The spider's web lay somewhere else. In the deep thick of the Neverwinter Forest, where it's keeper had promised away their freedom. How boring it was to linger in one place!

The girl did not linger for long, regardless of her promises. The white woman was foolish for trusting the opportunistic child, who was eager enough to wander.

Bayou would return in time, for her word was her bond - even if it was made under false claims. For now she did what she had always done; skittering from shadow to shadow, her legs slick and dark.

There was no fear in the manner with which she ran. The stench of pack was not solid upon her gaunt self; instead, a stroke of genius (and luck) had granted the vagrant a musky fox burrow. The struggle to emerge from the stinking earth was enough to imbibe her body with the strong perfume of the pest - further hiding her from the harm of her own kind.

How foolish she was, for pressing beyond the scent of urine. How jovial the girl's fluttering heart felt, as she stole away in shadow.

A pointed nose was canted towards the dirt. Her long face probed at piles of soil, surfacing with grains still lingering upon the pale whiskers on her snout. Bayou searched as she moved, listless and keen, from place to place.

Patches of strong, sharp urine told her all she needed - that this land was harbouring wolves; and wolves always needed to eat.

Bayou reached with her paws, grasping at the dry and craggy earth, stumbling over the terrain which was familiar, but wholly new. She did not pick up the scent of another because her own scent, the odious mixture of vulpes and old blood, was so daunting.

The stranger emerged in her peripheral. A shifting mass of stone and darkness, tracking alongside Bayou's meagre silhouette. Her jaws parted but not to speak, not even to call out - but to allow the light to catch upon her yellow molars, that she exuberantly exposed.

A threat? Maybe. The girl knew she was not an intimidating beast. It was more of a sneer, which she shared in her continued invasion of these otherlands.

In minutes she could find a cache; that was all she was after. A hint, a tell, something that she could keep in mind for a second pass when a guard was not so present.

A wretched sound permeated the air, causing the spider to rear up with it's face. Distance placed there between the potential bounty and the creature's slimy, shining jowls.

Bayou's parted lips twitched, much in the manner of an expectant cat. Chittering in silence, with a subtle and dull clicking caused by her teeth as they connected then repulsed; her lower jaw hinged, undecided if it should set itself to a close or remain open and ready to bite.

She was not so foolish to believe the stranger's query, but she would be amiable. Time was needed if she was to find any sort of treasure. The crow-faced girl turned her putrid eyes upon the stranger, and gave a sweeping nod, which settled her nerves - her head once again close to the soil.

"Oui, oui, fresh blood indeed,"

Vague, but enough of a response to count. A thick accent wrapped about the syllables, showing how truly alien the girl was from the lands. Bait, perhaps, or simply something unavoidable. Bayou kept an ear trained upon the stranger but returned to her scuffling antics. Eager, always, to find a prize.

Her beaked face plunged in to a fresh mound of dirt and toppled it, but found nothing, and was forced to move on - delving deeper.

In and out, and in again. Her face slipped from the chilled air in to the hard earth - at least, the pockets of soft soil which hinted at something greater. There were smells amongst the earthy flavour which caught her attention, and yet Bayou was not so lucky. Whichever cache she had found - caches for at this point she had plundered a few indeed - they were each empty. Void of anything that would hold value to her.

And the stranger, still lurking, was coming too close. The spider refused to budge in some moments but would move with scattered steps towards the shadows, to put distance between her nimble noodle of a body and the black-faced girl. Couldn't be trusted, she thought with a clench of her teeth.

Bayou's face descended once more, this time towards a packed layer of dirt. She did not plunge deep, but instead chicken-scratched at the surface, pawing at the cold ground until it was loose enough so that her face could crane in close. Her lips parted, tongue tasting dirt as she went in for the steal, in time to hear the stranger's question.

When Bayou emerged this time her mouth held the plump figure of a cold body; a small furred thing, or feathered, it all tasted the same. The lifeless sack of meat and bone sagged against her tongue, halting any attempt to respond - and just in time, as the spider had no lie prepared.

Her eyes narrowed in to slits, which were oddly mirthful as they watched the slinking guard. Bayou crunched the body between her teeth, feeling some of the flesh give, while the majority of it was frozen and shot chills through her fangs. Ah well, it was worth it. It was time to leave now.

Without response the creature began to weave through the trees, this time picking up a bit of speed as her body doubled back towards the borders; she tried to be inconspicuous, as if she were patrolling, or taking the meal to someone of import; but Bayou knew she was found out. Perhaps she had known it all along, but it did not matter - the spider had found a morsel for her belly, and all was well.

Bayou believed herself to be superior in every manner - regardless of the other creature's age, skills, or health - and so she did not react as succinctly as she perhaps should have. Arrogance carried her aloft as she stormed through the tree line, reaching with those oily appendages and trying somewhat desperately to get away from the guard.

The baying was enough to cause her a spark of insecurity. She floundered, with a brief flash of yellow-eyed doubt cast towards the oncoming girl.

They connected. The spider gripping tight, holding in a breath of putrid air which begged for escape. Whatever the plump body had been in life, it was little more than a soggy mouthful of half-rotten meat; something that the pack had probably forgotten about, or left without a care.

It tasted sweet and sour against her tongue, peppered by the growing frustration that welled within the girl, alongside the ache of her body, from the hit. This skirmish was not something that Bayou was prepared for - her knack for escape was prized above all other skills. Flight before fight. Always.

The girl chased, and the youth did not relent; charging through the forest with her eyes trained upon the stranger, and not upon her path. She managed to put a length of space between their bodies when the stranger gave way to howl - calling for reinforcements, when all she had to deal with was a hungry girl? Minables

The dark girl was built for this lifestyle, and only this lifestyle. When the stranger began to drop back, to heave her breathes and show signs of obvious weakness, she did not falter herself.

Bayou was better, she was faster and stronger than this pack-bound fool.

Her body was lined with thin cords of muscle tissue, well taught in the manner of a fleeting crook; she wove a skittering path around the trees in her pursuit of freedom, and barely felt a thing. Palpitations of the wraith's heart sent adrenaline-filled blood through her body; she could taste it behind the rotten meat flavor of her treasure.

And then, with a sudden blow from the weak guard, the spider's fangs snapped shut in a violent crack of action. Bayou had been holding firm to the morsel of tissue and the sudden loss of it, the sudden rebuke by the stranger, had forced her jaws shut like a trap.

It stung, and the girl let out a hiss of frustration through the gaps of her yellowed grimace. No prize. There would be nothing to show for her efforts!

The girl yowled and tried to turn around, but was faced with the snapping and bludgeoning of the guard. There was no way to retrieve what was lost - she Bayou gave in. The spider did not always get the fly - but she would be back.

This had only been a test after all, and the dark girl knew where to look if she wanted to try again. Her long limbs began to ache, finally, as she forced herself to dig deep and pull her gaunt self away from the territory, unaware if her pursuer was on her tail.