can't close my eyes around you // horn discovery

[teef]

tender and quiet the pawsteps burdened upon fresh snows, upon most northern border, drifting through snowfalls like powdered sugar, too light to stick and too soft to stay upon harder banks. cloak burdened by melted snows and body heat, a strange chill captured against their fur, shivers running along their toes as they trod on. they had been lured out by reports of a strange shape in the snow, and a strange sound coming from the shape. not knowing what it was, of course the sage would come to investigate it. the feeling of a connection to the earth was evermore distant here, where their paws could not touch solid stone or dirt, where they were sustained by the feeling of snow between their toes.

gaze coming across the strange shape so close to their border, would they study it from afar, gauging the likeliness of it being a hidden enemy. then again, it could be anything and lest it be a body buried under the snow with children nearby. shaking their head at the dark thought, they flicked their tail to signal the small patrol following them to stay back just in case it was an enemy or a snow capped volcanic vent. falling still they remained rigid as a deep and haunting low note came from the shape, deeper than even their voice and crooning out in a long, long wail. what in the hells was it? approaching once the sound subsided, would they cautiously box at the snow with a hefty paw.

leaping back as their paw struck something solid, the strange noise occurring once again with a ringing sound added to it as a sharp wind whistled over them, ears pinned flat to their head as they stared at the shape, shaking their paw as if to relieve the tingling from the force that they had collided with the structure. approaching once more, they sniffed it before snorting. whatever it was, it hadn't been alive in a very long time, if it ever had been. gently this time, would they lift their paw to brush off the snow, coming to uncover a horn of mixed sorts, long in shape with a widened mouth. some snow filled the mouth of it, which they would scoop out with a huff, "well, that would explain the strange sounds ..."