It was pitch black by the time Mau reached Wolf's Crag. Thankfully her eyes were still keen in the darkness of night with just the light of the moon and stars up above. The thin ravine that cut into the mountains on the western side of the great snowy plains was called Wolf's Crag because for ages it had been one of the largest wolf dens that the raider people were aware of, and would tell stories of hungry wolves emerging from the rocks and caves at night to scare misbehaving children. Though by the time Mau had joined their clan the wolves had moved on to other reaches and parts of the plains, it was still no less a place to be wary of.

Falling rocks would constantly tumble down from above, and almost every day new caves would appear and disappear from the subtle shifting of the snow that floated down from higher up the mountains. But the caves provided ample hiding space from the wendigo at the very least, and Mau knew that Suvdaa was waiting for her somewhere amongst them.

Soon enough she could hear the crackle of a fire echoing on the wind through the ravine before she could see it. And she definitely heard the raider girl's grumbling before she saw her.

The things Suvdaa had to say made Mau's ears splay.

"Geeze..." She mewled, rubbing the back of her neck as she poked her head into a nearby cave and was rewarded with the faint glow of a small fire deeper within.

She was also rewarded with an arrow whizzing by her head, plinking into the cave wall as she ducked to avoid losing an eye.

"FUCK! Suvdaa it's me!" Mau snapped into the cave.

"I know it's you, dumb cat." Suvdaa replied, tone glacial as she lowered her hunting bow.

"So then what the hell was that for?" Mau mewled, plucking the arrow from where it embedded in the cave wall by her head.

"That was for being a dumb hero, dumb cat." Suvdaa retorted archly.

Mau tossed the arrow back and Suvdaa snatched it out of the air, glowering Mau's way.

"If I hadn't done that, you'd be dead." Mau pointed out. "And then I'd definitely have no way of taking that thing on by myself, considering I'm reliant on your grand master plan to fight it for the time being."

"That is beside the point. We were supposed to stay together, not split up when we got attacked!" Suvdaa hissed as she slid the arrow back into her quiver.

"Yeah well so much for that." Mau grunted as she plopped down to sit by the fire. "At least we're both still alive."

Suvdaa grunted back at her crossly, but couldn't fault that logic. They were both still alive; it was practically a feat of pure luck considering the monster they were up against. She fell into a sullen silence that lasted for a long beat that made Mau feel fidgety and awkward.

"Look I-" She started to say when she was interrupted. Suvdaa held up a single hand cutting Mau off entirely.

"You stink." The raider girl pointed out. "I could smell your sweat from the cave entrance." She said.

Mau grimaced and glanced down at her fur and hide clothes. They felt uncomfortably itchy.

"There's a hot spring in the next cave over. Go wash up and we'll talk after. I'll tell you everything." Suvdaa said.

"Including your plan on how we're supposed to win against that thing?" Mau pressed.

"Yes. Including that. Everything. Then... We're going hunting."

❧

Mau huffed as she finished setting the last of the traps, wiping the sweat from her brow. They were simple hunting traps, but the sheer amount of them that she and Suvdaa had worked together to construct them all over the northern forest on the edge of the plains should give them the edge they needed.

Spike pits, logs suspended on ropes, swinging spike traps, they built everything they had been taught and more. Some of Mau's more outlandish ideas that she had learned from watching movies in her first incarnation, earned her a stare from Suvdaa, but when she showed the raider girl just how they worked, she seemed to nod in approval and said nothing more. They'd have to use all their wits and cunning to last through the evening until the full moon finally revealed itself.

The sun had just begun to set when they heard the wendigo's keening cry over the frigid plains. Suvdaa pursed her lips thoughtfully, while Mau took the moment to adjust the string on her bow.

"This is it." Mau muttered.

Suvdaa nodded grimly.

It was coming for them, they knew that much ever since Mau blasted it with that firebolt spell and planted a seed of hate, fury, and revenge in the beast's heart.

"Light the fire. Let it know where we are." Suvdaa said and Mau quickly complied, striking some flint with her knife to kick up sparks and start the bonfire they had prepared to signal their location to the roaming monster.

"And now we wait." Mau said, crawling to hide in a snowdrift as Suvdaa clambered up and into a nearby tree.

They didn't have to wait too long. The last rays of the setting sun cast the sky in shades of red and orange as it sank off into the horizon past the mountains, by the time the wendigo appeared.

It approached slowly, cautiously just out of range of the fire, a dark silhouette standing tall against the darkening sky, eyes smoldering a hate filled red as it approached the dying fire.

Mau watched from her hidden vantage point, listening to the snow crunch under the beast's heavy footfalls. She could hear her heart hammering in her ears as her body prepared to kick into fight or flight mode once again. Suvdaa held her breath as the creature approached the fire cautiously, sniffing the air. It could smell them. It knew they were nearby, and they dared not move until it either found them or found one of their traps first.

With a cry of rage the wendigo turned its head to the sky and howled as it stomped around the fire, head swiveling left and right in search of its prey. For a moment- for just a brief second, its eyes fell on the drift of snow Mau had hidden herself in, and her breath caught in her throat.

Did it see her? Could it tell? Was their plan ruined before it could even be put into play?

Doubts and terror danced through Mau's mind as she went stock still and waited. In the next moment or so she would find out the answers to these questions as she held her breath.

But then the wendigo looked away and started tromping in a new direction. It hadn't seen her, and she let her breath hiss slowly through her teeth as the tension left her body. It was heading in Suvdaa's direction, which was just what the two had planned, when it finally caught the raider girl's scent.

It looked up and saw Suvdaa's silhouette in the tree, those smoldering red eyes glowering as the beast howled again, rushing the tree in a bull charge.

The wendigo's cry of fury was cut off with a sudden squawk of surprise as it found the first trap they had set for it, its foot stepped over compacted snow and leaves only to pass through the snow and into the pit below.

"Yes!" Mau hissed under her breath as she watched the monster crumple out of sight into the hole that she had spent all day digging with Suvdaa. The next cry was one of pain as Mau could only assume that the monster hit the wooden spikes they had laid at the bottom of the pit. That was the signal, and Suvdaa quickly struck a piece of flint with her knife to ignite the arrow she prepared just for this moment. The head of the arrow lit up, catching fire thanks to the tree pitch she had coated it in, and she quickly knocked it into place, firing it into the pit after the beast.

If it hated fire so much, it was in for a nasty surprise as the tree pitch in the pit ignited and went up like a bonfire, resulting in a screech of rage and agony. This was also Suvdaa's cue to move, and she quickly scrambled from her perch in the tree back to the ground as she bolted for her next position.

They hadn't had much time to rehearse the plan, but the raider girl was more than canny and smart enough to remember where each and every trap they had planted sat waiting, and deftly avoided them as she rushed to her next hiding place in the brush.

Now it was Mau's turn when the wendigo finally managed to pull itself out of the burning pit, smoldering, smoking, and wheezing with rage. Slowly she shifted under the snow, aiming her palm at the beast's center of mass, a small spark of red heat building in her hand as she concentrated.

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"Firebolt!" She hissed, and yet again a lightning bolt made of pure heat and fire streamed from her hand to hit the creature in the solar plexus. It wheezed as it clutched its chest and staggered from the impact, before wheeling to face the steaming snow drift where the attack had come from. But Mau didn't move, even with her hiding place compromised. She could feel the hate radiating from that smoldering red gaze locked onto her, and the wendigo charged.

With a keening wail howling through the air it rushed Mau. And she waited for it...

Clutching the rope held in her other hand, she waited for just the right moment... And yanked on it hard.

With a CRACK of shifting timbers and rope, a full-sized tree log with spikes fashioned to its front came swinging down in an arch from where they had hidden it up high in the trees. The wendigo had no idea what hit it when the spiked log slammed it dead on the side, cutting off its howl with a grunt.

The impact clearly winded the creature, and it held its bloody side in disbelief where one of the spikes had impaled into it. But it still wasn't enough to stop the monster's onslaught as it picked itself up and stumbled on wobbly feet.

It was bleeding. That was good. If they could just weaken it enough to keep it in place when they readied to finish it off with the final part of Suvdaa's plan, then they could just maybe pull this off. If it bled that meant that they had a chance to actually kill it.

Now, Mau picked herself up, shaking snow off her furs and out of her hair as she stood up from the snow drift and bolted to her next position. They just had to keep this up, keep making the thing blunder into their traps while avoiding letting it get too close to actually harm them.

Mau darted between a pair of trees, skipping a step as she whistled over her shoulder.

"Over here! Follow me you big dumb bag of fur and bones!" She taunted it to chase her, and once it had regained its balance, the wendigo growled. It was mad, irate, furious, and seeing red. It didn't see the rope tied across the trees at ankle level that Mau had stepped over.

This was a mistake on its part.

As it stepped across the rope, the rope snapped. And the tree branches that had been held back under tension suddenly had all that tension released... They whipped around, whistling as they cut through the air, the wooden spikes tied all over them hit the wendigo first before the full force of the branches hit it hard enough to lay it out on its back, blood splattering onto the snow as it writhed and screeched.

Mau took her next hiding place, clambering up a tree and hiding among the pine needles, curling up on a high branch as Suvdaa whistled for the monster's attention.

The whistle was swiftly followed by a flaming arrow that whistled through the air and pelted the beast in the side of the head. As it sat up That only made it angrier, and in the next instant it was back on its feet.

But the creature didn't rush where the arrow had come from. Not this time.

Now it knew. It was fighting on their terms, and if it charged Suvdaa, it was likely to run into another trap or two along the way. It approached slowly as another arrow pelted its body, bouncing off harmlessly against its hide as it cautiously began to approach, testing its footing with every step, clearly not too worried or bothered by the arrows, but more perturbed by the thought of rushing into another nasty surprise that they had prepared.

Suvdaa fired arrow after arrow at the beast, some ablaze some not, just to hold its attention on her as she stood up from her spot in the bushes just so it could see her.

Seeing her however spurred the creature on; and it quickly picked up its pace on the approach, growing emboldened as each step closer didn't trip it up with another trap. Until Suvdaa smiled.

Something in the girl's grin gave the monster pause. It knew she had something up her sleeve and it skidded to a halt just a handful of feet away. Clawed fingers flexed and curled as it considered how to get closer without incurring the girl's wrath, and Suvdaa could see the gears churning and turning in the monster's head.

Too bad for the wendigo, this was what Mau and Suvdaa had planned on.

"Dumb thing." Suvdaa spat as she stomped on the taut rope waiting just by her boot. The rope went lank as a result... And the rocks held up in the nearby tree waiting just over the wendigo's head came down as the net holding them back came loose. Big rocks, little rocks, heavy rocks, light rocks, they came down all on the monster's skull, making it cry out in surprise as a heavier stone snapped off one of its antlers and it crumpled under the weight that suddenly crashed down on top of it.

Now the wendigo was stunned, and Suvdaa picked herself up and bolted, sprinting for her next hiding place.

"You're up, dumb cat!" She called over her shoulder, and Mau paused.

"Uh."

That's when she realized.

The tree she was in?

It was pretty high up.

Getting down wouldn't be easy as fear clutched her heart when she looked down, vision blurring from the height and distance to the ground.

"What are you waiting for?" Suvdaa called as the wendigo shook its head out. "Trigger the next trap!"

"I'm stuck!" Mau snapped back. There was silence for just a beat.

"What the hell do you mean you're stuck?"

"I'm stuck in the tree! It's way too high up, there's no way to get down!" Mau mewled back pitifully.

With a noise of exasperation, Suvdaa snapped an arrow to her bow and lined up a quick shot. The arrow embedded in the tree right beside Mau's ear and the impact made her jolt.

"WAH!" Mau squealed as she jolted back and stepped clean off the branch she was hiding on.

"OH FUCK!" The catgirl blurted as she started to fall, hands scrambling to catch anything on the way down, she whipped around to face the tree trunk and scrabbled for purchase, bloodying her hands and knees on the bark as she skidded downward, landing with a hard grunt in the snow at the foot of the tree.

"... Thanks!" She called out once she regained her composure at the bottom of the tree trunk.

"Don't thank me, dumb cat, get to work!" Suvdaa shouted back at her.

In the time Mau had struggled to get down the tree, the wendigo had already gotten back to its feet, shaking its head out and shrugging off the dizzy concussed feeling from being slammed in the head with all those rocks.

"Firebolt!" Mau shouted, another peal of thunder calling out as a rush of hot flames flashed into the wendigo's already dizzy eyes from a distance. Its head jerked from the impact and it clawed its eyes shrieking as it whirled to face where the spell had come from.

"Foolish girls!" The monster hissed. "I am done playing! I will tear you both limb from limb! I will keep you alive as I eat you piece by piece! You will whimper and beg for death as I devour you in small pieces!"

The fact that it could speak gave Mau a beat's pause, but she didn't let that hold her for too long. They had to continue harrying the monster until the moon was at its apex in the night sky, Suvdaa had said.

Well, if anything, that last firebolt had its attention, and Mau spun around on her heels to start running.

"Where are you running to, little kitten?!" The wendigo snarled, "I grow tired of these games we play! I am hungry!"

Again, Mau ran between two trees that were conspicuously close to one another, and the beast halted just before crossing them.

"... I will not fall for this again." It growled, walking to step around them rather than between them.

Mau couldn't help but grin like a cat.

"You kind of just did." She called back to it as it stepped around the trees and squawked in pain. The satisfying crunch of bones breaking sounded through the woods as the two rocks came swinging down on ropes in opposing arcs and slammed into the beast on both sides.

The wendigo screeched, venting its frustration to the night sky as the clouds parted...

The full moon shined down from its apex in the night sky.

This was it, this was the turning point and Mau just needed to wait for Suvdaa to make her move from here.

"You're up!" Mau called back as she slid under a fallen log and used it for cover while she waited... And waited. ... And...

"Suvdaa?" She called out into the night and received no answer.

"Your friend must have run, kitten." The wendigo hissed. "Your games were fun, but now I'm tired of this."

"Oh. Well shit." Mau spat. With no response from Suvdaa, she was at a loss. The whole plan revolved around swapping aggro from the beast back and forth until the moon hit the right spot in the sky, and it was slowly trudging towards her spot under the log.

Now, though, the wendigo was being extra cautious, no longer wanting to play this game of cat and mouse on the girls' terms and didn't want to just walk into any more nasty surprises they may have had waiting for it.

That was the problem. Mau was out of surprises. She was almost out of firebolt spells too, with probably one last good casting in her before she fizzled out, and the last few traps were placed in Suvdaa's side of the woods.

"Shit shit shit!" Mau muttered, squeezing herself backwards under the tree and wriggling her way out from under it as the wendigo nearly stood atop her.

That's when Mau saw something behind it... Two gleaming points of silver light up in a tree overlooking her former hiding place as the beast up-ended the fallen tree and hurled it over its shoulder.

"You are mine..." It snarled as Mau backed into a rock, its skull-like face hovered inches from her nose, she could smell the fetid stench of raw meat and old blood on its breath. As it raised its claw, poised to strike she darted aside.

That's when the arrow came screaming through the night, it whistled as it streaked through the darkness followed by contrails of silvery light. When it hit the wendigo, the moon-blessed arrow didn't bounce off its hide.

Instead, the arrow's point embedded in the back of the beast's knee, hobbling it with a cry of pain unlike any that Mau had heard it make before, and it whirled around to face the source, screaming with impotent fury.

Suvdaa sat crouched in the tree above, eyes gleaming silver, back-lit by the full moon.

"About time!" Mau snapped, but Suvdaa paid her no mind as she knocked another arrow to her bow, the point glittering silver in the light of the stars...

❧

"So." Mau said, drying her hair with a spare cloth as she returned from the hot spring. "I'm ready to hear your grand master plan, now."

She was rewarded with a fruit flung at her face. She only barely caught it at the last second, nearly dropped it, and spent the next moment juggling it between her hands to not drop it.

"Cripes, what was that for?!" She blurted as Suvdaa snorted at her.

"How was your bath?" The raider asked her. "I assume it was good, you took forever in there. I thought you might have drowned."

Mau seethed quietly as she sat herself across the other girl at the fire and thrust her hands out towards the flames to warm them and help herself dry off a bit more.

"If you really must know, the water was a little hot for my taste." Mau retorted petulantly as she bit into the fruit, its sweet juices dribbling down her chin as she chewed slowly and wiped her face with one arm.

"If you remained in the water any longer I'd have to deal with the smell of boiled cat instead of sweaty cat." Suvdaa said prompting Mau to roll her eyes as she reclined by the fire.

"So anyway." Mau prodded.

"Yes, anyway." The raider huffed, firing the catgirl a glower from across the fire, before she sighed.

"I am the clan's Moon Child." Suvdaa started to explain. Mau considered saying 'I knew that already' but opted to keep her trap shut in case the other girl had anything on hand to throw at her that was harder or heavier than a fruit.

"It means I am the rebirth of the moon goddess Od Tegri." Suvdaa continued.

Mau blinked owlishly.

"You're the reincarnation of a god?" She asked. This baffled her. Could gods be reincarnated in human form? Never before in all her lives had she encountered anything similar, and it was a little too late to ask Galatea about it now as she sat up a little to indicate that she was listening.

"... I'm guessing this has everything to do with why you vanish every month on the night of the full moon and wander off until morning." Mau said.

Suvdaa nodded.

"On the night of the full moon I become Od Tegri."