Arrow Lake Eel in the Water and She-Wolf I'll Be

Talos tamped down her puppyish wriggle of excitement as she inhaled deep of the other's scent; she was not entirely successful, but she did at least manage to wipe the giddy grin off her face and straighten up in what she fancied was actually quite an impressive and regally adult manner before she faced the other wolf-bitch squarely once again, nonverbal introductory courtesies at least nominally observed. 'Pology assepted, she told her new acquaintance loftily, not unfriendly exactly—not with that eager sparkle alighting her eyes—but still with the tone of someone quite graciously bestowing a favor upon an uncouth lower-ranked.

It only grew harder, however, to maintain the airs that she was putting on as the other wolf revealed that she was here to look for a water dragon. ...Truth be told, Talos had no idea what such a thing might look like, but that only gave her imagination more room to run wild as the possibility ran through her like a current of electricity. Her fur puffed out with an agitated, excited mind of its own as Talos stood high and forward on black tippy-toes that had trouble keeping themselves from dancing in place. She couldn't resist quickly craning her neck up and over to give the water a quick scan before she replied, just in case the rumored water dragon might have snuck up upon them as they stood around talking. Nope...? Well, she'd try again in a second. This was great though—exactly the kind of adventure she had been so sorely missing back at home! Why hadn't she run this far amok earlier?!

I was firsty too, she said, her vocabulary suffering somewhat more as she was now keeping half an eye on the rippling stream nearby and envisioning the fearsome creature who could appear at any moment. She did maintain enough presence of mind to hastily improvise however, the words tumbling out and practically running into one another in their haste: An' I was sended to look fer dragons. I'm Talos—I'm tha bes' dragon-hunter in the whole pack. Only with the last three words did her speech slow appreciably down, making sure to emphasize each individual syllable. Yep, this other wolf should be downright honored to be in such a lofty knight's presence...sure. Besides, since this other so delightfully was not from Swiftcurrent, there was surely no way for her to know that Talos was bluffing as she puffed her chest proudly out once more, thinking this showed her sturdy muscles off to their best advantage as well as making her look bigger and older.