Shadow Mountain vi. like Rome

at this point, falquan follows a path for the sake of following a path. aurëwen's scent trail is long since faded from the ground. he picks a direction out of need — there is a lot of wilds to cover but even so he does not try to fool himself. he knows the chances of him stumbling across her on coincidence are little more than hopeful slivers and almost entirely unlikely. so, he focuses on keeping eyes and ears open, asking strangers if they've seen her as he goes along, tending mostly to his own survival. he won't be able to do his job when — if — he finds her if he's starving and unkempt.

the tirn moves along the bottom of the wide mountain, tracking the crisscrossing scents of foxes in the hopes of hunting himself a meal outta one of them only to hear the footfalls from above. he peers up and feels his hackles bristle in surprise to see a dark pelaged wolf — woman, from the scent — ascending the slope. in the interest of not startling her and causing her to fall from the precarious path she appeared to be taking upwards he remains silent thinking that he could pass through beneath her path unnoticed.