From deep within the jungle-like wildrness of the island's heart, the rustling of dead and dried leaves blended harmoniously with the sound of the waves pushing and crashing against the shore, only to creep away and pull at the sand. With her keen senses sharp from youth, Thresher could discern the difference in both pitch and timbre between the sound of the leaves rustling and the sound of the waves- as one sound was one that she had known for the entierty of her life and the other was quite new to her. The death of the leaves had been a beautiful spectacle, with each leaf turning a hue of yellow, orange or red before it finally shrivelled a bit and drifted lazily to the ground, where they would then turn brown. It was a tad discouraging to see something so beautiful last for so little time before stepping aside and allowing the grey, drab pallette of late fall to claim the countryside. She wasn't the biggest fan of the changes which had already taken place, but she did understand that they were temporary and that the colours would make their way back in the spring, a time when the world renewed itself. Having been born a bit later on in the year, Thresher had yet to experience a spring, but from what she had been told, Spring sounded exquisite. Full of colours and sounds and smells, a freshness that would puncture the darkness and cold of winter to cast warm light upon the world. She could only hope that the winter would provide everything the spring needed to be beautiful.
She left the labyrinth, which was where she spent the most of her time, and made her way out along the beach where the tiny hermit crabs moved this way and that, mirroring the waves as they came in as failing to move often meant that they would be swept a few feet one way or the other by the water. Thresher was a compassionate soul, but the little hermit crabs weren't showing any signs of having been hurt by the swell of water, and in fact, they seemed as though they enjoyed it- as much as one might enjoy being tossed this way and that. They were also armoured, and carried their own home around on their backs, so they weren't exactly in any danger of being hurt by other crabs or rocks so long as they still clutched their shell. They skittered away from her, and if they weren't fast enough they'd just hunker down to wait until she passed by, though she gave one or two a friendly sniff and a curious touch with her nose. Crabs- the regular ones- were much more bold than these little fellows. She didn't really have to worry about one of these little guys pinching her nose or toes. She was looking for a real crab though, and knew that there would be some along the land bridge that led to the main land.
The waves lapped at the land bridge, which was partially rocks and partially sand, but the tide had been out long enough that the rocks had dried out fairly well. Thresher was incredibly nimble on her feet any way, and had no problem making her way along on rocks or sand, searching in the gaps between rocks for a nice crab to eat. Her parents had shown her how to catch one- and how to bite off the pincers which could seriously harm her nose it she let it grab a hold of her. She became fairly distracted by her task, and didn't notice that the wind had begun to change direction slightly, and pick up a bit. She had a thick coat of fluffy beige already, in preparation for the winter, so the wind didn't bother. It was also present in nearly every day of her life, living on an island in the ocean, so she had become accustomed to having her locks blown about by the breeze which sometimes raged as a full-on gale. But on the grey afternoon, the wind seemed fairly harmless, but she should have been aware of the fact that it meant that the tide would soon change. Oblivious to that fact, and more intersted in finding herself a crab or two as a meal- and maybe one to bring back t prove that she had been successfully hunting- she continued searching.
Crabs weren't hard to find- but they were clever and they were quite hard to sneak up on. She wondered if they could feel her pawsteps as she approached, as they were already moving away from her- scuttling into the water between the rocks where the waves sucked them out to sea with each swell- by the time she got close enough to see them. They were pretty fast too- though their legs weren't long, and despite the fact that they could only move sideways, the little crustaceans could really boogie when they wanted to, waving their pincers in the air accusingly as they slid into the water and disappeared. Once they were in the water, they were left alone- there was no way she was going to try and grab one under the water, as it would have every advantage and probably clip onto her lip if she wasn't careful. It hadn't happened just yet, but Thresher was careful and a bit paranoid of that happening, so she took every precaution to avoid getting pinched.
She hunched down when she saw a group of a couple crabs, decently-sized, dabbling in a little tide pool created between a few rocks. She ambled around to place herself between them and the ocean, though it did mean putting her two hind feet in the cool water. She was exceptionally respectful of the ocean, and did not play in it freely, especially not when unsupervised. Had she taken her focus away from the crabs and looked up, she would have realized that she'd wandered more than halfway acros the land bridge that separated their pack from the mainland. Though she had already been taught that they were to be friendly to all mainland wolves, the realization of how far away she was would have frightened her- had it hit her. It didn't, though, and she'd just stumbled upon the perfect opportunity to see if she could corner one of the four crabs dabbling in the little tide pool. They couldn't escape past her, so they'd have to climb out over the rock and scuttle across the land bridge to the water on the other side if they wanted to get away from her.
Choosing her moment, she crept forward, ears flattened so they might not see her approaching (they stuck up so high, they were practically twin beacons upon her fine-featured head) and peered over the nearest rock, trying to pick one of the crabs out of the bunch. None of them apeared to have any handicaps, so she would simply have to decide once she made a move. One of them was fairly close to her, so it became the target, and after inhaling and exhaling a long, cool breath, she pounced over the rocks and landed with her forepaws in the tide pool. The crabs went scuttling in all different directions, with the one she'd originally chosen scuttling off toward her flank and away. She caught sight of one disappearing over the rocks and making a break for the water on the other side of the land bridge, but out in the open, itwas an easy target. She bounded over the wall of rocks around the tide pool and descended upon the crab, which immediately went from RUN AWAY to DEFEND mode, lifting both claws into the air and gesturing with a sort of 'come at me bro!' wave. It knew that it would be weaker if she got behind it, so the dance ensued for a few moments, with a gleeful Thresher barking softly every time she bounded behind the crab only to have it whirl around to face her again. The two swirled this way and that, but the crab cleverly had her pushing back toward the water with each step, and she didn't realize it until one of her paws hit the water, landing on a wet rock and slipped out from beneath her. At that moment, the crab lowered its pincers and made a beeline for the water, disappearing just below the surface only a moment before Thresher's jaws snapped above the surface.
She was vanquished by a more clever opponent, but Thresher wasn't exactly starving, and there had been a happy grin plastered on her features the whole time. She liked the dance that the crab had made her do- bounding this way and that, side-stepping neatly, reaching in to tease it with a snap of her jaws before jigging backwards to avoid getting pinched. It was excellent practice for the girl who was already fairly nimble on her feet, whether it resulted in her getting a meal or not. The steps the crab had put her through were ones which could easily be applied to any other form of prey. Rabbits would zig zag, and a deer might lash out at her with a hoof or with sharp antlers, so she would have to be nimble on her feet, always. The same way her prey needed to be able to out-maneuver a predator, she needed to be able to compensate and better their motions so that she could eat. Of course, at the moment it was nothing more than a game- and she wasn't even aware of how graceful she was when she moved, leaving a mishmash of pawprints in the dry sand from where she had stepped and leapt. With that potential snack out of the question, she went back to the little tide pool and hunkered down just past it, setting her muzzle lightly on the stone and flattening her ears; she would stay there and wait again, she decided, remaining as motionless as possible so that the crabs woulc come back- and then she could ambush them once again.
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