He could hear the hairs in his ears freeze, snow flakes sticking to his lashes, blast.
The temperature was taking a dive.
" Damnit, snow too? " he grunted as he pulled on the large body.
He had done a wonderful hunt.
He had brought down a Mozer, a gigantic ox like animal.
His brother would never believe him!
But he hadn't considered how he was going to bring it home, down the mountain.
He had downright destroyed a cluster of trees and made a perfectly fine pulling sled.
Three, actually, the Mozer had proven too heavy for the previous two and had simply cracked through them in mere seconds.
He sighed, wiped his forehead and rubbed his nose with his freezing fingers.
His gloves had really only been in the way through this whole ordeal,
but now he had gone and lost them.
Like the professional hunter he was!
He pushed on the Mozer and cursed, the thing had now become stiff.
Rigor Mortis? Maybe, might just be freezing.
With a growl of effort he managed to partly roll it and then it refused.
He was stuck, one shoulder under the beast.
Was it caught on something? It felt like it.
He stood there, a good 5 minutes, grunting and fidgeting.
Trying to shift in a way that allowed him to see what was going on.
He cursed as he spotted it.
The Mozer had been happily bleeding on the mountain.
No problem there, but it had gotten cold enough for the blood to freeze.
The Mozer's fur was now solidly part of the mountain.
"Great! Great! Great! "
He growled, trying to see if his neck could take the weight of the creature, so he could free up both arms to feel for his knife.
Not there, gone, missing in action.
He grunted, trying to look around. He had just had it!
He indeed had, he spotted it a small step away, on the floor.
It might as well be on the other side of the freaking mountain!
He stood there, trying to reach his knife with his foot...
a frozen Mozer balancing on his head and neck, snorting like a Mozer himself, in effort.
"What in the world are you doing?" Came an amused voice that he recognized as his brother.
Great.
Every time he managed to do something impressive or did something rather 'cool' his brother had to somehow catch him in a moment of failure.
Or he himself did something to completely ruin it the moment he showed up.
"What am I doing?" He said, winching, "Obviously I'm trying to get this Mozer home with the least amount of effort. So naturally it has become... "
"You've become stuck?" His brother asked, studying the scene before him.
Morten stopped his attempt to get his knife, dropped his arms next to him and sighed.
He looked like a strange pillar under, what could only be described as, a Mozer roof.
"Help me?" He said quietly.
He just swung his arm in the direction where the fur had become frozen to the surface.
His brother stepped into view now,
"Ah, doesn't want to let go of the mountain?" He smiled.
Morten grunted in agreement and pain, that was really starting to creep up in his neck and spine.
His brother was the Chief of their people, a big man. Marked with tattoos of all kinds.
Symbols of hunts, feats and adventures he had been on. All done in red and blues, the colors he had been given at birth, cool colors and two!
Morten had never been that lucky.
He was 5 years younger than his brother, he had been given the color black and by the time he had been old enough to join his brother on adventures... his brother had been caught in a marriage with the chieftain's daughter. A hasty affair as her father obtained a bad injury and he wanted to leave his daughter and people securely in the hands of a man he found capable and worthy.
Morten wasn't unlike his brother though.
Tall and easily muscled. But where his brother was an impressive and capable man?
Morten was clumsy and had awful luck with just about anything.
Mortens tattoo from his first hunt for example, where he actually took down a high up mountain wolf? Was completely ripped to shreds a few months later by a thunderbird who had fancied the deer he'd been carrying home on his shoulders, where the tattoo had been.
He had wanted to be good, the brother of the chief, raised partly by said brother.
But... he just kept disappointing, mostly himself.
His brother was an easily amused man who laughed at most of Morten's misfortunes.
But that didn't make it any better.
His brother crouched and pushed against the Mozer, lifting some of the pressure of Morten.
"You good?" He asked.
Morten grunted a positive tone towards his brother.
"Good, careful. I'm gonna cut it loose." His brother said,
while the sound of a blade cutting through hair and ice filled the air.
Neither of them were prepared for the following.
The Mozer shot loose and under their combined pressure seemed to launch weirdly down the mountain.
It crashed onto the sled Morten had made, which immediately started moving down said mountain.
"Oh no... " Morten said quietly, standing there as if he was still supporting the beast.
His brother sat, crouched, knife in hand, blinking at the sled and Mozer thundering down the mountain.
~
"Ahahaha"
his brother entered his home barking with laughter.
Morten shuffled in after him looking put out.
"What's going on?" Said Josan, his brother's wife, who had been sewing next to the fire in the cozy stone and log cottage.
His brother shook his head, still laughing, "you wouldn't believe me if I told you!"
She looked from him to Morten.
"Oh no, what have you done now Morten?" She sighed.
"Nothing!" He grumbled, looking at the floor, "I had a good hunt and lost the meat."
His brother snorted next to him, "you didn't just lose the meat. You shot it into oblivion!"
His laughter renewed, "A whole damn Mozer!"
"You what!?" Josan asked.
"You promised me not to tell... " Morten said.
"I'm sorry Morten, it's," he took in a deep breath, "Just too hilarious not to!"
Josan rolled her eyes at her husband, "really, you shouldn't if he asks you not too!"
She gave Morten a pitying smile that made him feel 10 times worse.
Josan was a pretty and nice young woman, his brother had gotten extremely lucky winning her in such a way.
Morten knew his brother had been preparing to court her, their mother had drafted month-long plans and collected funds for gifts. But then it had all just worked itself out before any of it could come into play.
With the gigantic downside that neither he or his brother knew anything about proper courtship.
Now, with both their parents gone, this had become a problem.
Morten had been able to go on lavish hunts during the courtship season, which his brother very precisely planned for exactly that reason.
But that meant that all the good girls were being swept into marriage.
Morten knew his brother had not announced a hunt yet and was sure Josan had forbidden him from creating such an easy way out for them both this year.
And now he could see Josan eying his brother... there had been a reason his brother had come to get him, this must be it.
"We need to talk" said his brother, with a sudden serious tone, him and Josan giving each other meaningful looks.
Morten turned slightly towards his brother, unsure if he should. Preferably he'd run outside and go after his Mozer, to never return. He was fine living atop some frozen mountain never to be seen again.
His brother turned to him instead, nailing him to the spot with his expression.
The 'don't you dare or she will murder us both' face.
Morten let out a long breath and said, "I know, I need to do some courtship stuff."
Why did he call it stuff? Was he 5?
"How do you know?" Asked Josan, who was still holding the garment she'd been sewing.
Morten blinked for a moment, it was pretty obvious. But then, why had she thought he didn't know?
"I think," his brother started, "he is talking about the clans courtship season. Not the other one."
Morten swallowed, "w-what other one?"
Josan's expression had him worried most, it was one of pity, sadness, worry even.
"I'm sorry Morten," his brother said so putout to his right that Morten's heart did one of those strangely unexpected nervous kicks.
"The land of lords has called for young man to court the one." His brother continued,
"And at the clans gathering it was decided you are one of the young men that should be sent from our region."
Morten burst out laughing, "sur.. surely not? I don't even know where to start!" He snorted,
"Now they want me to court the most important.. girl! In, well, the world?"
He snickered.
His brother shrugged at his wife, "I told you, it's going to be a disaster."
"Do you.." Morten laughed, "Do you think they would be impressed if I launched a few more Mozers?" He snorted some more finishing the line.
"Actually," Josan said, "maybe they will?"