Bitterroot Valley iv. loneliness

she watched the boy from afar, the ash and blonde blur striking across the horizon as he chased after a mouse that had broken through the dense cover of snow.  for whatever reason, the stupid creature was  coming towards her, another predator.  she wondered absently if it was sick or injured, but her thoughts drew away from the creature and towards the wolf as he came closer.

... barreling in the desolate winter landscape, their bodies close and heated as they play together in the snow ...

... a clamor of teeth and jaws and blood and an ear-piercing scream that doesn't end ...

and all of a sudden, she knows who he is.  perhaps if she had been petty his fear would have caused a disgusted delight to rise in her chest, but she did not rejoice at his submission even as recognition came over her.

she did not move from her spot, unflinching.  she does not want to scare him off.  if it had been the screaming girl perhaps she would have been more savage but she had an interaction with this boy well before xan that had swayed her opinion of him.

she lets out a narrow, wanting whine, urging him with a slow bat of her tail to come closer.