Bearclaw Valley Left the lights on

The evening was creeping in.

Zenith had kept a pretty low profile since joining the pack, and spent what felt like three days sleeping.  It was nice being able to not worry that some evil person was gonna pop out of thin air and kill her.  She was rested.  Sleep had helped her catch a few small prey items which helped her stabilize from slowly wasting away in the wilderness.  Going through the cache, though she'd found them, seemed... Greedy?  Perhaps it was some misplaced sense of honor that made Zenith think that she needed to contribute more to the pack before reaping the bounties.

Most of her time had been spent along the edges of the valley, out of the normal route that many took so that she could stay out of the way.  Today she wandered towards the center, sniffing around in the thinning snow, hoping something else might cross her path.  Food would be good, but she'd take another wolf's company too, now that her initial bit of wariness was over.

whilst traversing the central region of the vale, the redleaf had come across a scent she recognized only by encountering earlier that day -- the scent of a wolf. it was not one she could put a face to and for a moment, indra considered it might have been a trespasser. she trailed after the meandering pawprints in the snow until she crested a gentle knoll and came across zenith.

indra paused as she caught sight of the wolf; she was large, with an abundant winter coat that seemed to only bolster her stature. indra watched as the she-wolf sniffed patch to patch, and found herself studying the female in a way that would have personally made her uncomfortable if she was the subject. she had never seen a wolf with such a rich pelage; she liked the way the dark umber trickled to a gentle flaxen. she would have been content to simply watch, except for as of now, it was an unknown wolf in her home and such things must be addressed.

unwilling to betray she had been staring for too long, indra picked up a collected lope to bridge the gap between them. her posture was largely neutral except for the way she held her head, which suggested she was approaching simply because the wolf was unfamiliar and in her home.

There were hints, but the hints were old.  Knowing her luck they'd already been eaten.  She'd keep looking, though.  Dismissing an older rabbit warren, she started to move on when she spotted the other wolf approaching.  Zenith recognized the scent as one of those that had wandered along the borders with reasonable frequency when she joined.  Without question one of her superiors, as she was pretty sure nobody'd joined to take whatever ranks were below her yet.

If she'd seen the way she'd been watched, perhaps Zenith would have been a bit more wary, but she'd missed it and so trotted forwards to meet halfway.  Her ears flipped back on her head, and she was doing her part to look pretty nonthreatening.  She should probably preemptively introduce herself, right?  Hi there!  I'm Zenith.  I'm new around here.  Uh.  Obviously, she said, with a wag of her tail.  Zen was a little awkward about it, mostly since she felt like she really should have gotten to know everyone by now and hadn't.  She was also currently oblivious to Indra's missing tail.

indra's stiffened posture seemed to dissolve as the wolf approached, her posture bent and ears pulled back. it was enough to cause the stony affect on her features to melt, though she still watched the women with a feral wariness. had she a tail she might have wagged it in rejoinder to zenith's friendly mien -- as such, she was left to improvise and did so by the briefest of thin smiles. 

the female was forthcoming with her name and indra was quick to reply, supplying her moniker with a quiet demeanor: "indra." she looked about them, as if expecting anyone to come crashing through the hinterlands to interrupt them. "who let you in?" she queried softly, a cant of her muzzle given as she studied the contrast from dun to deep brown that flecked the woman's hide. it was a test, more than anything -- while she did not suspect zenith of lying, part of her remained mistrustfully at distance. not all women, she found, were as genial as blondine -- and she had learned the hard way to put no blind faith in any wolf's words, save for her sister and herself.

Zenith felt like she was given a few mixed signals here.  Indra seemed friendly but reserved.  And then she asked a question.  'Who let you in?'  Wait, what?

Had she gone and joined a pack of paranoid folks?  First Xan had seemed just subtly wary of every answer she gave even though he did let her in the pack, but now Indra too?  She appeared to be pretty confused by why that would even be questioned.  When she'd joined, Xan had been the only alpha. Who else would it have been?  She stuttered, uncertain if it was actually a joke or a legitimate question, Uh, Xan?  It hadn't seemed like.. a particularly viciously delivered inquiry, but just from her earlier feeling it made her wonder if she'd made a bad choice.  She'd picked the pack that was most convenient.  Had that been wrong?

Zenith was an innocent sort.  She always expected the best from people, perhaps naively, and believed that she'd also always do the right thing on her end.  Why would anyone ever suspect her of trespassing or lying or whatever it was they all seemed to smell on her?

while it had been unintentional, indra was aware she had caused perplexity in the other female -- and as familiar as she was with the jaws of self-doubt, recognized the uncertainty that crossed zenith's muzzle.

she released some of the tension in her shoulders by issuing a roll in response to zenith's answer. it was suitable enough -- and the only true answer, in indra's mind.

"okay." she relented, the terseness somewhat dissipated from her hardened expression. "so you haven't met many of us? i have a sister here. laurel."

Zenith didn't want to have to be wary. She didn't want anyone to have to be.  As much as she wanted to will the world to be nice, to only give strife to those who were prepared to take it, she knew that never were things that easy.  She didn't know what the wolves here had been through but perhaps something had happened in the not too distant past to cause this distrust.  Was it something that could be fixed?  Now wasn't a proper time to ask.  Maybe after she'd been here longer.

Zenith shook her head, I was pretty much on the edges by myself resting for the last few days and stuff.  How long had it been?  Sounded right.  Maybe.  I've been on my own for a while and just really needed to be able to actually sleep without worrying what's out there.  It was probably obvious.  She was thin and instead of her gaze floating vaguely in Indra's space to acknowledge her without being threatening, it habitually drifted elsewhere as the wind shifted the snowy brush ever so slightly.  She did her best to remain cheery, faintly smiling, Next up will be food.  Wanted to see if I could catch something instead of taking from what might be stored.  Any suggestions?  And a hopeful wag of her tail.  Zenith was a chatty wolf, in case it wasn't obvious, though for now she was leaving her brother out of the conversation.  She'd make sure to let Indra know she was looking for him later on... Just in case.

as the female elucidated, indra found her gaze wandering, following the pawprints zenith had left crisscrossing through the small clearing. one ear was fastened on the woman, the other pressed ahead -- when zenith mentioned food her head turned slowly and she faced zenith fully, surprised by her statement. either way, it impressed indra that the female would rather make than take -- that was not an attribute she found many wolves possessed.

as zenith finished her explanation with a question, indra resumed her almost distant glancing of the meadow. there were many places they could hunt, but it depended on the female's palate. "there's always rabbits over there --" she motioned towards the snow-clad knoll -- "and turkeys and quails over by the creek --" her muzzle thrust in the direction of the iced-over stream -- "and there's deer, deeper in the valley, but i've never managed to get one."

Oof. Iffy last few weeks. I feel rusty as hell, woo.

It seemed she'd said something that had shifted things a little more in her favor maybe?  She did hope to make things run smoothly as possible -- make friends and all that jazz.  Not being lazy would help with that, right?  Seemed likely.  Maybe Indra and Xan -- and maybe the others -- were just a little frosty to new folks and she'd be able to get them to warm up to her soon enough.  Trying to work out whether that was the case without Iovan around to double check her thinking made her a bit more uncertain about it.

Yeah I think deer might be a little much for me right now too.  Quail might be good?  They as dumb as they were back home?  They seemed to hate flying -- you could almost trip over 'em!  Unless it was different here, they sounded like a possibly easy catch if she could be sneaky enough.  She turned to look in the direction they'd been indicated, but wasn't going to run off to go find the birds yet.  There was also the question, would Indra be joining her in this escapade?

it's all good! you're not rusty

frosty would have been a good term in which to describe indra -- had she been cognizant of zenith's thoughts she probably would have melted some of the ice from her edge. she remained unaware, and thus, did not change much -- though her gaze followed zenith's without coldness.

the mention of quail being dumb envinced another small smile. "oh, they're not bright." she admitted, already stalking off in the direction that they often roosted in. "if you time it right, you get them while they're sleeping -- and you just snatch them off of branches one by one if you're the type."

Well at least that's the same here at least.  It seemed Indra was opening up a little bit more.  Good!  Picking the quail off the bushes like they were apples or something was also a great mental image, and she smirked a bit at the thought, As long as I end up with a good snack or two, it'd be a great start. -- Then maybe in a few weeks maybe it's time to round up a few folks and try for some of those deer.  She wasn't going to try it on her own.  Maybe just with her brother if they were both in tip top shape, but eh.

Zenith started to head in the direction of the creek as well.  I'd imagine the creek probably attracts a bunch of other birds and maybe some small fish and frogs and stuff when it's not so cold out still, huh?  She could imagine it at least.  Running water was great for a small meal, no matter what size -- kept the world running and all that.

indra could see zenith making off with more than a snack or two; she nodded in affirmation and swung down the narrow footpath she had blondine had traveled so many times. it felt weird to take this route without blondine, but she kept these thoughts back -- blondine would be back, eventually.. right?

the mention of deer caused her to pause for a moment and she turned back around, sizing up zenith carefully - as if she could tell simply from her physique her hunting prowess. "there's tons of deer. there's a black one too, i've tried to get her a few times with blondine.." she didn't realize it, but the deer might have well been symbolic. "it's the one that always gets away.." once more she fell silent, placing one foot in front of the other as she buried her emotions and thoughts deep. it wouldn't be befitting for zenith to see anything but clinical niceness at this point, would it?

in truth, indra hadn't spent much time hunting in the creek (having preferred the territory around it) so when zenith mentioned it she just rolled her shoulders. "i haven't seen it any other time but winter.. but i bet. there's turkeys too like i mentioned. sometimes there's these weird grouse, and really loud pheasants."

I am totally lucky that what I had typed here didn't just go MIA >_>

Since Zenith was following behind, she didn't have much of a sense to why Indra had fallen silent.  Maybe just not too much else to say on the matter?  Still, it piqued her curiosity, A black deer?  I'll definitely keep an eye out for that one -- I don't think I've seen one like that before.  Do you think if she has babies there could be more that color?  Wolves were, in a sense, the keepers of the herds, were they not?  Could they make a herd turn all black over time?  Would a black deer taste different than a normal one?  If it always got away, were they naturally faster?  There were a lot of experiments that sounded interesting to her.  They weren't exactly super scientific or something that could be done quickly -- as how would you get a herd's worth of black deer to test? -- but they intrigued her nonetheless.

So spring would be a mystery to them all, then.  That wasn't necessarily a bad thing.  Something to look forward to, then! It does seem like there should be a lot of resources here for everyone, which is nice.  She figured there had to be some signs of quail by now, sniffing at any bushes as they went by.  Once there were some clues, it'd probably be time to stop talking and start looking to nom on some birds.

indra hadn't realized her thoughts had turned abruptly south until zenith spoke again -- something about deer babies, and black fawns? indra paused for a moment, considering zenith's thoughts with the type of slow excitement someone gets when a new thought is introduced to a previously unthought notion. she blinked for a moment, lips pursing as she trailed her mind up and down the idea, as if overturning it like a fascinating stone.

"hmm.. well... was your mother the same color as you?" she asked suddenly, turning to look at zenith's rich pelt. "mine was white." she didn't understand a single iota of wolf color genetics -- it didn't stop her from blurting: "and reek -- my dad, i mean, was black." indra slowed to a stop then, wondering if zenith had meant something a little less superficial. "wait.. do you think we shouldn't hunt her, then?"

More like my dad I guess. Mom was really light color, so my brother and I are both kinda inbetween.  Kinda weird how that all works.  It was too bad that wolves didn't exactly understand Mendelian genetics, because it really was kind of a mystery what decided how kids looked in relation to their parents.

Hm.  But did they want to hunt that deer?  I dunno.  Uh.  It shouldn't be too long before deer have their fawns, right?  Would be easy enough to see if they'd look like her then.  She wasn't a pro at knowing everything about everything, even if at times she pretended to.  Just obviously if we did hunt her.. Uh.  Can't really undo that, but as long as she stays healthy and some other one looks more edible...  Shrug.  Life would make those decisions regardless of what they wanted or needed.

these were good points -- indra considered their validity for a moment, wondering the nature of heritable coat patterns in deer. lacking too much imagination, she believed it was likely similar as to what was in wolves; and maybe there was a reason she and blondine had never been successful. maybe the doe deserved to live, after all.

they arrived in tandem to an area where indra had many times encountered quail -- after brief, quiet discussion with zenith, she hunkered down and set to the hunt. together they managed a healthy batch of fresh quail kill, stocked the cache with their offerings, and then parted ways as a quiet and start-studded night settled into the teekon wilds.