Big Salmon Lake afterglow

A sound catches her attention quick enough — a rush of snow and a pointed bark.  She's glad that she had her face up from the water, because if she'd been caught more off guard than she already was, she's sure she would've fallen straight over into the freezing pool.  That would have been counter-intuitive to Autumn 2.0's carefully crafted image, which was definitely much more refined than that.

She offers an easy grin as soon as she realizes that the dark lady charging at her isn't doing so with any ill intent.  Hey there, she calls back, the tip of her tail bobbing back and forth, come on over, the water's cold.  Summer water was warm and kind of bad, but when it was nice and icy like this?  Can't taste all the various things that make drinking from lakes so repulsive (to humans, anyway).