Sleepy Fox Hollow winter ghost

Away from the ridge, everything seemed to have clarity. For all her wild and wanting ways, Ginsberg had never truly felt at home in the jagged peaks of the Umbreon. There had been a desire within her to wander, and it had not been until she had turned a year that she was capable of doing so. After having left, she had found a place in the world as a wildling. She belonged to the scent of pine and the scorch of the summer sun. Within her, there were the remnants of the feral's blood, but that was all that she knew of her father. She had always wanted to know more, but her mother had been stricken with grief at the mere mention of the savage who had left them alone. Knowing that calling, Ginsberg set out to find answers for herself – answers that would not harm her mother or her siblings.

The Teekon wilds seemed to stretch for miles and miles. The two-toned creature had climbed to the top of the highest peak that she could find before setting her sights on the expanse of land and inhaling at the sheer magnitude of it. Once on her perch, Gin had moved down from the mountain and into the hollow that was nestled in the heart of the jagged climbs. There, she found the embrace of chirping birds and whispering trees to keep her company. She moved along the earth with her head held low and her muscles rippling against the touch of the golden sunlight.

The days were beginning to stretch into weeks. The sun's radiance no longer satiated her desire for company. The moon did not give her the bliss it had in the beginning. Eva had never wanted to leave, but those first few days she had loved being on her own. It was the first time she was required to be her own person, to master her own loneliness. It felt freeing to leave all of it behind. Freeing, and confusing.

Now, her heart was forlorn. Eva felt lost. Cold. She had pushed forward anyway.
Today she could be found in the hollow, enjoying the sunlight. Most of the day had consisted of napping and feeling bad about herself. Angst had been the theme until she'd caught a small rabbit. Predatory instinct took over and an old part of her brain was quite happy to mow down on it, crunching at a femur to get at the marrow within. For these moments, she was at peace.

Just then, something dark moved on the horizon. Blood still smeared on her muzzle, she held the remainder of the kill between her paws and looked up with a bone in her mouth. When she realized it wasn't a bear making its way toward her, a reflexive curl of her lip replaced her calm. Wolves were often unkind to those like her: lonely beasts with no place among them.

Ginsberg knew what it meant to be alone. At least, she knew then what it meant. She had traveled for quite some time on her own four limbs, far away from the dark stretch of inky rock that had been her birthplace and her home for the first stint of her life. She had wandered in search of all things that she did not have answers too and she had found that answers weren't often found when one was actively seeking them. So, the wandering soul in her was able to thrive in her newly discovered vagabond lifestyle, and she had adopted many characteristics of her late father that she had never known. She had acted as a mercenary of sorts for those who needed her along the way, never staying too long.

The lengthy strides that she took to overcome the land had carried her through snug trees and thick brush. Ginsberg seemed to move through it like a ghost. Just as the wind shifted and carried the scent of a stranger toward her, the hairs along her neck and back began to rise. The inky quills danced there like some jagged soldiers off to war. When the sea foam of her gaze nestled on a bloody maw and an unfamiliar shape, Gin halted. Her crown was lifted upward to regard the stranger with a blank expression.

The two stared at eachother tensely. When the dark female made no move to steal Eva's meager prize, she exhaled slowly and blinked, licking her lip and dropping the bone in the same motion. Her ears and neck relaxed, though the guard hairs along her mane were still bristled with anxiety. "Don't worry, I don't bite," she called out calmly. The black and white creature had startling eyes, which unnerved Eva.

Eva casually swallowed a piece of the spine she had already eaten the majority of. The rabbit was fine, but she was much more consoled at that moment by another person being near her, even a stranger. Despite her reservations and anxiety around other wolves in the area, her social nature was too demanding to resist even a moment of company. She looked up to the stranger and regarded her for a moment. Then, she abruptly tossed a scrap attached to a little bone to the beast. It landed several feet in front of the stranger.

She would easily rather have less food than no company.

The unnamed woman made a remark about her tendency to bite or not. Ginsberg smirked softly at the comment and parted her lips just slightly to release an exhale. Taking a few steps forward, the wild woman bent her head and sniffed at the piece of meat that had been offered to her. It was gracious and unexpected, but Gin was not going to refuse the free snack in light of her recent travels. Still, the smirk remained on her features as she regarded the other wolf with a spark in the sea foam of her gaze.

“It wouldn't matter if you did,” she returned proudly, drawing her skull upward and allowing the smirk to grow along the ink of her lips. Ginsberg was confident in herself; she had never found a mountain that could not be climbed, or a creature that could not be bested by the glint of her fangs. With the offering, the two-toned wildling did not feel as though she was in any danger. In a few sweeping steps, Ginsberg scooped the morsel up and crunched down on the remnants of the bone. It wasn't much but it was satisfactory.

“You often offer freebies to strangers?”

The dark beast accepted what Eva had thrown to her, smirking at her and mocking her physical prowess. Eva twisted her lip, then licked it nervously. It was obvious that even from her seated position, the other she-wolf was significantly larger than she was. Eva had never been much of a fighter. Her fights were relationship-heavy, sneaking in drama and gossip where she could to get what she wanted. She could lie and cheat better than most people, but in the ring she'd be toast in seconds.

"It hasn't come up much," she said in response to the question. It was true. It had probably never happened that Eva had caught something and then immediately met a stranger. Her home pack was small and rarely saw travellers coming and going from the territory. "But the world is cruel enough as it is, and nothing brings people together more than food, right?"

Mockery was not what Gin was attempting to do in her statement. She had merely been assuring the other individual that she was not concerned with a flash of teeth or the lunge of a stranger. It did not matter the size of her opponent; she was capable. Still, it could have easily been misconstrued in the delivery. That didn’t matter much to her either. This person would be one flashing face in a sea of many along her path. If she did not settle in the same pack, Ginsberg did not expect that she would see this individual again. Even still, the shadow-cloaked female did not know that she would settle for any pack in that area. At least, not yet.

“I suppose you’re right. Food does seem to make people happy,” she agreed with a thoughtful expression. It was either the one thing that brought souls together, or it was a large factor in tearing them apart. For all that she had seen, Gin knew that she was one to fight tooth and nail against any who would attempt to steal her hard-earned dinner. To see it so freely offered had been a peculiar thing. “You from around these parts?”