Word Count → 513
Neela dipped her muzzle for a split second towards the stranger as she offered Neela a share in the meal, which was quite a pleasant surprise for the collie, who had been expecting to need to trade for the food. She noticed the other wolf sinking into the shadows as she approached but thought little of it, idly guessing that the retreating male must be antisocial or have some other reason to not be interested in company.
As Neela approached the fire something began to niggle on her mind, or more accurately her nose. Neela's nose was twitching like crazy as she picked up a scent, something that she recognised subconsciously but wasn't getting clear enough to actually identify, the cooking meat overriding her sense of smell. As Neela approached she saw the stranger cutting up the meat, dividing a generous portion for Neela. Mouth watering the collie sat down close to the fire, brushing away some of the half melted snow with her foot, and waited for the blonde to finish. "Thanks a lot, wasn't looking forward to salted fish tonight, "Neela stuck her tongue out playfully in a grimace, fresh fish was fine but salted fish was something Neela had grown to hate, if noly for the fact that the taste generally signalled failure to catch fresh fish on her behalf, "The name's Neela, from Ichika no Hoen just north of here, you're actually not far from our borders."
Leaning back Neela noticed that the woman had finished dividing the meat up but didn’t move yet, enjoying the fire and trying to get a conversation going, "So, what brings you to this neck of the woods?" she asked lightly, before her hunger got the best of her and she leant over to get some food.
Neela's path to the food brought her nose close to the strangers fur and as she did so she froze, the familiar smell stronger than ever. Neela looked sharply upwards towards the stranger's face and inhaled sharply with an audible snort, her nostrils flaring as she recognised the smell. How couldn’t she? It was emblazoned on her mind and carried around on a reminded, a clump of blonde fur still stained with Kiara's blood. Neela's lips peeled back from her teeth and a low, dangerous growl came roaring out of her mouth while her eyes stared into the strangers, the amber orbs reflecting with a murderous light in the firelight.
Neela shot upwards into a standing position, dropping her legs slightly into a stance, though her arms remained down by her sides in a seemingly neutral stance. What the stranger wouldn’t know, however, was that this unaggressive stance allowed Neela easy access to the knives on the back of her belt, knives she was fairly sure the stranger hadn’t seen yet. Still growling Neela let words slide past her bared teeth, her accent degenerating through pure anger, "Yah've got sa'hm nerve about yah comin' back round 'ere after what yah did" Snorting angrily Neela eyes the woman, mentally begging with her to make an aggressive move.
