Small, white paws crept across the seemingly always damp ground, pretending to be like Ambrosio when he stalks stuff as she tried to be reeeeeally, reeeeally quiet. Her gaze was honed in on a beetle that was slowly crawling across the ground and starting to make its way up a tree trunk. She didn't really know what she'd do with a beetle, but... maybe they tasted good! She wouldn't know unless she caught it, right? So she kept up her little hunt, her paws softly squishing across the ground that was still wet from the rains the night before.

When she got close enough she jumped up and not-so-gracefully tried to pounce on the bug. Luckily, depending on how you look at it, it was moving slow enough that it wasn't able to escape in time and it was big enough that her paws had a big enough target that it was almost impossible for her to miss. What she wasn't really expecting was the way it crunched and squished under her feet. She jumped back immediately with a disgusted, squealing, "Ewwwwww!" She quickly rubbed her paws against the grass to clean them, her ears back against her head and her fluffy puppy fur all fluffed up from the unpleasant surprise.

It really wasn't anything that bad, but who knew that beetles were so crunchy and squishy on the inside?! Well she certainly wouldn't be hunting any more of those! She didn't even want to go taste it to see if it was even worth it. What a waste!

She hadn’t travelled East as often as she had the other points of the compass in the Boreas lands, and she planned to rectify that. She knew packs where more frequent in the upper-half of the East, it was hard to travel between lands without tripping over pack territory, but she managed it all the same.

More absent-minded then planning had her walking through the swamp trees of Lovers-mangrove. The scent of water, dampness, and growing things was everywhere. Perhaps here she might find some interesting herbs, the kind that require dampness and shade, mushrooms and moss, and the like. As she sniffed about through the trees, she would catch sight of something white and hard to miss. Her first thought was a large hare, but as she creeped closer, she realised the form belonged to a small child.

She was surprised to see someone so young out and about by themselves, and was already beginning her approach when the girl pounces. The healer pricked up her ears at the resulting ‘eew’ that escaped her lips, and fought back her laughter. “Hello little lady” she said gently, hoping not to startle the younger wolf. “I believe there’s more interesting prey that that one out and about” she pointed out gently.

"Speech"

In all the hub bub of her freaking out over the crunchy beetle she didn't even notice the lady approaching her at first. She stopped in the middle of a frantic paw rub against the grass and looked up with the black-furred, blue-eyed lady spoke. "Hello!" Elise responded nearly immediately, hopping up and turning to face her new friend in one energetic movement. Her tail was wagging behind her and she gave the woman a wide grin when she mentioned that there was much better prey around than that stupid beetle. Well of course there was! Anything was better than the crunchy squishy beetle thing.

"Yeah!" she said enthusiastically, giving a little bounce for emphasis. "Would you help me catch some? That would be fun!" She spun in a circle like she was already looking for where her next target would be until she realized she wasn't following any of her parents rules for being polite. She stopped spinning immediately, nearly knocking herself over in the wake of her own energy. "Oh! I'm Elise!" she exclaimed as she dipped her head the way her father had taught her to. Her name sounded a bit messy with the little bit of lisp that drug out the end so that it sounded more like "Elissse". She didn't pay it any mind though as she focused on the mysterious woman with the pretty ribbon around her leg. "What's your name?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The pup she had witnessed in an ill fated hunting mission, turned to her with enthusiasm and cheer. With a quick bounce, she had turned to face the healer, and a friendly greeting had already escaped her lips. Riva felt herself chuckle gently, amused and warmed by the friendly greeting. She was only a yearling herself, and had about as much common sense as this one when it came to being friendly with strangers. “Of course, I would love to” Riva agreed easily. As a rogue she had to catch all of her meals, or go hungry. She was small and lithe, and found it easy to sneak up on her prey. She steered clear of larger creatures, that would require a battle to take down, and leave more meat then one little wolf could eat herself. The energetic little pup seemed dizzy from her turning, whipping around so quickly that Riva was surprised she didn’t fall. “I’m Riva” the healer returned the greeting. “It’s nice to meet you Lady Elise” she moved closer to the younger wolf, and put her nose to the grass, sniffing around as she considered what they might hunt. Of course, there was nothing easy to catch anywhere near them now, with all the nose the little one was making. “Alright, do you know the first rule of hunting? You need to make as little noise as possible.” her own voice trailed off into a whisper, her muzzle spread into a smile as she looked nose-to-nose at the other girl, curious is she could manage it. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Speech"

She immediately began to mimic her new friend when she began to sniff around in the grass, sticking her little nose to the ground in a similar fashion and sniffing around even though she wasn't really sure what she was sniffing for. She accidentally sucked a bit of dirt off the ground into her nose which made her sneeze loudly and shake her head furiously at the tickling feeling in her nose. She used her forepaw to rub at her nose until miss Riva reminded her that they had to be veeeery quiet and Elise quickly dropped down into a crouch like her father had shown her a few times and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah! Really quiet!" she replied in a whisper that was barely even a whisper. Her voice was really more like a breathy version of her regular voice, but she was trying. She was just so excited!

It was hard to stay in her wobbly hunter crouch with her tail wagging so much so she gave it up and settled for just walking behind miss Riva and paying extra close attention to her paws to make sure she didn't step on any leaves or twigs or anything. She almost got distracted by a bug she spotted on the ground, but she settled for watching her new mentor's tail instead. "What are we looking for, miss Riva?" she asked in a tone much closer to an actual whisper this time. She knew they had to be quiet, but it was so haaaaard. Why couldn't the rabbits and stuff just hop over to them when they called? That would be way more convenient!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Little Elise also put her nose to the earth, keeping her eyes on RIva to mimic her actions. The healer managed to conceal her smile as she let her senses spread out, searching around them. They would probably have to move a little ways away from this area before they found something, and that of course posed other questions and problems. Where was this one's family? Riva could hardly take her from this area without first knowing if her family was expecting her to wait here for them. Elise began to sneeze loudly, and Riva lifted her head to look at her, but it was clear it was just a bit of dust and dirt up her nose. The healer was smiling again, the little wolf was so cute and trying to hard, that she couldn’t help but melt Riva’s heart. They started walking a little bit forward, sniffing and searching as she did. She was seeking not only something to hunt, but also some indication of her parents whereabouts. She would make sure little Elise found her way back to them before Riva left her. There scents where still in her coat, and she was much to sweet and carefree to have experienced a tragedy, so Riva was certain she would have no problems doing so. After a little bit of walking, Riva caught a scent, and crouched even lower to the earth. It wouldn’t have been her first choice, the blackbird having an easy escape in the sky, but it was the first thing she had scented before. She used her tail to slowly draw the little wolf’s attention to their prey. It was twitering on a log not far to their right, and was low enough to the ground for even Elise to catch, and its attention was on the earth, no doubt searching for grubs and worms. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Speech"