."
"What about it?" asked Snowspear.
"It was stupid," said Wildstar. "Don't get me wrong. We need all the meat we can get right now. But to go out hunting on your own like that was to take an unnecessary risk. One that almost cost us two good hunters."
The Chieftess paused to give them a chance to plead their case. They didn't, so she continued. "This was the second time this white cold that we almost lost hunters to snowcats." She made another pause. "I just want the two of you to be a bit more careful in the future. Do you think that you can handle that?"
Lonewolf and Snowspear nodded.
"Good," Wildstar said and got up. Just as she was ready to leave, she turned to Lonewolf. "Next time you decide to pick a fight with a snowcat, use a weapon," she said with a smile. "What in Highbelt's name were you thinking of, charging it with your bare hands?"
Lonewolf shrugged his shoulders. "He wasn't thinking at all," Snowspear said with a grin.