The ebony she-wolf spun around, revealing shockingly blue eyes. She immediately scowled, her lips crawling back as an ear gave a soft metallic ring. She had piercings like many luperci that the loner had seen, but the scent of the multi-formed did not come from her. It was rather refreshing to face someone who was both non-luperci and not reeking of a pack.

It would be a little more refreshing to meet someone who had a bad attitude.

“What business do you have with me?” the she-wolf demanded. Her body lowered a little closer to the forest floor, but it was definitely not a submissive posture—if anything, it looked somewhat like a fighting stance, a half-crouch before pouncing. Her fur bristled despite its layer of wetness from the falling rain, and her tail rose like a banner behind her.

“I thought I heard you talking to me,” Vesper pointed out innocently—though with the number of scars to her lean body, she looked anything but innocent. The intensity of her smirk faded, but it still crept along her lips like a serpent. Her small paws were light on the wet ground as she took a few steps back and to the side, looking like a restless wolf rather than one who was consciously making the decision to stay out of range.

Vesper’s smirk deepened as the black she-wolf threatened her. Most intelligent wolves would back off in the face of the words and exposed fangs, but while the loner considered herself intelligent, her confidence was a tragic flaw. Whereas some other wolves had a healthy amount of pride, her pride had turned to arrogance seasons ago. She was not going to slink around with her head and tail down and let other canines order her to do something.

“Your territory?” the coywolf repeated, cocking her head and scanning the darkness of the forest. Her blue eyes narrowed as they returned to the brighter ones of the dark stranger. “I’m impressed. Do you have a pack to back up those claims?”

She had learned at a young age that loners couldn’t defend pieces of land. Usually the only neutral territories were leftovers from pack claims, leaving the prey sources less constant. Even when she had been with her family, they had been nomadic, wandering from area to area following the migration and population bursts of prey. Tying yourself down to a forest was useless unless there were comrades to constantly patrol, mark, and defend the borders.

Thunder and lightning crashed around the two females, and the darker of the two flinched at the explosive sound. Vesper’s eyes widened a fraction then narrowed, and the smirk slowly faded from her lips as she focused.

The black she-wolf spoke: “So what will it be? Life or death?”

Vesper did not answer. She remained still until a crack of lightning lit up the sky and the peal of thunder followed a heartbeat behind. In that moment, she stepped forward, shoulders rolling forward and tail dancing up behind her. “Are those the only two options, sweetheart?” she asked—prodding, testing, trying to see if this stranger had any bite behind her bark. She did not necessarily want a fight, but she wouldn’t be completely against it, either. She wanted to see where this dark wolf stood against her. The meeting could end peaceably or with a clash of fangs.

The meeting started to get interesting.

The black she-wolf, who’d looked tense and had flinched at the peals of thunder, suddenly took a more confident approach to the conversation. She offered her opinion on packs, and while the hybrid started to open her mouth and tell her she didn’t want to hear it, the words “too weak to live alone” made her blink and smirk appreciatively.

“We agree on something—though I don’t think my opinion is as harsh as yours. I like packs whose members have spines, but it makes me want to vomit each time I see a dependent wolf crawling after their leader for scraps.”

She had a healthy dose of self-respect, and she wished to see the same in others. She thought of Sparrow, pressed against their mother’s side, a foil to her confident and independent sister. She thought of the coyotes trailing after Oliver as if he were some idol. All had disgusted her, and in the end, she’d left them when she couldn’t instill in them the guts she had.

“I’m honored,” Vesper said wryly when the female said she was worth talking to. “Glad that I can offer something to do on a rainy day.”

The canine stepped forward under the guise of the storm, just as Vesper had, and she wondered if this was an attempt at mockery or just a shared strategy. Regardless, she kept light on her toes, ready to leap and dodge if she needed to. She pricked her ears at the mention of a battle, her tongue swiping her lips as if she were staring at a piece of prey, then chuckled.

“If you’re so prepared to pretend you’ve never met me, why on earth would you give a damn what my name was?” The tawny wolf flicked her tail once in amusement then added, careless, “Call me Vesper. Want to return the favor?” She said this while beginning to move, pacing in a wide semicircle around the dark wolf, her gait lazy and showing that she didn’t intend to jump in and attack anytime soon. “I wouldn’t say no to a scrap, as long as death isn’t the end result,” she added, putting theatrical and mocking emphasis on the word “death.” Why some wolves were so prepared to throw their lives away battling a stranger was beyond her—but fights got her blood up in the best way.

Evane das Zas’parsus. As soon as the words were spoken, the small coywolf’s ears lowered against her slender skull. She loathed the thought of trying to pronounce it, but just as she was about to come up with a demeaning nickname, the other stated that simply Evane would be fine.

“Good,” Vesper said with cool amusement. Her nose wrinkled up slightly. “The canines around here have such long and exotic names.” The names of her family members were all one word and related to nature or natural events—though she couldn’t be too sure about her father. The smallest of frowns pulled on her lips, but she shook the thought of him from her head. He had disappeared from her life what seemed like so long ago, and it was pointless to think about him. He—and Sparrow—were gone.

Evane decided that it was time to leave, now that her demeanor had evolved from grouchy and tense to something annoyingly, falsely pleasant. She spoke of a battle in the future before turning to depart, trotting through the wet woods.

“I’m always up for a spar, my lady Evane,” Vesper said to her back, smirking toothily. “If you ever want to choose something other than life or death.”

With that, she turned as well, ready to explore the rest of the woods now that the rain was letting up. She wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about the meeting that had just transpired, or about the dark she-wolf with the intriguing sky blue eyes—but she was walking away amused and curious to know what another meeting might be like.

OOC -- Manipulation is always fun, though I don't know how well Ves would fall for it. xD Really depends. So wanna call this thread done? PM me if so. :3 Also... I made you another table. >3 It's in a thread in the graphics board somewhere.