Ouroboros Spine ii. and leave them

There had been more arrivals upon the mountain than Raimo could keep track of. He had been lurking in the blackpine for a while, keeping his distance from the pair of mourning women while seeking out gifts for them, for after. The increase of a canine presence had scared off much of the smaller prey and that irked him. His attention drifted from his hunt when someone ghostly slipped across his path, running perpendicular across the route he had been watching. They reminded him of a thinning storm cloud; there was faint color to their body but not much, as if he was seeing her through a mist.

Raimo pulled himself down the mountain and through the shadows, reaching the low hills by mid-morning, following the trail of the stranger. When they dipped towards the outskirts of the claim and appeared to wind in to the fields surrounding them, he paused. Perhaps the stranger was hunting — or it was just as likely they had chosen not to make their home upon the mountain after all, and fled in to the frostbitten fields. He was undecided on what to do next and looked back over his shoulder, his gaze following the black spires of the trees where they terminated in winter mist.