OOC: Post Prompt for Digging! :) Also..Arbol Rosado.. Ehehe. Anyone :3
Her thoughts turned to the wolves back home.. in Cedarwood forest...Borden, Jaysyek..the other three she knew of, but didn't really know that well.. What would they think of her for having been gone this long? What..could they? If any new wolves had joined the pack since her departure in search of Raigo, she had no way of knowing.. Most likely when she returned, her welcome would be...less than pleasant should one of the new wolves be watching their borders. She had crossed Cedarwood Forest, followed the river after having found the open glade in the thicket. If...Raigo were to be found, he would have followed the river.. or come to it at SOME point..right? Her trek had brought her through Blackberry Fields, and into the Wild Cherry Orchard..
Stopping for a much needed drink, the white female settled in against the river bank and waited..letting her body cool down a bit before quenching her thirst. Vlarindara had been moving almost nonstop since gaining permission to venture past their borders in search of the wayward yearling. Though, she knew somewhere in her heart that he'd not come out this far, why would he? But she had to look, *HAD* to be sure before returning home to the pack. No reason to venture past the borders for that long anyway, right? If there was no sign of Raigo. She'd even returned to their old den as her first stop, but it lay abandoned; except for a gathering of pigs taking advantage of the long-dead wolf scent and the warmth. Thirst quenched, she lifted herself up again and looked around, letting her amber eyes and overlarge ears tell her what there was to see.. No prey animals called to her, but something else did..A tree.. a rather large one at that, for the moment lay bare.
She was of a mind to continue traveling along the river in her quest, but decided to slip into the orchard, look at the tree and see for herself...The branches seemed different from others - just what was it? The trip was a rather quick one, a steady lope she had adopted for the entire trip thus far - a lope that allowed her to travel for hours on end without tiring. It made her proud to have such a heritage, to be able to do something like traveling for so long thanks to the millenia that had allowed wolves that inherent ability. At a moderate pace, of course. Without having been in the valley in anything but winter, Vlarindara couldn't begin to imagine what these trees looked like.. or even what they were. Cherrys didn't bloom in the winter anyway. To her.. they were just scatterings of trees bisected by the river. But...something about this tree.. It was alone on a small hill - did it have some kind of significance?
A quick trot around the tree and back showed nothing too interesting about it.. Other than the differing branches, she couldn't see anything that might put it apart from the rest. Odd. The scratching of something or other did catch her ear, the appendage twisting and turning to find the source. If it was something to eat, who was she to pass it up? She'd been eating light, sleeping little, and traveling as much as she could...besides. She was already here, wasn't she? The scratching continued and finally made itself known.. a fox seemed to have made the roots of the tree his home.. And seeing as his head was sticking out..she couldn't rightly resist now could she? Using the setting as her cover, Vlarindara crouched to better blend into the snow and began inching forwards The thing had stopped and kept a lookout.. before it began clearing out the den it had made..or putting things in. She didn't rightly know, nor did she really care.
After waiting, the thing seemed to be mostly out of its hole.. and Vlarindara charged, snarling moments before her jaws snapped shut!...On nothing but air. DRAT! She saw it streak off across the snow and took chase, the hunt moving at a rather fast pace...Zigzagging all across the blasted cherry field it seemed. She kept getting so close! But each time, the stupid thing would just veer off in another direction! Stupid Foxes! Using her tail for balance, Vlarindara managed to keep up a littlle bit.. but when the chase came back around the tree and the thing dove into its den.. Well that was a different story! She could dig it out and it couldn't run! The white female growled and followed it to the small hole and began digging. First with alternating movements of her forepaws.. then shoveling the snow between her legs in deep, calculated furrows. Snarls, snaps and screams from within the den told her there was more than one fox.. and a sharp pain on one of her feet told her they didn't appreciate the intrusion of their home.
Snarling again, she had jumped away from the den and tested her paw.. deeming it nothing serious, the white wolf once more dove back at the hole, digging until she could get her head in..Only to have the sharp teeth of the fox rake across her sensitive nose. This time, there was a yelp as she pulled away, rubbing her paw over her nose in an attempt to dislodge the searing pain of the bite. Stupid Foxes! There was half a mind to return to the hole and drag the carcass licker out by his tail.. but without knowing just how many were holed up in there, she didn't want to chance losing an eye. On her list of nasty creatures, foxes ranked right up there with wolverines. No.. she'd keep moving..keep looking for Raigo. A disgusted snort, an irritated flick of her plumed tail, and the wolf was moving away from the hole, working her way back towards the river. Slowly, as if testing the injury to her foot.