Jade Fern Grove threading the needle

maybe @Uktark? <3
other potential Grey Fangs members welcome!

The forest floor, usually a riot of soft greens and lush ferns, lay entombed under a heavy blanket of snow. The canopy above, formed by tall, thin trees standing like iron bars against the sky, filtered the weak winter sun into pale, hazy beams that offered little warmth. The air was still, stripped of the summer's symphony of crickets, leaving only the biting wind to whistle through the branches. It was a frozen, silent kingdom, stark and unforgiving; and it suited Ivana perfectly.

The massive woman moved through this monochrome world like a shadow detached from its caster. Her dark coat cut a sharp contrast against the blinding white drifts, a gradient of charcoal and slate that seemed to absorb the meager light. She stepped with deliberate precision, her heavy paws breaking the crust of the snow with a rhythmic crunch, her posture tall and unyielding against the chill. She felt no need to rush; the cold had slowed the world down to her pace, turning the flat terrain into a testing ground for the weak.

She came to a halt near the edge of a winding creek, its waters sluggish and choked by thick shelves of ice. Her pale, piercing eyes narrowed, scanning the gaps between the tree trunks, searching not for beauty, but for the slightest twitch of life, a foolish weasel or a slow-moving partridge exposing itself in the drifts. Her ears swiveled forward, catching a faint snap of a twig in the distance. A low, misty breath escaped her black lips; patience was the only law that mattered in this season, and she obeyed it with lethal discipline.

the snap of twig found him first.
uktark lifted his head from the wind-swept hollow, scent rolling thick and dark across his tongue—cold iron, muscle, discipline. female. large. capable. not prey.
his jaws clacked once, twice, a reflex born of focus as foam bubbled faintly at his jowls. he did not hide. did not soften. instead, he stepped forward into the open, snow crunching beneath his weight, tail flagging high and steady in unmistakable confidence.
eyes fixed on her shape through the trees, posture tall and claiming.