Estranged Lupa

Walk | Talk | Think

Tahlia crouched silently, golden eyes fixed pointedly ahead. Her breathing came in slowly to her lungs and exited at a quiet, whispering speed, barely fogging the air before her nose. Though she remained still and silent, her tail only just twitching aloft behind her expectantly, the russet and black she-wolf was tense. Every part of her being longed to leap forward, to jump out of hiding and take back her meal, the small hare she had managed to catch by chance through a walk in the woods surrounding her den. Currently someone fed from it, a creature that was not of her pack and altogether unwelcome as far as she was concerned. The dark fox's back was to her, far too busy eating what it could of her meal, and not of a mind to share Tahlia intended to stop it from taking what wasn't rightfully its own.

Feeling its attention was well enough away from her, the full figured wolf made her leap out into the open, striding quickly and silently forward to pounce on the unsuspecting creature. Still with its mouth full, the fox turned, jumping at the sudden sound of movement, and rolled in attempt to defend itself. Tahlia snapped uselessly at a leg as she nearly pinned the wriggling creature beneath her paws, lips peeled back with a growl rumbling in the back of her throat. Easy, so easy, it would have been to end things there, with the fox still scrambling frantically to get an upper hand and escape.

But it wasn't. A sound resounded through the woods nearby, a strange, unfamiliar voice that Tahlia could not place. For a fraction of a second, her attention shifted, and that was all the fox needed to take its small advantage and get away. The wolf growled once more, snapped quickly at the retreating creature as she pushed herself hurriedly upright, but by the time she was fully standing again, ready to leap forward in pursuit, the creature was disappearing into the brush, its meal forgotten. Tahlia breathed heavily for a moment, irritation getting the better of her. It was an easy kill. She shouldn't have let herself get distracted. But what was done was done. There was nothing she could do about it now. Almost absently she turned her attention to the hare that remained, not enough for a meal but perhaps a light snack, and turned away from it with disinterest.

She left the half eaten hare behind as she trailed off into the woods, determined to find out who it was who had called and interrupted her near kill. Part of her was still upset by having lost the little weaselly fox, but she was curious too of who the stranger was and whether their intent at the border was important. And being so close, why not answer? As the other came within sight, her mottled frame appearing through the wintry undergrowth, Tahlia banished any sense of irritation or unpleasantness from her expression, turning it unsmiling but friendly. Her tail gave the briefest of wags behind her as she slowed her gait from a trot to a walk and strolled the last few steps toward the stranger, tone of voice pleasant and companionable, "Greetings. My name is Tahlia Carlier. What brings you to the borders of Seracia?"