Blackfeather Woods where'er i walk, ten thousand flies precede me

ancelin wasn't sure he'd ever been so far before. he'd trailed the would-be trespasser from the rise, following them westward. then a herd of elk had caught his attention, and he'd driven them across the sunspire for sport.
the mountains closed behind him, and by the time they parted for the lowlands, ancelin was rather lost. but he would trust internal GPS to get him home, and decided to find something for lilia while he was out.
chasing a cloud of blackbirds from the corpse of a pronghorn, ancelin tasted the oddly sweet meat for the first time and when he had filled his belly, he chewed off one of the sharp weird antlers, meaning to take it home.
it was open here, naked in all directions. he boggled to see a rainstorm openly approaching; the sight of a storm cell sailing right for him spooked ancelin, and he raced for the only cover of trees nearby: a twisted forest almost devoid of light.
ravens cawed as the soaked redtail wolf found himself in their tangle, unknowing that years before, blood ancestors of his very own had walked this earth.

though mira wished to raise strong children, she wasn't quite the type who wanted to spend her every waking moment with them. she was thankful to have encountered the young boy who was eager for a purpose and would readily watch the litter. it gave her time to stretch her legs beyond the mountain slopes on the days where she longed to do so, and mira was well-adjusted to a life of freedom and solitude. even with the remnant physical reminders of her former pregnancy, she went westward. 

it was an overcast day and the air smelled like rain. perhaps she would not have ventured so far if she'd noticed the incoming downpour that morning, but instead she now found herself in a sticky situation. mira hated the feeling of her fur being wet. 

at the creek now, the forest at the base of her mountain was too far. she continued into the cover that laid ahead. it was dark here, but the blanket of leaves was thick, and she felt less anxious about the storm threatening her with its thunder. 

she could only move forward with her restless energy, until wolf-scent alerted her, and she paused. tasting the air, she looked betweens trees towards a multi-colored dapple of fur a few yards ahead. mira approached slowly, but not with secrecy. 

he was barely younger than her own male servant, but he smelled of a pack, and she knew then that he was not hers to recruit for her agenda. still, these days she was wanting for more information, and they were closer to moonspear here than little goat mountain. she chuffed in a neutral greeting, glancing curiously at the dark antler-horn that he held.

the place was dark, and that was ancelin's very first impression. the second was that he was being watched, and the flutter of wings high above him did nothing to quell this assumption.
now he felt rather stupid; he was just about to toss the antler in a fit of annoyance when a woman seemingly materialized from the deep shadows and started to approach. the boy goggled at her, backed away, tripped over a risen root, and fell hard on his ass.
the antler thumped away. ancelin jumped to his feet, ignoring the ache in his hindquarters. "hey!" he said brightly, voice cracking in an embarrassing show right at the very end. "do you, um, do you know what this place is called? kinda creepy," ancelin hurried on, chagrined right down to his bone marrow.
she was roughly his height, but older, not a girl. and her scent; he knew its nuances, but didn't want to assume. "i'm ancelin bearclaw, from redtail rise."

The man noticed her, backed up, tripped, and dropped his prize. Mira, despite how plain she could often be when it came to emotions, was amused by this fall. A smirk unintentionally touched her maw, and then it was gone as soon as it came. 

He quickly stood back up, calling out a greeting in a voice that cracked like a teenager. Too bad he had a pack, she thought! What a help it would be to recruit another young man to work alongside Ksura. She silenced the thought, knowing it was not worth pursuing, not with this boy who was already homed. 

Do you know what this place is called? Kinda creepy. She shrugged. Did it matter what the names of places were if nobody was inhabiting them? Nobody is living here, so call it whatever you want. We could just call it Creepy Forest. I think that’s fitting. He introduced himself, so she followed- I am Mira Ostrega. I… don’t have a pack, right now, I’m just living with my family. Well- wolf packs were usually just families in the true wild- but for Mira her little unit wasn’t quite considered a full group. She wondered for a moment if it was dangerous to tell strangers she had a family- would they try to steal her children or harm them? But she decided this fellow didn’t seem particularly threatening, with his clumsy introduction, so hopefully it wouldn’t bring her any harm. 

Where is Redtail Rise? She wondered conversationally, knowing it was always useful to have more information about the surrounding areas.

creepy forest. that fit and it stuck for a young man charmed by simple things. ancelin felt an immediate kinship with this mira ostrega, if only for the fact they were both standing here in a dead-end stop to spookyville.
"it's like ... it's way back. in the taiga. we live on a rise," he said, quite redundantly as it was in the name. "it's nice to meet you, mira. i think that counts as a pack too, technically?"
he smiled, hoping he wasn't coming off as a complete weirdo. "i've just been wandering lately. going with the flow, you know?"