Grouse Thicket murder (in four parts)

Weather—12/12/16 · 18°F (feels like 12) and cloudy

Silaluk moved over the snowy Plateau with ease alongside those who followed her now. With her, in a line, came her followers as they forged forward and toward the place Thyri desired to leave. Silaluk had picked up on the broken trail of the herd and it was this they followed in the day that was warmer than most. Silaluk was eager for the colder days that would come; she was a beast built for Winter, and worked beast in the cool temperatures with her thick furs.

There was no rush in her movements. She was confident and her dominant, stiff-legged stride displayed as much as she moved onward. Like Thyri, she hoped to be out of this Thicket swiftly enough, though she had only just come to enter it. The girl she had met was not yet in her line of sight, though her ears picked up on movement ahead. Silaluk signaled to her subordinates in a simple, subtle gesture to be alert--from this distance, it was difficult to distinguish wolf-step from step of a mother bear preparing to bed for the duration of Winter. They fanned out, forming something of a pyramid behind her.