Qeya River Joining The Pack!

 The valley ahead seemed to go on for miles, no signs of movement as far as the eyes could see. Well — besides the thumping of a rabbit frantically slamming its foot against the grassy ground and the faint breathes of a hungry wolf. 

Kaaya held back the drool brimming on the corner of her mouth, her focus solely on the suspecting rabbit before her. It’d heard her coming and was already on edge, but perhaps if she was quiet she’d be able to catch it. The she-wolf hadn’t eaten in days, after all.

Ever since she left back home, it’d been harder to hunt. There was no pack to back her up against alarmed prey. She’d never felt any need for the companionship of others, but right now all she wished for was a little help. Sure, she’d been okay at hunting in groups, but this was different — and the target was much smaller. Her tongue clicked against the tooth of her mouth irritably as she watched it bolt off.
"Tch. Beetledung..” She snarled, sprinting off of her haunches to take chase.

This was going to take all day.

When the rabbit bounded past him, it blundered blindly through the reeds and caused a ruckus when it hit the water. Scrambling furiously for a foothold, the creature righted itself within moments and cast the bewildered wolf a terrified look before it bolted off once again for cover. 

Ksura’s tongue hung from his mouth still, as he’d been mid-lap when the commotion had occurred. He sniffed, flicked his tongue across his whiskers and shook his coat remove the beads of water that had been flung at him. 

One more rabbit within their borders was always welcome- but what caught his attention was the rabbit’s behavior. Something had either startled it, or had been chasing it- assuming the latter, he trotted down the path the rabbit had come, only to find a female wolf haunting the lands not far from the border. 

If that was your rabbit that just dashed in that direction, He waved a slim leg in the direction of the pack, Thanks, uh, for the future meal. However, He said, drawing in a breath. He squinted at her lightly. It’s not really good form to be hunting so close to a pack’s borders. The river valley, just beyond that dip in the landscape there? That belongs to us. He explained.

"Belongs to you?" She questioned, her tone filled with confusion. "I’ve never met a wolf who created the lands surrounding it." A brief chuckle escaped her, though she hadn’t meant for it to.

 Kaaya had come from much different beliefs, she travelled with a band of trotting wolves who never stayed anywhere for long. They always babbled on about how the earth could not be owned, but she didn’t care for such stories. Truthfully, she was just a rather hungry and snappy wolf.

She stared back at him for a bit longer before continuing on. 
"Since you own all this land .. wouldn’t it be alright for me to snag a rabbit or two?" She asked hungrily, glancing over his shoulder only to find nothing there. Her prey had scampered off.

Ksura’s head lifted- not in arrogance, but in confusion. A light tilt of his jaw and widening of his indigo eyes expressed his surprise, and he blinked twice at her, as he sought to puzzle out whether the wolf was being sarcastic, or if she truly did not know how pack boundaries worked. 

He couldn’t piece it together. She was either serious, or an incredibly good bluffer. 

Well, yeah, we claim it, He stated with a shrug of his shoulders. Go twenty paces that way, just where the hill dips and you’ll smell the borders yourself. I’m not telling you that you’re in our territory, but you’re like…riiiiiight close, he said. How’m I to know you fer sure wouldn’t trespass after a rabbit?

He shrugged. The idea of border flexibility seemed simple to him- but he was willing to believe perhaps she might not have lived with similar rules, and had no objections peacefully sharing general etiquette.

His brow furrowed and the corners of his lips drew back when she slyly hinted at her desire to continue hunting in the area- the glance past him implied she might not heed border protocol at all. In our territory? No, you can’t. Like- He sighed. I don’t want to be rude or anything, but like…Is this all news to you? Like seriously? Or are you just pretending to not understand how pack land claims work just to mess with me? The question was earnest, his feathers unruffled. If she was, in fact, oblivious to the nature of pack claims, he couldn’t hold it against her. 

The devious gleam in her eyes, however…Gave him reason to have a shred of doubt.

 Her gaze aligned with his own unwaveringly while she thought of a reply. Her thoughts took longer to collect than necessary, probably being placed off track by another train of them. Finally after a few more seconds of silence, her mouth opened to speak.

 She shrugged, the previously tensed expression on her face now relaxing. Clearly this wolf wasn’t being hostile. Not now, at least, and she didn’t have much energy to do much of anything at all even if he was. A breath of relief escaped her before she started. Thought it was easy to mistake it for one of annoyance. "Perhaps it is, perhaps it isn’t. I have heard many things during my time of travel — about ‘territory' and such, but I’ve never had much ease understanding." Her tone was dismissive, but truthful. 

 She often heard rambling of these 'ownerships' while encountering other hungered wolves insistent on not allowing ‘their' prey to be eaten.

Kaaya simply didn’t understand it. Wasn’t prey placed onto this earth to be hunted by those who were starved? It all seemed foreign to her.

"Must I be knowledgeable about these subjects? I don’t find them all that interesting." She continued on, blinking in genuine curiosity before taking another look around. "And you speak an awful lot about this 'we'. Are you delusional or have wolves finally advanced in the art of camouflage?" She questioned, painfully unaware of how prodding her completely unrhetorical question was.

As if synchronized, Ksura too sighed in relief. A light smile pulled at the corners of his lips, and he allowed his tail to sway gently. He was grateful that she hadn’t been bluffing, and pulling his leg all along.

Eh, that’s OK. We all grow up in different environments, learn different ways. He was easy to forgive her for being oblivious of their laws- and sent a silent thanks out into the universe that she hadn’t had to learn their ways the hard way. 

He chuckled softly. Yeah, it’s not really riveting stuff, He admitted. But if you want, I could tell you just the basics of how we do life here…And, uh, yeah- no, like…When I say ‘we’ I’m just speaking on behalf of the pack as a whole, I don’t like,” He chuckled again, I don’t call myself ‘we’ and ‘us’ ‘cause that’d be kinda weird, eh? He asked rhetorically. 

I’m Ksura, by the way. You are? He prompted, hoping that an introduction might help ease their conversation a bit.

"..Kaaya. It’s true that we come from much different places, and perhaps it’d do me some good." She nodded. If he really did live such a different life, she would be far more than just a little bit intrigued. She’d left home to seek out more of this world, so maybe this was exactly what her journey had been leading her towards.

 Her gaze shifted towards the ground, letting a moment pass for her to think. "Fine, then." She said, breaking the silence and glancing upwards back at him. "Teach me more about this 'pack' way of life." 

 

What did she have to lose anyhow? It was this or did from starvation due to stubbornness — and that wasn’t all that appealing.

"How do I learn?" Her head cocked to the side. This couldn’t be that hard, could it?

Shit, seriously? He asked incredulously, with a sharp tilt of his head and wry smile. Well, it’s meant to be because I kid you not- the pack’s called Qeya River. Sounds an awful lot like your name, but life’s funny like that I guess, He said. He wrote the similarity off as a mere coincidence- it would have been too uncomfortable to think that this could all be a part of some very elaborate long con.

Well, if you want, you can come along with me. I’ll show you the borders of the pack’s territory and answer any questions you have…And try not to like…Mansplain stuff, while still like kind of…Explaining it. He said, with a benign gesture of his muzzle, to invite her to walk along with him. If it gets man-splain-y, like…Let me know because I’m trying to avoid being cringey. Women run this pack, so, He rolled a shoulder with the humble air of a happy subordinate. I just do what I can to keep everyone happy, safe and fed.

 She followed his gesture, padding up towards him and keeping at his pace. "Qeya River, huh? Maybe it really is fate." A breathy chuckle followed after her sentence. 

She licked her nose, her head lifting in an upwards motion slightly to catch a better scent of the surrounding area. "Joining you doesn’t sound like a bad idea.. and being happy and fed doesn’t exactly sound like a nightmare either." She replied, stopping abruptly to shake out her fur before speeding up. She slowed down again once they were shoulder - to shoulder as she listened.

 "I doubt you’ll have to worry about chasing me off with your way of speech, though. Be it due to the silence of traveling by my lonesome, or something else — it’s not all that bad having someone to listen to." She shook her head. 

"I appreciate your hospitality as is, Ksura. I’ll find it hard to forget."

Alright, He said, with a shrug of his shoulder, and gestured that she could follow him toward the borders, down over the hill he had gestured to earlier. He felt there would be no harm in having her at least sniff around and learn for herself what their border claim looked like.

Yeah, living with a bunch of others makes life easier in some ways; harder in others because you can’t make every decision yourself and uh, there’s kids runnin’ around too so you’re sort of always watchin’ out after them but uh, yeah- we hunt together, eat together, and we’re safer together too. He explained as they moved along.

When they reached the borders he lowered his head and gestured to the nearby trees with a flick of his paw. We mark along here, to set our borders. Anything inside our borders is ours- the prey, the land…Other pack wolves do the same. Nobody’s allowed to cross the borders without permission here, He said. We gotta keep the kids safe, so…Borders are good for that.