Swiftcurrent Creek alpha and omega

@Lethe -- Set for whenever you're ready for IC joining/threads, I'm just impatient for ALL THE NEW THINGS. >__>

She had lived for a long time by scavenging meals left by other predators, much like a coyote. On some level that disgusted her—that she would sink to such a level—but without the strength of a pack, she must do what she had to in order to survive. It was perhaps the decision of one young and naive to leave the safety of her birth pack; it was something the males did upon nearing their second birthday, and while it was safer for Sparrow to remain, she felt the bite of competition.

She was weary of the elder females and how they bullied, waving their tails like banners, We will have pups this year, not you, not you. Her golden eyes had narrowed at that, and she growled... an action that cost her some tufts of fur. Sparrow had, of course, felt the same stirrings all females her age did; but she was not a fool, and knew the price of breeding without the proper rank. She would not have dreamed it, and so resented the reminder the others had given unprompted. Growing restless with such treatment, she had left to start fresh like her brothers and cousins so often did.

Now, some weeks and leagues later, Sparrow trotted after a fat hare. They teased each other for a time; it lazily hopping forward, and she following as if she weren't truly hunting it. Just as quickly, Sparrow grew bored with the game and lunged towards it—and then the chase began. She lost it near the frozen banks of a creek, and only then did she realize she had encountered another's territories. Realizing her potentially fatal mistake, Sparrow circled around with her ears flat, belly close to the ground, and tail between her legs—ready to flip and expose her underside as soon as became necessary. With luck, however, she would reach the safety of neutral territory before anyone noticed her blunder.

It wasn't the first impression she had wanted to make, but it might be one she had to live with.