snow shimmer

 

The monochromatic boy didn’t know what brought him wandering back, away from the island that was his chosen prison. Maybe it was his unexpected neighbor. The island was big enough for them to live in relative isolation but they were bound to run into each other after a time and then he’d feel obligated to converse with the clearly pregnant woman and that had not been what he wanted. He almost felt the need to watch out for her, she seemed to be alone and that heavy with pups he was worried for her, again not the isolation he had envisioned for himself.

So it was that he took frequent trips to the mainland, seeking the old haunts he had stalked when he had been younger. The willows were just as he remembered, the snow clinging to the ground mirroring the first day he had wandered here… not that he would allow himself to dwell on that day, one more face he hoped to erase from his memory accompanied it.

Long slender legs carried him with his accustomed ease, the snow doing little to hinder his progress. He stopped beside a tree, the draping branches offering a sort of curtain, cutting off any full view of the world outside it’s circle. A dark shape moved near the base of a tree just a bit ahead of him and despite himself he felt curiosity. Pushing through the branches his hazel gaze searched. She was blocked by her own partition of foliage but there was no mistaking the shape of a wolf and Soren silently cursed himself, unsure what to do. Had she spotted him?