evening star

After she was quite sure @Kalvin was down for the night, Edelweiss wearily paced the moors. Looking after a child was tough work; she wasn't sure how her mother and guardians had done such a thing back home. The girl made sure that they were not too cold nor too hot, and in a safe location. The moors provided comfort and security. She would not move them so soon, especially close to winter's grasp.

She felt restless, however. The little den she had found for Kalvin was big enough for him and him alone. Edelweiss slept outside, near the den, under the stars. Tonight it was akin to ants crawling over her pelt. Buzzing. Nipping. Biting. She bit back an annoyed sigh as she walked. True, this place was not... claimed, in any sense, except for the two vagabonds. Anyone could just waltz in without announcing themselves.

She came across one such being. Edelweiss, alert and focused at night, chuffed to them. A greeting of sorts, passing in nature. If they wanted to continue on, she would let them. But she'd watch them like a hawk. After the snow leopard tried to kill her charge, she was hyper-focused on his safety.

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For all her mishaps, she'd finally caught a thick hare, fat and furry, and all still warm from the kill.

Benji, accustomed to vagabond ways, wandered and bedded without much compunction or distaste, and as the sun set she was making her way back to the hole she'd made in the earth to eat. Yet it was in this return that, in the distance, a stranger perched oddly on the terrain as she neared. Ears pinned back in an appeasement gesture, posture inviting, speaking over the hare until she caught on and lowered it to the earth. "Not seen you around here before," said Benji, her tail wagging a little as she offered a smile. "I'm sure I would've remembered a face as lovely as yours." A short scent of her and she knew the woman was not alone, with child, but her polite advance didn't falter. "Are you alright?"

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The flirtations earned a blink. Poor dear, they picked the wrong target to do that with. Edelweiss was not used to subtle or forward — her community had been all women, all related in a way. If they wanted children when they came of age, they sought the world of men and came back pregnant. That was perhaps one way they conceived, along with adopting abandoned children that were dumped in the woodlands. Like she had been.

Suffice it to say, the concept of flirtation was lost on the young woman. It was a tool man used to get what they wanted. "I'm fine" Why did people keep asking if she was fine? Was she displaying some sort of irrational behavior? No, that wasn't it. Edel was quite sure she was behaving normally... "are you?" She directed it back, though not blunt or aggressive. Nor accusing. Just a casual question, not sure what else to say. She noticed the smell of prey on the other. Though she could not tell what gender they were.

Strange.

"I am just passing through" she continued after a heavy silence "with my ward" Kalvin was still sleeping soundly to her knowledge. She gave a nod to the plump hare "I would keep your food close. There are bold predators here. One attacked and killed a wolf, who had carried off a pup, in order to consume it." This showed these apex predators didn't give a shit who they attacked if it meant food in the end. Kalvin's parents hadn't come to get him, which Edelweiss assumed... Maybe the thief did more than steal.

Either way she gave the other wolf a fair warning.

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