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Quiet. That's what it was around the area a lone she-wolf had decided to sleep her night away in the hollow of a tree. Remnants of violet fur and jasmine-like musk have stayed throughout the afternoon; the she-wolf had gone.

You can find her washing her paws at a stream - she had just killed a rabbit for a small meal, and oddly, doesn't like to be dirty.

She dips her paw into the stream, letting the current soak in waves of cool relief before shaking the bloody substance off. Clouds of red gather around her paw before clearing away � as though the water was never tempered with.

Days like these makes her wish winter wasn�t coming around the corner to cover everything in white and freezing gloom � nothing ever feels alive in those months.

Shrugging back a chill, she takes her paw out of the stream and proceeds to smooth down the front of her neck, cleaning away more remnants of her previous kill away. So into this procedure, she doesn�t even notice the other wolf until she calls out in greeting.

Lifting her gaze, she studies Harlequin with deep seafoam eyes.
Another female, she thinks to herself. She hasn�t run into many of her own gender, just like the last one had told her.
Come to think of it, she hasn�t run into many at all.

Pleased with what seems like could be pleasant company in her very near future, she raises her head and smiles softly. �Allo there. Would you like to join me here?�
That strange bright accent breaking the trickling sound.

(( *tosses 'im in!* ))

Autumn was indeed rolling in, and in it's wake came travelers, the last waves of wolves that might hope to make the journey to Shaoilin woods before the heavy snows. One of these wolves was Leigh. He blew in like a storm cloud, indeed that seemed his nature. His brow furrowed like a thunderhead and in the dying light, his mane seemed to spark here and there like tiny bolts of lightning. The male had a deep gray pelt with cloudy silver eyes masked in twin swaths of black that gave his face an oddly sculpted look. His legs, long and strong, were cloaked in black up to his elbows, as though he had waded through some great muck and permanently stained himself, and perhaps, in some ways, he had.

One thing was for sure, Leigh had come to these woods with a purpose. But even stormclouds get blown off course. There were female scents on the air, and though Leigh was not especially a friendly wolf by nature, after a long journey, he craved company. His thick plumed foxtail flipping behind him to the beat of his trot, he altered his course towards the others.

As the male made his way closer, his steps would likely become more pronounced. Many wolves tread softly, but Leigh was recalcitrant in both character and body language, and the dull thud of heavy paws was just another form of quiet protest he'd acquired in his troubled puphood. With a crackle of a few prematurely stiff leaves under paw, the male emerged on the opposite bank, just behind Harle. His gray eyes settled on the purple female with the feathered mark on her shoulder, and then the darker she-wolf spangled with red and blue. At first he didn't speak for a moment, faltering behind an impassive expression. Clever. He hadn't even considered what he was going to say to them. But then, he didn't think ahead about most things.

"Hello--ladies." There was just the slightest pause between the two words, as if he'd tacked on a chauvinistic afterthought for good measure.

Seeing Harlequin accept her invitation set Dristi in a world of delight � how she loves company, especially by those who seem to be just as open about friendliness as she herself tends to be. Sometimes, a bit too friendly, as preceeded by normal wolf personalities tend to be.
Such a happy flower.

"I wouldn't call it unpleasant, really--it was quite tastey." She gives a toothy grin, taking in the small joke without any harms way. "I'm going to miss eating rabbit -- but that's about it. Cleaning it off tends to be a different matter..the smell tends to get rather stale after a while. Sticky. Most--unpleasant. Flicking an ear forward, she files the name in safe sorage -- she won't be forgetting this one.

"I am..." But before she could finish her introduction, she catches the scent just when Harle did. Not a second later she sees him - big, brown..somewhat awkward, as though he rushed into something hopeful and suddenly put himself in a situation he didn't really know how to handle. She raises a brow at his greeting. "Well, hello...sir." She playfully smirks at him - he didn't seem very threatening at all.

Leigh focused on the purple female with the flirtatious nature. Perfect. This was the kind of interaction he'd missed on his travels. "Have a little too much fun playing with your food?" Black lips curled in a dry smile, as he commented on the shreds of conversation that had floated to his ears when approaching.

His black tipped ears twitched forward towards Harle, noting her fur was damp as well. "And what's your excuse?" He mumbled almost inaudibly as she regaled him, His ears tilting forward as his brow raised in a seethrough 'pleasant' expression that ended up looking a little more like leer. He pretended he didn't hear the 'strange sort' comment, but quietly noted that Harle might be a little harder to crack.

"Pleasure to meet you Harlequin." He said through his teeth, an insipid smile on his maw. His eyes turned back to Dristi, looking her up and down impolitely. "And company." His voice was rusty, and a little harsh on the ears, but every now and then it was clear for a moment. A little taste of it's true quality.

"How can you have too much fun with food? Unless...you do more than what is required. At which point, I won't dare say or agree to it." She gives a rather tut-tut click with her tongue, suddenly getting up from the water and giving a bold look at the male - how rash of him to even imply foul-play on her part.
But it's amusing, non-the-less.

She walks nearer to Harle, to provide more of a togetherness against the powers of cocky male gender. Catching him giving her the up-down, she flicks her ears back and raises her head a little more - she isn't going to become someone's one second pin-up. "Dristi, if you please. I prefer Dristi."
A little more tart than intended, she sits down next to her Harle - ever so pleased to be called a friend. However, she keeps her posture held upright.

Females. You had to love them. They never ceased to amuse. Leigh had been lucky to run into two particularly fiery spirits. He was surprised, and his features couldn't completely hide it. They had seemed quite docile at first, talking gently to eachother, but my, they riled up nicely.

Leigh showed his teeth in a grin at the gypsy-female's comment on food, with a soft bark of amusement, a quick 'heh' sound. "Dristi, then. Charmed, madam." He said after she introduced herself properly. He let his gaze linger a moment longer, then flicked his eyes to Harle, who had tilted her body forward in a stance that meant business.

"Me?" He echoed her challenging tone, and suddenly his visage lost it's stilted merriment, blowing over with darker shadows. It was disconcerting, the sudden change, and it appeared even more so when it quickly morphed back to it's previous state. "Oh, I'm looking for a friend. You could say I have a score to settle, but I wouldn't want to trouble you girls with the details." The fox colored male's white tipped tail arched slightly in a bend.

(( Okies :3~ >3 Tweek and I shall behave. ))

Peculiar, perhaps this explained the male's unusual behavior. A man with a score to settle was to be taken cautiously. Not because he posed any danger to themselves, but generally they were rather desperate, and occasionally rather compulsive. She kept an eye on his movements, seating herself down with a careful thump and quiet angle of her head. "I see then." She spoke, her eyes glinting. She couldn't help but want to know what this 'score' was. She was a meticulous secret keeper, but she never liked to be at loss for current knowledge. She attempted to compile of mental list of wolves she knew that had come from elsewhere- but she found herself overwhelmed by how many there were. Wasn't anyone born in the woods nowadays?

"Well a score is certainly something that begs to be settled." The Harlequin added, her faintly sly tone dropped momentarily just to see what effect it had. She smiled, and rather genuinely for she was ultimately an optimist, she added; "But I'm afraid you've entered a rather large portion of woods. You'll probably have quite a way to go to find your...friend." She spoke, careful to regard her own knowledge of the Telkian forest. She had itchy feet, and it was good that her constant traveling made her somewhat coherent in the ways of travel. In at least this, she was sympathetic. It could get lonely moving alone. And she wasn't even a lone wolf.

She took another careful look at him, deciding that she would not avoid her glance- he *had* just given Dritsi the look over. She felt she was entitled to it as well, all things considered. He was rather big to just be a lone. Too good looking too. Or maybe he was just very well adjusted. Her ears flicked. 'No.' She thought, going with her original idea. 'This wolf has some pack in him. Too well spoken.' It was possible that she was wrong, and as she considered it, she hardly set her ideas down in stone. But she was quickly gathering small snips of information, and compiling up on this wolf- whom still had not revealed his name. Interesting indeed.

After dropping her slight hitch in her voice, she stretched, and settled herself in a more of a leisurely sit, her ears bobbing as if she hadn't a thought in her head.

[ We should definitely continue this in..guild? I have no idea how that works. X3; *such a newb* Anyway, I'm going to go ahead and post my reply here...]

"I'm sure you are, sir. And I hope I’m not too bold to ask, what is your name?" Odd. She hasn’t ever felt the need to become sly-spoken until this very moment – usually, she’s fine just being calm, albeit a bit airy when it came to all around chatter. Something about the way he looked at her might have triggered it; nobody’s ever given her the rundown gaze, not even in all her travels.

She sits stiffly, confidently, not daring to move her position. She will not show weakness to one being so daring to strangers, even if it meant possible danger.

But then, for a flicker, he changed. This sudden expression, this sudden darkness overwhelmed Dristi inside like crashing thunder. How can anyone hold such bitterness? A deep sorrow and pity seem to boil and reach towards him, a one searching for means of revenge.

And here she was, searching all her might for a possible comfort and inner peace to settle down and drink from.

Her brows knit together as her thoughts swirl around in the back of her mind. What score would make someone reek of negativity?

She relaxes with Harle, grateful for her company and positive vibrancy.

"Leigh." He said simply, in response to the purple wolf's inquiry. His tone was curt, but underlined with a hint of a playful nature. "The name's Leigh. I'm from the west lands. I doubt you've been. I would have noticed a wolf of your... stature" He trailed off with a smirk.

At the black female's first comment, Leigh gave her a sidelong glance, letting his eyes linger. And then--there it was. That knavish onceover, a visible sizing up process. His silver gaze wandered from the tips of Harle's colorful toes to her bright ears, and everything in between. Nice. Not bad. Not bad at all.

The male shifted his weight, focusing on her next rebuttal. "Perhaps so. All I have is a name. I haven't an inkling where this dear friend of mine might be. That's why I'm here. I was told these lands are free. I'm looking for... leads..." The way the male let his ending hang it almost changed the meaning of the word.

Leigh sauntered into the falling night, his irridescent coat catching the last reddening rays of the sun and reflecting them with an unusually strong glimmer. He paused at the bank of a lake and bent down to drink. Manuvering his muzzle out away from the thin ringing of ice that he knew would stick to his tongue, he lapped up the icy liquid, feeling the chill spread down through his throat.

The silver wolf craned his neck, shaking the beads of uncomfortably cold water from his muzzle. In the process he caught sight of a shadow hued with a dark orange glow. Curious, he sidled over, only to discover a muscled black male. Anxiety welled up in Leigh, this wolf could hurt him if he wanted to, but the emotion paled next to his sense of annoying mischief.

"Hiding in with the shadows?" He said from a reasonable distance of a couple yards with an acidly dry tone. "It must be nice to blend in." In another situation the conversation might even be friendly, but there was a distinctive hint of taunting in the fox-colored wolf's voice. He couldn't resist the idea of trouble.

"It keeps me alive." Leigh answered ironically to the other's first quip about his mouth. True, his jaws had brought down many a herd beast, but they had also gotten him into a great deal of trouble in conversations.

At Phib's next comment, the silvery male lingered where he was for a moment, a hesitant look of unease passing though his pale gray eyes that probably wouldn't be recognized in the dark. Unwilling to back in the face of a challenge, he ambled closer to the inky male. One of Leigh's paramount faults was his unusually tilted fight-or-flee mechanism. It was almost unthinkable for him to choose the latter, at least at first. As it was, the black wolf didn't seem to have any murderous intentions at the moment, so the fox colored male's form retained it's sinuous ease. He lingered a couple feet away from the other, nipping at the fur at his shoulder in a purposeful display of nonchalance.

"Ice and snow." He echoed as the flakes whirled about the two, his tone slightly snide, but not malicious. "And why are you laying about on such a cold night?"

The black wolf made a somewhat amused noise, somewhere between a 'hrm' and a chuckle, as the younger male slowly crossed the snow to where he stood. He made no movement to meet him midway, nor make any particular movements to charge him for coming within close proximities of the wolf. He did however shift his stance once the other began to nit-pick at the fur on his shoulder. It was a peculiar way of being nonchalant, but the message was not lost on Phib. He'd been too political minded during his life to miss that. "So it does." He reflected, shifting his neck to a slight angle. "Fleas?"

The quip about it being cold struck a bit of amusement in the partially snow covered wolf. It was indeed cold, but it wasn't anywhere near being bitter or anything remotely like his prior home. Winters in those lands rendered the woods and animals nothing but skeletons- here, there seemed to be some life. "This is Southern climate for me." He retorted slowly, with a sliding tone.

For a moment, Phib paused, and squinted his eyes. Sunset now, was for the most part over. Already was darkness beginning to swallow the snow covered woods.

Leigh narrowed his icy eyes at the black wolf's brusque response to his tendings. "Snow." He retorted curtly. It wasn't a full truth, but it did pay to comb excessive moisture from the coat on a winter's eve. One sensation Leigh was not all too fond of was his coat bristling with frozen flecks of ice crystals. However, the downpour of the snowflakes at this moment hardly merited those measures.

A cloud of almost childlike resentment passed over the male as the thickcoated other stole his thunder. Hadn't he been just about to use the line about his harsh homeland? "Where are you from?" He demanded officiously, though his tone was tinged with genuine curiosity. "The western wastelands are the only ones for miles." The sinouous male arched his neck slightly, tendons moving slowly under the heavy pelt of fur.