Lyka loved traveling around the island of Ardent. She wanted to get a nice view of almost everything before she decided to join a pack, or at least find an alpha to talk to. She didn't check the pack territory because she didn't want to get caught trespassing. The femme discovered a river teeming with fish. She was hungry so she decided to go catch some.

This kind of hunt required focus, timing, and skill. She decided to try, but her slightly impaired vision didn't do any good. She kept missing, and after what seemed like hours, she finally caught something. It was a decently-sized fish. Perfect.

She bit down on the fish hard enough until it stopped flopping around, trying to make sure it was dead before she ate it so it wouldn't find its way back into the water somehow. Once the fish was out cold, she put it down and began to eat.

It was really good. It was definitely worth the wait and effort. But was anyone here near the river with her?

Ashmedai jumped around the water, splashing happily as the fish squirmed to get out of his way. He was enjoying the cool water, but also the fish. He had managed to pluck one out of the water and now carried it loftily in his maw. It had become somewhat cumbersome to carry around while in the water mostly because he had to try to breathe around it.

When Ash decided to place it in the river, it floated stiffly, bumping into the shore. Welp, it looked pretty dead. Ashemdai pulled it back out of the water and climbed onto the shore. He supposed he should eat the fish. It also seemed, however, that he wasn't the only one in the mood to munch some fish. A grey and white female sat on the bank, eating away. Ash trotted up and flopped next to her, "Sup? Don't eat the bones."

Lyka was chewing through the fish. It tasted really good. It still smelled really funky, but it was tasty anyway. She heard the other wolf's voice and jumped a little. "Oh, hi!" The wolf said, acknowledging what the stranger said. "Oh, I haven't found any bones yet so it's fine. I'll look out though." Lyka was really awkward around males due to her flamboyant and flirtatious behavior around most of them. The male wolf seemed pretty calm and collected though, different than a lot that she's met in the past.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Lyka, what's your name?"

The woman greeted him warmly, so Ashmedai relaxed a little, beginning to gnaw on the outer surface of the fish, trying to spit out the shards of scales as he went. They got stuck between his teeth. Like prey birds, fish were mostly completely not worth it.

She... hadn't found any bones? Ashmedai peered over at her for a moment, brow quirking. "Do you... usually eat fish? They have bones running, like, right down the middle. They're tiny and thin and you can use your teeth to peel the meat away from them. I guess some wolves eat them, but I was told that they're sharp and they can stab your insides and make you bleed to death internally."

Ashmedai shrugged. He wasn't sure to be honest. He wasn't a healer. She asked his name and Ashmedai smiled with a mouth full of scales, "Name's Ashmedai. Ash is fine though, Lyka!"

Lyka didn't dig completely through the fish yet, so she hasn't reached the middle. But soon enough, a thin white shard poked out after another bite. It was the bone, so she plucked it out and moved on. Then there were more and more. She decided to ignore them for now and would scrape the meat off of them later.

"Oh, I found some. I didn't reach the middle when you said that." Lyka acknowledged Ash's warning. "That sounds terrible. I'll be careful. But I already plucked one out, but I'll just ignore one for now. Hopefully I won't swallow any."

The woman corrected herself and Ashmedai raised a brow, "So it is your first time eating a fish, then? What drew you to such slimy creatures?" Honestly, sometimes wolves were much slimier, but as far as actual food, fish were about as slimy as you could get.

Ashmedai chomped down on his fish, using his tiny front teeth to slide the meat from the bones. Every once in a while, a bone would break off with the meat and Ash would try to isolate it with his tongue- careful to pry all the meat off- before spitting the bone back out. Fish really were more trouble than it was worth.

Lyka was starting to scrape the meat off of the fish's tiny little bones. Some of them would break off and fall into the rest of the meat, but she'd try to pick it out so she didn't accidentally swallow it. "Oh. I wanted to try fish because I was pretty hungry. Plus I've never had it before, so I was curious about what it tasted like. It's good, though! It's really slimy."

The femme finished up the fish after discarding all of the meat-stripped bones. It was tasty. But she would really prefer something a little less slimy. She'd probably just stick to deer and small animals and eat fish as a last resort when she's around water.

"So, Ash, what brings you here? I'm just exploring Ardent and looking for a pack. Well, without trespassing, of course."

The woman explained herself and Ashmedai nodded absentmindedly as he finished off his fish. She discarded her fish and Ash stood, leaving his where it was for whoever the next scavenger was. The woman said she was looking for a pack.

"Without trespassing, huh? Where's the fun in that? How do you know what a pack is made of unless you test them. We're wolves, right?"

A cocky smile rose on Ashmedai's face, "Tell me, what do you really look for in a pack. Further more, what can you give to the pack?"

Honestly, he didn't really know what this woman had to offer. She seemed pretty frail, after all.

"Or are you just hoping to go to a pack and start supplying it new members?" Of course he was asking if she intended on going into a pack, finding a mate as soon as she could, and spitting out litter after litter for the rest of her life. Really, where was the fun in any of that?

Lyka noticed that Ash was plotting to trespass with her. "I'd rather not, but..." The female had second thoughts popping up in her mind. "Well, I guess we can test them..." She'd feel ashamed for doing so, because she'd probably not be accepted into the pack or earn a bad reputation with them. I mean, it also couldn't hurt, right? It's not like the other packs would tell each other not to take Lyka in because she simply trespassed on one territory.

"Hmm. I guess we can, but let's not go too deep into the territory, okay?" Lyka also heard Ash's other question regarding what she would actually do in a pack. "Well, I'd probably be a healer. Maybe have a litter or two if I find a mate, but not right off the bat." Lyka always wanted to have a successful family that wouldn't treat each other badly like what her family did to her. She never wanted to die without passing her genes to someone else.

Ashmedai wasn't planning on doing anything with this woman, trespass or otherwise. He had already been to all the packs and met with all the leaders. He simply was taking note of her mentioning not trespassing and taking the opposite. He tested everyone just like he encouraged the small woman to test the other packs.

The woman gave in easily, however. Was she weak-willed or was she into the whole bad boy thing? Ashmedai wasn't phased either way. "I mean, the packs are gonna test you either way. Might as well test them right back. In fact- I know a pretty good pack to test." His thoughts drifted to Abaven. What was it about Abaven that was just so fun to mess with? He'd never know.

Lyka was somewhat ashamed of giving into Ash's suggestion, but she let her mischievous side get to her. She didn't want to mess with a pack too much and give them too much of a hard time, but I mean, how else was she going to join a pack? She couldn't just let the pack find her in the middle of nowhere with no territories around. It's not like they'd stray that far anyway. Packs were supposed to stick together, right?

The woman give a small smirk. "What pack is that?" Lyka's conscious totally faded away from her. She didn't know why she would do this, but it just felt like a good idea to her. I mean, it sounded fun.

Ahh, so she was still game? That was good. Ashmedai padded forwards a bit, thinking of the best way to get to Abaven from here. It wasn't really close, but it was the best candidate. Oh well, what could you do?

"Well if we're done filling up on fish, we can head over. It actually was my kind-of uncle's pack at one point, but he recently gave it away. It's a good one to test cause even if you piss em off, they ain't too likely to do all too much about it."

He thought of the sassy older alphaess and wondered what she would do about all the pestering. Maybe she'd try to motivate her pack into actually doing something. Hah, likely.

Lyka was excited to look around a pack's territory. If they didn't react to trespassing that much she'd definitely be willing to do it. A bit of her youngster side flared up in her. It seemed like a fun thing to do, but hopefully she wouldn't get into to much trouble. Or be the subject of a lot of gossip, that is.

"What's a good piece of territory that they claimed? I mean, maybe we could hunt a little animal and then see how they react. I mean, it's technically theirs, right?"

Oh boy. She wondered what kind of trouble they could brew. She didn't want to do anything too bad though. Better safe than sorry.

Now she was getting into it. Ashmedai found himself getting a little excited. She suggested getting some prey from their pack. Oooh, even better. Ashmedai started to lead the way "Well, they have this nice little thicket of grasses and such. Shouldn't be too hard to find a rabbit there. How fast are you?"

Ashmedai trotted ahead, trying to find the best way to get to Abaven. He hoped they were ready. They probably weren't. It would be interesting to see how this loner worked around this type of situation too. Ashmedai found himself getting a little more excited. He was ready.

-exit Ash continued to next thread.-

Lyka's poor vision lost focus on Ash walking away, probably going to where the pack was. He was getting blurrier, but the wolf tried to catch up before she didn't know where he was going. Now that she caught up, she could see him better. "I'm pretty fast, but my vision isn't the greatest. This may sound embarrassing, but I think you might need to help me."

She didn't really think about the rabbit being fast at first. Or any small animal can be really fast, faster than a deer or an elk due to their weight. And they can sometimes outrun a wolf. Lyka might be one of them.

Oh well. It's best to try. Besides, Ash might be able to help her in case the rabbit escapes. Then things will go as planned.

-Exit to new thread-