Blacktail Deer Plateau taken away to the dark side

Just as the wind played through her fur to carry her scent toward the dark man, so it worked to bring another to Nanook. With a tilt of her muzzle, she caught the whiff of she-wolf before the breeze teased the scent on a different trail, but that was enough. With the vague awareness of another nearby, and with the man turned to appraise her, Nanook's jaw tightened. She held still, but her mind spoke with a frenzy she worked to conceal from both pairs of watching eyes.

Was this an ambush? A ruse? Her guarded attention remained on the dark man, but she let one ear slick to catch the noise of the world behind her. His feral scent gave Nanook no reason to assume he had any association with the nearby she-wolf, but the glass through which Nanook saw the world was one stained by hardship, and until proven wrong she took this as another stain to add to her growing collection. If she had noticed the other man's presence nearby, she would have beelined her way out of the flatland without a thought of turning back. But tall grass concealed him, and she remained blind to his presence. Instead, she waited on the movement of the other two, watching for the language of the dark man and listening to any sound of attack from the she-wolf at her rear. With her tail taut at her hocks, she pressed her lips tight and felt her body waver under the strain of the uncertainty she faced.