and fill your heart with smoke

His companion's advances were rewarded with a curt pinning of his ears -- he looked up for a moment as she lapped the icy water. He held no love for the water's frigid state, and declined from joining her. Instead, he stalked slowly along the tall fronds of dead reed-grass, his nose pressed firmly along the earth.

He did this for a while -- sometimes he would circle -- sometimes he would stop and scratch the layer of snow back. The ground was tough in most areas, and in others, impenetrable.

At last, his efforts seemed to be rewarded -- his nose was rife with the scent of freshly killed possum. He had no recognition of the scent that had killed it -- it was certainly not of the wolven variety. Whatever had felled it had eaten only a little and left the remnants behind, likely because the earth was far too frozen to dig into. With a joyous growl the dog seized the frozen carcass and spun around, limping swiftly back towards neutral territory where he and his new companion could travel unharried.