Greatwater Lake libellula

hunting trade 1/5

With the morning sun at her back, the Winak follows well-worn trails through the mountains towards the great lake she has only seen from the canyon tops before. While Tikal's members busy themselves with scouting missions, she has taken it upon herself to ensure the caches remain full and ready for their expected returns.

Nose down, she searches the shore for one thing in particular - a beaver trial, fresh with drag marks.

Settling in reeds a little way from the track, she knows it is only a waiting game now until they return from the water.

Azure dragonflies zigzag above her head and she watches them curiously as a way to pass the time.

there is a shadow upon her lake. it is not khaba; the man has hardly left her side recently, and while zharille is heavily pregnant she suspects it is some paternal instinct within the darkwoods man that keeps them close together. she doesn't mind - it is lonely without her collection of men, and she is glad at least he had returned to her. however, this sharp-bodied stranger is not her's, and they seem intent upon the lake water.

with a rumble of warning in her chest she advances through the trees. it doesn't occur to zharille to be careful; only that her home is threatened. as she gets closer she does not take notice of the game trail leading in to the water (the beaver drags); but she does smell the effeminate scent of the other wolf and determines it is a woman.

the mother-to-be bristles and brandishes her teeth. all she wants is to drive this stranger away from the water's edge, and she is tense as if ready to do so - but she is weighted by her swaying belly and an instinctual resistance at the same time; inside her is fresh life, and she cannot put them in to harm's way.

Selena spent most of her days by the lake. She would spend hours in a single day alone, her body still but her eyes following the ripples and bubbles on the surface. Whether it be from fish or bugs, the activity seemed to quench her thirst for movement and adventure in her own life. She was happy to observes the lesser creatures go about their days now that she found a base camp.

Speaking of, the scent of the woman of the lake pulled her attention from a particularly large bluegill. She found the pregnant woman taking a stance against an unknown wolf of dark complexion, like her own. Selena took a moment to stretch out before coming up to stand near the woman of power, feeling a sense of responsibility for the unborn life she held as she had provided for them before.

turning this into a scout/warrior thread depending on the outcome

It is not a beaver that emerges but a wolf, gigantic and bristling and belly low with unborn babes, a low growl telling the Winak all she needs to know. Immediately she is up and facing the stranger, ears flat and hackles raised, ready to drive out the loner for she is far too close to Tikal for her liking.

Another arrives - smaller this time - a pack? She is certain no scent markers had been crossed, but she has made mistakes before. Teeth flash from the bear-like woman and her composure wanes. A clash would spell trouble for Ajaw and she does not want to make enemies, but still she must test them.

Spying the hesitancy of the stranger, she makes a step forward. "I mean you no harm," she speaks low, poised, "I only wish to know why you are here so close to Tikal."

zharille watches the stranger; she feels a little safer with selena alongside her, but also more protective, and moves a step closer to place herself between the stranger and the songbird - even pregnant, zharille's natural tendency to use her bulk is hard to ignore. she can be a wall, even if it places her unborn in danger (a fact she doesn't truly recognize yet).

the stranger turns and for a moment all the wolves gathered are sizing one-another up. zharille has already made her assumptions, and her own bristling becomes more apparent; she lets her rumbling get louder, ignoring what the stranger is saying (mostly because she doesn't speak herself, and understands only a few words of what have been uttered).

her teeth flash and her tail arcs over her back.

this lake is mine, declares her posture. the stranger's scent is more dry, and she is reminded of the mesa and the menfolk that keep traipsing close; one man who swept khaba away, the other a boy who they managed to chase off. was this one of them? zharille wasn't sure — the woman's scent had more pine notes, rather than dust.

bold of them to come close, regardless, and to try and claim the lake when there were many already living at its bank.

There is no summons made for him, but he needs none to know the ill taste of the air. Someone has found themselves upon the lake and they are not welcome here. 

Zharille and another — the woman he had forced into submission just days ago — stood face to face with an unwanted visitor.

It is the expecting mother that leads the stand off, but Khaba does not intend to let her do this alone. She has life within her and little mobility nor mental health to waste on this nonsense. 

As is his responsibility, the looming shadow finds himself sauntering forward, marching straight towards the stranger. Teeth flashing, he snaps them outwards, demanding that they step further back. 

Too close, he warns with a snarl, tail flagged and chin reaching to overpower the woman with mere size.

She watched with some protest as her protector took a step to block her from this newcomer. She was small, but she felt it was her responsibility to look out for this woman. She was at a disadvantage at the late stage of her pregnancy. 

But she didn't have to take a stand, the dark male from a few days ago appeared... and was just as intimidating as she remembered. She wondered if he had anything to do with the woman's pregnancy. It was hard to tell, because they didn't speak. But the way he protected her said enough.

The mother-to-be continues her advances - the direness of the situation begins to dawn on her when a gigantic shadow of a wolf appears like a looming cloud and joins the stalemate. His size was surely intimidating, she tries momentarily to stare him down but he is fierce. A snarl and her composure snaps and she retreats until she is a fair distance away from the lake wolves.

The lack of concrete answers only seems to annoy her. She knows not their names, numbers, or motives, but certainly they would pose a danger to Tikal should they choose to. Ajaw must be informed.

She pauses momentarily to see if they would follow; she wouldn't return with what she came for but nonetheless the trip had been a concerning realisation that they were, perhaps, almost surrounded by seemingly unfriendly neighbours.

The stranger spoke, and if Zharille understood there was no way of knowing. Her lip twitched to reveal her front teeth and progressed to a grimace; by the time she felt the need to lunge, the stranger was already retreating. Khaba's own snarl reverberated through the air, following after them.

Once they were gone, Zharille moved stiffly towards her companions. She nosed at Selena's neck furs first, thanking her with touch. When she got to Khaba, she chuffed to him a pleasant sound that was the antithesis of the aggression she had carried towards the stranger - as if a switch had flipped. Her hackles remained raised, prickly like a porcupine, but she was pleased with how the intimidation had worked.

Hopefully they would have less interlopers in the future. Their home didn't house many, but they were vigilant.