Emberflame Ridge There was a time when I was alone.

It was a grim sight that lay before him, and Sundance's frown deepened as he cast his powder stare to the shores further North. Would they too swell as the rivers did, overflow like the stagnant pools in the marshland? Fear wove it's way deeper into his being, wrapped its cold hands around his tender heart. He had only just found these sacred lands he'd been born to again, and was entirely unprepared to think of being displaced once more.

He inhaled deep the scent of sodden earth, and as he prepared to exhale in a sigh an unfamiliar voice came from behind. Sundance, suddenly made alert by the other male's approach, gasped instead as he turned sharply to seek the stranger with wide eyes.

They settled on the face of a dark wolf, made entirely of earthen shades. A dark mask swathed the fur of his brow and covered his eyes, noted to be of a fiery hue before the platinum yearling averted his frantic stare. "Oh," he said with a breath of laughter, embarassed at having been startled, "sorry! I thought I was alone up here." 

A soft sway of his tail, then, to accompany the sheepish llittle smile that bloomed on his alabaster muzzle.