@Ypres
It was the first time that Ptarmigan had ever seen the ocean, and immediately she hated it.
Of course, that distaste was explained by her actions. She'd found the hot sand of the beach to be a comfort to her worn paws, and in her stroll along the edge of a river, eventually noticed the largest lake she had ever seen sprawling out away from the sand. Being a lone wolf was exhausting work, so it was no surprise that the Endore had rejoiced and immediately gone to it, finding its softly lapping current favourable to the rush of the Totoka for bathing.
Yet neither the sharp tang in the air nor experience could prepare her for the way the water tasted. She splashed into it carelessly, lowering her snout to slurp it up... And immediately began to gag and sputter. Her tail curled toward her stomach and her ears sought to hide amongst the downy hairs of her scalp as she back pedalled out of the water and eventually expelled every last salty drop she had ingested as bile on the ground.
For long, Ypres had been wondering if she was the only wolf left standing on the Gull isle. She had not seen any of her pack since the threat of Jinx's pack at the brink of warring upon her isle. Silence, loneliness, regret, and defeat could very well be felt by the new self proclaimed Alphess. Perhaps with everyone gone, or she assumed they all vanished at that moment that she thought herself no longer as an Alpha. Her heart hung heavily in sorrow as she felt the taste of failure for the third time in her existence. First time was trying to take over her birth pack, and second time was when she attempted to make amends with her birth pack, and now this... Failure. it was a tough pill to swallow. She hoped that maybe her members would return as she remained or thought she was the only one remaining..
Her negative thoughts were disrupted when a new scent hit the air. It was of one she had never met. Was this a strike of a new beginning or just another lost soul like she!? She followed the scent down to the Sea Lion shores and soon found herself encountering a lone female. Ypres did not smell "pack" on this lady and therefore assumed her as lone.
She witnessed the girl getting sick, and a frown formed upon Ypres' face. The first thought that blew within her mind was illness. Maybe her pack died from it? Ypres was not aware of any illness's in the area. Ypres threw the illness thought in the back of her mind and disregarded it as she approached the new female with caution.
" Hello miss... Are you alright? "
Ypres drew in closer for observation. Maybe the she-wolf drank some of the water? Ypres wasn't sure, but was soon bound to finding out. She did not take Alpha stance as she safely assumed her pack was long gone, and that she had been there alone......
Her coat bristled as she gagged again, punctuating her illness with an ill attitude. She shot the salty lake a reproachful glare before composing herself. With a shudder, the small female turned as though to make her way back to the river, but a whiff of the tangy ocean air made bile rise in her throat once again and, thinking better of walking away, Ptarmigan sat herself heavily in the sand.
Just as she was lifting a hind leg to scratch absentmindedly at one of her ears in hopes that redirecting her thoughts would help with the nausea, a concerned voice stole her attention. The wolf who had spoken was blonde and, for all intents and purposes, presumably a loner like herself. The smell of other wolves wafted from the female's general direction, but the typical behavioural cues of a territorial pack wolf were curiously absent. This made Ptarmigan freeze on the spot where typically she would have fled the scene of a pack's claim.
“Fine,” she responded gruffly, remembering the sour taste of the ocean in her mouth and hiccoughing uncomfortably. She didn't say anything else, but she kept her eyes trained on the blonde female, awaiting an expected declaration of purpose or something equally grand (as ifshe was entitled to hear the intentions of others).
Ypres didn't yield any grand secrets, however, and eventually, Ptarmigan lost interest in her companion and left without a word.