set for tomorrow morning
zoug traveled with single-minded intent. he had skirted the dunes of odd foxes and come to a place where the air was scented with roses.
cautiously he tasted the morning air.
a scorpion moved decisively across his paw toward the palm-shaded pool, and with that zoug decided it was safe for him to follow suit.
he drank deeply.
Ko'a's feet did not take her far from the Ravine, the land of red rock and water. She skirted into the open heat, a bounding trot. The lands were all new and welcoming and the curious young woman meant to roam them.
Soon, she saw green and soon later, she saw blue. There were clusters of palms, surrounding a pool of water. Here, a blood-stained, one-eyed coyote's head was lowered to drink. Ko'a did not come to him but did approach cautiously to the water's edge to drink too.
She knew as a half-blood, she was at times not seen fitting among coyote just as much as unfitting as wolf. It was a god send that she had the kinship and protection of Tribe.
she was not other. she was not clan.
but neither was zoug.
he shared the prejudice of his former people for those of mixed blood. and yet if presented well, not so wolfish, the man had little to say.
he knew s'ari's ways were different and that she accepted more. it was why she was leader.
this one was tribe. he was tribe. zoug did not address her but nor did he startle her away.
He said nothing, only watched her with a hard eye. He was large, for a coy and she was small, for a wolf. Even with her wolf blood his body was heavier then her own, appearing so at least with a muscled, stout figure.
She was hesitant but did not let this show on her features. Her people were friendly and playful and he was not a wolf, so she need not to give him the same amount of caution. He smelt of others of Tribe, too, she now noticed in his scent.
Warm welcome to you. You are of Tribe, yes? This one has only just come from Home Tribe.
she spoke, a barrage of words for the tongue-limited zoug. but he plucked out those ones he knew, and noted her tone was friendly.
"zoug tribe," the man said with a nod, chin dripping clear water. "but first i was clan." he did not expect her to know those words, nor his movements. it was simply good to say them.
He spoke that Tribe he was and with it, a name- Zoug. Before that, he was Clan. Clan.
She parroting back with a smile. There were many clans, many packs, as there likely so were many tribes. Yet to her and her people, there was but one Tribe, one which all coyote was a welcomed part of.
Zoug.
She says his name then as she stretches out into a lay on the sandy banks by the water's edge. This one has the name, Ko'a.
She introduces and then, her curious nature taking her, Do your travels here take you far from Clan?
"not far," zoug rejoined. the way that the tribe asked many questions was not something to which he was yet used.
"k'oa." he settled nearby and glanced down the waterway, but in companionable silence.
when they had rested he would ask her to hunt, to bond with this one as he had the others.
He was not far from his homeland. Ko'a felt as though Home Tribe was still quite some distance away, but obviously not so far that she hadn't made it to these new lands still well-fed and healthy.
He came then to settle near, yet came to silence. It was far different then what Ko'a was used to. She was used to hearing many words, spinning many tales and asking many questions. She enjoyed listening, enjoyed the stories being told and the laughter with it, yet she was only able to speak so much herself when spoken to much. She did not drive the conversation in ways S'ari was able.
So, she would lay along the waterway of the oasis along with Zoug and when asked with guttural words, would hunt with a swiftness and agility against the strength of the large coyote.
they hunted.
their work brought prey.
zoug stacked lizards and the two mice he had caught. it would go into a larder. he eyed koa for a moment, wondering if she too could use clan-words.
"you are new. what do you like about this place?" she would hardly know the guttural sounds and the movement of his paws, but he made his gestures deliberate, indicating here and there to hopefully convey his meaning.
She returned with a jerboa. She killed a large blackened snake, one which required Zoug to distract whilst she struck quickly.
His words were very hard to understand and yet the shifting of his paws helped him to get his point across. She was not certain, yet felt perhaps in the past she had heard this speech before by a traveler passing through Home Tribe.
This one is new to this land, but this one has always been of Tribe.
She spoke, jutting her muzzle far west and then with her muzzle still up, arched it around to insinuate the travel here in the east. This one has come. She follows her cousins S'ari and Ri'zura because,
She says with a laughter and rolling of her golden shoulders, why not.
zoug did not know this word of 'cousin,' but sensed that koa was family-bonded with the others she named, the others whose names he could not hope to say.
she was pleased to be here also, he noted.
"family good," he grunted, not caring if his statement was too simplistic. bonds were all the tribe had, in both themselves and each other. "zoug lose — all family."
He spoke again, his grunts and grumbled words once more causing her ears to strain for understanding. Fam-dpfid29293o3... Lose-wi29ensjwj2!?
Family. Lose. It was enough for her.
Ko'a reaches out a paw, to place it over the gruff man's own. You are Tribe now. We are all family.
all family.
zoug was unused to being touched. but he accepted this, offering a low sound of agreement.
"i go back now," he told koa. "you come?"
tribe. family. clan could not be. but tribe was.
Ko'a nods, silent but accepting and then lifts, gathering the morsals which they had hunted and with a willingness for him to lead the way.