Erika's Arrival

[RandomWiktor]

The story so far:
A newly arrived red fox finds herself in a sticky situation when an aggressive and domineering jindo bitch mistakes her for farmed foxes that she holds responsible for being ursurped and forced to migrate to Gallop Free.
Origional Thread

Last Two Posts:
Soo-Dae played by RandomWiktor
___Soo-Dae awaited the fox's reply with great impatience, stalking closer until it's voice rang out nervously from the brush. Though she couldn't see it well, it's tawny pelt blending with the tall grasses, she could see said foliage rustling with the frightened creature's quiverring. This was almost exciting, as though the fox were a prey creature, but regardless of her surly disposition, she was generally disinclined to feed upon canines. It brought her back to a time she would rather not recollect.
___Diverting her focus from hunger and prey drive and directing it instead to the fox's words, she wondered if it was trustworthy. It seemed logical enough; there were, after all, wild foxes. That one would be so bold in her presence made it suspect, but she supposed it might have just been an exceptionally stupid fox. Still, stupid or not, if it were native it would know the area better than she did. She wanted information.
___"Fine, perhaps you haven't. Prove yourself a native, then, and tell me more about this place." She wasn't good at requests, only demands.

[RandomWiktor]

Erika played by RedFox

Erikia shuddered once more but took several moments of thinking before she dared to speak up again. What a bossy dog...Hmm....What should I say to get this animal away from me? "I..I'm not a native actually....I c-came from somewhere but I don't remember. I traveled down here on my own and need to hunt because I'm really thin and hungry. So if you'll excuse me I'll just take this small fern-lined path behind me..." Erikia slipped out of the fern she had been hiding in and nervously but rapidly tried to disappear onto the path she had told Soo-Dae she was taken, which was incredibly stupid if the dog wanted to eat her, but whatever.

[SooDae]

___Soo-Dae let out a low growl at the fox's impertinence. Not native? Didn't recall how she'd arrived? Leaving in the middle of a line of questioning? Unacceptable. Lowering her head with predatory focus, ears pitched forward and teeth lightly bared, she moved quickly after the fox as it tried to escape, skirting around it to block its path. Tail raised, she glared down at the smaller animal, a ridge of hair standing tall down her back.
___"So you are not utterly new; you know there is prey here. Very well. Can you tell me anything about all of the dogs who live here? I can smell them everywhere but none have shown themselves."
___Soo-dae had not had experience with wolves in her very limited life's experience. She went from being a trial competitor to a guard animal, and thus spent all of her life alongside man. The fox farm where she'd been chained for years tended to serve as a wildlife deterrent; the constant scent and sound of suffering and death was a warning flag to pretty much anything, especially due to the obvious human structures. Even the vultures and ravens avoided the temptation of the dead pile, made wary by the sight of Poe locked behind bars through the dingy killing floor window. So to have seen or smelled a species so cautious as the wolf was unthinkable under the circumstances.

[Erika]

"Umm...C-could you say that a-again? Tell you something about dogs that live here? But...You're the only dog I've seen, heard, or smelled...S-so f-f-far..." Erikia shuddered on nervously. "A-and...shouldn't there be prey here anyway? I m-mean...It's the forest...L-l-look, c-could you p-please just g-give me a br-break? I am starving..." Erikia looked around, her eyes darting to find another escape route. But this dog was so much bigger than her! It would cut her off everywhere she went. Unless...Up a tree? Crazy, but it just might work. Now, instead of searching the ground for trails in the ferns made by small mammals, she searched likely trees in which she could dash up in a jiffy. With any luck, the giant canid standing before her would find it too hard to climb.

[SooDae and Sif]

___"I'll leave you be when you stop being difficult," Soo-Dae growled. The dog was growing increasingly agitated with the fox. Its cringing, stammering manner of speech and utter inability to answer a simple question bothered the impatient and controlling dog. No other dogs around? What kind of fool did the beast take her to be? Hackles raised, he wondered if she shouldn't just feed on the pitiful animal - it was, after all, thin and weak, probably an easy kill. Besides, if it couldn't give her any information on the land, it was essentially useless. Advancing with a new predatory focus in her stance, the dog was very close to launching into an attack when she was interrupted by a soft male voice a few yards off to left.
___"Well now, isn't that the pot calling the kettle black?" The owner of the voice was invisible through the dense frost-kissed ferns Erika had earlier referred to. The scent of this angel of mercy, or perhaps angel of convenient diversion more than anything, was red fox, however. "Dog, what you smell is wolves, for if it were your kind they'd have gone extinct now from starvation from chasing their own tails." Sif chuckled from the shadows, bracing at the entrance to the abandoned Fisher burrow he planned to escape to if the dog took the bait and came his way. Altruism was generally not his strong suit, but he did rather dislike dogs - with good cause based on his very absent tail.

[Erikia]

Erikia glanced startledly in the direction where a sudden new voice had come from. At first, she had thought it was another of Soo-Dae's friends or something, but, as she listened with nervously pricked ears, her tense muscles relaxed considerably. This new fox would help her! Or at least distract Soo-Dae. But what would happen to him? She couldn't just let him be torn apart! The tip of Erikia's tail twitched, as she failed to notice the abandoned hole behind Sif. But, this was no time to dwell. With a glance at Soo-Dae, she dashed off to a rough-barked tree, and pulled herself up quickly. She didn't stop for several seconds, pulling her way up towards the highest branches. Her clumsly climbing skills made branches brake from under her and twigs rain down below, but at last she found a sturdy branch to sit on in safety. She looked down at Soo-Dae and thought how stupid this idea was. The giant beast could sit at the roots until she starved to death! Which wouldn't be long, at the rate she was going...

[RandomWiktor]

___Soo-Dae growled at the taunting voice that called out suddenly and unprovoked through the trees. She couldn't tell which angered her more - the actual words, or the fact that she'd been taken by surprise by a mere fox. They were, after all, stupid, dirty animals - wallowing in their own filth in tiny cages and too cowardly to even attempt an escape. When the humans came, they'd practically had to drag some of the idiotic little beasts from their cages - pathetic. Sif's coat, more than Erika's, suggested he yeilded from this stock, so the fact that the young male was being so cocky was infuriating. Wheeling with teeth bared, Soo-Dae played right into Sif's clever paws, both permitting Erika's admittedly ill-conceived escape, and drawing her in his direction.
___"If you've got half a brain under that furry scalp, you'll quiet yourself," the dog growled, then grinned cruelly. "And I've seen enough of you without your pelts to suspect you haven't."
___Sif stared at the dog for a moment, then opened his mouth in a long, wide yawn, one ear flicked back and expression bored.
___"You got a bite to go with that bark, dearie?" he asked tauntingly, not even bothering to rise from his feet in preparation for a run. His form hid the presence of the hole well, and he didn't want to break the effect until it was too late.
___Soo-Dae let out an enraged snarl, her poor temperament rendering her stupid. She charged at the fox, frozen leaves kicked up by her short black claws and frost-kissed ferns crumpling as she plowed like a freight-train through the underbrush. Sif smiled at her expectantly, fighting with his instincts, which screamed to run. Only when she was nearly upon him did the blonde fox duck into the hole he'd guarded for his escape. The dog skidded to a halt as he disappeared beneath the ground abruptly, momentarily confused until her eyes fell on the hole. She growled low and plunged her boxy head into the hole.
___"Oh, clever strategy. What a shame that you'll starve down there waiting for me to leave." The dog snorted at the fox's apparently stupidity as that very fox followed the burrow's length towards the escape route at its other end, grinning all the while.

[Tapestah]

[OOC - hope its okay for me to join in!]

Above the canidae conflux, a young solitary bald eagle swept a wide hunting arc. A combination of inexperience and over-extending himself rendered the bird of prey's flight a bit unsteady, and he had to wary himself further with occasional flaps of his wings to maintain a decent altitude to find prey to satisfy his increasingly famished state.

The same combination of inexperience and growing wariness caused him to ignore the conversing canines when he spotted a tell-tale small disturbance under cover of autumn leaves trapped between the pale-gold decaying autumn grasses.

The eagle barely managed to mute a scree of glee in his pride at spotting an obvious prey as he dove. However easily the canid conflux might have missed the silent sky hunter, it would be hard to miss the bird as he dove and intentionally crashed hard into the leaf cover just a few yards from them, talons-first and grasping tightly with them through the lump in the leaves before whatever it was had time to escape.

A few moments of thrashing pulled the prey free of the leaves: a large rat roughly a foot and a half long (from nose to tail). The eagle himself, though not fully in the famous white-and-brown plumage of adults, was fully grown, standing almost three feet tall, comparable to the standing height of a large wolf!

Focused -- a bit too much -- on the squirming snack, the eagle clutched it in the talons of both legs, outstretching his wings and adjusting them to try and keep a balance. He arched his beak down for a quick bite to the soft, tender flesh of the rat's belly, leaving the rat still alive, squirming and writhing.

[Erikia]

With Soo-Dae preoccupied waiting at the entrance of an empty hole, this was Erikia's chance to escape. But she had to be quiet, or else she would alert the dog of her tentative getaway. She planted one paw on the trunk of the tree. Oh, dear. This was not going to be easy. She was fairly high up the tree, and she was sure if she jumped down she would injur something. If she tried to scramble down the tree, Soo-Dae would know she was trying to get away.

Erikia looked around for a different route. A few trees over, there was a low hanging branch. Just...how to get there. She didn't climb trees on a regular basis. In fact...she didn't climb trees at all! Slowly and quietly, she made her way over to the end of the current branch she was on. The next branch over was about 4 feet away. Bunching the muscles in her haunches, she leaped the distance, her paws scrabbling to get a good grip on the branch.

She twisted her lithe body around that tree to get to the closest branch to the next. Just a few more jumps and she would be there...Bunching her muscles again, she leaped and reached the tree of her goal. She began to quickly jump from branch to branch until she was close enough to reach the ground.

She would have to do this right. There was a bunch of leaves on the ground, so if she jumped it would be loud enough to alert Soo-Dae, so she would have to get out of there, FAST. Getting her feet ready, she leaped and touched the ground. As soon as her paws hit the leaf litter, she skidded and ran as fast as her legs could carry her.

She looked back to see if the dog was following, then looked forward....and crashed into an eagle feeding from a still-alive rat.