Sunset Valley when you were mine, the world seemed to burn

Thanks again for starting!

Indigo did not tire easily. She'd wandered and explored these lands for two new moons, a third one---she could sense in her bones--would soon be making it's debut in a star flecked sky. Sometimes, when she hunkered down alone at night in some hollow or abandoned cave, the she wolf would look up at the heavens and wonder if her family was somewhere staring up at the same night sky, whether they still thought of her, or if they had continued to search for each other as well. Nothing here was familiar, but she consumed the scents and sounds as if it were life bringing sustenance itself.  Indigo would have to make a home here eventually, or at least find a place where she could stake her own claim. A den of sorts really, one that she could return to after her paws took her far and wide or that she could defend if need be. Winter was harsh of course, but her coat was thick and her skills as a huntress and tracker kept her belly full, and her hide out of trouble.

So far, she'd counted nine packs in the mountain lined valley, but the loner couldn't be too sure.  The musks of others had begun to build in areas that had, had no claim a few weeks ago. Indigo found that curious, though she'd kept mostly to the shadows and trails mapped in the back of her mind to avoid unnecessary run ins. Occassionally, she thought about joining the random wolves she'd spotted chasing down smaller game in the area--finally making her presence known--but something had held the she wolf back. All her life she'd known the structure of her small family unit and the few wolves who came and went. The idea of getting close to others and letting them in, appealed to Indigo and yet put a sense of panic in her. She was a wolf of few words, or had been thus far, body language being the main means of her communication, but many of the wolves she'd observed here chose to speak.

These thoughts clamored in Indigo's head as she traipsed the outer perimeter of the valley where hunting had proven successful in the past. She almost didn't notice the other wolf until her strong scent hooked inside Indigo's nares, drawing her pumpkin eyes upwards to the stranger standing atop a small rise. Her heavy paws came to a full stop in the snow, a curl of steam from her exhalation, weaving around her snout.