Sanguine Sands old crow and the miner's daughter

@Warbler

Like a tumbleweed, Coyotl never stayed in one place for long. Sometimes she moved on a whim, other times out of necessity. The pack had been starting to catch on to her when it turned out her "sprained ankle" wasn't getting any better despite all the treatment, rest, and food they were throwing her way. The final straw had been one of the cubs mentioning offhand that she'd been seen sprinting down the hillside after a hare. Or perhaps the real last straw was her chomping the kid's ear off out of retaliation. Served the little snitch right and the brat was lucky she'd left the other one. Not Coyotl's best moment, perhaps, and fortunately for her escape her leg was just fine.

Coyotl's spry limbs loped a quick pace over the rolling hills, their red stone obscured by the accumulating snows. Flurries of flakes swirled before her eyes, a cold wind ruffling her scraggly brown coat about her shoulders. She didn't like being so exposed in the open, both to peering eyes and the inclement weather. As the day wore on the wind had picked up, buffeting  her slight form as she rounded the rocky ridges of the Sierra Hills. Yellow eyes narrowed against the wind and white, she spied a jagged pile of rubble settled along the base of the next ridge. Seeming as good a place as any for shelter, she scurried down to the massive sienna slabs. She squeezed between the rough rockery, wincing as a few tufts of fur came loose.

Expecting a cave, Coyotl was slightly surprised by what she found on the other side. Like a bloodied river, red sand stretched forward between two cliff faces. The gorge was deep enough that only a few stray flakes found their way to the bottom, and the air was still and stale. She continued on, paws sinking into the sanguine sand with each step.

Already in the depths of this place was the scrawny Warbler. Sierra Hills was as much of a base for her as any, and between two large faces was a shelter with stagnant but warm air that would do just fine for the whip-of-a-woman. She chewed at a hare she had stolen from some scrawnier being than her. It was no fight; Warbler fled as soon as she had the thing in her clutches. The other simply couldn't keep up. It was no meal a gastronome hunter would procure but for her? It was just the thing.

The sound of movement caught her attention. It was easy to hear in a dank place as this. Warbler was in no position to defend herself; she was all show. But playing the role for all of her life, she put a damn good one on. She had little choice in the matter. Many believed Warbler capable of great strength, but she was brittle and easy to break apart. The way she could gnash her teeth together, however, put the fear of death in others. And she did make a promise that she would not play by the typical rules if one stepped on her toes.

But this was not The Caldera. She had no reputation here.

So she glowered at the open space which would surely soon reveal the other wolf seeking shelter. Her ears perked forward and her bloodshot eyes stared; she could do nothing but wait, having no strength to shoulder the other out. But to this wolf she would not pretend to be kind. If they desired to linger still with a wolf as sour and awful as curdled milk, let it be their choice.

@Warbler omg sorry for the wait!

Coyotl wasn't sure how deep this gorge went, and was left to the mercy of the twists and turns of the rough rocky walls flanking each side. With any luck she would be deposited beneath the sheltered canopy of a forest, being stuck traveling out in the open in this weather really did not suit her.  Her twitching nose hovered low over the sand, inhaling the scents of visitors long passed. She thought herself alone at first, until the muted sound of paws over sand echoed through the confines of the crevasse towards her.

Gleaming yellow eyes settled on the other female who'd found themselves in her path around the next turn. It took just a moment for her to size up the other woman, larger in size than her but not any older.  A toothy smile split Coyotl's maw, her scruffy tail swishing merrily at her backside as if she'd been waiting her entire life to meet this wolf. "Welcome, welcome!" She barked, forepaws leaving the ground in a slight hop, spinning a small circle. "A paradise, isn't it? Yes, I'd say so. Its red, but it ain't dead, I think that's about right. I'm not dead." She chattered, stepping closer. "And you ain't dead either, dear, what a miracle!" She said with a laugh.