The elder was settling in well to her new home. She had only met Askan, but that was okay with her. She rarely moved a few feet from the den, but she felt no pressure to go looking for friends. She had become quite solitary in her old age. Her ability to communicate was not severely impacted by her memory, but rather her life experience. She was bold. She only talked about what she wanted to talk about, when she walked to talk about it. Some days she didn’t feel like talking much at all. Today was one of those days. She was curled up by the water’s edge, wary to keep her distance. Askan had warned her, and she was not going to make a fool of herself by falling in and drowning.
She rested with her head on her paws, admiring the falls. It was a cooler morning by the water, something the arctic wolf appreciated. She was enjoying herself to the fullest. A large stick was placed between her lips, her teeth mindlessly chewing. She had been there for hours already. The stick was covered in saliva, dripping at the ends. She had forgotten it was there, drooling over it for nearly thirty minutes before tossing it over the edge of the water.
It was that action that caused the lady trouble. Her blind eye had not noticed the snake before the stick had fallen on it, splashing it with water. It quickly moved towards her, striking up and out of the falls. She heard it before she saw it, and moved according. Darting up, she quickly dodged an attack by fumbling to the left. “Nasty girl,” she hissed at it, reprimanding the actions with a disapproving tone.