Boartusk Heights Vignette

I went with the suggested joining prompt because it sounded fun :)

his wounds have healed externally, but the foreleg that bears the worst of the injuries aches. Alder is too stubborn to reduce the distance he travels each day , and that does not help the pain, nor does his lack of nutrition. Hunger consumes his awareness more relentlessly than does the throbbing in his bones, providing another reason for the wolf to resist taking rest.

darkness has fallen.  the terrain grows soft underfoot, the scent of moist grass thick upon the night breeze. his footsteps are silent and he is glad for this because he has made a decision that under almost any other circumstance he would never have made. he has crossed the borders of a pack’s territory.

it takes him a short time to find the source of the meat-scent : a cache , no doubt made by the pack which claims this marsh. Choosing  a haunch of deer from the pile and setting it aside, he pauses and uses his senses to survey his surroundings. detecting nothing, he begins to gobble right from the cache, eating faster than he has ever before. This way, he can get something in his stomach while he remains undetected, saving the haunch he set aside for later.