Rattleskin Redoubt raptor

When she came, it was by night.

The smoothness of her gait spoke familiarity with the roughness of the land she was currently making her way through. Or, a familiarity with something like it.

Minsang was a wanderer by trade, drifting in like a summer breeze. Fleeting, then gone. Just as soon as she appeared. 

When she inhaled, it was to the scent of many, but they were distant. It was the desert winds who brought them to her sensitive nose.

Wolves and wolf blooded canids, she knew their smell and she knew to stay away if she valued living her life with her head attached. Minsang grimaced, visibly, before adjusting her path. She’d simply cut through the lowlands and circle back to the south, there was nothing here worth keeping her feet still.

vague timeline

S'ari was exploring north of the Ravine today. The desert could be dangerous. This she knew instinctively, having been born to it, but this place was especially fraught. She'd already danced away from three snakes wandering about and she'd been in this area for only half an hour. What were they even doing out in the open at night? She was just thinking of turning and leaving, not wanting to die so young, when she caught the scent of coyote as the wind shifted. And it was strong. Whoever was here was close.

She turned her head this way and that, searching, then settled on a yip-yap. Any coyote would recognize such a sound as one of their own. Then, she waited.

Across the midnight desert, a yap. A distinctly coyote sound.

Minsang’s ears rose from her russet dome, emerald green peering about for the source of the voice. Another one of her, all fine boned where the other canids were thick of pelt and of skull. Understandably, she was wary.

The woman found the splot in the dark, that familiar long-leggedness she saw in herself when she looked into a pool of water.

The scorpion rose her head and yapped in response, her slender legs eating up the distance at a fast lope. It had been a long time since she had conversed with one of her own.

S'ari heard the rustle of movement to her left and turned her head to see a darker shape against the darkness of night. Ah, she said, with a smile that the other probably couldn't see. S'ari has found you! This one must pick a better spot to sleep for the night next time; far too many snakes here, no? This was S'ari's way. All Coyotes were Tribe, and all Tribe was treated with familiarity, even upon first meeting. S'ari had yet to meet a coyote she disliked (for which she was incredibly lucky and probably a bit too trusting).

Her ears were immediately treated to a speech pattern she had never heard before, and Minsang flicked her tongue out like a snake herself, before it would curl up to wet her nose.

S’ari? A point to the woman. Then, Minsang would bend her paw to touch her chest a few times.

Minsang. This one also seemed to talk too much. But they were kindred, all the same angles. So, she would allow it.

Not bother you, if you don’t bother them.

Minsang, S'ari repeated. She thought the name sounded familiar somehow. Not that she had met this particular coyote before, but the naming convention sounded familiar. Probably, she had met others who had traveled from far away to trade with her Tribe.

She glanced back the way she had come at Minsang's next words. This is true, she admitted. Snakes are part of the desert, same as Coyote. They only wish to live. She looked back at Minsang. This one's name is familiar to S'ari. Where are you from?

She gestured back the way she had come, towards the land of red stone and scrub.

That way. Several days. The scorpion twitched her right ear.

Small group. Didn’t have a whole lot of others. All of them got a foaming sickness. She made a little line in the sand beneath her feet.

One at first. Then all. Then. She smashed her paw over the line.

All gone. She shrugged. Mourning was for children and the recently harmed. Minsang was neither.

She dragged a salmon tongue across her whiskers.

You?

S'ari listened calmly as Minsang spoke. She had a mind to ask if the other coyote had ever traded with her Tribe before. And then--

'All of them got a foaming sickness.'

S'ari listened to the rest of the short tale in horror, then slowly rose to her paws and began to back away. The Tribe had a different word for it, but they all knew what rabies was. It was an illness feared above all others, for it was a terrible death, there was no cure, and it was easily spread. Did... did any of them... bite Minsang? Her voice came out hushed, but this was important--a matter of life and death--so she spoke again, much firmer and harsher. Did they bite you?

They tried.

Minsang’s green eyes flashed beneath her lowered lids.

They failed. It has been a full pass of seasons since. She had watched the last remainder of her family struggle and hiss in the blistering sunlight, unable to walk another step, stuck on their back like a beetle.

But she hadn’t gone for mercy. She had just watched, beady eyed and silent, as their twitches finally stopped, and she was alone.

I was fast. Fast enough to live on while they all died.

S'ari did not feel comfortable until the words full pass of seasons left Minsang's maw. If they had bitten her, she would've died long before. S'ari released a long sigh of relief, feeling the tight anxiety in her body release, like the sudden uncoiling of a snake choking its prey. Thank the sun and moon, she breathed, moving back towards Minsang.

I was fast, Minsang said.

Yes, S'ari agreed. This one must have been very fast. The foaming sickness, as you call it, is a terrible thing. S'ari... This one is sorry Minsang had to... experience that. It must have been... terrifying. She frowned, her heart aching for the woman. You have been alone ever since? Already, she was thinking of the Ravine, of inviting Minsang home. No coyote should be alone.

She hummed a short note of response, an affirmation.

Minsang had always been a loner. Even to her old caste, she was often forward scout, gone for days at a time before circling back to report what she’d seen and what she cleared.

She blinked, slow.

Yes.

Simple, if the hum hadn’t done its job.

Minsang seemed a woman of few words, which frustrated S'ari a little, though she tried not to make that obvious. It was only that the members of her Home Tribe were very talkative, just like her.

Would Minsang like not to be alone anymore? she asked. S'ari has gathered together a group of Coyote, who live there. She pointed with her muzzle in the vague direction of the Ravine. There is water and shade and greenery, which means prey, as well. We welcome all Coyote, and all Coyote are Tribe. Yes?

There was food and water in S’ari’s offer, and Minsang’s ears raised to hear it. The scorpion’s stomach growled a low note to hear of the offered meals, and she nodded, slow at first.

I track. Big things, small things. I scout too. Trying to give your CV was the first part of a job offer, right?

Minsang knew only that she would need to pull her weight for this to fully work.

Yes, yes, S'ari said, with a smile and slight shake of the head. S'ari would take Minsang no matter what she could do. Tribe is family. Tribe does not leave Tribe alone, defenseless. Minsang may scout or hunt or sleep in the sun all day. It matters not. Only, do not cause trouble. No fighting, no stealing, no lying, no cheating. That is all.

S'ari turned to look in the direction of the Ravine again. The Ravine is to the south of here. In the daylight, one can see it on the horizon. S'ari can take you there now, or leave you here, and you may make your own way. The choice is yours.

S’ari offered her idle hands and laziness.

Minsang did not show her teeth at the idea, but it was a near thing. The ruddy woman stared at her for a moment, wondering, perhaps, why the woman would allow someone entry who did not contribute.

This Tribe was lucky, Minsang was not one who lay idle. To survive was to work. And Minsang would not go down flailing with the stones of idleness wrapped around her middle.

The scorpion‘s whiskers twitched as she looked into the distance, the way S’ari had shown her, before humming a little noise.

Will follow you.

No need to let her kindness die to a rattlesnake’s venom.

S'ari had no notion of the woman's thoughts, and was only happy for another soul to add to the Tribe. Come then, she said, beginning to walk in the direction of the Ravine, her tail on a slow wag. She turned to look over her shoulder once or twice, to make sure Minsang was following, and then went on, towards home.

[End?]