Blackfeather Woods i didn't sign up for this--but emily did

There was a worthy expanse of land between the male and his apprentice. He had been present when the helicopter landed once again, had seen humans exit their great, noisy contraption; witnessing such a production, he’d kept away from their landing point, knowing that with humans there came more loud, and sometimes deadly, creations. He was no stranger to the two-legged beasts, having observed them countless times before during his youth, back when he was still traversing the north. Most kept away from him and his wolf brethren, whilst others he’d observed on several occasions interacting with distant relatives of his; they spoke a similar language, the words nearly identical to the Inuttut he knew, save for a few altered pronunciations and usages. Yet, whenever the wolves spoke in response, it was never their words that were understood, but the language of their bodies—and, at times, their souls. But in the world there existed, too, humans of opposite intentions. They were drawn to the wolves, not for the clarity that they stood to present, but to end their lives and steal the bodies away from their families—these creatures, awful and merciless, are the same he expected to encounter upon seeing the dark mass slicing through the sky overhead, for it was an entity of similar origins that he’d seen steal the lives of the innocent.

And this angered the aging wolf.

He’d taken off after the creature from the ground, head tilted up towards the sky so that he might track its every move—but the sky did not present as many hurdles as the earth, and the speed of man’s creation was something he could not match. Eventually, he lost sight of the enemy and slowed to a stop, sides heaving as he panted, the sound of the deadly bird soon fading from his ears.

When he’d caught his breath and steadied his heart, Kove turned and began the journey back to the forest, though he remained cautious of his surroundings, ears straining to catch the approach of his lost prey. So caught up in his endeavours, the Inuk had not noticed how the humans had deposited a body just outside his borders; he remained oblivious of their actions, up until he spotted the two girls in the distance, their voices barely reaching his ears—but he could see that something was not right. There was something wrong, something that did not belong, and so his pace increased, carrying him closer to the girls with the stench of the two-legged animals growing more intense with each step he took—and then he stopped before Maegi, whose coat reeked of the smell, coupled with the scent of blood. In a matter of seconds, the northerner was right next to her, looking the girl over for wounds, before his gaze settled on the rawness of her shoulder and then trailed up to the collar around her neck.

How curious it was to see that they had not harmed her, but simply marked her as one of their own.

“Do not scratch at it,” he ordered, nipping gently at her hind leg to emphasise the seriousness of his command. “Calm down. Are you alright?” Although she did not appear to be injured, and certainly not near death, he was concerned. But even through the concern in his eyes, one could tell with ease that he was, otherwise, entirely unaffected by the sight of her new accessory. In fact, he wasn’t the least bit shocked by it, a knowing glint simmering in his gaze.