Winter had struck, and the girl was a year old now. What had she done with her life? Not much, she supposed. There wasn't a whole lot she could really do when she was a pup, but as a yearling, now she figured the world was open to her! Or had it always been? She wasn't sure. Bright yellow gaze looked across the horizon, the girl having remained in these parts since they came here. For some reason she was hesitant to leave, the buffalo had become a constant in her life, though she knew that wasn't the only thing keeping her from going elsewhere. She was...afraid? Perhaps? Possibly afraid to take her first step away from her family to go explore on her own, though whether or not that was even the issue was beyond her. She didn't know what was out there, didn't know what she would find. She didn't know what she wanted most of all, and for whatever reason she felt like she needed to have all that figured out now. Perhaps she was putting too much pressure on herself for a yearling, but she didn't know how to stop overthinking it now. She lied there on top of the hill, forelegs crossed as she watched the buffaloes morning rituals. They moved about, grazing and rolling in the early morning dust. They were a comfort to her, probably since she grew up here with them so close. The sky was a dull grey, cold and somewhat wet. The snow fell heavily on her coat, and it seemed her first winter would be freezing. She watched the herd, and for the first time since she sat down that morning, realize that the herd was considerably smaller than the previous days. Not only that, but she noticed that there were other scents mingled with them. Scents of creatures she had never scented before, and as her eyes wandered she also noticed there were a lot of tracks heading North towards the mountains...were the buffalo leaving? What was going on? What were the other scents? Some smelled like wolves, maybe they had hunted some of the buffalo...or chased them away...but the other was a heavy scent. She wanted to know what it was, but she didn't want to go investigate by herself, either... "Talk" "You" Think

Unlike his sister, Pyre hadn't been still in quite some time. In fact he had started to wonder if he had lost his family completely since he hadn't seen them in so long. Finally though, a familiar scent found his nose and he strolled into the knolls with a renewed confidence that he would find them. The stronger his sister's scent got the more he started to wonder what they would all do now. They were a year old. Technically they were all adults now. He supposed his dad would want them to stick around by him for the most part. Isn't that what parents always wanted? He just couldn't imagine staying here doing... well, nothing. He spotted Paradise's striped form and he felt a little bit of relief. If nothing else he'd found one member of his family. Not that he'd tell them that he missed them. He trotted over to his similarly colored sibling with a lopsided grin and plopped down next to her on his haunches with a soft thud. "Hey, sis!" he said as he bent his head down and gave the side of her head a sloppy lick before leaning back and chuckling with amusement at himself. "Whatcha up to?" He glanced over at the buffalo she had been watching and his head tipped to the side. "What's up with the buffalo?" The breeze brought him that same unfamiliar scent Paradise had been considering and he looked back over to his sister curiously. Speech Thought Others

Her eyes narrowed towards the herd, watching them as if her life depended on it. Her nostrils flared as she tried to figure out what the non-wolf scent was, but couldn't quite figure it out. Sighing, she frowned and looked elsewhere, though she was surprised when a voice sounded behind her and before she knew it, her brother was sitting next to her. Before she could face him, she became paralyzed as her brother placed a sloppy lick on the side of her head. Her eyes grew wide, the girl frozen in place for a moment before she shook her head. "Eeeeww! Pyre! What'd you do that for!?" She turned to look at him with an indignant stare, the fur where he licked her was parted and sticking up. She dropped her head, against him, rubbing her head on his shoulder to try and rub the slobber on him and off of her. His questions didn't go unheard as she continued her task, and when she was done, she returned her gaze to the buffalo. "I dunno, but there's less than there used to be." She flicked her tail, ears twitching. "I noticed tracks heading North, but I don't know if they're leaving of their own free will, or if something scared them that way..." She stood up, shaking the snow off her coat that had piled up on her. "There is a smell that I've never smelled before, do you smell it too?" She questioned, head slightly jerking in the direction she had scented it from. She wanted to go investigate and see if she could find any clues as to what it might be, but even if she did find anything, she didn't think she'd know what it would be. Maybe her brother would like to go on an investigation with her? OOC//So I decided that maybe they could find some large predator tracks, bear or cougar or w/e XD they can either encounter it later in the thread or just find tracks, up to you c: "Talk" "You" Think

He had a wide, amused grin on his face as his sister basically glared at him for his sloppy kiss. The sight of her fur sticking up and wet from his tongue made him laugh even harder. Not even Paradise rubbing her head on his shoulder to get his spit off of her could dull his mood. In fact it just made it even funnier. He sobered up a little bit though as the attention turned toward the buffalo. He liked a good mystery and he liked an interesting mission even more than that. This seemed like both of those things if he had ever seen one. Pyre nodded in agreement when Paradise asked about the weird scent. He definitely hadn't smelled anything like that before, which only made him more curious. When she stood up and shook the snow off of herself she sent a flurry of flakes onto him instead, but he was too focused on this new task to care. He hopped back onto his paws and gave himself a shake as well. "Well, lets go find out what's going on!" he said confidently, setting off down the hill without waiting to see if Para was going to follow him. He gave the buffalo a pretty wide clearance to keep from bothering them too much, but he could see a few of them watching him warily all the same. He focused on trying to follow the unusual scent, keeping his nose close to the ground. The freshly fallen snow had begun to fill in the marks in the snow and there was a collection of buffalo prints partially obscuring them as well, but eventually his nose lead them to a paw print of some kind. He lifted his head and examined the print with his brows pulled together. He held his paw up beside it, letting the print dwarf his own. "Dang, what could be that big?" Speech Thought Others