Wapun Meadow do as infinity

Their leader's scent dwindled, as did the pack's resources and any semblance of pack unity. Pied stood on the edge of the forest, a frown curving her lips downward as she stared into the stump there. Once a cache piled with food, it was now as barren as an empty cupboard. She sighed lowly as her stomach pinched with hunger. She then pivoted and, after only a moment's hesitation, she began to trot away from the woodland. Presently, she didn't even know if she would return.

She headed north. After walking a mile, she looked up and noticed Mag flapping quietly overhead. Pied smiled wanly, glad for the company despite the ghostly magpie's utter silence. After watching the drifting bird a moment, she refocused her attention on the terrain ahead. The young Starbuck hadn't left Blackfoot Forest since joining ranks with Bon Dye, so her current surroundings were entirely unfamiliar.

A cool drizzle began to fall and the temperatures dropped, turning the precipitation into small, misty flakes that clung delicately to Pied's lashes. When the wind picked up, it bit into her and she shivered, yearning suddenly to turn back and curl up in her log back home. Yet why should she turn back? Except for Hawkeye, Pied hadn't seen anyone from Bon Dye in weeks. Could she really consider it her home anymore?

Suddenly, the realization that she was essentially homeless struck her and Pied froze in her tracks as small crystals of snow drifted around her. After a feeling of momentary panic at her predicament, she sucked in a steadying breath and squinted her heterochromatic eyes against the swirling gray. Her heart gave a strange little leap when, through the curtain of drizzling snowfall, she spotted something dark against the grayscale backdrop. Hawkeye was her immediate thought, though she quickly sensed that it wasn't her Ogoun companion.

Whereas Pied was headed north, the stranger was jogging southward, meaning that the two of them were heading right toward each other. Pied did not veer from her original course, glad for some social interaction, even with a stranger. She realized that she was craving company quite badly. She hadn't had much time to enjoy the social benefits of Bon Dye and her experience with the Dragonwatchers had left her feeling wretched. All the blotchy Pied wanted was a positive experience with another wolf.

"Hello," she greeted when the two of them came within earshot of each other. She kept her posture neutral, her soapstone ears flicking curiously along with her tail. She came to a halt, drawing up perpendicularly to the dark she-wolf. "I'm Pied... from Bon Dye," she added a bit reluctantly, as it felt like a misplaced title now. "What brings you out here?" she queried, eyes panning over the bleak wasteland of the meadow rimed with hoarfrost.