Hit the reset button

This part of the world was a cold snowy place. At times, the wind blew stinging flakes across the tundra, the curtains of snow only being broken by the sporadically placed trees jutting out of the ground. A terribly inhospitable place, yet Taiga was in her element. The thickly furred feline was made for climes like this. She barely felt the cold through her charcoal and snow pelt. The pink pads of her paws were wide and furred like giant snowshoes. The real issue would have arisen if the landscape was hot and balmy. Then the cave lioness surely would have melted into a giant, spotted puddle.

Having hunted the caribou that frequented this place, Taiga's belly was full and the cat was sleepy and satiated. The night was quite calm as she made her way across the snowy plain, searching for a place suitable to bed down for the night. On the morrow, she would rejoin her 'herd' and they would continue on to wherever the trio wanted to go. Taiga was only out this far because she refused to hunt where her hoofed companions could see. Their natural tendencies made them skittish around her as it was. Especially Rannoch. The giant elk flinched if she so much as yawned without warning. He was getting better, but he still had a long way to go.

A spot of red came into the cats line of sight as she padded heavily forward. At first she believed it to be a splash of blood on the snow, but a dancing breeze brought the scent of wolf to her pink nares. Rounded ears swiveled forward and a low rumble of curiosity pulled from the dame's wide chest. She continued on at the same pace, eyes of rich claret fixed on the spot until the features of the canine cleared in her vision. It was a wolf indeed.

Fear was usually what the lioness was met with when others took in her hulking frame. Taiga was unlike the lions of this land, having come from a place across the sea where creatures were much, much bigger. The wolf was dwarfed by her gigantic stature, so she kept enough distance that the canine might feel some modicum of safety.

Trails of mist snaked out of the edges of the woman's jaws as she spoke to the softly sobbing wolf. She could almost smell the salty tang of his tears. "You seem a little broken." rich, feminine tones crossed the distance between them. It was clear from her stance that she meant the brute no harm. To further prove this, Taiga seated herself in the snow. A gentle breeze ruffled the thick, alabaster snow of her chest as she continued to look upon the black and red wolf. "Are you hurt?" She wasn't a healer by any means, but she knew a few if he was injured. Perhaps he was just the sad type that cried at the drop of a leaf. Who knew? No one. Not until he opened his mouth to tell her, anyway.

"Taiga"