Arrow Lake I know you're scared

“Oh, I don't know,” said the silver-streaked female as she bent her head down to preen at her chest. “Only if I'm hungry.” She was always hungry, of course. She was a lone wolf incapable of taking down prey of substantial value. But given the choice between fish and red meat, Ptarmigan almost always chose the latter. Her coat wasn't as shiny as a wolf's who dined frequently on fish, but during her best months, she wasn't as lean.

As she nibbled through her hairs, she looked up at Kodokuna through her eyelashes and twisted her ears forward. “I'm not interrupting your attempts at fishing, am I?” Part of her hoped for a yes so that she would have an excuse to lead Kodokuna to it and groom herself in silence, but another part of her hoped she wasn't intruding. Ptarmigan herself wouldn't have had the slightest idea how to fish in a lake, since she normally plucked salmon from rivers during spawning season if she fished at all, but she thought it might be interesting to observe even if she never tried it herself.