Blind smiled at her show of teeth, insisting that she wasn’t scary. “I just didn’t know what you were at first!”
Vesper smirked then nodded, looking around at the shadowed forest and the thick leaves that hardly let any light down. “It’s damn hard to see in a forest as dark as this. Ethereal Eclipse is a suiting name.”
She would have been quite nervous herself if she hadn’t known this forest a little bit better, after her frequent trips through here. She at least knew which direction to run in if things got dangerous, and her small size was definitely an asset in a cramped space like this. She could shoot between closely-grown trees quicker than most canines; even the faster and stronger secui form of most luperci was too large to fit through.
Blind said nothing during her moment of woolgathering, but once Vesper stopped daydreaming and asked about the pack, her first reaction was to shrug and avert those intriguing eyes. She explained that, being new to the pack, she didn’t know many wolves there. For some reason, the vision of another blue-eyed dark wolf came to Vesper’s mind, and she remembered the girl who’d talked about coywolves being legends—but she had been off her rocker, and she doubted Blind knew her.
The girl didn’t seem altogether pleased with her lack of acquaintances there, other than for one high-ranked wolf, but Vesper hardly thought of that. Instead, she quirked a brow, lifting the scar across it. “At war with another?” She frowned and looked down at the dirt. “Would it happen to be a tribe, do you know? I heard there was a tribe—AniWaya—that was having problems.” Part of her hoped that was the case; otherwise, there was a third pack that she would have to watch out for during the conflict.
Blind seemed far more amazed than the coywolf about the talking cat, and Vesper smirked. “Well, I met it—or she, I guess—when she bit me while I was asleep on the beach. Of course, any sane canine would go chasing after it. A dog jumped out to protect it, though…” Her mind trailed forward in the events, and the image of the woman crying made her frown briefly. She glanced awkwardly at Blind, wondering how best to change the subject. “Well, the cat was a bitter old curmudgeon. And I didn’t get to eat her.”
She sighed and gave her head a small shake before looking the dark wolf over again. “Sorry I didn’t have a more interesting tale, sweetheart.” She smirked and lifted her eyes to the leaf canopy outlined in weak gold. “Well—I do have some, but they aren’t all nice.” Her injured ear flicked, and she paused a moment before reclining, settling down on her belly on the forest floor.
“But unless you want me to delve into my life story…your turn. What was that one she-wolf like, the one you liked talking to?”
