The Wall i put my fears inside

warmth was needed by the pulsating core. so it was that the parts which stuck out - the paws, the ears, the snout, - had gone numb with ever-present cold. them deemed useless beyond the basic function of guiding the walk along this specific path, the brain had reason to disbelieve them. winter had a way of creeping into the skull.

the blurred shape was most certainly not wolf. neither was the musky odor of a well-fed animal. large tracks in the cracked ice weren't there either. the chuff...

...the chuff was a joke played by a dimming mind.

and yet the walk was stopped. not by belief that something indeed stood there, but by wish to explore the make of this mirage.

in reply, there was a muffled half-bark, the best that throat could approximate to a wolf's way of greeting.