She'd found the scent again; feline mixed with menace, something wild. She wondered if the barn cats had wild kin like she did the wolves; it didn't seem very far a stretch, really. the thing was most definitely feline, and the tracks she investigated were fresh, fresher than the ones she'd found at the fringes of the territory. She paced a wooded grove, now, the tracks hard to follow. She shoved her head into the snow, trying to sniff out what may have been a track, before realizing that she'd lost the trail entirely. 

Her nape prickled, and warily she glanced around, alerted by some ancient instinct that something was off. Her gaze passed over it once, twice, before finally landing on the creature that stared owlishly back at her, frozen rabbit in its jaws. She gasped, taking a shaky step back at the suddenness as which she'd found the creature, perched high in the crook of a tree limb. Blinking, she took another step back when the cat began to make the same sorts of noises the barn cats would, when she'd gotten a little too annoying.

She inched backward, eyes on the cat as it began some sort of odd growl-wailing. When it began to shift forward on its branch did she run, twirling around and bolting through the snow, yelping as quite suddenly the figure of the fiery wolf became apparent. She sidestepped, shocked, and went sprawling head over heels in the snow, coming to a stop half-buried in the snow. She leaped up with the speed of an elastic snapping back into position, facing the wolf with wide eyes, words not quite finding their way to her tongue.

The male seemed concerned, but her gaze flickered briefly to the cat before answering. Obviously unnerved by the activity, and the presence of two canines; it was making a swift retreat through the trees, soon lost among the bows. "I'm alright,"  She answered, looking back to the male. He certainly looked different than the wolves she'd seen thus far; angular and thin, his pelt was a vibrant red. "you scared me a little." She admitted with a rueful grin, tail wagging behind her once her shock had lifted, shaking the snow from her pelt and attempting to ignore the creeping cold that came with being half-covered in snow.

It did truly surprise her that no wolf knew what she was, save Murdock; it worried her briefly to be so far from all she knew to the point where she was unrecognized for what she was. Still, she'd rather be here, in this place wild and unexplored, then spend another long day locked into the chicken wire pen. "I'm a dog - a collie." She squinted at him a moment, asking then,  "I've never seen a wolf like you." It wasn't outright a question, but he'd asked her what she was, and surely he ought to share why he looked so different.

Well, this was certainly a shocking, and rather enlightening, day. She'd thought herself incapable of striking fear into a wolf, least of all o the extent that she had in this wolf. Her ears perked forward, though her head canted in mild confusion until he realized what he spoke of. "oh," She said softly, understanding then what had struck such fear into the male. "I'm not one of those dogs - I herd things, not hunt them." She assured, even though it wasn't quite true. She did hunt rabbits and rodents, but was not one of the baying hounds that lusted after fox, coyote; and she supposed, wolf.

He seemed to calm quite a bit, and the girl was relieved that her little explanation had put him at ease. Hopping a little from paw to paw, she paused a moment to pick at the worst of the snowy clumps methodically and quickly, having become quite used to the task. When he spoke, she paused in her task, giving a brisk shake she hoped would dislodge more snow. "well," She began, ears flicking, "you're very red. And the other wolves don't seem quite so - pointy."  He looked a bit like a coyote, but made of sharper, leaner angles that the others didn't seem to share.

To her confusion, he glanced down and under as she mentioned pointy, knowing it the wrong word to describe his angular form, but not quite expecting that reaction. Poppy suddenly wasn't quite sure if she'd insulted him, accidentally, and blinked quickly before launching into an explanation. "I don't think you look weird, really - I've just never seen a red wolf before. They've been brown and grey and white, but not - not quite like you."  She said in a bit of a rush, though his brief scratch reassured her that she probably hadn't incited him into anger. Perhaps she ought to drop the whole topic, but she was curious.

He didn't quite offer an explanation for his oddness, and she wouldn't press; perhaps he didn't have one. She shrugged with a small smile, darting quickly to tug away a little ball of snow on her hock before continuing. "I'm weird, aren't I? weird isn't a bad thing, it's just different." He went on to explain that there weren't many red wolves like him about; she supposed a red wolf was rather rare. Glancing back towards the trees, she asked, "do you know what that was? that cat? it seemed upset." Perhaps she shouldn't go tracking down strange scents anymore.

She smiled at his somewhat halting explanation of her own oddness, deciding that she liked this wolf (as she'd liked perhaps every other wolf she'd come across, thus far) His explanation had her ears flick backward as he explained the danger of the creature, the lynx. Mentally affixing the name to the scent and the cat, she responded with a sheepish grin. "I guess it was a little stupid - It smelled like a cat, but different, and I was curious." She admitted, gaze flitting back to where it had been.

He didn't guilt her for her curiosity, and his own reassurance had her feel a little less bad for her stupidity in following a Very Dangerous Cat around the valley. She smiled at his easy way of speaking, ears perked forward when he gave his name first. Humor glinted briefly in his eyes as he introduced himself as Engel rhymes with Angel, and she gave her own name freely. "I'm Poppy - I don't think it rhymes with anything exciting, though." Puppy, perhaps, but seemed a weak rhyme and was Murdock's name for her, something, oddly enough, she didn't feel like sharing.

His first remark had her brow crinkled in confusion, wondering what he meant by the 'fun' of poppy seeds. "how can seeds be fun?"  She questioned, the words sincere and intrigued. She did suppose that holly rhymed fairly well with poppy, as did his other words; well, not really. She laughed at his attempt, a light, genuine sound that had her tail beat the snow behind her in mirth.

Having never encountered drugs, nor ever been spoken to about them by mother and siblings, the idea that a plant could make things loopy and fun had her sharply interested, eyes rounding. She was suddenly quite interested in the flowers she'd never given much thought, and her ears perked as she asked, "how does it work? I'd like to try that, I think."  Perhaps it was foolish to ignore the fact that her previous stupidity had almost gotten her killed. She grinned when Engel said it wasn't his day for rhyming, the easy-going wolf growing on her quickly, in some ways reminding her of the ease in which her brother acted and spoke, the lightness in him.

He seemed a little hesitant, something that made the girl a little wary; she wasn't completely stupid. But she was intrigued enough by the supposed effects of her namesake that she dipped her head when Engel agreed to find some, slight grin on her muzzle as her tail flicked behind her and she rose, her rear getting a little cold. "should I wait here, then?"  She asked, willing to wait is it meant she'd learn about what the male spoke off, blinking curiously at him.