Haunted Wood don't fall asleep at the helm

In the instantaneous manner the pronghorn disappeared, her roving eyes while drinking caught sight of what seemed like a materialized, unexpected presence in the distance that came into view. Zsuzsa’s head shot up, ears thrust forward. Water droplets fell from her chin as her steel gaze observed a tall figure enshrouded in a mesmerizing mix of auburn and russet hues. She couldn’t recall seeing a wolf like him with such rich color woven in his fur before. The male was a stark contrast to the silent sentry of birch surrounding him. The birch was pale in comparison with their dark horizontal lenticels cutting through their bark. Some lenticels looked eye-like, a thousand lens-like grooves onlooking the encounter with mute anticipation of the two wolves and what the first word (or move) would be from either.
 
Stress hormones rising in tandem with the temperature, this sent Zsuzsa’s senses in a flurry of unspoken calculations of him from her distance. The first thing to note was he did not look nor smell in any way associated with the Weald search party of herself, which quelled that notion. The next was his lean and powerful figure, the promise that wherever he descended, the land was favorable of survival suitability. Compared to him, her figure was more slim than usual, with the outer layer of her coat shedding profusely these last several days in an effort to lighten the load of her natural pelt of the elements due to the heat. Zsuzsa cared not about that impression she may make, for many things to perceive in the wild is likely to be wrongly interpreted. Big things even came in average packages.
 
Speaking of illusion, Zsuzsa blinked several times to assure herself he wasn’t a phantom this strange forest was portraying. It was then she would break the ice to further confirm if this forest was playing a deception on her. “Did the two pass through that way?” Her question was straightforward, slightly above pitch to be overheard amongst the rush of the river to be carried to the distance he was at.