Wapun Meadow A Chance Meeting

@Eshe Hope this works! :3 Lemme know if I need to fix anything or give this a specific date!

---

Louis found open spaces more comfortable than the closed boughs of deep woodland. Back home, most of the territory was vast taiga, and the wind carried scents freely. You could see further. Think longer. And so the meadows drew him, and he was forced to admit that he might be a little bit homesick.

The flowers here drew butterflies, beetles, and grasshoppers, and for a while he entertained himself by chasing them. And maybe snacking on a few.

It's perfect, thank you! Sorry again for the wait.

After finding poppies with @Gunnar, and with her heat out of the way, Eshe wanted to return to the Wapun Meadow to collect some lavender. She used lavender as a perfume and a relaxant, and it'd been a while since she had gotten her hands on it.

While she meandered, following the faint scent of the herb, she came across a stranger in the distance who appeared to be chasing things out of her line of sight. She paused, intrigued by him, and said: "Catching anything interesting?"

Eshe had become comfortable and confident with the idea that wolves around here were friendly—she'd only run into one rotten egg in the past month or so—and she assumed that she was safe to reach out to this individual, too.

Well, so much for seeing further! In his fixation on bug-hunting, Louis hadn't noticed the stranger approach. His head darted up, blinking, followed by a grin as he soon spotted the newcomer.

She was pretty, and didn't seem overly upset about his presence. So he wagged his tail and answered, "Well. I found a yellow grasshopper!" That was interesting, right?

"A yellow grasshopper?" Eshe echoed as she craned her neck to get a glimpse of the bug. "I didn't even know those existed! I thought that they were only green."

"Would you mind if I come and take a look?" she asked.

Stepping to the side, he motioned with his head for her to come closer and aimed a paw loosely at the remarkably large grasshopper plated in vibrant yellow. "I've seen them in brown and red before, too." Louis answered her conspiratorially, "My sister told me she saw a white one once, but I wasn't sure if I believed her."

He looked her over, taking in a curious sniff to gauge where she might have come from, and if others might be nearby. She was pretty, with soft looking fur the silvery color of water reflecting sunlight. Her eyes were bright and curious.

"I'm Louis." He introduced himself. "Nice to meet a fellow hopper enthusiast."

There were more variations of grasshoppers than Eshe had been aware of. "Fascinating!" she marveled as she walked towards him. "I only thought that they were green!" Apparently, she had much to learn about them.

She tested the air as she walked, gathering what information she could from his scent and exterior alone.

Louis was average in size, younger than her, and had kindness to him; it surprised her that he didn't appear to be affiliated with a pack. He seemed pleasant and sociable, and she assumed he'd thrive in a pack setting. Given how young he seemed, she wondered if he was off paving the way for himself.

"I'm Eshe," she replied, crouching next to him. "It's nice to meet you, too."

"So, what makes this thing different from the others?" she asked. "Well, aside from the whole color thing."

Louis grinned. Then turned his attention back to the grasshopper. "Well... they taste awful. And if you make them mad they smell awful, too."

His lip twisted at the memory of an all-too-eager past self who had made a certain quantity of mistakes where Lubbers were concerned. He shook his head as if to dismiss the unpleasantness.

"But --" He pawed at it just enough to encourage the critter to escape. It leapt - quite far, but its wings buzzed pitifully small. "They can't fly either. So I guess being altogether nasty to eat and catch is how they make up for it."

He shrugged, and chuckled a little, "I think personally I'd rather be able to fly."

"Interesting" Eshe remarked thoughtfully. "I wonder if their excreation has any other properties?" She realized how weird this sounded. "Like, for example, the goo inside of a aloe plant can be used to soothe irritated skin." But that was a plant, and not an animal. "Or how honey can be used to treat eye infections."

When Louis mentioned wanting to fly, and she nodded in agreement,

"I'd want to be a butterfly," she decided, "I could travel by flying, and help pollinate plants."

"What about you?" she asked.

He'd never thought about that before. Louis tilted his head, "Maybe? Though I'd hate to have to eat it. Herbs are bitter enough." A chuckle. He'd never seen aloe before, and filed the wisdom away. Honey, at least, was familiar. And tasty.

"You're certainly beautiful enough to be one." Louis answered with a grin when she asserted her preference of insect. "They migrate, too. You'd get to see the world. I bet you'd have the best stories."

He might have picked butterfly for himself, too, but it seemed not in the spirit of the game to copy Eshe, so he sat back on his haunches and wrinkled his muzzle with a show of deep and careful pondering. "I think... I'd like to be a dragonfly."

"Oh—I—uh," Eshe said in an attempt to reply to Louis's compliment, "T-Thanks!" She was visibly flustered—her ears splayed against her head and a shy smile spread across her lips as she licked them. "It'd be nice to see the world."

When he decided he'd be a dragon fly, she nodded in agreement. "If you were a dragonfly, you could help me out in my garden," she said. "They're wonderful at keeping bugs from eating leaves—I wish I knew what kinds of plants attracted them." Maybe Louis knew?

Louis' grin only widened. His tail wagged a little faster. She had a sweet smile and he couldn't help but stare -- almost to the verge of being rude before glancing away and licking his own lips. He rolled onto his side in the grass; a few more grasshoppers bounded away at the disturbance. 

"I'd be the very best at chasing off those pesty bugs. Your garden would be the most beautiful in all the lands." He giggled. "And all you'd have to do is tell me stories and give me a little dollop of honey now and then."

Turning fully onto his back, he took in a deep breath of meadow air. "I don't know about plants... but I usually see them around the water. Maybe if you had a little puddle, or a pond?"

Several grasshoppers fled from where Louis flopped onto his side, and she watched as they scattered. When he spoke again, as the heat dissipated from her cheeks, she looked at him. "I think all of that could be arranged," she said, thinking it was a fair deal.

Although his answer wasn't what she'd expected, it helped. "I think you're on to something! I wonder if I could start small and dig a hole to collect rainwater." Moving her garden was out of the question; she'd invested too much time establishing it.

"Maybe I'll find a way to transfer some reeds and cattails, too ..." she trailed, losing herself in her thoughts.

He gave his tail an enthusiastic wag, and listened patiently. Or eagerly - Eshe was in fact a quite engaging conversationalist. His ears perked, "Maybe you could pack the bottom with clay or something, so it doesn't drain away as fast. I bet you'd even get tadpoles and stuff, that'd help you keep the garden safe when they grow up. Frogs might make a tasty snack now and then, too." He chuckled.

Using clay was a brilliant idea—it'd be tough but well worth it when the work was done. "That's a fantastic idea," she complimented. "I didn't even think about it attracting frogs!" But eating them? She wasn't so sure about that. "You've ... eaten frogs before?" she asked after a pause. "I've never tried them." And she never would. The very thought of it grossed her out.

He sat back up, flicking an ear and giving her a lopsided smirk. "Of course. They're easier to catch than birds. Less feathers, too." He stuck out his tongue out and made a 'ptheh' sound in a mock approximation of spitting out down. "Besides, they're fun to chase. If you don't mind getting a little wet." He certainly didn't. He bounced on his front feet a little with excitement at the idea, "You should give it a chance sometime! You might be surprised how tasty they are."

"Hm," Eshe hummed, considering what Louis said. She didn't think he was tricking her—he seemed too friendly to be capable of such motives—and she didn't have reason to distrust him. "Maybe I will," she said with a smile, hoping she didn't come off as dismissive; she wondered what they tasted like. But she didn't press. Talking and thinking about eating frogs made her feel a little queasy.

The day was starting to get away from them, and she realized this with a frown. "I-I’m very sorry to cut our conversation short," she said, clearing her throat and feeling a bit awkward. She was always bad at ending conversations. But, there was work she needed to do—the lavender wasn’t going to pick itself! "I've got some work I need to do, and I want to get back to my den before sundown." Hopefully, he'd understand.

A little sad by the sudden retreat, he nonetheless shrugged, stood, and shook his fur. "Hah, don't let me hold you up. I've got adventures to continue, myself." He smiled, "You've been charming company. Good luck with your garden, and maybe I'll see you around sometime. You could show me all your flowers."

"You'll have to tell me about them," she said, regarding his adventures. Given how interesting he'd been, she was sure he'd have many stories to share if they ever met again. "And yes, I'd be happy to show you my garden," she added, smiling.

With a bob of her head and a tail sway, Eshe walked past Louis and deeper into the meadow in search of lavender.