Verdigris Ravine tercera

mercy had caught the scent of pronghorn, or what she could compare to pronghorn, and had been on the trail for a few hours. at this point she wasn't sure if it was the possible meal that fueled her adventure or the familiarity of the scent, because it reminded her so strongly of sangeda.

the sand gave way to scattered limestone stacks, and by the time she found cover among the stone arches, she knew she'd lost the game trail and her efforts were in vain. that said, she was pleasantly surprised by the reach of the shadows within the ravine, the greenery, and the pockets of water; she stopped to drink from one of those pools and forced herself to linger until she'd had a good fill of it, even though the water tasted strongly like minerals.

from there, she had to choose: explore the caverns and potentially get lost, or turn around. the sun was beginning to set but mercedes knew she had a few hours before the chill of night fully descended; so she chose the first option, and delved further.

I snatchie

Kusuma had drifted away from the coyotes in search of prey to show them goodwill. The man did not seem all that trustful of her yet. 

The jackal, Kusuma-mam, would be utterly disappointed if she were to not show them that she could contribute to their welfare. One coyjackal was only as valued as the weight she pulled in keeping herself and those around her fed. 

And then she scented another woman on the wind, and, well - she had to go see for herself.

a scent clung to the stone here and there: it was coyote, she recognized. it wasn't only that, though. from time to time a spark of recognition spurred mercedes to explore further, because she had found patches of earth that smelled of her friend s'ari.

when she got a glimpse of a canine figure, her heart leapt to her throat and her tail began to wag furiously behind her! she thought it must have been s'ari — but the closer she got, the more obvious it became that the shadow wasn't just a shadow, but another person, only a little more -- sharp? dark for sure, and foreign.

mercedes stopped sort, not wanting to get too close in case of danger. she sniffed the air and found a stronger scent of s'ari so maybe that meant this was a friend of the coyote — but she was still wary.

Danger? Where-? 

She glanced over her shoulder, one paw raised in the air as the dark woman stopped in her tracks. The wind did not bring cautious whispers to her ears, nor did it sprinkle unwanted scents on its breeze for her nose. 

Kusuma does not sense danger... Kusuma... your danger? 

this perplexed the coyjackal, for she did not have any badwill to those that were of her own kind. Whatever... 'her kind' was. She was Tribe, S'ari said. 

So she was as much a coyote as any other. Kusuma not bad. Kusuma of Tribe.

the stranger spoke with almost the same inflection as s'ari, and their name sounded just as foreign. it was a woman from what mercy could tell and they did hold the scent of their friend, so, she gave them the benefit of the doubt.

her head bobbed low for a moment, as she felt bashful and embarrassed. sorry, she murmured.

my name is mercedes. do you know s'ari? i smell her everywhere... she said she lives here? a friend to that coyote was a friend to mercedes, the yearling hastily decided.

The shadow of a canine nodded, dipping her head low. Kusuma know the one named Saeree. 

She knew her, didn't mean her tongue knew how to say her name. Not that the coyote in question seemed to mind. It was close enough, the dark woman supposed. Kusuma follow Saeree and other Tribekin. Does this one wish to seek Saeree? 

A happy shadow for S'ari, another set of teeth for Zoug. There were many coyotes in the land of golden sand, she thought. 

Family.

tribekin? mercedes found this stranger to be even more peculiar than s'ari, which was saying a lot. she kept that to herself though; if nothing else, her grandmother had taught her to keep quiet unless she had something constructive to add, and such comments wouldn't amount to anything.

as for the question of s'ari, mercedes nods. if it is no trouble...

it felt like she was imposing on this dark stranger, and s'ari, and anyone else that they might have collected to this place of archways and protective shade. mercedes had to really push herself to be brave rather than leave on the spot.