I said, I cannot follow the river
of her myth; but I can
follow her sweet desert song
like a stream through the fiery hills.
Word Count → 375
The male offered a foreign-sounding name that matched his accent, and Vesper took a step back as his shape changed, growing smaller and less bulky, though of course he was still substantially larger than her as a full-blooded wolf. Her tail wagged behind her once as she accepted the more natural form, but she made no comment on the shifting. Usually the bigger shifts unnerved her, making her stomach hurt as she imagined the pain of the process, but the luperci didn’t take long.
“I understand,” the coyote hybrid said, dipping her head to accept his apology. She was quite pleased that he’d become reasonable, though she kept her arrogance to herself this time, opting for a more tolerable demeanor. “I could have announced my intentions ahead of time,” she allowed, even if she didn’t think she was too intimidating in the first place. Being scrawny, as he put it, most wolves tended to overlook her and underestimate her.
There was a pause in his words, one that didn’t go unnoticed but that she didn’t question. Kostya would be easier for her English-speaking tongue to handle, though she foresaw shortening it to “Kos” before she butchered the pronunciation. “I’m Vesper,” she replied, her lips quirking upwards in an almost-smile. She never truthfully smiled at strangers, keeping a scarred layer between herself and them; it was an unconscious act.
“Are you new around here, then?” Vesper asked, assuming that he hadn’t been in the area long if he was only now making a den. Then again, she had been here since late August and had nothing to show for it, other than a few connections and an organization behind her back. She supposed the most substantial things didn’t really show.
Then, out of the blue: “I enjoyed fighting you. Well, not the part where you were trying to tear my head off, but…” She grinned and stretched, forequarters dipping luxuriously as she flexed her toes. “A nice spar every once in a while gets my blood up. I’m sorry if it wasn’t as enjoyable for you.” Her teeth flashed in a nonthreatening manner, but she licked her lips as if tasting the remnants of his blood—before letting out a laugh that was far from serious.
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