Blackfoot Forest battle

branches clawed at the faint moonlight, leaving shadows jagged and deep, swallowing all but the faintest flickers of movement. gjalla moved like a wraith through the gloom, a stormcloud looming overhead before it touched down to destroy its target. 

her hound was at her back, trailing just behind, his towering form a specter at her side. she had not looked back at him for a while now, not since they departed from the valley after one-eye and the she-wolf he got pregnant.

she was a creature of instinct now—ears twitching, tongue flicking, every ounce of her honed in to focus stark's scent trail. it reeked of copper and rot, stark's lifeblood carving a jagged path through the undergrowth. 

she'd instructed meleeys to go ahead, keep a closer eye. a precaution—if gjalla got too close, she would not hesitate, and she wanted to draw it out. let him suffer and hurt up until his last.

in doing so, her absence left the silence to stretch taut between the remaining pair. gjalla welcomed it, relished in it, the quiet offering a chance for her anger to simmer unchecked.