the smell of sleep and disinfectant

She parted her jaws in a strained pant, the insides of her cheeks still tingling from the unexpected taste. Already distressed, it did not serve her well to be lectured by a stranger. Turning, ears lowered in embarrassment, she was surprised to see that the wolf, though vaguely close to her age, give or take several months, was already so aggressively built. Bear-like in stature, the way he loomed over her reminded her of being under the shadow of the mountain she lived on. The foreboding familiarity caused a shudder to inadvertently run down her spine. "Luckily it only took me one mistake to figure that out." She muttered lowly, but not so quietly that the dark accented wolf wouldn't hear, a bitter glare turned at the rocking waves.

Yet she was obviously soothed by the male's friendly disposition as she turned her warm but weary smile to him. "How anything lives in this water is beyond me. All the water I've ever known has always been fresh, aside from the hot springs." The scent of sulfur was more than enough warning to not drink the water. "Is all the water around here like this?" She frowned, wondering how anyone could survive such conditions. "Can you eat the fish that live in this water?" Lament had shown her how to fish by putting her head under water, but she was even less enthused to do so in the sea. She looked doubtfully from the brown furred wolf, back to the water, wrinkling her nose in distaste.

"I like it here, I think, but I miss the mountain I grew up on." She mourned quietly, closing her eyes briefly to remind herself of the familiar taste of the glacier fed creek that ran through the den-site. "My name is Muses, by the way. It's nice to meet you!" With a wave of her feathered tail, she introduced herself enthusiastically, pleased for having remembered the social norms of the society she now belonged to.