she will bring home elk or caribou tonight. and perhaps, if luck has her side, svalla will share a meal with her. they have spoken little since their reunion. things are not the same between them, there is some distance she cannot seem to cross. svalla is hiding from her again, and the notion enrages her.

were they both still children, she'd have challenged her chief to a spar. knocked her down again and again 'till she relented and admitted just what was on her mind.

instead she skulks off alone, branches and dry grasses snapping in her wake. lip curls, both to taste the air and express silent displeasure. she kicks at a stone and watches it dance across the ground— straight into something warm and alive. an ear flicks in her direction, nostrils flaring to drink in the stranger's scent.

female. eclus relaxes a little, bristling fur smoothing, but steps no closer.

"...you are not caribou." a joke, maybe, laced with just a hint of irritation.