The sandy woman had decided to follow the deathly stream of water. Crossing the mountain and keeping an eye on the wild water hadn't been easy. It was a bit of a task to keep from falling down and simply drowning. But she had to say, it did keep her from starving. The fish she got out of it had been caught with a pounding heart but it had filled her stomach well. She wasn't really picky for her food, even if she didn't prefer fish it fulfilled it's prupose. Without a pack or at least a partner surviving here gave her grave reminders of her younger self. Lost, no family and simply starving as a loner who was way too young to fight the world. Right now she was a woman, skilled for fighting but her hunting was quite okay if she said so herself. Enough to keep her ribs from showing and going back to crawling over the earth, starving every single day. She didn't chew berries or grinded her teeth in her sleep because her stomach was churning without any food in it. No this time she might be alone but she was prepared for the harsh life of loneliness. No white savior who would stab her in the back the moment she wasn't important anymore. Only Cornelia, only herself. She would do fine, she could find a place to sleep for a few days and keep on moving. Maybe start a pack if she was lucky. The thought of following another Queen made her coals burn with rage and hurt. No, she would stay out of pack life for a bit.

The sound of water slapping against hard rock was deafening. But Cornelia had the feeling that her ears were already beyond repair. Days on end she had heard the sound and now it was just a low rumble in the background. She did wonder where the river had brought her, now the scents started to form differently and more greens started to appear. A forest? Her ears perked up at the thought. She would die for a bit of shelter and simply earth under her paws instead of rocks and slippery mud. Honestly she was sick of this river. The Timber wolf walked up, little rocks falling down the river as she found herself on higher ground. Yes, much better, she thought as she felt the earth under her pads. The scent of trees, bushes and.. wolf. Instantly her muscles tensed as her ears turned. Somewhere there was a wolf, and she had no feels for pleasantries right now. She wanted to sleep under a tree and rest.  Damn her luck.

Where was that f*cker? Her eyes scanned over the terrain like a hawk hunting a white rabbit in the snow. Maybe she was paranoia but she always trusted her gut, which said right now someone was watching her and she couldn’t find him. She gritted her teeth as she tried to concentrate but with roaring water under and behind her concentration became a difficult thing. She didn’t like this situation, at all. The place was unfamiliar, the kind of wolves that were scattered over this place were the same. And now someone was ogling her with unknown intentions. Great. She wasn’t going to back down, over her death body that she would leave this person. If he –or she, Cornelia really didn’t care-  was going to follow her that would definitely give some problems. And just not knowing who this stranger was made her skin crawl.

Cornelia became very close to just yell at the unseen stranger. Stupid looks aside, she didn’t care. But then another black stranger stepped on the stage. Another black wolf, this place is crawling with them. Her jaw tightened and her lips itched to just form an angry snarl. No, she shouldn’t. Even if she wanted to hate every black wolf and rip them apart, they were not him. It was unfair, yet she couldn’t help but feel wary and more annoyed than justified. The Timber woman snorted at the man’s words, her eyes roaming over his body. Handsome as he was, he was definitely older than her, a fur coated with scents of other wolves. A pack wolf it was. It was in the way the man held his tail and head held high, the nonchalance he carried himself caught her to grimace. This man could cause her a lot of trouble, if things go wrong in every way. But she looked down on the man, held the higher ground and she couldn’t help but mirror the smirk that was on his face. Maybe this situation wasn’t so bad.

‘Seems like I don’t meet the requirements of your expectations.’ Cornelia snorted, timber pooches, what was that supposed to mean? Certainly he didn’t mean her, she might be a Timber wolf but she was everything he could have expected. Whoever those pooches were, this man didn’t seem too fond of them. ‘Got tired of staring at me and decided to have the decency to show yourself?’ Her head tipped to the left as she stared into those ember eyes. They said eyes could mirror the soul but she found it pure bullshit, a good actor could even trick the eyes to show what they had to be shown. And these eyes showed pure confidence. It was in the way he stood, the way he talked and looked at her. It irked her, like a silent challenge that she was beneath this guy. Ridiculous thoughts, she swept them aside but the annoyance of his existence stayed in her mind like the buzz of a bee circling around her head. What did he want from her? She could be wrong, but the man didn’t appear as a happy go lucky go. Talking to every wolf that came on his path. The whole good point of this situation was that she could always flee or jump the guy in dire situations. Yes, positive thoughts.  

This male was different from any other guy she had ever met. His calm demeanor mixed with sly smirks and a glint in his dark eyes that she couldn’t comprehend. It puzzled her, what exactly was going on in this man’s mind. Then again, it wouldn’t matter after this meeting. There were chances she wouldn’t meet this dark creeping stranger ever again. So far Cornelia didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing. She had to say he looked strong, competent even though she would never say it out loud. Not in front of his face anyway, Cornelia had a vague feeling that this guy had already enough confidence. No need to boost it even more.

A chuckling sound came from the male. The timber woman tilted her head slightly in question but soon gave away for another snort. Darling. Well she hadn’t heard that for ages. Actually there had been only one who had ever called her with such endearment. One of her older Guards who had the tendency to flirt with female and male alike. He never strayed further from smooth words and seducing whispers. She could see her old ‘’friend’’ stand next to this guy and it was enough to quirk a little smile. Males were idiots. Wait why was she smiling? She shouldn’t be smiling at this.. stranger. She didn’t know what he about his agenda and he certainly wasn’t just a friendly guy. At least that was her first impression. Still he was quite the smooth talker to distract her from the annoyance that had been burning just minutes ago. Cornelia huffed as she slightly glared at the man for distracting her thoughts. Yet she slowly nodded with him agreement. He did have a point, unlike her the man had more knowledge what was hidden among the trees and bushes in this area. ‘And I am not the enemy?’ She said with smooth nonchalance. She could be an enemy, she was strong enough. But Cornelia didn’t dwell on her thoughts for long.
Blood rushed to her head, slowly forming a blush that she cursed out in her head. No, she was not blushing! She gave herself a good wake up call, forcing the blood away from her head. She was not getting flustered just because one male was staring at her. Besides it was this guy, the one who was creeping on her and seemed to enjoy his games. Surely she was not used to compliments that weren’t about her skills or accomplishments. She wasn’t ugly, Cornelia knew that much but she was well aware she was anything but the delicate female. The amused look in the dark eyes made her roll her eyes, but not without a little smile. God, it felt almost like she was talking with a one year old teenager.

‘I’ll forgive you, I think.’  She said with a little smirk. The man’s dramatic antics were rather amusing, she had to admit. The woman moved forward, jumping from her higher ground. She didn’t think this would turn out in anything bad, maybe overly cheesy and theatrical but nothing dangerous. ‘Drestig Avalon, I will make sure to remember that name.’ She quipped, her tail relaxed hanging in the air. ‘I assume I will gave my name in return. If only to keep you from saying ‘’darling.’ She mimicked his tone with a roll of her eyes. ‘Cornelia Saer.’  
With their initial introductions past them, Cornelia wondered what she would do next. It had been some time since she had company, if Drestig would be good company was still up for debate. But usually she would avoid other wolves with her short fuses lately. ‘What is your business here.. Drestig? I haven’t smelled any borders, otherwise I would have turned around.’ She hesitated a moment before she spoke his name. The name felt foreign on her lips. With questions in her eyes Cornelia stared right in the lighter pair of eyes with her brown orbs. Maybe he was a scout, or simply on a stroll? She was not sure what to expect, so she expected nothing.

The timber woman shook her head as she made a soft ‘tsk tsk’’ sound at the male’s question. ‘Answering with a question. You sure know your manners.’ She said stoic yet her tail swished playfully in the air. It had been a while since she had actually simply bantered with someone about anything. The feeling felt familiar and eased the woman slightly from her previous icy demeanor. It was quite hard to stay cool towards the black male, his theatrical antics were quite amusing. He was still a stranger, a slight creep and simply because of the first matter she put up some walls, like they were needed or something. Lately her mind had been all but walls and filters. It kept her going through daily life so Cornelia decided not to meddle with it, fearing what might come out if she let all her walls down. No, she rather stayed oblivious for just a bit longer.

Somehow Drestig had an unknown amount of smiles. Teasing smiles, knowing smiles, amused smiles, his lips formed the same kind of shape but somehow they all seemed just a bit different. It was odd to watch as it was amusing. It wasn’t like the black male had his emotions on his face, but the slight insight in his emotions gave Cornelia a false sense of ease. He could still attack every moment with the same grin on his face, until she would actually know the guy she might become less paranoid. However she couldn’t help it feel a hidden sincerity behind the man’s body language. Probably her Guardian gut instinct talking.
Drestig took a step back as she took herself to the lower grounds. Back on eye level the man looked very different. Less small obviously but in her head she could compare his size, his muscles to her own. How different they were even though their average height wasn’t a huge difference. A slight huff came out with an eye roll as the man spoke her name with that bloody tone of his. Surely to get an reaction out of her, in which he succeeded. She wasn’t really mad about it, although she did feel like swishing her tail right between the eyes, just for particular reasons.

‘Sounds like you’re not very fond of your neighbors.’ She said with a smirk as she looked around. She could get why packs would live around the corner. It was an alright place for a few wolves. ‘So,’ her head tilted to the right. ‘Am I distracting you from an important visit?’’ A full smirk bloomed on her lips as she stared into the male’s eyes. It felt like they were playing tag but with words. They ran after each other, teased and hunted until they tapped the other and the game would be reversed. It was strangely amusing, quite thrilling too. She had seen his teasing, his dramatic moments and she would no doubt have more of that the longer their conversation continued. But Cornelia wasn’t stupid, she knew there was a lot more behind a wolf from what she knew right now. She wouldn’t say she was searching for those new expressions, those hidden sides, but she could admit that she was rather curious at this point.

The man was a sarcastic honest delight. Of course she would never admit this in their current nor future conversations. The flowing current of thrown smirks, amusing glints and remarks were amusing to no end. As if they played a game of tag with words, both were pretty good at the game too.

"Hmmm.." The woman hummed as she worked with the new information. Two packs, settled quite close to one another and Cornelia expected they would either be enemies or have no connections at all. Drestig surely wouldn't speak bad about wolves of an alliance, she estimated the man smarter than that.  She lifted her chin slightly as she snickered. "Am I a good distraction?" Her eyes twinkled with mischief as she spoke.

That twinkle died when Drestig asked for her reasons to be here. "I killed my King and abandoned my pack." The blunt words fell down before her paws with rock weight. Cornelia had no idea how those words dropped from her tongue without any venom or malice in her tone. It had come like she stated her own age or name. What did she hope to achieve with spilling her darkest spot in her history? Did was one of the more interesting wolves she had met in moons and now she just told him she was a murderer. Not that the black demon hadn't deserved it, but it wasn't exactly light food for conversations. Unsure what to do she simply stared at the dark male, trying to tell what the man would do or say.