It was a new day. A rainy new day, though it felt no different than any of the days that came before it. The air was still cold. The ground, still numbing. But there was a difference the female refused to place, at least not yet. Not until she was ready.

But rather than dwell on what kept her mind in its rambled state, she took off from the mountain as she often did at her leisure, taking stride toward the hidden lake… though further than before. Only had she ever looked at the extent of the lake from a distance. It white, sandy shores remaining a single thin spectacle spread in the distance. She had no reason, and still none this day to explore it other than the innate drive to know what lived beyond the lake and along the winding creek.

She caressed her lips as she lumbered down the creek, catching the few beads of blood from her early morning hunt. Disheveled in appearance, she paid no mind to her graceless traverse across the ice. For all she needed was a heavy paw spread wide along the shores, ready and able to carry her large form should this impromptu adventure call for a sudden movement. Though for the most part, the air was fairly calm. No stranger scents other than the fragrance of a new land… and the musk of a growing collective nearby…

Swiftly she lowered her nose along the creeks bend to generously scent its banks and the land around it. No… the creek as a whole was not claimed, however there was perceptible cologne drifting from the direction of the coming male. Not to close for her comfort, but worth to instill wary even in her.

As he advanced, she stood still following the ascent of her crown. The mask of fear and caution remained absent from her face, however the countenance of observation overtook her near seamlessly. Gracefully aged dapples of grey accented the tan folds encompassing the whole of a large, muscled frame. His expression, one of question when her eyes could better see. Yet rather than offer a word to perhaps ease his bother, she gifted him her silence instead as biting as the chilling wind.

“Walking,” she replied briskly with a soft undertone. She placed her forward paw back in preparing to continue her little stroll along the bend, but was made to pause as his line of dialogue with a statement. “I don’t see why…” smoothly she turned from him and continued forward down her path. She did not assume she was trespassing on pack’s territory… unless this male was coming to claim it. Though without more to aid him, it did not seem that that was the case.

It began with a swift halt and visible crest of her brows as weathered grey invaded her vision. Her thinning patience proceeded with a quivering nose and stiff muzzle. The veils of her eyes receding into obsidian and tear marked rims as disbelief for this bold reaction was worn. “That is fine,” curt and to the point, she sought to skirt around the male with a long limb shifting forward. Her tail severed the still air as irritability crept into the hairs of her name, bidding they raise from their bed and stand.

“It is not my mountain,” she corrected, struggling to keep her voice at a comfortable whisper. “Nor am I ready to return to it. Excuse me.” Guided by her leading paw, she sought to proceed from the male’s open side and return to her walk before her patience shattered. She hadn’t the time nor care to cater to someone’s ego and comply.

Her head lowered quickly as weathered lips drew back to reveal stained fangs. Her voice discarded its vow of soft tones to raise a sharp octave in warning to the other. Rounding her shoulders forward, she kept her head tucked within the protective folds of her neck, then stamped soundly forward, more an awkward heavy bounce than an actual feigned charge. Suffice it to say, she had never been physical assaulted by one outside of her mountain pack. But she had no intention of allowing to happen without some kind of consequence.

Then came the nudge, less of a tap and more a forceful press to move… or rather set her off balanced form to topple side-first into the snow. She yelp in surprise as cold permeated through the thick hide to grace flesh. Agitation forsaken for embarrassment she shuffled much like a yearling having fallen but looking determinedly to rise again. Instead she simply shifted to her rear and tried to strike at his muzzle with a heavy forepaw.

The female did not waste her breath in growling for much longer, seeing as the goads were doing well to drown out her previous attempts at a threat. She hardly looked like a threat at the moment. “Enough!” She barked bitterly, conceding to the antagonizing jests in a single word of surrender. Snapping her teeth in warning to be left a moment alone, she carefully pushed herself to stand yet aimed her muzzle away from the path she had intended to follow. Roughly she shook out her pelt as she turned her back to the male, dismissing him as one would an unfair playmate. If continuing meant becoming another’s plaything for much longer, she was well to leave the path for another day and return to her seclusion… if only to sulk til sense became her.

The rhythm of her heavy steps droned on for several minutes, long after the fueling heat of embarrassment waned and all that remained was the cold of travel. But still… still she could hear his steps behind her. Just within audible range but not close enough to be assaulted by his scent. She had a mind to let him be, but returning to isolation was difficult when accompanied.

Suddenly she halted and wheeled around with head raised to address the male in the eye. She shared no words yet let her expression tell all; the mask of worn high with eyes narrowed expectantly as the flesh of her muzzle quivered with an unsung snarl.

“I was not bred to be a fighter,” she snapped as her tail slapped angrily at her thigh. She had never been permitted to do more than eat and sleep among the pack. What reason did she have to learn to fight when the sovereign wanted his breeders docile? Furthermore, whatever the seal creature was meant to be, she did not at all enjoy being referenced to a creature she did not know. She was clumsy on flat lands, of this she was aware. But mountains… the rough terrain, steep ledges and jagged peaks. There was no greater stage for her to dance upon.

She was all too glad to see the back of him, however short-lived the view before her turned to address her. “Unless you intend to claim the land, I shall travel it as I please!” she raised her muzzle to shout across the length. The tension of strain tickled the back of her throat, however she pressed through the irritation from a time of lacking use to conclude her part in their shouting match. “…and I have no need for betterment!” she defended, hoping for once to have the last word of a conversation. She had the mountains as her domain. He could have his dexterity on the flatter lands if he so chose.

This male was… mean. And she had no intention of suffering him again.

With a nod to herself, she turned swiftly on the tips of her paws, taking first a walk then a graduated trot toward the mountains base til she was free to vault to its surface then disappear within its embrace.

[Exit Nuata]