Nico had never been to this place before, spending most of his time in Boreas.  It wasn’t his only first experience but, Nico had also never hunted beavers.  He’d laid back far enough from the water to not upset the little wood-biters as he watched them work.  That day the coyote had a meal of eggs and a couple of rats.

Today was different.  He’d watched for his chance and when one beaver had strayed a bit too far from their dam Nico had rushed it. The coyote was careful to avoid the beaver's powerful teeth, getting a solid bite on the back of the neck, thrashing, and throwing it farther away from the river.  It tried to escape and Nico rushed it again.  This was fun!
Eventually, the beaver was dead and after he finished playing with the corpse the coyote was ready to eat.

"Nico"

Yarou had been lounging by the beaver dam for some time, watching the family of beavers set themselves up. They worked on the dam. For a few days, now, Yarou took stock of the beavers, lounged, made no moves at all, because this way, they would think she was nothing intimidating at all. Nothing dangerous.

So, for perhaps the fifth or sixth day, Yarou returned to the dam, the dog-wolf holding her head up as she trotted closer, tail curled tight as always. Her ears snapped forward when she noticed that there was --

"A coyote," Yarou huffed. "And he's stealing from my dam." The words grit from her, and the young woman skulks closer as her mother watches, the Akita keeping a careful eye on both coyote and wolfdog.

When Yarou got closer, she picked up the pace, lurching forward before skidding to a halt before the coyote and saying: "These are mine!"

And then she lurches for the beaver, aiming to snag it. "You've ruined my work. Now they know we're threats! I've been waiting here for days-" Frustration tinged her voice as she tried to steal the dead beaver.

Nico lived life one enjoyable day at a time.  His bird friends normally would warn him ahead of time if any dangers were about but they roamed farther away at times, this was one of those times.  Still, Nico should have been more attentive to potential threats so was as much embarrassed as startled when the dog came rushing towards him.

Nico started to back up with one paw but changed his mind, standing his ground.  The dog was taller than him but, not to the extent some of the wolves he’d met.  There were plenty of options for food so truthfully this one bit of meat wasn’t worth a life-and-death fight over but, backing down could get you pushed around.  Nico’s pride and warning of looking weak had him, for the moment, defending his meat.

“Apparently this one isn’t yours,” Nico retorted back.  “I killed it, its mine.  If you were too slow,” but his sentence was cut short when Yarou attempted to steal his kill.  Nico bit down on part of the beaver, turning this into a tugging match.  This was dumb, the dog was taller and looked more muscular than Niko.

The coyote let go in irritation, giving up the meat but not the battle.  “Yeah, I guess if I couldn’t hunt I’d resort to thieving also.  You smell of a wolf pack, do you take without giving from them also?  You’re pathetic.”  Yup, just really lay it on.

"Niko"