Mount Apikuni first of the year

He set out his path before him. The snow was thin here, as though unable to gather higher than a couple inches before the wind and the slope would cause it to tumble down. No tracks lay out before him, but a steady trail of prints did wind around behind. He closed his eye for a moment and walked on, finding respite in this darkness against the consistent glare of the sun on the snow. It wasn't so bad the further up he traveled, where the snow thinned. Molten gaze reappeared when the beast had accidentally set his paw on a sharp branch; he put his weight on the very end of the branch and snapped it off loudly, but not without the branch sending a sliver of wood into one of the many cuts on his paw pad. A snarl tore across his face, and he stopped, leaning back onto his haunches to examine the damage.

His sights only held his paw for a moment before a figure moved in the distance. The beast caught her out of the corner of his eye, and his gaze flickered up. There he could see a tan wolf moving along the mountain side as well, surrounded by an air of familiarity in both her movements and aesthetic. It was with disbelief that he registered her face and placed a name to it - Xi'nuata. The one from the frozen lake. How strange it should be to find her here.

Raheerah raised his injured paw, grasping the sliver in his teeth and jerking it out of his skin. It left behind a swelling of crimson, but he ignored it. He replaced his paw on the ground, looked back to where he saw the loner, and uttered a strangled, hellish bay. By no means the sound a wolf should make, but it loosely came from his lips in an attempt to gather her attention.