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She'd been traveling for several days now, and Dianne covered a lot of land. This little adventure had been pleasant and just what she needed — distance. She needed distance between her and that man, though Valette was told she was just struggling to readjust to pack life. The scenario was all-too familiar, and she refused to let it happen again. Greyback was absolutely massive; there was no way in hell she could ever fight him off like she did the last one. None of the other Easthollow wolves seemed particularly terrible, but Dianne wouldn't let her guard down; or perhaps it was that she couldn't. She hadn't been part of their pack for long, and she wanted this to work out — she needed it too. Dianne didn't know where other packs were located, nor did she know how full or welcoming they were. It wasn't worth the risk... not yet, at least.

It was nighttime now, and she needed to find a safe place to rest. All this trotting around and hunting on her own wore her out, which was a good thing. Sleep had been coming easier than it normally did, though the nightmares still liked to plague her mind. With a small huff, Dianne brought her attention back to the outside world. Tall coniferous trees bled into view until she was surrounded by them, feeling quite small in their presence.

The smell of cougar assaulted her nose, but the scent was fortunately stale. Ideally, it would stay that way. It looked like there'd be some good hiding places to take shelter in here. After a little ways further into the woods, a ghastly white figure in the distance caught her eye — wolf. Dianne's hackles raised instinctively, but she fought them back down. She really didn't want to find a whole new forest to sleep in just because one wolf was prowling around at night. It was a woman, which admittedly worried her less than a man's presence would.

The wolfess was facing away from her and holding one of her legs up awkwardly, but Dianne couldn't tell what was wrong with it at this distance and with so little light for her eyes to work with. She appeared distraught by something; maybe it was her leg. Whatever, like hell she'd make that her business. Dianne made to skirt around the ghostly figure, though the wind was ufortunately not in her favor. Hopefully, the wolf would stay occupied with whatever was bothering it and not pay any attention to her.

The girl turned fully to face her, and Dianne could not catch her shocked expression before it showed itself on her face, brows shooting up in surprise while her mouth hung ajar. Absentmindly, she stopped in her tracks, as well. The grisly tear across the wraith's maw could not be ignored, forcing her to front a snarl towards all she faced. The exposed teeth glistened with spittle in the moonlight, and the girl stared her down with contrasting, mismatched eyes. Dianne now discovered that the foreleg she once thought was broken to instead be horribly disfigured in a way that left only a birth defect as the culprit. Had she been superstitious, Dianne would've thought her a true specter.

"What do you want?" The tone of the question was not aggressive, but the verbiage was not welcoming, either. It was as flat and lifeless as the wolfess appeared. By this point, Dianne's expression had returned to its default, emotionless state.

She was tempted to offer a witty answer like "To get some sleep," but she decided against it because she found it unwise to divulge that to a stranger you don't trust in a dark forest. Being asleep at night in a strange place left you vulnerable, and Dianne was taking no chances. So, she settled on a curt response: Nothing. It was as devoid of emotion as the other wolfess' response had been, but that was typical for Dianne. She knew it sounded suspicious, but that was sort of what she was going for — it was either that or something that'd irk her, so Dianne chose the safer option. If she seemed suspicious, the girl would probably leave her alone and go away... unless she was mad, in which case she may have put herself in further danger; but Dianne was banking on the stranger not being totally homicidal.

Not feeling inclined to stay for chitchat, she picked up her pace again to walk away, hoping that would be the end of that. However, Dianne had learned that things rarely went the way she wanted them to, so her expectations of the wolfess' response were low. She kept a slender ear swiveled in the others' direction just in case she tried anything strange.

The girl spat venom at her backside, and Dianne scoffed at the notion that she was making fun of her. Talk about projection, She wryly thought, unfaltering in her pace. This kid needed to work on her insecurity issues. How the hell did she expect people to react upon seeing those hideous deformities? Whatever, Dianne couldn't care less if the girl thought she was making fun of her or not. She had her own issues to worry about, she didn't have time to squabble with some angsty teenager. Dianne was fully intent on not saying another word until the brat felt the need to toss in her stupid attempt at some kind of jab. Oh, so she also had control issues.

If Dianne were in a better mood, she would've kept silent. But she wasn't; she was hurting as much as the stranger was, though Dianne was far better at keeping the pain under control (read: repressed). She was briefly reminded of why she was even here in the first place, out in some forest by herself now getting an earful from some troubled kid. Her suppressed emotions boiled within her, bubbling to the surface until they spilled over. She stopped.

That's the plan. Can you see that, or are your eyes broken, too? Dianne finally spat back, shooting her an icy glare over her shoulder. Any pain that may have shown itself on the girl's face wouldn't phase her one bit. Her intention was to hurt, and she'd feel no remorse about it. After she'd gotten her bite in, Dianne would keep walking. Yes, she was a bitch, thank you for noticing.

Dianne's brows furrowed as the girl spoke again. What the hell is she on about? She asked internally. When she mentioned this... "Peryite", Dianne laughed. How ridiculous. So the kid was deluded on top of everything else. Wonderful. None of her words held any sort of weight; the girl may as well have been talking about the Bogeyman coming to get her. Dianne wasn't overly worried, continuing to "get the fuck away" with a disappointed but not surprised shake of her dark head.

However, the girl hobbled in her general direction to utter some form of a threat. Now that was potentially concerning. Would the indoctrinated freak leave it to "Peryite" to do her in, or was she going to try something herself? Dianne just couldn't know, and she wasn't going to say anything else, lest she dig herself into a deeper grave. Well, there it was — she no longer felt safe in this forest. It wasn't worth being within hobbling distance of this demented kid. Perhaps what little faith she had left in a tiny percentage of wolves was still too much, since she was now possibly in danger from pissing off a crazy one. How unsurprising — close proximity to wolves equalled higher risk of harm no matter where she went.

Dianne stalked far away from the wraith, eventually settling on an abandoned den by the lakeside to sleep in. When she woke, it was still dark. Odd. A strange groaning sound came from behind her, startling her out of the den. When she turned back to peer at what was inside, a ghastly white wolf of gigantic proportions pulled its front end out of the hole. Half of its face had completely rotted away, leaving the sickly yellowed bone of its skull exposed. Maggots wriggled about in its empty eye socket, and some of their plump bodies fell to the ground.

"Peryite will visit you soon," It rasped, voice echoing eerily in the crisp night air. More maggots spilled from its gaping mouth, and Dianne fled in terror. After an indistinct amount of time spent at full-sprint, two figures came into view. When Dianne approached them, she recognized them as William and Greyback. She came to a screeching halt and turned tail in some other direction, but they pursued her, eventually joined by the wraith. Dianne tripped, and her perpetrators got closer and closer. When she closed her eyes, they opened in reality. She was left panting as if she truly ran all that way.

That was all the sleep she was getting tonight, pulling herself out of the den. Dianne briefly glanced back at the hole with anxiety in her breast before she chided herself for being ridiculous. Shaking the dirt from her pelt, she headed back for Easthollow. She'd been gone long enough.