Moonspear Come back to me

The last wolf Floki expected to see was Wildfire.

He was preparing to depart for a few days in an attempt to recruit some new members to the pack. Moonspear's numbers had dwindled over the last few weeks, which wasn't particularly worrisome with the warm spring weather knocking on their door, but he wanted to put his trade to use. While he was out, he planned to search for Wildfire, as well.

It had been a week since he had last seen her. Her parting words to him -- "Don't follow me!" -- had kept him from tracking her down by scent. He knew that he would have been able to, and had started to a few times, following her trail into the upper reaches of Moonspear. But then he remembered the venom in her words and the angry twist of her mouth as she shouted at him. So he had kept to the outskirts, completing his patrols and returning to their shared sleeping space each evening with hope that she would meet him there with an apology in hand -- but night after night, he had been alone.

Now, he froze on the spot, blue eyes wide as they fell on a simultaneously familiar and strange red figure. It was clearly Wildfire, but she seemed almost to be a shell of herself; haunted, perhaps. Various scrapes and lacerations marred her coat, and she looked as though she hadn't had a hearty meal in days. She was perched above him, near the edge of a bluff, and he gazed up at her from below, partially obscured by trees. He contemplated simply slipping away without a word, but knew that something had to be said. His tongue felt heavy and thick in his mouth, however, not allowing him to speak just yet.