Sorry for the wait! Ves dun like horses. / 545
More than one set of travel-weary paws had found rest, although Vesper had claimed Inferni as her home since autumn. Her own rest was no more comfortable, though; only the prior night had she gotten back into the territory from her mountain patrol. Despite craving the sleep, however, she was not deaf to the usual challenge of rising before the sun.
She answered the morning’s call with almost mechanical obedience, rising from her nest and shaking the moss and loose fur from her pale tawny coat. Her lithe frame crept out under the lightening sky, blue eyes triumphantly falling upon the glimmer of light on the eastern horizon: on display from the entrance of her den. Allowing herself a rare grin, she traipsed out from the cave into the snow and immediately convulsed in a shiver at the temperature.
Damn weather. The coywolf shook her head but walked on, rushing for the sight of the forest at the edge of Inferni territory. She would do her best to hunt before she started in-territory patrols; as Optio, she had to keep tabs on and understand the clan more than she ever had. It was a difficult task, as it seemed to her that she would never understand some of the coyote that lived here, but knowing their names and making sure they weren’t doing something piacular was enough.
It was only a matter of an hour or so later that she headed toward the mansion, a skinny rabbit swinging from her slender jaws. She hadn’t visited the human building sense spending most of the night with Helotes, and it was only at the thought of him and perhaps the healer that she headed that way now. At worst her warrior friend would be sleeping in or out training already; she didn’t pretend to know his schedule. Her eyes drank in the familiar sight of the worn trails and the guest house where she’d stayed during her first few weeks injured here.
She was about to circle around toward the entrance of the mansion when the sight of a small, chestnut-golden shape streaking for the stables caught her eye. The rabbit nearly fell from her jaws before she composed herself and trotted after the small form, one that smelled strongly of coyote and newly of Inferni and the Aquila. If not for the latter scent, she might have supposed it was one of Halo’s children, but she was made uncertain and wary.
The sound of a whinny as the kid ran up to the barn made her fur stand on end, however, and quickly abandoned the rabbit as she raced toward the pup. In her feral mind, horses were dangerous; even if a large wolf might have been able to command one through fangs or through reins and saddle, she doubted that a tiny little coyote would survive their stomping. Her natural mistrust of the equines drove her to leap at the child and protect it, keep it from heading into the stables to undoubtedly get crushed by rock-hard hooves.
“Get back, kid!” Vesper yapped, crossing the last few feet between them. Her mouth aimed to grab the coyote-child in her mouth, to swing it around and deposit it on the other side of her rigid body.
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