all of the light just fades away

Edit on 11/06: I'm gonna conclude and archive this! <3

When Yildun brushed against her, she gave him an encouraging nip. Her pale eyes followed him as he switched fully into hunting mode. Because she didn't want to impede his tracking by possibly creating extra noise—for he could surely hear her, even when she was trying her best to be stealthy—Koontz fell back, trailing slowly after him.

She only heard the possum's scurrying in the moment just prior to his attack. She froze when Yildun pounced, snatching the creature's tail before positioning it more properly and biting its neck. Koontz heard the crunch of its bones and the soft wheeze as its last breath squeezes through its torn throat. Her tail wagged lightly and she waited where she stood.

He plucked up his kill and presented the carcass to her. "Good job, Yildun. I'm impressed," she told him sincerely, touching her nose to his and then looking down at the possum without moving her head. "Seriously, I can't even fathom how you did that. You'd make a better Boneknapper than me," she said in jest, though she wasn't entirely joking.

"I'm going to pick up the possum and move somewhere else to eat it," she told him in the next beat. True to her word, she bent down and scooped the dead possum into her jaws. She then nudged Yildun and trotted into the wood. She glanced behind her a few times to make sure he was following, concerned that he might lose her or else have trouble otherwise, yet he glided along behind her like a ghost and soon Koontz stopped worrying about him.

She arrived at her favorite spot, the ledge that overlooked the southernmost part of the park. "Stop," she instructed Yildun, as she didn't want him hurtling over the edge. "Make yourself comfortable while I split this thing," she added, the night soon filling with the sound of ripping and tearing.

After nudging his ration toward him and situating herself, Koontz sighed contently. "I wish you could see this view, Yildun," she said quietly. She glanced over at him. "Just below us is a lovely hot spring—perhaps you can smell it?—and, beyond that, to the south, there's a majestic mountain rising up into the sky. To its left, there's a sprawling forest. East of us, there's a river, funneling off into the wilderness." Surely he wouldn't be able to paint a mental picture that looked like the panorama below, yet maybe her words would help him conjure up a pretty image of his own understanding.

After they ate, Koontz would have been happy to simply sit there and admire the view. Yet since Yildun couldn't enjoy it the same way, she opted for a different activity. Standing up, she moved closer to him, hovering for a moment. "May I?" she asked quietly before slipping down beside him. Then, with only mild hesitation, she scooted close to him, leaning her side and back against Yildun's pale form. When he seemed receptive to the contact, it emboldened her and she curled closer into him, effectively cuddling with the blind wolf. It felt incredibly comfortable. She wondered how much more vivid the physical sensations must be for him...

"I like this," she said quietly, a smile in her voice. Eventually, she let her chin sink to her forepaws and, without meaning to, she fell fast asleep in Yildun's arms.