The Tangle airë

It was a rare thing that she left her children to hunt; rare, but necessary. To keep them warm in her absence, Marina had left a grisly companion: a hare, hamstringed, its tiny teeth knocked out and claws pulled from its paws. The creature could hardly move, but it lived. Its dying warmth would keep her children alive.

Aware that her time was limited even so, she slipped from the sound in search of prey.

What she found instead was another wolf. He moved silently, as if engaged in a hunt of his own, but there was no quarry that Marina could see. She stilled, ears tall as she watched the stranger from afar. Wariness had not left her; any unknown could be a threat, even now.