Silaluk moved over the snowy Plateau with ease alongside those who followed her now. With her, in a line, came her followers as they forged forward and toward the place Thyri desired to leave. Silaluk had picked up on the broken trail of the herd and it was this they followed in the day that was warmer than most. Silaluk was eager for the colder days that would come; she was a beast built for Winter, and worked beast in the cool temperatures with her thick furs.

There was no rush in her movements. She was confident and her dominant, stiff-legged stride displayed as much as she moved onward. Like Thyri, she hoped to be out of this Thicket swiftly enough, though she had only just come to enter it. The girl she had met was not yet in her line of sight, though her ears picked up on movement ahead. Silaluk signaled to her subordinates in a simple, subtle gesture to be alert--from this distance, it was difficult to distinguish wolf-step from step of a mother bear preparing to bed for the duration of Winter. They fanned out, forming something of a pyramid behind her.

Silaluk and her company did not stop, continuing to move through the thick woodwork. There was the sound of rushed footfalls, and Silaluk's ears swiveled atop her head before her proud crown swung toward the source of the sound. In moments time, there emerged the familiar features of the runaway girl. Silaluk regarded her with a brief chuff of familiarity; she, herself, held no grudge toward the girl. Silaluk had done what she was necessary, and the girl had responded in kind—Silaluk carried no bad blood toward those who responded in ways that were natural to them, nor their spirit, so long as it did not make them foolish. And the girl before her had survived another day, captured a meal of her own. Though it would not satisfy Silaluk, it would surely help fill the others stomach. She sensed Anuniaq in her periphery, and turned her eyes to see him licking his chops. Silaluk let out a quick rumble: none of that, and he turned his head innocently in the other direction. They, together, could eat larger meals than the other herself had earned alone. Were they starving, Silaluk would not have cared what he had done... but this was not so. They were well-fed, and the twinkle in their eye was more for the Great Hunt that lie ahead, the one that made their blood collectively quicken and their lungs burn. Silaluk held her ground for a moment more, impressed with the girls catch at her perceived age and idly thinking on it. Her wolves, in the meantime, congregated together, moving nearer to one another and to her now that they knew Thyri was no mother bear.