The past few hunts had not gone well. Despite the addition of the fallen deer he had found, their food stores were running low, and there was still many dark days of winter left. Aesop was not particularly worried, not yet, but it was enough to make him change his habits, and he found himself hunting small game for himself more often. This way he wasn't drawing on the pack's resources as much, leaving more for the pregnant Thistle Cloud and the pups in the pack. (That, now that he came to think of it, he had no idea who they belonged to.)
So he loped along the ridge, hoping to find some small game among the thick trees and rocks. A few times, he thought he saw a bird or rabbit dart out, but before he could do much more than notice it, it had disappeared beneath a thick bush or hollow in the earth. Finally, he met with some luck, and was able to catch a thin, injured squirrel as it clambered towards a tree. Shameless and hungry, he sat where he was, ripping the small squirrel open and beginning to pull strips of meat from its thin frame.
Bindi wanted to travel more and more every day, but lately she felt like she was traveling to much. She still had responsibilities at Silvertip, but she wanted to explore more than work today. She didn't want to wander far from the mountain today. She decided to explore a side of the mountain she had never been on, and eventually found herself leaving Silvertip territory.
She didn't get far when she came across the smell of blood, mixing with an stranger's scent. She followed the scent until she came across a wolf ripping a thin squirrel open. Bindi approached the stranger with a friendly posture, but had a serious face when she became closer to the male. She gave a chuff to alert the male, although she was sure he would have been able to see her by now or at least smell her.
Forward dating this since I realize it's been a while since I actually posted it. Thank you for joining! This should be fun, they both have foul mouths.
The meal was small, but served to fill the emptiness of his stomach, and so he wouldn't complain. Due to its size, however, he was able to finish most of it off rather quickly so that by the time he had company, there was little left. He heard her first, her own voice and the cracking of underbrush a herald to her presence. And though there was not much meat to strip from the squirrel, instinct flared up, and his lips curled back around his teeth.
But her posture was friendly, and he felt he had little to fear from her. He willed his expression back towards something more neutral, and gave a soft "whuf" in return.
"Sorry 'bout that," he said,
"didn't expect to have company. Ain't much left, but I can spare a bit of this," Aesop prodded the squirrel with his foot,
"if it's a meal you're after."
I can't wait to see how this thread turns out!
She was greeted by him, with his teeth showing and a not so friendly attitude. Bindi didnt move, not feeling threatened by the stranger at all. When he apologized she gave him a nod of her head, as she to would have acted the same way as he did if she had a meal and someone approached.
"It's fine" she said and smiled when he offered up his food.
Bindi believed she was a skilled huntress and didn't need to take food from others.
"No, you enjoy it, it's your kill after all" she said and felt that if you killed it, you should be the one to eat it. She wondered where the male came from, he smelled of the sea, Bindi had been admiring from the mountain.
"Do you live close to the sea" she asked curious if he was a loner or if an entire pack lived near the ocean.
He smiled sheepishly at her, sure that she understood the behavior but still embarrassed for it. When she turned down his offer for food, he shrugged, stripping the last of the meat from the bones. He swallowed it down quickly, hyperaware of her presence. His skin still tingled with the need to protect his food, her presence alone registering as a threat to him. Soon the food was gone, though, and he had no pesky instincts to rule him.
While she tried to puzzle out his origins, he set about licking the blood from his fur. He looked up when she asked her question, tongue still lolled out against his leg. "Shit, uh. Yeah, just a bit aways down the coast. You?"
She watched as the male finished off his meal, and confirmed that he indeed lived by the sea. It was a place she heard stories about, how the sea would come and swallow wolves whole. She also heard that the moon can effect the ocean and its waves or something like that, but she never believed those stories. Focusing back on the male, and stopping her daydreaming, she listened as he asked about where she lived. Turning around and using her paw she pointed the mountain.
"I love on the mountain" she said and wondered what the male would think of that. Talking about her home made her wonder what the rest of her packmates were doing. She had not seen some of them for days, mabye even weeks now, but she was sure they were ok. Putting her paw down and facing the male once more, she smiled and then asked "what's your name" wondering if he would tell her.
The female lifted a paw, gesturing to the familiar mountain face. He knew it well, as it loomed on the horizon from the borders of his home, the last branch of a curled mountain range. Brow raised, he stared at it contemplatively. He hadn't known that there was a pack there. Aesop made a vague noise of contemplation, not quite sure what to do with the information. They seemed friendly enough, but there was something suspicious about a pack settling down and not alerting the neighbors. Unless they had, and Aesop just didn't know of it, but he liked to think that he would.
"Hmm," he hummed, a brief sound. "Didn't know anyone lived there. Glad to know I should avoid it." He had taken to cutting along the foot of the mountain if ever he wanted to reach the valley beyond, but now he would have to veer a bit farther south, lest he accidentally wander too close to pack borders. The woman asked for his name, and he paused in his grooming to reply. "'m Aesop. You?"