For
@Jaws, as promised. :)
A day or two old scent trail led her closer to the outskirts of the caldera than she’d been since requesting a place among the Redhawks. There were two reasons she stayed her paws from venturing away: 1) her familiarity with the territory was still lacking, and 2) she had yet to take on large prey solo. For the moment, she was content to continue to hone her tracking skills and absorb as much local herd information as she could. She trotted at a sprightly pace, stepping with lithe sure-footedness while pausing in a pattern that only appeared arbitrary as she identified the clear path and the occasional addition of other scents.
When she reached the border she gazed long at the horizon — with calculation, not melodramatic subtext — then lowered her head to the heavily marked boundary line and contemplated the benefits to a permanent territory in comparison to what she’d always known as the child of a nomadic pack. She imagined that they amounted to as many as the lifestyle of travelling based on sustainability of the land, and thought on the irony of how she would never have struck out to join a pack that had
settled down, so to speak, if she hadn’t been the adventurous, open-minded sort.
Jaws had caught a squirrel and was securing it in one of the pack's caches near the border, having already found breakfast earlier in the form of a few mice, when the breeze whisked to him an unfamiliar scent. He jerked his head up in response to the smell, inhaling deeply to gain a better understanding of what he was smelling and where it was coming from. Jaws' packwolf instincts were growing stronger by the day - where before a new scent such as this would hardly have phased him it now ignited in him a defensive, protective spirit.
Without delay he pursued it, his eyes coming to rest on a small, black female just inside the pack borders. It was possible - and indeed, likely - that she was a new recruit, but he could hardly operate under such assumptions. Jaws approached her briskly, his sharp ears thrust forward and his tail held stiff. He stopped just behind her and growled very softly in warning, his piercing gaze unblinking. His questions to her were very much implied.
She had tip-toed laterally a few paces and paused at another scent when she sensed the approach of someone behind her. Standing stock-still with her nose still near the ground, she listened carefully as large paws drew near and stayed just so as the stranger — albeit clearly a pack mate judging by the scent that preceded him on the breeze — came to stand directly behind her. A growled warning prompted the little female to flatten her ears, tuck her tail and raise her head only to look over her shoulder at the dark, statuesque male. She remained unmoved from there.
Posed to a lone wolf, his questions would certainly be implied. Crow, on the other hand, had been admitted entry several days ago and it was no longer on her mind that someone might actually question the validity of her presence within the territory. Her nose was absolutely full of the scent of the caldera such that she wasn’t entirely conscious of the fact that she didn’t quite smell like a long-term resident. A lone wolf would have likely turned straight back around by this point and fled at the sight of the threat that faced to her rear, but Crow simply blinked at him with her large, bright eyes and waited for words.
The black female did not offer much by way of a response - she laid her ears down, tucked her tail and glanced back at him. Jaws anticipated she would say something but she did not. In fact, she had responded in the very same fashion that the coywolf himself would have, saying nothing unless prompted to do so. He was slightly amused by this given that in his experience most wolves were quite chatty and would have spoke to him. But his expression remained unchanged, straight-faced. He was still suspicious; he could not discern any obvious scent on her and though she acted like she belonged here he was not about to trust what could be a charade.
So, it was up to Jaws to break the silence, but he did not do so right away. Instead he slowly circled around her, looking her all over though not in his typical flirty manner (he did, however, like what he saw). He came to stop in front of her, and issued a very blunt, "Who are you?"