Blacktail Deer Plateau like father, like daughter

for @Dawn lmao sorry for the most basic generic thread title

The herd was thriving. That was good, at least.

Shale wished he could have seen the harbingers of doom earlier than he had last winter. The deer wasting to nothing. The herds slowly thinning. Perhaps it was his knowledge of those events, which had brought such destruction to his own life, that sharpened his eyes this winter. Perhaps he watched too keenly.

He sat on a small hillock, gazing at the deer. The order had gone out to spare the does until they gave birth in the spring, so he was searching for the decrepit and elderly among the males. A stumble here, a groan there. The glassy-eyed ones, who had seen much of life and lived to tell their tales.

Shale supposed he was beginning to enter that part of his life as well. His fifth year of life began soon. . .middle age, for a wolf. Here he stood, with no children, no legacy, to show for any of it. Sadness came over him in a wave.

He tipped his muzzle back, ready to loose a lonely howl to Day, seeking companionship, but lowered it after a moment of silence. No use bogging his brother down with his issues; Grayday had enough on his plate. So he watched, and waited. But for what? he wondered.