volcanic hot springs

Daughter of glorious lineage and surpassing beauty, born to a dying pack and parents with more teeth than laughter, born weaker and less beautiful that her siblings, she was sent from her natal pack young. She learned to lie sweetly if it would earn her passage, and ached bitterly when it did not earn her a home; she had a child and lost them before she saw her second year. Passed from pack to pack, she came to us, pained and angry.

She might have passed from us, too, if it were not for the one whose scent was iron-rich streamside clay. He loved her from the first moment; he walked by her side and did not let her teeth or her lies send him away. She resented his open, kindly manner - but when they hunted, they worked together like two fangs in the same mouth. His cleverness and hers became something more.