Blackfeather Woods The Watcher in the Woods

Winter had no love for the weak and the lonely. It was that simple fact of life that drove her to that ragtag group of mercenaries just a few moons ago. If she could, the waif would have cursed herself for leaving the band during late autumn. She had no guarantee that this pack, this haven for assassins, spies, and worshippers of the night would take her in. The rumors she heard described nothing but savagery from the lot of them - they worshipped some goddess of blood and depraved sex and a god of death and torture. Wolves, hybrids, whatever creature dared to cross their borders and somehow left alive was dragged into a special den and tortured just for fun. Witches, murderers and the insane flocked to their borders, answering the call of some dark priestess and her bloodthirsty cult known as the Dark Brotherhood. She thought about this for a few moments - was she insane? Was she willing to kill?

The questions turned in her head again and again, but she decided that she had no other options. What other pack here would use her talents well? She knew naught of the packs nearby and had no time to wander between them, judging who was the best for her. It was winter and she was a small, weak, lean creature even in the fat, fertile times of spring. She would stay here, through the winter. If they were not right for her she would leave come spring.

It took her hours to find a kill to present to whomever came to greet her. With no words of her own to describe her talents in watching, following, assessing, and listening, she presented her attributes visually. It was through some kind of luck that she found that den in the mountain south of the dark forest, and in that den a mother bear who gave birth in the grips of her winter slumber. The mother was early in her delivery, but still locked in her slumber, giving the silent waif the opportunity to "acquire" one of her cubs. The coywolfdog dragged the substantial weight back with her to the southern border of the black forest, and sat there, waiting. They would come. She knew they would.