Phoenix Maplewood i'll wind up working in the thick of it

Preparing to take flight from the devil at his heels, he was reined in by her pause, and he turned to face her with a questioning tilt of his terrier skull. He followed her gaze, pitching his ears forward and inhaling sharply so that he might find what had disturbed her. They were alone, as far as he knew...

But it wasn't that. His vision changed suddenly to encompass the woods as a whole. He stopped trying to see around the trunks and boughs obscuring the field, looking at them instead. Now Phoenix could find something to love about even the most pitiful of forests out there, but he was genuinely glad he had been named for this one. It was proud, even in its bareness, with roots deeper than the lakes, and faces older than he could fathom. How many generations of wolves had come through here? How many different wolves had seen this beauty, this promise, and thought to keep it for their own?

What had happened to them?

"Damn," he sighed. "I bet it's even better in bloom." His club-tail wagged heavily, and he looked like a dog that was about to be given his favorite treat. "Well, come on then. Gotta be some good digs around here!" the wolf asserted, charging deeper into the woods with all the reckless abandon his age and inexperience allowed.

Sorry for the horrendous wait! And because I really need to press the reset button right now, I'd like to make this my last post. Lauren, you can wrap up in your next post, if you don't want to outright fade/archive it now, and we can "assume" @Aditya eventually came to chase them out or some such. Part on friendly terms, happily ever after, yada yada <3