Morning breath combined with the taste of last night's meal. He smacks his lips, makes a baleful face. He had made his way through a mountain range and was being welcomed on the other side by the grim corpse of a forest.
Every day he grew more doubtful of himself, his limits. He would check the surfaces of flat ice, and watch himself grow thinner. With every step he took, he wasn't sure if he was clinging onto life or digging another inch deeper into his grave. If he tripped and fell off-course, that was a calorie wasted. Everytime he leapt at a bird and missed, was that an entire day crossed off from his lifespan?
He walks through the snow. He is aware of something near him, perhaps a deer or two, blurred figures in slow motion wandering the mass of gray and white.
He walks as if guided by something, his vision trained on a pinpoint miles ahead. As if all along there had been a scheme, a destination.
// Thank you for getting this up ^^ I'm sorry I took so long to get to it.
The snow provided Lio with excellent camoflauge - while most of the world struggled to hunt in winter, they struggled in the warmer months. Not only with the thickness of their coat, but also with the pure whiteness of it. Sure, prey was harder to come by, but Lio had no issue with catching what they found. Like today, they'd run across a small rabbit - similar in color to themselves, - and had chased it down and finished it off quickly.
It wasn't long after they had caught it, though, that they noticed another individual nearby. Small, with a faraway stare, and far too skinny. Lio licked their maw clean, a bit of pink still clinging to their fur, before making a decision. It wasn't right for them to let someone starve if they could help it. They picked the rabbit up in their jaws before trotting after the wayward wolf.
"Mmf!" they grunted, trying to get the stranger's attention, as they finally caught up. Lio set the rabbit down on the ground and nudged it in the brown wolf's direction. "Are you hungry?" they asked, ignoring a slight cramp of complaint in their own stomach in favor of offering the other a small smile.