Gone Tomorrow

It had been a rather ordinary day; Cori had hauled herself out of bed and made it to the Heartleaf Creek, where she had enjoyed the coolness of the water. After drinking her fill, she had taken a short swim, wincing in pain as the water hit her wounded shoulder. It would be a long time before she forgave Indru for his attack on her, and even at the thought of him, she bristled, brow creasing. But that was in the past now, there was absolutely nothing she could do about it.

Swim finished, the gray female paddled back to shore. Stretching herself, she shook her body violently, droplets of water flying in all directions. But the splash that she heard was not typical of the splashes of small droplets, and she whirled around to see what the commotion was. Seeing nothing, she turned her gaze upstream, where she could just barely make out the sight of a furry gray form and a lot of small, furry brown ones. Not having the ability of bilocation, the she-wolf began to make her way towards the fray, her pace increasing the closer she got.

Upon arrival, she took in the scene. Herself standing on the banks of the creek watching, a lone male standing atop what appeared to be a beaver dam, and several angry beaver residents prepared to protect their territory. They're just like Indru, she thought idly as she made a beeline for the water. "GRRRRR!" she growled at the beavers, fur puffing out to make her look bigger and more like a threat than the male who was currently sitting atop their home.

Gone Tomorrow

There seemed to be a never ending swarm of the furry beavers. Their insistence that the male get off of their home was almost as terrifying as Indru's had been when she had trespassed on his borders. But, despite their number, these beavers paled in comparison to Indru's fury, and Corinna let them know. She continued to growl and snarl at them, snapping her teeth - the metallic click hanging menacingly in the air. Her growls had distracted some of the beavers from their intended quarry as they turned their attention to her. Before she knew it, all desire to cachinnate had fled, and was replaced with a tiny sliver of fear as she was faced with a minor portion of the brown army. "Fiesty doesn't even begin to cover it," she shouted back.

Pulling her medium sized frame up, she continued with her growls. Lunging forward, she tackled a few of the creatures back further into the water and they began to retreat away from her. Pushing the attack, she fought in the water just along the shallows. She used her forepaws to swat the things away from her as they began to swarm, though it was clear that they had the advantage in the water, their slick brown bodies disappearing and reappearing under the water than her eyes were able to follow.

So maybe a water attack had not been her smartest idea. Back peddling, she walked backwards until her paws touched the muddy surface of the creek bank. While some of the beavers continued to follow her, their angry teeth gnashing together in anger, their focus had returned to their primary target. "Just run!" she shouted at the male, or they were going to be at it all day.

Gone Tomorrow

Beavers were not generally dangerous creatures; at least, Corinna had never managed to get herself into a tangle with one before. But, there was a first time for everything, and she would now know that to cross a beaver was risking potential danger. While there was no doubt in her mind that between her and the scruffy male, they could easily overpower the beaver army, they would not come out of the entanglement unscathed. Considering she was already wounded from her mix up at Indru's borders, she was not looking for any more fights. The smart thing would have let the unfortunate beast figure things out on his own, but, she was nicer than that.

She was thankful though that he decided to heed her advice and run. He cleared the beavers and joined her on the banks, and for a moment, Cori thought that they might follow them. Her fears were alleviated though, and she just listened to the beavers gnash their teeth angrily, warning the wolves that a second attack would be futile. Shaking herself off to dry her fur, she barked once at the beavers, informing them that she was not amused and they had best keep to their stupid dam. Shrugging it off, she turned to the male she had helped rescue. "It's all good. It was definitely the highlight of my day," she told him, her face breaking out into a grin. "It's not very often the guy is the one in distress."

Gone Tomorrow

It was exciting, that was for sure. Animal instincts had come to the surface during the battle, and while she had meant only to help the white male, there was no doubt that part of her had wanted to take the offensive and snare one of the beavers for herself. Of course, she wasn't an idiot; she knew that she would rue that particular decision later - the little brown fuzzballs were like wolves in that they looked after their own. Oh well, there would be easier prey to snatch later on down the road.

She sat down with him, returning his smiles. "Eh, it's all good," she grinned, beating her tail against the ground a few times in a good-natured manner. "Accidents tend to happen regardless of whether or not we're prone to them." It was true; she herself was prove of that, unfortunately. "Oh? Do beavers eat wolves now?" she asked him, tilting her head as if in curiosity. Chuckling, she returned the introduction, "It's nice to meet you, Alexander. I'm Corinna, Cori if you like." Stifling a yawn, the young female stretched out her forelegs, lowering herself to the ground in the process so that she was laying down. Peering up at him, she spoke again, "So, what were you doing before you incurred the wrath of the angry beavers?"

Gone Tomorrow

She giggled, her young voice betraying her enjoyment. It had been a long while since she had been in such good company. Every other wolf she had met had been so serious, and so off-putting. They made her want to turn tail and leave Relic Lore far in the distance, and go to a place where fun was a bit more tolerated. So while she could have died because of Alex's foolery with the beavers (okay, a bit of an exaggeration), she was thoroughly enjoying herself. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Alex." It was true, she was quite thrilled to have met him, if only because it gave her somebody to talk to for the afternoon.

Grinning like a loon, she gasped in mock disbelief. "You? Not be able to live in the beaver dam? Never!" Giggles turned to laughter, and she beat her tail against in the ground in merryment. "So, where do you live, since you can't fit under a pile of logs?" She asked him curiously. "I just live sort of anywhere and everywhere, I guess. I haven't really found a good place to call home yet." Not that she hadn't tried; the wound on his shoulder was proof enough of that.