Rarely did she leave the peaks. She was a flash of gold amongst the arboreal emeralds that blanketed her milieu; no sounds heralded her movement — as was her feline nature.

Dextrous, pliant paws formed to ground and carried her lightly across the earth, as if she did not touch it but merely floated above it — despite such results, she was attempting no true effort to conceal herself. These were her peaks; she had declared domicile upon them years ago and her claim was well-established. The stronghold was shielded — it saw many creatures through its borders, including her lupine brethren that shared the expanse. The eremite had no qualms with such creatures as long as they did not poach her prey. No, it was the other cats she fended! and she did so vehemently, despite such instances being so few and far between.

The thought set her draping, argent pelt aquiver. The cat lived a life obscured amongst the dappled shadows and steep elevations that she was adapted specifically for; to remain anonymous, not seen or heard or discovered — until it was needed. Her scent and presence was thick in the spire’s upper reaches, but she so rarely descended that her summit sometimes went unattended to. The weather was stifling and as she descended, alpine timbers seemed to become thicker and thicker and then wider and wider, forcing her serpentine path to weave indiscriminately through the brush.

The apparition targeted a single birch and, leading with her forehead, ran her body against the tree’s thick bark. The grooves swept through her coat as would a fine-tooth comb, her spine involuntarily flexing at the shimmering sensation, and in this way, she scented her claim on this tree, then that tree, and then another — as if to say this is mine and this is also mine — every so often leaping amongst the low lying branches to tend to her territory above. Couldn’t hurt.

Eventually, Majorca forsook the ground entirely and leapt freely amongst the upper reaches of the timberwoods. Her capacious form deftly navigated the puzzle work of branches, claws fully extended and gripping into the bark of the thick, norther specimens. She moulded to whatever environment she was in and thrived here just as much as she did on land, as much as she did in the humid, low-lying forests — but the apparition simply liked the solitude of the alpine peaks and was loathe to leave it the thin, chilled atmosphere. 

If she must descend, then she might as well take advantage of her feline capabilities. Up here, she was much less likely to encounter another, of any kind.

The gilded eremite only made it several more treelengths before she was halted by an invisible, yet potent intrusion. It was the scent of another, and it was not something Majorca could simply ignore. Involuntarily did her taut lips quiver, revealing a hint of her pronged ivories. The cat pulled in close to the treebranch, hunching between ductile shoulders, concealing herself incase the other was within eyeshot. 

From above, her moonbright eyes found him — a wolf, a pest.

The canines were more of any annoyance than anything else. They were greedy, taking prey as they pleased with no regard for anyone other than themselves. Only in the respect were they competitors, and only in this respect was she concerned about this brute’s presence. It was determined that she needed to descend and so came her catlike saltation, using limbs to reach forth and grab the land so that she might lightly, silently, alight upon the earth. From there she obscured herself in the shadows on the underbrush so that her form was nothing more than an argent flash of light. Her quicksilver gaze trained on the dog and tail lashed behind her in a devilish manner, observing him completely. 

Her image was obscured and fractured amongst the limbs of the lowland pine — and just so, she remained unespied. As far as the beast in front of her, she remained entirely unconcerned and gave a languid pursuit; her heart did not quicken, nor did the needlelike fur bristle and rise upon her serpentine rachis. It was but a wolf, more of a nuisance that needed to be monitored than an actual threat. Still, smokescreens were her nature and she melded tactfully into the background, every muscle and every hair artfully orchestrated into something so smooth and fluid it was almost invisible to poor canine eyes. Perhaps the only thing that might have given her away was the tail, pale and dancing against the vividly of their alpine milieu.

The brute was exceedingly nervous and when he began racing, the apparition returned the gesture. Her footfalls padded silently against the earth, moonbeam eyes carefully trained on the haunches of the wolf, given some concern by his erratic behavior. She welcomed many in her lands, including her canine relations — they were not her competition, as she was too far above for comparison — but he was threatening the sanctity of her lowland hunting grounds. Nearly all her prey chose the wooded summit rather than her own snowcapped elevation, and he threatened it all with his racket. He was becoming her competition, all upon his own spooked volition. 

Her presence needed to be known. 

The wolf slowed and she pulled ahead, slowing her momentum with several lagomor[hic bounds. As if a switch had been flipped, the apparition came into view and the gold of her being glinted in the dappled noon sun. For a moment, Majorca stood so still it was almost as if time had suspended — but then the paw, hovered ominously above the leaf litter, placed itself softly and through barely parted lips she spoke. “Benvinguda. Deixar tot com està.” her voice was viscous and honeylike, thickly accented and spiced with sibilant flicks of the tongue. Majorca’s voice was an underutilized weapon — so solitary was she, so rarely did she encounter others, that her voice was largely mute. Sooner would she decamp, propelled not by fear but an aversion in inanity, than engage in discourse with any craven; especially this craven, who ruined her carefully cultivated hunting grounds as would a bull in a china shop. Majorca again froze and remained unmoving, prepared to react quickly. He was welcome here, and if the wolf heeded her words [as nonnative as they were] he would not be harmed.