Bitterroot Valley taurus

they crossed the taiga in a wave.

sulukinak ranged away from her uncle. their own numbers had grown and they were feeling more crowded now to the shadow girl; she preferred being alone, and found the harassment of the caribou preferential to the attention of her own kind.

there was no escaping it forever, though. a shadow cut across the valley against the flow of bodily traffic; she saw this, thinking it oddly conformed for a caribou - so she sought its path and came creeping through the snow. not a caribou, not a stray calf - but those would come with spring's arrival and there was much time yet to wait - but, a wolf.

he was thick like a brown bear but not hulking, and broad but not tall, although sulukinak did not get so close as to ascertain his health, he was initimdating; she did not make a sound as she now followed him doggedly, curious and aloof as she often was.