The forest beckoned, but she would resist it. Whatever pull she thought this wilderness had, it was not as great as her fear of the unknown. So the dog paced in the field. The day was warm and the sky calm, without the blemish of clouds or the threat of harsher weather; yet she couldn't help but think, I miss the snow. Aupa was bred for it, and without the constant company of the northern wind, she felt... Lost. More helpless than ever. The bitch should have found comfort in the lazy days of summer - but she wasn't so easily contented. The wind still blustered across the plain. It pressed against her like an investigative hand - probing at her spine, perhaps to check if there was one there at all - and for a moment Aupaluktok did feel comfort. She was reminded of the way Man had once touched her. The memory was brief and weighted. A sigh then passed through her lips, and she continued to mosey through the reeds.

She was mindless in her advance. Too many days had been spent on her own, without the tending of Man or her familiars. Kanosak was gone. The others - she did not wish to think of them or their fate. To dwell on their sacrifice would only invite the bile of her stomach to rise, and her stomach was pained as it was. Having spent the better part of the morning aimless and wandering, Aupaluktok was beginning to grow concerned. She needed food and she needed it soon - maybe water. Maybe a bath, but that was a luxury that popped in to (and then promptly out of) her mind. With a dip of her round face she began to sniff at the grass. It all smelled the same to her.. Green, alive, but as interesting as a pile of snow in the winter. Commonplace and without any value. She walked, she sniffed, she walked some more - and then with a dissatisfied groan, Aupa stopped. Her copper silhouette collapsed in the reeds, splaying out awkwardly but without issue, as if she were the only living thing on the planet. The beasts of the wild be damned.

And so it was that the dog found a target. At first when the creature came cavorting close she saw its white features, its pointed face and narrow build. Instantly she was aware of it - hungry for it, with the assumption that something with such a slight build was in fact a meal to be had. The creature straddled her with awkward steps, tumbled, and righted itself; in that time Aupa had rolled to her belly and sat with her head up and expression eager. A sharp bark broke through the stillness as she came to full awareness, and her pale eyes locked upon the deer... Only to realize it was not a deer, but something more familiar. Its scent was thickly hidden behind the wild aroma of the wilderness, but the trace of dog was unmistakable; even if it looked more like a deer than any hound she had ever seen. A keen whine was thus issued forth: inviting the stranger closer, if only for a sniff.