Neverwinter Forest an end to smoke

The gloom was deepening, the deer dipping in and out of shadowy pockets as chaser and chased dove into the underbrush. Already Fia could feel herself flagging, her limbs threatening to falter as she fought the lead weight of hunger and exhaustion. Locking her jaw, she sped onward, trying not to panic at the distance that inched wider between her paws and her quarry. She had been, she thought grimly, in this position far too often as of late. What would Benji ever say to that? Her brother would have laughed at her, no doubt. Reminded her how young she was, how slow, how unproven - and how much he had left to teach her. How much time they had assumed they would have left. 

With effort, her paws tracking deeper into the soft loam, Fia tried to gauge if her quarry was beginning to tire. She didn't know this area well enough to pick out the convenient pockets of broken earth or fallen trunks that she could chase it towards to catch it off guard, and her scanning of the surroundings was almost as tiring as the chase itself. Or at least that was what she told herself when a white shape, emerging like an avenging ghost from the green, caught her completely unawares.

As the white wolf sprang forward, Fia resisted the urge to, like the deer, similarly twist off and away. It had been some time since she had last been in the company of another wolf. So far, on her journey here, there had only been stragglers and loners, and they had passed each other with the grim recognition of those who lived on life's fraying edges. This wolf, however, seemed neither of those things - he was certainly not a loner, for he had the skinwarm scent of pack on him, that play of other wolves and the dens and belonging; and for another, he definitely didn't seem poised at the knife-edge mercy of survival. With his thick pelt and sturdy, rugged frame, Fia felt all the more conspicuous for the rib bones that peeked out from her soft, dark fur. 

She pondered, briefly, his presence here. Clearly he had been crouched in wait, but rather than snap and snarl at her to ward her off from the kill - and kill it he would, she had no doubt - he had darted off after it, leaving her to either follow or run away. Alone as she was, weak, Fia's sense of self-preservation was pulling her in two directions. He's bigger than you, stronger, whispered a voice that sounded suspiciously like Amara's, drenched in her sister's trademark paranoia and skepticism. On the other hand, offered Benji, two was always better than one. 

It was a split-second decision for Fia to follow the wolf who had helped to herd the deer. The sudden appearance of the other wolf had sent a jolt of adrenaline through her; she strained for speed, coming to the tail-end of the Arctic wolf's long stride. Pulling alongside him, still half a torso-length behind, Fia cast a few wary glances his way even as she pressed herself harder, trying to get within striking range of the deer that had so far eluded her.