River Woes

Smoke seemed hesitant about dipping into the caches before actively contributing. Turquoise found this humility annoying and decided to play along. "Oh. Well, in that case..." She paused. "You're not allowed to take from the pack's caches until you've personally contributed at least three stags." Turq paused again, letting him wonder for a moment, before shaking her head. "Come on now. If you don't eat, you'll waste away and you won't be worth a shit. Just take what you need and, if it'll clear your conscience, tell yourself you'll give back double what you took."

Gesturing for him to follow, Turquoise began to move away from the water, back into the trees. As she walked along, she turned toward Smoke and replied, "How should I know?" and left it at that. Turq had liked Jinx, finding her to be a very intriguing creature. She'd only met her once, though, and never seen or heard from her again. Perhaps she was somewhere else in the park now—somehow, this wouldn't surprise her—but Turquoise had been too preoccupied to track anybody's whereabouts.

Arriving at a stockpile, Turquoise removed the debris covering it, yanked out a stiff leg of deer, then tossed it haphazardly to land at Smoke's feet. "There ya' go," she said absently, then swung around to face him again. "Eat up. I'm Turquoise, by the way. Call me Turq," she added offhandedly, not having introduced herself yet. "Epsilon and Gunner. Mate to Rivet." Her lips curled into a cheshire grin as she said this last part for the first time ever out loud.