Blacktail Deer Plateau lord of wolves

please let @Minori post first, and then it is AW!

 

in that blackened pit of despair, shardik had nearly drowned in the choking darkness. his quarry had escaped, eluding his hungering talons -- and all he had left in his wake was the oncoming desolation of doom.

yet shardik could not be stilled so easily; for days he grappled against the prison of ledge and gloom, feeling his way along the blackened throats of each pathway, until at last he had shouldered through a feeble collapse in the walls and had risen from the tumbling earth like a revenant, gaunt and bellowing.

he had wanted to continue his search for the ghost that had escaped him, yet any scent mou might have left was undetectable -- and shardik, knowing now a meal was more pressing than ever, had soldiered on.

few souls were unfortunate enough to cross him in his search for sustenance; a mother fox had been caught and dispatched, but her bones were frail and her musculature lean -- she was hardly appropriate vittles to replenish his vigor.

onwards he went, until he came across the clear-marked boundaries of a pack. dogs, shardik knew, were cunning creatures -- and oft stored their spare kills underground.

with his massive nose flaring with each inhale and exhale, the monstrous beast entered the realm, slavering and slobbering as he went.