disappear

They scoured the area. Noses to the ground and air, they sniffed at scents and tuffs of fur and splashes of blood as they all tried to make heads or tails of the scene. They didn't need much in the way of confirmation as to what had happened. There was a scuffle between their wolf and a mountain lion. Both were missing. The scents were a day old and fading fast. There was little more to go off of. The question was... what would happen next? Go after the mountain lion and hope they find their wolf in the process. Hope the mountain lion was dead. Hope their wolf just needed to be nursed back to health.

The fading tracks and prints didn't not lead back towards the Spine. They'd encountered nothing of the sort any closer to the heart of their home, which suggested the creature had been run off or their fight had been taken further from their borders. Nose the the ground, he kept searching and happened upon some brush that looked trampled underfoot. Broken branches. Scents that were fuzzy beneath the natural oils of the plant when it had been crushed.

He let out a chuff to alert his pack mates that he'd found something of a lead. Between the three of them, they'd be certain to track down the rest of this struggle.