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Xie Lian is wrapped up in a warm huddle with several of his packmates, his tail curling up against his hind legs. He can sense one of the pack members sitting up and keep watch just a few pawsteps away from their huddle. Hua Cheng is still sleeping soundly beside him, half propped against him, making it impossible for Xie Lian to move without disturbing his mate’s sleep. He keeps his eyes shut, not wanting to move from this position.
On Xie Lian's side, both Feng Xin and Mu Qing are sleeping by him. Feng Xin’s paw is covering his muzzle and he’s twitching a bit in his sleep. The others were mostly resting peacefully, so Xie Lian closed his eyes again, letting himself sink into the feeling of sleep.
He’s barely slept when he is awoken by the sound of loud barking.
Quan Yizhen is wide awake, flicking his tail around excitedly. Xie Lian slowly stretches himself awake, trying to process the reason why Quan Yizhen is barking around so wildly. His packmate is circling around the huddle, yipping eagerly.
Others have opted to fake sleep as he can tell from the slight movements of his packmates around him. Xie Lian gently pushes Hua Cheng off him, attempting to not wake him. It’s unsuccessful because Hua Cheng immediately reacts to the gentle movement, blinking himself awake.
“What is it?” He asks, stretching his paws out. Xie Lian looks over at Quan Yizhen– his packmate has been circling the huddle for the third time when the both of them have gotten up.
“Yizhen what happened?” Xie Lian questions, mostly at a loss at what could have his packmate barking and yipping around in circles before everyone else. Quan Yizhen stops mid circle, bounding back to where the two of them are sitting.
Quan Yizhen stops in front of them, his tail swishing about wildly. “Caught prey!” He barks excitedly. He bounds over to the pile of prey he’s caught, grasping one of the rabbits in the pile between his jaws.
Hua Cheng just watches him, not making a sound as their packmate trots over to Yin Yu, dropping the rabbit straight in front of him. Xie Lian glances at the two of them, at least it wasn’t like last time where Quan Yizhen had dropped it on Yin Yu’s muzzle.
Hua Cheng gives him a glance. “Do you want to grab one?” He tilts his head, waiting for a response. Xie Lian shakes his head.
“I’ll wait for everyone else to wake up first." He answers, lightly swishing his tail against the dirt ground. Most of their packmates are already awake, though the only two that are actually sleeping are Lang Qianqiu and Yushi Huang. Those two had managed to sleep through all of Quan Yizhen’s barking which is an accomplishment.
Some of them are just better at hiding it than others.
Yin Yu is barely managing to hold himself together as Quan Yizhen tries nudging at him to wake him. Xie Lian seeing this, relents and decides to get himself a rabbit to share between him and Hua Cheng. He trots on over to the pile Quan Yizhen had accumulated at some point during his sleep and grabs one in his jaws. The taste of rabbit is so tantalizing once in his mouth and Xie Lian has to refrain himself from eating it then.
He drops it in front of Hua Cheng. When Hua Cheng doesn’t take a bite out of it, Xie Lian tilts his head.
“What’s wrong?” He asks his mate.
“You first.” Hua Cheng responds, digging one paw into the ground. Xie Lian looks at him then at the rabbit and finally takes a bite. The flavor bursts in his mouth, making him feel wide awake and refreshed for the first time since waking up.
He and Hua Cheng begin trading bites of the rabbit, slowly consuming it down to the bone. Feng Xin chooses that moment to wake up. He trots on over to them, watching them eat the rabbit. As soon as they’re done eating he walks over to Hua Cheng, giving him a playful nudge and knocking him over. When Hua Cheng lands on the ground, Feng Xin pins him there with both paws on Hua Cheng’s chest.
“Are you two going to be romantic all day?” He asks with a slight growl.
Xie Lian glances at his mate then Feng Xin. “Feng Xin, be nicer!” He barks at him.
Feng Xin lets out a slight growl of frustration but backs off. “Don’t be like those two.” He warns, finally turning tail back to bother Mu Qing who is still faking his sleep. Xie Lian glances over at the two Feng Xin was talking about– Quan Yizhen and Yin Yu –and notes the two of them now rolling around as Quan Yizhen is trying to play and Yin Yu is trying to get him off.
By now, most of the pack had finally given up feigning sleep. Everyone is mostly awake but Yushi Huang and Lang Qianqiu had still managed to find a way to sleep considering that there were two pairs of packmates wrestling. Feng Xin had clearly managed to bother Mu Qing enough and was wrestling him onto the ground. At some point he had transitioned over to licking Mu Qing who just gave up with his escape attempts and let Feng Xin lick at his face.
Pei Ming had already gotten up to eat and pushed Pei Xiu off him. That much could be told by the way Pei Xiu lay on the ground seemingly lazy and not wanting to get up. He Xuan had attained his own stock of food and was eating at it while Shi Qingxuan paced around him, waiting for He Xuan to finish. Shi Wudu wasn’t doing anything in particular except staring at his brother as he circled He Xuan. Ling Wen had begun cleaning herself but other than that the whole pack was wide awake rather than faking sleep.
Hua Cheng sat next to him, at some point having gotten up from his submissive position underneath Feng Xin.
“They’re quite loud.” He says, scratching at his ear. “Grooming then we head out for a hunt, right?”
Hua Cheng flicks his tail on the ground. “Yes.”
He doesn’t say anything other than that and they watch as the number of uneaten rabbits dwindles to zero as several members of the pack get their fill. Yushi Huang has finally awakened by that point, stretching her paws as she gets up. Lang Qianqiu is still sleeping so Xie Lian looks at his mate.
“Should I wake him?” Xie Lian asks.
“Go ahead.” Xie Lian walks over to where his packmate is sleeping, nudging at him as soon as he’s right by Lang Qianqiu. Lang Qianqiu rolls over, still sleeping. Seeing the gentler attempts aren’t working, Xie Lian nips his packmate.
“Ah!” Lang Qianqiu rolls out of his spot, startled awake. “Did I miss anything?” He barks, lifting himself off the ground and spinning towards Xie Lian.
“No, but it’d be good to eat before we run out of rabbits.” Lan Qianqiu’s eyes widen and he quickly darts over to get a helping of rabbit before Yushi Huang gets to the last one. He hadn’t been paying attention but Xie Lian realized that one of the packmates had set off a rabbit for those two to have when they woke up. It would’ve done him good to at least remember that.
Seeing that those two had their fill, Xie Lian trots back over to his mate. He drops down and rolls over, beckoning Hua Cheng to play. Hua Cheng immediately takes his shot, diving into a play wrestle with Xie Lian before they begin doing their grooming.
The two of them wrestle for a bit, rolling around in the ground and getting dirtier than before.
When he stops wrestling with Hua Cheng, shaking out his fur to attempt to get out the dirt, Mu Qing comes over, looking at Hua Cheng with a growl.
“Come here.” He insists at Xie Lian, getting between him and Hua Cheng. He pushes Xie Lian away from him and Xie Lian relents only slightly, disappointed from being dragged away from his mate.
As soon as they’re further apart from Hua Cheng, Mu Qing immediately starts licking his face clean. “You need to stop messing around and getting dirty.” He scolds, licking off the dirt from Xie Lian’s muzzle. Xie Lian doesn’t protest and lets his packmate do as he pleases, mildly amused by his behavior.
Feng Xin and Mu Qing didn’t approve of his choice of mate and always did their best to interfere with the two of them interacting. The only reason they didn’t like him was because of how he had run his previous pack and had been a menace to their previous pack. Originally the pack had been bigger but the rest of them had chosen to leave and create their separate pack which was the pack Xie Lian is in now.
He wasn’t too particular about the history of his mate but clearly it annoyed Feng Xin and Mu Qing. Xie Lian did his best to accommodate them, but he wasn’t going to break it off with his mate so this had been the best compromise.
Mu Qing had finally been satisfied with how his cleaning efforts paid off so he let Xie Lian go. As soon as he was free, Xie Lian quickly went back to his mate, circling around him to pick up his scent once more.
He rubs up against him, “Want to go hunting later?”
“Yes.” Hua Cheng answers.
A light growl comes out Hua Cheng’s throat and Xie Lian lowers his ears.
He looks in the direction where Hua Cheng is growling and he relaxes. It’s only Hua Cheng growling at Feng Xin. It doesn’t require much effort to determine why Hua Cheng would be upset about that, but could he please hold back on being aggressive?
He nudges his mate.
“Ignore him.”
He trots away, Hua Cheng following him a couple seconds later. “Where are you going?” Hua Cheng barks crossing in front of his path.
“Hunting, we’re going together right?”
“So soon?” He questions. Hua Cheng is wagging his tail.
“Yes, try and keep up!” He quickly runs off deeper into the woods, feeling the dirt scatter under the grasp of his feet. Hua Cheng quickly runs after him, tail flicking around as he follows Xie Lian deeper into the woods.
The two of them run through the greenery quickly losing track of the rest of their pack. Hua Cheng suddenly skids to a halt, his paws digging into the ground. Xie Lian slows as soon as he sees this, spinning around to look at Xie Lian.
“Why’d you–”
Hua Cheng slowly crouches down in the way he does whenever he’s spotted prey.
Xie Lian watches him carefully, trying to see where Hua Cheng had seen something. It couldn’t be anything too big as nothing was visible in sight, but his mate had begun making a slow crawl towards the supposed prey.
Xie Lian waits carefully, trying not to disturb the forest in the slightest to prevent the prey from hearing him.
Hua Cheng darts forward and something comes springing out of the bushes.
Rabbit.
Two rabbits.
Hua Cheng runs after them and Xie Lian immediately follows his lead, running after the scampering rabbits. The rabbits veer off in different directions and Hua Cheng runs after the one turning left and Xie Lian darts after the one that turned right.
His paws pound into the ground, the sound of wind rushing after his ears as he chases the rabbit.
The rabbit runs quickly.
Xie Lian follows.
It bounds through the forest, clearly running on adrenaline. Xie Lian is all for the chase. He runs even faster. He begins closing the distance between him and the rabbit. As he gets faster, he prepares to pounce.
Xie Lian leaps into the air. He slams into the ground and grabs the rabbit in his jaws. His jaws crunch on the rabbit’s spine and it goes limp in his jaws. He settles down on the ground with his catch. Shaking the rabbit wildly to check if it’s alive. The rabbit is definitely dead.
He trots back to where his mate is waiting in the greenery, already with the catch on the ground.
“Should we go back?” Hua Cheng asks. Xie Lian nods his head, unable to say anything with the catch in his jaws.
Hua Cheng grabs his catch from the ground and the two head back to the rest of the pack.