Whitewater Gorge Fire and Water

If he'd been looking away from the edge and more towards what was ahead, he probably would have noticed the shadow emerging faster than she noticed him -- he was, after all, much paler in color -- but hey, he was angry and wrapped up in convincing himself that he was tons better than the other wolves he knew and he didn't need them and all that jazz, so he wasn't thinking straight to start with.

She was marked strangely, but then again, Mal was a weirdly spotted freak so to him it was more like just enough difference for him to note it for a second.  She probably would be harder to forget than some others just by that (but Mal was pretty good at forgetting people).  Unfortunately, those earlier thoughts also made him a little sharper than he otherwise would have been, so his question to her was a kind of blunt, Hi.  Who're you?  She didn't smell like any pack he'd run into or found hints of -- so, loner, right?  He kind of needed to drag himself back to reality instead of his pity party just a wee tad bit.