Sun Mote Copse wandering through broken shadows

WC: 532

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With the light fading from the sky earlier and earlier every day, Niamh’s searches became shorter and shorter, much to her disdain. She had made a promise that she would not embark on any fully-fledged searching missions, even though she dearly wanted to, and found it incredibly unfair that she should not be permitted to search in full for her brother, especially when she knew he’d been injured. Day after day she had visited the site where Ambrose had been attacked by the cougar, and every day she fanned out her search in a different direction, trying to cover as much ground as possible while doing so, but every night she returned to the pack’s borders having found nothing. No trace and no sign of him, but fortunately- no sign of the cougar, either.

She had taken note, though, that the small pack gathering in the Shadewood was now not the only group of wolves that had chosen to settle in the area, which irked Niamh. She did not want any other wolves to be anywhere near them- not when winter was approaching and the hunting grounds they had usually not had to compete for would now be fair game for any who stalked them...But now, there were more wolves of a different group gathering along Silver Creek, so now they were not only sharing the lands to the West, but also the lands South of them as well. She was not best pleased by this at all, but there wasn’t much she could do. She travelled North and away from the Creek’s edge, beyond the mountain and into the Copse on her way back to her pack lands, where she would likely arrive a bit later than  she had originally intended...But bringing information with her on a new pack settling nearby would likely excuse her from her set curfew.

The scent of dead leaves growing more and more decayed by the snow that fell and had melted had obscured her sense of smell, so that when she saw the male, at first, she didn’t catch his scent enough to know any different. All she saw, from a distance, was a male who was about the right height, and whose pelt was dark but bore highlights that were all too familiar. Her heart leapt, and she called out with a loud bark. Her nerves rattled within her frame, spurring her into a gallop, and her eyes willed for him to turn and show her the cornflower blue gaze she loved so much...But the closer she got, the more she became aware that this wasn’t Ambrose at all. This wasn’t her brother; it was simply someone who resembled him greatly at a distance- but differed from him quite a bit up close. Realizing she had possibly spooked him by her shout and short-lived mad dash toward him, she slowed to a walk, her posture admitting defeat with a lowered head, ears that turned back and a tail that hung between her hind knees, swaying only gently from side to side with each stride she took. Apologetically, she grimaced. ”Thought you were someone else.” She called out, tone flat.

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