Otter Creek cloudwalker

it was awfully quiet out here.

no talking, no footsteps, not even music. she had been so used to steady stream of noisy sounds that the wilderness had taken its toll on her, but she was determined.

dirty snow slush stained the lighter parts of her paws and underbelly. something she should work to clean off when she found a place to rest.

for now, she followed the creek.

softly hummed a mindless tune to herself.

tavina washed dried leaves in the running water. what she opted to do shortly after this was bathe, dipping herself quickly into the frigid water.

with a hiss she pulled herself out, chuckling as she shook water from her jet fur. further along the creek, a strange and eye-catching figure walked, heading her way. tavina waved her tail in greeting.

she did not slow when she saw the other, even though she was aware they weren't the same. this woman seemed to align more with some of the...wilder beasts, nala had seen.

still. there were no slobbering jowls opening to snap teeth at her or even bad posturing.

instead the woman seemed friendly.

nala's tail became a wispy flag of returned friendliness. oh! hello! called out with all the eagerness of somebody who had not seen a friendly face in such a long time.

the stranger was not one of her species, but tavina lived with coyotes and a dog. very little phased her. her beam was warm as she looked at the other. "out for a stroll?" the weather was anything but conducive to this.

the little canine's eager nature reminded her that as a wolf, she held the power here. "i'm tavina. sesh and physician of akashingo."

she gestured toward the mesa.

oh, something like that. she answered as she rolled her head to coyly look away from the woman. it felt like that was all she did. stroll.

this woman came bearing great titles though. fancy words that nala did not understand.

what is a...sesh and physician of akash...akashingo? none of these words were she familiar with.

the black wolf chuckled. "they're only a long-winded way to say i'm the doctor in akashingo." she motioned a little ways downstream to her herbs. "just came out to rinse those. and myself." she grinned.

tavina looked around. "it's a nice place for a walk. did you want to be alone?" she inquired, looking into the odd brilliant eyes of the stranger who as of yet had not yet introduced herself. "i can pack up and go, if so."

she looked to the herbs. still clueless on what akashingo even was, but that was okay. maybe she'd find out later.

oh! no, not really. i'd actually...really like the company. if you don't have to go yet, of course. she laughed, perhaps a bit too loud and bubbly for the soft company of tavina.

i'm nala — of...not akashingo, i don't think.

tavina laughed. "the pleasure is mine, nala of not-akashingo." the sesh glanced toward the mesa. she had time to kill. "are you new in the teekons?" she wondered, falling into step with the other canine.

the doctor did not think of herself as a recruiter. and yet she'd done it at least once. for now, however, she was only enjoying the moment, shifting the focus fully to nala for a while.

yes! well, i think yes? i don't actually know what teekons is but i guess it is here? she bubbled with laughter at herself. how foolish she felt! perhaps the wild doctor woman would take pity on her.

i'm sorry. a little bit more laughter, softer this time. i'm adjusting and i find myself...confused a lot. everything is so different and i'm so different! she gestured with her muzzle from her own chest towards the other woman.

look at the two of them!

nala's laughter was joyous and eager. "you're not a wolf," tavina said warmly. "but there are many others in the world aside from wolves." she paused thoughtfully. "have you ever seen a coyote?"

they were not dogs, but they were also not wolves. she wondered if the comparison would assuage any doubts nala had about herself. "oh, and the teekons is all of this wilderness, as far as you or i could see."

a coyote. she was certain she had heard about them before, though had she met one? well, she could not say!

i don't think so. although it's not often i'm greeted with a friendly face at all! all of this still spoken with bright, bubbliness as opposed to any sort of disdain. she supposed if a strange creature showed up on her doorstep she'd too be alarmed by its arrival. it was the way of the world it seemed.

perhaps this teekons place will be a nice change.

"that's a shame. yours is pretty pleasant." tavina spoke boldly, cutting the other a wink before continuing along the creekbed. 

"it's treated me well. i'm not really one to care about kings and queens, but where i am now, i can just focus on work." she was not sure if it would be the same everywhere.

oh!

her face grew hot beneath her salt and peppered fur. she knew she was...well, nala was aware that she not the ugliest creature out there even if she was far off from most of the beasts she encountered. however she had not grown used to such compliments. especially from the stronger wolves who lurked in the wilderness.

she was thankful for the chance to not fumble with the compliment and instead talk about where this woman was from, her work.

what's it like where you're at?

maybe they were all like tavina, kind and warm.

tavina smiled, enjoying the continued friendliness of the other. "well, it's sort of a dramatic place. they've got this ruler, a pharaoh, he's called. he has a wife, his queen. he sort of just — sleeps with whoever he wants and parties all the time." she rolled a shoulder to indicate it wasn't a focus of hers.

"my job is to tend this boy who got injured a few months ago. wolf attack. sometimes i run errands. mostly i'm left to myself, so i can come and wander and have the sort of conversations i want to have," she went on, looking at nala.

nala had never considered herself a prude but...whoever he wanted? despite the fact that he had a queen and...

her gut churned some, silent thought. this place was not at all like the woman before her was. proven by the fact that the physician seemed disinterested in it as well. relief, perhaps, radiated off of nala at this revelation.

why can't you just go be a phys-phy-doctor, she finally squeezed out. elsewhere? if you just wander and have to look for conversations you actually want. none of it worded rudely! more mild curiosity than anything else.

tavina grinned. "why move around? i have all the space i want there, as well as help with my herbs. it's good to have a home base." she was not nomadic, though had traveled alone for a short while. akashingo gave the woman what she wanted and did not ask her love in return.

"what sort of conversations do you want to have, nala?" tavina pressed lightly, swinging the light of her attention back to the flowery young figure. it was easy to talk to her. today's trip out of the mesa had been a success.

nala would not pretend to understand, but she also would not judge! if this woman was happy then all was well, she supposed.

good ones. she laughed with bubbly humor. i used to share songs and stories. i'd like to find somewhere to do that again with kind faces — like you. a soft tease in her tone as her feathery tail whipped behind her with friendly eagerness.

"stories?" the rich purple of tavina's eyes touched on nala's pleasant features. "if you're up for sharing one, i'd love to hear." it would be something she could recall on boring and cold days at the mesa. to their left the creek had cracked along the bank.

the physician stopped to investigate, noting where a long birch branch had gotten frozen beneath the surface. on closer inspection, it seemed as though an entire tree had fallen into this part of the water but remained attached to the bank.

"weird," she chuckled, looking at her companion with an arched brow.

doing her own retelling of the white duck

she had a story ready, thankfully!

although it was not exactly the grandest of tales to tell, much more akin to a child's bedtime story in a book. regardless she would begin.

there once was a king who had to leave for travel, his queen unable to come. he warned her to be safe and not listen to strangers. although not long after his departure, she succumbed to a stranger. a witch! her features spread out in a large grin as she eyed the landscape. lured the queen out into a meadow and turned her into...a duck. the witch was quick to take the place of the queen in hopes she might steal the throne —

her eyes wandered more and noticed how...off the land seemed. the cracks, the tree in the water.

this place might put my story to shame... she laughed softly. still interested in hearing it when there's a bigger mystery at hand?

kings and queens. a fairy tale. somehow the way nala told it was the sweetest thing about its utterance. tavina found herself quiet, entranced by a classic take on the life she now lived. a witch on the throne. the doctor grinned, thinking of the many fellahin who crowded around pharaoh. 

on a word they would seek to displace his queen. of this she had no doubt. but it was not her fight or her bother. "i can multitask," she declared, stepping forward to test the downed tree and the creek. "i want to know if the king can tell his bride from a witch."

men were usually blind and foolish. she didn't think the king would be different.

we'll get there soon. she teased with warmth.

now let's see...oh! well, the queen-turned-duck unexpectedly laid eggs that hatched into three ducklings. and the witch hated this. so she sought to, well...kill the ducklings. so she did just that at night when they slept soundly.

morbidly awful, but thankfully the story did not end there.

the queen duck obviously mourned over the lost of her ducklings and she cried — quacked, really — over it for some time. even when the king returned. the witch who posed as his queen still tried to convince him that it was nothing more than just a duck quacking, but the king wished for the duck to be captured so he might see. however nobody that he sent to do it could manage to snag her.

some curl of her lips as she happily trailed after tavina.

do you know who could catch the queen duck?

ducklings. witches. a king eventually coming to the conclusion that what he saw wasn't reality. tavina smirked and returned to nala's side. this time she brushed their pelts together as she paced just ahead of the other canine. "tell me."

the story was shaping up to be quite interesting, with twists she hadn't expected. maybe it was the whimsy. maybe it was the way nala grinned and chirped expressively. 

but tavina had been captured, at least for the present.