Flashback Freezing Together (Nanami)

[Koran Frostfawn]

Flashback: 5 Winter, 510 AV

It was the warmest season of the year in Avanthal and it was a bright morning in the ice laden city. It was a time without their queen and for the city to say farewell to her as she made her journey through the world to bring the joy of winter to others. The time for that farewell came and went. For Koran the sadness of their queen departing would fall to the wayside as he put his mind to a task he was well equipped for, hunting. Grabbing his composite shortbow and equipping his arm guard fastening the leather straps around his left fore arm, equipping his glove to pull a bow string with on his right middle two fingers closest to his thumb and grabbing his back pack and quiver pulling both over his shoulders to let them hang on his back along with a rucksack strapped to the top of the backpack. Inside the backpack and rucksack were three small animal snares, five water skins, a fishing kit, fifty feet of hemp rope, some flint and steel, a fishing net consisting of 25 square feet of netting, and a bedroll. With him he also carried a four person sleigh attached to a rope he would pull and on the sleigh he had a four person tent he would set up in the wilderness when he got there. Koran planned on setting the snares to capture some small animals like rodents or rabbits. He might do a little fishing if his main plan fell through. His main purpose being to hunt some game, namely deer, in the snow covered wilds.

He had been on plenty of hunting trips with others in the past, his father, his kelvic friends, and some Vantha hunters his father was friends with. This time he would go alone. He was Fourteen in five days and wanted to prove he was a man this day before the first year of his teenage life passed. He could see it now, the proud look on his fathers face when he dragged a full grown buck on his sled through the Icewall Gates, his mother crying for her child had become a man., and his friends marveling at his clear prowess as a hunter, as a Vantha, and as a proper Frostfawn. The wilds were undoubtedly dangerous for msot, but he had been there several times and he was now ready to hunt alone, after-all only someone foolish, stupid or arrogant enough to think he was good enough to hunt alone would do so in such a dangerous and lethal environment and he was certainly not a fool or stupid.

Gripping the rope in his thirteen year old hands he pulled the sled through the snow covered streets of Avanthal slowly as to appreciate the city. He always loved the look of the city, the way the buildings glistened in the morning sun, the colors of the ice. Many people thought ice had only one bland color but it was a reflective material that caught light and took the color from the environment making it flow and change in the smooth cold material. It also seemed alive in that way, the colors you saw in the environment of Avanthal changed and swirled in the ice until it became new and gave the colors an excitement that the ice provided. Before he knew it he had reached the large Icewall Gates that marked the entrance and exit of Avanthal. He waved to the Icewatch guards hoping they wouldn't stop him and they didn't why would they he was obviously a hunter going out into the wilds, and that was a normal occurrence around Avanthal. He would soon be in the Northern Reaches and hunting once again. He kept walking past the Gates and into the wilds only coming to a complete stop when he heard an odd noise.

The noise stopped as soon as he stopped. He continued to walk and the noise returned. He stopped and the noise stopped. He looked around but it was just a flat icy tundra with nothing but a few withered trees struggling to survive in the harsh environment. He grumbled a little and attributed it to an animal, which he wasn't entirely incorrect about. He started on his way and this time when he heard the noise he knew he was being followed. It was too much of a coincidence now. If a pattern develops like that it's not a coincidence. He didn't turn around but he spoke in a serious and harsh tone that told whatever it was if it was indeed sentient that he wasn't screwing around, “Listen, if you don't stop following me I will be forced to pin you and interrogate you thoroughly before I decide to let you go or give you off to the Icewatch to their judgement. Or you cold one stop following me or two tell me why you're following me...and then stop following me.” He smiled thinking he sounded awesomely threatening and was sure whoever it was got the message pretty clearly.

[Nanami]

Nanami didn’t see Koran leave, but as soon as she woke she knows that he was gone. She slept in the common room of the Frostfawn hold, vying for space with the other dogs and more than a few cats. At three seasons old she had no place in the social hierarchy, or the build to physically establish herself in it, often leaving her with the worst sleeping spots furthest from the huge fireplace. This morning found her curled with her tail over her nose underneath the wall-mounted bow rack. Koran Frostfawn’s bow was missing.
 
The bitch whined in frustration. He left without her! He's going hunting, and he left without her! Not that she told him she wanted to come; she was planning to catch him before he left and demand she come along. Because nine months old also means nobody wants to take her sledding beyond the ice wall, even though she's just tipped the scale at two-hundred pounds. But she's known Koran her whole life, he'd be sure to give her a chance to prove herself. Still making angry noises in the back of her throat, Nanami shifted and flied around the room collecting the garments she kept hidden in her travel bag under a low, feather-leaking chair.
 
The few other residents who were up laughed openly as the Kelvic girl hopped around the room stuffing her legs into her reindeer leggings and her arms through her dress. Though they had to admire how well the girl had grown over the last weeks. She's fully five-foot-seven now, but built like someone who had grown much over a short amount of time. Her arms are wiry and her shoulders are too big for her hips, though her thighs seem to be getting stronger by the day. Overall she was a child being pulled by the gripping teeth of adulthood, and is understandably confused by the process.
 
Finally she was dressed, feet laced into her boots and fingers knitted into her gloves. Lastly she dragged out her pack and swung the thing onto her shoulders. She's not sure how far of a head start Kovan has, so she tried her best to run to the icewall gates. And she had nodded respectfully to the guards and their massive bears, and given them a wide berth as she passes, before she spotted Kovan. He was just a speck in the distance, and moving slowly. Is he pulling a sled?
 
As every good northerner knows, there is really only one way to move fast through powdery snow on foot. Unfortunately, the method isn't big on dignity. You don’t run, you have to prance. So thats what she does, one leg in front of the other and her toes skimming the shin-high powder. Within less than ten minutes she was close enough to shout at him, but she didn’t. Gaining on this slow-moving, unaware target is inflaming her instinctive prey drive. Her mind subtly shifted from wanting to catch up to him, to wanting to catch him.
 
But the prey is clever. He stopped, and it forces her to stop to cover the crunch of her boots. He moved on, and she started up the chase again. But just as suddenly he stopped a second time and turned to look behind him- and she has to throw herself sideways into a snow bank. This goes on for a few, agonizing minutes before the boy just stopped where he was, and not even looking behind him, threatens whatever has the audacity to stalk him. His pubescent voice cracked as he did. It's cute.
 
Her first instinct is to run at him and give him a tackle while his back is arrogantly turned, but her prey drive sizzled into nothing the second he spoke. The game was up. She slogs through the snow now making no effort to be quite, and snorts loudly with laughter.
 
"You couldn't pin me down even if I was tied to a tree first, Kora."
 
The Kelvic jumped onto the the runners of the sled and held the handles while bent over the basket- playing at being the sled driver.
 
"You forgot something back in the hold." she raised a brow. "Me." 

[Koran Frostfawn]

He guessed of course that he was being followed, the noise could have been anything. It was far from coincidence but still if he had been wrong then no embarrassment and no lose on his part. If he had been right then of course the pursuer would back off...if it wasn't a stubborn and bull-headed dog named Nanami that was. He put his face in his right palm as she jumped on the sleds runners. He jerked the sled forward, “Very cute Nami,” he said using his pet name for her “joke's over though you can go back to the hold. I'm hunting alone today” He said with as much force and seriousness he could muster up.

He was going to try and fell some hares and some fish today and maybe a full grown deer, nothing that would be too exciting. Still it was difficult to survive and hunt in the wilderness without at the very least another person. The young Nanami wasn't exactly the best person to take on a hunt but Koran did trust her and would take her in a heartbeat if he didn't think he had to prove to himself and others he could take down his own game by himself. A foolish and idiotic thing to put it mildly. Koran could be described arrogant...but he never really saw it. He felt bad for leaving the young Kelvic sled dog. He wanted to take her for a few hunts. He had connected to Nanami and always felt the Kelvic didn't get enough respect in the hold for her abilities. Maybe they were just so alike they had to be connected. They certainly weren't bonded, though most in the Frostfawn hold would admit it was merely a matter of time in their eyes before the two would create that bond between Kelvic and person. He didn't know what that felt like but he assumed it hadn't happen yet. It was supposed to be this magical connection between two souls...or something like that he wasn't entirely sure.

Right now though the young Kelvic was nail gratingly annoying. She had followed him from the Icewall Gates and managed to track him down to about a mile off from the wall. How she did it was no mystery, Koran always thought Nami was an excellent tracker and magnificent sled dog. She was just young and inexperienced, he thought, but when she got a little older she would be a prized sled dog among the Frostfawn hold that most everyone would be vying for ownership of. Koran thought that was amusing, he always that Nami wouldn't like to be owned, she was more of a friend to Koran. Vantha really didn't think of animals, even Kelvics, as pets or property as many others did. Koran especially viewed animal life with reverence and friendship. They all had personalities and quirks that appealed to him. He always felt animals shouldn't be owned, they should be cherished and connected with. Again, right now though, he would've preferred if the stubborn Kelvic would heed his commands even though he knew she wouldn't

“Nami, I swear if you don't go home now I'll...I'll...” He had to think about this for a moment, what on earth would he do if she didn't. “I'll have to just go back to the Frostfawn Hold and try this again tomorrow”. He said thinking of the perfect solution, in his mind anyway, to the problem at hand. He couldn't punish the Kelvic. She wasn't his for one, and two he would never punish someone for something so trivial as stepping on his own pride. On the other hand the Kelvic wouldn't just go home on his word alone, she didn't listen to him half the time anyway. “uhm...please go home?” He said a last ditch effort materializing in a plead to get through to her. He knew it wouldn't work but hey, he had to try right. If she didn't do that adorable little puppy dog face she always seemed to have on hand at any time. He always seemed to lose any thoughts of opposing her wishes when she did that. He sighed as he was sure she would pull something like that.

[Nanami]

"No", she sings cheerily.
 
In that single syllable was all her stubbornness and conviction. She could make excuses, and convince him to let her come along- but she wont. No, she would not go home. No, she would not let him go on alone. And no, she would not be convinced otherwise.
 
She gets off the runners and plodded through the snow to Kora. "I mean, you could try again tomorrow" she said sweetly, pulling the wide-eyed puppy look. "But even if you did manage to track, hunt and kill your prey alone, how would you bring it back? Will you slog along in front of this sled, and drag it back to the Hold like some sort of pack pony?" she paused then for emphasis, letting the image sink in. A storytelling tactic she picked up from one of the cities marvellous (and comprehendible) poets. "Or will you ride high atop your kill, as a great, fearsome beast carries you like the hero you are?" She is almost to old to get away with trying to be cute, and her breed was never really cuddly-pet quality anyway. But the look seemed to still work on her dear friend. Her pale eyes opened wide and beseechingly, her plump bottom lip caught between her teeth and her eyebrows pulled together in soft, child-like concern. "Think how impressed they'd all be."
 
She knows exactly why he is out here on his own, and what she is doing to him. Her reason to be out here is the same as his; to prove something. And while she has already stated that she will not be going back, she still has to convince him to let her help. Though 'hero' and ‘fearsome beast' might not accurately describe the two children arguing in the snow.
 
"Lucky for you", she continued airily, "I brought my harness."
 
She throws her small rucksack onto the loaded sled. The basket is already weighed down with a cornucopia of supplies, including a tent. It's not unusual for hunters to prepare for the worst, and its not unusual for tracks to be followed for several days before finding their source, but it still strikes her how serious he is about this. Well, she can be serious too. They're not playing games anymore, this is a mission to find adulthood in the frozen land.

[Koran Frostfawn]

He grumbled for a little bit and kicked a mound of snow up as Nanami made her case to come with the young hunter. He racked his brain on excuses as why she couldn't go but immediately dismissed the majority of them. She was playing cutesy which she still did pretty well for her age. Koran knew what she was doing but he sighed and resigned to take her with him. Of course he would take her with him. He would still be hunting alone though he would assume, she would just be braving the wilderness alongside Koran.

He did fool himself with Nanami's colorful interpretation of what the young Avanthalians were about to do. They would be impressed, Koran thought, especially if he were to take and cooperate with the young kelvic. It would show his vast leadership and skills with his animal companions. He smirked and nodded “Ok, ok but if you're coming...” he said pausing for effect “I'm riding. You're pulling me into the wilds.” It was a win win situation. Either he would get a nice cushy ride into the wilds pulled by Nanami, or Nanami would be offended and refused in which case she might go home. He didn't think there was a chance in Talderas vast tundras that the young dog kelvic would ever allow herself to go home when this kind of opportunity had presented itself and not after the work she had already went through to track him down and catch up with him. Besides, he would have trouble getting a very large kill back to the city. A full grown buck was a heavy beast. His plan was to drape and tie the animal to the sled and drag it back to the city by himself. If you were worth your salt as a hunter anyone could tell you this might be the fastest way to kill yourself during hunting. The physical exertion of pulling the heavy animal plus the weight of his sled would leave him exhausted within chimes. The exhaustion would lead to collapse and he would then freeze in the snow. Koran of course thought he was far too capable to fall to such conditions. He was stronger, he was smarter, and he was far too prepared to fall to the wilderness in such a manner. All of this was false but to Koran it couldn't be anything but wholesome and unabashed truth.

He looked out into the wilderness and smiled. Today...maybe tommorow if it would take a while, he would down his first large game. Even with Nanami's help it would be an amazing feat for the young hunter. It would also be remarkable for the Kelvic with him to handle herself with a sled and in the dangerous frozen Northern Reaches. There was so many dangerous animals. Even the deer could charge you and do some serious damage to the pair preparing to tread into the wilderness. “Nanami, do you seriously think you can handle the wilds of Avanthal? It is pretty risky to be out here. I wouldn't want you to get hurt.” He honestly did care about Kelvics and animals as if they were his siblings and he would be crushed if Nanami succumbed to the elements under his watch. It was part of the reason he didn't want Nanami to come. She didn't have as much experience as Koran, at least in Koran's mind, than he in the wilds and he didn't believe she could survive as well as he could. He wasn't confident enough as of yet to sustain both of their lives in the wilderness. He was still a novice at everything he knew. The second reason was that he selfishly wanted all the glory and conquest to himself. To carry a mighty kill through the gates and have everyone gaze at his prowess as an equal to any other hunter in the Frostfawn hold. That was the extent of Koran's arrogance and his folly as he looked out to the wilderness, the frozen lands he would conquer and own. Nothing would stop him from getting his kill, and proving to himself, to Nanami, and to everyone that he was destined to become something far greater than anyone thought.

[Nanami]

He said she can come! Her heart rejoiced. She’ll be a great help, she’ll show him. But there is a condition- he demands that she pull him into the tundra.

Nanami’s lips thinned to keep from smiling, and she nodded her head respectfully. ”It would be my pleasure."
 
Her lips twitched, though she was fighting it in an attempt to look more serious. She would have pulled him to Leth and back if he’d asked. But the sled itself worried her. She's quite capable of pulling a sled alone at this point, but she's never pulled full gear alone. The sled is a flexible yet sturdy beech, with a narrow runner and long basket; a very light and fast design. But once Kora was in the driver seat, the thing would weigh anywhere from 140 to 160 pounds with him and all the gear. Whatever they were hunting would have to be 150 pounds or less, or else it would take them a long time to get home, or Kora would have to walk beside her rather than ride behind her.

She would do it regardless. Any chance to get out of her icy home and prove herself. But the Vantha had one more thing to say:
 
“Nanami, do you seriously think you can handle the wilds of Avanthal? It is pretty risky to be out here. I wouldn't want you to get hurt.”
 
At this she laughed. Not harsh laugh, and not sarcastic, but an open, honest disbelief.
 
"Of course Kora! I'm a Zypherian, I'm built to be out here! Hey, did you know one of the Icewatch bears is my father? I think I get it from him." She puffed out her chest at this bit of news. Of course, mothers usually raise Kelvic young, and if presented a line of bears Nanami wouldn't be able to tell which fathered her, but its an impressive statement anyway. "I'd be more worried about your bald human skin", she said, suddenly very sincere . The first spark of a maternal kind of concern lit in her eyes. A kind of gentle foreshadowing for the years to come. "You better be careful, you idiot.”

Embarrassed by her display of emotion, Nanami turned away with a subtle cough and started to undress to get ready to shift. Of course, in a land like this, wonton shifting does not work. She is too large to shift in her clothes, and in a sad irony, she didn’t have the ice-reaving mark, leaving her much more susceptible to the cold than a blessed Vantha. But there were tricks to getting naked in the snow that she could exploit. First she loosened her boots and the laces of her dress and coat. the mittens came off and she hid her hands in her sleeves. The leggings are shimmied down her legs and tucked into her boots- and she shivered as the legs under her skirt erupted into gooseflesh.

“My harness is in my pack- will you get it for me?” she puffed through the short shock of cold.

Next, reaching behind her, she seized the shoulder of her dress and coat and pulled both deafly over her head. As soon as they cleared her head there was a flash of light and a huge dog stood where the girl was only a moment before, shaking out its fur. She shook off the boots and legging from her ankles and gathered her discarded clothing. The Kelvic placed the bundle at Kora’s feet, so he can secure her possessions.

Oh, this was so exciting! She wanted to run through the snow, howling and chasing and wrestling the Vantha boy like she used to. But this is important business, and she must not let Kora down with her puppyish antics. She is an adult! She will do as adults do.

Channelling the experienced Zypherian’s of her hold, the young Kelvic merely poised herself in front of the basket with her head and tail aloft- the perfect sled dog.