Arrow Lake Deerly Departed

She snapped her head around at the sound of a canine voice. Her glittering black eyes near-glowed with anger still, and she did a furious little jig from one front foot to the other. The rude wolf was just sitting there, staring at her! How long had it been there?! And was it perhaps even now stealthily signalling suggestions to those infuriating trees? Perhaps fir and canid were in league, banding together to steal Nynka's rightful prize out from under her sharp little nose!

The notion was not a particularly sensible one, but right then and there Nynka absolutely did not care. If trees wished to set themselves lofty goals like learning to hunt meat instead of depending on weak and tasteless water and sunshine, fine, but they could start somewhere else other than her deer leg. And as for this wolf—Need? she hissed back, her volume lowered from before. Her voice very quickly climbed the crescendo again as she continued, however: Need?! The day that Nynka needs the assistance of a treacherous wolf is the day that— that fish will fly! I have no need of your help, wolf, nor will I ever! She paused, baring her teeth fiercely in-between panting breaths. Surely the wolf could not fail to be impressed by the needle-like sharpness and pristine white of her small fangs, right? So much better than those clumsy big inelegant yellowing stinking wolf teeth.

...Except, perhaps, for this. Nynka unbent just a hair: But if the wolf wishes to humbly offer her help to a superior being then, well, I suppose that could be allowed. Her eyes glittered in irritation and her tail lashed to and fro in agitation a few times. But, well, if it saved her having to take another few mouthfuls of tree, Nynka supposed it could be worth it. I might even share a little of it with you, she growled ungraciously. And if the wolf proved to be in league with the evil trees after all? Well, then Nynka supposed they'd both find out just how much more easily wolf flesh gave way to her teeth than tree bark, wouldn't they. She was pretty sure the wolf wasn't quick enough to untangle the leg-of-deer and reach her full running stride before a speedy little weasel could catch at least the end of her tail, anyhow. Nynka eyed the wolf's long legs broodingly, and measured the distance between the thickening trees—less than a full wolf-bound, she thought. She only hoped there'd be no reason to put that to the test; Nynka really wasn't in the mood for it today.