Grouse Thicket there and back again

Still high on the hormones that Niamh was putting out, Phox decided to take a little afternoon excursion to see if he couldn't track down some of the herds that had returned. It brought him back to his younger days, when he'd spent months tracking a single herd. For days on end, he would monitor their movements, following closely behind, sleeping under whatever sky decided to be his roof that night. With all this energy pulsing through him lately, it seemed only natural to want to return to that boyish, blissful state.

A strong gust of wind and toppling of snow pulled Phox off track and he soon found himself tracking not a large hoofed animal, but a single, lone wolf. The trail led away from an area where it looked as though somebody had dumped a bucketful of fresh snow. Looking up, Phox realized it must have collected on the trees, then crashed all the way down here. Curious, the silver-backed beast jogged along the clear path made by the wolf ahead, barking a friendly greeting when he was a few dozen paces behind.