Noctisardor Bypass Deny that happiness

Evening was starting to settle in. Arbiter had just returned home from another short adventure that hadn't ended in the discovery of any useful information but had filled her stomach. Now she walked along the border in the snow -- which felt like it was lingering for the next ten years, but that was likely just because it seemed to keep falling.

She paused sniffing the air. Moose, maybe? How long would it be before they'd drop their calves? She tried to think of when that was, but for this instant a more specific answer than "soon" didn't come to mind. It was best not to fuss about things in the future, it wasn't like it would arrive any faster. Still, something to keep an eye on. For now, though, she moved along the border, marking along a copse of trees. Maybe an hour of this, then back to find a place to sleep for the night.

Seale traipsed under the cover of the trees, a bloody rabbit hock clasped in equally bloody jaws. The rest of the kill was in his belly and his current plan was to find a nice place to lounge and chew on leg bones - the initial stab of hunger soothed. At first, the forest was silent save for the creak of frigid branches and faint crunch of his large paws upon the snow. But as the moments passed, a noise similar to his own foot steps came to his attention. Then, the flawless blanket of snow upon the ground was torn in two by another set of tracks: wolf tracks. 

For a moment, Seale considered fleeing. These paw prints were large, belonging undoubtedly to a large wolf. He was still weak and if challenged, he stood no chance against a canine so brawny. Curiousity, however, got the best of him. Or was it loneliness? Regardless of the cause, the grayscale male switched his path to follow that of the stranger, soon approaching the sizeable female who had left her tracks for him to find. He kept a respectable distance, emitting a soft chuff through his mouthful of rabbit.

But as she contemplated future prey, an ear twisted back behind her -- she wasn't alone. Someone had picked up on her path along the pack borders. It sent a ripple down the fur on her spine before she looked back to see who it was who now called out to her.

Arbiter's first glance over people always was predatory, an unforgiving, analytical stare that picked apart strengths and weaknesses in whoever faced her. A stranger, tall but not near Arbiter's own mass, and carrying what remained of something edible, which gained her attention as well for a few reasons. With the famine long passed, it wasn't like she was hungry, but it wasn't something that was so easily forgotten, it just shuffled some of the priorities she'd already built. A lone man already proven he could hunt showing up at her borders -- it was worth investigating.

She turned to face him straight on, alert, the undisputed owner of the land beyond the scent line. Arbiter wasn't outwardly aggressive -- yet, at least -- as she often found just her own posturing worked fine to keep others in line. Similarly, her voice was even, So who are you? You've wandered close to my home.