Vesper was not quite sure what she had been looking for. Perhaps staring would give her some idea who they were? Perhaps she had been waiting for a member to show themselves? She wasn’t quite aware that her staring might have been marked as suspicious, that she could have been mistaken for an enemy spy scoping out the boundaries. She might have considered it if she’d been more familiar with pack customs, but as a loner, she only knew that actually crossing the border and stealing prey was completely forbidden.
A call made the coywolf turn her head sharply, her tawny fur bristling as she spotted a two-legged shape walking toward her from across the borders. The fact that this individual was younger than her didn’t really cross her mind; she was in defense mode, knowing a wrong move or word could bring down the rest of the pack on her. She had been caught—and while she firmly believed she hadn’t done anything wrong, she knew the cruelest of packs wouldn’t care for evidence. They would kill first and ask questions later.
Vesper did not run away. She turned to face the younger female, a purebred coyote with a normal coat of browns and tans. There was no denying that she smelled of the pack, and so Ves adopted a respectful if not quite submissive air.
Before she could find an answer for the question, the coyote went on, asking her why she was “all the way out here.” Large ears twitched, and Vesper glanced across at the borders, assuming that her “home” had to be the girl’s home. She was then asked if she was hunting stinkies, and the childish word among the miniature-adult persona the girl embodied made her nose wrinkle in amusement. “I’m not hunting anything right now, no.” What was a stinky?
“I have no home,” Vesper went on. “I don’t live in your pack. I was looking at your territory, though”—she paused a moment, trying to find a valid reason—“to see if anyone was around. I wanted to ask what your group is like.” She was indeed curious about the clan, having attempted to take note of every faction within Nova Scotia. It was a lot easier to live alone if you knew your neighbors.
The girl proceeded to tell her to be careful around stinkies, and while she was amused again, Vesper was careful not to look like it. She instead nodded as if filing that information away. “What do stinkies look like?” she asked, wondering what on earth the coyote was talking about. Taking a seat, she added, “Just so I know to be careful around them.”
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