Two Eyes Cenote a waltz with the devil

S'ari did not like the great shadow of the mountains before her. This was as far as she would go. Any farther and she would leave the desert, a thing she would never do, now that she had traveled so far to find a place so like her home. But water was scarce in the great sands, and so she had followed it, and it had led her here.

And here was another wolf, splashing about in the water like a struggling fish. Were all wolves so loud? In the desert, one could hear for miles and miles in the wide open space. Coyotes had learned to be quiet there, to listen to the hiss of the sand in the wind, and the slither of snakes, and the buzz of insects in the twilight, and the hares hopping through the scrub. Coyotes were loud only in celebration. This wolf was loud for no reason at all. S'ari curled her lip, watching from a distance, and said nothing.

And then another came along, and S'ari sank into the shadows, down onto her belly. Her ears folded against her head at the sound of words. She had been alone for so long, she was not used to speech. Her own throat grew dry at the thought of speaking. She squinted at the noise, looking much more like a cat than a coyote in her hiding spot halfway under a bush.

Eventually, she felt so uncomfortable meeting two wolves at once after so long alone that she simply slipped away.

[Exit S'ari]