Denali. Home of moose, caribou and…two leopards.
Knight ran beside his lover who dashed through the snow-capped mountain as if he were a fish in water. Knight had to struggle to follow, because he was built for the tundra. He fell through the snow while Mal glided across it, his paws like snowshoes.
Mal looked back to see Knight struggling. He doubled back, and with his powerful jaws pulled Knight by the scruff of his neck, and half-picked Knight up, pulling him forward. Knight growled, as if to say he could do it, but Mal rumbled a responding growl that brokered no argument.
At one point, there was a caribou. Knight knew he couldn’t chase the animal in the woods, with the snow, but Mal’s ice blue eyes lit up when he saw the caribou. Mal snuck downwind, and then raced up the mountain, jumping onto the caribou and tackling it.
Knight’s stomach growled and he struggled to chase. However, his lover proved that he was the King as he held onto the caribou’s neck, tearing it out and jumping out of the way of his antlers and hooves. The caribou crashed to the ground, losing blood rapidly.
Mal paced around the animal, waiting until it was dead, and then he tore into it. Knight struggled and got his way to the caribou. Mal, his muzzle bloody with his conquest, waved his head in invitation. Then Knight dug into the animal tearing through into its liver.
Suddenly, Mal lifted his head. Knight, enjoying the tender meat, didn’t at first. Mal began a low growl, and turned around.
Standing at the top of a cliff was a man. Knight didn’t smell anything but blood, but Mal did, and he looked up, growling.
The man raised his arm above his head, and brought it down in a chopping motion. Suddenly, the cliff just above the base where the man stood exploded. A whole wall of snow and rocks erupted, falling down, heading their way.
Mal shifted half man, half beast, but there was no stopping the avalanche or outrunning it. Knight roared, and Mal jumped over the caribou as the snow hit them both. Knight felt himself tumbling, rolling head over tail, crashing into something in his back, and still rolling.
He felt like he rolled forever, and when he stopped, he didn’t know whether he was up or down. He was packed in. He shifted, trying to get his arms up to his head to get some air. He finally got his arms up to his face, and pushed snow away.
He strained his ears to listen but all he heard was the snow settling. He tried to listen if it was above him or below him. He struggled, digging away from his face to give him some air, but as he dug, the snow would fall from below him. He was upside down.
He tried to pack the snow below him, to give him some room, but as he worked, he started to pant – and panic. How much snow was below him?
He thought he could hear someone yelling for him, yelling his true name. “Lenny!”
Knight thrust his arm into the freezing snow. “Mal!” he yelled, though it came out muffled. He was starting to get light headed.
He heard the sound of snow settling, a frantic sound. Snow kept falling into his own niche, closing off the air, making him even more light-headed and dizzy. The cold numbed him, mostly naked as he was, though covered with fine fur. He closed his eyes, and kicked weakly in the snow, thinking, I love you, I love you, Mal. He waited for the blackness to come over him.
Something grabbed his foot. He flicked open his eyes in the packed darkness. “Len!” he heard, and he struggled, trying to move his arms to push himself backwards. But someone dug around his legs and with a mighty yank on his hips pulled him out of the snow.
It was dark. But the cold air felt freeing, and then he felt fur on his face, and smelled his mate. He felt, through numbed skin, Mal’s hands holding him and touching him, touching his face, and a kiss, tasting salty of tears.