for loneliness, she sings

One foot in front of the other. Her mind whirled as she stepped. Each movement made her body ache in a way that was delicious – it reminded her of days spent with her siblings. They had scuffled and fought and, as she paused to cast an emerald gaze around cautiously, she carried the marks of their rough love upon her coat. She stepped forward daintily and stretched, thrusting the black of her nose between the pale pelt of her legs, casting a brisk lick over the healing scratches that lingered on her right foreleg. She sighed as she straightened, lifting her head and stretching her neck until it crunched.

“That’s better…” Her voice was a soft murmur on the breeze. It was still chilly after winter, but the air was warming up enough that she could feel the season passing – it wouldn’t be long before summer, where she would suffer for the plush ivory coat that made her look bigger, larger than she was at a year and some change. The lands she found herself in were unlike the snowy plains that she had been birthed.

She was within a large, mostly empty plain that she could see. Tall, silver trees flecked with grey lingered thickly around a large dam, and her stomach grumbled at the idea of food. Food she would hold off on getting. Her delicate nose-leather, scarred pink from a fight a few days past, quivered as she lifted her rather finely built nose into the air. She could smell plenty of wolves, but the scents weren’t so thick and popular as to make her feel that this were packlands – never mind the fact she had yet to be challenged by a wolf. That was the one thing that her parents had drilled into her head before she had been allowed to wander.

She rolled her expressive green eyes fondly. She adored her parents, but like all teen wolves, found them a little overprotective, even if they had allowed their little girl to wander the world and find her own way. She sat for a moment, tail curling around her small feet and thought of her parents. Both were large wolves – her whole family were, until she was born. Their only daughter in that litter, and their smallest pup to date. Yet no one had even blinked an eye months past, when she had completed their ritual of solo hunting, when she said she was leaving. That depth of trust warmed Stormr, her lips curving a little before she shook her head. I’m a sentimental fool… yet she still hoped deep down that her siblings would follow her here.

She sighed a moment before standing again, curving the pink edge of her tongue along the black stained edge of her lips. She was thirsty, and the scent of water in the air lingered. She swallowed hard before casting her gaze around, her ears twisting to and fro. She could hear the water and that drove her into moving again. There was a dam, and dams bridged water! She would have slapped herself in the face with a paw, but instead she lightly padded her way toward the water. Each step increased her thirst, made her stomach groan with need. She knew she was hungry too, but she could wait to eat. Instead, she settled herself down to drink, laying on the floor to lap at the water.

She could feel beaver eyes on her and she kept her ivory-sharp teeth tucked below her lips as she delicately lapped. She knew beavers were food, for all that she’d only heard tale of those eating them. She was more inclined towards moose and elk, maybe the odd deer – but it had been months since she’d feasted on more than scraps of a carcass or as many rabbits as she could hunt at dawn and dusk. She drank enough water that her stomach complained a moment, but she stood and shook herself, silver droplets flicking into the air. Now… what should she do?

She looked around before finding a silver-barked tree to lean against as she laid down with a grunt. Maybe a little nap would work for now? Her eyes blinked closed, each blink more of a struggle for her eyes to open. She tucked her nose below her left forepaw, curling her tail around to rest delicately along the padded edge of her ribs. A slowly exhaled breath would stir the fur between her toes, making her paw clench – and then she would sleep.

She slept until the light turned bright above her head, and birds sang happily. A tugging on the fur of her tail awoke her and she sprang awake with a snarl – only to see a little bird flitter away. She said little, but she could tell it was almost half her height if standing, with gleaming black eyes surrounded by golden yellow skin. It flew closer again, uttering short chirps as though asking her a question. She licked her lips anxiously, realising with that hooked, sharp beak, it could do some damage. She snorted through her nose before shaking her head, ignoring the bird as it flew into the trees, instead curving her spine to lick the fur of her tail back into neatness.

Pangs of loneliness burned in her for a few moments, so she did what all wolves did when bored and alone. She canted her head back and let her loneliness burst into a longing song. These past few months had been her only ones alone, her only other contact with wolves being fights to protect either her sleeping spot or her hastily caught meal. As soon as one singing song had left her lips, she dipped her head down, breathed in sharply and sang again. If wolves were about, surely, they’d come to see what all the noise was about, right? She hoped they would, anyway.

Stormr wanted the one thing she’d never had, and never knew she needed. A friend. And she didn’t care who she had to fight to get one.