Lake Rodney snow cones

She was exhausted. Her memory reset each day out of necessity, and Owl focused only on surviving the next twenty-four hours. Remembering that it had been too long since she had eaten or slept made the pain of both unbearable, and so each day that the yearling awoke from a fitful and restless sleep, she focused only on what she could control. The past was useless, here, though it certainly had its hold on her.

I will eat today. I will live today.

These thoughts were not borne of some "Power of Positive Thinking" ethos, but rather of her own conviction. Whatever it took, she would make them happen. If she failed, well... either way she would soon forget.

She paused in her desperate trek over the cold landscape, looking over her shoulder. Owl was at high alert, searching the view hungrily for prey or pursuers. When neither were forthcoming, the she-wolf shuddered and moved on. It was some hours of this paranoid travel before the female came upon a large and frozen shore. She would not risk her life to stand upon it in search of water, but there were piles of snow more prevelant there.

Snow melted to water, and water abated some of the hunger. Owl moved to it, ravenously swallowing mouthfuls of the small drifts, her eyes darting in suspicion of her safety.

Just to be clear, Sassafras is really quite far away, and if you choose to have Owl notice her before she calls out, I'll make the amendment in my next post. :D

The young female was in search of larger game that either had or had not succumbed to the biting cold despite what her better sensibilities had to say about staying as close to the pack as she reasonably could. She was one of the more dispensable members at the moment, however, and she had explicitly promised Finley that she would make herself useful. Upon reaching the lake and having found nothing along the way, she was about to turn and head back to ready herself for another scouting mission when she saw a speck moving slowly in the distance.

Curious and assuming prey, she made her way closer and closer. While she attempted to conceal herself among the frozen brambles, shrubbery, and trees, she was black fur against a white backdrop, and although she tried to creep delicately, she was also beginning to shiver. When she finally drew near enough to know that she’d been looking at a pale, willowy wolf all along, she drew up her head and huffed to herself. She’d only been seeing what she wanted to see, and for far too long. Nevertheless, she stood out from her attempted hiding and released a woof loud enough for the foraging figure to hear.

Sassafras was still curious.

Owl nearly leapt out of her skin at the unexpected sound, her heart thundering in her chest. It had been a long time since she had last heard the splitting noise that marked her pursuers, but sudden noises brought her back to that time and place. Had she not been pressed against the frozen lakeshore, the yearling would have fled— but for the moment she was trapped, and she spun to face the other with a lowered head and raised hackles. Her tail curled tightly around her hindlegs.

Her breath was shallow and quick in her panic, and for the moment she said nothing. Her eyes strayed to map a potential getaway, though they never left the darker she-wolf for long.

If the younger, paler female had only rumbled off her irritation or struck a spark of aggression, Sassafras would have turned back to the caldera immediately. She had little time for such boring proceedings, and the cold was not only gnawing at her now, but taking a firm hold. Instead, however, there was no mistaking the reaction to her call as anything less than fear, and Sassafras decided she wanted to know why the girl might be frightened. Was she alone out here? In this bitter cold? She quickly decided there were few other plausible explanations and appeared unable to take her interest elsewhere.

She trotted out into the open with exaggerated steps, veering her snowy course perpendicular to the frozen shoreline so that the pretty, grey-eyed female would probably have to try her luck by choosing either the left or the right if she opted for flight. Sassafras truly had no intention of pushing her to do so, however, and flattened her plush ears to the sides of her head when she came to a distant halt to demonstrate the fact that she was a non-threat. She chuffed out a friendlier, intentionally inviting greeting, and called out directly with a bright, “Hey!” Having never been so terrified, she could hardly imagine her could-be companion would find such an approach unwelcome.

She fought her instincts, but they overrode the small thing's desperate wish for companionship— safety was far more important, and the scent of other wolves intertwined within the other's own musk alarmed her. Owl held no bond with them, other than that they were of the same species, and even her family had grown treacherous in their desperate fight for survival in the end. Her ears lowered as did her head, defensively protecting her throat, and her tail hung low between her rear legs.

Without a sound but for her movements, Owl made her escape without looking back.