Blacktail Deer Plateau taken away to the dark side

Nanook had survived the winter, but so far spring had done little to fill her rangy form. The drifter was keen to amend that. So with her head lowered, the angular girl moved with an edge to her trot until she nosed out a prey scent satisfactorily fresh. Rabbit - she could picture the critter now, fat and plush and altogether distorted by her hunger, and her mouth watered. Nanook fell in rhythm with the twisting path, one of the many woven into the fabric of the Plateau. Her paws breezed over the plain by the push of hunger alone.

Yet another scent interrupted her, and she faltered. Her thoughts ushered back to reality, to the quiet drawl of bird song and the whistle of the wind through the tall grass. The world around her gave no sound of company, but a second inhale identified a predator nearby, one of her kind, a drifter like herself, only male. Nanook felt her neck bristle and she lifted her gaze until she stared level with the near horizon.

A dark silhouette confirmed her thoughts, and she lingered like a spectre while she watched the other lift his nose to the heavens. No howl escaped him - perhaps he was tracking, and he, too, had a trail to follow. The breeze played around her, and pushed her scent in multiple directions. For this reason she remained where she stood, for though tall, the grass could not hide her fully, and she had no intention of turning her back on this stranger if he happened to catch wind of her presence behind him.