With snow blanketing everything, the pathway along the falls was dotted with weaving tracks. Damascus cut up through the middle of them, testing whatever fates were about just to see if he would take a slip and a spill into the great rushing white. In the short time he had lived in the lands, the water had begun to come back just as it had disappeared. He hadn't been too sure why it had gone away in the first place, but when it had come back it was pleasant; a relief. Another reason to stick around, though he had no intentions of trying to bargain for another haven while winter was carrying on.

Pausing alongside the banks where the rushing water went towards the edge of the land to plunge into the valley depths, the tawny male drew in a deep breath and exhaled. He could smell many things, from other wolves to game that still hung around. The thought of maybe going after a hare appeased him, but he wasn't really that hungry. Food was scarce enough as it was in the winter, so taking something he didn't quite need didn't seem right to him. But there was that nature of the beast that argued otherwise. Licking his chops, he took a few steps closer to the water, stepping carefully as he bent to drink from its crisp waters.

She had managed to escape run-ins with *too* many of the valley's resident wolves.. at least for the time being. When the sound of water and a lingering thirst drew the female to the rivers edge, she looked around before lowering her head and taking her fill. Unlike game - the water was plentiful, though from the rumors that she'd heard whispered, it wasn't so plentiful before. After taking in her fill, the white female lifted her head and let the scents of the wind tell her their story. Of course, following the water was the easiest way to find a meal - everything had to drink sometime.. and often she simply found a small deer, or a rabbit that hadn't moved fast enough to escape her.



The she wolf followed the course of the river until she came upon another wolf drinking his fill. This was strange, but not an uncommon occurrence. The large female pulled her lips back over her teeth in a silent growl before moving forward, letting her nose tell her where the game was hiding. Granted, it was hard to hunt from a river's edge due to the sound of the water obscuring her hearing- but oftentimes, she didn't need it. Esspecially if she could find an.. AhA! There.. The she-wolf moved over to a smaller cleared area of the river - a place that had little in the way of hiding places and shelter for the animals come to drink from it.



Generally, the animals she found on these parts of the rivers were the more brazen of their kind.. And more foolish. She moved across the snow and inspected the tracks moving to and fro, watching to see how many there were - if anything, this seemed a frequent place of crossing the current. She lifted her head again, noting that her nose-to-the-ground travel had brought her closer to the male wolf and froze, her thin legs poised to flee, despite the fact that they were fairly deep in the snow. It was obvious she was hoping that he hadn't seen her.

Initially, Damascus hadn't been aware that another wolf was behind him. He was perfectly content on being alone and not really at all bothered by it. At the same time though, he wouldn't have been bothered by the presence of another either; wolves were social creatures, after all. There had been nothing too ill in his past to dissuade him of being friendly. So it wasn't until the ivory female had crept closer in her pursuit of a meal that he became aware of her, and that was solely by the footsteps he heard in the snow. They were faint and careful, but Damascus did not stop drinking to observe her.

But then they stopped, leaving the tawny vagabond became very much aware of the sudden absence of that sound, and of the feeling of watchful eyes along his backside. Raising his muzzle from the cold river to lick his nose passively, he turned an ear in her direction, as though his hearing could alone gauge the intentions lurking behind him. He heard no growl, no whimper, nothing at all that told him he needed to react by acting quickly. But that was exactly what he did, turning sharply to face her where she stood out from the dark wood and blended in the snow, and a few sharp barks in her direction. They weren't ones asking or telling her to back off either, just ones purely for her reaction.

Who knew other than she why she was back there, anyway?

At first, she had frozen, waited to see if the male would come closer.. but when he hadn't she'd relaxed. That wasn't to be of course when he spun around and barked in her direction. Snow flew in odd directions as she turned tail and literally scrambled back a few steps. When the falling white stuff had cleared, it found the tall female clambering out of the snow where she'd fallen, a frantic flashing of thin legs and a tail waving madly as she tried to get up off her back. Something like a turtle stuck the wrong way up on the ground - her legs were moving, but she wasn't getting anywhere.



After a soft growl and whine of fear, she managed to right herself and hopped backwards, her tail tucked securely between her legs, ears down and crouching. Of course, she didn't know if this other wolf would charge her, but the barks in her general direction had certainly given her pause.. and a need to watch this male rather intently. She glanced back towards the river - if she could cross it, she'd be home free, but he was healthier than she... and most likely faster. The female returned her gaze to the male before opening her mouth. Whether it was because she had to pant, or because she was preparing to growl, it wasn't really known. The only thing she did know, is that she was concentrating on that other wolf with every fiber of her being. Had she been a cat.. her tail and fur *STILL* would have been fluffed up.

He startled her. Good. A sly grin slipped across his face at her reaction, finding her apprehension to be all that more amusing. It wasn't often like him to be that way, but once in a while he had to mix it up for the sake of keeping himself on his own toes. Waving his bottle-brush of a tail out behind him, the slyness slipped away in his expression and was replaced by one a bit more friendly. No harm, no foul, right? But there had been some harm in his eyes, especially given that she didn't just bow -- there was some fear involved too. "No need to be that panicked," Damascus said, trying to break the tension between them. "We must keep one another on our toes. This is not a season to be oblivious in." And they were not in a place that deserved obliviousness. Not when a wrong step could lead them to their deaths, because that was surely what being caught in the undertow of the river would mean.

"Were you following me?" he decided to prompt her, his gold eyes trying their best to seem less accusatory and more curious. But he was naturally both; she had been behind him and trying to move silently by, and he was innately curious as to why.

This wolf was sending so many mixed signals that it was giving her whiplash. She remained tucked in low to the ground, her ears flat against her neck but not in an aggressive gesture - a 'don't kill me' gesture. The she wolf wrinkled her muzzle slightly at his comment about keeping on their toes, a low growl trickling from her throat. She shifted her ears just slightly, her tail moving out from between her legs just enough not to be cowering. Her instincts were screaming at her to run, or to stand her ground with this stranger who seemed to be incapable of making up his mind.



The simple shift in her posture had set her mind into the fight mode, the growl turning into something of a snarl as the hair on her neck stood on end, her hackles following with them. Her hair would have continued standing all down her spine, but about her hips, it grew thinner...more sparse from the half-healed wounds of multiple bites and efforts to chase her away. The snarl grew, her teeth glimmering in the reflection of the sun off the icy water, her tongue flipping out and brushing over those teeth. As the snarl trickled back down to a growl, the she-wolf set her feet, straightening up to her full height and settling into a more balanced stance. This simple movement brought her ears forward, and her tail to curl up over her back - a stance that clearly said she was not going to play games. She had to scare him off, because if she didn't, she couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't follow her, not with his request...no..his demand to know if she'd been following him.



"No. I was hunting. I do not appreciate being taken by surprise and then threatened." Even the clipped words were a near snarl, and though his questions and comments hadn't *MEANT* to be threatening, he'd simply started off on the wrong foot with the sudden barking. The fact that she'd lose this if it came to a fight wasn't lost on her, but she had *EVERY* intention of standing her ground and attempting to bluff him if she could. By now, even her amber eyes had shown her intentions, and if he advanced on her, she *WOULD* go for him..

Wrong foot or not, Damascus kept his neutrality. His posture didn't change, his feet didn't move. But the smile slowly returned from whence it came. Not every wolf was as good humored as another, but then again he had never once claimed to be much of a comedian either. While her behaviour wasn't strange to him, she had an air about her that felt different. More feral, perhaps, not quite as laid back as those he had come across in recent days. And he had quite obviously struck a chord with her. He didn't need to see that imperceptible spark in her eye to know her intentions -- her body language spoke enough of about that.

"Well perhaps if you hadn't wanted to be taken by surprise, you should have gone a different way. Rather unobservant of you not to have taken notice of me before you were as close as you were, don't you think? You could have been a cock-eyed bear trying to get the drop on me, for all I knew." Unfortunately for both of them though, he had no intentions of letting up. He was willing to defend himself if she took his words as an acting threat, but it wouldn't come without his commentary of what he perceived.

His comments had almost made her want to laugh, but she didn't. Instead, the female shifted, her forepaws lifting, then settling back down on the snow, her attention wholly on the male before her. When he had commented that she should have noticed him earlier, she fought down the urge to take a bite out of his hide - barely. Those delicate ears flicked first backwards over her head, as is listening behind her, before sliding forwards to focus on the male once more. "I had noticed you while I was coming up the river." She had seemed slightly nervous about the bear comment before her snarl turned into a low growl.



Her stance did change then..slightly. Instead of curling over her back, her tail relaxed, lowering to a more... manageable position - though it was still too high to be considered 'polite'. Those ears, rather than training on the male had begun to swivel around, listening for any possible sound she could without taking her eyes off of his form. He hadn't done anything threatening since his barking.. but she wasn't stupid - nor was he hopefully. She knew that he had to be ready to move - to know she may attack at a moments notice. Brazen of him. to speak such things. Perhaps..if her temperament was just *SLIGHTLY* different.. she might have. Instead, she simply lifted her head, rather than lowering it, a more..neutral stance coming over the female.



"However, I had paid more attention to the tracks of my prey than to my vicinity to your being." There..she'd admitted to her mistake, and now...with luck could escape the encounter with.. the same injuries she'd started with. Of course, she had no intentions of passing up her hunting spot - this one seemed to be quite a good one..if the tracks criss-crossing the river were any indication.

Oh, so she had been hunting. That explained a lot, he decided. Flicking his tail passively, Damascus let the tension he had go completely. She hadn't meant to sneak up on him, and she hadn't been following him, and the lack of good humour giving and receiving was something he could let slide. Aside from generally being threatening towards him, he didn't really feel like he had a reason to doubt her or deem her a threat otherwise.

"Well in that case, I suppose I should let you be on your way," he said gently. Without any notion that she was from a pack, he didn't know what her situation was. For all he knew, maybe she was starving and mad from hunger. Or maybe she was truly just an angry soul. One or the other, he supposed he couldn't fault her. Either way, Damascus didn't think now was the right time to bother getting to know her -- or ever, if they were never to meet again.

"My apologies... for my rude behavior." Her tone was apologetic as she shifted her footing, managing to look sheepish despite the earlier tension of the situation. "I hadn't meant to encroach on your drink...but I find myself wondering... What packs rule the lands around here?" That may have answered his question, the very question he'd just thought of. This she wolf didn't seem to have a pack - or if she did, she wasn't part of the ones who lived here.



Vlarindara went against her instincts and lowered her head to the water, taking a deep drink to quench her thirst. When she had finished, she lifted her head and settled back onto her haunches, doing her best to make up for her previous behavior. Of course, it wouldn't change the fact that she had been aggressive, but it also didn't change the fact that she simply didn't trust the other wolf - not at the moment.