Moonspear house hunting

It was winter in truth, now.  The sky was grey, covered almost entirely with high, flat slate-hued clouds.  A bitter wind was blowing from the northwest, buffetting Tehama's small form as she climbed about the middle reaches of Moonspear, its peak cloaked in a fine, frigid fog.  Only the gradual darkening of the world around her gave any indication of the time of day; she supposed nightfall was an hour or two away.  Then the mountain would dip well below freezing.  If she didn't find shelter in a hurry, she'd be in for a miserable and sleepless night.

The woman's petite frame had been softened by good eating for several moons now, and the changing seasons had prompted her coat to thicken and lighten by several shades.  This was a mercy, too, for it had been some time since she'd experienced a mountainside winter, and already the cold season at Thousand Rivers seemed like easy mode by comparison.  Still, she was a creature born to crags and cliffs and ridges and rocks, and Tehama had no intention of sticking to Moonspear's foothills just because life was tougher at altitude.  She meant to ensconce herself in the security the peak offered, and enjoy its stunning vistas at sunrise, and how very close she was to the stars at night.

As Te neared the edge of the treeline, there was less and less shelter from the elements and she was grateful for the warmth of her pelt.  Tucked against a near-vertical rock face, a smattering of hardy bushes and shrubs clung close to the ground, and a copse of trees huddled against the cliffside as if for protection.  The woman padded in that direction, pressing her nose to the ground every few paces, searching for any sign that this area was already occupied.  She was more mindful of this, ever since her run-in with porcupines had consequences that Sialuk had so skillfully mended.  Mist dancing around her, the female kept her tail tucked around her haunches for warmth, but still smiled faintly, pleased that she was house hunting in her most desired neighborhood, even if the current weather was less than pleasant.

While Ciri had quickly grown accustomed to Moonspear's slopes in the months since her family's relocation there, her confidence in better acquainting herself with its wolves came more gradually. Her mother had been distant - the true weight of Nyx' grief was unknown to her, but she suspected the struggle in her with each new dawn.

The blackbird turned to solitude as she often did, too reluctant to question her dam's stability and eager to lose herself on the spire's frosted reaches for a time. She rather enjoyed the cold and the thin air on the higher cliffs, and spent would oft spend many hours looking out over the valley below with a silent longing to see her father cross it to find her.

She was not alone, however, and at the sight of an ashen-furred wolfess the young Ostrega regarded her quietly. Her dark ears sprung forward, curious, but she did not breathe a word.

Nose pressed to the ground, the tawny woman followed a narrow path towards sheer rock face.  The rocky, dusty earth was sparsely covered with dried brown grass interspersed with patchy snow, but here and there it was clear that other creatures had worn down a trail.  The criss-crossing scents of fox, lynx, and weasel might have given the wolf pause, if they were not so faded, made thus by long passage of time.  As it were, Tehama felt confident no competitive predators lurked here.

She was not, however, alone.  The shifting wind brought with it not just a biting chill, but the scent of another.  This deep into the heart of Moonspear, the Iota was not concerned of a trespasser, but aside from the familiar notes of the mountain pack's mark upon this stranger, Tehama was not yet acquainted with the scent or its bearer.  She lifted her head momentarily, and looked around with some interest, but between the overcast skies and constant movement of the ragged trees before her as they thrashed in the wind, she didn't see the dark-hued wolf whose presence was declared by sense of smell.

Unperturbed, and not knowing if the other wolf wanted to be noticed after all, Tehama returned to sniffing closer and closer to the cliffside.  Soon she found some relief from the harshest of the weather as she hugged against the rock face, with the sparse smattering of trees taking the worst of the wind's beating.  The remnants of lynx and fox scents intertwined but both seemed to lead toward a wide vertical crevass within the mountainside.  The tawny female neared, finding it was wide enough to accomodate her and perhaps another wolf if they entered abreast, and there was a smooth floor that would safely carry her further back into the cavern if she so desired.  The opening in the rock tapered high above her like a spire, finally narrowing to a mere crack in the rock roughly three wolflengths above her head.  This old densite had clearly been much-used and was littered with dessicated tree debris, feathers and fur from unfortunate prey animals, and the unpleasant but clearly quite old scent of dried scat.

Tehama flicked her ears back and looked around herself again, unsure now if the other wolf lingered close-by.  "I hope I'm not intruding on anyone's home," she said a bit loudly, pointedly.  One encounter with a porcupine would make anyone cautious.  But she wondered if this was a den already claimed, albeit by someone who didn't keep a tidy place.  The pale tawny female cast a long look over her shoulder, wondering about the stranger she hadn't spotted.