Had S'ari been to the oasis before now? She could not remember. It was not that her memory was going; it was that she was mixing and confusing the desert of her home tribe with that of her new tribe. She looked around the place, noting the palm trees, the small, clear pool of water, the dormant roses that she was sure would blossom in the spring. Blossom like the thing that was blossoming inside her now. She was in heat.

It bothered some women to be in heat, made them itchy and snappish and roiling. S'ari felt a bit itchy, but no so much snappish as simply... full of energy. She hadn't felt this good since before her illness. But where to spend the energy? Zoug was with Candle and she did not want to break them up by asking for his services. Feeling melancholy, she thought of Andrealphus and wished he were here to calm the ache in her body, to give her children. She would gladly make children with him, though mating with a wolf would anger her family.

She lay beside the pool, feeling antsy and hot, and lolled her head back to yip-howl into the blue, blue sky, sending a siren song out into the wide desert, the call carrying on the wind to whoever might hear it.

Alek had strayed from his pack for days, deciding to take a journey around the territories around him. Coming down from the mountains he found a land where rivers flowed and there were more trees. He also caught the scent of a woman. And not just any woman, a woman in heat. He heard her yowl. He tracked her scent down and found her by a pool of water, looking slightly uncomfortable. He approached slowly with a look on his face, asking for an invitation to come closer to her. He didn’t want to get bit

It took a while for anyone to respond. It seemed the desert was more empty than it had once been, or perhaps no one wanted to mate with her. She grinned at that. Others in her past--other wolves--had called her a pain in the ass several times. Perhaps that was it.

When someone did show up, it was a wolf. Well. Candle and Zoug would simply have to bite their tongues, for she would not turn a wolf away if he had come to ease the ache in her. A wolf could give her children just as easily as a coyote, and it did not matter to her the species of the father.

Come to give S'ari children, wolf? she asked, and grinned at him, not getting up from where she lay by the pool. Only know this: S'ari's children are hers, and will be raised by her. This one is a wolf, and would not be welcome among S'ari's Tribe, unfortunately. But they will know of their father, and she will send them on their way when they are older if they wish to know this one. Yes? If he did not agree to these terms, she would turn him away and find another. It was tradition that any roaming male wolf who impregnated a female of the Tribe must be on his way and let the mother raise the pups. That was the way of the Desert. If he'd been a coyote like her, she would have offered him a place in the Tribe, but she could not. Alas.

“That’s fine by me. They can find me in Raventhrope, in the mountains, if they please. Tell them to find Alek.” He said, offering his name. The he moved in closer and started to circle her in a seductive way.

S'ari nodded. She will them of their father in Raventhorpe, then. Raventhorpe. An interesting name for a pack. Did they worship ravens, perhaps? Or maybe the forest they lived in--if it was a forest--was full of the birds. She shook the thought away, for it was not important. Perhaps she would ask about it afterwards, if he wished to stick around and talk. He might simply do his duty and leave, which was equally fine with her. Really, she was not picky in life.

She stood up and grinned at him as he circled her, lowering her head, gazing at him with half-lidded eyes. When he came toward her, she did not back away, but merely turned and offered herself...

[Fade. IDK if you want to continue afterwards or just end the thread. Either is fine with me.]