Open for anyone. ^_^
Instead, she marched directly into the water with the decision to swim. She needed some way to cool off. As she paddled around the lake, she paused every once in a while to lap at the water. Some ducks had landed in the lake before she had arrived, and now they quacked angrily at her as she snapped at them. She didn’t intend to actually take any of them for a meal. She was just playing. But the ducks, it seemed, had zero sense of humor. No matter. Red was having the time of her life, and was glad that her coyote blood had called her towards this previously unexplored area of the Wilds.
The flatlands held many herbs she could use. Already she had a leaf full of them, the fronds spilling out of the protective package she created. Exhausted by the long day's work of finding, identifying, and collecting herbs, she strode to the nearest water source: a lake.
Once she reached the lakeside, she dropped the package down by her side, away from the lapping water. The priestess bent down to drink, filling her dry mouth with cool liquid. Her thirst quenched, she smacked her lips and stood straight, gazing across the water to see if she could get a quick snack...
And there, another wolf. She had this strange string of meetings with wolves by the water. First a hot spring, then a lake, a river, the ocean... The red-furred female was paddling in the lake, snapping absently at the ducks who quacked angrily at her. She wondered if the female could drive one of the waterfowl towards her...
Not knowing what to do, and still quite nervous around other wolves, Red decided her best bet was stay in the water for now and keep an eye on the female. Timidly, she let out a chuff to ask, “What do you want?” The coywolf would not approach her full-blood cousin until she had proven herself non-threatening. And so, she waited, paddling in place to keep herself from going under the water.
Meanwhile, the ducks had decided they’d had quite enough fun in the lake and were now making a beeline for the opposite shore from the two canids.
The wolf's attention now towards her, she finally noticed something about the reddish female. This was no full-blooded wolf, but a coywolf. She could tell from her narrow features and small size. How many hybrids lived around here, huh? The coywolf chuffed at her with a "what do you want" tone in it. The priestess wondered why she didn't just say anything, but only attributed it to possible muteness. S
She gestured towards the ducks fleeing to the other shore. "I wanted to hunt." The black female trotted after them, hoping to intercept them before they could make it onto land, or maybe even into the air.
The coywolf paddled harder, craning her neck to try and snap at one of the stragglers. And that’s what set the whole flock off. All of a sudden, they all rose into the air at once, quacking loudly and flying away to the west. Red growled in frustration, watching them go with a glare. Now what? Apologetically, she turned to Meldresi, her ears flattening in embarrassment, and to say sorry. Then she was hit by inspiration. She would fish for the female! She was in a lake, after all.
She gave an excited bark and began searching the water around her for a fish or two to sate both their appetites. The failed hunt with the ducks was stirring up her previously nonexistent hunger, and she was determined not to fail again.
The red coywolf darted off the moment she finished her sentence. Meldresi followed her, hoping in the back of her mind that her herbs don't fall into the water. The ducks struggled to leave the constraints of the water. Meldresi tried to flank them, but to no avail when they flew off. Sighing with disappointment, she sat back on her haunches.
The coywolf looked at her apolegetically, and Meldresi was going to say "It's not your fault", but the silent wolf was searching through the water before she could say anything. What was she looking for now? Fish?
With a triumphant gleam in her eye, she began paddling to shore, the trout hanging limply in her jaws. It was a good day. With a wag of her now soaked tail, she dropped the fish at the black female’s paws, and then looked up at her, as if to say, “Look! I did it!”
Meldresi watched the young female, curious to what her fishing methods were. She wasn't a big fan of fish, but at the moment she really didn't care. Her belly grumbling annoyingly, she laid on her stomach, observing Red flanking the fish swimming in the water.
Soon the coywolf twisted to the left, head diving into the water. Her red head retracted with a fish hanging in her mouth. She turned back to Meldresi, whose tail wagged happily. Red pulled herself onto shore, dropping the fish at her paws. Meldresi smiled at the coywolf. "Thank you." She said before tearing into the trout's flank.
Red barked a reply to Meldresi’s thank you, and then promptly turned and trotted back to the lake. It was time to catch herself something to eat. She had to go around to the other shore because her antics earlier had scared the fish away, but she didn’t mind. Soon enough she was prancing happily back to the she-wolf with another trout hanging in her jaws, water and blood dripping down her chin. She sank to the ground in front of her acquaintance and began ripping the fish into pieces.
Wolves generally didn’t talk as they ate, as they were usually competing with each other for food, and once they got it, they ran away with it and consumed it as quickly as possible. Now, obviously this was not the situation, but that didn’t mean that Red wanted to talk. She was used to either growls and the snap of jaws accompanying a meal, or silence once everyone had a bit of food and was busy scarfing it down. So it didn’t occur to her to talk to Meldresi at all. She was content to simply eat, blocking out most of the world around her. Whether the other female minded or not would soon be found out regardless.
Meldresi ate slowly and daintily compared to the wolf next to her, who scarfed down her catch. Both of them ate in silence, letting the sounds of nature fill the air once more. The priestess savored the taste of the trout, noting its contrast to red meat. She certainly liked it a bit more than rabbit or squirrel to be honest, less gamey. But nothing could really compare to elk or deer.
Red finished eating long before Meldresi did, and that was fine. Normally, she would have stuck around a bit, but seeing as neither of them talked much, the coywolf didn’t really see the point. She waved her tail and gave a bark to say goodbye, and then she was off, heading back to the Sunspire. It was getting dark now, and it was probably a better idea to start climbing the mountains back home now when she could still see.
Little did she know that’s run into Meldresi a few times more in the coming days and weeks, and not all of those meetings would be pleasant ones…