she's scouting near silvertip to make sure there aren't any wild creatures that might pop by during winter
With her neck craned forward and her ears flat against her skull, the female that had one day held the honor of calling all of this her own slid through the shadows and along the imaginary wall that separated her past from her present.
She sniffed the air carefully, trying to separate each distinct scent that entered her nostrils. While she might've never paid such attention to such routinary tasks like inspecting the perimeter in search of any possible threats that might have taken the old tunnels of her palace as refuge, with the upcoming Winter and the special cares that came with the season she had to be extra careful.
So far so good.
There were no visible pawprints or hints of larger predators living in the area. But not inmidiately seeing them still didn't soothe the hormonal female. With a determined huff and a lash of her tail she began to surround the enormous mountain that had once held her whole universe; her eyes always narrowed and alert as she weaved through the fallen rocks and boulders that adorned the mountain's side.
Tethys hadn't bothered making contact with any of her pack's neighbors- to her, they were outlandish and backwards in their ways. How could they accept males, the dumber sex, as equals? They were foolish and bullheaded. The raven female wondered how many fights had broken out outside of Ankyra that stemmed from pride and testosterone. Absolutely barbaric.
Spurring herself onwards, Tethys decided that she had enough of exploring this ugly mountain interface. Her pelt was oily and sleek, suited for water, and she was out of place in this foreign landscape. Backtracking, the female walked past stands of scraggly pines and padded through tiny streams of mountain run-off. Rounding a boulder, she halted. With blue eyes, Tethys watched the ascent of Cara trudging steadily up the hill. Briefly, the Nereides swept herself back around the boulder and into it's shadow, crouching. Her face appeared yet again around the stony corner as it tracked Cara's approach.
As she moved through the rocky trail, she failed to notice she was being pegged down by a shadow that wasn't her own. While Cara had also refused to travel a lot during her reign in the Spine, she had always held an interest for the lands beyond the craddling peaks of the Ouroboros. She too, had heard stories of wolves far away, living in the higest peaks like Vienna; the young chatty female she'd once met, and on barren lands filled with mountain-tipped snow.
She had heard all of the stories in the book, except the one Tethys took part in.
The Nereides, and their heavenly resort by the beach had remained hidden to the young yearling's knowledge. She had spent so much time pacing the Spine's grounds that she had forgotten what 'outside' felt like. Though she would never be as agile as the little mouse that scurried a couple of yards in front of her as she made her way up, she had always loved the tunnel system that hid under Silvertip.
Suddenly the tiny critter that had served as bitter company during her tour around the abadoned ruins of Jinx's palace bolted into a small opening in the dirt, disappearing for good and leaving Cara to deal with the shadow's ambush by herself...
Vaulting herself up onto the boulder of which she had hid behind, Tethys gave herself a commanding view whilst revealing her position. But for her perch on the rock, Tethys used her momentum to spring herself with her back legs, straight at the approaching female.
All that was left after the creature faded into one of the many smaller tunnels that lied near the base of the rock walls was an ear-splitting silence. Aside from being as sneaky as a real shadow, Cara's onlooker was as quiet as one too. The pale yearling continued to pace the empty chambers, not really paying attention to the faint scent of another wolf waiting around the corner.
Suddenly, the calm atmosphere was shattered by the Tethys' brusque entrance into the scene. Without a warning or even a motive, the dark shadow springed at her. Cara, who had ignored the other's presence until now, fell onto her side, not by the collision itself but because her own legs had strangely buckled when she had tried to scramble away from the bullet-like female that had shot directly at her -- she had not stopped to consider that Tethys had intended to make her her own personal landing strip all along.
"What the hell!" she yelped while rasing herself again to her paws and shoothing a warning glance at the strange female. Though she had almost been used as a trampoline, Cara had no real intentions of scewing around, she was busy scouting the area to make sure there were no unwelcomed bears or cougars near living in the tunnels. She was saving her energy in case one of the unwanted tenants mentioned before showed up.