[IC] Indigenous Were-beasts

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[n1c0d3mus]

Grüg hunched his back against the howling northern wind. He stabbed at his meager fire with a blackened stick. Spring may be rising, but the lake stretching across the brightening northern vista knew nothing but cold. His morning meal of raw lake trout lay finished but for the bones. Grüg sighed and picked at the desiccated rib cage. He set to braiding the finest of the bones into a fresh set of hooks, his calloused fingers deft despite the frigid morning air.

[Carlyle]

Cold.

The air was biting cold, but Vaunk had been used to such weather. It was nothing he couldn't handle, Vaunk knew, as he watched a man poke away at coals from afar. Clearly, he must've just had a tasty meal—something Vaunk was eager to get his hands on, hungry as he was.

Perhaps it was a good thing that he was quite the conman, silvered tongue and all.

Breaking from his cover, Vaunk approached the campsite, acting as if he had just stumbled upon it. "Ho, traveller!" He called, waving the man down. "My name is Vaunk; I had seen your fire's smoke from afar. Surely you don't have any spare fish lying around?"

Slowly, Vaunk reached into a pouch, and pulled out an egg-like stone. "Legend has it that this is an egg of a once great beast. If you can fish up enough to send me on my merry way, then I'd gladly offer it in exchange."

[n1c0d3mus]

Startled, Grüg crushed the fine lure between his fingertips. His thick eyebrows knitted, he looked hard at the stranger. The camp smoke overtook his sensitive nose. No telling what sort of beast this interloper was, nor if his entire clan were waiting in the undergrowth, waiting to spring.

He shrugged at Vaunk's question, gesturing at the pile of viscera, bones, and scales.

"Plenty in the lake."

Grüg eyed the proffered stone.

"Keep your rock. I'm Grüg. Grolarkin."

[Carlyle]

Well, you can't win them all. Vaunk would've preferred if he had simply accepted the offer; to avoid the trouble of hunting or fishing for his own food. But it seemed the Grolarkin wasn't much of an idiot to fall for his tricks, and he wasn't going to get what he wanted.

"Very well! Your loss, though." Vaunk replied, placing the stone back in a pouch. "So, what brings a Grolarkin to this neck of the woods? It isn't every day you see one."

[n1c0d3mus]

Grüg blinked slowly. When was the last time he spoke to anyone but the carrion birds? He could not remember. There was still no telling if this "Vaunk" was planning to attack. His voice a rumbling mumble, he replied:

"The ice is melting. Been moving south for a long time. More food here."

He prodded at the fire, adding two pine branches. They glowed and popped. The sun peeked here and there through the mist, but it would be at least a moon before there would be no need for a morning fire.

"You?"