it was a quiet morning.  the first tongues of daylight had broached the horizon and were working through the ice-encrusted valley.  it glistened against the frozen river and rocks, the tiny needles of the coniferous sentinels, and the tips of the dark girl's guard hairs.

she sat sphynxlike atop one of the boulders that helped shape the sun-dappled valley, close to the edge of the border. her eyes were heavy-lidded, still half asleep and her consciousness weaved in and out.

if her eyes focused on anything at all it was how when the wind kicked up, single flakes would waft through the air, catching the sunlight.

as far as days went, she hoped this would be a good one as she closed her eyes against a particularly chilly gust of wind.

her eyes snap open at the heavy crunch of footfalls, and her head swings to catch the gaze of her packmate — her tentative friend, though she didn't know the word or really understand the concept.  she still feared that he'd taken her for something she had yet to understand and once he was done with her she'd be cast out, on her own again.

but his decision to have her wounds tended to and their fight and travels together had strengthened her still-cautious trust in him.

immediately after alexander had caught her attention another approached, loudly, calling out to her with those garbled noises that everyone else could understand.  her eyes turned to slits and she bounded down from her perch, quickly closing the distance between them as her hackles raised.  she shoved her nose into his pelt, running along his body so long as he would take it, intrusively gathering as much information as she could.

he was beautiful, small, around her size.  he bore the scents of many women and a few men, packsmell too.  but she didn't know what he wanted.  she circled back around the red stranger and briefly, discreetly, met xan's gaze.  what do i do?

she turned back to the stranger (still unnecessarily close in proximity), staring him down as her hackles lowered back into place.  her tail arched over her back, ears pressed forward as she let out an assertive woof.

the wind shifts and blows something else her way.  there is something about his smell — thick, woven with countless others, and tinged with sharp and salt — paired with his grin that unsettles her, and a fear coils through her so thick it can be smelled.  it reminded her of the man in the valley who she'd so unabashedly flirted with before he rendered her prone.  but this man who had so far been nice is not the man in the meadow, so she does her best to smash it down.

outward, she remains stoic, guarded.  she was still closer to him than alexander even after bearclaw's alpha pushed forward, and she was still being rather intrusive[i] [/i]with her space and nose.  she blocked out the vocalizations between the two, oblivious to their meaning, and then removed her nose from the redhead once more.

fine.  he was no threat thus far, and could stand here and speak to her friend.  unless and perhaps even if she was spoken to directly, she didn't care what they had to say.

there is something about the stranger that she cannot decide if she likes or not.  the two continue to talk to each other, but until xan and the loner are done discussing whatever, she cannot interrogate him further.

whatever is happening, alexander does not seem pleased; the growl first and then the sudden approach, the bitter tone.

she bristles once more, unsteady vocalizations rising.

she had been busy paying attention to the birds chirping in the trees and the soft falling of snow but then the conversation turned back to her, something she could tell not by their words but their gesturing.

she shifted uncomfortably until xan called her to his side and she pressed into him, small dark form melting beneath his pale pelage as she continued to watch the stranger with baleful eyes.

why had he called her back?  what did this stranger want from her?  what did he want from her?