Overture Downs so stay with me because,

Except, the quiet would not stay.

A shriek of birds sounded from the edge of the woods, and a flock of them flapped out furiously across the downs, peeling towards the open sky in heartstopping panic. From this same patch of trees, a snowshoe hare fled pell-mell, a pale stag of a wolf slavering hot on its heels.

Winter’s Wake bore down on the creature, which had managed to elude him thus far with its erratic leaps but had begun to tire. The hunter was graceful in his furious pursuit, matching the hare’s zigzagging trajectory with almost unnatural precision…

An old embankment gave the prey the edge it needed to gain an insurmountable lead.

Wake recovered easily enough from the sudden dip in the land, but the hare had moved strides ahead, and the chances of success had plummeted well beneath the threshold of “worth it.” The snowrunner let up and stood panting, ears tall and proud even as his meal scampered away.