500+
Merilin pranced about the old female, her eyes gazing up at the scared face. It still frightened her, especially since all the features were much clearer even in what dull light penetrated the clouds, but the young coyote could only remind herself of how kind Kaena had been to her. Nothing to Fear. Of course not. The russet coyote came to a stop in front of the old female, her tail wagging as well. “I had a good dream,” she offered as an explanation about why she might have looked better this day. It was a wonder, though, since the blood was still on her head, slowly washing away with the constant drizzle, and she did not look much better physically. Whatever made her feel better, the emotion only touched her spirit.
“Eat?” she asked, and then suddenly noticed the large fish still dying on the ground. Her blue eyes almost popped out of her face. “Oh!” she exclaimed. “Food!” Her ears were perked and seemed to want to tear away from her skull and fly into the skies. “Thankyouthankyou!” She was so excited to see food again, and her stomach was too, apparently. The stomach made a strange growling sound, and Merilin started down at herself in surprise, but then laughed. Her stomach always made funny noises. Yes. The creature smiled up at Kaena.
“Let’s eat together,” she offered, jumping slightly and wiggling her rump as a pleading gesture. What little light there was on the cloudy day still played with the russet tones of her fur, glinting off each strange, letting them dance with the bits of cream furs. So excited for food, she still obliged and jumped for the fish, biting down and tearing at soft flesh of the fish. She had only eaten fish once, but it had been very small. This tasted nothing like that one had either. A sigh escaped between her tears; such a wonderful thing food was. Her head moved two and fro as she mimicked what she had seen her mother do when trying to rip a large chuck of flesh off. It seemed to work, for a large slab came off; she had to drop it and eat parts of it because it was too big for her to swallow the entire thing at once. The young coyote made a noise of contentment, apparently done with the meal. She had always lived in near starvation, eating well only a couple days out of the month, and so her stomach did not hold very much; and she was also quite small.
While she allowed Kaena to finish eating, the young coyote fell back on her haunches and gazed about her. It was quite flat for a while, with the lands maybe rolling in some areas, like a plains. In the distance, near the horizon, she could make out a dark line, perhaps a forest. She had never actually been in one, but she had seen one from afar like she was now. Her mother had told her what it was. It sounded fun and interesting. Trees were such a weird thing. There were lots of rocks and caves much like the one she had just slept in. Overall, there was so much to see here that Merilin was curious and excited to find out where they would start. She looked at Kaena.
“How big is the Inferni’s lands?” she asked. “Is everything I see now a part of it? Is that forest over there a part of it?” She jerked her small nose in the direction of the horizon in the west. “I’ve never been in one,” she said thoughtfully. Her tail wagged absently as she thought to herself. Then she looked at Kaena again. “What is in a forest? My mother told me it was dark and smelled good, that lots of animals we could eat lived there. But she also said that a forest could hid scary things too…” she thought on that. What kind of monsters? She shuddered, remembering the one that had kill her mother. She hoped she did not see any of those again. “Are there monsters here, Kaena?”