Bessa

Pack Life

Greens always lock with mine.

Our smiles spread wide.

Happy to be back in our Winter grounds.

Replacement of herbs, roots, grains is in our packs when we come back from the summer grounds. Heavily laden with our fruitful harvest of what this land offers us.

We are blessed.

Ryeson is taken out of his cradle at my chest. Odin's pack is taken off by his father. He never once took it off the entire walk out.

Watching.

"Odin, you did well. You helped your family bring in the food for winter. You are growing into a strong male that I am proud to call mine." Odin looks into his father's eyes as he has been trained to do.

His sound is terrorizing now that he has spent the summer running barefoot and naked in the Wilds of the summer grounds.

We have to remind Odin he is skin and not just Wild.

"Now we need to unpack all of this, it's your job to take everything out of the pack. Put it in neat piles on the floor. After that, you can eat, Odinson." Clear words from a father that expects his Male to follow orders.

Odin prefers to use his Wild language instead of real words. A low growl from a small throat states understanding.

"Odin your words, use them." Reminding him.

"Sorry mother," more of a grunting afterthought than a pup with his puppy teeth remaining. When he looks at me he gives me his green eyes that are a few shades darker than his father's. Grabbing him, kissing his cheek he tries to get away. Teeth flash a warning to me. The Wild within flasher her War out to a pup who thinks he's more than who he is in this moment.

She growls her low tone towards him that makes him still so we can handle him the way we want with sniffing, soft bites to his flesh before we let him move on from us.

Dinner is quick, the unpacking quicker all of us exhausted from the long walk in.

We all sleep together in the bed like we are still in the tight tent that housed us for months.

Morning brings the rest of the packing away for winter to its completion. Borson makes plans for the hunt before the Night starts to come. Odin is beside his father, watching the plans, looking at the map.

"Odin, this is the cliff that we will drive them off of." Odin's eyes follow where his father is pointing.

"Are you ready Odinson?" instead of words Odin's sound ranges out further than it has ever inside this house. Enough to wake his brother up with a startle of hands and feet.

Cheeks brush against cheeks of father and son.

The smile spreads wider on my face, reaching the corners of my eyes.

A big dinner is prepared by the Savage, Odin eats more than his fill to the point he can't move and neither can the Savage.

"We eat like this Odin because on our hunt we don't know when our next meal will be. So eat as much as you can today because tomorrow is a different day."

The day brings the crows caws to ruffle up the air.

Odin's back is to me as he walks away with the loincloth Luki has made for him for this hunt. His spear is clutched in his right hand. His ax hangs on his right side beside his sharp knife. He's the only pup that is going with the juveniles and adult males. There are only a few females that go with the group.