Jade Fern Grove alright, my brothers, listen closely

While Persia inspected the scrape, Watcher surreptitiously inspected him. He reminded her of so many members of her pack: the dusky brown coat of Ashlar and Carrion, the dark legs of Riley, the lank legginess of the majority of her peers. The familiarity was disarming, so much so that when the man took off, she followed at once, suspecting nothing more than a joint hunt.

Watcher tipped her muzzle up into the air and huffed shallow breaths while she loped along in Persia’s wake, sweeping her nose side-to-side in search of deer scent. Other creatures had been through here recently, including a badger. She skirted its trail and veered off to the left, away from where the badger had gone.

After some time of meandering around and loosely following Persia, she found what she was looking for: a spindly tree whose lower trunk had been stripped bare by antlers. Watcher loosed a sound somewhere between a bark and a growl, hoping to pull Persia back to her side to investigate.

At some point in their hunt, he must have grown bored and wandered off, for when Watcher came to a halt and chuffed for him, there was no response.