Chasing Ghosts

Walk | Talk | Think

Truth be told, Yin had not anticipated running into anyone let alone being practically attacked by a hidden stranger. Her steps had been unhurried and incautious, not the least bit trying to be inconspicuous about her movements or direction. There had been no one about for quite some time, a fact that had successfully lulled Yin into a state of false security. In her eyes, she was alone in the almost wintry world, free to go as she pleased and lacking the constraints placed on her that typically came with knowing others were about. She had actually been enjoying it, somewhat at least, while her thoughts of her still missing brother had left her more preoccupied than observant of her surroundings.

It was the combination of the two that had worked against her, so that when the dark grey wolf had leaped out from behind the shrub and almost directly into her path she reacted on instinct. Her body surged in response, tensely drawing the step she had been about to take up short and squaring her stance as she caught herself, head lowering with fangs bared and hackles raised in warning. A heavy, feral growl answered that of the stranger, her natural sense of self-preservation working in overdrive with the little pocket of irritation that she seemed always to have on hand.

She was more than ready for a fight, evident by the twitch of her black tail as she let her mismatched sea green and pale blue eyes fix themselves upon the other wolf, just waiting for the right kind of excuse to leap forward and begin tearing into him. But to her surprise he settled rather quickly, the fierce look about him falling away into something akin to surprise. And then he said her name. Who--? But then it was obvious. As her adrenaline slowly began to seep away, she began to see straight, to recognize the intense blue eyes of the stranger, the telltale dark markings upon his coat that was a mixture of black, grey, and white. And the scars...

"Hansel," she responded, her tone still hardened from the near fight they had just descended from though not without the unexpected touch of surprise. Carefully, slowly, she began to ease herself upward out of her crouch, lifting her stern expression to be level with his own. "Where have you been?" she asked, mismatched eyes blinking as she stared across at him. Each of them had their own mission, their own search to complete, but by luck and chance and fate their individual searches had become a group effort. "Any luck?"