Post Prompt (Cubs). Cubs by the time of their first snowfall are roughly 6-7 months old (mentally 10-11 human years old). They may begin to hunt on their own, but are prone to discovering strange, unnerving and unfamiliar things... Summer and Autumn are all they have ever known and now Winter is about to give them the harshest lessons yet. (Dead crows, frozen bones, sibling spars over scraps of food, storytelling to prevent wayward wandering, etc.)
January 11th; Late Morning; Partly Cloudy; 19° F/-7° C
The uncomfortable feeling of hunger was completely disagreeing with the young Archer. It had been two days and counting since he had last had something that was customarily consumed by wolves (rabbit, deer, moose, mice, groundhog, woodchuck, etc.). For the past few hours since he had risen from the den that morning, he had tried to bum something off of Angier. "C'mon Angieeeeeer," he had whined for nearly five minutes straight. "Just a mouse or scrap of something. Please? Pleeeaaaaaaaase? Pleasepleasepleasepleaseplease?!" The Lyall had merely brushed him off, leaving Sköll to his own devices and the space to grump, grump, grump.
In a tantrum the second-born prince kicked and swiped at the snow all around him, raked his nails down the frozen willow tree trunks, and snapped at anything he could lunge at. For an hour this continued before Sköll thought he had heard @Elettra, @Morganna, or, goodness forbid, @Asriel lurking somewhere nearby. As coolly as he could he stood up straight and sauntered away until he was a long way's away at the edges of Hush Meadow. He scoffed to himself as he continued along the trail Angier had forged through the deep frost, never straying from the trench-like path the whole way until he was able to look up into the gray skies without having willow branches over his head. His stomach rumbled angrily through the silence that pressed against the boy's ears and Sköll groaned.
Hastily he lowered his nose to the ground, hoping to find something of use, scents that would give him a plethora of information or telltale signs that would direct him to something, well... edible. With an unbecoming glare on his face, he scrutinized the spacious area of what looked like an endless winter wonderland. He shrugged. It looked more like the land of wintry hell. Having been inexperienced with dealing with the whole blizzard-borne weather, Sköll had made up his mind that, so far, this season was the absolute worst. He still much too lanky to traverse around where there wasn't a path for him to follow and the feeling of the cold in his nose, in his ears and against his eyes were annoying.
He brought his head back up, ears flattening in determination as he thought he could have picked up on his mother's scent trail. Rather boldly, he barked into the cloudy skies for all to hear, "Mother! MOTHER!" He strode forward from the tree line and scanned the distance for any sign that Elettra had come out this way. "Mother, I'm hungry!"