One Wrong Move
#1
OOC: Sorry for the wait, this was supposed to be up waaay earlier today. x__x Thread is dated a little in the future, October 16th.

IC: As Kenna grew more comfortable within the pack lands of Cercatori d'Arte, the more she felt she could go out and explore other territories a little farther from home. She was finally playing an active role in the pack and was becoming more and more social with her fellow d'Artisans. Her presence was now deeply entwined with her pack mates and as a whole, the scent of the pack itself she now carried with her wherever she went. She was a part of something, she was accepted and belonged and that made the collie woman feel secure and happy. With that knowledge, it was alright to come and go from the borders from time to time. Some day soon Kenna would have to start up some trade with other packs or loners. As the colder months were settling in, her lack of supplies was becoming rather obvious. But today was not a day of trade.

Today, stallion and rider found themselves out wandering through the territory called the Dampwoods. The forest was a lot like Ethereal Eclipse, only not as overgrown. It was always nice to go out on an adventure in a new place where the only thing that could be expected, was the unexpected. As Kenna maneuvered Dust along a cresting ridge through the trees, she had taken to traveling on foot. She had ridden the buckskin the entire way to Dampwoods and decided he could use a bit of a break from her weight upon his back. Dust seemed to appreciate the consideration and kept gently nudging at his companion's shoulder as they went along, showing his affection. With a soft smile upon her maw, Kenna casually lead the stallion by the reins along through the forest. All around there was the echoes of birdsong and a cool, lazy breeze occasionally made itself known by whispering through the canopy. Blue eyes took in the beauty of the land all around her and she sighed contently, lightly tugging her fur cloak tighter around her bare shoulders. Ever since meeting Adrian, despite the cold, the collie-wolf hybrid had taken to going around unclad more often. She'd come to realize there was no reason to feel embarrassed when in the presence of others. Besides, clothes were cumbersome anyways.

After wandering along, stopping here and there to investigate a rock or plant or anything that really caught her attention, Kenna decided to let Dust do his own exploration alone. Carefully tucking the reins into the saddle, she gave the stallion a gentle pat on the shoulder before turning him loose. "Just don't go too far ya hear?" She spoke gently to her mount and the watched as he swished his tail in acknowledgement and turned to walk deeper into the trees. They'd meet up again in a while. Now on her own, Kenna was able to move about quicker and in near silence. She continued along the edge of the sloping ridge, her gaze focused on the path ahead of her. It was quite a beautiful stretch of nature and Kenna found herself feeling at ease within the shade of the towering pines. The woman listened to the sounds around her, ears swiveling to and fro. She identified the songs of many different birds and stopped once to quietly admire a bull elk strutting his way through the underbrush from a distance.

Having watched the wapiti pass out of sight, she started to walk along a crumbly patch along the ridge while keeping her eyes set on a rocky outcropping in a break in the trees ahead. Her steps were awfully precarious over the crumbling stones leading up to the larger leaning boulders, but she managed to keep upright. ...That was until, nearly to her destination, a loose rock slipped out from under her and she found herself quite suddenly falling. "Shit!" With a gasp of fright, she slipped sideways, losing her balance and skidded off the edge of the leaf covered, rocky, sloping ridge line. She tried to grasp for anything to stop herself, but it was too late. Gravity had taken her in its clutches and was not about to let her go. Unable to stop her descent down the slope, Kenna just concentrated on trying to protect her more vital areas from injury as she went tumbling and rolling almost violently downwards, involuntarily grunting with each motion her body made against the earth. A shower of small stones followed behind her, bouncing like small projectiles as she managed to twist and stop her body from being thrown about like a rag doll. As she neared the bottom of the slope Kenna gained a little more control and skidded along on her rear, digging her fingers and claws into the dirt and trying to slow herself with her feet enough to stand before slamming into the ground that was at a near right angle to the ridge. She only managed to get half way upright before stumbling and being pitched forward as her paws hit the ground. She let out a startled cry as the forward momentum propelled her unceremoniously through some bushes and smack into something that gave upon impact.

As quickly as it had begun, the fall was over and she was quite a ways below her original location. Landing as a half crumpled mess, her palms stinging from grazing along the dirt, stones still cascading down from above and rolling passed her paws, Kenna groaned softly and panted, trying to regain her senses, slightly disoriented. Already her body ached from being battered about by gravity, but at least nothing was broken. Blinking, the woman slowly started to rise to her paws again and figure out what she'd hit that had broken her fall. What came into her sight though was the figure of not something but rather someone...
#2
((Hasn't been too long, I spent a bunch of it asleep XD. Also, cool, I'll arrange my dates accordingly.))

Null and Rurik had gone wandering outside of Salsolan lands again, off to a place Rurik knew well to see if any of the useful plants it held had survived the hurricane from a few weeks back. Null didn't know this area at all, had never visited it before, but she was used to exploring new places. And she had her friend to guide her; there seemed to be no harm in the expedition, and the journey to these 'Dampwoods' had gone smoothly. It had only taken a little over a day, and the pair were used to walking long distances (though Null had complained of sore feet and made Rurik carry her piggy-back for some of it).

Once they had arrived, the duo quickly set to exploring the forest. Null liked forests, she always had, though she preferred more built-up areas. This forest in particular prove to hold many patches of medicinal plants, though some were ruined by the storm and had yet to bounce back. Null had collected everything of use that she found, Rurik following along behind and picking the climbing plants or fungi that were too high for Null to reach.

The pair caught sight of a pair of cow wapiti picking their way through the forest up ahead. Rurik, being more prone to such urges than Null, had wanted to hunt them. The trapper had sent him off to chase the creatures, and the huge wolfdog soon disappeared into the trees. Null had continued to pick the wild herbs that she found, wandering off as the followed the growths of flora, and she had soon covered much more ground than she had suspected. She became lost, and had no idea where to find Rurik.

She had been alone and lost for well over an hour now, and she had steadily been becoming more and more stressed as time went on. As prone to paranoia as the wolf was, she began to suspect every cracking twig or rustling bush of being a crazed forest-dwelling murderer. Or a bear. Or a big cat. Did big cats live in the forest?

Null was about to start howling in the hopes that Rurik would come and find her when there was a noise from behind her and a solid weight collided heavily with her back. The trapper went sprawling into the dirt, and she lay still for a moment in a daze, before lifting herself and shaking her head to clear it. Null looked to what had hit her-- a girl, larger than herself.

Still a little dazed, stressed and frightened, Null panicked. It was a stranger with an unfamiliar scent, and she didn't know where Rurik was, and her jaw hurt from where she'd hit it on the ground, and somehow she came to the muddled conclusion that the other canine was a forest-murderer while simultaneously being responsible for Null getting lost. In her panic and confusion, the little wolf did the first thing she could think of-- she extended her claws and lunged for the stranger, jaws snapping and a feral growl bursting from her throat.
#3
OOC: I'm a slow poke. XP

IC: Kenna paused as she found herself faced with another luperci. The woman was smaller than her and smelled foreign to the cowgirl. Folding her ears as the stranger picked herself up off the ground, Kenna started to smile sheepishly, opening her maw to apologize. "I am terrible sor--" But just then in a split second the woman turned and lunged angrily at her. The fury on her face was obvious and it was the last thing Kenna saw before her eyes clamped shut as the sting of claws raked across her muzzle. The smaller woman slammed into her, knocking Kenna back. The other's growl echoed in her ears and Kenna knew that she had bumped into the wrong gal. Yelping and stumbling back, Kenna glared at her attacker, eyes smarting, the scratches across her nose bleeding freely. "What the hell! I was just sayin' sorry!" She growled back but it quickly became apparent her opponent wasn't in the mood to listen to reasoning talk. Kenna suddenly found herself thrown into a fight.

Her paw reached suddenly for the knife that usually was at her hip, but coming up empty, the woman looked down eyes widening. She must have lost her weapon in the fall. "Damnit!" She cursed mentally and quickly prepared to defend herself with her natural weapons: claws and teeth. In a swift move Kenna dodged to one side, anticipating another strike from the stranger before snarling herself. "Alright, if that's the way you want it..." She bared her teeth, hackles raising and slowly started to side-circle her attacker. iI she couldn't reason with the other, she'd have to fight. Flexing her claws, Kenna looked for an opening to strike back at the girl. It had been a while since her last scrap, so she was a little slower than she'd have liked. The wolfess she faced had size and lesser weight to her advantage and would be able to move faster and more agile than herself. Without her knife, Kenna knew she would not have the upper hand. If she could just get a chance to bowl over the smaller female though, she might have a chance.
#4
((No problemo mi compadré! Also, look at my seeeeexy new table! So pleased with it.))

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Null was completely irrational at this point. In fact, she might have been a tiny bit concussed from the fall. She barely heard the other canine's words, she just continued to snap and snarl and lash with her claws. It occurred to her, in a vague sort of way, that the other female was bigger than her and could probably beat Null into the ground--forest-murderer!-- but that thought wasn't quite coherent enough to make her stop attacking and maybe run the other way instead. Her father would've been proud of this stupid, brutish turn of events.


Null reached for a knife of her own at the same time as the stranger, but found her satchel gone; and with it, her throwing knives. She looked around frantically, spotting the satchel. It was too far away for her to risk running to it, so instead she simply lunged after the stranger, snapping her jaws and hoping to get in a good bite. She missed, though, the larger canine having stepped out of the way. Null snarled, darting after her again like lightning-- Kenna had guessed correctly, Null was fast. Null ducked down briefly before springing upward again to make herself more difficult to hit as she attacked, claws outstretched and jaws snapping, hoping to sink her teeth into the girl's shoulder.


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