Sleeping Dragon From my home I started

"Tastes horrible, if you ask me, which you never do, of course," Foxglove told Junebell after they had inspected a dried up bed of a rivulet and she had tried to eat a salt-encased tiny fish (the wrong thing). Water had long since been gone, but the thick streak of salts and minerals had remained. And the smell of rotten eggs, of course. She had once heard that a water that stank like this had healing properties, but did not believe it at all. She had never seen anyone, who had become better just because he stank. 

Junebell snickered (that's, what Foxglove thought she felt) and did not comment. The salt was burning Foxglove's throat, therefore she decided to leave the trail and head for the nearest fresh-water source. "If I dry and shrivel up along the way - you know that it will be your fault," she said matter-of-factly. "You can't make me do stupid things and then take no responsibility for it, after all."

Hush tried his hardest to avoid the foul smelling regions of Drageda, but sometimes he was led into their reach thanks to his patrols. The threat of the Grotto had waned for now, but still Hush was alert. He marked the borders furiously, leg lifting every once and a while to claim land for Drageda once more.

He hadn't met any of the three females who had recently arrived, instead keeping to himself or accompanying those he knew already. But upon spotting the half-faced woman in the salt river beds, he approached her, chuffing in greeting, his tail high above his back and wagging.

If Foxglove had thought at any point in her life that she looked extraordinary then the guy, who had come to greet her, was probably the oddest wolf she had seen. He was a peculiar mix and though she could not quite put her paw on it yet, what made him distinguished between the hordes of the regular wolves... she felt drawn to him imediately. 

Feeling quite sure that he had not heard her babbling earlier, she greeted him with the broadest and warmest smile and said: "Well, hello to you too! Who may you be?"

He hadn't met someone like her, that is, someone so drastically and almost literally split in half. He blinked at her, tilting his head to the side as he caught the tail end of her conversation. He looked around, who had she been talking to? There was no one there. He was frightened for a moment; had Heda brought in some loony?

She seemed pleasant enough when she greeted him, and he smiled back sheepishly, watching her for any concrete signs of madness, or eccentricity that would be detrimental to the pack. He coughed, pointing to his throat, indicating that he had no voice to introduce himself with.

When Foxglove sensed the other's wariness, she took a little step back and added all the necessary calming signals and did better at portraying a friendly expression, in order to make the other more at ease with her. Usually she did not try to appear better than she was - either people stayed and coped with her or they left feeling annoyed. She did not care about them much really, but now it was important to gain a positive status within the pack, just enough not to be driven out for doing nothing for the greater good. 

She missed the other wolf's silent message of his disability, therefore she stared at him expectantly for good three minutes, waiting for any response, before sitting down and eyeing the person first curiously and then with a growing suspicion. "So - who are you? What's your name?" she asked again.

Hush's head tilted to the side, a half-annoyed frown on his face at her question. Had she not understood what he meant? He pointed towards his throat once more, a garbling sound coming from his throat. He silently prayed that someone would come and help him from this awkward, and a little scary, interaction.