LIKE THE SHADOWS

I do not understand. Where is all the ice and snow?

It was the most recent of a string of questions that had gone through Mijrofa's head over the course of the week, but by far the most reoccurring question was where all the kojots had gone. And if there are no kojots, how am I to remove them?

There had been something that looked like a kojot earlier, but it turned out to be a stinking fox. Another time he'd fought with a wolverine for no apparent reason and been forced to flee. Another time he'd ran afoul of a brown bear. All in all, it had been an eventful week, one marked by a departure from the land of winter, through a few fat lands where the prey ran freely, and now there was this weird foggy place. "If nothing else, I am the fortunate that these stranci mark their borders clearly. It must be beyond their kind to have removed all the kojots from their land single-handedly... but what if they have? How will I face my clans again without one after all of these digressions?

The female had been walking for a long time. He sat down, frowning into the fog, then raised his nose to sniff for the presence of any others. He found a scent and the sound of a murmur. "Hello?" he called out firmly, looking around.