. E O . ...`There was something damning about winter that Eo found refreshing. It was as if spring and summer had found the world wanting and decided to inflict the harshness of winter upon their thin skins. With freezing temperatures and a plague of snow it would drive out the weakness that had accumulated and force strength down the throats of the worthy. Which was really to say, that it fed the wolves on the weakness of others, fattening them up on the starvation and hypothermia of lesser species. Autumn could be a hard time for wolves, with no young deer to steal and all the males high on testosterone as they stalked about barbarically 'claiming' helpless females and waving their hard bone antlers about like swords. Many young wolves lost their lives trying to joust with young stags drunk on raging lust. Autumn was a time to hunt small as rodents feasted on the rotting leftovers of summer and plumped themselves for hibernation and food shortages. But winter... winter took the weak and threw them into the gnashing jaws of the strong. Those bucks who maimed strong predators were suddenly fodder for yearling wolves as their injuries from the rut made them easy targets. Such thoughts, such worship of the seasons and elements, ran rampant through Eo's mind as she stalked through the dead vegetation of the Tall Grass Plains. A place normally filled with the buzz of insects and the patter of little rodent feet was silent in the clutches of jack frost. Iced pebbles scratched against her nails and frosted stalks caressed her red coat, begging for attention she had naught to give. A steel sky hovered low overhead, pressing down on her back with a pressure that promised snow without the bitter bite of a storm. ...`Her stride was slow, with her red tail in a neutral hang and her ears flitting side to side as she sought to catch the sounds of midwinter. A great breath was pulled in through her narrow nostrils, cold burning her airways even as she sifted through the smells, sorting them away in her brain in a catalog of most to least recent. Rabbits were somewhere. She could smell their polluting perfume and golden eyes kept catching on frozen pebbles of scat. But her effort wasn't there. A chase she would gladly give, but the stalking and searching, the finding a nest and digging it open simply wasn't in her schedule for the day. Instead she wove her way through the grasses without purpose, ruminating on the seasons and the love Winter had for her wolves. "speech"

Hunger bit into Naudir's stomach as she travelled farther south.  It wasn't the most logical thing she supposed.  Her siblings were likely still in the north but they'd split up again for the time being and she could not say when the would reunite.  It would probably not be til the solstice.  Her raven companions soared above her, eyes keenly searching for prey that might yield to the jaws of a lone wolf.  Balthazaar was cloaked in ebony plumage while his mate Branwen, a leucistic bird, was cloaked in feathers of ivory.  They danced through the sky perfectly mirroring each other before finally finding rest on the middle of Naudir's back.  In this vast grassland there was naught for trees and the wind was picking up. Her nostrils flared.  She could smell a storm brewing in the bite of the wind.

"Naudir, there is another wolf to the east of here, of a ruddy hue," said Balthazaar.  She nodded, brow wrinkled.  She was not near any packlands that she knew of.  The southern territories had been void of a pack for months now so the change of the stranger being a loner was high.  Had she found an unwitting ally in the hunt? "Very well, let us see what brings them here.  Branwen, did you find anything promising in terms of prey?"  She could feel the excited shuffle of feet on her back as Branwen hopped up between her shoulder blades. "Oh, Naudir!  The gods smile on us this day.  There's a small herd of whitetail deer to the south of here, one is badly wounded and struggling to keep up with the herd."  Naudir nodded sharply.  Had it been wounded in the rutt?  Winter had only just overtaken fall, this was a prime time to hunt.  

Naudir turned to the east, intent on seeking out the wolf that Balthazaar had spoke of.  In the barren stretch of dead grasses it wasn't long before she spied the tawny, reddish coat of a yearling femme.  She strode toward the other and barked out a greeting to get the others attention.  "Hail traveler!  Are you searching these lands for prey?"