Blacktail Deer Plateau Dissolving the seeds of a moment

A thick blanket of white snow covered the plateau like a layer of creamy frosting topping a cake. After squeezing out of the hollow tree she now called home, Pied stood looking at the view, admiring the purity of the sparkling snow and the sense of quietude that enveloped the surrounding woods. Eventually, she began to walk, her light weight allowing her to skim across the surface of the snow without sinking in too deeply. She left behind her a perfect line of paw prints.

She kept moving until she warmed up good and proper, then stopped at a small stream, broke through the ice and took a drink. She grimaced lightly when the cold water hit her stomach like a punch in the gut, then moved along the frozen stream bed to the pack's nearest cache. Pied helped herself to a leg of rabbit, which she ate quickly without even sitting down.

When she finished her breakfast, the Delta lifted her head and pricked her ears. The snow on the ground absorbed a lot of sounds, yet she could hear birds chirping nearby and even the distant sound of footfalls crunching through the snow. Her gray ears flicked and she wondered if she was hearing a wolf or maybe a deer passing through the wood. She stood a moment longer, still listening, then decided to investigate.

As she padded through the frosted forest, she didn't feel perturbed by the otherwise undisturbed silence. The reformed pack was still young and small, yet she was constantly reassured by the strong scents of her pack mates, particularly those of Hawkeye and Leto. This was not the ghost town that Blackfoot Forest had become. Pied would not be alone, nor hungry. The pack would survive the winter, a thought which brought a small smile to her lips as she walked.