Otter Creek I’m all yours

SUMMONS THE CUTIE @Reigi

As the months between the present and his incident increased, he found himself becoming bolder. The old Xan—that arrogant, fearless child—was finally returning. And although he knew, in the back of his head, that he should still practise caution when near the mountains, he’d abandoned that thought altogether and went beyond them; he’d done the same previously but, during that trip, had gone in a huge arch around the woods so as to not risk running into anyone from Blackfeather. This time around, he didn’t go through all of that but, instead, went straight towards the woods—well, not right to it, but in its general direction. He stopped long before the treeline was reached, hugging the part of the mountain that he’d descended from whilst nosing around the creek.

Every now and again, he found his gaze trailing over towards the woods—his old home—but he quickly looked away each time. He considered seeking out his father, seeing how he was doing and maybe catching up, but it didn’t take long for him to abandon that idea. Rather than that, he focused on trailing after a particularly plump otter—how many fish has this thing eaten, oh my god—eager to grab a quick bite to eat before retreating back to the other side of the range.

 

keeping this super vague because what the hell is a timeline and bfw thread

for the most part the creek was entirely frozen over, yet still every once and a while a fat, brown blob would make its way in and out of the water.  she had never seen an otter before, had no name for it (like most things), but their playful nature sparked a curiosity in her.  she'd never seen the cotton-tails do this, nor the long rodents.

she is crouched as she makes her way through the snow, heterochromatic eyes focused on the fat things.  she emerges from the trees, but she is not hungry yet, oh no.  she just wants to look.

so focused on these creatures is she that she doesn't even notice the man, white as snow, in her peripherals.

It was just as easy to spot the other canine against the starkness of the snow as it was the otters. He noticed her and his advance slowed, eyeing her before following her gaze towards the otters. Was she planning on snagging one for herself? The way she revealed herself to them suggested not, although it did prompt him to glance back towards what he was after, relieved to see that it hadn’t taken notice of their new guest; if it had, it either wasn’t concerned with her or was too large to move any faster than what it was. Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter too much—he was just glad that he wouldn’t be losing out on a meal.

Stalking closer, Alexander was light on his feet, eyes narrowed in on the otter. Just as he sprung forward, the otter noticed Reigi and scurried off, leaving that to fall into the snow; the crunch of which frightened the otters, sending most of them scurrying off into their burrows whilst the ones that remained visible eyed him cautiously. Pushing himself back up to his full height, he realised that he wouldn’t be catching any of them—not now, at least. Maybe he would have another chance once they all settled down and got used to him being there.

Turning his head, he looked at the reason for his meal’s escape. “What are you doing?” he called out, annoyance clear in his voice; not only had he missed the otter but someone had also witnessed his failure. It was embarrassing.

it wasn't until the beast sprung forth to catch the fat thing that she noticed him, and with her gaze focused now on him instead of the creatures, she wonders how she could've missed him.

he was huge.  perhaps even bigger than the other white-coated male she'd met, and as he barked at her, she remained crouched, ears sliding back on her head.

she couldn't understand him — she did understand the tone and inclination, though.  why was everyone mad at her?  what had she done?  softly, her tail wags against the snow as she whines, trying to diffuse his annoyance.

A reaction was expected, especially a negative one. So used to having shouts thrown back and forth after hunting mishaps, the actual response took him by surprise; this became apparent as he fell silent, watching the crouching canine. His brows scrunched together as he continued to stare at her, annoyance deflated and replaced by confusion—with a slight dash of pride over the fact that he wasn’t being challenged. Now curious of her—and needing to do something that would make the otters lose interest in him—he made a slow approach, head low and chin tilted downwards to protect his throat; he didn’t expect a fight, his guard was just raised considering where they were and her unknown origin.

Having yet to realise that she could neither speak nor understand his words, he asked again, “What are you doing?” His tone was more relaxed this time, less bothered by her being there and more interested in why she was. He stopped a few steps away from her and sniffed the air in her direction, finding something similar to the woods but not quite; she’d been there but he couldn’t determine whether or not she lived there. He decided then that it didn’t much matter either way as she didn’t know who he was, so there would be nothing to report back even if she was a part of them. Pushing the thoughts out of his head he stared at her expectantly, oblivious to her inability to provide an answer.

 

THIS IS SO CUTE I LOVE IT

he moved closer and her heart caught in her throat.  even though his posture was defensive, he was twice her size in poundage.  her muscles coiled, ready to burst if the situation called.

he repeated his words again, slower, and although she studied the way his mouth moved around the vowels she couldn't place any of the words.  they sounded nothing like the words she'd heard in the woods.

something stirred inside her, hurt and defeated.  everyone always made these sounds and seemed to understand each other.  most of them still seemed to understand her too, wolf body language being something natural to nearly everyone.  but it aided in feeling detached; nobody had ever taken the time to explain even simple words to her.

so she took the one word she knew (albeit butchered) and returned his response, leting out a rr-oooooo? that pinched at the end as anxiety beaded in her throat.  a shiver started at the base of her skull and traveled down her spine, and she gave one single body quake.

Still no response. Rather, there was a response, only it wasn’t really anything that he’d considered an actual word. Slowly, he came to realise that she likely couldn’t speak, which made him all the more interested. He lifted a forepaw as if he might take a step forward, stopped short by the risk of her running if he advanced; he left it to dangle in the air for a long moment before dropping in back into the same place it’d risen from, eyes never leaving her. He could see the tension in her body and hear the anxiety in her voice, all of which he blamed on his earlier, less-friendly approach. However, he was sort of being nice now, so what was she still all jittery about? It irritated him a bit, whilst the realisation that he wouldn’t have to drag himself through another introduction quelled his budding anger; the two things worked somewhat well to even him out, at least for now.

Besides, the way she was behaving convinced him that she wasn’t from the woods, so another plus there.

As he watched her, a single one of his ears flicked back at the sound of movement, a sidelong glance revealing to him the return of the otters. Without another word—there was clearly no use in trying to talk to her—he tossed his head in the direction of the hobbling creatures before lowering it, trying to get her in on his original plan; although he blamed her for his first failure, he could see the benefits of getting her help the second time around. With a few flicks of his tail, he tried encouraging her to go ahead of him, assuming it would cause the little guys to scatter like before. Only this time, he’d be there waiting to grab one—as long as she didn’t share the same stubborn streak with him, that is.

she could see the otters re-emerge and the stranger's body language, paired with his previous attempt, causes something to click! in her brain.

she begins to lift herself from her crouched position, the anxiety that had welled in her breast melting.  if she could help him with this, maybe he would be happy with her!  her tail began to wag in gentle arcs around her hocks, brushing the snow up in tiny bursts of white.

now more than scared, she was curious.  she moved forward to close the distance between them with strong, deliberate strides without a single glance at the otters — that would be his job, and she would be there as a back-up, ready to launch just in case he failed in his attempt to snatch that little brown blob.

but until they scattered, she was content to just keep closing the distance between them until she was close enough to nearly touch, pink tongue flitting out of those sculpted, angular jaws to lick in the general direction of his lower lip — i'm okay, i promise, it's okay.

The distance between them gradually decreased and he watched her all the while, sceptical but not unwelcoming. He couldn’t look away, curious to see what exactly she was planning, only to be caught off-guard by the flicker of pink. He tensed up immediately but their closeness was not lost. He continued to eye her for a good minute before looking back at the otters, accepting her being there; although the contact nearly made was concerning at first, it’d soon spoken to his instinctual side, quelling whatever budding qualms he may have had with her.

Content with now having her on his side, he threw her one last glance before darting forward, a pale streak tearing towards his prey. His jaws were parted long before he reached them, ready to grab hold of the first one he reached—but the creatures were slippery and quick, easily evading his grasp. His jaws closed around air, just the same as before, whilst the otters scattered; some ran for cover whilst others simply tried to get away, each taking off in a different direction.

Again, Xan took off after one, herding it towards the girl. He barked in her direction a few times as he did so, eager to walk away from this little game of chase with something to make it worthwhile.

 

rolled in tabletop for success

he was unperturbed by her closeness but it also did not seem to please him so she kept herself contained, eyes flitting back and forth between those little fat creatures and the white man.

they were close now, cautiously emerging from their — what, burrows? — and with a snap the brute was after them.  she tensed, launching in a helpful, herding direction but the clack! of teeth against teeth tells her that he has not succeeded.  no, no, no!

he wheels towards her with one of those slippery creatures in front and she is on in in an instant, jaws clamped firm around its neck as she lifts it from the ground and shakes it violently, cracking its neck.  she loses herself for a moment in this, destroying the poor creature before she remembers — yes, reigi, you have to share.

it is not the fattest of the fat but she hoped it would do.  dropping the prize in front of the stranger, she noses it towards him as her tail makes long, wagging arcs in the air behind him.  did i do good?

Where he failed, she succeeded, an otter soon dead between her jaws. He slowed to a stop in front of her, watching as she played more with the corpse. Stealing a few steps closer, he thought about just taking it from her, but she dropped the otter before he could follow through with the thought. Again, he watched her, noticing the wagging of her tail before grabbing the otter and tearing into its stomach; it was easy, the underside delicate, and soon after the snow was red with blood. One, two bites were taken before he stopped and nosed it back towards her, giving what he decided was a reward for her efforts—after all, she had been the one to catch it, so why shouldn’t he share?

Although the motion was foreign to him he found his tail swinging back and forth with a few lazy wags. He nodded and then pointed his nose towards the carcass, encouraging her to eat whilst he settled back on his haunches, observing and thinking; he had half a mind to leave there with her in tow, though he didn’t quite know how to do so. Maybe he could use the otter as bait? No, it was too late for that, he’d already offered it to her. No matter, he had enough of time to further consider his options whilst she (presumably) ate.

she watches him while he rips into the creature, and gazes at the fat, dead blob that is now close enough that she can really study it.  it had short, but muscular legs and a powerful rudder-tail, a soft underbelly and a wide, flat head.  what a creature!

it is not long before he is pushing it back at her, with a soft wag of his own and pointed gesturing.  i did good!

although she would have preferred to continue throwing the carcass around and smashing it between her jaws, she presumed that the man did not like his food pre-chewed.

instead her tongue flits out once more before she grabs a once-powerful, meaty back leg and tears it off, working through the flesh methodically to get to the satisfying bone underneath, dual-toned eyes watching closely but without fear.

After one of the legs was torn from the otter’s body, he moved forward again and grabbed it by its tail. Staring her dead in the eye, he let it dangle loosely from his jaws before taking a few retreating steps, never looking away. With a plan freshly concocted he let his front half drop down, chest pressing against the snow. “Come with me,” he said around the tail, voice muffled. Whether she understood his words or not didn’t matter, as he intended to make his actions clear enough.

With a wave of his tail he straightened back out, taking a few bounding steps towards home before stopping and looking back over his shoulder. Shaking his head, he waved the otter around for her to see, entirely unashamed to be using his gift to her as bait. Come on, come on, come on. He urged her to follow, waving the otter again with a few deep, throaty barks.

his gaze is fixed on her, intense, and she meets it evenly with her own, watching him as she works her mouth around the bone.  he speaks, and the words ring through her ears once more without meaning but his body language — the arch in his spine as he dips into a bow, the gentle swaying of his tail as he leaps through the snow.  and of course, that beautifully tantalizing.. whatever it was.  food.

she stands, her entire rear end wagging as she lowers her own chest into the snow, paws wildly stirring up snow before sprinting to catch up with him, vocalizing giddily between the haunch in her mouth.

The albino’s attempts were fruitful, her interest acquired. He wasted no time in guiding her away from the creek and towards the mountains, letting her have the otter every once in awhile, though he always took it back immediately after—it was his bait for her, a key component of his plan. And he’d use it for as long as it’d last, leading her far from the woods and straight towards his—possibly their—home.