The fiendish male picked his way out of the Sleeping Dragon territory and began to scout beyond. He had not spent much of his time in the surrounding territory. His so-called duties had kept him inside the pack or close to the waves of the ocean in search of herbs to treat his fellow pack members. The frequent travelling on such a shortage of prey had left the already slender hybrid looking even more gaunt than before. His frame moved like a skeleton tinged in ochre and cinnamon with the sharpest citrine eyes. But he had managed to steal a few oysters while out on the prowl and they would tide him over until he could manage something better.
 
Traipsing his emaciated body down towards the sound of water, Glu imagined he would find himself with more luck when it came to fishing. Following the waters as he tiptoed on the outside of the bank, the coywolf watched with glinting eyes at the current that pulled everything downstream. For a moment, he feared that he might be whisked away should he attempt to enter it. But the hunger that ached in his body told him that it was needed.
 
Picking his paws up as he entered the river, the coywolf felt a chill in his bones that formed in goosebumps along his flesh. His canary eyes followed the movements of the water until he found a rhythm and he noted the few fish darting downstream. With careful precision, Glu darted his muzzle into the waters and clasped tightly to the writhing swimmer. A medium trout; enough that – on his emptiness – he would feel the life return to his body once more. Hopping back until he stood on the bank of the river, shaking the water from his pelt, he caught a movement from the corner of his gaze. An unfamiliar form with a scent that he knew well enough; another dragon. The ginger-hued woman did not appear well, and though the coywolf male was a wicked little beast, he was curious.
 
“Hungry?” he yipped to the woman as a smirk curled the edges of his lips.

Gluskap had been more pleased with the catch that still wiggled in between his jaws than he was attentive to the fact that the fiery-furred female was struggling. It was not until he managed to close some of their distance that he noted the quick gasps of her breath and the shaky movements that her limbs provided her. His fangs were clasped tightly to the trout, but his eyes were trained on the amber-eyed girl. She was miserable, and the more he seemed to scrutinize her, the more Glu realized that the famine was a wicked and terrible plague. It had sucked the very life and soul from this creature, and even he could feel the pressure of his skeleton against his skin as it confirmed the very same for him.
 
It was remarkable.
 
Lowering the fish to the earth in front of the she-wolf, Gluskap nudged it forward with a tentative glance in her direction. The female did not look like she was altogether there. In a morbid attempt to understand what was happening, the coywolf male inched closer to her. His sharp canary gaze bore holes into her frame as he analyzed the very core of her being, interested in a way that would have been deemed ill. The fascination of it all was enough to cause his heart to beat in his chest. But he was a designated medic for those wolves.
 
“Eat,” he purred softly, still holding that coy smirk on his leathery lips. His skeletal frame danced around her carefully as he investigated her body. Her eyes were glossed over and distant; she looked at him as though she were staring into the horizon. If she were to collapse, he would be sure to get a better examination in.

The woman dropped from her legs into a heap and slowly began to slide towards the water’s edge. Gluskap did not move to catch her. In the state she was in, it was more likely she would actively attack him than allow him to assist. He was still perplexed at her state of being, and so he watched and followed with tentative steps in the direction of the female’s slumped form. He had retrieved the fish back into his mouth by this point in time. Her body touched the water’s edge and even managed to slip further into the river. Glu frowned thoughtfully at the lack of a reaction her figure seemed to have upon being wet.
 
Drawing himself closer, trout clasped in his mouth, the ochre-tinged wolf watched her closely with squinted eyes and tense muscles. In a strange twist of fate, the woman seemed to be roused from her momentary lapse and within seconds she had darted her snapping fangs towards Glu and the fish that had already been offered… without fight. Perhaps it was in her blind hunger, but her teeth came in contact with the edge of his muzzle and he released the fish immediately. Wincing and pulling himself backwards, the coywolf narrowed his brows at her and frowned. The dead fish landed with a sickening flupp in the sand and water to the front of Wildfire.

In a strange turn of events, with Glu’s lip bleeding and the fish sitting in the muck of sand and water, the woman seemed to come to her senses for only a moment – long enough to realize she ought not to let the fish escape – and then began to lose them once more. The coywolf was transfixed as he watched the she-wolf dart forward, scoop the trout up, and unhinge her jaw like a snake to swallow it whole. His sharp yellow gaze did not leave her face for one moment as she struggled to down the swimmer in a single swallow. He did not make a move to assist her any further for fear of losing a limb. Whatever had ravaged this fire-furred woman was both awe-inspiring and frightening.
 
When the fish had finally slithered down the back of her gullet and she was capable of slurping up a few quick drinks of water, Gluskap warily held his gaze to her frame. A single front paw was held up in front of him, almost as though he was offended by the sight he had just witnessed. His face was twisted into an expression of horror and interest.
 
“How did that feel?” he soon inquired. Brows knitted on his forehead and his face leaned towards her out of complete curiosity.

As the food began to sit in the wolf’s gut, Glu watched her mind return to her body to make sense of her surroundings for her. His interest was in the return of the normal functions in her frame. He watched the glass fade from her vision and her eyes became sharper, clearer, until she seemed to have full control of herself physically. Medically, he was as interested as was possible. In other terms, this female was another wolf from the same pack and it should have taken his mind away from the medical marvel that she was. It did not, though.
 
Once she seemed to shrug away some of the ache from her limbs, he took a step forward and breathed heavily through his nose, hoping to discern whether or not there was a change in the aroma that she presented after having the fish applied. “It looked… brutal,” he remarked distractedly with a coy smile. His muzzle still dripped blood from her lashing, but he had long since forgotten the small gash that was left there. It would heal in time, or he would find a way to wrap it in seaweed to help the process.
 
“I am from Sleeping Dragon. Gluskap,” he introduced after a moment, darting his citrine gaze up towards her face.

Though attentive to her odd behavior, the coywolf may have mistook her shortness for something other than just wanting to leave. While he was certain that she would not readily seek to swallow another fish without chewing first, he did not feel the need to halt her in her departure. After she echoed his name and offered him a half-hearted appreciative remark, she turned tail and departed. The hybrid did not say another word to the peculiar fiery snake. He did leave a mental note to seek her out at another time to determine whether or not her health was at risk. Though he was certain that it would need to be when she was not as guarded… to catch her sleeping would do just fine.
 
After Wildfire had disappeared from sight, Glu turned back to the river in hopes of catching himself something to eat to tide him through the remainder of the day.