Wapun Meadow in the beginning

Much like Liatris, Oni was on a fresh new journey, and was even a little bit excited to see where it took him. Unlike Liatris, his was not something he chose for himself. It was preordained.

The crunch and squeak of snow underpaw was his only companion for quite some time, and it took him many heart beats walking toward the river to realize that some of the crunching and squeaking wasn't his doing. There would sometimes be a squelch of snow when all his paws were planted, and when he finally noticed it, he swung his narrow mug up and glanced surreptitiously around himself.

There! Oni's blue green eyes snagged on a flicker of movement, and then he noticed the subtle shades of dirty snow and driftwood, and finally, Liatris materialized out of the background. He hadn't noticed her at first thanks to convincing camouflage, but now the difference between her coat and the much paler snow was striking. Lone wolves were an oddity where he was from. He had yet to run into one, and she piqued his curiosity. Oni was raised to be careful and he adhered to that as he took a cautious step forward, masquerading as a thirsty wolf looking for a drink in hopes of hiding his blatant curiosity.