And the future, our future, stretches before us.

“Никогда не забывай кто ты есть — Never forget who you are,” had been the parting words of a father, not unlike those by his own before him, “или откуда вы пришли. держать друг друга в безопасности — or where you came from. Keep each other safe.” As Artyom recalled how he himself had wilted beneath the judgement of his proud sire’s hardened dismissal, his tone for Winter and Juniper was consciously gentler. He didn’t want to turn them away into the unknown without promise of welcome should they choose to return. There was sorrow in losing his firstborn to wanderlust, naturally, and quiet fear for their inexperience, but there was warmth in his eyes as they rose to look upon his yearling children. Eager to take in the contours of their young faces for what he knew could be the last time, he let his gaze linger on each of them for a long moment before a dip of his muzzle permitted their leave. Artyom knew he was not the first parent to say goodbye to his cubs and, as he shifted to regard Dawn and steal a glance at her growing abdomen, he did not doubt that their youngest might someday follow in the paw steps of their older siblings.

Such farewell was bittersweet and Winter knew he would miss his parents sorely, but he was determined to maintain his vibrant optimism. Turning to face his flaxen littermate, there was an undeniable glimmer of mischief in his earthen eyes right before he reached suddenly to place an encouraging nip on her shoulder. Nervous anticipation tightened his gut as alabaster paws carried him swiftly through the snow, farther from his beloved family and toward the beginning of a grand new adventure.

The weeks ticked by quickly as the duo travelled together, eager to explore all that the world had to offer. Each day they roused to new sights and scents, new faces, new challenges – though what he woke to that day was... something else.

A mid-morning sun beat down hot upon his back as Winter cracked open his eyes, and he was uncharacteristically quiet as he sleepily tried to concentrate on what lay before him: sand, sand and more sand. It was definitely not the place he'd fallen asleep in so at once he lifted his head to search for his sister, who thankfully lay close by.

“@Juniper” he rasped her name, then cleared his throat, “Juni.”

When she did not stir at the sound of his voice, the grey-gold boy rolled a shoulder as he shifted heavily. Manoeuvring his mass, Winter deliberately pointed his canon toward her and let rip the loudest, nastiest fart in her direction. If that didn’t wake her up, he didn’t know what would.
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Juniper was aware, somewhat, of the heat and the grittiness of sand between her gums, but her dream was too good to slip away from. She lay curled against her mother, the two of them perched atop a hilltop as a breeze pushed through the birches and send hundreds of yellow leaves spinning through the air. "my da called this time of year "breath deep". It's a time for slowing down, fattening up, for drawing closer to the pack. It's my favourite season, you'll —" 

her brother's voice pulls her from her sleep, but she doesn't shift, intent on ignoring him. but then —

her eyes fly open as her muzzle wrinkles. "winter!" comes her yell, clumsily stumbling forward to snap at his tail in the same moment. but she's not expecting shifting sand to be underpaw, and her attack is called off just as quickly when she realizes she'd only be putting her face in closer vicinity to the fart. "dIsGuStAnG" she accuses, even as her gaze is pulled to the side and to the seemingly-endless reaches of sand.

she spins, ears pushed forward as her gaze traces the dunes. gaze returns to her brother then, brows furrowed as if he might have something to do with this. "where are we?"
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As expected, she came after him – quicker than he thought her capable. Winter flopped aside to roll his fat ass away with a surprised yip, though luckily the clack of her fangs missed closing on his tail. The brown mist acted as a suitable deterrent too, thankfully, and Juni was as quick to retreat from his offending rear end. A goofy, smug AF Spongebob grin bloomed on his stupid face as he leaned comically over to look her way.

Her face was hilarious, and Winter’s tail wagged triumphantly across the gilded surface of sand. “You should see yourself,” he laughed playfully at her, sinking lazily onto the loose earth. He'd already assaulted her nose in the worst possible manner, and they poked fun at each other often enough to know that there was no intention to dampen feelings, “girls are so капризный — moody.”

She didn’t seem to have much interest in entertaining his sick fart joke, however, and drew attention to their strange surroundings. Winter pulled himself up into a sit with a groan at the effort in doing so, and canted his head enough to scratch at an itch behind his ear with a hind limb. “Dunno,” he answered simply, only half listening to his littermate as he pulled a huge clump of pale Winter fur from his dense coat. Dark eyes inspected it as it clung to his claws, before he attempted to huff it off with breath.


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moody? she is not. her brows furrow even more, and her tail twitches. "at least I'm not a вонючий boy," comes her answer, evidently a bit lacking, but she's rather distracted by their sudden change of scenery. tongue swipes over her teeth, dislodging irritation grains stuck fast there. "this place sucks," she grumbles, squinting out into the sands. "and you've made it even worse by stinking it up," 

dawn had entertained them with plenty tales of her travels, but she'd never mentioned a place like this. the girl swipes half-consciously at her eye, grunting when she only managed to introduce more sand to her face. blinking furiously now, but refusing to acknowledge her blunder lest her brother comment on it, she watches him as he seems to scratch at his shoulder without a care in the world. she huffs, deciding he's hopeless and moving to ascend their dune in an attempt to get a better view. 

"HELLO?" comes her howl-yell, ringing out over the vastness. she barely lets it fade before turning to face Winter again, gesturing vaguely to the north. "we should go that way." she announce-decides. it's a vague feeling plus the fact that she knows that north=cold, which seems just about the opposite of this place. having inherited the plush, many-layered northern pelt that made mid-summers miserable for her mother, she's eager to get out of here.

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Her counter to his insensitivity toward his fair sister’s sex was a poor one, unfortunately. Winter figured she must be too busy trying to focus on their random new surroundings, whereas he couldn’t really give a damn. That'd been the purpose of their dispersal, after all: to welcome the newness of it. It was strange, sure, but the grey-gold youth was unafraid and dimly figured the place they’d fallen asleep in might just look different in the daytime.

“Yeah, well,”he argued back playfully, watching as the tuft of pale fur on his paw finally dislodged and floated down onto the sand, “smelly as I may be, I’m still the favourite.”Artyom and Dawn had never said they favoured him, naturally, and Winter didn’t believe himself superior - he was just that asshole brother who always needed to have the last word, and would never pass up an opportunity to poke fun at his siblings.

Okay, time to get on board before she loses her shit, he mused on gathering to his paws, and roughly shook out his Northern furs to rid the accumulated grains of sand. Earthen eyes followed his sister’s gaze out into the open desert, and he scoffed: “are you insane!? There’s literally nothing there for miles!” 
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she doesn't bother to grace his words with a reply, instead deigning to give him a Face. she squints northward as he finally decides to get up, though her head swings back over her shoulder to glare at him when he speaks. tailtip twitched with frustration, having already convinced herself that she's right. mouth opens, closes as she searches for a reply, and then, "oh, I'm sorry. I didn't know you were the King of the -"  here she pauses, having no idea what this place is called, "sand-place." finishing on a slightly lamer note than she'd hoped, but she forged on.

"anyway," she begins, " there's trees that way. if you can't see them, that's on you. your eyes must be dusty or something." ok, so, maybe she can't see anything beyond there either. but if she squints, that line of distant darkness might be a forest instead of another dune. she's not above manufacturing evidence to sway her siblings to her decisions, and besides, if she's wrong, they'll come across an adult, or a river, or something, eventually.
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Juniper shot him The Look and Winter ducked his head to skirt aside, half expecting her to lash out at him again. There was relief when no fangs turned on him, but still he kept some distance as he snorted his dissatisfaction.

“The mega bitch has spoken,” he agreed stubbornly with a roll of his eyes, and huffed a frustrated sigh as he fell into stride behind her. Single file meant he could harass her with better insults while keeping out of her reach, so of course he felt the need to comment: “your butt looks huge from this angle, by the way!”

The sand felt weird beneath his large paws, like he was sinking, and he didn’t like the unsteadiness of it. With his sister making far better progress, Winter had to quicken his stride to catch up here and there. “I’m starving,” he complained after a little while, because he always was. If Juni chose not to respond, Winter had no issue repeating it until she was tired of hearing him say it.
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A glare, but he falls in behind her all the same. She feels the brief glow of her victory only a moment before he speaks again, and her head whips over her shoulder, readying to initiate another wrestling match. But she's well aware that at this point, he's more likely to win anything she might try and start." you're one to talk, " she retorts. Her ass isn't huge. Still, she sneaks a peek back at it, just to make sure. It's not. 

A few blissful moments of silence, and they seem to make actually headway, and then — her ears flick, intent on ignoring him. She speeds up, putting more distance between them as she ascends the next dune, contemplating making a run for it and leaving him here. But his voice carries, and there's only so many times she can hear him say it. At what might be the fifth, or sixth time, the frayed cord of her patience snaps. "UGH," she snaps, pivoting to face him. She paces toward him, gaining speed as she descends " eat sand then, but just shut — "

She's vastly overestimated her ability to navigate the shifting sands, and simultaneously reached some critical velocity that has any semblance of stability underfoot vanish. Her center of gravity swings wildly, and then she's faceplanted in the sand, mouth still agape and now filled with sand. Bristling, she lurches back to her feet and then in the general direction of her brother, intent on having him suffer the same fate.
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“I'm sooo hungry,” Winter carried on obnoxiously, “I mean, I could eat a whole... I dunno, something the size of your giant butt!” Sniggering to himself, he squinted mischievously to the back of her head. Time and time again she ignored him, probably had a response trapped behind gritted teeth to keep him from achieving a new level of satisfaction at having roused a reaction from her. He swore he felt the tension oozing from her, however, and continued a few minutes later with something that seemed to translate to "girl go make me a sandwich" because this time he struck a nerve.

She swung for him, and the boy attempted to leap out of her reach. She went down and he went down harder, like a big sack of shit, and he landed on his chin with an “oof!”

Winter, disorientated by the sudden collision of his skull on the ground, lifted his head to blink in Juniper's direction. For a moment he saw only stars, but when he opened his earthen eyes another time he saw a flash of rosy beige before him and felt the impact of her attack with a surprised yelp before he reached to hook his forelimbs around her neck and drag her back down onto the sand with him.


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Her brief separation from the ground is made all the briefer by Winter's limb around her neck dragging her back down. She lands with a similar oof, twisting clumsily onto her side and sending a few poorly-aimed kicks from her hindlimbs toward him. But the energy it takes to attempt to kick her brother while simultaneously spitting sand out of her muzzle is made all the greater by the heat of the sun, and after a few furious moments, she attempts to roll away from him. 

"This place SUCKS" comes her shout, unable even to pant without pausing every few seconds to spit wet sand. Maybe she'll just lie here and be swallowed up by the sand; it's already made its home in her pelt and eyes and mouth and throat.
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Successfully, Winter managed to wrestle his rogue sibling down to the ground, though he had not intended to thrust her face into the sand. In seeing that he had, however, the young wolf released her and quickly pulled himself upright to dart aside and out of her reach as quickly as he could.

Ears high and brown eyes wide, he looked her way in full expectation of seeing her charge after him again. The fight seemed to be gone from her as she lay there beneath the sun and bellowed yet another complaint.

Tentatively, he reached to poke at her defeated form with the tips of his toes. “You done throwing a tantrum yet?” Winter paused, and sniggered to himself, “'cause I'm still hungry.”


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