Bitterroot Valley smother the sun

qeya river had grown stuffy, painfully lively with pups on the way. it made her mind grow hot, muddled with overstimulation and impatience. gjalla did not know many of her packmates beyond appearances and postulations, nor did she think now would be a good time to introduce herself with such a hot temper. instead, she'd pad away from the territory to a nearby field.

blades of grass folded around her form, paws folded neatly beneath her body as the sun tipped over the horizon and painted the sky in pastel pinks and purple that faded into midnight blue.

something wafted in the air like fire sought oxygen, a stranger wandering close. gjalla could taste it on her tongue if she only opened her mouth. dry grass crunched nearby - a shadow moved beneath the sky. tufted ears shift outward like planes, and for a moment, the woman freezes as those pale eyes lock onto her.

For some time, the valley had become a regular haunt for the river hunter.

He hardly left the water's edge, fishing and eating and sleeping in a routine that numbed his mind as much as it did lull him into a false sense of security. For to leave the last place he had seen Tariurmiutaq was to give up hope completely, to admit himself a failure and a terrible brother. And Isugajuaq was not that kind of man.

Humming a soothing tune, he stalked towards a cache nearby when a flicker of movement caught his eye. Could it be her? But when he paused to gaze upon the figure, his heart sank to see a dark stranger. He should move on, at least, that's what he told himself as his paws carried him towards her in a curios trot. Yet he ached for a change of scenery, a wrench break the cycle.

gjalla's nature was hardly docile - never would she cower before another or stray from conflict nor confrontation when it approached her so readily.

the silence was an invisible barrier that neither dared to breach. her hindlegs coil into her belly as she adjusts, peering over at him with unfiltered intensity. The man's stare was mystifying, uncertain as if he was waiting for an invitation or for her to curse him for being creepy.

a low huff rolls from her chest, eyes narrowed into slits. "you are staring." Her head tilts away from him, chin pitching skyward as her eyes search the vast expanse of the sky for flecks of light. "speak."

Isugajuaq hardly noticed the tension thick in the air as he approached, steps absent of any inner turmoil he felt now entranced with this newcomer to the vale. She was larger up close than he had initially presumed, though her sedentary position begged to differ. Still, her shadow towered stalwart and unbreakable as she spoke.

Truth be told, he hadn't realised he was staring and offered her an apologetic smile as he averted his attention to the ever-so-interesting snow. "My mistake. I will look to the ground if it makes you feel better," he began, not entirely certain of what she wished to hear but eager to please nonetheless. A glance her way - was she stargazing? - before returning to his paws. "What do you see up there?" 

gjalla’s gaze shifts slowly from the sky to him, as if the night itself had sharpened her. the man’s attempt at pleasantry doesn’t settle her, but it doesn’t irk her either. he was strange, yet harmless—perhaps.

she shifts her weight onto one side, the tension still coiled in her muscles as she assesses him. his smile was disarming, but she remains stoic, guarding her thoughts behind a wall of silence.

“i see my family,” she mutters, her voice rough like gravel. “the dead and living,” she pauses, narrowing her eyes as she weighs her next words.

she tilts her head slightly, assessing him again. “what about you?”

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i am so sorry this is so late plz forgive me