This land was cold – colder than she was used to – but vibrant. At least, that was what she had heard.

It held potential and hope. Perhaps the hope of the people within it. The apprentice marched on, hoisting her spear higher and entering this strange realm. Winter was a foreign concept. Her work cut out for her once it came. Perhaps even shock; she had never seen snow before. There was a beauty in not knowing, a naïve idealism that many grew out of already. She had promised to come back with resources and knowledge – something her stuffy brethren refused to expand in. they thought since she was a woman that she would give up and go home. She was not going to. She would conquer their sexism, prove herself in the eyes of the gods and there would then be no doubt of her value.

Zola’s long ears swirled around, dark eyes catching movement. A lonesome deer crossed in front of her – the animal was also strange and unusual. It caught sight of the massive woman and darted, and she followed it in curiosity. It looked like a zebra but it bore no stripes. Only a few speckles of dotting on its flank. She looked on in wonder as it joined another being and together, they left. In a hurry. She would soon know why. Perhaps the splendor of a new realm (and new animals) made her become ignorant. She saw the blackened skies, saw the panic in the eyes of prey animals... This world was perhaps under a trial. A divine one.

Miungu...

She would pause, a frown creasing her face. A challenge to be sure. She remembered the hunters speaking of strange beasts beyond their gods’ light. And events beyond the gods', or directly related to the gods' will. What deities looked down at these now poor souls… she wanted to know of them but knew not where to start. Her stomach was still full of her provisions; she saw no reason to hunt the beasts. At least not yet. Soon, she would have a need to hunt them down. For pelts, for crafting materials… Or for survival, if this world had anything to say about it.

Her eyes remained transfixed on the sky, a feeling of dread entering her body.

Ashen clouds filled the sky behind the dark behemoth, the smell of smoke embedded in his pelt as evidence to attest for just how close he had been to death. His blue eyes, usually lively and reflective- were distant and low as he walked north along the western coast. Sand littered the short fur of his limbs while ash still clung to him in the depths of his silvered mantle.

He had never been this far west, but he was restless. He thought perhaps if he traveled this far, the mountain would be out of sight.. out of mind.. but it appeared that even now, the burning mountain was a lingering omen of the life he had been birthed to serve. He didn't want to believe it, but as the beast rose his dire crown and looked behind him.. his heart sank with a forlorn sigh. Everything was becoming far too real.

On top of failing his father and the Ruina demons for not delivering a sacrifice during the reaping season, he had continued to neglect his duties by allowing a soul to escape. He wondered if he had captured that woman and drug her to the mountain, would it have ceased to spew? Would the fires have been prevented? Would he have been a hero?

No. He refused to believe that the murder of another would bring peace. He owed it to his sister to stick to that. He had to find another way to please the Ruina demons, but.. it was too late now. Winter was here, which was almost easy to forget out here in the warmth of the west.

His paws were just starting to ache from overuse when his stomach grumbled, causing him to hestitate in stop in his tracks for a moment as he noticed and listened. He had been distracted enough that he had neglected his basic needs which was something very out of character for a wolf with as high of a metabolism as what he had. He remembered how crazed his father had become in their last season together, how little he had eaten.. how skinny he had allowed himself to shrivel to. No matter what was going on, Dominus swore he would never allow himself to get so caught in his own mind that he would neglect himself and fall into such a state of weakness. Not if he could help it.

The survivor strayed away from the coast now, moving inland while following the scent of fresh water. He could smell another wolf, though he avoided her trail to the best of his capability. He moved toward the south end of the lake where he would come across the pair of deer. They seemed to already be spooked by something which gave Dominus little time to react. The colossal wolf immediately took off in an attempt to close the 40 meter distance between him and the deer, the mass of his barrelled frame quite obvious to his prey as he presented himself on the pale background of sand- but he did not give up. He was running directly toward their trajectory and made it about halfway to them before they noticed him and turned toward the lake.

a foreign scent hit her nose, causing her to turn and view a massive black shape. it was moving at a rapid pace at the beasts she had seen earlier. were they... food animals? prey? her people ate anything they could find, so the concept of eating another predator wasn't as rare as other places. her instinct kicked in though when the other wolf tore toward them. she moved, rushing forward to close the distance best she could. the land here was flat and easy to manuever. she ran, a few paces behind the other of her kind now and attempted to assist him bringing down the prey.

- - "Talking!" Walking. 'Thought/Others!' - -
fighting prompt
108 words
0/1500 in total for prompt

The hunt was already doing a fabulous job on distracting the young man's troubled mind, every bit of conserved energy that he had left now being used to drive himself after the long-legged deer as a powerful, fast-moving force. When they started running through the shallow bank of the lake's shore, he began to get nervous. They were much more elegant than he was, especially when moving through water.. but at least this allowed them to be slowed down.

Dominus closed the distance between them without stepping into that water, his paws muddied from running along the edge of the lake's shore. He watched them as they ran from him just a few feet into the waters, though they seemed to begin to understand their mistake. They could not get out of the waters now without Dominus being able to land an attack, but they had to attempt.

Dominus had been so focused, he failed to notice the woman who came to aid him. When he finally did, he was only able to give her a half-second lasting glance before one of the deer made their move and would attempt to leap back out of the water and past the wolf. Quick to react, Dominus barrelled forward and caught the back ankle of the deer on it's way out. He could feel the crunch of the deer's bones between his teeth with how passionately he bit down in an attempt to stop the prey from getting away. He kept the leg lifted as much as possible to try and force it to need to balance with it's other back leg instead of kick, but he underestimated the deer's flexibility. One buck and Dominus wasn't even able to see the hoof that came to clip his left cheek and leave bruising due to the speed it was moving, but he held on. The other deer was making a run for it, but at least Dominus secured one.