From Spieden's jaws dangled a hefty salmon, it's ruddy tail tucked behind her fangs and olive green head bumping the leafy ground with each step. The cool autumn weather was perfect for a jaunt up to the mountains, both in keeping Spieden cool through her thickening winter coat and slowing the decay of her fishy present. The salmon run had been so successful this year that even Spieden's voracious appetite couldn't keep up with how much they had stowed away. Wondering what the hell they were going to do with all the fish before it started to rot and stink up the caches, Spieden remembered an agreement that Triell had arranged between them and the mountain wolves. Spieden wasn't much of a diplomat and was skeptical of whether the Bend would ever see anything in return from the alliance with Fallen Tree Cove, but it couldn't hurt to buy some goodwill with food the Bend wouldn't miss anyhow.

She had invited Sahalie along, enjoying the company of someone at her side, or the few stolen words of conversation when they paused for rest and Spieden could set down her burden. Of all the pack, she found herself most comfortable around the charcoal coated girl. It shouldn't have been surprising given she'd raised her practically from birth, but the memory of the first tense months spoke to how far things had come, step by step.

The sun was nearing the mountainous horizon when the pair came across a grove of trees, their leaves mostly missing much like the rest of the surrounding wood. A tantalizing sweet scent was apparent over the lingering musk of the fish under her nose. Spieden grunted, a wordless indication of nothing in particular to Sahalie as she trotted into the trees, tail flicking. Carefully Spieden set the fish down against a trunk, her nose immediately set to riffling through the tall golden grass. "-fruit around here somewhere..." She mumbled.

Spieden made a pleased chuff upon finding a dozens of apples scattered beneath a tree. She popped the first one into her mouth without hesitation, pausing at the soft texture and bitter tang. Still, it wasn't too bad, and food was food. The rotund woman quickly set to hoovering up the rest of the squishy fruits.

Spieden had just about cleaned out all the apples from the underside of her particular tree when Sahalie asked what they were. Broken from her ravenous reverie, Spieden blinked, lifting her head up from the cover of the tall grass and licking the sticky sweet juice from her greyed lips. "Apples. They grow on the trees here. These are a little old, been sitting on the ground too long. Not too bad though," She answered matter-of-factly. As if disagreeing with her own assessment of "not too bad", her stomach made a dissenting audible grumble and her face twisted with slight discomfort. "Mmhh, maybe a little bad." She admitted. Her stomach felt like it was doing wobbly backflips in her gut, but remembering how she'd traumatized Serach before, she was determined to keep her lunch down for Sahalie's sake.

"Should probably keep going though. We can find somewhere to stop for the night," Spieden said as she ambled back towards her fish, again grabbing it by the tail and hoisting it into the air. She waited for Sahalie before setting off again at her steady pace, continuing through the orchard. It was subtle at first, so much so that she didn't notice it at first. Slowly her path would veer towards one side, then the other, heavy ashen paws flopping careless of where they landed. Despite the crisp air, she felt pleasantly warm, as if her fermented apple core was radiating some sort of heat of its own.

Spieden hiccuped, swallowing back the warm appley tide that surged to and fro in her belly with each step. "Rhmm? Nuffngsh goppem imma mee." She mumbled around the fish held firmly in her mouth, not noticing that with it in the way she was all but unintelligible. Her swaying stagger brought her out of the orchard into the thickening wood, the remnants of what little sunlight lingered swallowed by the trees, exchanged for the soft pale light of a waning gibbous moon. Spieden squinted, her head spinning and unable to keep her bearings. The darkness only seemed to make her disorientation worse, and just keeping her paws going one in front of the other, nevermind a straight line, was getting to be a struggle.

"Oh man... Oh. Oh man." She said, the fish sliding out of her mouth onto the ground. She stopped, body rocking one way and the next before her balance was completely undone. Her hind legs buckled and her ample rear slammed into the ground with a thud. "I jus' need a sit down. Yeah. I jus' need to sit down is all. Mmhmm. Jussit down." She slurred to Sahalie, head swinging towards the girl in an exaggerated fashion.

A little twittering at her shoulder caught her attention. Any other time the worry in Sahalie's voice would have caught the Coho's attention, but at the moment it barely registered. Spieden settled down, paws sliding forward until her elbows hit the ground, her tongue flapping in the cool air as she panted.

Spieden blinked, her heavy head swinging with more force than necessary to look at the girl. Or rather, girls. She squinted, brow furrowed as the illusion of two Sahalie's steadily resolved into one with a little more focus. Suddenly Sahalie's snout was right in front of her, and while Spieden flinched at the volume of the young Tainn's voice she otherwise didn't budge.

"Mmmph." Spieden grunted, acknowledging Sahalie's theory. "Yanno, might be onta somethin'. Wouldn't be th' worss thingta happen, though." She'd suffered all sorts of unpleasant side effects from her voraciously undiscerning appetite. While this episode was certainly novel, it was no where near the worst gastrointestinal suffering she had endured. One really should not trifle with spoiled seafood. "Gotta stop eatin' shit." She said with a wince, more a mental note to herself.

Again Spieden squinted, this time off the side of Sahalie's shoulder. Soft pinpricks of light revealed themselves in the falling darkness, seemingly shimmering and dancing in her apple-addled vision. "Hmmph, don't usually see fireflies this time 'f year." She noted, lips quirking curiously.

If she was with Triell? Spieden tipped her head back, a hearty laugh bellowing forth from her lungs. "Ohhhoho, did 'e now?" She asked once the guffaws were somewhat under control. Truly it was a humorous thought to her. Triell was fine as far as men could go, but there was really nothing appealing to her about men as a whole.

She shook her head, still chuckling. "I s'pose it'd look that way, wouldn't it?" She asked no one in particular. "We're kind of a funny pack, yeah?" Spieden posed as a rhetorical, grinning amusedly at the girl before realizing that this was Sahalie's only pack. Spieden had grown up in a pack where her parents had lead, and after that even Lila had her mate beside her. But Spieden realized as far as Sahalie knew, the current situation probably seemed 'normal' to her.

The beaming grin on Spieden's face settled to something slightly more serious but nonetheless unfocused. "Us'lly there's the two leaders, a male, a female, they love each other enough to be together. Well, I'm leadin', and yer dad's leadin', or was, is, whatever, but we ain't together." Spieden explained.

"So 'f course he's gonna ask if we're a pair. Fenru prob'ly couldn't believe yer dad landed quite the catch, huh?" She asked, the grin returning with a swish of her tail.