The Wildwood a caucus race

Esper's eyes didn't leave the pup as she prudently approached and laid down a few feet from her. Although she had been the one to invite the girl, her shoulders still clenched in tension and her ears laid flat on her head. Esper couldn't help being cautious around encounters with others, it was just how she coped with interactions. Which definitely explained why she enjoyed being alone. But she had never really given another the chance to stick around her, as soon as they started getting comfortable with her is when she got uncomfortable and would dart, with no warning of her departure. And absolutely no guilt of leaving the lost brute.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the one so called Mojave speaking yet again... The pup introduced herself, hoping for an introduction from Esper. She normally wouldn't give her name away, especially since she had only been with this wolf for no longer than an hour. Taking her time she buried her head back into her shoulders as she extended her forepaws, gripping the ground as she dragged them back to cross in front of her chest. She closed her eyes and let out a very prolonged, noisy yawn. With this she looked back at the pup, her innocence reeked from all over. She pricked up her ears and tilted her head slightly.. the pup was all too much like her...but Esper had been a little younger. What she would have given to have someone help her in that dark time. But wolves didn't do that. They don't help. They fight. They destroy. They kill. It doesn't matter the so called "pack", it was all a game of power. She didn't trust wolves. But she did trust herself.

My name is Esper.

She was being studied again. Mojave felt her eyes lingering on her once more, though it was the tilt of her head that readily brought her gold-eyed gaze back to her. Maybe it wasn't so much of a study as it were a scrutiny; but why? It was then and only then that Mojave felt that if things didn't change soon enough, she would be on her way much sooner than it would take to stay a while. She already had the impression that she had worn out her welcome just from being there.

Yet the name that she was offered held her attention for a moment. She'd commit it to memory all the same, for however long that lasted. Esper. "It's pretty," she commented, and that was only to keep the silence between them at bay. Normally a beamish conversationalist, things were significantly more difficult knowing that her company was only keeping her there begrudgingly. It was oddly reminiscent of her own past, though she managed to stop herself before she delved into that rabbit hole of lacking place of pleasantry.

This time however, and probably much to the joy of Esper, she refrained from offering anything else to the conversation. Mojave considered for a moment asking if she lived around there, but the small talk repulsed her. Not because it was small talk, but because it became prying and opened her up to all sorts of questions to be turned back around to her. As it were, she didn't live anywhere in particular, and hanging around the lake wasn't exactly what she called home. If anything, she realized rather quickly it would have only moved to solidify the commentary of her being lost, and that was something that she was firmly decisive in not being.

The compliment surprised Esper, and without thinking she let out a grin, her eyes crinkling as she "hmphed". The pup was genuine, Esper could tell from even being with her for such a short while. It was refreshing to see one not corrupted by the power that wolves constantly lost themselves to. Esper couldn't help but constantly compare herself to the girl, had she been like that? No. Esper had never trusted anyone since she had been on her own...which was ever since she could remember. And it may not have gotten her any friends, but she was alive. And she could take care of herself. That's what mattered. But why should she be the one to share that grim truth with the girl? Hopefully, she could last longer in that happier world. Hopefully, she could get by being the exact same. The truth of those questions stung Esper as she thought them, of course eventually the pup would find out that nothing could be good..and it is a devastating truth to learn.

Why exactly were you wandering around the woods in the night?

She tried not to sound too condescending, she was honestly making an effort. Which is a lot to say for Esper. She wasn't exactly sure why.. she didn't owe her anything, and she wasn't a threat. So why help?

Of course you know why...she's lost.

Maybe not lost physically, which Esper still believed her to be..but wouldn't deprive her anymore of her pride..but she was lost in the real world. And as much as she hated to admit it, she felt sorry for her. The world had ripped her to shreds, she was as lost as the pup mentally. She looked back at the pup, not in her normal harsh manner, but more gentler. She wondered how the girl got to be on her own at such a young age, and especially without a pack. It made her heart sink as she immediately resulted in thinking how she, herself, had gotten there. She looked down at her paws as she tried to hide the terror and despondency that was welling up in her eyes.

Finally, she had garnered a response that didn't seem like she was entirely repulsive.  But the crinkling of Esper's expression was brief in Mojave's eyes, if only for the next statement that she made.  The youth missed the fact that she was trying to avoid condensation and took it entirely that way; the rebuke shone in a flash as a pang of hurt, but the ferocity of her own stubbornness was quick to dispel it.  Mojave looked away, drawing her attention to the path she had been on.  She took the moment to liken it to the possibility that her companion was not quite a conversationalist, or at least perhaps not as tolerant of the exuberance that Mojave had bridled beneath her demeanor.

"I was exploring," she explained simply, once more genuinely.  She saw no reason to lie about what she was doing out in the woods at night, had no reason to fear what may have lied somewhere in the nooks and crannies of the dark wood.  It was a dominant, predatory instinct that most canines held, and perhaps most importantly, the night was also a good time to hunt.  But it wasn't hunting that Mojave was out there preparing to do, not even close.  The dense wood was too difficult to properly chase after prey; the best she could have done was merely track them to somewhere more open, or drive them indirectly to it.

"I was actually about to head back towards the mountains, too," she added again, returning to the notion that she was not too inclined to hang around.  And likewise, her gaze returned to the softening expression of Esper, to which she decided to turn that question about around on her.  "What are you doing in the woods tonight?"  If it was such an unfortunate bad thing for her to be there, then why was she there?