ooc: hoping to meet a few others!
With the intro to the new home, Shikoba decided that she was just going to go out by herself. The children were being guarded by their mother, and Ishi was somewhere else.
Shikoba was left to herself. Although the new home was welcoming, she remained fairly quiet. She was still embarrassed with herself and ashamed. If she could have just stopped that damned cat, her family would have never moved from LCH.
her scars were healing more, but they were not some soft pink claw marks. They were still vermillion red, hair not growing back just yet. Pain was still buried into her muscles and joints, even blinking caused small volts of pain to electrify her.
settling down in an open area, Shikoba lay her head on her paws. She huffed a bit, curling her body closer into a ball before closing her eyes.
Jenabbi was big, but she wasn't stupid. This was a hungry land, and even she might start to look like fair game to a wolf pack. Although such suffering usually evoked in her a powerful compassion, she could only find herself feeling grateful that the wolves here were too weak to take her on. That would change as the territory healed itself, but she hoped that - by then - the wolves would find easier, more abundant prey than herself.
For now, she tried to keep to herself. She wasn't at her best, after all. She'd been hungrier, of course, but this was bad enough. Her back was always aching from having to bend and eat the fledgling grass - there were no leaves on the trees to satisfy her hunger. She pitied the males of her kind, who had their heavy antlers to contend with by now. Again, she wondered if she would foal this year, or if she should wait until the world had regained some semblance of order.
Vision clouded by her thoughts, she almost didn't notice the sad pile of wolf until she was upon it.
"Oh, just my luck," she sighed, looking down at the toothy creature. "I advise against trying to eat me - moose are dangerous with or without antlers."
Shikoba was not expecting such a large prey animal to come so close, or at least be in the close proximity to her. She lifted her head softly, blinking slowly and showing no interest in hunger. She was too weak to catch the moose, and knew very well that if one moose returned, then the herds were moving back.
"Shikoba not hungry" she said weakly, her head resting on her neck softly and in a relaxed manner. "Moose bring back other moose, herds come back soon." Shikoba wasn't a naturalist, but she had knowledge about famines and herds moving on. As long as they returned, she wouldn't have to hunt for big food just yet. "Moose stay away from this land, full of other wolves. Hungrier than Shikoba, want to kill and eat moose" she warned, hoping that this one would heed her advice. She didn't want this moose to die, it seemed a bit different from the others she killed.
Pushed back a bit to before she met Artemis
Jenabbi almost -
almost - challenged her statement.
Everyone was hungry, after all. But it made no sense to point out the obvious, and what was
she going to do about it, anyway? (She suffered through a brief moment of hysterical fantasy as she pictured offering up a leg or a nice bit of her side to the poor woman.) No, it was best to just let the sleeping wolf lie, and Nab would leave her in peace and quite probably follow her advice.
"Thank you for the advice, Shikoba," Jenabbi said softly, wishing there was something she could do for the other creature. The angry, scarring wounds led her to believe she had not had an easy time of it, of the late. But there was nothing she could do.
"I think I will be going, now."
So Jenabbi turned and left, and it was miles before she felt safe enough to stop and rest.