Big Salmon Lake will-o'-the-wisp

July observed the lakefront for a long time; watching as the water rippled squeamishly beneath the night's low draft; waiting for each moment the moon would disappear in a swathe of clouds and leave the water looking black and ominous. But he was not someone afraid of the unknown. His fears were more corporeal than that, and he was a wolf who firmly believed in solving mysteries rather than shying from them. He displayed an example of said trait when a shadow moving differently than the others rung the bells of his peripheral, and he chose immediately to investigate without a single thought for consequence.

The slender shadow came lakeside, and when the moon was able to peer down on the lakeshore again, July readily found her features in the few minutes of soft light he was given. At first his pace increased— black fur, beryl eyes, even the clipped ear; he knew her— but secondary things clicked after this that caused his trot to falter. Her posture was all wrong. Her scent was... decidedly different. And she didn't react to him as if they had met before, making this encounter seem as if she were an entirely different wolf meeting him for the first time.

July couldn't reconcile her appearance with the new things about this wolf, and it was the first time July had ever balked at another wolf. From a distance he just looked stricken, perhaps deaf and dumb, but as his confusion reached a fever pitch, the paused male stalked forward again, his head low and his nose outstretched as he targeted the puzzling girl with an intense focus. Who are you? his body language radiated, fearlessly seeking to invade her space.