Phoenix Maplewood When the buzzards get loud

bumped to present day with permission! ranger sounds good for me.

she hadn't wanted to be here. not home. but her heart had pulled her here and her feet had obliged. it was a sanctuary she hadn't wanted to revisit, for fear it might not be real.

but the trees looked real as she passed under them.

and the snow felt real, under her paws.

and the cold -- it was real as it raked through her, raw to the bone.

she thought about skowl and how he had responded to the scent that clung to her. she thought about laurel and xan, and that mute wolf -- and her failed hunt with blondine and that strange wolf that had the nerve to look at her lack of tail like it was a scarlet letter worthy of shame. all of these thoughts troubled her and enveloped her completely, so much that she was oblivious she was nearly upon a wolf until he shook and startled her.

she drew back, pulled from her inward turmoil by his movement. there was no greeting, no warm or sunny 'hello' -- just a spooked wolf, feeling out of place before him. she did not realize it yet, but it was the same wolf she had encountered so long ago at larksong (and also the wolf she had briefly seen interact with reigi)-- they had both grown so much since their last encounter.