Porcupine Ridge We are here and now

Given the opportunity, Jinx would have ignored any Vale wolf to come in her direction on a normal day. Her disrespect for them was palpable in their presence, and unwavering in its severity. Even if knowledge of the avalanche had reached her ears, sympathy for them would be fleeting. They hadn't even done anything, but catching her was insult enough. She needn't justify to herself her unnecessary hatred toward this pack's established wolves, nor spare a thought for those who pledged themselves without knowing of those wolves. Their reputation was tarnished in the pale Kesuk's mind by nothing more than their persistence. An unfair judgement, for she had started everything herself, but one that Jinx made without hesitation.

But there was something different about her attitude today. It was the product of divine providence, perhaps, but she was not so quick to avoid contact. She caught sight of a dark-haired wolf investigating the lower ridges. Where ordinarily Jinx might have sought higher ground lest the Vale wolf spot her and see fit to pursue her, she instead crept forward toward the edge of her loftier position to find that the dark canid wasn't far away at all. She could make out enough of the other's figure to tell that they had sat themselves down, presumably to rest.

It wasn't the way the woman sat that pulled Jinx forward, but rather, the way she'd been walking. It was almost a slinking away, lacking the vigilance of a wolf destined for the borders in defence of their home. Strangely, Vega had chosen to sit down rather than come toward her to chase her away. It could have been a wild misjudgement on the Kesuk's part (and it was, in part), but the potential benefit of information and curioisity outweighed the risk. She dropped down a ledge so that she was on a more even level, and then boldly made her way toward Vega, uncertain whether her assumption that Vega had seen her and not chased her away was right or not. If it wasn't, she would just have to fight her way free.

"Didn't you know Vale wolves are supposed to attack Creek wolves on sight?" she wondered, knowing that that command did not actually exist in the Vale but unable to let go of her own snarky distaste for the pack, even for a moment.