Haunted Wood the darkness calls

He hated to leave Fox's side, yet he needed to attempt to find food for her and the pups (he didn't bother thinking of himself). He summoned one of the Blackthorns to keep an eye on things and trudged down the caldera's slopes, tentatively putting weight on his injured leg. It ached, so he occasionally hoisted it off the ground, but he knew he would just have to play through the pain at this point. The situation wasn't dire yet but he knew it was headed that way fast.

He approached the woods at the caldera's foot. The trees were stripped of leaves but since they grew so closely together, their bare boughs still cast the place in shadows. With his nose to the ground, the Alpha moved forward into the naked forest, sifting for scents. Surely the small game wouldn't have disappeared overnight. The woods were definitely less lively than usual—and it was difficult to even locate a scent—but eventually Peregrine struck the trail of a pika. He managed to capture it but it was a young, scrawny thing that would barely constitute a snack for the pups.

Not long after making the kill, Peregrine spotted the silhouette of another wolf through the trees. His jade eyes narrowed. He wasn't hungry enough to try to kill a wolf, nor did he want to risk the pika carcass being stolen from him, no matter how puny. And he was in no hurry to recruit more wolves to the caldera's ranks right now; they had enough mouths to feed. All the same, he took a step forward, curious despite himself.

Link to roll.