This was miserable.

Though the sun had shone bright all day, it had offered little to no warmth and Sagacity hunched her shoulders to the sinking, golden eye as though to shun it. It might as well have been night already- the temperature was hovering around -29 which was an utterly unlikeable temperature, and to make things worse, she'd begun to sniffle a few hours ago. Perhaps it was because her immune system was trying to tell her something- Sage! You're still healing, STOP AND LET YOUR BODY GET BETTER!! was probably the message it was trying to get across. But she was stubborn and refused to be useless. The pack was still starving and she, as the scout, had to continue to perform her duty and try and find any food she could. Her last couple of adventures had not exactly set her in the best mood- she'd gotten tangled up with the wolves of Cut Rock River and had then bumped into a shadow from her past who had only reminded her of how much she'd hated being an adolescent.

Moody and sniffly, and beginning to sneeze off and on, Sage trudged on but felt her energy beginning to sap. She was close enough to Ghastly Woods that if she'd been healthy, if it hadn't been so cold and if she'd been less grumpy, she would have been able to make it back before the sun rose the next day. But she was cold, tired and not feeling at all well- and decided that rather than making herself worse and becoming prey to either the cold and sickness that advanced upon her or some opportunistic loner who managed to get the better of her, she decided to seek out some hole-in-the-ground place in which to spend the night. Somewhere that would shelter her more than a nook under a tree's branch- she needed something that would help her warm up and get over this cold bug. She sneezed and shook her head, squinting into the fading evening light. This wasn't going to be fun at all.

There was nothing worse than having a head full of snot and a rattly, dry feeling in the lungs. Sagacity was at her worst when she felt ill, and always felt particularly sorry for herself whenever she caught any sort of cold or bug. This time was no different- and she felt even less inclined to give a damn about anyone else when she knew she was far enough away from home that she'd need to spend the night in some cold, godforsaken hole in the ground, shivering and hungry. But she needed the sleep, so she'd have to find somewhere small and cozy enough that she'd keep warm. Mending from illness was the worst. And Sagacity was not a good patient.

With her nose slightly stuffed up, it took her longer than normal to catch her companion's scent, and when she did her reaction was slow and irritated. She turned her head and tilted her ears back as she looked in the stranger's direction. She was willowy, a bit taller than Sagacity and paler in colour, but with pretty, expressive golden eyes. She didn't look much more pleased than Sagacity felt- though she doubted that the woman felt nearly as out-of-sorts as she did. She flicked her tail and licked her lips, turning her gaze away. The last thing she wanted to do right now was start a fight, though she still couldn't help the grumpiness that dogged her like a shadow whenever she was sick. In a voice slightly toneless, she quipped into the wind: "I'm probably condtageous." That in and of itself should have been enough of a warning. If her slightly ruffled posture didn't do it, then the threat of inflicting an illness on another should.

That should've done it. If everyone else hated sickness the way Sagacity did- and she felt she was right in assuming that simply everyone hated being sick, the stranger would keep her distance. Sagacity didn't want company- the only company she would have accepted would have been that of a medic, someone with the ability to cure her...Though with all the plants under heaps of snow, she knew that even a medic would be useless. She didn't expect, at all, for the woman to talk to her again, not even a 'goodbye.' An ill wolf was to be avoided at all costs. And she certainly didn't expect that the woman would be interested in going anywhere near her, let alone traveling with her. So when the woman spoke, Sagacity did not interpret her words correctly- though there was a protectiveness in her voice, Sagacity was too full of the cold to properly discern what Iopah meant by inquiring as to where she was headed.

"My path." She answered bluntly, and swung her head to look at the woman again. She was headed back in the direction of the Woods, but in all honesty, there were many packs in that direction as well, so her answer still wasn't a very clear indicator of where exactly she was headed. She scrunched up her nose, paused in her tracks, and after a moment passed, she sneezed three times in a row. "Guhhh." She said, blinking her watery eyes. "So log as this doesn't kill be first,"She said with a moody tone, and started walking again. .

She couldn't hear the sound of footsteps, so she assumed that she was finally clear- she hoped that this stranger would stop interrogating her and simply assume that she wanted to be left alone as she headed back toward her packlands. But rather than simply taking her leave, the female spoke again, and finally clarified what had been confusing to Sagacity moments ago, and when she mentined the thicket, Sagacity stopped and turned her head. She looked beyond the female in that direction, and sniffed the air. For a moment, it might have looked as though Sagacity was thinking of going in that direction simply out of spite. Her eyes focused again on the woman, who looked quite smug. Yet again, Sagacity didn't quite comprehend her- why should she have that smirk on her face? She hadn't exactly fought Sagacity off, so the silver woman looked the slightly larger female up and down, measuring her. Could she take her...Couldn't she...

"If that's where your pack is, I'b dot interested." She said bluntly. She turned as though to leave, but thought better of it. If she couldn't find any prey, at least she could find out some information. She turned again. "Just so I know ad cad tell others to steer clear as well, what's it called ad where exacdly is it?" She asked. For once, she was being quite civil- and meant every word she said. It would be helpful for all involved if they knew which areas they were to avoid...She had, after all, blundered into Cut Rock River territory on accident, not knowing enough to have expected it to be there. If she could avoid having the same thing happen again in the future, she would.

Oddly enough, Sagacity's initial reaction to Iopha's description was to smile and laugh softly. Not a snide laugh, although not as bright and sincere as it might have been had she not been stuffed up with the cold and in no mood to laugh. The fact that Iopah had merited the laugh at all was a notable accomplishment, and Sagacity herself was surprised by this unanticipated reaction. She raised one eyebrow slightly, waiting patiently until the woman had finished speaking before she spoke up, to make a comment. "Ain't buch of a secret anymore," She said, commenting both on the name of the pack and the very detailed directions she'd been given. "Was it meant to be?" She asked, wondering if the woman's pack had the same laws about secrecy that hers did.

And while Iopah was right- it would have been polite of her to say the same about her pack, giving both its name and its whereabouts, Sagacity kept the same Cheshire grin on her face and winked one amber eye. "Just don't go looking." She advised, and decided then and there that she wouldn't head straight back to Hollowheart Keep, just in case she was followed out of sheer curiosity. Seeing the tension in Iopah's body which had grown since she'd told Sagacity the whereabouts of her pack, Sage felt inclined to ease her suspicions. "Your pack is safe. We've do idterest in others. We're vagrants," She said quietly. It wasn't a lie- they had, after all, moved from a place called Nomad's Pass, to a new home and Sagacity still didn't know whether they'd move again.