Blacktail Deer Plateau blackhawk down

It was common for Lavender to stick herself inside of whatever den was available and hide through the coldest parts of the day, only emerging when the sun was beaming or the winter winds had died down. She had been getting better with the cold lately (probably because of her new habit of taking short walks with frequent naps in between), but the sight of the last shadow had rattled her more than she cared to admit. It was something new, something loud, and something that even her parents were certainly frightened of.

She was already feeling pretty down about her lot in life - she had a beautiful family, they lived an easy enough life, but Lavender wasn't able to contribute like the others. Being afraid of this last shadow only made her feel worse; regardless of how justifiable her fears were, today she just wasn't letting herself experience it. She decided to brave the cold and prove to herself — and the others — that she did have something she could contribute.

So no, she wasn't in the den today. Her path took her along the plateau until she was at the furthest extent of the territory, on the highest segment she could find, and she was staring up at the sky, trembling but determined. The dark shape of the loud black creature could not be seen across the entirety of the open blue sky - but she did not stop, not even when the winds picked up and began nipping at her petite body.

This thread looked lonely! Hopefully rude little unsympathetic weasels crashing it are a-ok.  ;)

Nynka had been exploring further and further afield, and having wound her way through most of the lower points and even an underground burrow or two, whose owners had unfortunately been out at the time, her ever-curious and mercurial nature decided to switch things up and drew her higher up toward the taller points of land for a change. She leapt up atop a small, craggy boulder for a moment and sat up on her haunches to survey the waving winter-bleached grasses all about her. Then she jumped off again and continued bounding upward, ever upward.

She was not moving with any great abundance of caution, confident and quick and secure in the surety that, particularly given the local lack of fellow weasels, she could easily outdodge, outrace, and outthink just about anything this new land could throw at her. One of the local deer raised a cautiously twitching nose to get a better look at the little patchwork weasel going speeding by, but Nynka ignored her as she determinedly sped up, with only a short winding detour made around a particularly thick and thorny-looking patch of weeds to interrupt her beeline skyward. The stiff breeze had been blowing the scents of the bluff's top away from her; else, Nynka might not have been quite so disgruntled to find that a canine had already beaten her to the top.

Nynka hopped to the top of another boulder and balanced, meerkat-like, as she stared at the intruder on what the arrogant little weasel had already been thinking was going to be her private space. She twitched a whisker in irritation before flicking a momentarily distracted ear and half-turning her head for a second at a far-distant grumble of thunder. See, even the weather gods are displeased to find you here in my way, you hairy, drooling beast!—Nynka couldn't help but smirkingly think it as she faced the canine full-on once more. She was also sneeringly amused to see that underneath this one's poofy fur it looked to be a stunted, skinny, weedy beast compared to others of her kind, which in Nynka's mind signaled not a very good hunter. So many creatures she had known had loved to lord their size over her in so many ways, but despite its deceptive coat this one seemed almost as if it might hardly outweigh her, ha ha ha. It probably was nearing time for Nynka to head home, or at least find decent shelter from the weather—perhaps that last chipmunk's burrow might even contain a bonus snack for her again, at this point—but first she couldn't resist having a little fun with the deplorable bony mutt who had so inconsiderately parked here and blocked her view.

Hey, you stupid wolf, she called out. Don't you know it's about to rain?