Boartusk Heights On a Wing and a Prayer

I would like if any coyotes or coywolves, in particular, might like to hop in  :)
...Timeline of thread now scooted up into the present, jumping it forward about a month!

 
She had to stop and take a breather halfway up the slope. She leaned hipshot against a half-dead tree for a minute, seizing the opportunity to take in deep draughts of the foreign air and take her surroundings in a little better. In the space of another breath her nose wrinkled and her eyes narrowed, her tongue curling as if it would liked to have spit. There was a distinct tang of pig in the air, but more concerningly, too, there was wolf. She had followed the faint traces of at least one of her relations this far, but in recent days even as the scent grew stronger her doubts grew right along with them. What ever had possessed those youngsters to let their wanderlust lead them to a place like here, she had to wonder. Although admittedly wild boar was good eating…if one could catch it, and not get caught in turn. Grimeye could still feel the faint ache of a deep scar on her leg from some years back, covered by fur now but still recalling the last confrontation she’d had with one of those bastard pigs that had not gone well.
 
So long as one gave them a decently wide berth, however, pigs were not likely to cause significant problems. What concerned her more was her fellow canines. They could prove to be real trouble, as she knew all too well. She shook her head to herself. Well. Perhaps her relatives simply needed to learn some of these things the hard way… and perhaps she was the foolish one for trekking all this way after them, when they were only likely to get themselves into one sort of trouble or another. …But that was the burden of the elders, then, wasn’t it? No matter how foolish the young might be they were still family, and it was thus the duty of those older and wiser to continue to try and save them from themselves regardless.
 
A twist of distaste remaining on her lips and a hint of scorn in her eyes, Grimeye hauled herself further upslope once again, remaining guarded and wary as her eyes flickered to and fro, searching for her brethren and hoping she’d at least have a little grace period in which to rest before she had to start hauling them out of any scrapes.

Evening almost always avoided open places like this. If it was possible to go around a mountain, even if it meant days out of her way, she would go around. The higher up she went, the less trees there were. The less trees there were, the more likely it was that she would be stuck on a mountain, half-blind and burning from the sun, with nothing to do but wait it out for hours while her skin baked, leaving her in pain for days afterwards. So. Evening had no good reason to be scaling a mountain this night, but it was dusk, so she was less afraid of getting stuck in daylight. Unless she were injured up on the mountain, she should be able to get down and to the safety of the trees long before dawn. 

The call of a clear view to the stars is what had possessed her to come up here in the first place. Despite herself, she missed her mother, even for all her coddling, and the stars reminded her as nothing else did of the woman. What she had not accounted for was the scent of boar that overwhelmed her the higher she climbed. She had not yet seen any, although with her nearsightedness and the failing light, she could have very well missed any that had appeared farther away. Boars scared her. She knew that they could be vicious, and they could kill a wolf easily with their tusks.

She decided then that the easiest and safest thing to do would be to move downward. She was at least out of the trees, so she could see the sky clearly from where she was. She didn’t need to go any higher up. Besides, it wasn’t as though she needed a clear view of the sky to see the stars, anyways. The stars were always blurry to her. She gave the mountain a sweeping gaze, intending to turn and move downwards once she was done, but the shape of a wolf caught her eye. She had not expected to see anyone out here, and the sudden appearance of another wolf surprised her. On a normal night, she might have been nervous and avoided talking to the wolf, but tonight she was missing home and the thought of company cheered her. She woofed quietly to the wolf, hoping that they would be up for a conversation.

Grimeye lifted away from her leanin'-tree and was about to trot onward when her large ears perked at the soft crunching of the earth nearby. She shied back slightly, her eyes narrowing and darting about warily as she considered fading herself back out of view entirely. The problems with that plan were twofold, however. One, as her eyes flickered about they noted anew that this high up the trees were starting to grow sparse, and the underbrush even thinner yet—neither really offering the best choice of places to hide.

And two, it was already too late in any case, as a gleaming figure loomed forth in the gloom and offered up a low woof of greeting. Grimeye stiffened, and stood there silently assessing the situation for a moment. She stuck her nose up into the air to take another deep sniff, but none of her senses disagreed with her initial hunch: there was only one wolf in the area, and a spindly young thing at that. Hmm, well then. Grimeye's hackles prickled warily and she moved slowly forward with her tail half-raised. As she padded nearer the other canine she put out her nose for another cautious sniff from closer-up.

 Nothing in either the manner or appearance of the other seemed overly threatening. Grimeye unbent a little more, enough at least to offer a cool, Hello. Her eyes swept over the wolf bitch and lingered on the odd coloring, the pink nose and eyes. Interesting...but she offered no comment, and no particular judgment on those aspects as of yet. None of it really outweighed the youngster's species in Grimeye's mind anyhow, even if it was rather notable, and not a sight the coywolf had seen before in her many days on the planet. It did cross her mind briefly to wonder if perhaps this other creature might not herself be fully-wolf either, with her strange pigmentation resulting from whatever other heritage was lurking in her genes. What the other part of her might be in that case, however, Grimeye had no idea. Curiosity was starting to overcome Grim's initial wary hostility, however, if possibly somewhat against her better judgment. She stood looking down on the wispy little wolf and waited for the other to make a move.

Feeling a little nervous herself, Evening stretched out her neck to offer a return sniff in the direction of the wolf. Actually… She sniffed again, her ears perking in curiosity. This one didn’t smell fully wolf. Her pink eyes swept over the female’s form, taking in the smaller stature, the tapered snout. A coywolf. Well, that was alright with Evening. The albino had no hatred for coyotes or coywolves. She had more in common with them than full-blooded wolves, in fact. Maybe this really would go well, she thought, feeling at ease.

“I’m Evening,” she said, keeping her voice soft. Dusk was not a time for loud voices, at least in her mind. Dusk was the time for a quick hunt in the fading light, followed by quiet contemplation. Dusk was a time for listening to the crickets in the grass and feeling the cool wind through one’s fur. In fact, Evening almost didn’t want to speak to this coywolf at all. Instead, she hoped for a short introduction, and then to sit in quiet companionship and watch as the stars came out. But that probably wouldn’t happen. She’d just have to see how this went.

Editing an ending for this!

It seemed that the coywolf did not wish to speak either, and this was fine with her. She smiled at the female and then turned her face to the sky and sat in silence as the stars came out one by one. When the world had darkened completely, she went away, quietly down the mountain, to continue her nightly exploration.

Exit.