Blackfoot Forest The Modification of a Wolf

She spent the night sprawled on a log, enjoying the cool autumn air, and rose about an hour prior to sunrise the next morning. Pied leaped down from her makeshift bed and stretched her slender limbs before trotting into the forest. She located a towpath that wound through the trees like a snake and followed it. When she looked up to gauge the direction in which she was moving—northeast, for the most part—she glimpsed Mag skimming the treetops. Her tail twitched interestedly when a small shape flitted in the same direction as the spectral magpie. A bat, Pied realized, wondering if it, too, was a ghost or a flesh-and-blood creature.

Shrugging a mottled shoulder, she continued wandering through the woods. Perhaps an hour had passed—and the sun had crept slowly into the bright, cold sky—when she came upon a clearing and discovered a large, black she-wolf sitting there. Pied paused, scrutinizing the stranger from afar. She looked relaxed. After a slight hesitation, the Sigma began to plod toward the other wolf. En route, the sun struck her pelt, making the white shine like fresh snow and the markings darken to the shade of wet soapstone. She assumed that all wolves ranked above her, so she kept her head low and her tail dangled limply against her hind legs as she approached.

"Hello," she said, her voice soft but direct. "I'm Pied." She didn't bother with titles or other elaborations, instead keeping her introduction short and allowing the female to introduce herself in turn.