Cassiopeia's View back in black

I marked it private but I can open it up if you want! @Tzila

In the dark, with the moon sliced cleanly in half, the cold had enough bite to cut right through fur and bones and settle deep into a person's very being. It not only bit, it cleaved and it was certain to get worse as the winter grew deeper. Grimsley welcomed those days openly. He was no arctic wolf, surviving in negative thirty or some such, but he was well equipped for the cold and also extremely fond of it. He relished in the crisp, clean of the cold night and rooted himself in the place where he'd stopped to rest.

He was at home in the mountains and strongly preferred stony terrain. Despite his size and weight, he was well balanced. What he looked out over, however, was not other peaks but wood and water. Lesser beings lived there, if he were honest. The ones who couldn't or wouldn't live in the stone. That was fact and also fine. He worried, though, that he would be forced to find welcome down there with them. How many mountain packs dwelled in these torn lands? How many could he stomach dealing with? He cast a glance out over the expanse where a cloud, dark and ominous despite how much time had passed, still swirled along the top of a distant peak.

It wasn't the only thing wrong about the lands. It was not enough to turn Grimsley away but it did capture his curiosity. What had happened here? His crimson gaze flickered back down, and he watched with passive attention as the night drew onward.