Firestone Hot Springs sister susie sitting on a thistle

Now that looked pretty suspicious, enough to make Jackson keep on his toes. He couldn't smell too much, the humidity of the springs hung too heavy to flutter in the breeze, but as far as he could sniff there was no one around for the moment. All the same though, he had keen eyesight and he knew his mind wasn't playing any tricks; that was some kind of something. And it wasn't moving too fast (not at all actually) as he kept on trucking closer.

Of course it was explained when he came to a short distance away and realized that goat was good and dead. And it wasn't such an awful realization, if it wasn't for that smell. The hot springs themselves worked his nose in all the wrong ways, not too bad that he couldn't adapt to it, but the sulfur mixed in the scent of rotten death struck his fur out in all directions.

He nearly scratched his head trying to work out what had happened. Didn't make sense that it had drowned itself, yet its head was dunked down into the bubbling pool while its body laid limp down the slope towards the water. Other than a few bird peckings, it was pretty held together, no large predator had come to tear the goat open and it had to be at least two days old. Sniffing at its hip, Jackson snorted not sure he could work up an appetite--something just didn't seem right.

After the blessed return of his Frost Queen, Kaname felt much more relaxed. He continued his search for herds that the pack could take advantage of, if the prey in the Spine became scarce. Many of these potential prey animals lived in the Flatlands, a place also used by the Blacktail Deer Plateau, Blackfeather Woods and Redhawk Caldera packs who lived nearby, as well as the other predators that lived alongside wolves.

Like this bear for example.

The dark furred assassin stared at the bear curiously, wondering what it was investigating in the springs. Was it food? The Beta sneaked carefully behind the large beast, eyes gleaming with curiosity as he looked around the bear's shoulders. Surely he could sneak a peek, and maybe, even a bite.

It can't be no good. Don't add up. The bear rumbled to himself, sitting back on his haunches and refusing to rip into the carcass. Cause of death just didn't make sense, not to mention how it had hardly been touched in a few days. He hadn't survived this long by not listening to his instincts, part of what kept him going was his intuition. But it was hard to give up, his mind was telling him one thing, but his stomach yearned to take an experimental bite--you don't just pass up food that's sitting and waiting to be chewed up.

Bringing a paw up idly to scratch his nose he gave a huff of a sigh, and leaned over to shuffle back onto his feet. But the moment he turned his nose he caught movement from the corner of his ear. Hey now! What you doin' back there? He hollered, before twisting around to face the observer--nobody snuck up on old Jackson.

The moment the bear yelled in that natural deep voice of his, Kaname jumped back, eyes glowing mischievously when he realized he was in no danger from him, at least for now. "Just curious." He smirked, eyes fixing on the goat carcass. "Is something wrong with it?" Ignoring the fact that he was having a conversation with a bear, the assassin was wondering why the grizzly did not touch it. It was fall after all, nigh time for the behemoth to be fattening up for winter. Why pass up a perfectly good meal?