Let's count how many cliches are in my short post, yeah? xD Additional ones will improve.

Vesper yawned as she trotted across rock and sparse mountain grass, skirting around a steep drop-off. She had come from the forests in the south, ones that she had frequented lately; she had also abandoned the hollow where she’d slept until the last hour or so. Witnessing the sunrise was one of the rare trivial things that she somewhat enjoyed in life, and it was also a boost to her pride to be able to welcome the new morning, to be one of the first to stand and greet it. And what better place to do that than from the mountains?

This time, however, she had woken too early—yet late enough that falling back asleep would have been pointless. Her blue eyes narrowed toward the horizon, which finally showed a glimpse of pink and yellow that promised the sun soon after. She had been wandering close to a couple of hours in hopes of waking herself up. A few laps at night-cool water had helped, and the work of trotting up the mountain helped too, even if she forced the gait. Her tail flicked behind her as she moved smoothly, wondering what this day would bring and if it would be worth the long hours of daylight it took up.

After a while, she managed to find a sparse area in the trees that washed up the southern face of the mountain range. There was a pretty large stone there that jutted further out than its peers, and with a fluid motion she’d leaped onto it, one hind paw scrabbling for an instant until finding purchase on the rock.

Standing here, almost like a coyote chipped into the rock, she watched the dawn. All around her, the world was silent.

I didn't mind the wait. <3 My post is rather redundant and dull, though. xD

The dawn was gorgeous.
When one thought of the sunrise, they thought most often of the lightening of the sky, the burst of fiery colors. The great red orb was a phoenix, spreading its wings again after its death the night before. And the colors were magnificent today, pinks and oranges and purples silhouetting the forest and mountains around her. She breathed in, the canine’s strongest sense adding another layer of color to the birth of the new day. Somewhere below, late summer flowers would be opening and spreading their fragrance, and the other scents of the day would awaken as well—grass and earth and plants.

Vesper closed her eyes for a brief moment, listening to the explosion of song as the birds greeted the day. It was such a cliché moment, something that only those with tender hearts would stop to consider; she herself would never admit to the ritual despite her pride.

And yet, she was exhausted. Her muscles shuddered briefly as a wind challenged her position on the rock, but she held firm. She pointed her nose to the sun once more, eyes squinting against the brightness. Sights like this usually energized her, but she’d been padding uphill for too long. As good as the sun’s rays felt seeping into her tawny fur and skin, it also made her more drowsy, but she didn’t want to fall asleep here unless she’d found a secure place. Besides, dawn was a good occasion to hunt, and she needed to use her time well rather than drifting off. She smothered a yawn then flicked her ears, freezing.

Another creature had made its presence known, and a quick sniff told her what she needed to know—that it was a female luperci, older than her, with some pack scent but not enough to show that she was part of a family. She smelled odd in some way—diverse earthy scents coating her own. The stranger had traveled quite a bit, but that was not altogether unlike Vesper, who’d journeyed far in less than two years from her old home to the new.

The coywolf turned her head, scanning the area, before she caught a glimpse of autumn colors that did not belong to the new-changing trees. She was taken aback for a moment at the beauty of the other’s pelt, but quickly she gave her head a shake and leaped down from the rock.

Brisk strides took her to the other loner, where she paused and looked the muscular form over. The russet female was quite larger than her—both due to her halfling form as well as natural height. Then again, it wasn’t hard to be much larger than the hybrid.

Vesper wasn’t sure what to say, or what even had drawn her to speak to this wolf rather than move on her way, but she stood a few paces in front of her and gave an interested flick of her ears.

The auburn stranger seemed stiff at the hybrid’s approach, but such caution was a natural reaction, an intelligent reaction. Vesper took in the signs and offered no hostile signals of her own, contrarily lowering her head a bit and letting her tail sweep languidly across the backs of her hocks. She was not as submissive as a pack animal would be, but she showed she didn’t intend a threat. The somewhat humble display might have clashed with her innate pride, but the coywolf had always been proud of her intelligence and common sense, and looking as little like a threat as possible fell under that category.

Vesper was not aware of the wash of light falling on her body but for the warmth tickling her back. It made her skin shiver with pleasure, and she could feel her mood warm with the sunlight. She did see the quirked brow and sudden interest in the other female but wasn’t quite sure of the motive. After all, she had come across several other hybrids in her time, and other than the prejudiced she-wolf in Ethereal Eclipse, none had particularly focused on her heritage.

The wolf finally greeted her at last, breaking the silence—or what silence remained with the birds invading the air with their choruses. Vesper dipped her head in return, her blue eyes growing interested as the secui lifted a paw to her chest, stating what had to be her name, before it stretched out.

Vesper flashed her teeth in a little smirk. “Vesper,” she stated with the same inflection before her voice grew teasing. “Not much of a lady.”

She had noticed the near-weakness in the other’s voice and understood the reasoning behind it. This woman before her was not entirely used to speaking—which had happened to Vesper in those months she searched for her father, starving of contact with other canines. She’d broken her voice back in during her time with the band of young coyotes, and since then she’d become as talkative as any average canine, but she could understand why the autumn-pelted she-wolf’s voice sounded so disused.

“What is an Exultare?” the coywolf asked, her voice light with curiosity and respect. Not talking much didn’t amount to stupidity—on the contrary, she found fools talked too much—and she could trust that this female was her equal. The word was foreign to her, though coated with the same delicious alien edge that the name X’yrin had. While she could understand the concept of “Nomad,” she was curious about this odd title.

I'm sorry if I take a while to make posts; normally I'm rapid-fire with this kind of thing during the weekends, but this time I'm busy. ><

Vesper hadn’t had a mundane encounter recently, though it was a welcome reprieve. She had met other loners braving storms, swapping threats, and chasing cats. While many felt awkward and unsure of what to do with themselves during the meet-and-greet of two strangers passing each other, it brought her a sense of relief. Even the simple gesture of a smile and a single word charmed her. She settled down on her haunches, calm yet interested.

The question the hybrid had asked seemed to be a frequent one to the gingery-coated female. She explained it was a name for a family and a task, sitting down and making another gesture with her paw. She explained that it was a warrior family, and the coywolf nodded quickly, smirking slightly with amusement at the gesture for “sense.”

Vesper nodded quickly, awkwardly lifting a slender forelimb. Bound to a four-legged form as a non-luperci, she didn’t have anything amounting to finesse or dexterity, but she copied the motion as well as she could. “Makes sense,” she added for her own benefit. It had taken her some time to get used to the convention of surnames that seemed popular in Nova Scotia, and yet the name Exultare had more meaning than a name stating a wolf was the descendant of certain wolves; it sounded more like an occupation or rank. “The Exultares are the warriors of the Nomads.” The statement wasn’t altogether confident, but she wanted to make sure she didn’t disrespect this woman’s culture by making false assumptions.

She lifted a hind paw to absently scratch at her tawny flank, taking a few moments to collect her thoughts before hesitantly offering another topic for discussion. She didn’t know how much she should ramble on, since X’yrin seemed to be a woman of few words, but she had an urge to share her own story—if in part, at least. Perhaps some unspoken questions could be answered.

“I have been almost like a nomad—but alone. When I was a teenager, I left my family”—or her family left her, courtesy of her father, but she held back that fact—“and wandered for seasons.” Her journey seemed trivial compared to this woman, who was older by nearly two years. “Do the Nomads wander for the freedom of it, or are they seeking something?”

Vesper was not as pure a wanderer as other wolves were; she didn’t consider herself strictly a traveler, because she knew eventually she might want to settle down. However, she’d journeyed for a great percentage of her young life and would continue to do so until a worthwhile opportunity presented itself.

X’yrin nodded, and Vesper wagged her tail once in relief that she hadn’t gotten the title wrong. It was interesting to think of a clan of warriors, rather than a lineage whose occupations greatly varied. She wondered what tasks she might have carried out in such a group. The warriors conveyed the image of bulky wolves clashing with other ferals over protection, rather than a solitary hybrid fighting with someone over an argument. The warriors sounded like a group standing shoulder-to-shoulder, not a single girl who fought for herself.

The red woman explained that the Nomads traveled for survival, which made Vesper’s coyote-large ears prick with interest. Her eyes watched the gesture that the female created, claws almost clasped. She said that they would travel, letting the lands recover from their visits. The image of tread-down grass and worn paths came to mind, as well as the ginger advance of prey animals chased away the prior hunting seasons.

Vesper lifted her paw to her head again, the best she could, to show that she understood—adding an almost-smile that suggested approval. Their ancestors stuck to their birth lands and packs, but young ones dispersed to give the territory a break and to find new lands. The caribou would migrate across the arctic with the packs anxiously following their movement. It was a system that didn’t exist as much for the Nova Scotia packs that Vesper had heard of, but in the end, it made sense to her. It was another way to live, one that was respectful to the land, especially if they had no way of tending it like some of the advanced luperci.

“Does it get…tiring, travelling so often?”the coywolf asked before she realized that the other female had outstretched her paw. She let the question trail off, listening instead to the one presented to her.

Why did the loner travel? She wasn’t the same as the nomadic pack X’yrin spoke of, but it also wasn’t the normal dispersal of a young adult with the goal of joining a new pack.

“I am suited to walking alone,” Vesper said first, not wanting to go into the details of her family’s demise. She figured she would have left Winter and Sparrow before too long, even if their father hadn’t come back to deal his damage. “I may find a family as I walk, but I do not have a set purpose. I am simply traveling until I find something I want to be a part of. Maybe I will travel forever.” She shrugged slightly, not wanting to think too deeply about it. She liked settling down whenever she had the option, but she liked to walk new lands as well. She didn’t want to take it for granted that she would find a new home.

She simply didn’t care either way.

X’yrin signed that she understood then went on, beginning with stating that the Nomads were much the same. Afterward, however, her words kept coming, flowing like a stream rather than the intermittent drips she’d offered thus far. As she spun her tale, a look almost of wonder passed like a benevolent ghost across Vesper’s face. The picture she painted with her words was a beautiful one: somehow peaceful despite the restless nature of her people. How one could walk for miles and miles, never ceasing the journey, was amazing to the loner. She’d said she was prepared to travel forever, but her lifetime seemed small compared to the lifetime of the wandering family.

The auburn secui settled her weight back, gesturing with both forepaws this time as she brought them together. She said that traveling forever was a beautiful gift, and the coywolf bowed her head momentarily, agreeing. She wondered if she would still share the same belief if she eventually joined with a pack, and that thought made her realize how unpure her wandering state was compared to the ever-roaming Nomads.

Unexpectedly, the Exultare complimented Vesper’s strength for being able to travel alone, and the normally composed hybrid could feel her ears and cheeks warming. The blush on her skin was not visible, but it did reveal itself in other ways—the slight shift of her expression, her slightly averted eyes.

“What you said,” Vesper murmured, somewhat at a loss for words, “what you said was beautiful. It’s been less beautiful to experience the gift alone, but maybe I need to change how I see the world.” She offered a smile, something vulnerable and sincere compared to the smirks that guarded her core. The smile was as young as she was and took no heed of her scars and gauntness.