Silvertip Mountain This fox is ours.

To Nanook, Valette radiated confidence. Every step she took spoke of experience beyond her years. It made the dark wolf more an enigma that she already was, a mystery the Apaata both longed and feared to solve.

But the fox was their quarry today, and Nanook gave Valette a short nod before she took up her position at the centre of the search line. At the feeling of eyes upon her she lifted her gaze in time to catch Niita's glance, and her spine prickled with... unease? Indignance? Whatever the feeling, it sparked a surety within her that she would let nothing happen to young Adeline. Her attention would be divided, but she did not wish the woman's wrath upon her if she failed to keep an eye on the younger girl.

Yet the commitment proved easier said than done. Nanook managed to track Adeline between the trees for a time, but soon lost her to the undergrowth. The Apaata paused in her search and tasted the air. A trace scent of fox, and the tendrils of her packmates. They all seemed to drown to a curdling shriek that rang both her ears.

Nanook didn't think. Panic flashed bright in her peripheral, and she bolted through snagging branches and leaves that ripped and tore at her angled frame.

She came upon the frenzied scene - a fray ruddy and dusted fur - and paused long enough to dissect the assailants from one another. They twisted and tore, and in the chaos Nanook plunged at the fox with the aim for its neck, teeth bared and ready to do whatever it took to free Adeline from its clutch.