Shadewood You can't touch me there, you can't touch my body

Making an assumption that Alyx stays with Rusalka for a little bit / until the rain ends and the river goes back to normal for the sake of starting a new thread. Backdated to early September!

Three days in a row without rain put Alyx in a much better mood, even though she was still in strange territory with strange wolves. Weeks of constant rain made the river high and dangerous, so it was a huge relief when the sun came out. Even though she now knew where Firebirds was in relation to Rusalka, she wasn’t courageous enough to try to ford the river in such a state. She was effectively stuck until the excess drained off, but the sun gave her hope that that would be soon.

In the meantime, once she'd cleaned up and returned her coat to its usual unblemished shine, she tried to make herself useful. At five months old, she was capable of catching only small animals. She reasoned that it was better than doing nothing. Her parents wouldn’t approve of her taking refuge with another pack without paying them back, so she stalked through the trees near the fringe of Rusalka’s claim, hot on the trail of a rat.

delicate, impeccably clean-furred alyx stalked after a rat.

and valravn stalked after her.

it had been only a few days since his new friend had washed up ashore, and since then valravn had been fascinated by her in a shy, boyish way. he could often be caught stealing glances towards her, or sometimes grinning and approaching her with a stick (and always at the last minute chickening out).

today he resolved to stick to his guns and moseyed after alyx, making no attempt to hide the blundering of his pursuit.

It had to be close. She could almost see the imprints of its little bald feet in the loam, so precisely did its scent collect in evenly spaced beads on the ground. She licked her lips, wetting her nose and wriggling it as she inspected a nearby bush. Could the rat be hiding within, cowering from the young predator looming overhead?

She would never find out, for the sound of clumsy paws drew her ears backward. Alyx, being keenly aware she was technically in unfamiliar territory, was quick to whirl around and face whoever was coming up behind her, just to forget all about hunting and rats at the sight of Val. Momentarily, anyway. She flushed, tail beating at her hocks.

Hi! she greeted in a high voice. She cleared her throat, a little embarrassed, and tripped over her tongue to ask, wanna rat a hunt?

val didn't expect the urgency in which alyx turned around. in turn he nearly fell on his bottom, though his features split in a cheery smile as he saw she wasn't about to attack him.

his tail beat in similar fashion to his hocks. for whatever reason, being around alyx invigorated val. it wasn't an emotion he could put to words or even readily explain to himself. he just knew he liked being around her, even if they were hunting stinky rats. "oou! i've never hunted one before. are you good at catching them?" his eyes were wide in fascination and a little bit of awe at the idea of alyx, the great rat-slayer.

Uhhh, she faltered. She’d never actually managed to catch a rat, but it wasn’t like Valravn lived in Sun Mote Copse and had seen how many times she’d biffed it trying to catch… well, anything. She caught a vole once. She wanted to learn how to hunt rabbits, but that seemed so far away and impossible that she simply hadn’t mustered the courage to try.

What was the harm in a little white lie?

Yeah, I catch ‘em all the time at home, said Alyx, beaming. But once the lie slipped her tongue, she couldn’t help adding to it. My sis and I try to see who can catch the most, and I always win. In fact, due to Quetzal’s indifference to being dirty, her twin was much more likely to successfully capture a rat, but Val didn’t need to know that, did he?

C’mon, I think there’s one close by! And she stooped to sniff for the trail again before leading the way deeper into the woods.

val caught neither the hesitation, nor the lie which slipped from alyx's mouth smooth as greased butter. he looked her over in full-throated admiration. his own attempts had been clumsy and unsuccessful - he'd never even come close to catching anything -- except for that one time a crab caught him.

he grinned in return, thinking of how cool and self-sufficient alyx was, and how much he wanted to be like her. she was so independent and strong, that valravn marveled at how dull and uninspiring his life appeared up until she washed up by their embankment. "that's dope." valravn complimented handily, tone hushed with veneration that alyx regularly held rat-catching contests, and routinely won them.

before he could pitch the idea of trying this on his sister, alyx was off like a bullet. valravn trundled after her curiously, but for all of his interest in trying to impress her, valravn truly didn't know the first thing about hunting and it showed.

For all her gusto and bravado, Alyx really didn't know the first thing about effective rat hunting tactics. Already she was spinning the web further in her mind, making up excuses for the inevitable failure so that he would not see her for the liar she was. All the while she led him through the woods, smelling rat but not knowing precisely where it was, until they found it completely by accident.

But they did not catch it—it was far too fast and wily for two pups. When it slipped away from them, Alyx laughed off the failure and told Valravn it must just be because she didn't know the forest very well, and maybe they would catch one later. So it was that they went off in search of more rats until something more interesting grabbed their attention and pulled them away.