Characters involved - Lilith and Dux
It wasn't often he ventured this far from his territory. He hated the feeling of being without protection; and when he was on his own land, with the heat of the flame forests licking at his back, he felt safer, more comfortable. Perhaps it was the mere logical conclusion that not many thirsted for a territory so close to the untended fires.
But the need for water, and thus the need to hunt, had drove him off his own land. He had snarled when Valravn had questioned where he was going when he had passed through his neighbor's land, unwilling to pause and explain his life to the irritating male. He had casually sidestepped the rest of the wolves that lived nearby, being on little to nothing relationships with any of the other ones; and went instead to where he knew a herd of his prey lurked, for he had been scenting them for days.
Prowling through the thick, sparse underbrush, he slipped up to the right flank of the herd, halfway parting his jaws and tasting their mingling sweat. This was the only source of water for miles around; and he could feel his throat beginning to ache from the lack of hydration.
So carefully, he took a step forward, his glittering, pale eyes set on a beast that lounged only a few feet from him, forelegs tucked under body and thus less likely to escape him when he lurched to attack. He slid his shoulder blades forward, bunched the taught muscles in his haunches, and stiffened his tail to balance his body; and just as he moved to spring to leap onto the creature's back, a female beat him to it.
The herd scattered, caught off guard from this intrusion, but the male he had been eying had, as he expected, no time to rise to his blundering feet; and the stranger had savagely ripped his throat out within seconds. He died as his blood pooled onto the ground, and this new girl wasted no time in lapping from the crimson pool she had created.
Silently, Dux rose from his stance, pulling back his lips in a snarl as he approached. But when the firelight flashed off of her velvet black pelt, and highlighted the path of lavender stars that crossed over her side, he paused, for he had seen more then just a mere design; she was interwoven with a thousand different scars, and severe, ugly ones impaired the fur growth on her hind legs. Sensing him coming, she lifted her chin and snarled, and he saw the discolored eyes she wore, the one light blue one that looked almost blind but was no obviously not.
"Back off." She warned, her fur stiff and her eyes narrowed. "I have no need to fight you, but this kill is mine."
Abruptly remembering himself and the task he had come here to do, he growled straight back at her, all the while admiring her sleek and healthy figure. She had to be around his age, but her fur was almost unstained and startlingly silky smooth. "I had my eye on that beast before you slaughtered him." He added after a moment, straightening his shoulders. "I wish to take half of the kill myself."
Bartering was a dangerous tool to use in the company of fellow Pantha Wolves, but as much as Dux was loathe to admit it, he was desperate for water; and she had scared off the herd with her kill.
At his words, she lifted her chin with a dark frown. "Or what? You plan on attacking me to win it?"
He could read the open challenge the accompanied her words and he darkly frowned, but after a few slow seconds, shook his head. "No, that's not quite it. I won't hurt you; you don't seem to need any more scars."
His dry humor roused a sudden grin from her. "...I'll share with you, but only 'cause you're witty."
Her grating words, difficult to understand, brightened his expression and he dipped his head, not commenting on the ruined mouth that was pulling her words into monstrous sounds. Instead, he slipped forward, sinking his jaws into the haunch of the beast and pulling off a chunk of wet meat. His stomach growled as he ripped into it. "Thank you, ma'am." He murmured between bites, and she laughed, a free sound that somehow escaped becoming ugly by her scar.
"Call me Lilith."
