Vesper snarled in frustration, missing the grouse by a good foot as it fluttered away, spooked by the howl echoing through the territory. She landed and nearly inhaled a feather for good measure. She’d been lucky to find one of the forest grouses on the ground; otherwise scrambling clumsily up a tree would have been her best bet. However, it looked like her usual skill in hunting could be foiled by a random newcomer making a racket.
The lupus-formed coywolf huffed, spitting the feather out of her mouth and flattening her ears. She wondered if she should go check out what the howl was about, but then again, she was only a Tirones and not exactly qualified to do anything about it. Then again, she aspired to be able to do something about it eventually, and to put her skills to work scouting out the territories even beyond the clan’s. Deciding she wouldn’t have food to keep her entertained today, she loped steadily in the direction of the call.
As it was, she reached the place before Zana, but she’d heard her small pack mate coming and remained out of sight. Her blue eyes washed over the man and horse at the border; she was glad for the foliage that would hide her expression of shock. She had seen plenty of white-furred canines before, but never a coydog and never as pale as this. He seemed to lack pigment altogether, his skin almost translucent where she could see it through thin fur. It was…unnatural. It wasn’t something she expected to see so close to the wild clan’s territory.
Or maybe she did—because anyone who wanted to trespass here was an idiot.
The rusty-colored pigmy confronted the stranger as any coyote should, and Vesper pricked her ears for the pale man’s reply. When he did speak, she smirked in disbelief. His loyalty was to Inferni? Who the hell was this guy? Having coyote blood didn’t cement the bond with the clan for Vesper; she cared more about the sense aspect rather than species, and he didn’t seem to have sense.
And so she revealed herself, pushing pointedly noisily through the vegetation and looking the male over. She might have shifted into her optime form to almost match his height, but that would have taken too long, and she was more comfortable as she was born—on four legs—anyway. If he had an issue with that, she could show him what her teeth could do. She was too nervous around horses to change shape, anyway, and she did give the animal a wide berth as she came around to Zana’s side to face off against the man.
“Someone loyal to Inferni would probably smell like Inferni, Matteo,” Vesper stated. She hoped that she wouldn’t be reprimanded for stepping in, but if this came to a fight, she might need to help out her small companion. She didn’t pretend she was friends with Zana, but Zana was a comrade she respected and heard good things about despite her tininess. “Would you care to elaborate a little bit?”
.vespyy b {font-weight:bold; color:#a45927; letter-spacing:1px; text-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.2em #2f1707; }
.vespyy p {text-indent:0px; padding:5px 16px; margin:0px;}
.vespyy {margin:0 auto; width:450px; background-color:#533920; background-image:url(http://i.imgur.com/7efhU.png); background-position:top center; background-repeat:no-repeat; border:1px solid #0b052c; padding: 240px 0px 7px 0px; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size:12px; color:#8b744b; text-shadow: 0.1em 0.1em 0.2em #; letter-spacing:.6px; word-spacing:.9x; line-height:13.3px; text-align:justify;}
</style>
[/html]