Eusi hadn't really spent too much time in the outdoors lately. She had found the perfect, small little den to call her own and had sleeping a lot for the last couple of nights. She had also been visiting with Tai, her friend, whom she could very well take a fancy to one of these days...but she would wait to see what he thought about it before she made her move. Just because she was flirty by nature did NOT mean she was eager for something.
That was called being tasteless, something her father had taught her all those years ago.
Nonetheless, the wild dog wasn't so sure as to why she had been so tired lately. She hadn't eaten either, so the lack of food in her stomach could make her weak..that could explain it. With a yawn, she decided it was finally time to get up and off her lazy butt and go exercise. So she did; she rose slowly and padded out into the sunny land in front of her den, eying her surroundings. Rabbits were plentiful in the fields to her right...she made her way towards them.
Another young wild dog had made use of the plentiful fields of rabbit, unaware that she had been encrouching on the hunting grounds of another. Her curiously frightening run-in with the lion Unguzo had occured just the other day and she had been cautious of running into him again ever since, so she was not paying much attention to any scents that were not lion or meals, unfortunately. So she had hunted, and taken two rabbits before settling down to feed on them.
Admittedly, it was a poor move on her part, but who was she to know just yet? Hopefully the land wasn't inhabited by an entire pack, though one would hope that she would have noticed such. A whole troupe of dogs or even an entire pride of lions would have been a hard scent to miss.
It wasn't until she could hear the footfalls of another that Tunz even knew she wasn't alone with the remains of her meal. The wind was against her, so she hadn't had the benefit of smelling the she-dog from a distance. Raising her head, she frowned in worry before calling, "Hello?"
Eusi moved slow but steady, not really concerned with how many rabbits she was going to catch. She was too tired to do much, anyway. But she had to try. Eating was important, after all. Father had taught her that. And if she didn't take her father's teachings to heart, then she truly had nothing left of her past and of her family.
But her ears perked up quickly, and her head soon followed, to peer above the grasses with curiosity. Her nose sniffed the air and her ears lowered, not worried. It was another female dog. And with a kill. Eusi wouldn't be as so rude as to bombard the other dog and demand payment for trespassing (as this area wasn't really Eusi's in the first place, anyway), but since she had offered a greeting, so could she.
"Hello!" she called back, trotting forward at a faster pace. She rounded a small hill of grass and suddenly found herself in front of the wild dog in question. "Apologies, I did not know you were so close to where I just was," she offered, in response for her sudden appearance.
Tunz had left her home with only minimal training in hunting. Most of her experience had come from that alone: experience, hunting on her own and having to feed herself or face starvation. She had never chosen to leave, never even considered such a thing as a possibility, but she had wandered off and not found her way back. What else was she to do but adjust and, unfortunately, grow up on her own.
Still, she was proficient enough at it that she was of a healthy weight and her coat had a healthy glow. She took what she needed and had become quite good at finding watering holes on her own when she couldn't sweet talk such information from others. And so, she had survived.
Of course, now she was learning to exercise more caution than usual when greeting strangers. Her teal eyes widened when she heard the quickening feet, and though she was encouraged by the return greeting, she pulled herself to her feet warily all the same. She was endlessly grateful when it was a female wild dog that rounded the corner, however, and that the she-dog's first words were an apology. Tunz' tail wagged gently behind her as she smiled, "I'm sorry for having not known I wasn't alone. I'm not intruding, am I?" She meant on the lands, her brow furrowing in concern that she had crossed some unseen line in her preoccupied state.
Eusi had been lucky in the fact that for most of her young life, she had never been alone. Granted, her mother had never been in her life, but her father was the only family she had ever needed. He had taught her how to defend herself, how to hunt, how to dig up roots when game was scarce, how to bend trees to make a quick den when it was raining. How to survive.
"Oh, no! Please, go ahead and enjoy your meal." Eusi had glanced down and seen that, indeed, this female was in the middle of her own little feast. "I'm sorry I interrupted you." Her tail began to wag hesitantly in response. "Do you mind if I sit? I've been feeling a bit under the weather lately." She began to slowly ease down onto her haunches with a sigh.
Those were all things that Tunz had missed out on the instruction of. She didn't know what to do when game was scarce except starve; if it was raining, she braved it or searched out a cave or a large enough bush to hide under during the worst of it. She had always been efficient at defending herself against foes from which she could defend against, but she also knew when to tuck tail and run - as she had done against Unguzo. Her head was still ringing from that mysterious encounter.
Tunz had just been about to comply, to lower her head and continue eating, when the she-dog spoke again. That protective streak in the canine reared its ugly head and she lifted her teal eyes back to her new acquaintance with unabashed interest. She couldn't help herself. Her own tail wagged as she sat as well, nosing one of the rabbit carcasses towards the stranger, "You are welcome to join me. I will probably be full after the one." That was a lie, but an easy one. "Of course I don't mind. Are you ill?"
Eusi smiled graciously at this new canine. How kind of her to offer the second rabbit, though she knew the rabbit in these fields were growing skinnier by the week, and scarcer twice as fast. Still, it was a polite offer that demanded a polite response.
"Thank you," she said, truly grateful. Her paw gently reached forward to paw at and drag the offered carcass closer towards her. This way they both had room to eat and yet were still in each other's company. She moved it forward a little and pushed herself all the way towards the ground so she was in a more comfortable position, with her tummy on the cool dirt.
"To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm ill or not." She frowned and ripped open the fur of the rabbit to reveal the delicious red meat inside. "I wouldn't like to be sick, but lately all I've ever been doing is sleeping. My friend, Tai, has come to check on me many times, and he's not sure what's wrong with me. I've never felt like this before." Her teeth delicately ripped a slice of meat free and she swallowed it happily.
Tunz, unfortunately, would not be the type of wild dog to guess right off the bat that anything were honestly wrong with her new acquaintance. She wasn't well versed in illnesses and even if the canine were pregnant, Tunz had no idea about how such things worked. Or, well, that was an exaggeration - she had an idea, or at least a number of assumptions, but she had never really received 'that talk' from her mother. She understood the barest knowledge of it only, not how to know when one was or wasn't pregnant.
So she merely frowned thoughtfully, tilting her head to one side before lowering her head to take a strip of meat off the already opened carcass and swallowing the piece whole without stopping to chew. She was too absorbed in finding a way to protect this wild dog to enjoy her food. With a soft, defeated sight, she shook her head, "I'm afraid I don't know what could ail you if you're sleeping so much. Maybe a meal will make you better?" Her ears perked hopefully at the idea, tail wagging behind her.
Realizing the other had laid down, she mimicked the position and allowed both rear and forepaws to fold beneath her so that she could lay and more easily access her kill. "It is good that you have a friend to check on you, though."
Oh, Eusi had no clue how to tell if she were pregnant or not. Technically, this couldn't happen. She wasn't sure how it couldn't happen, but there was no way it could even be possible. Why? Because...it had been just one night. And they were only friends! It had been cold and raining and he had had the genius idea of conserving heat with body warmth that she had allowed herself to relax and be herself with a comfortable feeling...she couldn't help but inwardly sigh.
What's more, her father never really explained what exactly would happen if she became pregnant. Sure, he gave her the basics of how it happened--which was one of the most awkward conversations between the two of them in her entire life, by the way--but nothing else. Nothing like what had happened to her mother when she had been pregnant with Eusi. Nothing else.
She laughed though, at her acquaintance's positive attitude. It was a nice reminder. "Yes, that was exactly what I was thinking when I got up to enter these fields just moments ago. Again, thank you for sharing." Eusi took a moment to rip off another piece, chewed, then swallowed. "Yes," she agreed finally, a grin on her maw, "Tai is very good to me. He is one of the best friends I've ever had."
And then it hit her: she was being so polite, but she had forgotten the number one rule in meeting new people. Introducing herself. "I'm Eusi, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you."
