Phoenix Maplewood long before the haze

set for tomorrow, open to morningsiders!
rolled a success

By the fourth day, the yearling is restless. The Maplewood is lovely, and though she's yet to meet them outside Aditya, already she finds the Morningsiders far more agreeable. Still, her paws itch and ache more than the wounds littering the front half of her body — so, as the sun rises, she forces herself from her resting place and puts her nose to the ground.
In time, she picks up on the scent of a fox. Her pace quickens, wounds disregarded for the moment. I will not be a burden, she reminds herself, and she can almost forget the pain entirely. And soon, it's all over — she falls upon the fox with cutting teeth, and a crushing bite to the creature's throat ends the struggle. Satisfied, she picks it up and turns to find a cache, ignoring the way her head spins and her stomach flips.

With @Desdemona's help, Alya had been getting around the territory much more easily. Her leg had been getting steadily better, with marked improvement now that she was putting weight on it less often. It bothered her that the only way to make it better seemed to be babying it, but if that was what needed to be done, she would do it.

Just... not right that second. Right that second, she was on the trail of another wolf - a wolf that seemed to belong even less than she did. That was saying something, right?

She arrived just in time to see the small, dark female pounce upon her prey. A fox, for some reason. Alya didn't eat them, and didn't much see why anyone else would, either. Perhaps the girl was simply killing out of spite. She could relate to that.

"What are you doing here?" asked Alya, her voice unchallenging as she observed the other wolf.

Desdemona didn't mind being a tool to be leaned upon. It finally gave her somesort of use, though despite the joy she had a use again, her face didnt change; keeping the usual detached expression that at times narrowed in serious thought. So she simply followed along to where the Princess wanted, sometimes leaving to mark the borders or a small hunt of rodents.

Though... There seemed to be another. Desdemona showed clear hostility and caution when facing the strange wolf in the territory. They smelled of a loner, and did not know if the wolf before her spoke with another Morningsider. There was a faint smell of something else, but she could yet detect what it was. Her neck bristled besides Alya and face twisted to a snarl. She remained silent though, but wary, as the Princess before her spoke to the intruder.

The arrival of another wolf registers belatedly. She pauses, lowering and releasing the fox to answer the dark woman's question — but before she can speak, another arrives, bristling and wearing a snarl. Normally, the yearling's first response would be aggression — wounded as she is, she merely flattens her ears and averts her gaze to the ground. Aditya had not mentioned this kind of reception.
Healing, She offers quietly. Aditya brought me here after I was attacked by coyotes in the night — we're friends. She hesitates slightly over the word friends; surely that's what the golden wolf would call their relation, but does she truly consider him a friend? Or simply a stranger she owes — perhaps one she admires slightly, perhaps one she finds intriguing, but a stranger nonetheless. After all, her own circumstance is not special; he'd more or less admitted it himself. The Morningside leader would have saved anyone in her position — so what does that make her?

there hadn't been much time to explain, after bringing myrren here. her healing was what was most important. now that she was on the mend, he should break the news to everyone else. and he went on with the notion that he'd do so--only to discover that it had leaked prematurely.

"arrey!" he shouted, trotting quickly to the scene and shoving himself between desdemona's snarl and myrren, a dead fox at her paws. aditya shook his head, feeling sheepish. "she's with us," he explained to alya and desdemona, his voice calm, if a little shaky. "she's healing from injuries. i brought her back here."

hoping that would quell things, he turned back to myrren, looking utterly apologetic. "i'm sorry," he murmured, with a sigh. "i haven't had time to explain to everyone."

Although her initial address to the stranger had not been aggressive or particularly unfriendly, it was obvious she did not appreciate the other's presence. Whether this distaste had existed there originally or only came up when it was revealed that she was a friend of Aditya's was no one's business but Alya's.

"You're in good company, then," she said dryly, dark blue eyes skating from the woman to Aditya and back again. She turned to give Desdemona's shoulder a soothing nudge just for something to do - something that wasn't staring piercingly at the other two wolves, that is. "I'm Alya, and this hellcat is Desdemona. You'll have to excuse her - we couldn't have known."

She calmed once the Alpha came and explained the intruder. She gave Aditya a nod of aknowledgement, for once not resulting into a bow (but she had the urge to). Her jade gaze glanced over toward Alya as she gave the dame a nudge, before turning back toward the two ahead. She looked cooly to the wolf named Alessia that Desdemona had snarled to, "My apologies miss," and gave a small dip of the head as she proceeded to say her atonement.

Desdemona stood properly upwards in silence, like a soldier awaiting orders. She didn't continue herself in the conversation once the misunderstanding was corrected.