King Elk Forest the cold earth slept below

Will close if no reply in three days.

She had not moved very far from the river, but was now at least in a more wooded area. She was still freezing but there was nothing for that. All large animals had migrated and all small ones were nestled underground in their burrows. Except for one shrew—one single tiny mammal who would be no more than a mouthful. What it was doing aboveground Wick would never know, nor did she care. She took any opportunity to eat that she could. The tiny mouse-like creature was freezing and seemed about to die as she approached it. It did not even react to her. She reached down and crunched it in her jaws, swallowing it whole and wishing there were more.

The easiest way to avoid her mother, sister and cousin was to avoid the plateau, not that Bat needed an excuse to go foraying into the surrounding wilds. She went alone today, mostly because she wanted some time to think. As a matter of fact, she was so preoccupied that she drifted absently from one bit of landscape to the next, paying no attention until she encroached on a familiar forest and came across an unfamiliar wolf. Bat came back to herself with a blink.

There was still quite some distance between them. She watched as the stranger appeared to eat, waiting for her to finish before venturing toward her. "Hi!" she called out as she went, glad for the diversion.

Wick turned quick as a flash to face her potential foe. The loud call had frightened her—as most everything did—and she eyed the young wolf warily. She let out a growl, a warning to stay away. It was an empty threat, for Wick would flee rather than fight unless she had no other choice. It was winter now. She did not want to fight, for it would waste precious energy. Sometimes she wished she were a bear so that she could hole up all winter and sleep the cold away til spring. Her breath fogged around her muzzle as she continued to crouch and watch.

The growl was quite effective: Bat froze in her tracks. The stranger was obviously quite cagey about her approach, so the youth took a pointed step backward. Now that she could see more of her face, Bat thought she looked slighter than most other wolves. Something about her—perhaps simply her guarded mannerisms—suddenly reminded her of Camilla.

"Hey, I come in peace," she said after taking several more slow steps backward. Bat stopped to see what the stranger would do now.

Wick is indeed a coywolf, but she does not know about her wolf blood, so I refer to her a coyote.

The young creature stepped back as Wick continued to growl at it. Maybe not all wolves were stupid, then. Of course, this was just something the coyote told herself so that she would feel braver than she really was for a moment. Wolves were more intelligent than she liked to give them credit for, and this is partly why they frightened her so much. But this one looked young, and the fact that it had stepped back gave Wick some real courage for the first time in quite a while. Curiously, she sniffed the air and took a few timid steps forward, wanting to know who this stranger was—this strange wolf that would back away from a lowly coyote like herself.

The growling ceased but Bat didn't make any moves. She watched as the stranger tentatively sniffed the air, everything about her body language telegraphing her mistrust. Why are you like this? the youth found herself wondering as she let out a low, slow breath.

When the hybrid crept closer, Bat waved her tail encouragingly. "I'm Bat," she said amiably. "What's your name?"

Wick did not understand why wolves always made funny mouth sounds. She did not understand the words that the young one asked her, and cocked her head to the side in confusion, whining. Wick relied entirely on body language and basic sounds—barks, growls, etc.—for communication. However, she wasn’t so stupid that she did not understand how to copy sounds. Curiously, she repeated, “Bat.” That one was simple enough, beginning and ending in hard sounds, but the second word she’d picked up on was much harder for her. “Nnnn…nnname?”

"Bat," the stranger replied and she couldn't help herself. "Huh, that's weird. I've never met another Bat before."

The way she drawled the word "name" made the youth wonder if maybe Bat 2.0 was deaf, like Towhee. (Let's disregard the part where the hybrid had literally just repeated what she'd said...) -Hello,- she signed, unaware that ptero was exclusive to the Redhawks and not some widespread lexicon all hearing impaired wolves used. -How are you?- And that was pretty much all the ptero she knew.

More mouth sounds. Wick growled in frustration. Didn’t this stupid wolf understand that she didn’t get mouth sounds? Were wolves so reliant upon words that they had forgotten what body language was? And now the wolf was doing some weird gestures that were equally as useless to Wick as mouth sounds were. She flattened her ears against her skull. This juvenile had not attacked her, and had tried her best to communicate with her, but Wick had to admit defeat. Besides, she was wasting precious time that she could be spending on hunting. With a small, sad whine, she turned and walked away, putting her nose to the ground in an effort to pick up on more prey to kill.

[Exit unless stopped. Sorry Wick does not understand “mouth sounds.”]

Oh, wait... Bat thought a moment after finishing her (quite frankly clunky) signing. She slapped herself upside the head with a paw. "I'm a moron," she announced... to no one in particular, because the stranger had fled. Probably from her stupidity.

The youth felt a little idiotic for a few minutes, then shrugged off the weird encounter and resumed roaming the forest. She'd been here a few times before and some parts were even a little familiar. To test her ranger abilities, she sought a game trail she'd once used and began to wend along it, doing her best to keep her mind off matters at the plateau.